C.I.B. CaseFile 1-B

Adventures of the Cat In Black

Case 1

Second Entry

The Headless Ghost of Booth Creek

     

Booth Creek

Many years ago, a body was found near the curve in an old coal road, right beside where the road came up against the bank of Booth Creek. It was the headless corpse of a Drawer from Pennsylvania. This was said to have happened near where the creek fed into the Monongehelia River. After that body was found, there were reports of a haunting that occurred at that spot. On different occasions witnesses reported having seen the specter of a headless man riding atop a coffin crossing the road before disappearing out of sight.  The sightings were all said to have taken place during the dusk hours of a night with a full moon. So on May 15^th, the Captain and I packed a bag, and set out to walk to the location where this haunting was said to take place.

     I had never been to this location before, despite it’s close proximity to where I reside. However, as I had mentioned prior, once I discovered that it was not a terrible distance from me I became resolved to walk there, locate the site, and photograph it.  In that respect the Captain and I’s endeavors were quite successful. I must state upfront that we did not witness nor capture any evidence of the haunting in question, but we did have a marvelous adventure in our journey discovering the location.

Rail Trail

            The walk proved longer than I had originally projected, and the point that I had previously walked to and thought halfway, proved to be closer to a third of the distance to be trod. The weather was unseasonably hot, however we did not allow that discomfort to dissuade or impede our progress, instead it simply added to the challenge of the adventure at hand.

     While the weather was initially hot and uncomfortable, it did not turn against us as we had initially feared. Storms had threatened overhead for most of the day, and atmospheric rumbles had echoed since the early afternoon, never ceasing our entire journey. That said, it never rained upon us, and as the evening approached the temperatures became much more pleasant.

     We used the old Rail Route as it seemed by my research that such would pass directly by where the haunting was said to take place, and I was proved correct.  It proved a fascinating walk in many respects. Since we took up the route from downtown Morgantown, (West Virginia, ) we found that the initial mile we walked was filled with a variety of folks taking the air and trying to enjoy the break of the recent rains. We saw many people along this particular restaurant laden section of our trip, but that soon gave way to a small collection of shops and businesses which had their backs to us, their fronts facing the busy street that ran alongside out route. All this gave way to municipal buildings and finally a riverside facility for a local mining interest.  After that, the pavement of our pathway ended, and we walked upon packed earth and gravel as we left downtown Morgantown behind, and stepped onto the verdant path which lay before us.

   

  At this point the environment around us drastically changed. On one side the trail followed the River, keeping close to the bank as it had done throughout our journey so far. The other side of the path immediately began to loom threateningly as it increased in elevation sharply, resulting in an immediate cliff  which dominated over the side opposite the river like a confining crumbling wall.  However there wer e places where this stony buttress however that the Captain and I discovered many fascinating places as we walked toward Booth Creek from downtown. In more than one location the emerald green that hugged the cliff face would give way  to views of melodious waterfalls cascading their cache of recent rains and spring melt. One of these spots in particular was well cut into the rock and nature had crafted a remarkably peaceful little grotto, which we photographed and vowed to return to at a later date so we might explore and document it further.  It was not the only location we took note of in such fashion, another also immediately caught our attention and was added in our notes as a place to return to for the same reasons as the grotto. In short, both simply had amazing qualities which immediately captured the imagination. This latter location that I mention was home to a collection of large concavities in the cliff face that might strike one’s fancy as purposeful rather than natural in their make-up, despite their obvious appearance of being brought about by normal erosion.

Remarkable Grotto

Curious Concavities 

     After these side glances and notations we were unable to linger along the route for any length of time as there were signs warning one not to due to the risk of rockslides, so we hurried as much as possible till we curved along the riverbank and the steep cliff side gave way to a rolling and noisome swampy area filled with gnats and round little pools of still water thick with vivid green algae. This fit the description of the area we had come to investigate, this meant that we had arrived.

The roadside bank of Booth Creek, below the curve.

The curve in the road, alongside the Creek

     We did indeed find the location where the haunting took place and photographed it from a variety of viewpoints. Much of the property there was marked as private and so out of respect to that we kept our investigations to the pathway & the public road. As I stated before, we did not witness any manifestations or ghostly activity, though we did try to time our visit to correspond to the appropriate time of evening.  

Location of the Haunting

C.I.B.

     While I myself cannot speak to what these witnesses of the haunting saw or did not see, I can speak to the location I visited. Approaching the location in the manner that the Captain and I did, from Morgantown along the Rail Route, there is a sense of dread and danger on that trek because such is very real in respect to a falling rock. One that the Captain and I passed had obviously fallen quite recently and was the size of small automobile.  So there is a degree to which one’s body has a tenseness and is at alert to the danger as one walks the route. Sound also travels a bit odd here, as conversations happening on the opposite bank of the river can be heard very clearly as one walks the trail and the sound rebounds against the cliff face. We noted that we could very clearly hear the conversation of two men gardening at a small house on the far bank, and could note well their comments on the day and their complaints in respect to the heat. These conditions make for a very unusual sensory experience in many respects, and could be a factor in what people have witnessed there over the years.

     The Captain and I discussed this and other aspects of the trip as we walked back to town, the thunder continuously threatening but never truly giving in to the full fury of a storm.  When we reached home, tired from walking the unexpected distance, the storm had finally broke and given way to the clear stars of the night. Glittering in the darkness.