Haunted Johnstown

[Boo]

Hi Folks,

This thread is for Ghost Stories and Haunted Places in Johnstown and surrounding areas. Feel free to add a place you know is haunted or heard was haunted and to add a personal experience if you have one.

[Boo]

The Old Cambria County Jail- Ebensburg

Two paranormal investigative teams reported strange happenings while they were investigating the jail. One team reported voices caught on tape through EVP -Electronic Voice Phenomenon. Another team (Haunting the Hunted) caught 2 orbs on video. The other team reported EVP voices and other sounds around the jail.

I believe the CC jail has much potential of having spirits hanging around. There were hangings there. And a number of deaths inside the jail. I know for sure one death because it was my uncle. He hung himself in his cell. This was close to 30 years ago!

[Boo]

Laurel Wood Care Center-Westmont

Workers of the 11-7 shift report strange happenings. Reports consists of call bell lights going off by their self at the beds of the allready deceased. Patients charts flying off the shelf at the nurses station for no apparent reason. Many staff reported a black shadow walking across a glass door that used to be an old therapy room. When the staff would go into the room and turn on the lights no one was in the room! Patients calling the staff into their room saying someone pulled their curtains around. The staff would fix the curtain only for it to get pulled back around a short time later. Reports from patients stating someone was tapping or knocking on their room window.......from the outside of the building, and when investigated there was no one out there!


This is another place, I feel that could have spirits roaming around, and why they would want to roam or stick around at a resting home, I have no clue!

[WDVE]

Not a Johnstown ghost story, but a very interesting story none the less.
Two Gettysburg College administrators were working late one night in the early 1980s in their fourth floor offices at Pennsylvania Hall. The building is one of the oldest on the campus. During the Battle of Gettysburg, it had been used as hospital. After completing their work, the men left their offices, entered the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor. Instead of stopping on the main floor, though, the elevator continued down to the basement.

When the elevator finally stopped and the doors opened, the men looked out on a scene worthy of Dante's Inferno. What they knew as a storage area was filled with doctors and orderlies feverishly working on wounded men. In one corner lay a pile of amputated arms and legs. For a moment, the two administrators could do nothing but stare in confusion. Then they panicked and began pounding the elevator buttons. As the doors slowly closed one of the orderlies turned toward the men, his face an image of pain pleading for help.

Immediately upon reaching the main floor, the administrators hurried to the campus security office about 100 yards away. Thinking fraternity prank, the guard on duty, now chief of security at the college, ran to the building to investigate. But when he reached the basement there was nothing.

[Boo]

Not a Johnstown ghost story, but a very interesting story none the less.
Two Gettysburg College administrators were working late one night in the early 1980s in their fourth floor offices at Pennsylvania Hall. The building is one of the oldest on the campus. During the Battle of Gettysburg, it had been used as hospital. After completing their work, the men left their offices, entered the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor. Instead of stopping on the main floor, though, the elevator continued down to the basement.

When the elevator finally stopped and the doors opened, the men looked out on a scene worthy of Dante's Inferno. What they knew as a storage area was filled with doctors and orderlies feverishly working on wounded men. In one corner lay a pile of amputated arms and legs. For a moment, the two administrators could do nothing but stare in confusion. Then they panicked and began pounding the elevator buttons. As the doors slowly closed one of the orderlies turned toward the men, his face an image of pain pleading for help.

Immediately upon reaching the main floor, the administrators hurried to the campus security office about 100 yards away. Thinking fraternity prank, the guard on duty, now chief of security at the college, ran to the building to investigate. But when he reached the basement there was nothing.

Thanks for the story. Gettysburg is one of the most haunted towns in the world! I've heard many haunting stories about Gettysburg, but not this one! I can't even imagine what I would do if that were I seeing what they did, OMG! I visited Gettysburg battle field one time and I plan to go back. When I was there I was snapping some pictures and in one of my pictures taken of the field there is a colored mist on the bottom of the picture which would be close to the ground. I can see a mans face in the mist and so can everyone else that looks at the picture! There was absolutely nothing that could of caused the mist or ray of color. Some said it could of been that the sun had reflected off of something from the ground when I snapped the picture, but that is impossible, there was nothing around me but field and part of a old fence! There were no other people around me either. I also have two other pictures taken there that have orbs on. One of the pictures, another visitor took of our group for us and the other picture was me taking a picture of the General's quarters, and both pictures had other pictures in between the 2. So if it would of been a speck of dust as some claim it could be and I didn't clean the lens in betwen the pictures then the orb would of been on all the pictures not just 2 of them! So without doubt, I can claim I caught something while there and is why I want to go back again some day. Just about everyone I know that visits Gettysburg comes back with some type of experience while there. I do believe, because of all the tragedy that took place there, that there are a lot of spirits and or lost souls hanging around.

[pbal]

Just a quik off-topic FYI. Last time I went to G-burg was in the middle of February. Pretty much had the whole park to myself, and none of that oppressive lowland heat & humidity. Just something to think about if you plan on visiting. I love tourist traps in the off-season.

[Boo]

Just a quik off-topic FYI. Last time I went to G-burg was in the middle of February. Pretty much had the whole park to myself, and none of that oppressive lowland heat & humidity. Just something to think about if you plan on visiting. I love tourist traps in the off-season.

