Ghost stories resurface

A+photo+of+the+Baumgardner+Cemetary+located+in+the+woods+behind+the+Wellness+Center.+

George Hancock

A photo of the Baumgardner Cemetary located in the woods behind the Wellness Center.

Rachel Logan, Copy Editor

What people aren’t saying about Halloween at Pitt-Johnstown can catch ears.

A campus Halloween creepiness hides amidst the whispers of fun to be had. Stories of hauntings and ghosts revitalize with the season.

A most popular rumor is of an apparent Indian burial ground that is supposedly paved over for campus use.

“It’s in the woods between Laurel and the Student Union,” said freshman Allura Rigoni.

“We’ve kind of taken it over.”

The website Haunts and History says that, at Oak and Laurel halls, drums and chants largely attributed to the disturbed Native American spirits can be heard.

Registrar employee George Hancock refuted these claims.

“There were no Indian burial grounds located on campus grounds,”he said.

He said that past Native Americans and trappers at one point used the nature trails around campus, but stories of burials are false.

Hancock said there is a cemetery on campus: the Michael Baumgardner Cemetery. The grounds include 14 headstones and 75 graves. It is in a secluded section of the southern slope behind the Health and Wellness Center.

Hancock wrote a full account of the cemetery for the Cambria County, PA Genealogy website.

Summit resident Jaclyn Reed reported supernatural disturbances in her townhouse, including thrown pictures, the TV turning on, and even a student being pulled from her bed.

“We have a townhouse ghost we’ve named Quincy,” Reed said. “He hasn’t been threatening. Occurrences are more funny, nothing scary.”

Reed said that she had not considered moving out and did not feel in harm’s way.

Rumors of an exorcism that occurred in 230 Laurel Room in 1986, but no evidence was available to back up the claim.