Book Description:
Nestled on the banks of the Hudson River, Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown are
steeped in history and ghost lore. Famous for Washington Irving’s “The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow,” the storied Westchester region also has a dark history of witches,
spies, and pirates.
Rumors of Headless Horseman sightings surge during spooky season while visitors
flock to the Valley’s haunted hot spots like the Old Dutch Church and the famed
writer’s Sunnyside home.
Join author and journalist Sam Baltrusis on a bone-chilling journey through the
streets of Sleepy Hollow as he breathes new life into the legendary village’s long-
departed souls.
Amazon
Excerpt:
Sleepy Hollow, New York is brimming with ghostly legends that have somehow taken on
a life of their own.
Nestled on the banks of the Hudson River, the fabled region —which includes the
adjoining Tarrytown— has become the go-to place during spooky season thanks to the
popularity of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."
Late-night lantern tours in search of a decapitated soldier's galloping ghost? Yes, please.
If one spends enough time walking through the labyrinthine paths of the village's historic
cemeteries, however, there's something sinister oozing beneath Sleepy Hollow's rustic, story-
book facade.
It's as if the entire hamlet is under some sort of enchantment. Or, as Irving penned in
1820, it oddly feels like the locals are somehow bewitched and "are subject to trances and
visions."
The revered writer referred to the area as the "spell-bound region," and rightfully so.
According to several first-hand accounts, creepy music and disembodied voices emerge out of
thin air
Based on Irving's mythical take on his later-in-life hometown, it should be no surprise
that the Headless Horseman isn't the Valley’s only fearsome phantom seeking postmortem
revenge.
The entire region seems to be teeming with paranormal activity. Several publications
sensationally claim that both Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown together make the "most haunted
places in the world."
But, is it?
After digging beneath the surface, it's difficult to pinpoint what's actually paranormal
activity versus a made-up ghost story that has been collectively conjured over a 200-year period.
Alex Matsuo, a Maryland-based author and paranormal investigator who has written
about the area’s alleged paranormal activity in her Spooky Stuff blog, believes that the line
between fact and fiction is somehow blurred in Sleepy Hollow.
“After Washington Irving's infamous tale plunged the area into fame, I would
hypothesize that perhaps some of the paranormal activity could be attributed to thought-forms,”
Matsuo told me. “There's also the case of self-fulfilling prophecies that people can accomplish
without realizing it.”
Matsuo cited the replica of the bridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery as a potential hotspot
for ghostly encounters that are freakishly fueled by the expectations of thrill-seeking visitors.
“Just by knowing the tale and the true story behind it, they would already get a case of
the creeps,” she explained. “Then, with tensions rising, they hear a branch break or footsteps, and
they get really spooked. They go home and tell their friends and family about the creepy
experience, unknowing that there was an animal nearby causing the ruckus.”
Also, there are what paranormal researchers call thought-forms or an outward
manifestation of the heightened emotions of those who visit Sleepy Hollow during spooky
season. Matsuo believes that based on this concept, extreme fear can somehow take a physical
form within the spirit world.
“When you have a massive amount of people invested in a story, even a fictional story based on
real people, that energy has to go somewhere,” she said. “In the case of Sleepy Hollow, it may
have manifested into paranormal occurrences. I would guess that most of that energy is more
organized, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of that energy was displaced, which could explain
some of the random paranormal events that have happened over the years.”
SLEEPY HOLLOW’S HEADLESS HORSEMAN
By Sam Baltrusis
For more than two centuries after Washington Irving unleashed “The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow,” the Headless Horseman is still very much alive in pop culture.
Elizabeth Bradley, a historian and author of Knickerbocker: The Myth Behind
New York, rattled off a few of the various adaptations of the great American ghost
story on the October 26, 2022 edition of WNYC News.
“It has such legs and you can see that in all of the different interpretations,“
Bradley said during the radio interview. “There truly is a version of ‘Sleepy
Hollow’ for every generation.” It’s an impressive list that includes Disney’s
animated classic from 1949 and Tim Burton’s supernatural horror flick starring
Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.
Of course, no one can eclipse the original which was initially published with a
collection of essays and stories for The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent in
1820.
