Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.174 | feat. Christine Darrow from Christine The History Queen

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

Christine the History Queen on Upstate New York’s Untold Stories, Bigfoot in Whitehall, and The MOST Storytelling Festival On Good News York from Click Stream Studios, host Matt Masur interviews Christine Darrow, known as “Christine the History Queen,” who is filming season two of her PBS series focused on overlooked Upstate New York history. She discusses her museum studies education (SUNY Potsdam, University of Oklahoma, and Harvard coursework) and her interest in untold historical twists, including an episode about Benedict Arnold starting the Navy in Whitehall and the town’s 1976 Bigfoot sightings, ongoing Bigfoot Festival, and planned documentary featuring a Sasquatch calling contest. Darrow previews her May 17 Children’s Storytelling Festival appearance at The MOST, where she’ll perform a first-draft story, sign autographs, and share a sneak peek about Charles Dickens’ visit to Syracuse. She notes PBS and her YouTube/Facebook pages for viewing and says two children’s history books are planned for fall 2026. 00:00 New Story Teaser 00:17 Welcome to Good News York 00:55 Meet History Queen 02:07 Defining Upstate New York 02:54 Books and Museum Roots 03:56 Untold Tales and Twists 04:46 Whitehall Bigfoot Legend 05:26 Bigfoot Festival Details 06:45 Storytelling Festival at The MOST 07:22 Disney Christmas Book Update 08:22 Where to Watch and Follow 09:14 Dickens in Syracuse Episode 10:43 Tickets and Event Plug 11:23 Upstate Origins of Disneyland 12:46 Wrap Up and Sign Off

I will be performing my latest story that no one has heard yet. It is literally in first draft. So I'm excited to perform this in front of the kids and maybe get some feedback from them from a live audience. Hey, everybody. I'm Matt Major. Welcome to Good News, York, live from the Clickstream Studios, our new space here. I love this place. This is really coming together really well.

our man Danny behind the camera is doing a great job of making everything look phenomenal if you haven't noticed. This is great. And we got another phenomenal guest today. If you are a history buff or if you have PBS, you watch that at all, like anywhere in the country, you may be familiar with this incredible woman that we've got with us. But let's dive right in. Go ahead and tell Fuchs who you are. Hi. My name is Christine Darrow, but you probably know me as Christine the History Queen.

That's wild. Christine, why might people know you as the History Queen? Well, I am in the middle of filming season two of my show. The first season traveled significantly. It aired throughout Los Angeles. It's in New York City right now. Pittsburgh, all the major cities in the U.S. got the Christmas episode all about Walt Disney's visit to upstate New York and the story behind

the telling of twas the night before Christmas. All of that originated right in upstate New York. Wow. Wow. That's pretty cool. Are all your historical stories, the things that you're talking about? Are they New York based? Yes. And I try to keep it completely to upstate New York. So basically the region above New York City. Simply because I feel like our history is overlooked the most. Sure. And a lot of our historic sites and museums just don't have a voice, especially not a national voice.

I got to ask you a question real quick because you mentioned something, and this is a hot debate, but you are a history expert. And you mentioned upstate, everything north of the city. Where's your line? Where is the actual up? state line in New York State. What would you call it? For me, it would be anything north of New York City. Okay. See, I'm, I'm a little farther up. I always say Poughkeepsie, but I think we're in the same ballpark, but I love that. Christine, you've been, you know, making these shows that we're

talking about on PBS, all these really cool series and, I don't know, you can call it specials, right? The holiday one is so cool. You make a special for you. It's so cool. You make a special for TV, right? You're also an author, right? Yes. So I actually have a children's book series coming out this fall. Two books will be released at the same time. Then there will be subsequent books following all about the history of upstate New York. Wow. What made you such a big history buff? Where did this passion come from? Well, I've always been into local history ever since I was a very very young child, but I also went to college for it. I have a bachelor's degree from SUNY Potsdam in Museum Studies. From there, I continued on to Oklahoma University, and I obtained my master's

degree in museum studies. And then I did some additional coursework at Harvard University in their museum studies program. Wow. You are a professional historian all the way around. I love that. What type, I mean, there's so many things, right? What type of stories really catch your interest and are the types of things that you like to talk about? I like to talk about the untold stories behind the history. Every episode has some weird twist to it that people don't know about. For instance, spoiler work alert for season two, I am doing a special about how Benedict Arnold had started the Navy in Whitehall, New York, which is not where you would expect.

You would, to be way up in the Adirondack Mountains right around the Lake George area. Basically, he was trying to protect Lake Champlain because British were invading through Canada. I see. That was the fear that was what was going to happen. So there needed to be some ships built in the Adirondacks in order to defend Lake Champlain. But that's not actually what Whitehall is famous for. Whitehall is famous because in 1976, they had the most prolific Bigfoot sighting in American history. Really?

And the reason that this story really took off was because it was a policeman who witnessed Bigfoot, called for backup. New York State troopers appeared, and then the sheriff's department came. So there were multiple reports about what was seen in Whitehall. And the story very quickly traveled around the nation. So that's kind of what put Whitehall on the map until this day they still have their Bigfoot Festival. And I will be filming that documentary. I got to know what goes on at a Bigfoot festival. What do they do there?

So a lot of different speakers will come and they will present their evidence. Like sometimes there's molds that were taken from Big Footprints. So it's like a full-on convention. for Bigfoot folks. Exactly. And there's also going to be a Sasquatch calling contest. And I will be competing. So I have like a lot of practicing to do until September.

