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Catskill Mountain Region October 2016 GUIDEwww.catskillregionguide.com THE WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL HOSTS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF A NEW FILM STARRING ALEC BALDWIN AND DEMI MOORE October 2016 • GUIDE 1 2 • www.catskillregionguide.com TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE www.catskillregionguide.com VOLUME 31, NUMBER 10 October 2016 PUBLISHERS Peter Finn, Chairman, Catskill Mountain Foundation Sarah Finn, President, Catskill Mountain Foundation EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, CATSKILL MOUNTAIN FOUNDATION Sarah Taft ADVERTISING SALES Rita Adami, Barbara Cobb Steve Friedman, Albert Verdesca CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Doug Farrell, Elizabeth Hall-Dukin, Paul Misko, & Jeff Senterman ADMINISTRATION & FINANCE Candy McKee Justin McGowan Peggy Thompson PRINTING Catskill Mountain Printing Services DISTRIBUTION Catskill Mountain Foundation EDITORIAL DEADLINE FOR NEXT ISSUE: October 6 The Catskill Mountain Region Guide is published 12 times a year by the Catskill Mountain Foundation, Inc., Main Street, PO Box 924, Hunter, NY 12442. If you have events or programs that you would like to have covered, please send them by e-mail to tafts@ On the cover: The new film “Blind,” starring Alec Baldwin and Demi Moore, will have its world catskillmtn.org. Please be sure to furnish a contact name and in- premiere at the opening night of the Woodstock Film Festival on Thursday, October 13. For more clude your address, telephone, fax, and e-mail information on all correspondence. For editorial and photo submission guidelines information about the Festival, please see the article on page 8. send a request via e-mail to [email protected]. The liability of the publisher for any error for which it may be held legally responsible will not exceed the cost of space ordered or occupied by the error. The publisher assumes no liability for errors in key numbers. The publisher will not, in any event, be liable for loss of income or profits or any consequent damages. 4 SPOOKS OF THE CATSKILLS By Elizabeth Hall-Dukin The Catskill Mountain Region Guide office is located in Hunter Village Square in the Village of Hunter on Route 23A. The magazine can be found on-line at www.catskillmtn.org by clicking on the “Guide Magazine” button, or by going directly 8 FIERCELY INDEPENDENT: to www.catskillregionguide.com 7,000 copies of the Catskill Mountain Region Guide are THE 17TH ANNUAL WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL distributed each month. It is distributed free of charge at the Plattekill, Sloatsburg and New Baltimore rest stops on the New York State Thruway, and at the tourist information offices, 12 WOODSTOCK: THE MOST FAMOUS restaurants, lodgings, retailers and other businesses throughout Greene, Delaware and Ulster counties. SMALL TOWN IN THE WORLD By Doug Farrell Home delivery of the Guide magazine is available, at an additional fee, to annual members of the Catskill Mountain Foundation at the $100 membership level or higher. EMERSON RESORT IN ULSTER COUNTY: ©2000 Catskill Mountain Foundation, Inc. 14 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without RELAXATION & NATURE AT ITS FINEST written permission is prohibited. The Catskill Mountain Region Guide is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. All photo- graphic rights reside with the photographer. 16 THE GREAT OUTDOORS IN THE CATSKILLS By Jeff Senterman 22 OBSERVATIONAL HIKING: COOL FINDS AND PHOTOS FROM THE CATSKILLS THE CATSKILL MOUNTAIN FOUNDATION Text and Photos by Paul Misko 7971 MAIN STREET, P.O. BOX 924 HUNTER, NY 12442 PHONE: 518 263 2000 • FAX: 518 263 2025 WWW.CATSKILLMTN.ORG 27 OCTOBER AT THE CATSKILL MOUNTAIN FOUNDATION October 2016 • GUIDE 3 Spooks of the Catskills Text and photos by Elizabeth Hall-Dukin he Catskills have always held a special lure. The tumultuous It is believed that the ghosts of both these women haunt the T foggy landscape full of dark lush forests make it the perfect creek; there have been multiple sightings of a woman in white area for ghosts and spooks alike. Tales of “spook woods” and wandering the scenes of the crimes. Stories of a “woman in white” “spook hollows” developed as settlers explored the diverse terrain have appeared all over the world, most often associated with a rest- full eerie tangled trees hidden in noisy dark woods. A perfect set- less spirit, a woman who died a violent death before her time. She ting for tales of things that go bump in the night. haunts mirrors, roads, or in this case, Murderers Creek. Be careful The Catskills are the home of Rip van Winkle, the protago- where you take your late night walks, or you just might run into nist in Washington Irving’s eponymous story. Published in 1819, Sally Hamilton or Mary Johnson