It’s fall—time for leaf peeping, apple cider, home football games … and spooky stories. Happy Valley has more than its fair share of ghost stories—people have reported sightings of apparitions from Coburn to Snow Shoe, with lots and lots of stories about historic Bellefonte.

The Bellefonte stories are a particular favorite of Matt Maris, historian, and founder of Local Historia, a local collective of historians who create walking tours of their communities. He hosts ghost tours throughout the region, and the events are frequently sold out (you can find out how to join a tour at the end of the article).

He told us some of the creepiest stories he knows, along with some that have been passed down by firelight for countless generations.

“Bellefonte has a lot of spookiness in general,” he said. “But let’s first talk about the Great Mish Mosh.”

The Great Mish Mosh is an antique store on Allegheny Street in Bellefonte. It’s a treasure hunter's dream, with lots of finds hidden in nooks and crannies throughout the large historic building.

“Many patrons have reported weird experiences of feeling watched while they are in the shop's second story,” Maris said. “Or feel like there is a man in the corner keeping an eye on them. Mish Mosh’s owners would love to talk about it—stop in and ask them to tell you some stories!”

Unfortunately, you can’t visit the next building on Maris’ list, but you can see where it once stood. The Bush House used to be located near the Historic Bellefonte Train Station and Talleyrand Park before it burned down in the Historic Bellefonte Train Station. It was an ongoing site for paranormal activity, he says. “Employees talked about it being haunted. They talked about temperature dropping suddenly, or hearing things falling, or doorknobs turning. One former employee, who prefers not to be named, says that they felt someone stroke their hair.”

“There was once a haunted lumber yard beside today’s Big Spring Spirits, which used to be a match factory,” Maris said. “There were multiple reports of an apparition walking around the entrance of the lumber yard, holding his head that had a bullet hole in it. The story goes that one day, a group of young men tried to find this ghost, and finally tracked it down. It floated past them and had, quote, ‘a demonic, horrid grin’ as it passed them. They were terrified!”

“The back story is that the ghost was a local peddler who was murdered. When his body was found, he had been shot in the head.”

We’ve all heard of the Headless Horseman story told by Washington Irving, but Maris says that Bellefonte has its equal: a headless guardsman has been reported near the Gamble Mill area. He was spotted walking down the railroad tracks in his guardsman uniform, holding a lantern, when he was spotted by a railroad employee doing his night rounds. The headless apparition came closer and closer to the worker who later said that he was so scared, he wished he could have dug a hole in the ground and died in it.

“There are stories that have been told well by others,” Maris says. “Jeffrey R. Frazier has published a canon of local folklore about the area. I highly recommend his books.”

In a 1996 article “Spooktacular Stories,” Town & Gown writer Pat Potter tells of an elderly couple named Jacob and Rebecca Shultz who lived in Gregg Township next to the Swamp Church (at the time of publishing, the church was abandoned and on private property, so please do not visit). As the story goes, the couple felt the temperature drop and saw a young woman dressed in black, cradling a baby, walk into the church. They followed her inside and watched her walk from pew to pew before eventually vanishing.

They later found out that she was once part of the congregation and had been keeping company with a young man who was later killed in the Civil War. The young girl had his child out of wedlock and was consequently shunned by the church. She and the baby disappeared, only to return 20 years later as ghosts.

Another frequently told local ghost story is of the “Ingleby Monster,” near today’s Coburn. A 2013 article in the Lock Haven Express reports stories of a half-man half-deer being that lived deep in the woods, while others say that there was an entire family murdered at one of the remote houses that once stood there.

According to the article, “There is a graveyard at Ingleby with only 6 graves—all children. A son and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Koonsman, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Kreamer, and the triplet girls born to Mr. and Mrs. John Barker. The same document also mentions the monster and how it may have affected the Ingleby population.”

The story goes on to say that when a local family hadn’t been heard from in several days, their friends went to check on them. “They found an empty house with a table full of prepared food sitting on it,” the article said. “The people were frightened and left quickly, never returning. The house remained vacant for several years and then, an elderly man who kept to himself bought the property. He was seldom seen or spoken to and then, one day, a neighbor stopped by and found him beheaded. This was the second mystery in the same house.”

These stories barely scratch the surface of spectral stories in Happy Valley, and Maris says that he’s certain that there are more out there, just waiting to be heard. There’s a bleeding tombstone in Millheim, the ghost of Millard Fillmore’s mistress walking the halls of a hotel, and noises in the night at the old Eutaw House (which is on private property).

Matt Maris says he has some other favorite stories, but you will need to join on a future ghost tour to hear more!

“Creepy, creepy stuff,” Maris says.

We couldn’t agree more.

Want more? Sign up for emails to learn more about Local Historia ghost tours and snag your spot before they inevitably sell out. Watch a recreation of the Woman in Black story on WPSU HERE.