Zoar Valley NY is said to be a mystical place but what makes it mystical is it its ancient forest? Or what it stands for which would be valley of the witches and Wizards? Zoar valley is almost 3000 acres has 42 waterfalls and runs through quite a few towns. The Cattaraugus creek creates a gorge with cliffs up to 500 feet high. During the spring many white water raft while during the summer some visit here to sunbathe, swim and fish. Back in the 1960s it was a big area for hippies they would smoke up, party, walk nude. Today because of this reason they no longer allow overnight camping. But there are still some nudist areas here like skinny dip falls. I myself never visited Zoar Valley or thought about investigating it. But after I was interviewed about if I knew of anything about it for WNY 13 Most Scariest Places the thought of checking out enticed me. Zoar valley is not only home to the Bald Eagle but perhaps many mysteries and ghost as well.

What would make a valley so haunted or mysterious? Could it be because the Gowanda & Cattaraugus Indian reservations are near by? Rumors of a ghost town are also said to exist somewhere within Zoar Valley. Who lived there and what happened to it? What about the large amount of people who have perished while jumping off the water falls? Accidental deaths maybe? Or is there another force at work? What about all the missing people that go up there never to return? Are they taken? Get lost forever? Or is it true there are many areas in the creek that suck you under and your never heard from again such as underground caverns? So perhaps this is what makes it such a mysterious and eerie place. Unfortunately we were not able to get in the heart of the valley late at night because the road was out and our vehicle was stuck halfway in Zoar Valley but we managed to get it out and still bring you a ghostly story on the edge of this ancient forest.

There is a couple things I want to discuss about Zoar Valley. For one there use to be a trading post back in the early 1800s here. Then later a very large farm existed. Today only the foundations remain and the stone of a traveler from Lodi  named T. Dutton. Which was said to be murdered or died mysteriously in Zoar Valley. The stone was broken in half in 1997 so sad. He was traveling a road into an early settlement started by Jacob Balcoms and his family in 1817. Perhaps he needed food, supplies but in 1826 he came up missing for a year until his body was found and examined. They could not tell if he had been murdered but his valuables were missing. He was burned on a stone slab and each year they have a carnival in his name. Does Dutton haunt Zoar valley still looking for his murderer?  In 1817 when settlements were established in the Darby Flats now known as Valentine Flats it was obvious some other civilization once prospered here as there were apple trees with 9 foot in circumference trucks. What happened to this civilization perhaps the same thing that happened to Hutton a victim of Zoar Valley.

The next thing we are going to talk about is the Clawfoot people of the town of Zoar. Back in the 1800s the town was of English Descendants roughly 200. Many of the towns folk developed claw like feet and hands it was very grotesque and a disfigurement which was a curse to the settlers. It all started with a prostitute though who passed the Clawfoot onto the descendants The prostitute had Syphilis and she passed it on to ever male in the town. In turn the whole town in the next generation had this passed down but more common in the male offspring. Eventually the town treated others with the deformity brutally and different in society. One male joined the circus to become lobster man, another one chopped his hands off, while another had a infant son with his wife and she see the deformity in the child and abandoned it. It just became to horrible to endure so in 1923 the town made a pact. They swore to annihilate this curse by never having any more children. The blood line of the Clawfoot people no longer exist its extinct. There are only one or 2 survivors left from when this pact was made that live to tell there story.

So is Zoar valley a strange place? You bet! We found that our for ourselves when we stopped at one of the roads and bridges that lead into Zoar valley. Unfortunately we could not access the historic bridge but we found the one bridge and woods along the racing rapids of Cattaraugus creek to be very haunted. Moving cold spots, feelings of being watched, the odd sound of coyotes just add to the adventure that this place holds. Is this a scary place? Well it is not the type of place you want to be walking alone at night in. Even the locals are strange after we had a run in with 2 locals who said they owned the bridge and road yet there were public signs all on the road itself. So Zoar Valley holds many mysteries perhaps the locals know something that we do not or perhaps some locals have something to do with some missing people? So basically what we are asking you to do is to let your mind wander in a place that is like a world of its own ZOAR Valley.

© By

Rick-AngelOfThyNight

Update: I wish I had more time to work this this area but recently a lady contacted me about her adventures out in Zoar Valley so think of it as a tip off for all you supernatural enthusiast.  She said that many nights she has seen little people in the shadows which are hunched creatures that come out at night similar to fairies. She said they are not as pretty any they come from native american folklore.

She also said she has had ghostly experiences during the day near butter milk falls and even found the lost city hidden in Zoar valley which is private property. 

Lastly she told me their is a very large hairy creature most likely bigfoot which terrorizes people in the area and is not very friendly. It probably is very protective or territorial so it chases off people so its not found.