Town of the Week: Pine Bush

  |  June 24, 2013
pine bush ny

Pine Bush, via Pine Bush House B&B

There’s an unwritten rule at Upstater that says if a town holds a fun and unusual street fair, they automatically get chosen as a Town of the Week. The village of Pine Bush, located in both Orange and Ulster Counties (Town of Crawford and Town of Shawangunk, respectively) certainly qualifies since the village is most well-known for its yearly UFO Festival, which we wrote about a couple of months ago in April. Indeed, Pine Bush is famous for its brushes with UFO sightings, and many in the area of reported seeing strange lights above the Shawangunk Ridge. Author Whitley Strieber lived near Pine Bush during the events of his semi-autobiographical book Communion, in which the protagonist is the victim of alien abduction. There’s no shortage of websites detailing strange phenomenon in Pine Bush, and one could easily find themselves falling down an intriguing rabbit hole of Internet searches exploring them. Here’s a meaty one we found while tumbling down our own rabbit hole.

more after the jump…

Pine Bush’s connection with UFOs and alien lifeforms runs the gamut from serious inquiry, like the kind you’d find in Ellen Crystal’s book Silent Invasion, to cute and whimsical, like the little smiling green men painted on various store front windows around Pine Bush. Businesses like the Cups and Saucers Restaurant capitalize on the village’s association with visitors from other planets, adding to the quirky and unique nature of the town. Rumor has it, they have great food there, too.

cup and saucers

Alleged alien visits aside, Pine Bush is used to living in two different worlds: It’s one of the rare towns that exists in two counties, Ulster and Orange. It’s also accessible to the artists’ colony of Cragsmoor, which we’ll be exploring in other weeks to come. The properties around the walkable village are mostly affordable, priced squarely in the mid-range between $200-300,000. There’s even a five-figure property or two. Pine Bush contains all of the benchmarks of a desirable upstate town: A walkable village vibe, a town park, tree-lined residential areas with neat-as-a-button homes, and accessibility to tons of outdoor fun. The chance that you might even catch a glimpse of a mysterious spacecraft floating overhead is just gravy.

Pine Bush is located approximately 1 hour, 28 minutes from Manhattan.

pine bush capture

GMAP

About Kandy Harris

Kandy is a writer and musician/music teacher living in Saugerties, NY.

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