Woods by Old Bedford Village

History & local legend

Old Bedford Village’s reconstructed historic buildings and surrounding woods provided the setting for an encounter remembered by Dee Bishop of Gettysburg. Bishop was camping there with a group when heavy rain prompted them to pack up early.

A teenage boy returned from the woods and asked whether anyone had seen a woman wearing a bright red shawl. He said she had passed him bent forward, carrying a bag and a pitchfork. Although she walked over fallen leaves, he had heard no footsteps. When he looked again, she was gone.

Nobody else at camp had seen the woman. Bishop later submitted the boy’s account to a Pennsylvania folklore website, hoping another visitor might recognize the description or have encountered her in the same woods.