As time permits (life goes by fast after all), we are going to try bringing a collection of some of the more strange and macabre tales of Schuylkill County history. It could expand further into the vast coal region.. All of this brought to you by the fabulous month of October: The magical season of the witch!
Feel free to send in any suggestions to us at Bryan@CoalSpeaker.com
We felt one of the best tales of the past to bring was the famed Ghost of the Gordon Mountain!
True?! Not true!?
Is the ghost still there, or just hidden behind vast distribution facilities that are tax free and filling highways with tractor trailers since the mid 2000s?
….you can be the judge.
But before you do so, let’s travel back in time.. and visit the first in our series of Skooky Things:
The GHOST OF THE GORDON MOUNTAIN
This is the official tale that has been told around coal region campfires for decades: It was Palm Sunday, April 25, 1925.
Two hikers on the Broad Mountain between Gordon & Heckschersville were walking on an old logging road just off the main road.
A flock of crows attracted the hikers to a small clearing where they discovered a horror almost beyond words.
Coal Region Connections wrote this in 2014
Lying on scorched grass was the mutilated, badly-burned body of a young woman. Her skull was smashed in & there were gashes on her arms & scalp. This murder on the mountain sparked an intense police investigation that yielded little. The perpetrator of this dastardly deed was never discovered. The girl was believed to be between ages 16-20, but she has never been identified to this day. Some say she was a runaway & others speculate she worked at a nearby “house of ill repute”. It has been said her translucent, ghostly figure roams the forest in the area of where the body was discovered. Some folks say their car headlights have dimmed traveling over the Broad Mt., while others claim “spirit energies” have shut down car engines & radios.
The state of the Gordon Mountain’s appearance has changed remarkably over the past two decades. Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, a vast amount of acreage was cleared and an expanded highway system enabled countless distribution centers to open and carry cargo. Before that, however, the lanes were thing and the trees were thick. At sunset, it grew dark fast. People getting fresh water along the mountain had their arm hairs raised with each noise from the deep woods..
They pondered if the ghost of the Gordon Mountain had been activated yet again!
According to legend, a flock of crows attracted attention to the murdered girl. The girl’s hair was reddish and slightly singed.
The late Doctor Spencer (who you may know from a previous Coal Speaker post on the famous Spencer House in Ashland) reportedly performed the autopsy on the grounds of the Ashland State Hospital. It was Spencer’s opinion that that the girl was still alive when gasoline was poured on her body and ignited, causing a twisting of the face in pain.
There are even reports that Dr. Spencer preserved the dead girl’s hands in his office for 17 years.
While most stories keep the name unknown, it was reported the Lillian Taylor from Shamokin was the victim. BUT THEN SHE WAS FOUND ALIVE IN DETROIT! Another name, Anna Sullivan, was the victims. UNTIL SHE WAS FOUND ALIVE IN SHAMOKIN!
While the name of the victim remains unknown, it was reported in 1925 that a chauffeur confessed to hauling the body from the Sunset Inn to the Gordon Moutain:
If you ever hire a chauffeur, you definitely should call him Moth Balls.
There was also this report from after the girl was found in 1925:
An Ashland businessman who was returning from Pottsville at night was driving a 1924 Dodge Roadster when his car stalled as he was passing the famous spot where the unnamed girl was found. It was said that he abandoned his car and walked from the top of the Broad Mountain J.A. Seitzinger’s garage in Gordon, which was usually open late and a gathering spot for locals after hours. Seitzinger wrote in the Evening Herald in January 1973 that he took the same man back to his car a day later, and the vehicle had no issue starting.
This was the common local legend. Headlights would turn off. Cars would stall. You would be stuck!
Most people who knew of this rumor would speed as far as they could along the mountain to escape the ghostly wrath.
People would say that the ghostly was often found sitting on a stump.. approaching stalled vehicles to look for a scar on a face to recognize her murderer.
Eventually cops found out and started targeting. Money was to be made!
But that did not stop people as late as a decade ago from YouTubing their purported experiences along the mountain:
The lure of the ghost was so real in concept that JA Seiztinger kept a reported cast of the head of the woman in his Gordon garage for years.. the image is scene in the HERARD on January 18, 1973:
Seitzinger wrote what could be considered the tell all story … the REAL Ghost of the Gordon mountain revealed, once and for all.
He said,
I considered it civic duty to see that these visitors would see a ghost. The second ghost was a member of our group, Ralph Miles of Gordon, in a white bed sheet., The third ghost was a mannequin secured from a local store used to display women’s clothing. This mannequin was dressed in a long white flowing gown and a member of our group would stay with the ghost while the rest of us entertained the occupants of the automobiles parked along the highway. We informed them the ghost was mostly seen at midnight and while waiting many ghost stories were told.
So history was not just kept.. But History was also told time after time along the Broad Mountain..
A story as old as local time itself.
The ghost of the Gordon Mountain.
Solved?
Or … ongoing.
Will you DARE dare today to stop your car along the road?
This short Instagram video was taken on the Gordon mountain on a cold day in October 2019.. Perhaps you can pause and see a ghost.. Thankfully headlights stayed on.. and the car did not stop.
