The Legacy of Pine Bush, NY

Back in the 80's and 90's Pine Bush was one of the hottest UFO hotspots in the country. I know because I was there. I don't live there anymore, but I still like to read about it and find people to share with. After the turn of the milennium the sightings and phenomena dropped off considerably, and even websites and forums once dedicated to it's discussion now lie dormant. However, I still feel there could be much left to discuss and no one has ever accurately explained beyond conjecture and unconvincing photos and videos, what was (or still may be) happening there. I now live far from Pine Bush, but I'd like to be in contact with people who either still live there, or used to live there...and who had experiences with these things while living there. There were utterly bizarre things which were seen by many people throughout the area, including myself and my closest friends. If anyone has had experiences or even just thoughts about Pine Bush or closely related events, please post. Thanks!

I had a sighting up near Wood Ridge New York just a few exits north on the 17. My brother and I saw a little white star while stargazing near Polaris a star just started wandering and then it made three quick right angles turns and shot off at a high rate of speed. This happened in the mid 90's. Also in that town one nighte my friends saw a large orange light which was as big as the moon. They thought it was the moon until they saw the moon was behind them. And don't get me started on the ghosts

originally posted by: brofjw
There were utterly bizarre things which were seen by many people throughout the area, including myself and my closest friends.

Erm, care to elaborate?

Also, isn't that near where Whitley Strieber's alleged experiences occurred?

You posted this on Word War Three forum instead of Ufo and Aliens

For a moment I thought sightings from Pine Bush are part of the global conflict. lol

I'm from the next town over. In over 40 years, I've never heard a thing about Pine Bush being a hot spot of anything.

Putnam county to the south is though.

I once came across a book about the Pine Bush U.F.O. phenomena in the late Nineties. The author seemed a bit whacked out of her skull, but it piqued my interest still. I lived in Dutchess County at the time and Pine Bush wasn't too far away. So, a few friends and I decided to head over one night and see what all the hubbub was about. The first night we went we saw a few moving lights off in the distance, but nothing that was "other-worldy". Just small star-like lights sailing around. It wasn't until our consecutive visits that we witnessed some rather cool stuff. There is an old Jewish cemetery that was mentioned in the above book, so we made that a point of interest. While there my friend and I heard a whooshing sound getting louder and upon looking up, just coming into view above the tree line, was a large fireball zipping over the cemetery. It was just above the tree tops. Perhaps the size of a basketball or a medicineball and completely ablaze. It glew and roared, leaving a small trail of flame behind it, just as one would expect a fireball to do. It zipped right over us and was very impressive, whatever it was. The whole sighting lasted but a few seconds, but so fantastic that it seems like minutes when remembering. That was the only eventful sighting that night.
On another trip out, we set up next to a horse field that was atop a hill with a nice view of the valley. Clear starry night, a few cloud puffs here and there. After a short while small white lights were moving about on the other side of the valley, but again, nothing that was crazy. A little later I notice a small low hanging cloud puff above the field, maybe a few hundred feet up and two hundred feet away. It flashed a blueish color from within, much like heat lighting would do. Then again and again. The more frequent it became the colors started to change from blue to orange. Then red, yellow, green. All the primary colors. No pattern to it, just seemingly random bursts of colored light. Sometimes fast, other times slow. This went in for about ten minutes or so and then just stopped completely. Very interesting to say the least.
We went back a few more times over the next year or so but nothing ever happened for us again. I haven't been there in well over a decade now.
While doing some research a few years back on the area I had learned of a Air Force base that is in the area. Another thing that got my attention was that the Pine Bush area has one of the largest untapped Uranium deposits in the U.S.A.. A rather strange coincidence, no? What better way to illegally mine materials than to make it appear as if its just some cooky aliens flitting about in their flying saucers?

Thank you for making this thread, its what finally brought me out of the sidelines here at ATS.

originally posted by: HAARPO
I once came across a book about the Pine Bush U.F.O. phenomena in the late Nineties. The author seemed a bit whacked out of her skull, ...

The title of the book is: "Silent Invasion : The Shocking Discoveries of a UFO Researcher" by Ellen Crystall

I reviewed the book but my review was so negative that I didn't submit the review. You're right about Ellen, the book is a product of a "whacked out of her skull" person and the book included a lot of unsupported claims and the photos were awful but, worse, was her reason for such. I rode in an elevator with her and she certainly was odd.

"Dr." Crystall was a Ph.D which makes you wonder at the value of such a degree when the recipient has a few loose screws. Many such as her, especially seen on aliens tv shows.

