Watts Hill

History & local legend

Watts Hill, on the road between Indiana and Shelocta, had a ghost story long before an unusual encounter made the local newspaper in 1889. The older legend concerned a drover returning from Philadelphia with gold earned by selling cattle. Robbers supposedly hanged him and stole his money, leaving his ghost to search the hill for his killers.

On September 10, 1889, a group returning from a party in Shelocta reported a large white figure dancing among the trees beside the road. Tom Hildebrand left the carriage and tried to seize it. The figure rose out of his reach, and he hurried back to his companions, who drove away toward Indiana.

The Indiana Weekly Messenger reported the episode on September 18 and suggested another explanation. Boys excluded from the party might have wrapped a straw figure in white paper and suspended it from a wire and pulley. No one admitted responsibility, leaving the newspaper’s proposed prank alongside the travelers’ account of the dancing apparition.