History & local legend
Wiestling Hall at Penn State Mont Alto was once the home of ironmaster and Civil War veteran Colonel George Wiestling. He died in 1891, twelve years before the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy opened at Mont Alto. A class photograph later gave him a place in the school's ghost stories.
In 1907, the academy's class of 1908 posed on horseback outside the building. Students were required to bring horses for transportation and for fighting forest fires. When viewers examined the photograph, some noticed what appeared to be a man standing behind the riders.
Those who identified the figure as Wiestling pointed to what looked like a uniform and a bright badge on his cap. Later accounts from students and staff added unexplained footsteps, noises, and doors opening inside his former home.