Wow. That's, uh, that sounds like quite the event. Um, and you know, that's interesting because, uh, we did a project in Vermont. And Danny and I were driving through the Adirondacks and through those areas. And there's a lot of Bigfoot signs and all these different things. And we're like, what, what it's going on? And then you think you just answered that question. That's incredible.

Yeah, they've had so many sightings in Whitehall that they've actually made Sasquatch and endangered species. Wow. And so you will see protection signs around the Adirondack region because of that. Don't feed the Sasquatch. Exactly. That's incredible. And I'm sorry, when did you say in September, that festival and all that happens?

Yes, that's when I'm going to be filming it, but it probably won't air until closer around January. That's so cool. That is so cool. Christine, there's some other interesting events that you're involved in that are a little sooner, right? Can we talk about that? We've got something going on at the most. Yes, yes, at the most. The Children's Storytelling Festival will be May 17th. That's coming right up. I am super excited about that because I will be performing my latest story that no one has heard yet. It is literally in first draft. Wow. So I'm excited to perform this in front of the kids and maybe get some feedback from them from a live audience. That's pretty cool. Do you get to do a lot of that kind of live reading of your work? So with my first book, I traveled throughout New York State doing the readings and the book sales, but it didn't last very long.

I self-published my first book and I sold it for two months before it got picked up by upstate books. I took it off the market. and they are republishing it, a whole new expanded edition. And that is all about the story behind was the night before Christmas and Walt Disney's inspiration for Disneyland. And that's on the same topic of your holiday special that we were talking about, right? Yeah. So guests at the most, they will be able to watch the Christmas documentary, but they will hear

the story about Charles Dickens' visit. to Syracuse. It'll be the first time it's ever been told. It has not been aired yet on television, so they will get a sneak peek at everything. That's really cool. That's really cool. Christine, where can folks find more information about this folly of watch all your everything? What are the links and things? Yeah, so PBS still has it streaming, but if it's easier to find, you can go straight to my YouTube page. It's Christine the History Queen. And we also have a Facebook page also called Christine the History Queen. Can't miss that, right?

And you said the book is, the first one is not yet back on the market. They're finishing that up? Yeah, so both books will be available in fall of 2026. Oh, sweet. Right in time for Christmas. You're going to have two ready to go. That's going to be awesome. That's really cool.

You definitely got to come back when those come out and we can plug the release of those. And I love doing that. That's so cool. creating something that, you know, tangible that people can have, you know, that's a neat thing, you know. Yeah, and especially, it was so much fun filming this. I've already filmed the Christmas special for 2026, and that, of course, is about Charles Dickens' visit to Syracuse. And what was so interesting about filming this episode was that it's almost like histories repeating itself, because I came during very similar conditions to when Dickens came.

Basically, he didn't have the greatest experience in Syracuse because the whole city was under construction. It was another industrial boom, just like we are experiencing right now. His biggest complaint about Syracuse was that it looked like the whole city was being constructed in one day because it was scaffolding everywhere. And it was funny because when I was driving in through 18,

to film this special. All the traffic had been rerouted. And it's still kind of like that right now. All the exits had wrong numbers. And it's just like all the funny stuff that Dickens had complained about in 1868. But it's like, here we are another industrial boom. And Syracuse is expanding yet again. History repeats itself, right?

That's the lesson. I love that. Christine, the history queen, this has been awesome to have you on Good News, York. Anything else we should share with folks before we let you get back to recording all this history? Yep, just come see me at the most, May 17th for the Storytellers Festival. That's incredible. Is that an event that folks get tickets for in advance, or can they get them there, that sort of thing? Awesome, awesome.

And the most site for that is probably the place for that? Correct. Awesome. We love them. We do. Yeah. So come see me. I'll be there signing autographs, performing my latest story,

and you can even watch last year's Christmas special if you didn't catch it and learn about how Walt Disney got the idea to build Disneyland. I love these local connections. It's really, it's the coolest thing ever. That's what we like to show in Good News York, right? Yeah, and you know what? We actually, we got there first. The very first theme park was in, actually it's still operating today,

Santa's Workshop in Lake Placid. Really? Yep. Walt Disney visited or he sent some executives because he had heard that there was a theme park in northern New York that had like 14,000 visitors in one day. And he was like, wow, that sounds amazing. This whole idea of a theme park. Like, that's pretty phenomenal. So he had some executives come to Lake Placid and they hired the same man that designed and built the park and the rides, Artow Monaco, to move to Anaheim and build Disneyland.

Wow. So everything came from the North Country. even the actual architect. That's incredible. Now that, excuse me, correct me if I'm wrong with that same folks, it wasn't just the one place. Didn't they build kind of a number of them in New York? Yeah, there was so many of them. Arto Monaco, he.

Those were the days. Yeah, he didn't own Santa's workshop, but he built and designed it. But then he got the bug and he started building his own around the same area. Like Placid once had theme parks all around. Those are the days. You imagine going to all those different places. Lots more options back in the day when you were a family for vacation. But awesome, man.

Christine, this is so great. I love that you're highlighting and telling these stories and spreading this history of our local area. It's great. Thank you very much for having me. Absolutely. Anytime. Like I said, as soon as the books come out or anything else you got going on that's interesting, we'd love to have you on and spread the word.

So thanks so much for sharing some time with us. With that, that's today's episode of Good News York. I'm Matt Major. Join us at Good NewsYork.com. Also, anywhere you get your podcast, YouTube, all those things, we are all of those places. So like and subscribe and share and spread the good news of things that are happening here in New York State. With that, peace out.