The Catskills region is famous (or infamous) for its paranormal inhabitants going back centuries (not just to the first explorers, but centuries before that with the native American tribes that lived there).  One famous ghost is the Catskills Witch, a formidable and vengeful sorceress who held sway over the very rhythm of day and night, and who could summon massive thunderstorms or call upon a sleeping Dragon under the mountains to cause earth tremors! 

Also, “cryptids” like Bigfoot stalk the woods of the Catskills, going by names such as “The Kinderhook Creature” (Kinderhook NY is just a 40 minute drive from the Blackthorne resort!).  Another cryptid reported to inhabit the vast Catskill forests and mountains are Gnomes, which typically appear as 3-4 feet tall (sometimes smaller) dressed in green-dyed garb and caps; Henry Hudson reported being visited by them when he camped on the Hudson River shore at what we now call Catskills, NY (a 20 minute drive from Blackthorne); and the native Americans of the area have stories of little people who could work wonders with metal going back centuries before Henry Hudson’s report.   The area also has a long history of “UFO” sightings, for instance glowing orbs which regularly travel along abandoned mine roads, the Hudson Valley UFO mass sightings of the mid-1980s, and of course Whitley Streiber’s cabin near Woodstock from which he was abducted on December 26, 1985 — he recorded his experience in his book “Communion,” and experienced regular visitations there until he sold the cabin after his wife Anne passed away. 

Ed Bishop will discuss these phenomena and more with the panel and audience.  He is a paranormal investigator (and occasional eliminator), engineer, naturalist, urban explorer, historian and folklorist who has been studying and investigating the legends of the Catskills since he was a boy spending his summer months at a family cabin in Kingston, NY!