Unexplained sounds, moved objects, slammed doors, hazy apparitions, a sudden chill - with just the mention of the word "ghost," many people conjure images of wrongful deaths and unforgotten grudges.
Most people know the ghost story repertoire: the hitchhiker who suddenly disappears, the young girl that appears only long enough to deliver an important message, or the unexplained footsteps heard every night in the attic. But what about the stories closer to home?
All around Carroll County, stories, myths and legends about ghosts abound.
Whether it is the haunted Opera House on Main Street in Westminster, the sounds heard at Cry Baby Bridge or the alleged ghosts that haunt the campus of McDaniel College, Carroll County is full of its own eerie tales.
The county has its tales and tours about those tales.
Perhaps the best way to learn about the ghost hotspots in Carroll County is the annual tour given by the Carroll County Public Library. These tours start October 20, and run through Halloween. Each tour includes about 20 people and average ages range from 8 to 65.
Pam Hahn has been giving ghost tours through the Westminster branch of the library for six years and she knows all about the spooky legends surrounding buildings in Westminster.
Hahn says that the tour includes a 20 minute slideshow about hauntings in Carroll County along with stops at the Opera House, the Shellman House, Cockeys Tavern, the Ascension Church graveyard, the Old Court House and finally the local jail. At each spot tour participants listen to a little history about each stop followed by the story or legend that is rumored to have caused the haunting.
While the library tour is a great way to learn about the more popular haunted spots, high school students from around Carroll County are using the internet to find creepier, more remote places to look for ghosts. The website, www.theshadowlands.net/places/maryland.htm, boasts a complete listing of all the haunted locations in Maryland. Many students are also clicking on marylandghosts.com, and the two websites combined to allege 688 hauntings in Maryland, with 35 in Carroll County alone.
Tara Frasca, a senior at North Carroll, has visited two of the spots listed on the website: Rosewood in Reisterstown and Cry Baby Bridge in Westminster. Frasca says that many legends surround Cry Baby Bridge. The one she knows purports is that many years ago a young girl got pregnant, but instead of telling her parents, she jumped over the bridge, killing herself and the baby.
A few winters ago when Frasca visited the bridge with her friend, she said they had a creepy experience: "We heard footsteps, like someone walking in water underneath the bridge but that they were the only ones there," she explained.
Stories comparable to this one are shared among Fresca and her friends; and as the creepy stories grow, places like Cry Baby Creek become more popular.
Just as Fresca has had a ghostly encounter, so has Brian Engler, a student at McDaniel College. Engler works at the college as a "ghost reenactor" and, as a result, he said he has had many encounters with some of the campus' ghosts.
Engler vividly remember one time when he had such an encounter.
"I was up in the top of Elderdice [one of the buildings on McDaniel's campus] with one of my friends, and our job was to reenact the suicide of one of the ghosts that lives up there," Engler said. Then he continued to describe the scene: an open window refusing to shut and springing open with unnatural speed, an angry energy filling the room, the feeling of being watched.
Engler attributes the presence to a legend that surrounds Elderdice.
The story goes that a student at McDaniel, after getting his girlfriend pregnant, committed suicide in Elderdice and the student's spirit has been haunting the building ever since.
In addition to this story, many other reports of ghosts have occurred on the campus. Pianos mysteriously play, rumpled laundry is folded and various doors on campus rattle.
But all these questions about ghosts, spirits and haunts beg the question: How much is real?
As for people who have experienced a ghostly encounter first hand, there is no question as to the reality of spirits. Engler says, "Yes, I fully believe that all of these ghosts and spirits exist, in addition to many others. Ghosts and spirits are everywhere, you just have to be receptive to them and not be afraid. There are no recorded instances of ghosts hurting anyone. Usually they either want to be left alone or they want to communicate. Sometimes they just like to help."
Carroll County is full of creepy stories. Believe them or not.
Kyleen Breslin is a Junior at St. Paul School for Girls in Brooklandvile.
http://www.carrollcounty.com/articles/2 ... gy1-02.txt
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