History & local legend
Wopsononock Mountain above Altoona is home to the White Lady of Wopsy, a vanishing hitchhiker associated with its twisting roads. In a familiar version, a motorist stops for a silent woman in a white dress. Before the car finishes descending the mountain, the passenger has disappeared.
One telling makes her a bride who died when a carriage went over Devil’s Elbow. Another gives her an automobile crash after she was left at the altar. WPSU traced the story to an Altoona Mirror article published for Halloween in 1973, which also described couples hearing scratches on their car roofs.
The mountain had once been a destination for honeymooners. The Wopsononock Resort Hotel stood above the city until a fire destroyed it in 1903. Its vanished resort and the winding descent became part of the landscape in which the White Lady’s story was told.
Sources
- WPSU, Past PA, The White Lady of Wopsy, episode and transcript
- Allegheny Ridge Corporation, Laurel Highlands Unexplained Activity, White Lady of Wopsy Mountain
- Wopsy History, When Was the Hotel Established?, local newspaper research
- Wopsononock Lookout, OpenStreetMap node 3005141360
- US Geological Survey, Bulletin 181, historical Wopsononock station at the mountain lookout
