Haunted Southern Tier

Book excerpt: New York's Southern Tier and its many communities abound with legends about strange, intriguing events. Stories of ghosts and other supernatural phenomena create an aura of foreboding and mystery in upstate New York. Tortured souls try to escape from the Inebriate Asylum in Binghamton; Native American treasure lies buried beneath the banks of the Susquehanna River; grandeur and heartbreak haunt Wellsville's Pink House; and locals speculate about the identity of a young woman in white who walks "Devil's Bend" in Owego. Local learning institutions are also fraught with otherworldly beings--Elmira College, SUNY Fredonia and Binghamton University students all have long told stories about the paranormal. Folklorist Elizabeth Tucker tells these and other eerie legends of haunted homes, mansions, churches, parks and cemeteries of the Southern Tier.