History & local legend
The Wolfman of Schwaben Creek is a Northumberland County legend about a mysterious stranger and a girl named May Paul. In the story collected by folklorist Henry Shoemaker, May tends her family’s sheep while wolves attack neighboring flocks. An old man takes an interest in her, and the sheep under her care remain unharmed.
Neighbors begin to suspect that the stranger has a connection with the wolves. One night, a farmer shoots a wolf crossing the road. When he follows its blood trail the next morning, he finds the old man’s body instead. The man is buried nearby, and wolves are later said to visit his grave.
In accounts published by Penn State’s Weird Pennsylvania Legendscapes project in April 2023, students described trying to find that grave. Local directions eventually brought them to Himmel’s Church and the bridge over Schwaben Creek. They found the landscape associated with the tale, but could not identify a particular burial as the Wolfman’s.
