Author and historian Forest Fisher from the Mifflin County Historical Society shared with the community during a presentation Sunday, Nov. 3 at the St. Marks Episcopal Church.

“These are some ghost stories that were reported to the Historical Society to take place here in the Juniata Valley,” says Fisher.

The Legend of Cotter’s Hole takes place over

200 years ago on the bank of the Juniata River when Mifflin County was still covered in wilderness.

The tale of a murderous trapper known as Judas Cotter was said to have murdered and robbed other trappers and the occasional traveler leaving him a reputation until one day his vicious act brought about his own death.

Ambushed by unseen enemies took their revenge on Cotter, beating him until he was no longer able to hurt anyone else, or so they hoped.

Weighted with rocks his body was tossed into the river and they hoped his madness would end there but overtime the path became a trail and then a road that people would travel on.

“The local fisherman said this was a haunted place to be avoided,” adds Fisher.

It was said many years a couple traveled the road in a horse and buggy when they crashed into the water due to a large gust of wind knocking them into the water they struggled to get out and as the the goes the man was just about out of the water when he saw boney hand break the water attempting to grab them but this only encouraged them to fight the water harder. Finally making it to the ground the couple turned to see only calm water.

“This legend appeared in the addition of the Stone Arch Players newsletter that I read in the 1990s and I have not seen anywhere since,” says Fisher.

The Beast of Bixler’s Gap is a tale that takes place where Mifflin County residents travel known as the Lewistown Narrows, Fisher explained.

“This was considered by geologists as one of the deepest gorges in the Commonwealth,” says Fisher.

In one of the deepest gorges in the valley rested a cabin belonging to the Bixler family.

Some tales are just a little more simple.

There have been noises disturbing Mifflin County’s Historic Courthouse for years Fisher tells us and here are a few reported to the Mifflin County Historical society unofficially of course.

In the 1980s after the county offices moved from Wayne to Third Street the old building remained closed except for the sheriff police desk who told others he heard noises coming from the hallways that sounded like footsteps.

There could be a number of candidates to be haunting the old courthouse but here are just a few.

Before the back portion was added in 1878 to the old courthouse a hand dug stone line well was located in the yard near the alley.

The story goes that one dark night an employee came out of the alley and accidentally fell in the well and the following morning he was found dead.

“Some believe he still moves through the courthouse carrying out his unseen duties,” said Fisher.

The only man ever hanged in the courthouse was tried for murder not once, but twice for the same crime.

The first was overturned for technical grounds and the second trial in 1910 had the same result: guilty, death by hanging.

“It is said he endlessly walks across the courthouse reliving his murder trial,” Fisher explained.

Another was that of a court messenger who was bringing a message from one floor to another when he fell on the stairs due to a heart seizure and died immediately. Some say the footsteps are his.

Fisher also shares one final bonus tale about Revolutionary War General “Mad Anthony” Wayne and his missing bones.

A spirit with two graves, two headstones at two different ends of Pennsylvania.

Through the Seven Mountains and the Kishacoquillas Valley, along the creek of Logan’s Gap in Reedsville and onto the narrows and beyond, this story takes an unexpected turn.

On Dec. 15 1796, at the age of 51, Wayne died and was buried at Erie block house but 13 of years later, the daughter of Wayne asked her brother to bring their fathers’ remains home to their family cemetery in Chester County

Surprisingly still In good shape even after all the years, Isaac Wayne quickly determined he could not take his father’s remains all the way across Pennsylvania in the small cart he came in so he ordered the body rendered meaning boiled vigorously to remove the flesh.

The bones are boxed or placed in saddlebags-the details are unclear. Isaac set off for Chester County across rough dirt roads, on the path of today’s U.S. 322.

What was left from this process was dumped back into the grave while the semi clean bones were then transported to a church in Ratner but the story doesn’t end there.

It is said that due to the bumpy conditions of the road at that time not all of the bones may have made the ride home.

So every year on his birthday, New years Day it is said that he rises up from his grave and takes his traditional trek on old route 322 near church hill in Reedsville to make his skeleton whole after all of these years.

You can find links to these stories and more on the Mifflin County Historical Society Facebook.