Haunted Gettysburg

[Parault]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

I like that Preacher

[Bummer]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

While I do indeed have a truly open mind regarding these things I would have to add my vote to the falseness of the 'Ghost Doins' in Gettysburg. Many years ago I was a National Park Ranger there (the same time as Mr. Nesbit) and naturally found myself on the field at night--many nights. I had asked then if there was ever any hunted parts of the field etc. The only--repeat, only-- place the NPS rangers ever talked about a few decades ago was Iverson's Pits. That it was spooky and it seemed like something was 'wrong' with that place, but nothing ever really definite--no concrete tales. Other than that, it was often remarked (even commented at in some of the interpretive tours) that it was so surprising that there was such a LACK of real ghost stories about the place, considering....
I was there the year the Farnsworth house opened and got to know the then owner fairly well. He actually talked about 'inventing' (I think his word at the time was 'discovering') a ghost or two to add interest to the place. He spoke of the upstairs 'sharpshooter's room'. I don't know what ghosts did ultimately get to haunt the place, but that was to be the first one.
Now I live in North Carolina and have learned of the serious (read mainstream accepted science) work that is done by the paranormal dept. of Duke University, and would really have to say that if--IF--there was really anything at all to even half the so-called ghost stories at Gettysburg (most all of which are one-time anecdotal tales--which don't qualify as real ghost stories anyway) you can rest assured that the Duke University scientists would be all over it like a cheap suit.
I hate to rain on anyone's parade here, but I do think the ghost thing has truly gotten a bit out of hand in Gettysburg since certain people have discovered that there is money to be made......

[Bill Fean]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

I totally agree with how out of hand "Ghost Tours" are. I believe some folks have had paranormal activity out there but with all the B.S. going on it just makes those people with real experiences keep to themselves.

To me if there are "ghosts" out there, then trying to make a profit of some dead soldier is deplorable at best. To each his own I guess.


Bill Fean

P.S. I love that preacher also!!!! Them tours in the streets are just crazy.

[GrumpyDave]

Guess What!

There's a paranormal conference being held at the College! I think it's this weekend! Yipee! Glad I'll be in Kernstown. Good luck to you locals!

May the orb be with you!
Gettysburg ghost stories have power to pull in believers
Monday, July 16, 2007
By T.W. BURGER
Of Our Cumberland County Bureau
GETTYSBURG - Ghost researcher and author Jeff Belanger confessed that he has never seen a ghost.

"I still believe, though," he said. "And that is based on the number of people I've interviewed who believe. I look in their eyes, and they say they saw something, and I believe them."

Belanger is one of three organizers of the Ghost World Supernatural Symposium Conference that will be held Friday through Sunday in Gettysburg.

The site of one of the biggest battles in American history, which left thousands dead and dying, Gettysburg might be viewed as a ghostly convention in and of itself.

"Every street corner has its ghost tours, and the legends around the battlefield are too numerous to mention," Belanger said. "You don't have to be psychic to feel it. All you need is an understanding of what took place, right at your feet. It really is a powerful place."

Loring Shultz, who owns the Farnsworth House Inn on Baltimore Street, said the modern-day fascination with ghosts in Gettysburg got started in the basement of his business.

The brick walls of the old inn are peppered with damage from rounds fired as Union and Confederate troops fought up and down the street in front. Soldiers died in the house. Jenny Wade, the only civilian casualty of the battle, was shot through the heart in a house across the street.

Farnsworth House employee Patty O'Day began telling ghost stories to goose-pimpled tourists in the inn's spooky basement. "That was in 1986, and everybody laughed at her," Shultz said. "Now there are 10 or 12 groups in town giving ghost tours. I was born and raised here, and I've never seen anything like it. It's phenomenal."

Shultz has never seen a ghost, but he knows people who believe they have.

"Everybody's got their thing, you know," he said.

The point of the symposium is to bring together paranormal investigators and parapsychologists from around the world, Belanger said, and to develop a central repository of information that researchers worldwide can access.

Vince Wilson of the New Jersey Ghost Hunters Society said, "The general public's interest [in the paranormal] is booming like it never has before. ... Now people from all walks of life can contribute to the newest discoveries and techniques" into the research of phenomena.

Despite cases in which researchers have been fooled by tricksters, Belanger and his partners said that "evidence overwhelmingly suggests that there is indeed reason to believe in psychic powers," but information from researchers has never been cataloged and shared.

"Through suggestions and proposals made by attendees of the Ghost World Symposium, and through input from the parapsychology community, we hope to change the face of ghost research forever," Wilson said.

T.W. BURGER: 249-2006 or tburger@patriot-news.com

GHOST STORIES


Among the workshops planned for the Ghost World Supernatural Symposium Conference: "Raising Money for Your Group and Paranormal Public Relations," "Introduction to Ghost Hunting," "Psychic Self Defense" and "Introduction to Demonology."
Registration is closed for the conference, which will be held Friday through Sunday at the Wyndham Gettysburg hotel at Routes 30 and 15.
Information: www.ghostworldconference.com.


Park watch is gonna' go nuts.

[Dignann]

Re: Haunted Gettysburg

It looks like the borough is attempting to regulate the ghosts, or at least the guides.


Ghost tour limits still undecided

By MATT CASEY

Hanover Evening Sun [Hanover, Penn.]
July 17, 2007

Gettysburg Borough Councilwoman Holly Giles said Monday that a 15-person cap had been "set in stone" in a proposed ordinance regulating walking tours in the borough.

But that cap may be something other than granite.

The public-safety committee started its special meeting with ghost-tour companies Monday with a third draft of the ordinance that included the contentious 15-person cap. But by the end of the meeting, Council President Ted Streeter said a 25-person cap that exempted the companies from counting young children that don't pay for tickets seemed fair.

Ray Davis, a manager for Ghosts of Gettysburg, said a 15-person cap would place financial and logistical hardships on walking-tour companies.

There are nights, he said, the tours would have 15 or fewer people, but that they would have turn customers away on busier nights, and companies might have to turn away large tour groups.

Davis said Ghosts of Gettysburg accommodated a 250-person school group this year, with 25 people per group.

He added that his company - the largest ghost tour company in the borough - might not have been able to take all the buses with the cap in place, and if schools don't have ghost tours to do at night, they would have less motivation to stay at a hotel in the borough.

Mark Nesbitt, owner of Ghosts of Gettysburg, asked for a cap of 25 to 30 people.

Streeter said he liked the lower end of that range.

The borough has been considering changes to the voluntary guidelines for walking-tour operators since last year, when Baltimore Street residents complained about noise, littering and property damage because of the growing number of ghost tours in the borough.

The most recent draft will also make walking-tour guides more identifiable for anyone calling the borough office with a complaint.

The draft requires guides to wear credit card-sized badges with their names, the company's name and the company's walking-tour license number.

"Each of those three different things can resort back to who's doing it," said Borough Zoning Officer Bea Savage.

Savage said the badges would clear up complaints she receives, which sometimes identify the wrong company because of "all these different variations of 'ghost'" in company names.

The new draft also specifies that licenses will last from January to December, giving tour companies time to renew their licenses before the tour season starts again.

The meeting ended after Giles thanked the tour companies present for working with the committee.

The committee will discuss the fourth draft of the ordinance during the committee's next regular meeting in August, Giles said.

http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_6394970?source=most_emailed

Eric