Barryville, NY – Sullivan County Historian and The Delaware Company President John Conway admits that when he first broached the idea of doing a “history hike” about 10 years ago, people scoffed. Many had trouble making a connection between history and hiking.
And when he added the wrinkle of telling ghost stories along the way during the Halloween season, making his walks “haunted history hikes,” they scoffed even more.
No one is scoffing any more. Conway has now conducted dozens of history hikes in several locations, and haunted history hikes have become commonplace, as well.
At 3 p.m. on Saturday, October 26, he will conduct a haunted history hike at the Minisink Battleground Park in Barryville in collaboration with the Sullivan County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Beautification. The “Ghost Walk” will take about 90 minutes.
The Minisink Battleground Park, owned by Sullivan County, is the scene of a Revolutionary War battle that took place on July 22, 1779. The battle pitted a contingent of Tories - colonists who chose to remain loyal to Great Britain during the war - and their Native American allies against militia units from Goshen, Warwick, and Sussex, NJ. The Tories, under the command of the Mohawk Joseph Brant, routed the militia.
Conway says the bodies of the men killed that day were left unburied for 43 years before anyone came to retrieve the remains, leading to many reports that the Battleground is haunted by the spirits of those who died there.
The hike will be conducted in a dignified manner befitting the fact that it will be traversing what is essentially the final resting place of the militia killed there. Those wishing to take part should gather at the Benjamin Tusten Memorial Pavilion just off the parking lot by 3 p.m.
This event is FREE! Register online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/parks-events.
For questions, reach out to the Sullivan County Parks, Recreation & Beautification Department at scparks@sullivanny.us or 845-807-0287. More information is also available at https://sullivanny.gov/Departments/ParksRecreation/RecreationPrograms.
