From the small town in Pennsylvania where I grew up, we were known for our tall tales. As we sat around the campfire we would tell stories of ghosts, beings, monsters and so much more. Some backed with solid evidence, and others we may never know. I love being able to share my stories that have been passed along. Most of these stories take place down in the tiniest of towns where my aunt grew up in central PA, so small that people in the same school district as you might not even know where it’s at. Our first story that emerged from deep down in the woods is the story of the woman in white.
Down at the far end of the road, right before the dead-end sat a barn along the treelines. Now abandoned and only home to bats and spiders, but it wasn’t always like that. A woman used to tend to this barn and was always seen there. One day though, a fire started inside, she had burned up and died. All that was left inside was the spirit that would later haunt the families up the road. They say you can see her walking around the barn and through the woods along the old paths.
The next collections of stories and fall for fiction, each of these are very true and sad stories all from the same back road. I don’t know if it is just a coincidence or if there truly is a curse to the land. I would also like to include a trigger warning here, these events include hanging so please skip over the next few if you feel the need to.
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The first one I had heard of was the tragic and true death of a girl named Kimberly Dotts in 1998. Dotts and a few of her friends had gone out to a place along the river named Gallows Harbor. They were out partying and having fun in the woods when two of her friends started making fun and teasing Dotts with a noose. They had put it around her neck and taken it off a few times before the two friends started dragging her back deeper into the woods. They hanged her from a tree until she had lost consciousness and the two dropped her to the ground and began covering her body with branches and leaves. One of the two then crushed her head in with a large rock. The two were charged with murder after hitchhikers found Dotts’ body.
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The next are two little bits of stories I am not too familiar with that I had only heard this much of. When talking with family about Dotts’ death I soon learned that there was another man that lived on the road leading to Gallows Harbor and he had hanged himself in his home alone. Then just this past Halloween, there were human remains found down in the woods and were investigated as a possible homicide.
This is also chilling when you hear about the history of the town. Back in the 1800s, this site was used to hang runaway slaves and thieves. Even in the 30s, they were still hanging people down there. When you hear history like this, it makes you think if there was a reason that multiple people in that area had the same fate as those centuries ago.
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Lastly is a story my aunt told me from when she was a kid. This is my favorite to tell because it is something I think about each time I go down in the woods behind my aunt’s house.
It was probably about 30 years ago now. My aunt and one of my cousins were riding a four-wheeler together. They rode across a skinny path that was on the edge of the hillside, one wrong move and you’d be tumbling over the cliffside. As they got to a clearing there was a big mud puddle blocking the path. They stopped, there was something at the puddle.
The thing was black. They assumed it was a black bear or something similar, so they waited for it to see them and run away. But then it stood up, it stood on 2 feet as a human would. An all-black figure that didn’t have any facial features, just darkness standing in the road. It was human-like, but also supernatural at the same time. It looked their way then took off running in the opposite direction back in the woods. After they came home they learned that down in that area there was a house that had burned to the ground, what if that figure was one of those spirits? They called him “The Man in Black.”