“Irving's version of the Headless Horseman is set in the Hudson Valley region,
and it pits an outsider, a Yankee, named Ichabod Crane against a very insular
Dutch community,” Bradley said. “Throughout the course of the story, Ichabod
pursues a local Dutch heiress in an effort to integrate himself into this community
and is ultimately run out of town by the apparition of the Headless Horseman.”
Bradley told WNYC that she believes the famed short-story writer created the
headless Hessian in an attempt to populate a young nation with its own ghosts and
mythologies. “You have to remember that Irving was born the year after the
American Revolution ended,” she said. “The war was in the rear-view mirror of the
people of Sleepy Hollow and a very new United States. It was an opportunity to
create a whole regional culture. He really seized the moment and had a lot of fun
with it."
How did “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” become associated with All Hallows’
Eve? Bradley explained that the holiday wasn’t even on Irving’s radar when he
fleshed out America’s first monster. “He doesn't mention Halloween once in the
story,” she said. “[The Headless Horseman] is often associated with having a
pumpkin for a head,” she said, adding that the character’s jack-o’-lantern prop was
added in Disney’s The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and, over the years,
the haunting imagery then seared itself into pop culture. “Most people only knew
the Disney version and that’s where the Halloween association really started to
come into play,” Bradley added.
J.W. Ocker, author of The New York Grimpendium and creator of the OTIS: Odd
Things I’ve Seen blog, is on board with the idea that the Headless Horseman has
somehow become the unofficial ambassador of spooky season. “The Headless
Horseman is the spirit of fall,” Ocker told me during a sit-down interview at the
Sleepy Hollow Hotel. “Every monster wants to be associated with autumn, but
there’s something about him running through a forest with the leaves changing
colors that makes him the patron monster of Halloween. The bigger Halloween
gets, the bigger he gets. Everytime you feed Halloween, you feed him.”
Ocker agreed with Bradley that the animated version from the Disney movie has
ingrained itself into the American psyche. “Our generation grew up with the
Disney cartoon,” he said. “You can’t think of the Headless Horseman without
thinking of the purple-cloaked, cackling creature from the animated version. The
imagery has almost become a part of the monster’s brand.”
The United States of Cryptids author said he always thought the Headless
Horseman had a jack-o’-lantern in one hand and a battle sword in another, but was
shocked to learn that Irving didn’t include the macabre accessories in the short
story. He was also convinced that the Headless Horseman eventually caught up
with Ichabod Crane on a covered bridge. Not true.
“People who visit Sleepy Hollow always want to see the covered bridge, but it
doesn’t exist,” Ocker said. “If I could change one thing to the original story, I
would make it a covered bridge. It just seems fitting.”
Despite being tweaked a bit in the modern adaptations of Irving’s story, Ocker
said the Headless Horseman is still his all-time favorite galloping ghoul. “Irving
gave us the first real American monster,” he told me. “I’m not a very patriotic guy,
but as an American there’s something that speaks to me about the horseman. It’s
our monster. Frankenstein is from Germany and Dracula is from Transylvania.
Thanks to Irving, we have our own.”.
The secret to the short story’s success? Ocker believes the ambiguity of Irving’s
fearless phantom somehow amplifies its mystique. “All we know is he was a
Hessian soldier who lost his head during the American Revolution,” he told me.
“There’s not much of a backstory to him. He’s this vague creature that pops up in
the graveyard and runs around on his horse. He’s not jumping out of your closet.
He has no face, He’s in essence an invisible man and there’s something unnerving
about him as a monster.”
In Brian Haughton’s Lore of the Ghost, he mentioned that Irving was living in
Birmingham, England when he wrote “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and
surmised that the celebrated American author “probably picked up on some of the
elements he used in the story” overseas. “The headless ghost motif was known in
German folklore at least as early as 1505 when it was recorded in a sermon written
by Geiler von Kaysersberg, who mentions headless spirits being part of the Wild
Hunt,” he noted.
While Haughton wrote that Irving was strongly influenced by the stories told by
Dutch immigrants during his childhood in New York, he suggested that it’s also
likely that the writer was inspired by the recurring headless ghost motifs from
northern European folklore. “The tradition of the headless ghost is found
worldwide in many diverse cultures, and exhibits broadly the same characteristics
connected with death and death warnings,” Haughton reported. “Popular tradition
attributes such hauntings to the wandering spirits of those who died by beheading,
either by execution or accident.”
