History & local legend
The former Hotel Iola, in the Columbia County village of Iola near Millville, has ghost stories centered on its bar and mirrors. Visitors reportedly saw faces dressed in high Victorian collars reflected in the glass, and shadowy figures in long black dresses disappearing around corners. An older account also described empty bar stools turning.
A separate piece of village lore concerns woodcarver Hiram 'Daddy' Shultz. After a storekeeper scolded him on the hotel's porch, Shultz said he knew where he intended to sit after his death: on a hotel porch.
Sources
- Nancy Bishop, Ghost Stories of Columbia & Montour Counties, Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau, October 26, 2020
- The Shadowlands, Millville, Iola Hotel entry, archived 2005, describes swiveling stools, mirrors and dress hems disappearing around corners
- George Holdren, Hiram “Daddy” Shultz, Columbia County Historical and Genealogical Society, records the Iola porch exchange explicitly as village lore
- Greenwood Township Municipal Authority and Columbia County Sheriff, 2010 sheriff-sale packet identifies the Iola Hotel premises and 2950 State Route 42
