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.”

January 8, 2024

A short First Day Hike in Lock Haven

When we were first married, my wife and I used to traditionally take First Day hikes on January first, every year. Then we had a kid. We adopted my son, Paul Matthew, in 2014. I love being a parent, but I have to say that there is nothing like a baby to keep you in the house. They’re like an ankle monitor that you have to feed. However, Paul is nine now. And I enjoy doing things with him, so this year I brought up the idea of getting back into the First Day Hikes.

December 5, 2023

Santa Claus in Tioga County

There have been a lot of important people from the PA Wilds. Several governors grew up in this part of the state, for instance. And plenty of important people have visited the area. And in one notable year, this included Santa Claus. And he visited a boy who would grow up to become the governor.

November 16, 2023

The unique I-80 Frontier

Most people don’t notice this, but the I-80 Frontier is the only PA Wilds landscape named after a man-made landmark. All of the others are named after natural things: forest land, animals, or in one case, just darkness. Sure, they try to fool you with the “frontier” part, but it’s named for Interstate 80, which travels all the way across the PA Wilds. To reach a lot of places in the PA Wilds, you pretty much have to start by getting on 80.