Legends & Lore of PA

 The legends and lore on this page are compliments of:

Pennsylvania Haunts & History

Home of the legends, lore and ghost tales of the Keystone State

http://hauntsandhistory.googlepages.com/pennslvaniahaunts%26histroy

 
 DEMON HOUSE (Carroll Twp., Washington County) Built in the 1880s, the house on Coyle Curtain Road is alleged to be haunted. Psychic investigators have come up with pictures of orbs and spirits.  The  Beaver County Ghost Hunters found at least two spooks.  They are the short, chubby banker named Walter, and a young servant named Cassidy.  Another psychic discovered a "regal" female spirit, and thought the house was built on abandoned Indian burial grounds.  But rest assured that most of the chills are man made. Billy McCue, who returned from LA with his wife just to prove you can come home again, has sunk over $1,000,000 into making his Demon House the ultimate in haunts. He's created his own legend of the McCue Mansion and plans to finish a documentary film on it by Halloween 2008.  (Pittsburgh Post Gazette “Demon Daydreams Take On Life In House,” September 27, 2007; Pittsburgh Tribune Review "Ghost Hunter Picks Friday The 13th For Her Presentation," April 12, 2007
 

THE BELSANO TRAIN ROBBERY (Cambria County) This is a legend of lost loot. On the morning of October 11, 1924, a train from the Cambria & Indiana RR was transporting a safe with a payroll of $33,000 to the miners of Ebensburg Coal Company. Just outside Belsano, the engineer slowed down to pick up a passenger. He was shot down by two bandits aboard the train, who grabbed the safe and escaped with four other accomplices in a waiting car. After a regional manhunt, Michelo Bassi and Anthony Pezzi were picked up in Terre Haute, Indiana. They were armed, carrying $3,000 apiece, and had alibis that wouldn't hold water. The pair were convicted of murder and fried in the chair on February 23, 1925. The remaining money and safe were never found. Maybe the gang split it and dumped the safe, but the local legend has it that $25,000 is sitting hidden in the Belsano countryside, waiting for a lucky finder to claim. The Belsano Job

 BENNINGTON CURVE (Sugar Run, Blair County) On February 18, 1947, the Pennsylvania RR's Red Arrow train jumped the tracks around Bennington Curve, a few miles below the Horseshoe Curve. 24 people died in that wreck and another 131 were injured. It's said that if you park by the Gallitzen tunnel at night, flash your headlights three times and then shut off the engine, you'll hear voices talking and laughing, coming nearer to you, and then you'll see the shadows of the dead approach. The Curve and its' ghostly crowd is written up in Haunted Pennsylvania by Patty Wilson & Mark Nesbitt
 

BRACKEN DIP (Bracken, Indiana County) This is on the Ghost Town Trail, and Bracken is one of its' ghost towns. A beautiful “Lady in White” is said to wander this part of the trail, seeking out the lover who killed her there.  There's also been reports of her spirit being seen on Beulah Road, near Nanty Glo, at the end of the Ghost Trail.  She ain't giving up 'til she finds that cad!  Another version has her suddenly appearing in cars occupied by couples.  She smiles sweetly at the woman and scares the pants of the guy.  Her presence is supposed to be a warning to the girl to dump the fellow she's with before the relationship turns abusive.  She's sorta a spook social worker.  Fabulous Travel

 BRYAN HILL HOUSE (Bryan Hill, Indiana County) The president of the Historical Society of Indiana County bought this pre-Civil War house after being told it was haunted. The home had an extensive history with the Bryan family after whom the township was named. Every morning at 9 AM, the front door sounds like it is being opened and shut (we guess the spirits were punctual in life, too.) The owner has had visions of a couple standing in the parlor, and also of a little girl with a bow in her hair dressed in her Sunday best. (The Penn “Tales Of Paranormal Haunt Indiana,” October 31, 2003)
 

SILAS CLARK HOUSE (Indiana, Indiana County) The site of the Clark House was originally owned by George Clymer, who signed the Declaration of Independence, and a building was put up in 1816 to serve as a school.  It burned down, and Clark, who was a state Supreme Court Justice, bought the property and built his home there.  The house is now maintained by the Indiana County Historical Society.  It has been the site of some reported poltergeist activity (the most commonly described phenomena is a feeling of being watched or followed) and the spook of a young girl with blonde ringlets sitting in a rocking chair has been seen. (Indiana Gazette  "Many Local Legends Based On Fact" October 31, 2007)

 COLLEEN IN WHITE (Horseshoe Curve, Blair County) On the Altoona side of the tunnel, it's said that sometimes at midnight you can spy a beautiful young Irish girl's ghost, dressed in white and standing sadly by a stone wall.  She's supposedly awaiting her beau, who lost his life in a barroom brawl after a hard day's work building the Curve.  She can be seen among the spruce trees by the wall.  PA Mountains of Attractions
 

CRESSON LAKE PLAYHOUSE (Ebensburg, Cambria County) The Cresson Lake Playhouse is in a pre-Civil War barn that was converted to a theater in 1975.  It's claim to fame is its moving trunk. The trunk is in the attic, and you can hear it being dragged to and fro from the downstairs area when no one is upstairs.  People have seen its trail in the dust, but found no accompanying footprints. Obiwan

 CRUM CEMETERY (New Paris, Bedford County) There's alleged to be a carriage that rides at night through Crum Cemetery, which dates back to the early 1800s. Nearby is a “dead zone”, the area rumored to be haunted by a man that hung himself after killing his wife and children. It's supposed to be about two miles away along a blocked off back road that leads to their long deserted shack. The Shadowlands
 

ELIZA FURNACE (Indiana County) Situated on the famous Ghost Town Trail, the Eliza Furnace produced iron from 1846-49 for owners David Ritter and George Rodgers. It's on the National Register of Historic Sites. Ritter's ghost still haunts the oven. He hung himself in the furnace because (a) his wife ran off with Rodgers, (b) he was distraught over financial ruin, or maybe (c) his son fell into the furnace and died. Probably (d), all of the above, combined to push him over the edge. Sightings of his ghost around the oven have been reported many times. Some say that you can even see him hanging in the furnace if your timing's right.  This tale and many others are spun in Ghost Stories From the Ghost Trail by C.L. Shore. Eliza Furnace - Fabulous Travel

 EUREKA MINE #40 (Paint Twp., Somerset County) Eureka Mine #40 (The old company town of Scalp Level is still open seasonally) near Windber is allegedly haunted. You can hear dogs barking when none are around and get a feeling of being followed when you go through the deserted buildings. “The Ghost of the Old Miner” haunts the nearby railroad tracks at night. He could be one of many souls who lost their lives in mining accidents at Eureka #40 over the years. Eureka Mine #41 operated nearby, too. The Shadowlands
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