See also "The Rise and Fall of Pine Bush"
www.ufoevidence.org...

a reply to:Uggielicious
Yes, that's the book. The pictures were quite amusing. The giant anthropologic grasshoppers standing around a burning flare and the alien wearing an airline pilot's hat, priceless. As crazy as some of her logic and theories were/are, I still valued reading the book. Otherwise, I may never have known about Pine Bush. I can't say for sure what was or still is going on out there, but it is far from mundane.

Thank you for the link, informative and concise.

As I read the part about mechanical noises from the woods and glowing white orbs, it made me think of another encounter that I had out there. It was perhaps my second visit and we took a dirt road that made its way to a large and empty feild, surrounded by woods. We sat there for an hour or so with nothing eventful. Now fully dark, I start to hear what could only be described as the sound of a jackhammer coming from the back of the wooded area. It caught all of our attention and lasted for several minutes. Then it abruptly stopped. Dead silence. A moment later a bright white light, about the size of a softball and perhaps five to six feet off the ground, could be seen in the direction of where the sound had came. Whatever it was seemed to be quite aware of our presence and started to move towards us rather quickly. It bobbed back and forth, as if someone were hold a flashlight while running. It was getting closer and we were all very nervous. We didn't say a word to each other and all jumped in the car. I peeled out of there with haste, still catching glimpses of the light in the rearview mirror. Then, finally gone from view as we made it back towards the main road. Very exciting and very odd.

I intended to reply earlier, but I guess now I have more to reply to.
I lived in Pine Bush for years before I heard about the UFO's and was in the middle of my residence there when I started to notice and hear about some odd things. It was also after I read Ellen Crystall's book that some things began to click. There was another book called "The Hunt For Zero-Point: The Government's Secret Anti-Gravity Technology" about the governments own UFO's that made me think even more...and another book called The Bell about secret Nazi experiments with anti-gravity as well. The Bell is also mentioned in The Hunt for Zero-Point.

I am entirely convinced, ESPECIALLY THROUGH EXPERIENCES OF MY OWN AND OTHERS CLOSE TO ME, that the government had a secret Area 51-type laboratory located somewhere near there, underground or inside the mountains. Whether or not little green men were somehow involved in that too is beyond me...but I do suspect the government is involved up to their eyeballs. I also suspect that such a laboratory included a whole pelthora of subjects from mind-control, to cybernetic alterations of animals, nanoprobes, and antigravity propulsion, to technologically assisted experiments in telepathy. Lookup Project Stargate and Project Bluebeam and you'll get a better idea.

It's true that many people saw nothing. For years I saw nothing. But eventually I and many other people also did. Even if it was a mass hallucination, something strange and extraordinary had to cause it. And I think much of it may actually be something like that (Project Bluebeam)...and something like that is almost as awesome as the idea of ET visiting us. Even after I moved away from the Pine Bush area, I remained connected to and interested in it, and made regular pilgrimages there. It wasn't in the same fashion as kooky Ms. Crystall. People like her are naturally attracted to the idea of bonding with brothers and sisters from beyond. That wasn't my motivation. I just wanted to know what the hell was going on...and believe me...I KNOW something was going on. There's very likely alot I'll be saying here eventually, as long as no trolls or agitators come in here and sabotage the thread. I'm not going to spill all the beans at once. I want this to be a coherent discussion with plenty of reciprocity in between points.

For years I continued to visit Pine Bush, just poking around the old hotspots with a GPS, maps and a cup of coffee late at night. I saw nothing for a long time, until one night I saw a brilliant flash of red light that had no obvious source. It lit up an entire rural neighborhood like a darkroom for a split second. And many other people had described the same in that exact location. I was convinced that I finally saw something related to the phenomena. I had witness other VERY strange things around Pine Bush before, but I had finally seen something that really implied that unusual things were flying around above us, and that what people were saying wasn't some cult fanstasy. I got out of my car, and everything was pitch black again. Just a moonless sky with stars, and the faint silouhettes of hills and trees looming past the dark fields. There was another time that I saw a light like that with "no source", but that time it was white. I don't want to talk about that time right now. It was the wierdest experience I ever had. Now seeing that same kind of thing again, I knew there had to be a connection. And I knew I was also somehow involved. I'll say it: I think I was a guinea pig. One of many. And I feel neither blessed nor priveleged or exalted like Ellen Crystall did. Maybe in some small way I should be...but only in that I may possess some ability or tendency which piqued someone's curiosity. Then again, I shouldn't feel too special because it appears that a fairly good number of people share it, whatever it is.

