History & local legend
Packsaddle Gap is the Conemaugh River’s passage through Chestnut Ridge near Torrance. Railroaders once told of an old man standing on the tracks there with a long gun. An engine would appear to strike him, yet the crew could find no body. The figure was identified as Wild Tom Skelton, a hunter condemned to revisit the place where he had killed the woman he loved.
In the legend, Tom cared for Maria McDowell and her family. Maria was blind and suffered recurring illness, and medicinal herbs grew on the opposite side of the river. While she was gathering them, Tom heard movement in the brush and mistook her for a deer. His shot killed her.
The story follows Tom into old age, still mourning Maria and watching the hillside associated with her death. Later generations transferred his solitary figure to the railroad that ran through the gap, where crews were said to see him leaning on his gun as their trains approached.
Sources
- Pennsylvania Oddities, The Legend of Tom Skelton and the Ghost of Packsaddle Gap, comparing versions and reproducing a passage attributed to Frank Cowan
- Weswow1, 2017 local retelling at Lovers Leap, includes an extended transcription of the engineer’s search and a different family legend
- Pittsburgh-to-Harrisburg Main Line Canal Greenway, Kiski-Conemaugh Water Trail map, Packsaddle Gap
- USGS GNIS Packsaddle locality, quadrangle and coordinates reproduced by TopoQuest
