Haunted Gettysburg

[Charles Heath]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

Speaking of cold spots on the battlefield....

One can find a variety of hand-dipped cones containing deliciously cold orbs of what I strongly suspect is a chilled dairy product. These orbs are quite refreshing and come in a variety of flavors. Having accomplished quite a bit of research in this area, I'll say there is quite a bit of research left to be done, especially in the realm of double and triple dipped orbs. Said orbs are visible to the naked eye, yet disappear in rapid fashion. Amazing.

Just an impartial, unbiased, and quite scientific observation, you see.

The two ice cream shops across from O'Rorke's are not bad, and the one past Marinos is pretty good, too. Other places exist, but you'll have to take the oath of silence to learn their location, but the secret code word "Hershey's" in the window is a big hint.

[Joe Walker]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

I spent a few nights in the Snodgrass cabin years ago, no haints showed up. However, in July of 1988 while camping on Cemetery Ridge near the Penn monument, I did see a pickett that was there, then not there- honest.

Joe Walker

[paulcalloway]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

I spent a few nights in the Snodgrass cabin years ago, no haints showed up. However, in July of 1988 while camping on Cemetery Ridge near the Penn monument, I did see a pickett that was there, then not there- honest.

Joe Walker

I saw "The Prestige" and know all about those trap doors. ;)

[BrianHicks]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

Brian,
She needs to check out Snodgrass Cabin!!

Snodgrass Cabin...Snodgrass Cabin?!?!?!

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't Snodgrass Cabin in Chicamauga?

My wife's taken notes from the suggestions posted so far, thanks again folks..

rbruno, she does have a reservation with the Farnsworth House, though the Cashtown Inn would be a great place to stay as well.

[Rob Weaver]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

I was fortunate enough to live in Gettysburg for 4 1/2 years. As a poor, geeky kid without a car or a girlfriend, I had the opportunity to spend LOTS of time on the battlefield, much of it...uh..."after hours".

Alas, I never SAW anything scarier on the field than some locals coming home from a night at the tavern. Still, I can vouch for a few places that raise the hackles on the neck:
1) Iverson's Pits (on the eastern end of McPherson's Ridge, near where it merges into Oak Ridge). A group of us encountered a cold spot of rare distinction on late Spring day.
2) The Triangular Field (Wiekert's Field on the reverse face of Devil's Den). Many people have experienced electromagnetic disturbances there, and I was one of them (my incident was written up in Volume 4 of "Ghosts of Gettysburg").

None of the other spots frequently mentioned got a rise out of me. I have slept in one of the allegedly haunted rooms in the Farnsworth House and even took a late night nap on the Pennsylvania Monument (it was my 21st birthday, and I needed to "rest" before driving home from the pub).

One other place I will mention. It never affected me, but I have taken two different people around the field who had the same experience at almost the exact same spot. On the front face of Devil's Den (facing Little Round Top), just north of the path that leads through the rocks. Both of the people I was guiding were overcome with a feeling of nausea, experiencing dizziness and an overpowering smell of blood.

Me, I didn't feel a thing. I almost feel left out! Still, any chance to stroll around Gettysburg is a good excuse.

You beat me to the punch - I was going to mention at least two of those incidents myself. You'd think if ever there was someone primed to see something on the battlefield, it would have been us. Especially with me being stupid enough to go over and kick every pile of leaves, or hummock of dirt that looked suspicious. I've often wondered how many of the sightings from 1980-1984 were really us! (Those were the good old days when security didn't need to be so tight.)

[27thNCdrummer]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

I would recommend she checks out the woods to the right of the Virginia monument, I have had some weird stuff happen there. Also, check out the Wheat Field, 3 other guys and myself have had weird stuff happen there. And one of the guys that was with me swears something touched him and it was in a cold spot.

[Suppelsa]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

I do find this interesting.

http://members.aol.com/Rayd8em/Sounds.html#Getty

[Drygoods]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

Ahem, pardon me for being a bit thick here, but how does one particularly go looking for ghosts? I mean, isn't the principle of being a ghost mean being unseen? And why would you want to see them anyway? I mean not to sound impertinent, but what do you say/do when you see one; "hello, pleased to meet you, I live in CA and if you ever get out that way, be sure to stop in, say hi and we'll do lunch?"

I once spent a few nights in an 1850s military hospital, it was the worst time of my life and will never do that again. I had no idea it housed ghostly boo spooks and orbs, otherwise I'd not have stayed there, but it was dry and out of the weather. As for the TV shows you mentioned, they are new to me, but so is most of what is on TV anyway. As I said, I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but what is ghost hunting all about? Folks in this hobby really go looking for ghosts?

[redleggeddevil]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

I will say that I never found any ghosts when I went looking. They have, however, found me more than once.

[FranklinGuardsNYSM]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

The whole concept of "looking" for them, as has been suggested, is where things start to go wrong. Since the ghost tour businesses started taking off (anyone find it strange that the number of reported encounters skyrocketed as soon as it was noted it could be profitable?) the average touron family comes to town with a sense of entitlement to "see" things. Overheard one family conversation that included "well, I wanna see at least ONE ghost while we're here." They come to town with the expectation that ghost appearances are as faithful as, well, Old Faithful. And they seem to feel ripped off when they don't get what they expect. Never mind the fact that they pay handsomely to be herded down the narrow sidewalks in town, oftentimes forcing other pedestrians to walk in the street, by inaccurately clothed tour guides who spout out non-history to them.

