Intro and Background

Launched in 2008 and re-booted in 2017, The Pine Bush Anomaly Archive is an effort to thoroughly compile and study the accounts of unusual experiences in the Orange/Ulster area of upstate New York. The gathering of data will be done in such a manner to allow analysis from the viewpoint of a variety of hypothesis on anomalous experiences, as well as to serve as a folkloric history of the area.

A Brief History

Since at least the 1920s the township of Crawford and the surrounding area in upstate New York has been host to stories and rumors of unusual experiences, centered around sightings of strange objects and lights in the sky and fields. These stories initially were passed quietly amongst friends and family, rarely to go beyond the local community. Although there is a reason to believe a small group took an active interest in pursuing the alleged objects and lights, the stories never grew beyond being a bed of local modern folklore. All that was to change in 1991 with the publication of Ellen Crystall’s Silent Invasion, a book that chronicled her accounts of chasing and interacting with the alleged phenomenon in Pine Bush and the fields of Montgomery. After being introduced to Pine Bush in 1980 through Omni Magazine writer Harry Lebelson (who himself was contacted by scared residents near the fields of Montgomery reporting odd luminous objects in the surrounding fields) she began a multi-year adventure observing what she described as a sentient, technology-oriented phenomenon that made the undeveloped areas of Pine Bush and Montgomery its playground. The larger sub-community of anomaly buffs took notice of Silent Invasion, and soon Pine Bush found itself visited by a steady stream of those hoping to witness the activity described in Ellen’s book. The local residents had a variety of reactions to Pine Bush’s newfound notoriety. Some regarded it with good-natured indifference, others felt distaste that their town would be associated with a subject like that described in Silent Invasion. A smaller group took an active interest in Ellen’s accounts, devoting time to finding out whether there was any substance to the tales now circulating around the Orange/Ulster area. It was this group ultimately who continued the Pine Bush anomaly story, forming a new body of accounts and organizing a local open discussion group (U.F.O.S.) on the subject that enabled timely reporting of new experiences and a place for people to discuss a socially controversial subject. The stream of reports and subsequent interest in the subject continued until about 1996, which marked the start of a decline in new accounts which culminated in 1998 with the development of the fields of Montgomery. Symbolically the loss of the fields was strong as they previously hosted the alleged phenomenon’s regular appearances as well as the skywatchers’ sitting area. The discussion group continued but with dwindling attendance, and after the start of the new century it seemed few but the local core were carrying on the interest in the reported unusual events.

A renaissance

Then in 2003 a telling revival of interest in the Pine Bush anomaly story occurred with the emergence of two sources of information on both past and current accounts. Long-time skywatcher Vincent Polise decided to tell his story of chasing the phenomenon during the 1990s by creating the website www.pinebushufo.com, which featured several of his accounts and scans of his photographs from the era. Shortly thereafter the Times-Herald Record published a new article about the discussion group that found its way around the world via the internet. Suddenly attendance of the group’s monthly meetings grew dramatically, and both Mr. Polise and the organizers of U.F.O.S. began to receive a steady amount of email and phone calls from people wanting to know more. Most remarkable was the amount of communications from people who reported that they had experiences with the local phenomenon, many of whom had since moved to other areas of the United States.

In 2011 the Township of Crawford hosted the first annual Pine Bush UFO Festival, celebrating its unique local history. Long-time skywatchers worried that the Festival would be an occasion of ridicule towards the subject, but in fact the opposite proved true. A new dialog on the subject, including a surge of new accounts, emerged from the spirit of fun the festival created. Around this time scientist and writer Linda Zimmermann turned her efforts towards researching the greater Hudson Valley UFO mystery, completely revitalizing the documentation of accounts from the area. Presently the Pine Bush area is still host to a steady number of reports of unusual aerial and ground phenomena each year, proving that whatever the impetus behind these reports is in nature, is still active.