Cedarcrest (town), New York

Cedarcrest is a town nestled within the center of Atkins County, New York, and lies south of Albany County. Named after the eponymous hamlet of Cedarcrest, it contains this aforementioned census-designated place and other settlements such as Burnettville, Lakeview, and the more frequented Pinecreek. In 1999, the town held a population of approximately 3,100 people estimated before the 2000 census. Most of the town's economy revolves around agriculture, with seasonal tourists attending the declining Lakeview Inn & Resort or passing through Pinecreek along New York State Route 143.

To visitors, tourists, and newcomers, the town of Cedarcrest (and more specifically the area of Pinecreek) is nothing more than a quaint stop along NY-143. However, the local area and Atkins County as a whole have repeatedly broached into state media (and even national news, in some instances) due to the "abnormal phenomena" and crimes that have historically occurred. A notable instance of such is the 1989 Hell's Staircase Incident, where a series of ritualistic homicides were perpetrated in the Lakeview Inn & Resort by Archie Wood amidst the Satanic Panic that gripped the United States in the 1980s.

History
Settlers came to the area of Cedarcrest and the greater Atkins County in 1778. Initially called "Southern Atkins", the town proper of Cedarcrest solidified after the rise of its eponymous hamlet and its location as "within the idyll wilderness" of central New York.

Initially the largest settlement within the town, the hamlet of Cedarcrest was slowly overtaken by the southern settlement of Pinecreek following the consolidation of NY-143 as a state highway within both the Atkins and Albany counties in 1915.