Haughton is in agreement that Irving’s story continues to leave a profound mark
on popular culture. “Irving’s dark story of the headless Hessian soldier who rides
forth every night through the dark lanes of Sleepy Hollow, and the dénouement of
the tale involving a supernatural wild chase through the woods, has had a
significant effect on the nature of American hauntings,” Haughton wrote in Lore of
the Ghost. “The influence of Irving’s tale on popular culture is evident.”
Alex Matsuo, author of Women of the Paranormal, told me that there may be an
underlying reason why “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” continues to strike a chord
with American readers. “We don't think about it often, but there are countless
legends that were created to dehumanize a group,” Matsuo explained. “Instead of
perceiving the Hessian as a real person, granted a terrifying figure during the time
of the Revolutionary War, he turned it into this story that is meant to remind
people that the Hessians were not meant to be trusted, even after the war was
over.”
Even though Matsuo sees a deeper meaning to what could be viewed as a
cautionary tale, she said the Headless Horseman keeps luring her back to the
Hudson Valley area, “Between the story of the Hessian soldier who lost his head
around Halloween in 1776, and Ichabod Crane encountering him while trying to
avoid him at all cost, there is a lesson to be learned there,” Matsuo said. “But I
think the way that Disney commercialized ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,’ plus
the Tim Burton film, there is a romanticization of the spell-bound region that has
cemented it into Halloween traditions.
SALEM VS. SLEEPY HOLLOW
By Sam Baltrusis
It’s a tale of two extremely different, yet oddly similar, Halloween destinations:
Salem vs. Sleepy Hollow. Will the witches overthrow the Headless Horseman —or
will heads roll— in the ultimate Samhain showdown?
According to J.W. Ocker, author of The New England Grimpendium & The New
York Grimpendium, both locations have their “woes” and cons during spooky
season.
“I love this topic because depending on how you twist the narrative, you can say
these two towns are nothing alike or you can say they are so similar that it’s scary,”
Ocker told me during an in-person interview at the Sleepy Hollow Hotel.
“The number one similarity is that they are both extremely popular Halloween
destinations,” he said. “You get those click-bait articles every year. Both Salem
and Sleepy Hollow are always at the top of every list.”
Because they are known for their October attractions, both locations rely heavily
on tourism to feed their local economy. “While Salem is changing and becoming
more of a suburb of Boston, the bottom line is if they lose their tourism, they will
lose their existence.”
The author of A Season with the Witch added that both cities successfully brand
themselves. “No other town can be Salem even though there are tons of other
locations that had witch trials especially in the Northeast. But no one can say
they’re the Witch City,” Ocker said, “only Salem, Massachusetts can do that.”
In comparison, Sleepy Hollow is known for the Headless Horseman. “There are
other towns in the country that call themselves Sleepy Hollow, but this area is the
only place that can theme themselves around Irving because he actually lived here
and was inspired by the region when he wrote the story. It’s basically Washington
Irving land.”
According to Ocker, both Salem and Sleepy Hollow are successful at embracing
their respective themes. “There’s something about these two Halloween
destinations that’s authentically spooky,” he said. “They’re also great fall
destinations. The Hudson Valley and New England are top-tier places known for
their foliage.“
Other similarities include their proximity to major metropolitan areas. “Salem is
close to Boston and Sleepy Hollow is a short drive from New York City,” he said.
“They have this small-town, big-city atmosphere to them. They also have traffic.
Who would live in Salem or Sleepy Hollow unless they’re spooky, right?”
Another similarity shared by the Witch City and the Hudson Valley seems to be
their eerily picturesque cemeteries. “There’s the Old Burying Point on Charter
Street that almost serves as the hub of Salem in many ways,” he told me. “It’s even
more true in Sleepy Hollow. The cemetery is extremely important. The Old Dutch
Church is on the hill and Washington Irving is buried in the cemetery. The location
fits right into Irving’s story and you can almost map out Ichabod Crane’s journey.”
