Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The White Lady of Buckhorn (with a personal twist)

I was born in central Pennsylvania.  When I was around 8 or 9 years old, I heard the tale of the "White Lady of Buckhorn" aka "White Lady of Whopsy". The story goes something like this:

Long ago near Buckhorn, PA a couple was riding to their wedding when their carriage overturned on Buckhorn mountain on a curve known as "Devil's Elbow".  The bride was killed in the crash.  Occasionally, travelers on that road, mostly young bachelors, have seen  a lady dressed in white walking or wondering across the road, sometimes in an eerie fog, in search of her fiance.


Artist rendition of the White Lady of Whopsy via www.pennsylvania-mountains-of-attractions.com
Artist rendition of the White Lady of Whopsy via www.pennsylvania-mountains-of-attractions.com

That story gave me chills then and it still does.  It has fascinated me since I was a kid.  Years later, when I was in my mid twenties, I was at a local drinking establishment when a few of my close friends came in the door.  They were looking all bewildered.  I met them at the door and asked them what was up.  They told me that they had gone up to the Altoona area to visit their college when they decided to go to a bar on top of Buckhorn mountain.  They said that as they drove, a street light at the bottom of the mountain went out as they drove under it.  As they climbed further up the mountain, the radio in their car mysteriously stopped working which is a bit strange for going up a mountain.  They continued on and then it suddenly started to get foggy.  They said it was no ordinary fog, it was very thick like driving into a white wall.  They could no longer see well enough to continue.  They stopped and turned the car around and started back down the mountain.  As they descended, the radio in the car came back on at exactly the same spot that it went off.  Then, as they crossed back under the street light at the bottom of the hill, it came back on again.  The said they were a little freaked out by the strange events.  However, they REALLY got freaked out when I asked them if they ever heard of "The White Lady of Buckhorn".  When they said no, I proceeded to tell them the story.  When I finished, they were literally white as ghosts!

2 comments:

  1. I was heading down wapze mount ion (at the end of the mountain) when i spotted a lady in white crossing the road. it was fogy i hit my brakes but i did not com to a stop because she disappeared as i continued down the road at first i that it was a hangover i had from the night before. until i told a friend and he said there was someone died a long time ago. i steal did not believe him at that time because i don't believe in ghost. until i seen a show on it just yesterday 15 years latter on the news. i don't believe all the people that said they seen her because they said she was hitchhiking down the road and they picket her up lol that just nuts

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  2. I would be VERY interested as to what year the accident actually took place ANYONE ?

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