Mysteries of Kinderhook

Hey, remember when Sarah and I went to Albany?

When we did that, we were actually staying in a small town just south of Albany called Kinderhook, best known for being the birthplace of President Martin Van Buren and not for much else. It's an adorably quaint historic town, though, and a little over a week ago, we went and stayed there again for Sarah's birthday, taking excursions from there to Albany, Hudson, Adirondack, Lake George, and Saratoga Springs. We did so many exciting things, from escape rooms to ropes courses to a historic spa!

But one of my favourite things that we did happened in Kinderhook itself. Sarah and I helped solve a mystery.

No, really. I'm dead serious.

Kinderhook happens to be full of mysteries, as every quaint small town should be if fiction hasn't lied to me.  Some are more historical in nature, some more paranormal, and some straddle the line. I'll of course be talking about all types in this blog entry but first allow me to brag about the mystery Sarah and I helped solve. Ours was more historical than paranormal, but who isn't down for a history mystery?

It was pretty much one the coolest things that has ever happened to me, but like an idiot I did not have the foresight to take photos of the object in question. However, I did at least get a photo of the outside of the historic house in Kinderhook where our mystery was solved:

Built in 1819 and now known to locals as the "House of History" (What a great title, amirite?), the Vanderpoel House was originally the home of prominent lawyer James Vanderpoel and his family. In the 19th century, it was used as a boarding house. It stands today as an outstanding example of Federal style architecture and is one of four museums in Kinderhook run by the Columbia County Historical Society.

Sarah and I had stopped in on the morning of the sixth and I happened to strike up a conversation with the woman running the place about my own experiences working in historic homes, both the Winchester House and the Federal style Hamilton Grange. And that's when this woman's eyes lit up.

"Maybe you can help me with something," she told me as she led me to the front door.


There, next to the door, was a strange old brass latch-looking thing that could move up and down, sticking straight out perpendicular to the wall. Sarah and I both bent over to get a closer look at it. Based on the type of screw attaching the apparatus to the doorframe, I could tell the woman that it was definitely later 19th-century, possibly early 20th - it was definitely not from the Federal/Antebellum period! But that was as far as I could get.

The woman shared theories she'd gotten from other guests, both professionals and amateur history sleuths. The leading theory was that it might be part of a chain lock system, but that didn't make sense to me, as both key locks and latch locks were ancient technology by 1819, and if it were an elaborate lock system, why would the latch be hanging perpendicularly? I said it was possible it could be part of a servant call system, but I backtracked and added if that were true then I still don't know why it would be right next to the front door.

Really, it was Sarah who was the shining star here. Sarah is the only one who thought to open the front door and look on the outside of the doorframe. Sure enough, there on the other side of where the "latch" was, was a panel that had been painstakingly replaced and painted over. It was one of those things that you wouldn't see if you weren't looking for it, as the people who restored the house had gone through great lengths to make it unnoticeable. Sarah, who's always been mechanical, came back inside and looked at the "latch" again only to notice a chain in the back of it.

It was a doorbell.

The woman was excited. This made sense, she said, because of the home's history as a boarding house. The boarders didn't have keys to the home, so how would they have gotten in? That had been another mystery. But this made it all fall into place. On the outside of the door, they would pull a little chain or chord. On the inside, a bell hanging on the latch would ring and the owner of the home (or possibly a servant) would let them in!

Mystery solved, history detectives Sarah and I out!

No not that far out!

 I was so giddy over the satisfaction of a mystery well-solved (I am a nerd who secretly wants to be Dana Scully) that when I got back to New York City, I of course wanted to find out all about other mysteries in Kinderhook just waiting to be solved. Even if I'm not physically there, tiny Kinderhook has captured my heart with all these phantasms lurking in its nooks and crannies, and I'd love to share some of what I've found with all of you! So let's start with some mysteries of history, and move on after that to some mysteries more of the paranormal ilk! Who wants to be the Mulder to my Scully?

The Benedict Arnold Connection

I'm starting with one that's like. History lite.

Benedict Arnold isn't the only one from the American Revolution said to have passed through here. General Henry Knox came through the town on his way to get a message to George Washington. General John Burgoyne was held as a prisoner of war right down the street. And I've even read that Aaron Burr fled briefly to Kinderhook after shooting Alexander Hamilton to escape accusations of murder. (Whether or not that last one is true is another mystery...)

But Benedict Arnold is the one who gets a plaque. So this is the one I'm focusing on. The plaque reads as follows:

"According to tradition, Benedict Arnold was brought here after being wounded at the Battle of Bemis Heights in 1777."

Ah, there's a messy phrase for historical research - "According to tradition". Here's the thing - this story could be true. Or it could be entirely apocryphal. Having scoured google for ten whole minutes I haven't yet found anything that for sure says he stayed here. No letters from good ole' (or bad ole') Benedict saying "Dear Peggy, Kinderhook is beautiful and being wounded sucks." (I admit I don't know if Benedict Arnold had even met Peggy Shippen yet at this point, and I don't care enough about Benedict Arnold to seriously research this.)

