I read a lot, some might say compulsively. So imagine my surprise that one of my favorite 2019 releases was set in the Catskills.
Read More
I like to describe myself as a scholar of the historically bizarre. If there’s a weird story out there, I want to know it. That’s why I could barely contain my nerdy glee when I discovered an unanalyzed literary legacy of the Catskills: pulp horror fiction.
Read More
The front page of the September 1, 1898 Sullivan County Record bore a troubling headline, “Poisoned By Ice-Cream.” By the time the paper went to print, three people in the Sullivan County village of Mountain Dale were dead and at least 20 others were seriously ill.
Read More
Railway mail clerk F.A. Peck watched two strangers enter his car just outside of Grand Gorge. Unusual? Perhaps, but the clerk found no cause for alarm. “Got a letter for me?” Peck called out, as he continued to sort and bundle mail.
“Yes,” lied the short man.
Read More
Fishing enthusiasts will say their sport is an art. It’s also a fine art, or at least the subject of it.
Read More
When you hear the words ‘silent film’ do you think of the Catskills? If not, you should!
Read More
To Genevieve Hyde’s great frustration, people regularly pilfered fruit and vegetables from her farm in Bushnellsville. So she devised a novel solution; she became the first woman deputy in all of Ulster County.
Read More
Breakups are hard.
And as one Sullivan County couple discovered in 1907, they’re even worse when your breakup unexpectedly makes headlines across the country.
Read More
Before refrigeration, successful ice harvests were vital. When the winter ice on lakes, ponds, and even rivers was properly thick, men would bring their saws and cut blocks to store in ice houses.
Read More
“On one side, to the South, the grand old mountains, with their ever changing shadows of clouds and sunshine, seem to come together at right angles at the Westkill Notch, all covered with green trees… “
Read More