The Terror of the Omega Men

Behind the College I attended in the 1980s, Nyack College, there lay a dark and desolate Mountain.

The Clausland Mountain loomed formidably over the Rockland county landscape, from its peak you could even see the skyscrapers of New York City some 18 miles distant.

There were frequent sightings of the unexplained on the twisting road that led up to the mountain and it was somehow connected to the stories of the Dark Specter which I chronicled in the entry “The Specters of Oom” earlier this year.

Somehow the Dark Specter was connected to the mountain.

In the Spring Semester of 1984 a group of college students had drove around the mountain after midnight and on the peak they came across a group of robed figures who blocked the way. They had a screaming girl with them. As the car slowed down the robed figures quickly tried to encircle it and as they approached the car with weapons the students stepped on the gas and burst through the encircling throng. They immediately came back to campus and notified security which contacted the local police. When the security detail with the police escort arrived at the scene there was nothing to see. A search of the local woods also failed to come up with any evidence to support the students claim. But they swore what they encountered was true. And what happened to the screaming girl? One shudders to think, for the area has rumors of ritualistic murders and the mountain was famous for being a dumping ground for bodies by New York City crime lords. In fact I had a good friend who was hiking on the trails one Saturday afternoon when he came upon a large filled garbage bag. It was lying in the middle of the trail and he tried to kick it to the side with his foot. Blood trickled out a small hole made by the force of the blow. Fearing the worst he made his way back to campus and called police to come investigate the strange bag. In it was a mutilated corpse. It had been put through a woodchipper and was just a huge rotting mess. Later it was revealed that the dead person had been a victim of “The Iceman” Richard Kuklinski.

Satanic and mobster offerings were not the only paranormal phenomena that manifested itself behind our small college on the Hudson river.

In the mid 1980s during the UFO flap of the Hudson Valley many people saw the V-shaped UFOs hovering over the mountain only to turn and go in another direction. A friend of mine related to me that in late 80s how on one dark summer night he was lying in the middle of our athletic field and meditating about the next school year when a gigantic black shape crawled across the sky and blackened out the stars. The ship was either so enormous that its expanse was beyond comprehension or it was a large ship that was for some reason flying low. Either way it left my friend very shaken. He was not one to be shaken easily. The fact that he is now a High School Principle in an urban setting justifies that assessment.

Strange things always happened around the Clausland mountains, and my College lay on the ridge.

One of the strangest things on the mountain was the former Camp Bluefields. During World War 1 it was used as a rifle range and a POW camp. Miles of underground tunnels litter the top of Clausland Mountain, dark and mysterious. Many call it ‘Tweed’ because it lies off the winding Tweed Boulevard. The tunnels would provide safe passage from one rifle range to another with only small slits every few yard to provide illumination. The fascility was abandoned after WW1 because many times stray bullets would hit homes in the local towns and even started fires.

Some of the tunnels are over a mile in length and even in the broad daylight you cannot see the other end. Rooms that were used as barracks, prisons and offices are located near almost every tunnel. In some of the larger rooms there is evidence of Satanic activity as pentagrams and odd hieroglyphs litter the aged cement walls. Fire pits are often found with pieces of bone and clothing. It is whispered that these are the remains of some of the ritualistic killings.

The tunnels are frightening to enter in the daytime but go in them at night is an intensely frightening experience. You can feel a disturbing presence throughout the area. It is as if something is watching you.

There are 4 entries about these tunnels and the terror that they inspire the intrepid explorer in the book “Weird New York” by Chris Gethard. The articles confirm the evil presence that most feel when they enter the dank darkness of the underground system. On page 20 of the book under the title “Not Just Evil, but also Dangerous” contributor Mark Miljko writes:

“The reason why the police don’t like to go in ‘there’ is because there was and still is a practicing satanic cult who use the Clausland Mountains for their satanic rituals. There have been many bodies found up there, most of whom have died in a sacrificial manner. The cult members are referred to as the Omega Men. Their names are the only ones scribbled down the farther tunnels and all around the opening of the first with threats and the like.

Anyway, I believe the one tunnel, the one where you have to crawl through a rotting tree to get in, has something very evil about it. A little way down that tunnel, there is something like a wormhole or portal. This is not something physical, but metaphysical. When you stand beside it, you can feel a wind blowing out of the side of the wall. There is no hole, nor is there a feasible scientific explanation…you can feel the presences pouring out from that spot.”

The Omega Men’s symbol was a double Greek Omega that is linked to form a rounded M. This symbol can be seen on almost every wall in the entire system. It is even located at great heights in the larger rooms with no visible means to have it painted there. It is like the Omega Men used some preternatural ability to scale the walls and place their mark for all to see.

There are other graffiti marks that adorn the walls of the complex, but the markings of the double Omega dominate every tunnel and building.

The Omega Men were well known to the students of our small Christian College. In fact many knew some of them personally.

I was actually the third person drafted into the ‘satanic cult’.

You see the Omega Men that have inspired so much dread and fear were in fact a few Christian College students who loved the outdoors and strange places. They were founded by a Security chief and two librarians. One of them is now a missionary.

And they attracted others who loved mystery and dared to venture out into the unexplained even if it was frightening and they were alone in the dark. One 'newer' member of the 'cult' is the now principle who saw the giant craft that flew over the Hudson that warm summer night long ago.

My friend Jon founded the group and as an Army Chaplain’s Assistant and chief of security he pushed himself to accomplish a lot of things others would not dare. That’s why the Omega Man’s symbol is near the rafters in rooms that have no support to reach those dizzying heights.

The Omega Men did love the cover of dark, and Jon would often lead his group out in the cover of darkness into the desolate forest of Clausland late in the evening.

Dressed in black they were almost unseen.

Why?

Because Clausland was a notorious place for evil, and unseen they could penetrate deep into the dark woods and confront the drug dealers, wanna be crime lords and the strange and bizarre cloaked figures that caused so much fear.

Did they ever confront the evil face to face? They were ghost hunting long before it has become the national obsession that it is today. They confronted things that in the dark abysmal darkness and came away with many stories. War stories like so many veterans, were only shared with those that went through the shared with them.

Otherwise no one would believe them.

To tell the truth though I never made the long night trips into the countryside to confront evil like my fellow Omega Men did.

I liked sleep.

Still do.

While they were investigating into the twilight hours I slept the night away.

I might have had a better GPA, but they have whole lot more stories to tell.

I hope they share with us.

Sometimes the story depends on the storytellers’ viewpoint.

Too many today the Omega Men were vile satanic worshipers.

But in reality they were a Security guard, two librarians, a future principle and a future minister.

How many other tales of high strangeness lost to history have been distorted to the point that the good has become the bad?

Were there strange and paranormal oddities that made themselves real in the Hudson Hills in the 1980s? I was a witness of many. Was there a strange cult in the Clausland Mountain during that time that still survives until the present day? From all I hear there is indeed some high strangeness happening there as there always seems to have been. The Omega Men were not a part of it, in fact they tried to fight it.

But sometimes the darkness seeps back into the deep corners of the world….

Until Next Time,

Pastor Swope

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