When I lived there last year, my apartment backed up to the edge of the middle school's athletic field, a public tract of land bordering Wainwright Avenue and the Culp Farm. The nightly throngs of giggly, screaming, singing, and shrieking people wore thin after a short while. The one tour guide who delighted her audience by literally screaming "BOO!" was a particular nuisance. The dancing rubber skeleton on Steinwehr Avenue, alongside cans of "Ghost Repellent," marking the starting point of one tour made me ill each time I passed it.

In 25 years of visiting Gettysburg, including a year of living there, none of my borderline "weird" and as yet unexplained encounters happened while I was consciously out LOOKING for them. I was 12-years-old when the "Ghosts..." books were first gaining popularity, and thought it was the coolest thing in the world at the time, but when I saw it being lowered to a disrespectful level by the profit-hunters, I grew disdainful of it; when it affected my day-to-day quality of life, I grew downright hateful of it.

The sidewalk in front of Mr. Daley's erstwhile shop on Baltimore St., the Wade family home, was a popular stop for the tours. The groups would frequently block the sidewalk in front of the building, and the guides would physically block the doorway--and give ME the dirty look when I attempted to exit/enter.

The battlefield at night, formerly a place of serenity, has more strobe lights than your average dance club now, and more screaming teenagers than a Beatles concert. You can't walk down a darkened park road without eliciting screams of horror from people walking the other way, because there's no chance that you're simply what's known as a person going for a walk -- you're automatically an apparition.

While not a skeptic per se, my outlook has changed. I think that any connection with the supernatural is a very personal thing, and can't be "baited" into happening. The more prolific the Gettysburg ghost industry became, the less I bought into it, and resultantly the more stories there were of things going bump in the night, the LESS creeped-out I became by walking the fields at night.

That said, the strangest encounter I had occurred less than a week after I moved in to my apartment. I awoke at 4:45 a.m. on a Tuesday in September to what sounded like a massive fireworks display. Being from New York, I likened it to the level of a Macy's July 4th display in the East River. What was strange about this was that the bursts were close by as well as far away, and of equal mass. My girlfriend heard it too, and it went on for several minutes before stopping. I fully expected the police and fire frequencies to come alive with reports of the random, pre-dawn fireworks display, but the radio was silent. I've seen several fireworks displays in the region, and know how big they are -- none has ever been so sustained and massive as what we heard that night, and none of that magnitude and probably expense would be wasted at 4:00 a.m. on a weeknight. Many of our friends who attended the college have heard similar after-midnight, mid-week, random barrages.

Again, it's one of those things that will come to you if it's going to happen, not if you go looking for it. And certainly not if you look for it in the way the local business-owners want you to.

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

If the Gettysburg ghost guides are anything like the local sort, the "history" involved deserves its quotation marks. Locally, this gruesome murder didn't happen at all or took place far removed from the site the ghost hunters tout; that house wasn't there during X event; Famous Person never lived in or near that house, let alone died there--and it's all stuff that could have been checked with a trip to the newspaper archives and a death record check. The hunts themselves apparently involve a lot of shouting and demanding apparitions. Needless to say, those of us who do believe and have encountered odd things wouldn't think of doing any of that, especially in a sacred place.

One afternoon I was in a local store when a lady bumped her cart into me and reached acros my face to get at the tea on the shelf. When I said "Excuse me!" she very nearly grabbed the box out of my hand, then moved her cart again so I had to step out of her way. She didn't appear to know I was there even when I spoke to her again, politely requesting that she move the cart off my foot. When she moved on (across my foot, no less) I noticed she was wearing an Ohio Valley Ghost Hunters shirt. Does that explain it?

On the other hand, I would like to hear what happene to those of you who have seen or otherwise experienced the 1863 version of Gettysburg.

On my only visit, I went up to the Peace Memorial on a hot, foggy July evening and felt quite welcome. However, when I begged husband and son to please at least drive through the park the next morning, I couldn't make myself get out of the car at the Peach Orchard marker in broad daylight--and the Wheatfield was out of the question. The feeling wasn't fear; I literally felt as though something were preventing me from stepping out of the car. It wasn't a place for me to be, and as a matter of my own cultural tradition I accepted that.

[Rob Weaver]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

I once looked for ghosts by standing in front of Jenny Wade's grave and saying loudly - "If there are any ghosts present, please come and visit me at 131 Apple Annex. Thank you." Nobody took me up on the offer. (Although I'm still not a paranormal believer, I have become more tactful and respectful in my old age.)

[jfeagin]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

The only spooky thing that happened to me on the field was when I was doing park watch with another friend and seeing if the ghost tour would sneak on the field after closing. There were some ghost hunters and I called in the ranger and he sent them off. Looked to be mostly some college kids on a date. No big deal really. Anyway, we separated and I was alone on Cemetery Hill at about midnight...

So there I am, and I look back and see a horseman silhouetted against the night sky, for a split second I admit I had a Oh S__T feeling. Then I realized it was a monument:o

John Feagin

[Charles Heath]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

Rob,

You wouldn't also be a member of The Jenny Wade Club, Soupbone Weymer Chapter, No. 1, would you? Not that the actual initiation ritual takes place by her grave, you understand. Needs a handshake or a fob or a secret distress signal or something.

[Boy of '61]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

I would agree with the other post. One place you might try is north of town. Starting at the town square go north out of the town and follow Rt. 15 (Old Harrisburg Road). Take it across the northern first day battlefield to I believe Rock Creek just north of Howard Ave. The road will cross the creek. My experience there happened 3 or 4 years ago. My mom and myself were driving down to Gettysburg from Harrisburg, it was between 12-1 am. As we cross the creek you could smell a very strong sulfur smell just like if it was just after awhole had battalion fire. After leaving there the smell vanished. We went out there the next day and couldn't find anything that smelled like that there.

Have a good trip,

Pvt. Andy Miller
Co. A, 1st Minn