So did he stay here in Kinderhook? Did he ever even set foot here? When dealing with a small town history, the overlap between folklore and historical fact is excessively blurry, to the point where there may be no difference at all. What “actually” happened may never be known, and perhaps cannot be known in any contemporary, objective sense. This is one mystery that needs former analysis to be sure.

The Washington Irving Connection

You know, I've come to appreciate Washington Irving a hell of a lot more now that I've moved to the east coast. His writings are so... east coast-y. But did you know his most famous work, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", wasn't even fully based on Sleepy Hollow? The town in the story was an amalgamation of many small Hudson Valley towns, including Tarrytown and, yes, Kinderhook. In fact, Kinderhook can claim a very big connection to both this story and Irving's other famous story, "Rip Van Winkle", in that this is the town where Irving was actually staying when he wrote them! (Side note - did you know Irving was friends with President Van Buren? I sure didn't.)

The main characters in "Sleepy Hollow" were actually based on Kinderhook personalities. Katrina Van Tassel was based on Katrina Van Alen for example. (In the photo above, the red brick home behind the schoolhouse was the Van Alen house.) And Ichabod Crane was based on local schoolteacher Jesse Merwin - there actually is a letter from Irving to Merwin calling Merwin the "original Ichabod Crane", so that fact is historically verifiable.

I guess this one isn't really a mystery. It's all verifiable. The real mystery is why the town of Sleepy Hollow tries to claim all the glory. So let's tell a legend of our own now.

The schoolhouse Jesse Merwin taught at is pictured above and now called the Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse, but Merwin's actual house is said to still be haunted by his spirit. According to paranormal expert Bruce G. Hallenbeck:

"Long ago his tombstone was placed face down to make the front step of the house. The local legend is that if it's disturbed, the Headless Horseman will ride again. The woman who lives there got curious if it was actually his tombstone and had it flipped over back in the 60s by a handyman with a crowbar, and sure enough there was the inscription. That night there was no Headless Horseman but lightning struck the two maple trees in the front yard and electrified the house... so no one's messed with it since then."

Isn't that just amazing?

Secret Societies in Kinderhook

Why did I post a picture of the museum here? Well, can you see that window above the front door? Let's get a look at it from the other side.

IlluMinAti!!!!1!!on1!

 Okay, okay, I'm not gonna spend too much time on this one because frankly, I've always found conspiracy theories about "Freemasons secretly running the world" to be fucking stupid, you guys. If a ~secret~ organization was controlling global politics/media/whatever, do you really think they'd be stupid enough to put their symbols all over the place for any old fool to see? No, they'd be subtle about that shit. I'm already exhausted. Next mystery please?

The Ghosts of Kinderhook

Yes, besides Jesse Merwin's ghost, which I mentioned earlier, the town of Kinderhook has a lot of spirits still hanging around! In fact, way back in 2006, the New York Times even published an article about it. That's pretty legit - the Times, you guys! That article has all sorts of interesting ghost stories just ripe for the picking. (@Hollywood, Where is my Kinderhook-set horror movie?)

For example, in an 1839 Greek Revival home, guests have reported seeing visions of African slaves working in the field outside the house (it's worth noting that there is an African burial ground in Kinderhook) and hearing "rapping noises" at the door. (I assume they mean knocking, not that the ghosts were spitting sick rhymes to rival Kendrick Lamar.)

But perhaps the most famous haunting is that of Lindenwald (pictured above), the former home of Martin Van Buren himself. The home was actually built by William Van Ness (the father of the William Van Ness who would serve as Burr's second during the Burr-Hamilton duel), and because of this, this is where Burr is rumoured to have stayed when he fled from New York City. A secret room was even once claimed to have been found at the home where Burr could have stayed, and eyewitnesses do claim to have seen Burr's ghost wearing a maroon coloured coat and lace ruffles that do not move with the breeze. (Wow, Burr's ghost really gets around...)

The ghost of Martin Van Buren has also been spotted at Lindenwald. His shadowy apparition has been spotted both within the home, and outside among the trees. Not just him, either. There's a local legend that Van Buren employed a butler who liked to "make liberal use of the liquor cabinet", and who eventually hung himself. Chillingly, witnesses claim to have seen the ghostly figure of his hung corpse swinging in the breeze...

Those who work within the house have even stated (off the record) that the ghosts of Lindenwald are still around. To quote Hallenbeck again:

"Tour guides won't talk about it publicly, but I got a tour guide who talked about it privately once, and he said that sometimes when they went in the morning to open up, they would find that the curtains had been taken down, sometimes they would find that objects from the house had been washed, apparently, in a bucket full of water. Sometimes they say that they can smell bread cooking in the oven. They think that whatever haunts the place is the spirits of slaves or servants that worked there."

Regretfully, I did not get the chance to go to Lindenwald and investigate these supposed hauntings myself... yet.

