History & local legend
The woods below Summit Township Elementary School follow a former railroad corridor near Brinker Road in Butler County. Brinker Depot once stood nearby, and the Butler-Freeport Community Trail now occupies the old line.
A story collected by 2006 describes a conductor’s lantern moving through the woods along the route of the tracks. When someone approaches the light, it disappears. Other reports place the sounds of children playing in the woods after dark and a train whistle near dawn.
Sources
- Northwestern Pennsylvania hauntings collection, archived June 24, 2006, Butler County entry on Summit Township Elementary School woods
- Butler Area School District, Summit Township Elementary, 351 Brinker Road
- Summit Township, spring 2017 newsletter, local history of Brinker Depot
- U.S. Geological Survey, Bulletin 515, Spirit Leveling in Pennsylvania, 1899–1911; Pennsylvania Railroad benchmark at Brinker station
- Butler-Freeport Community Trail, official Brinker Road trailhead coordinates
- U.S. Geological Survey, 1958 Saxonburg quadrangle, shows the school and railroad corridor
