This part of New York, straddling the Hudson River from New York City to Albany, is rife with stories of the paranormal.

The true stories behind three terrifying local legends—photos included. This book delves into three enigmatic folk legends of New York’s Hudson River Valley: the stories of Sybil Ludington, Chief Daniel Nimham, and George Denny. Each was the central figure in a dramatic series of events; each became enshrined in local lore for their actions; each has had their true story obscured; and each may have left behind a spiritual residue. Follow Vincent Dacquino as he interviews local experts, explores areas where hauntings may have occurred—such as Carmel’s legendary Smalley’s Inn—and digs deep into historical archives to open new windows into the lives, and possible afterlives, of these three mysterious characters.

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

Contains over seventy tales of ghostly hauntings from each of the fifty United States and Canada.

The Haunted History of Pelham, New York is an unusual and fascinating fusion of New York history and folklore. Recognizing that virtually every gripping regional ghost drama springs from kernels of fact, Blake A. Bell weaves spellbinding accounts of ghosts, spirits, and specters together with well-documented context for the stories to help readers understand the actual events and historical developments that underlie each. With nine sections including those on Indigenous American Hauntings, Revolutionary War Specters, Ghostly Treasure Guards, and Phantom Ships off Pelham Shores, Bell relates entertaining and dramatic ghost stories that have been passed from generation to generation as he helps readers understand how local lore came to be and why it is important to an understanding of the region, its culture, and its self-awareness.

The landscape of the Hudson River Valley lends itself to the likelihood that ghosts exist. Native Americans storied the territory with mysterious legends. Early Dutch settlers imprinted the strange new scenery with scary fables. Washington Irving's writings enlivened the folklore and added more fuel to the already smoldering supernatural mix. Where there's smoke there's fire, the saying goes, and surely there seems to be truth to the spookiness as evidenced by the plethora of haunted houses. Welcome to the haunted Hudson Valley where some ancient stone dwellings, church rectories, tourist hotels, military barracks, libraries, museums, mansions, and even a castle, claim a resident ghost - or two.

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.

"Originally published as Sybil Ludington: the call to arms, Purple Mountain Press, 2000" -- Title page verso.

Former NYPD officer and current ghost hunter Jason Medina travels up the Hudson River to a hotbed of paranormal activity. The quiet New York suburb of Yonkers hides a history of hauntings. Now converted into apartments, old Public School 13 is the site of strange apparitions that may be ghosts of former students and teachers who died in a tragic fire. The Boyce Thompson Institute’s lofty goal of solving world hunger was never met, and unfulfilled spirits are said to lurk in its abandoned laboratory. Wealthy colonial landowners still watch over stately historic homes like Philipse Manor Hall. Even the iconic Untermyer Park is a playground for the otherworldly. Local ghost investigator Jason Medina reveals these and other ghosts of Yonkers.

A storyteller examines Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and the lore that inspired it, as well as other local legends of the Hudson Valley. The story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman is one of America's best-known fables, but what other stories does the Hudson Valley hold? Imps cause mischief on the Hudson River, a white lady haunts Raven Rock, Major Andre’s ghost seeks redemption and real headless Hessians search for their severed skulls. These mysterious and spooky tales from the region’s past inspired Irving and continue to captivate the imagination to this day. “Kruk has been enchanting audiences with his dramatic, enticing storytelling ability for 20 years.” —Suzanne Rothberg, Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow Patch