The Aura of Oniontown

 

Photo: Doug Kerr on Wikipedia

I don't get many comments about this blog on Blogger or WordPress. I do get comments on Facebook and, occasionally, Twitter.

But, once in a while, a Blogger comment can be found. Such as earlier today.

And it went back in time. Fourteen years, to be exact.

The most read post in the history of "Exit 55" by far is "Oniontown Ouch." In short, it was about the mysterious hamlet outside of Dover Plains, NY that I have known of since I was a little boy. It was further about a handful of knuckleheads from Mahopac (hanging my head in shame) who went to Oniontown looking for trouble. 

They found it, as they mocked residents. And the residents fought back.

"Oniontown Ouch" is also probably the most commented-on post in the history of the bloggity blog as well.

Oniontown has long baffled such urban mythbusters. The residents don't give interviews or even want any attention. In short, they want to live their lives, come and go as they please, and be left alone.

Huh. What a concept!

Googling Oniontown doesn't produce a lot other than people who spurt out a lot of rumors and nonsense. I'm not going to give any of them publicity. Sadly, I clicked on a couple of them because I'm an idiot and thought they might be something worth watching. Instead, no.

But I did read a thoughtful piece from the Albany "Times-Union" written by Tom Gogola earlier this year.

I also watched this video that I thought was very fair in its approach.

Additionally, there is this collection of stark photographs taken by Nadia Shira Cohen, to go along with this 2012 story from Aaron Lake Smith on Vice.

I submit each of those so you can look for yourself.

A look through the trees on New York Route 22 (Google Street View)

I was raised to respect Oniontown but heard the stories and rumors. My grandmother, aunt, and cousins lived basically within site of the small, wooded area across New York Route 22. You can almost see some of Oniontown from the state highway but, beyond that, traffic speeds by as it heads from its urban beginnings in The Bronx up to its terminus not far from the Canadian border. 

As such, the turnoff to Oniontown is just another road. It starts as a paved road before reaching a "No Trespassing" sign. At that point, what more is there to say?

Why bother those people? Because you can?

My family and others knew people back in there (keep in mind this was decades ago). They were described as exactly what I thought: hard-working and looking for peace.

And so that's what they'll get from here. They'll get respect.

Fourteen years later, after that first post, after those first idiots embarrassed my Putnam County hometown (not Westchester County, as described in the "Times-Union" story) Oniontown continues to fascinate.

Some mysteries should remain just that.

Leave the rest of it to the scriptwriters.