Speaking of the famous chase from Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,”
Ocker uses the tale as a metaphor to describe the differences between the two
tourism-driven destinations. “In my mind, Salem is Ichabod Crane and Sleepy
Hollow is the Headless Horseman,” he explained. “Salem is so far ahead in regards
to marketing themselves, but I feel like the Headless Horseman is slowly creeping
up from behind. In most people’s minds, Sleepy Hollow is a less evolved version
of Salem, but one day it will catch up.”
Ocker pointed out that Salem had a huge head start. “The very first Haunted
Happenings was in 1982,” he explained. “North Tarrytown didn’t even become
Sleepy Hollow until 1996, so they’re almost fifteen years behind Salem.”
There’s also the obvious geographical hurdles holding back the village. “Sleepy
Hollow isn’t set up to be a Salem because it simply isn’t walkable,” he told me. ”In
Sleepy Hollow, you definitely need a car. In the past, they tried turning the area
near the chase statue into a plaza, but the problem is that the street is the same
Broadway that’s in Manhattan. It’s a busy road and it’s potentially dangerous to
put outside seating or a cafe near the statue. The infrastructure isn’t there yet.”
For Ocker, Sleepy Hollow’s greatest weakness is also what makes it so special.
The OTIS: Odd Things I’ve Seen blogger said he prefers celebrating spooky season
with his all-time favorite monster, the Headless Horseman. Why? After spending
an October in Salem while writing his book, A Season with the Witch, the New
Hampshire-based writer prefers the smaller crowds and the old-school charm of the
Hudson Valley.
“In Salem, there’s the witch-trials tragedy of 1692,” he said. “The inciting
incident in Sleepy Hollow is just American letters. It’s art. So there’s no
underlying guilt, which is nice. But without that guilt you don’t have the friction,
the narrative, and the interesting public relations angles. The appeal of Salem is a
tragedy and in Sleepy Hollow it’s just a story.”
The lack of an underlying cautionary tale, Ocker told me, also complicates things
when it comes to creating paranormal-themed tourism. “Now that Sleepy Hollow
is a spooky town, they’re trying their best to pull as much haunted content as they
can to make it more interesting,” he said. “It’s really hard to find great ghost stories
in Sleepy Hollow, but it was like that in Salem too.”
Thanks to all of the lantern tours in the Witch City, one can’t walk down Essex
Street without hitting an allegedly haunted location. In Sleepy Hollow, however,
the haunts are definitely spread out.
“There’s a passage in ‘Legend’ where he talks about this Hudson Valley being so
haunted,” Ocker said. “There are tons of stories and the Headless Horseman is just
one example out of all of those tales. In the story, he sets the area up as an
interesting place with a lot of legend and lore.”
Ocker’s recommendations for tourists visiting Sleepy Hollow? “Follow the chase
route,” he said. “Start at the John André monument and walk to the cemetery. Of
course, it’s not a very pleasant walk because there are cars whizzing by you. But in
October, there’s a lot more to do in Sleepy Hollow. It’s not every day like it is in
Salem, but they have something going on every weekend.”
Another telltale sign that Salem is currently in the lead as a Halloween
destination? Ocker pointed out that the Witch City’s annual Haunted Happenings
parade happens at the beginning of October while Sleepy Hollow holds its
celebration during the last weekend of the month. “It’s very telling who is better at
promoting the holiday,” he said.
Ocker insisted, however, that New Yorkers are slowly learning to capitalize on
the power of the Headless Horseman. “In Sleepy Hollow, you’re starting to see
recycling bins that are branded. Their fire engines and police cars now have
themed logos,” he said. “Even the fire plugs are black and orange. If you look
around Sleepy Hollow, the Headless Horseman is everywhere.”
About the Author:
Sam Baltrusis, author of Ghosts of Salem: Haunts of the Witch City and featured in
The Curse of Lizzie Borden shock doc, has penned eighteen paranormal-themed
books including Haunted Boston Harbor and Ghosts of the American Revolution.
He has been featured on several national TV shows including the Travel Channel's
A Haunting, Most Terrifying Places, Haunted Towns, and Fright Club (1 & 2). He
also made a cameo in the documentary The House in Between 2 and on several
additional television programs including The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd,
History’s Most Haunted, Paranormal Nightshift, and Forbidden History. Baltrusis
is a sought-after lecturer who speaks at libraries and paranormal-related events
across the country. Visit SamBaltrusis.com for more information.
https://sambaltrusis.com/
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