The Story of Spook Rock

This place, this Rock lives, it breathes

and it speaks. Go there on a cold

night and listen. Owl lives in White Pine

and speaks and Pine speaks, Wind

whispers, they talk, Rock mostly listens

Sometimes,sometimes Rock speaks.

This was a meeting place,

a sacred place, now it’s an intersection for cars.

The hole in the rock that once spoke is

filled with concrete so the

wind can no longer move

there but go there, if you like

That’s all.

This is the Story of Spook Rock, as recounted by Chief Otto Mann to Chuck Stead in 1980. Shown here is Indian Rock, now located in the parking lot of the Indian Rock Shopping Center in Montebello, NY.