The Fisherman

Howard relates to Abe and Dan that he heard most of this tale from Reverend Mapple, a minister at a Lutheran church in Woodstock. Mapple learned that “Dutchman’s Creek” is actually a corruption of “Deutschman’s Creek” (i.e., “German’s Creek”), as many of the original settlers were German immigrants. One old German lady told Mapple that her father always called it Der Platz das Fischer (“the place of the fisherman”). At a nursing home in Fishkill, another old lady, Lottie Schmidt, came out of a long fugue state upon hearing Mapple pronounce that name for the creek. Suddenly lucid and speaking in a “young” voice, Lottie frantically implored the reverend never to go near that place. When asked why, she said that her father had sworn her to secrecy. Finally, Mapple persuaded Lottie to tell him the story of the place in exchange for his solemn promise to give the creek a wide berth.

The narrative remains in the past as Howard relates Lottie’s story. Most of the events of Lottie’s story take place in the Esopus River Valley, which is dammed and flooded in the early 20th century to create the Ashokan Reservoir and provide much-needed drinking water for the burgeoning metropolis of New York City.