Good advice Pbal. The time I was there wasn't planned either. It was one of those times you get a call from your friends at 6AM saying hey, want to go for a ride today on the bikes? OK sure, where we going? Gettysburg! OK when are we leaving? Half an hour we are pulling out! LOL. So you shower and grab what you can that will fit in the saddle bags and off you go! I made sure I had my camera though! Next time I go, it will be planned and maybe even for an over night stay as well, because there are other places I want to visit while there. I also like the idea of cooler weather because it sucks being there when it's too hot and having a sore a** along with it is not a good thing!

[WDVE]

Great point pbal...
Something else to consider. Traveling to Gettysburg in late fall, winter or early spring is the best time to go. For obvious reasons, less tourist, but for the true student historian you can better grasp the field. That is, tactics, flanking maneuvers, vantage points and so forth. Much easier to grasp when your not having to deal with views blocked by foliage. A lot of the current trees, bushes etc were not their in 1863. The park service is well under way with huges projects to get the field back to the way it was during the battle.

Years ago the attitude of the citizens and park service was not to disturb anything. It finally has been realized for authenticity purposes, (regarding terrain and foliage) that was a mistake. Additionally, you will see more "worm fences" being erected, by using GPS these fences are placed to have historical authenticity.

[Boo]

Just a quik off-topic FYI. Last time I went to G-burg was in the middle of February. Pretty much had the whole park to myself, and none of that oppressive lowland heat & humidity. Just something to think about if you plan on visiting. I love tourist traps in the off-season.

Did you happen to take pictures while visiting G-burg?

[WDVE]

Boo, There are lots and lots of "ghost" stories circulating in and around Gettysburg.  Iverson's Pits nearOak Ridge is said to glow at night. This area has many soldiers remains most likely still their beneath the ground.


However, the highest concentration of ghostly sightings and strange experiences seems to be in the area of Devil’s Den, and also in the areas around it. It is in the nearby Triangular Field where electronic equipment and cameras seem to malfunction alot. It is in the aptly named Valley of Death where the apparitions of soldiers are frequently reported.
And it is in the Devil’s Den itself where not only are the ghosts of the slain soldiers seen, but heard also. (I never have)
If there is a place on the Gettysburg Battlefield which is more haunted than any other... there is little doubt that such a place would be the Devil’s Den. There are plenty of ghost tours available during the summer, some during the day, some at night.
Check em out...

[Boo]

Boo, There are lots and lots of "ghost" stories circulating in and around Gettysburg.  Iverson's Pits nearOak Ridge is said to glow at night. This area has many soldiers remains most likely still their beneath the ground.


However, the highest concentration of ghostly sightings and strange experiences seems to be in the area of Devil’s Den, and also in the areas around it. It is in the nearby Triangular Field where electronic equipment and cameras seem to malfunction alot. It is in the aptly named Valley of Death where the apparitions of soldiers are frequently reported.
And it is in the Devil’s Den itself where not only are the ghosts of the slain soldiers seen, but heard also. (I never have)
If there is a place on the Gettysburg Battlefield which is more haunted than any other... there is little doubt that such a place would be the Devil’s Den. There are plenty of ghost tours available during the summer, some during the day, some at night.
Check em out...

Thanks WDVE, yes that is why I want to go back again, and stay overnight so that I can go on the ghost tour, however my daughter is too small now and I don't want to take her on a ghost tour, so will have to wait until she gets bigger and will stay with grandma while my husband and I take the trip. My husband isn't really into ghost tours either but he will go just because I want too. LOL!

[Boo]

http://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_236233028.html

‘Haunted’ hospital off limits, police say

TORRANCE – State police are warning trespassers to stay away from a former state mental hospital where some people go looking for ghosts.

The former Torrance State Hospital building in Derry Township, Westmoreland County, closed in the late 1960s.

Police announced the no trespassing edict Monday, saying the building’s new owner doesn’t want anybody on the property.

An 18-year-old Johnstown woman was cited for criminal trespass Aug. 15, police said.

Her name was not immediately available.

Trespassing at the building continues to be a problem “due to people believing it is haunted,” police said in a news release.

Several Web sites and YouTube videos chronicle people’s efforts to get inside the hospital to look for spirits.


(By the way: The woman that was cited wasn't me, I'm 42, LOL) That's a bummer though for ghost chasers!

[Wiener]

Talk nice with the new owner and see if they would let TAPS come in and do it. 

[Citizen X]

When I lived in Gettysburg about 12 years ago  I had a neighbor who was a Battlefield Tour Guide and he would just go on these rants about how all of the local ghost stories were nothing but BS generated to attract a larger veriety of tourists to the area. Now I know that lots of folks enjoy going on those Gettyburg ghost tours but for many battlefield purists/ civil war buffs it is all perceived as nothing more than a mockery and a desecration of sacred ground.

[Boo]

When I lived in Gettysburg about 12 years ago  I had a neighbor who was a Battlefield Tour Guide and he would just go on these rants about how all of the local ghost stories were nothing but BS generated to attract a larger veriety of tourists to the area. Now I know that lots of folks enjoy going on those Gettyburg ghost tours but for many battlefield purists/ civil war buffs it is all perceived as nothing more than a mockery and a desecration of sacred ground.

Just my opinion, I don't think people go there just because of ghost stories. I went for the history aspects and of course to view and learn more. I just happened to capture something while I was there, and I think that is what happens for many folks who visit there. They get home and develop pictures only to find something other than the landscape on their photo's. At a place such as Gettysburg, where there was so many deaths and tragedy, it is again my opinion that "Stories" do not have to be fabricated, the spirits or energy of the past is already there, and the people in this time just happen to get a glimpse of it.