Someone here (the first poster after me, I think) said "don't get me started about the ghosts".
DITTO, friend. I guess we can call them that for lack of a better term. Ok? And I really WOULD like to talk about that.
I'm glad we've had some enthusiastic posters here. Hopefully we're off to a good start. Good night for now. I should be around again tomorrow. There's alot to tell. And I hope alot more to hear as well.

P.S. I realize I haven't said much about my experiences. So how's this?

Once around 1992 I was driving with a friend on the Shawngunk Ridge which overlooks Pine Bush. We were almost down to the valley and passing some fields when my friend looked out his window into the field and jerked, throwing his hand up. What?? What did you see?, I asked him. He said, I don't even want to say what I just saw. He was almost quaking. I begged him to tell me. He then said, "I just saw a CAT...in that field...with a TINY LITTLE HEAD...almost like it had no head at all." He was as serious as could be, and looking rather disturbed. Apparently it really creeped him out. I didn't see it, but I entertained him on his claim. Perhaps he did see something out of the ordinary. There was nothing more to say or do, so it soon passed from our minds.

Years later, about 9 or 10 to be more accurate, I was reading the Times Herald Record, the newspaper which served the entire region, about 6 counties. The editors had compiled a wonder summary of the paranormal history of Pine Bush. One person they interviewed was a corrections officer who lived in Pine Bush and worked in Woodbourne. He said that among other things, in Pine Bush he had seen "a strange headless cat walk across the floor with a piece of cardboard where the head should be". He also said he knew many people who had seen that cat. And he said "not everyone could see these things".

Oh, God. I read those words again and again, remembering that day in 1992. By that time I had seen and heard numerous other things and the cat thing came as chilling confirmation more than a total surprise. One of the things I had learned is that quite a number of household pets had gone missing in nearby Montgomery, NY in the late 1980's. Immediately it seemed to me that this must be some sick product of that fact. I think that the cat was either surgically altered to be a living drone...or it was a hallucination induced as an experiment to see if images could be beamed into people's minds.

That's all for tonight. See you all tomorrow.

a reply to: brofjw

Very interesting accounts you gave. If I had witnessed a headless cat out there, I'm sure I would have soiled my armour. I sure wouldn't have wanted to return there again.

The idea of an underground installation in the region doesn't seem too far fetched. I had worked for a major semi-cunductor manufacturer years back out in East Fishkill and although the main building was only three stories tall, it went many more so underground. There is also an underground transit system that ran from that plant to another one that was located on the banks of the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie. The whole operation reminded me of The Umbrella Corp and their Hive Facility from the Resident Evil franchise.

a reply to: HAARPO

Well, HAARPO. A verfiable fact is that the U.S. Government owns HUGE portions of the vallies below the Shawangunk mountains in NY, all the way down to where that range becomes the Kittatinny Range along the Delaware River between NJ and PA. They've been stitching these pieces of land together like patchwork since at least the 60's whenever it becomes available to them. In 1965 they even took a mammoth chunk of land in NJ near the Delaware by Eminant Domain, for the purpose of building a huge reservoir. It was called the Tocks Island Dam Project. Hundreds if not thousands of houses were abandoned or razed. There were a few holdouts who were never forced to leave for whatever reason, but that's Few with a capital F. The irony is that the dam and reservoir were never built and instead the military started building small bases and work áreas back in the woods. The rest of the área is today called Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Lovely place, actually. But the military is still nestled in their little hidey holes, and guess what... Once in awhile a section of Route 209, which is the only highway which goes through there, is literally closed down for around a week while government trucks go in and out. Hmmmm.

A little farther up the ridge along the NY/NJ border, the Wallkill River starts flowing through the vallies below the mountains. I've kayaked it a number of times (not the whole thing, but...) and a friend of mine once showed me how many of the "posted" signs along the banks are signed "Uncle Sam". This vacant,unused farmland. Hmmmm, once again.

Even further upriver, you start to get within 10 to 20 miles of Pine Bush. And did I mention that the Wallkill River is one of the few rivers in the world which flows from south to north, a quality it shares with the Nile?? The área between that river and those mountains was my stomping ground for more than 30 years. I spent about 9 of them right there by Pine Bush. And during that time in the mid to late 80's, Uncle Sam again was trying to get a foothold right in our back yard...actually alot of people's back yards. The proposed project was none other than to build a subterranean atomic particle supercollider right under our town! I think someone mentioned a 3-mile diameter, but I'm not certain of that. They pushed and pushed to get that approved, and landowners and town officials fought it and fought it and finally beat the feds back. It was said they took the project to Texas, where it still never reached fruition. But here's the thing: Many people say that while all the talksand debates were happening, the government was already breaking ground with the Project on their own property somewhere nearby. And in Ellen Crystall's book you will read again and again about people's accounts of odd machine-like whirring noises coming from the fields and woods, even at night. These were people she talked to saying these things. In most cases there was no further evidence except for the noises themselves. Thus people started to conclude the were not so much coming IN the fields as from UNDER the fields. Hmmmm, again. Once while visiting the glorious Verkeerder Kill Falls on the Shawangunk Ridge I heard sounds fitting this description myself while about 2 miles from the nearest road, and well out into the bush. But it sounded like a bucket-loader was operating within 600 feet of me, there were just no clanking sounds. That was in fact around 1986, the same time they were pushing the supercollider project. Deserves another "hmmmm".

