Catskill Ghosts

Discover the ghosts who wander these upstate New York mountains—includes photos! Washington Irving called the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York a “spellbound region”—and the ghosts that linger from more than four hundred years of history provide proof of Irving's intuition. In Hudson, Maggie Houghtaling’s ghost haunts the Register-Star building, where she was hanged in 1817 for murdering her child—a crime for which she was later cleared. The ghost of a young Native American girl haunts Claverack Creek, where she threw herself into the water when her father forbade her to be with the man she loved. In Greenport, Peter Hallenbeck was murdered by his nephews in his home, where his spirit still lingers. Discover these and other eerie tales of hauntings in the Catskill Mountains in this collection of fascinating stories and local lore.

Ghost stories from New York's upstate towns have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery! Welcome to the spooky Catskills! Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms. Did you know the ghost of a colonial solider still haunts a home in Kinderhook' Or that the place where Washington Irving wrote 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' is just as spooky as that famous story' Can you believe New York's Catskill Mountains are home to a shape-shifting witch' Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see the Catskills and have you sleeping with the light on!

Given in memory of Ethel A. Tsutsui, Ph.D. and Minoru Tsutsui, Ph.D.

This useful guidebook surveys more than eighty ghost towns, grouped by geographic area. First published in 1981 and now available only from the University of New Mexico Press, it has been praised in particular for its instructions on how to reach even the most obscure sites.

The cultural landscape of the Hudson River Valley is crowded with ghosts--the ghosts of Native Americans and Dutch colonists, of Revolutionary War soldiers and spies, of presidents, slaves, priests, and laborers. Possessions asks why this region just outside New York City became the locus for so many ghostly tales, and shows how these hauntings came to operate as a peculiar type of social memory whereby things lost, forgotten, or marginalized returned to claim possession of imaginations and territories. Reading Washington Irving's stories along with a diverse array of narratives from local folklore and regional writings, Judith Richardson explores the causes and consequences of Hudson Valley hauntings to reveal how ghosts both evolve from specific historical contexts and are conjured to serve the present needs of those they haunt. These tales of haunting, Richardson argues, are no mere echoes of the past but function in an ongoing, contentious politics of place. Through its tight geographical focus, Possessions illuminates problems of belonging and possessing that haunt the nation as a whole. Table of Contents: Introduction 1. "How Comes theHudson to this Unique Heritage?" 2. Irving's Web 3. The Colorful Career of a Ghost from Leeds 4. Local Characters 5. Possessing High Tor Mountain Epilogue: Hauntings without End Notes Index Reviews of this book: The author traces changing versions of several ghostly tales that mutated over time to reflect local conditions and controversies as well as national political issues like abolitionism. Richardson shows that, thanks to the Hudson Valley's long history of settlement, the 'legendizing impetus' created by Washington Irving, and the area's established position as a tourist destination, it inspired at least three sometimes overlapping traditions of hauntings: the 'aboriginal' Dutch and Indian hauntings, the Revolutionary War hauntings, and industrial hauntings, which are traced in Maxwell Anderson's High Tor (1937) and T. Coraghessan Boyle's World's End (1987). --J. J. Benardete, Choice Possessions is a rare and brilliant book that seamlessly combines history and literature--revealing how richly they can support one another. It is a great pleasure to read: both fluent and profound. --Alan Taylor, author of American Colonies and William Cooper's Town This is a lively, well-written, and engaging interdisciplinary study. Richardson pursues two main goals: probing in considerable detail a body of early national folklore and its modern revivals and testing some more general notions about the uses to which such lore is put in the periods when it is recovered, reshaped, and reinvigorated. It is smart without being condescending, locally inflected without exhibiting the least bit of piety - and, I think, quite suggestive for scholars looking at other domains far beyond the Hudson Valley. She gives us a way of understanding how the "local" has figured in the cultural construction of Americanness. --Wayne Franklin, author of Discoverers, Explorers, Settlers and The New World of James Fenimore Cooper

Promises of riches from gold, silver, copper and zinc ores attracted thousands of treasure seekers to the Land of Enchantment. Boomtowns blossomed across the rugged wilderness until the trifecta of the Silver Panic of 1893, World War I and the Great Depression collapsed the economy. Explore the vacant relics of once vibrant communities. Some are well preserved and others are but a whisper of their former selves, but all have a story to tell. From the lessons still scrawled across the chalkboards of the abandoned Cedarvale School to the forgotten talismans of the Turquoise Trail, accompany author Donna Blake Birchell on her trek through the ghost towns of New Mexico.

Alf Evers is the preeminent historian of the Catskills, and this book collects nineteen of his best essays for an irresistible short dip into Catskill history and lore. The pieces cover a wide range of subjects, some celebrated, some lesser-known, that hold a special place in the history of the region, from the enduing mystique of the Kaaterskill Falls to the rise and fall of the Ulster & Delaware Railroad. Evers guides the reader in the footsteps of the earliest adventurers to explore the Kaaterskill and Plattekill Cloves, relates the history of log cabins in the Catskills and describes the (sometimes unlikely) pursuits and attractions that beguiled visitors of another age, from a hot-air balloon in Margaretville to steamboats on Halcottsville Pond. Taken together, these essays offer an enlightening look at some of the significant personalities, places and ways of life that have shaped the distinctive character of these mountains. All of the essays bear the incomparable Evers touch - the meticulous research and delightful writing - that has made his books so overwhelmingly popular. Originally published in the newsletter of the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, the premier membership organization for the study and preservation of the Catskills, the essays are gathered here for the first time in a book that will be welcomed by residents, visitors, students, history buffs and Alf Evers's many, many fans.