I’ve explored a lot of the Rockefeller State Park Preserve, but have not walked much in the far eastern part. This was about to change. I’d heard about Raven Rock (or Raven’s Rock as it is sometimes called) and decided to take a look for myself.

Raven Rock is mentioned in Washington Irving’s “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. Ichabod Crane goes to dinner at his love interest’s (Katerina Van Tassel) home and the village elders tell Ichabod local ghost stories, including the story of Raven Rock:

“Some mention was made also of the woman in white, that haunted the dark glen at Raven Rock, and was often heard to shriek on winter nights before a storm, having perished there in the snow”.

Lucas Buresch at the now no longer updated Archive Sleuth has this to say about Raven Rock:

So I stopped by the Warner Library in Tarrytown to do a little research. In The Place Names of Historic Sleepy Hollow & Tarrytown by Sleepy Hollow’s official Village Historian, Henry Steiner, I found this entry for Raven Rock:

“A ghostly woman in white is said to haunt a large rock in Pocantico Hills. The rock is in a dark and foreboding glen on the east side of Buttermilk Hill, southeast of Ferguson Lake”.

A second volume, Jeff Canning and Wally Buxton’s History of the Tarrytowns, gives an expanded description:

“Raven Rock is part of Buttermilk Hill in the northern reaches of the Rockefeller estate near the old Hawthorne Traffic Circle. Legend tells us that three ghosts, not just Irving’s lady in white, roam the area.

The lady in white was a girl who got lost in a snowstorm and sought shelter from the fierce wind in a ravine by the rock. The snow drifted in and she perished during the night. It is believed that the spirit of the lady meets the wanderer with cries that resemble the howling of the wind, and gestures that remind one of drifting snow, warning all to stay away from the fatal spot.

A more ancient legend tells of an Indian maiden who was driven to her death at Raven Rock by a jealous lover. Her spirit is believed to roam the area, lamenting her fate.

The third spirit is that of a colonial girl who fled from the attentions of an amorous Tory raider during the Revolution and leaped from the rock to her death“.

I started my walk on Bedford Road, not far from the entrance to the Stone Barns Center. One of the first things I encountered was one of the lovely stone bridges, which are dotted around the preserve.

Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GF-1 and Lumix G Vario 45-150mm f4-5.6