Unidentified Flying Objects

The "Hudson Valley Wave"

 Did you know that the Hudson Valley is a UFO hotspot? Several thousand sightings of UFOS were reported between 1983 and 1986, and they continue to be seen to this day. Sadly, Sarah and I did not see any - the skies were thunderstorming most of the nights we were there - but still, several thousand sightings you guys! There's even one road that used to be so well-known for UFO sightings that in the 1990s, local police had to ban sky-watching since it was disrupting local traffic!

One UFO is said to have been between 100-300 yards wide, and flew completely silently over the Thruway and the Taconic Parkway. Thousands of eyewitnesses saw it, but no one knew what it was. There's a book about this sighting called Night Siege, though I haven't read it. More recently, in 2005, an eyewitness reported seeing from their private Kinderhook home, "constant flashing lights, red to blue to yellow to green... continuously blinking and changing colours." (The moderator of the UFO forum where I found that eyewitness accounts did, to be fair, note that this could possibly have just been twinkling stars or possibly planes.)

Am I saying it's aliens? While some have reported seeing aliens, I'm not saying it's anything. That's the point. UFOs are UNIDENTIFIED. They could be extraterrestrial. They could be top secret military experiments. They could be some bored rich teenager whose parents bought them a drone. We don't know what they are - that's the mystery.

The Mystery of the Kinderhook Creature

When you think of cryptids, Upstate New York isn't your first thought, is it? (Though "Champ" should be more well-known than Nessie, just sayin'.) No, you think of the Pacific Northwest, don't you? You think of old redwood forests as the perfect habitat for sasquatches. I do, too - I once visited the Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Felton, CA. (Which, btw, California friends? I totally recommend.) But it turns out Kinderhook has a Bigfoot-like creature of its own, which has been seen so many times it's been dubbed the "Kinderhook Creature".

And these sightings aren't a recent phenomenon, either. They go all the way back to the late 1800s, when eyewitnesses reported it as a "wild man resembling a gorilla", "being covered with a dark sort of hair or skin", and that it “ran swiftly up a huge tree and was lost sight of”. Back then, it was hypothesised in local papers to maybe be an escaped zoo animal or pet, though it was never caught.

In the 1970s and 1980s, sightings really started to pick up. Aforementioned paranormal expert Bruce Hallenbeck (Yes again - he's a good source!) even mentions that his grandmother had her own experience with the creature. She apparently described it as "a dark hairy thing." Neighbours had reported their trash bags had been opened and rummaged through by the creature - not torn open as if by raccoons, but very carefully opened. One neighbour, a Mrs. Walters, even found her trashbags high up in a tree. Hallenbeck himself has heard the creature, describing its sounds as "ungodly", starting as "like a shriek or a howl" and then going into a more low, guttural sound.

But there are other witnesses. In 1980, two men named Barry Knights and Russel Zbierski said that five huge, hairy creatures with cone-shaped heads and no necks suddenly converged on the road ahead. The men ran in the opposite direction. At about the same time, a woman just down the road said she saw a huge hairy creature that walked on two legs remove food from trash cans by her garage. She told Knights and Zbierski that her dog was so frightened that it began to spin in circles and wet itself.

During February 1982, two Whitehall police officers were on routine patrol, driving along a remote stretch of Route 22 near East Bay at 4:30 a.m., when they were startled by a huge hairy humanoid standing seven-and-a-half to eight feet tall. In a 1982 interview with Paul Bartholomew, officer Dan Gordon said he looked on in disbelief as the creature crossed the road in a flash. It then climbed up a steep embankment and out of sight. Shaken, Gordon pulled out his service revolver and walked around, but it had disappeared into the night. Gordon said it was covered in mangy, dirty, dark brown fur and resembled an ape with poor posture, as its shoulders slumped. It had long arms that swung back and forth as it took massive strides. He said its speed was remarkable, noting that a “relay runner would have trouble keeping up with [it].”

And in 1998, two men were driving on North Bush Road near Caroga Lake in Fulton County at about 2:00 a.m., when they pulled their truck to the roadside to urinate. “Chris” returned to the vehicle before his companion, and when he flicked on the high beams, he saw a huge figure standing only 20 feet away. It was seven to eight feet tall—part human, part animal—and had a flat face and arms that swung in an exaggerated motion. Covered in long, brown hair, Chris said, “It stood perfectly still for a minute and then grunted at us. Then it turned and walked away. It didn’t move like a man. It kind of swaggered back and forth, like it lunged each leg forward when it walked”.

These are just a handful of stories about the Kinderhook Creature. Hard to believe as it is, it's even harder to ignore.

So as you can see, for such a small town, Kinderhook has a lot of mystery and intrigue going for it, from the supposed connections to figures such as Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr to a mysterious cryptid. It's unlikely all of these mysteries will ever satisfactorily be solved like the mystery of the Vanderpoel House's door latch. But isn't fun to speculate?

After all, who doesn't love a good small town mystery?
-Nym-