Gettysburg is one of those places that's turned into the Mecca of ghost hunting. Like Muslim pilgrims and the Hajj, it is necessary for ghost hunters at some point in their life to ghost hunt in Gettysburg.
Moral Of This Story - Don’t follow strange men into the woods at Gettysburg unless your ready to get mocked and complete the "Gettysburg boulder obstacle course" in the dark.
Ok. We all do stupid stuff from time to time and don’t think of the consequences of our actions. Only afterwards do we sit back and think, "Gee, that was really stupid. Why did I do that?” Such stupidity was displayed while on a trip to Gettysburg in July 2006 for the Eastern Paranormal Conference. But like all stupid things, they always make the best stories.
We had arrived in Gettysburg all the way from Michigan for a short three day weekend in July. I had never been to Gettysburg and was excited to explore and ghost hunt in the historic areas. Our first excursion was going to Devil's Den at sundown. I remember thinking to myself how odd it was that so many tourists were there even though it was quickly getting dark out. I didn't want to pull out my digital voice recorder and start talking to the air around me in front of people and that's when I began listening to the conversations around me.
We were surrounded by people attempting to ghost hunt. And not just any people. Children were wondering around waving equipment in the air and trying to lure the spirits out to make an appearance. I was stunned when I heard two small children by me having this conversation.
Boy One:: "Hey look, I got an orb in my photo! Lots of orbs!
Boy Two:: "Yay!"
Boy One:: "I'll have to load this up at home and analyze it on my computer."
Me:: eyebrow raised and jaw slightly ajar with a befuddled look on my face.
Wanting to leave the flocks of ghost hunters and their ghost hunting children behind, my friend Bonnie and myself walked across the parking lot to a quieter, wooded area. We wandered down a trail, with no flashlights (remember this for later in the story - no flashlights) and just kept walking. I think we were hoping a ghostly soldier would come barreling out of the woods, but not knowing where the trail led to, we turned our sweaty bodies around and headed back to the trail head. When we got back, a lady approached us and asked if we would follow her “over there,” and she pointed down a trail. She said a man wanted to show them something and she didn’t want to go alone.
Great, drag us into something really bad about to take place...
But, being the super heroes that Bonnie and I are, we agreed to accompany the lady. A few feet down the trail was the “strange man.” Her husband and kids were already there with him. Does that make any sense? She asks us to follow her, but her husband and kids were already there.
The man was showing them an old stone that had a horse trough carved into the top of it. He told some history about the area surrounding the rock and he seemed like a very nice, knowledgeable man.
We followed them back to the parking lot and the lady asked us in a hushed voice, “Are you guys going to stay here?” She had a concerned look on her face. I’m not sure why this lady was so worried about this guy but she was. Should we have taken that as a warning to stay away as well?
The man told us he was a local historian and moved to Gettysburg over ten years ago because he loved the area so much. He volunteered at the parks, telling people about the history. We told him we were ghost hunters and that we were interested in the haunted history of Gettysburg.
“Well, just down this trail over here" said the guy as he pointed into the inky dark woods to the right of us, "is a place where dead soldiers were photographed. People have reported cold spots and strange feelings over there. I can show you guys if you like.”
It was like promising candy to a couple of kids. We proceeded to blindly follow him down the wooded trail.
It was extremely dark that night and the only person who had a flashlight was the guy (remember from earlier, we didn’t have any.) As we were following the guy down the trail, I started to wonder how far this guy was going to lead us into the woods. This was starting to feel like the beginning of a good horror flick. I was just about to make an excuse to not go any further when he stopped and flashed the ground with his light.
“This is the spot where the bodies were found," he said.
Bonnie and I turned on our digital recorders and started up some EVP sessions and we snapped a few pictures of the area. The guy was a living history book and we talked to him for awhile.
In the back of our minds, we both knew that we'd been gone for a while and hadn’t told anyone where we were.
The journey of death to the parking lot…
This was where the trip turned ugly and the walking turned into a feet of human stamina and strength. No, the man never attempted to kill us, kidnap us or try to battle us with super powers to take over the world. He was honestly a really nice guy that loved his history and enjoyed talking to all the tourists.
“I know a shortcut over to the parking lot through here. Plus, there’s another spot I can show you where there was another dead body photographed,” the guy told us.
More ghost hunting candy.
The trail to the second dead body sighting was dark, exhausting and dangerous (and remember folks, Bonnie and Amber do not come equipped with flashlights). By the time we started to get closer to the parking lot, we were scaling boulders in the dark while carrying cameras and guidebooks and sweating to death. The man was ahead of us and would turn around once in a while with his wussy little flash light and usually aim it in the wrong place. The guy admitted he took a wrong turn.
The lights of the parking lot were off in the distance, we were almost there! We had one more massive boulder to climb over. I hopped up on it and turned around to help Bonnie and then life went into slow motion. As Bonnie attempted to scale the next rock, the dark chasm below called out and pulled her under. The next thing I knew, Bonnie had fallen off the boulder and was somehow wedged between two larger boulders, complete with pricker bushes wrapped around her waist as an added bonus.
This was one of those awkward moments…should I be concerned or start laughing really, really hard. Like a good friend, I did both.
I waited in silence for a few seconds to see how she was going to respond. Was something broken, could she move? A roar of laughter erupted from her so I knew she was ok.
I reached out my hand to try and get her up but we were so sweaty that our hands just kept slipping. At one point, I remember she just kind of gave up and I think she had plans of staying there for a few days. The guy just stood there with his flashlight on Bonnie, probably deciding whether he should flee the crime scene. We were right by the parking lot and our group could hear us laughing and carrying on. Of course, they had started to worry about us because they hadn’t heard or seen us for a while. Our buddy Tom came to the rescue and climbed out onto the rocks and after Bonnie rose like the Hulk, ripping the prickers from her waist and taking Tom's un-sweaty hand, she was free.
Bonnie ended up with minor cuts and bruises, ripped pants, a ripped shirt and her new shoes she bought that day got dirty. Later on back at the hotel, our buddy Doug politely asked us, “Why did you two follow a strange man into the woods? Did you guys miss out on that section in elementary school?” And from that moment on, we were the butt of every joke for the weekend and still are.
Have you ghost hunted in Gettysburg? Seen something unusual? Have a good story to share? Something funny? We want to post it on the site! Write us and share your story.