Sounds to me like the government really REALLY wants to get underground all along that entire mountain range and in the vallies below, and they even fake an occasional "legitimate" project to somehow gain access, then eventually publicly abandon the original decoy plan after the true goal is reached. Tocks Island and the Pine Bush supercollider were both huge projects which were earth-invasive...and both of them were abandoned within a few years...while the government still maintained a contuous presence in both places thereafter! This is far more focused on the east side of the ridge than the west. For the information of someone who asked: As far I know, autor Whitley Strieber lived on the other (west) side of the range toward Napanoch and Accord near Route 209, and in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. Incidentally, there is a tiny hamlet in that area which is also called Pine Bush. There's also a "Pine Bush" natural área outside of Albany, so if you're doing research...make sure you're researching the right one.

I've said enough for tonight.
Thanks for all your interest and replies so far.
Parting thought: Hmmmm...

Brofjw, Haarpo, Dashen,

Thanks for these postings on Pine Bush; extremely interesting what you have written. Pine Bush’s UFO story is very familiar to me as I have been collecting accounts, articles and media reports for the better part of 20 years, and have interviewed witnesses for the last 10 to keep the stories, accounts and tales from the area preserved for posterity. Brofjw describes the flashes of light with no seeming source; my self and others are very familiar with these displays and have made some observations in regard to the flashes behavior, also while grappling with separating conventional sources from what we suspect are truly anomalous light displays. Also while I’ve never personally heard the machine/industry-like sounds coming out of nowhere, I’ve got more accounts than I can count about those sounds. Also as Brofjw referenced the correctional officer in the Times-Herald article, I know him personally and can vouch for his honesty. Yes, Pine Bush has quite an unusual history to it, and I would love to continue this thread. I’m new to ATS but will try to figure out how to contact the individual posters in this thread to tell you about my project preserving the stories from the Pine Bush area. Thanks for starting this thread up!

So it seems there is no way for me to individually contact the posters on this thread. Hopefully Brofjw, Haarpo, Dashen will see these updates; would love to find a way to contact you. We've just scraped the surface of the Pine Bush story.

a reply to: pinebushanomaly

Pinebushanomaly, you were succesful in contacting me via email. It seems it was done through YouTube but I wasn't able to find your screen name on You Tube so I'm not sure what to do. I will keep looking and trying. Of course we will both want to keep this private for now, but I'm trying to figure out how. When you read this, please reply prompty in this fórum so I at least know we both know what's going on.

Thanks!

Hey Brofjw,

Thanks for following-up; my apologies about not including an email address in my email. As the Youtube account is private I will respond to that with an email address. Looking forward to communicating!

Thanks again!



a reply to: brofjw

A: aw, this was just starting to get really intriguing....
especially that cat thing, never heard of anything like that before.
can't wait to read about the ghosts, too.
okay we have nothing to add, just replying to follow the thread. please carry on.

Hey Brofjw,

Just tried to email again via YouTube; hope you get it. Would still love to communicate.

Pine Bush Anomaly

a reply to: brofjw

Thank you for posting this thread. I joined because of it as I have had unconnected (so I thought) incidences. This a real eye opener for me and I appreciate everyone so far bringing them together for me as up until now I was one confused cookie! Now time for thought.....

The Hudson Valley sightings, mass sightings, encounters, and abductions of the 1980s and later represent a major chapter in the recent history of alien contact. I can vouch for that through direct involvement, myself and maybe twenty-thousand other witnesses.

I recommend reading the book "Night Siege", co-written by J. Allen Hyneck himself, it provides a decent overview of the situation. Unfortunately, Hyneck insisted on omitting all alien abduction claims of witnesses, he insisted the public could not accept anything further than UFO sightings.

And the reports of high strangeness go beyond even typical abduction scenarios, and date back centuries. This is after all the location of both Rip Van Winkle and the legend of Sleepy Hollow.

A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere.
—Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow