Book excerpt: Mohawk Valley history is spirited with stories of the supernatural. Tales of hauntings enliven the rolling landscape where the blood of tenacious French and Indian War soldiers and loyal Revolutionary War patriots saturated the soil. Ingenious captains of commerce constructed stately homes and halls of hospitality where their restless souls still roam. Murderers slayed for taking lives hang on at their execution site. Although the eerie encounters arise from 18th century confrontations, 19th century trade and 20th century murder, the departed spirits who inhabit the region share a communal haunted history spanning centuries.