Night Film

Trip to Crowthorpe Falls, NY, and The Peak Estate

S. McGrath

Interview with Nelson Garcia — April 3, 2006

December 2004

Medical Equip?

Garcia is Stanislas Cordova’s closest next-door neighbor, a seventy-eight-year-old retired apple farmer originally from Lafayette, New York. Since 1981, he has lived in the rust-colored single-wide trailer on a patch of land across from the overgrown driveway that leads to The Peak. He claims never to have met or even seen the Cordovas — due to his type 2 diabetes he rarely ventures into town, having a nurse visit and bring supplies three times a week. But he did have a few interesting incidents to tell me about his infamous neighbor.

“We used to have street signs all around here, but the mailman told me they removed them,” he said.

“Who do you mean by they?“ I asked.

“The people who live up there.”

“You mean the Cordova family?

He nodded.

“Why would they remove the road signs?” I asked.

“They don’t want people up there. They like to keep to themselves. That’s what I heard around town. I used to see all kinds of fancy cars driving in and out from midnight till all hours of the morning. Especially in the eighties and nineties. Limos. A Rolls-Royce once. A few times I heard helicopters landing in there. Music, too. But starting in early 2000, it’s been quiet. Never see a soul go in or out.”

According to Garcia, in early December 2004, he received a series of UPS deliveries that were intended for The Peak but, by mistake, were delivered to him. The first was a massive box stamped with a label reading Century Scientific.

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