on their search for retribution. it tells the story of van Winkle’s encounter with the ghost of The Isaac Hardenbergh Manor House sits on over an acre of Henry Hudson and the crew of the Half Moon. land that was originally part of the Great Hardenbergh Patent, Murderers Creek flows into the Hudson River, north of the which was comprised of land parceled out by Queen Anne in town of Athens. It probably comes as no surprise that the creek 1708. The manor is located on Route 23 in Roxbury, halfway be- got its name in a very gruesome manner—the murder of Sally tween Prattsville and Grand Gorge. Built in 1790 by Isaac’s father, Hamilton in 1813. Johannes Hardenbergh, the property is comprised of a main stone On August 25, 1813, the body of the young Sally Hamilton home, horse and carriage barn, and a dairy barn. It is believed to was discovered in the creek. The twenty year old Hamilton was be the last early stone house that was built in the village. Johannes visiting either her sister or an elderly neighbor in Athens and left Hardenbergh was the largest slave owner in New York State until later that evening to make the half mile trek back to her father’s slavery was outlawed in 1827. house. She traveled with other people, but parted ways once she There have been multiple paranormal sightings in and was within 100 yards of her father’s home. That was the last time around the home, most notably involving a window that cannot Hamilton was seen alive, she never made it those final 100 yards. quite seem to stay shut. Legend tells of an African American slave Her body was found three days later, a half mile north of the standing in the window of the top floor of the manor, watching bridge. Several local residents reported hearing a woman’s screams over the Hardenbergh children playing outside. As she looked or signs of distress, but the noises were dismissed and forgotten. over the children, she also noticed a group of Native Americans Though there were signs of struggle, she died from blunt force approaching the grounds. She watched as they came closer and trauma at the hands of assailants that were never found. Sadly, closer, frantically deciding if she should call out to the children, this horrendous act would be repeated almost thirty years later and risk exposing herself. Quickly, she threw open the window when Mary Johnson was murdered in 1841. Johnson was mur- and screamed out to the children, but the rest, as they say, is his- dered by a man named George Eliot, who buried her under the tory. Her ghost is often seen in the windows of the manor, and bridge at the creek. witnesses have experienced feelings of restlessness and witnessed 4 • www.catskillregionguide.com October 2016 • GUIDE 5 traveled back to the manor. Soon after catching Swarts, Salisbury set the horse to a trot to make her run, but the horse spooked and took off at full speed for the rest of the way home. She was quickly pulled to the ground and dragged to her violent, untimely death. Though Salisbury swore it was an accident, her mangled flesh torn body told a different story. Salisbury was charged but not convicted of her death, most likely due to his connections and social status. Instead, the sentence was delayed until Salisbury turned the ripe old age of 99. Until then, he was sentenced to wear a rope (later a red silk handkerchief) around his neck as a symbol of the vicious crime. But Salisbury did not evade justice: he was plagued by dreams and visions of the woman, sitting on the garden wall laughing at Salisbury Manor him, or screaming as she was dragged behind a ghostly gray horse. windows flying open on their own. And that window I men- There have been varying reports supernatural activity at tioned before that never seems to stay shut? That was the top floor Salisbury Manor, from visitors hearing strange sounds around the window where she watched the children play on that fateful day. property, to visions of the ghost of a gray horse dragging the skel- The next tale, known by some as “The Ghost of Leeds” or eton of a screaming girl down Old Coxackie Road and in front “The Horseman of Leeds” tells of the vicious and violent death of the manor. Some report visions of a ghostly gray woman with of Anna Dorothea Swarts. She came to Salisbury Manor, a stone bright red flames coming out of her fingers. Others have seen a home located in Leeds, NY as an indentured servant. The manor woman in gray, pointing to the blue stone mansion as they passed was built by General William Salisbury in 1730, a strict religious by the house. Since the death of General Salisbury at the age of man who treated Swarts terribly, and so she attempted to escape. 100, some sightings have evolved to include a gray man riding Consumed with anger, he jumped on his horse and searched the horse that drags the poor ghostly body—“The Horseman of the woods until he found Swarts.