November 7, 2024

Jimmy Carter in the PA Wilds

On October 1st, 2024, Jimmy Carter turned one hundred years old. Carter, former president and humanitarian, is respected for plenty of reasons. Many people believe he was a good president, and his work since with Habitat For Humanity has been notable. He served in the Navy, and was governor of Georgia. And in the Pennsylvania Wilds, he is respected for having once stayed in the I-80 Frontier. In fact, he stayed in Clinton County for a short time, and has since said that Lock Haven is one of his favorite places in the world.

October 31, 2024

Ghosts of the PA Wilds: A Haunted Publication in the Dark Skies

If you’re looking for interesting haunted stories in the Dark Skies landscape of the Pennsylvania Wilds, you should look at the books of Robert Lyman. In the early 1970s, he wrote two books about legends mostly in Potter County: Forbidden Land and Amazing Indeed. Both of them contain multiple chapters with ghosts, UFOs, ancient curses, and other interesting legends. And, evidently, one of the books seems to have been haunted during publication.

October 24, 2024

Ghosts of the PA Wilds: The Governor and the Ghost in Pine Creek Valley

The Pennsylvania Wilds is home to its share of governors. Many of the governors of Pennsylvania were from the area, largely the I-80 Frontier landscape of the PA Wilds. But there was one from the Pine Creek Valley and the PA Grand Canyon landscape: William Alexis Stone. Stone grew up in Wellsboro, Tioga County. And he was a fan of ghost stories.

October 17, 2024

Ghosts of the PA Wilds: The Glade Township Ghost near the ANF

The news broke in the Warren Ledger on Friday, August 5, 1881. In Glade Township, Warren County, in what would later become the Allegheny National Forest and Surrounds landscape of the Pennsylvania Wilds, there was a ghost. It had been sighted for the past month on a local farm.

October 10, 2024

Ghosts of the PA Wilds: A Haunted House in Elk Country

The Pennsylvania Wilds is covered with ghost towns. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean a haunted place. “Ghost town” is the term for an abandoned place with ruins to explore. We have plenty of those here. But, up in Elk Country landscape of the PA Wilds, there’s a ghost town that may have an actual ghost.

October 3, 2024

Ghosts of the PA Wilds: The Headless Trackwalker of the I-80 Frontier

When it comes to interesting ghost stories, the I-80 Frontier lands of the Pennsylvania Wilds has one advantage that the other PA Wilds landscapes don’t have: Henry Wharton Shoemaker lived there. Shoemaker was a folklorist and writer who lived in Clinton County. He gathered local legends and wrote them down, preserving them for future generations. A lot of his stories involved local ghosts and hauntings, some of them pretty close to home. And some of them were definitely very creepy. One of his most popular stories is the Headless Trackwalker.

September 26, 2024

Coming Soon: 2024 Ghosts of the PA Wilds

“Ghosts of the PA Wilds” describes a series of ghost stories from the region written by historian Lou Bernard, who also revels in folklore and the paranormal. Each Thursday of October 2024, and leading right to Halloween, the PA Wilds Are Calling blog will feature a new ghost story to celebrate the spooktacular season upon us.

September 23, 2024

Silver in the Pennsylvania Wilds

Fifteen years ago, I was asked to do a research job that involved lost deposits of silver in Clinton County. I looked into it and discovered that it was plausible, though I didn’t personally find any silver (you’ll notice I still have to work for a living). Recent discoveries have reopened that research job for me, and I’ve spent part of the summer again looking into the possibility of undiscovered silver within the Pennsylvania Wilds.

August 28, 2024

A haunted tour of Lock Haven in the I-80 Frontier

I’ve been working with my current PA Wilds editor, Britt Madera, for a few years now. She’s been a great editor and I enjoy working with her, so when she asked for a haunted tour of Lock Haven, I immediately agreed. She didn’t just ask me randomly - I give tours of Lock Haven all the time. It’s one of the things I’m good at.

February 12, 2024

The Death Shout: A legend from the Pennsylvania Wilds

A legend in the PA Wilds says that when a Native American warrior was killed in battle, he would cry out a “Death Shout” which was heard in the afterlife and warned his predeceased friends that he was coming. Writer Lou Bernard shares the story of the Death Shout as told by Henry Wharton Shoemaker, a Clinton County writer and folklorist. Shoemaker wrote, “There were many strange stories clustered around the ‘Death Shout,’ some of them beautiful, others painfully sad.”