Horseshoe Curve, Altoona PA - Ghost of Colleen

Long ago when the Horseshoe Curve was being constructed on the Pennsylvania Railway, a young man lost his life in a brawl after a day of working on the railroad.  His fiance, Colleen, a young Irish girl was devastated by his death.

The road tunnel at Horseshoe Curve

It is said that if you approach the tunnel at midnight on the Altoona side, you can see the girl dressed in white waiting for her lover standing in some spruce trees next to the stone wall near the tunnel that passes under Horseshoe Curve.  This tunnel is the feature of another haunting which is featured in this blog site.

Baker Mansion in Altoona, PA - The Haunted Wedding Dress

The Baker Mansion in Altoona was built in 1849 by Elias Baker who made his fortune in the iron industry. Elias, being from high society, was distraught when he found out that his daughter Anna was in love with a local steel worker.  He forbid her to marry him due to his "lower" class status.  Anna remained true to her love and never married another and died in 1914.

Baker Mansion in Altoona, Pennsylvania

The mansion was later turned into a museum and is now the home of the Blair County Historical Society.  A wedding dress believed to belong to Elizabeth Dysart, a member of the Bell family who later occupied that house, was put in a glass case of what was formerly Anna Baker's room.  Some have said that especially on nights of a full moon, they have seen the dress move on it's own as if occupied by a phantom bride.  Perhaps that of Anna Baker eternally waiting for her love to marry her?  Recently it has been reported that for unknown reasons, the dress is no longer on display.  Could Anna's long lost love returned for her?

Haunted wedding dress of Baker Mansion

An apparition of a woman dressed in black has been seen roaming the upstairs of the house.  It is believed that this was the matriarch of the Baker household.

Anna and her mother are not the only ghosts who haunt Baker Mansion.  Once on a tour, a young boy refused to enter the basement claiming he saw a soldier standing at the bottom of the stairs.  Screams have also been heard coming from the basement area.  While not a soldier, Anna Baker's brother David, once served on a steamboat.  He was killed in an accident while on board.  When his body arrived home, the ground was too frozen to bury him.  So they stored his body in the basement of the home in the ice room until the ground thawed and they could properly bury him.

Riverview Cemetery - Huntingdon, PA

I grew up in a small town in central Pennsylvania called Huntingdon. The town grew around fort constructed back in colonial times called Fort Standing Stone. It is nestled in between several valleys and eventually became a railway stop on the Pennsylvania Railroad route to Chicago via the Allegheny mountains. On top of one of the surrounding hills is located Riverview Cemetery. Located near a large mausoleum in the cemetery, there is a large statue of a soldier. There is a legend that if you go to the cemetery on a moonlit night, you can see the soldier move.

The statue of a soldier is said to come alive in the moonlight at Riverview Cemetery in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania

One night, my friends and I decided that we would go to the cemetery and see if we could witness this event. We did not see the soldier move, however, as we were diligently sitting by the mausoleum waiting, suddenly we could all swear we heard something inside the mausoleum begin to move around. Needless to say, we were gone!

Mausoleum in Riverview Cemetery in Huntingdon, PA

Broadtop, PA - The Old Man with the Lantern

I heard a story once about a ghost that dwells in Broad Top, PA which is near my hometown in Huntingdon County, central Pennsylvania.  






There was an man who was building his own house out of stone on top of a hill.  He lived near a quarry and hand carried the stones from the quarry to his home.  He worked day and night to complete his project.  Unfortunately, the man died before he could complete his home.  

Some say that occasionally at night, you can see the light of his lantern moving along the pathway from the quarry to where his home used to be.  It as if he is in an eternal quest to finish the home that he never had a chance to complete.

Horseshoe Curve Tunnel - Altoona

One of the most renown railroad landmarks in the United States, horseshoe curve, is near Altoona, PA.  The tunnel beyond the museum for that allows cars to pass through the curve is supposedly haunted.  If you go into the tunnel and shut off your engine, its is said that on occasion, you can hear voices and laughing.  My friends and I actually tried this once, but nothing out of the ordinary happened.  Perhaps we were there at the wrong time?

The supposed haunted tunnel at Horseshoe Curve near Altoona, Pennsylvania

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

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!