Copyright Mechanicsburg Patriot News
Editor’s note: Welcome to the world of “Paranormal PA,” a PennLive series that delves into Pennsylvania-grown stories of spirits; cryptids; oddities and legends; and the unexplained. Sign up here to get our Paranormal PA newsletter delivered to your inbox. Even by just looking at it, you can tell the Carlisle Barracks in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is impressive. Sprawling and regal, pictures of the barracks show neat lawns and well-to-do bricks. Digging further into the area, you begin to appreciate its military history and status, making the Carlisle Barracks all the more impressive. Dig even deeper, and you’ll hit a bedrock of ghosts. Let’s begin at the very beginning, which Julie Andrews once pointed out is a very good place to start: “Carlisle Barracks (2009)” explains that the barracks were first established as an encampment near Letort Creek in 1757. This was so Col. John Armstrong and the Royal American 62nd Regiment could have some form of a a base of operations in western Pennsylvania as England and France clashed over territory in the New World. This set the tone for Carlisle Barracks for centuries to come: The site has played host to numerous soldiering bodies from then-Gen. George Washington’s army — along with Hessian prisoners of war — to soldiers that would quell the Whiskey Rebellion. It additionally housed Confederate troops as they occupied the area and served as a hospital during World War I, specializing in the treatment of soldiers suffering from “shell shock,” according to Central Penn College’s Knightly News. The barracks eventually became a military school, and is currently the second-oldest active military base in the nation, according to the former Cumberland County Economic Development website. And it, notoriously, at one point served as an industrial school for native children once described by the United States government as an “interesting experiment of training Indian children in the knowledge and usages of civilized life.” The remains of over 180 native children were buried at the barracks, The Dickinsonian reported; the army is still returning them to their tribes in recent years. A rather brief summary of the barracks’ history, yes. But even in its brevity — with bloody conflict and cruel cultural reformation setting its foundation — you can still certainly see how the Carlisle Barracks would be home to a ghost story or two. Well, definitely “or two.” There’s supposedly more than one spirit said to be lingering in the barracks. Harrisburg Magazine, for one, pegged what’s now the Hessian Powder Magazine as a pretty haunted place: This is where those Hessian soldiers were held prisoner; they’re said to still be hanging around. Reports of moans, clangs, and other strange noises have surfaced throughout the years. In 1933, human remains — along with uniform buttons and pieces of clothing — were discovered near the building, adding to feeling that the past hasn’t quite left. Then there’s the strange woman who meanders down Flower Road on occasion, says “Ghosts of the Civil War (2017),” as well as the ghostly farmer dressed in early 20th century garb. Pennsylvania Haunted Houses states that a baby’s phantom cry can be heard at the Washington Hall Guest House, and there’s a Union soldier that’s taken such issue with a framed print of Civil War Major General J.E.B. Stuart that he’s purportedly broken it multiple times. Then, of course, there’s spirits that are tied to the Native children. One of the most famous being Take the Tail, more widely known as Lucy Pretty Eagle. According to “Boarding School Blues: Revisiting American Indian Education Experiences (2006),” Lucy was a Lakota who died at the school, causes unknown. In commenting on her death, the school newspaper “Morning School” claimed her father stated, “She had died the year before but had come back to life again.” While far from that meaning Lucy’s father probably intended, almost a century later her story did have a sort of resurrection: A woman named Katherine Mock submitted a Halloween tale for a club newsletter published by the Officer’s Wives of the U.S. Army War College in 1974. In it, she writes of how Lucy’s ghost supposedly haunted Coren Apartments — where Mock lived at the time — slamming doors, shutting windows and moving objects around. The legend of the ghost of Lucy Pretty Eagle took off — along with rumors on the nature of her death, one (untrue) story involving her being buried alive — and even attracted national attention. However, following greater scrutiny of the terrible conditions Lucy and the other children of the Carlisle school went through, her ghost story has been wildly shelved in recent years, viewed by many as exploitative. Still, all you have to do is search a site like Reddit to see that legends linked to the Native students haunting the barracks still abound. “We had a bush on the edge of the [Native] graveyard catch fire one night for no reason,” wrote one such person on r/Veterans. “After we got it put out, we watched the security camera footage and there was no one around, and it just burst into flames. “I also saw a black mass moving around in the attack of Pratt Hall. Building 315 was pretty scary too. We heard footsteps upstairs when we were in the basement resetting a sprinkler system in the middle of the night.” “F.E. Warren [Air Force Base]…used to be an old Indian Wars army post,” wrote someone else in response. “It’s supposedly haunted by an old cavalryman and also a Native American woman who was murdered by soldiers. Don’t think the two ghosts know each other, though [“Ghosts of the Civil War” claims this soldier is known as “Charlie”].” Even the ghost of one of the Carlisle Indian School’s most famous alumni, Jim Thorpe, is still said to be hanging around the barracks, according to “Ghosts of the Civil War.” Appropriately, in the gym that bears his name: the Thorpe Hall Fitness Center. He’s kept company by a basketball team in turn-of-the-century uniforms that dribble on into eternity. Carlisle Barracks is an impressive site, to be sure. Impressive in looks, and impressive in history. What’s even more impressive is just how much history and stories one place can hold; the barracks are a great example of that. Its ghosts certainly serve as a reflection of that.
