Dead Air Valley: "The Society That Has Caught No One in 230 Years"

In Red Hook, Dutchess County, a society formed on October 10, 1796 to catch horse thieves is still meeting 230 years later. About 100 riders pay $5 a year and gather on the first Tuesday of October. The popular account says there is no record of it ever catching a horse thief, which a past president explained in 1990 as thieves being too terrified to try. Silas Van Wyck tells it straight: the 1796 bulletin, the deterrent and insurance model, the Klose barn meetings, and the archive clippings found by The Daily Catch that complicate the legend, including an 1888 conviction, a 1936 recovery, a 1941 hobby horse payout, and the 1955 report whose riders had no horse. Sources: Townsquare via Q105.7 and The Daily Catch, Red Hook.