NWPAH investigated Pithole Cemetery on Oct. 8, 2005. We went to Pithole town first for the lantern tours they were having that evening. The walking tour of Pithole told of the way the town was started and what happened to eventually turn it into a ghost town. There are reported paranormal happenings there. Two members of the NWPAH went on this tour and I will ask them to let us know how it went.
We arrived at Pithole Cemetery around 11 PM... It was windy and dark. We walked down a long pathway to find the cemetery in a wooded area, grown up with weeds. Rick had his video camera, Bekki had the EMF meter, and Maria & Steve & I had cameras.A digital voice recorder was also used by Steve or Maria. Bekki reported some slight activity on the EMF, and Rick didn't record anything with the video camera. I have a few shots of energy orbs. I guess the most unusual event happened to my 4 year old grandson. We normally do not take children with us on investigations, but the kids wouldn't stay in the car with their dad...so they tagged along. There was 3 children, 4 -4 - & 7 mos. The kids didn't seem afraid or upset by where we were. And the adults made sure we didn't scare them. But at one point.. I would say we were there for about 15 min, Toby asked his mom, "What do ghosts look like?" She told him she didn't really know and asked why he wanted to know. "well", he said. "is that one standing over there?" and pointed to an area 10 feet or so away. He jumped in her arms at this point and said he didn't want to look any more, buried his face in her neck and didn't look up till we were back at the car. He didn't cry, but was clearly upset. When we were in the car on the way home, we asked him what he saw, and he said a man was standing there watching us. They say that children can see spirits, when others can not. But now I have a Jr. ghost hunter , because he keeps pestering me to take him ghost hunting again!! I think he will just have to wait awhile.!
Oil production was centered in the valleys of Oil Creek and the Allegheny River when the 250 barrel-a-day Frazier Well drilled along Pithole Creek came in. Numerous other gusher wells in this isolated part of Venango County attracted thousands of fortune-seekers to the area and a town called Pithole City sprang up on the Thomas Holmden Farm in May of 1865.
By September, 15,000 people lived in Pithole which had 57 hotels, a daily newspaper, and the third busiest Post Office in the state, handling more than 5500 pieces a day!
But Pithole declined almost as rapidly as it grew. A combination of oil running out, major fires at wells and hastily constructed wooden city buildings, and new wells in nearby places caused the population to shrink to less than 2000 by December 1866.
Today, little remains of this boomtown but cellar holes in a hillside meadow. Visitors may walk the grassy paths of former streets and view a scale model of the city at its peak in the Visitor Center which is open Memorial Day through Labor Day, Wed. Noon-5; Thurs.-Sun. 10-5. An Admission is charged
Right before Toby asked his mommy about the ghost
A picture taken seconds after Toby "pointed" to the ghost. It was taken in the direction he pointed. Note the bright orb.
Rick went to see if Toby was ok,,,just a few moments after the pic above was taken, this one was snapped...Note the bright blue energy orb!
