Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

Now that October has come around again, it’s time to break out the ghost stories. Clinton County is definitely one seriously haunted place. And it’s a good thing, too, because I’ve been writing about ghosts routinely since 2008. Sometimes I worry about running out of material, but mostly I’m reasonably comfortable about it.

I’ve been asked why Clinton County is so haunted, why there are so many legends here. And, I mean, a lot of our early history does sound like an excerpt from a Stephen King novel. Back before the European settlement, the Native Americans referred to this valley as “Otzinachson,” which was said to mean “Demon’s den,” and they believed it to be infested with spirits. When Jerry Church founded Lock Haven in 1833, the city wound up being built over at least four Native American burial grounds.

One of the old history books describes many artifacts that were discovered throughout the years, stone figures that were dug up in Lock Haven, Wayne Township, and Woodward Township. Some of these seem to coordinate with a few of the old legends, and you could make the case that something in the stone underneath the county causes the hauntings. Many of the local haunted buildings are built from the same stone, which kind of sounds like something from the first season of “Lost.”

And there’s something else that explains it a bit, too. Let me tell you about the people who collected these legends.

All throughout Clinton County’s history, there have been people who took an interest in the paranormal. These people tended to be writers or storytellers of some sort, they span the history of the whole county, and there’s always been at least one of them. Their lives overlapped, but not much, and there is an unbroken chain of these people going back to the beginning.

Isaac Gaines is the first that I can identify. Born in 1837, two years before Clinton County was founded, he lived up in Keating Township. Known as “Loop Hill Ike,” he has a reputation for being the go-to guy who could help with ghosts. He was said to handle haunted places and local monsters, including our official county monster, the Giwoggle. He told stories about all of the ghosts, many of which were later written down by his relatives.

Next came Henry Wharton Shoemaker, of McElhattan. If you’re any kind of casual reader of my column, you’ve heard of Shoemaker before. Born in New York in 1880, he came to Clinton County and built a career as a writer and folklorist.

Shoemaker wrote down books full of old legends. Ghosts, mysterious creatures, curses, magical artifacts….All of this caught his interest. Some people have attacked his reputation, claiming that he made up the legends himself. I can tell you, however, that I’ve studied his work, and I feel that he gets a bad rap. I can make a persuasive case that he was more accurate than he’s given credit for.

Shoemaker died in 1958, but after him, my friend Patricia Tyson was researching our paranormal stuff. Pat was something of an amateur historian, genealogist, and paranormal investigator, and I adored her. Living in Beech Creek, she often wrote articles and gave speeches about many of our hauntings, including the more modern ones that Shoemaker wasn’t around for.

Pat was very encouraging to me at the beginning of my career, often telling me that she was proud of my work. And I can’t deny that she was a big influence on me as I started writing for the local papers, until she passed away in 2012.

So who’s the Keeper of the Ghosts now?

Well, you’re reading my column, aren’t you? I began writing about the paranormal stories around the time Pat was retiring. So, from the mid-1800s until today, there’s been a series of people who try to promote our local haunted places. That seems to be my job now, and I love it.

But I can’t help but wonder who comes next. I’m curious to see, one day, who will take it up, after my day is done.

I hope they tell some ghost stories about me, too.