Site 165

I’m sure you have all heard of haunted houses, but what about a haunted campsite? I know just the place!

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If you have ever been to Ohiopyle State Park in Pennsylvania then you know what a great place it is. However, at least one area of the park holds a dark secret. Back in the 1960s, when the park was was being constructed, there were some pretty wild occurrences there. In the extreme southeast corner of the park, not far from the Great Gorge Trail there is a small area of the park that seems to kill engines. Yes, you heard correctly, “engines.”

A man by the name of Mark Ruger cleared and leveled most of the lots on that side of the park. Mark was an intelligent man and highly skeptical about anything out of the ordinary. One day Mark was operating his backhoe while clearing out what is still, to this day, site 164. Something in his peripheral caught his attention. Mark looked over his shoulder to the area that would soon be site 165. Standing there among the trees was a Shawnee Native American man in full traditional dress. The two men stared at each other for moment before the Shawnee turned and headed down into the gorge. Of course, Mark immediately climbed down off his backhoe and ran after the strange man. But, Mark lost sight of him and was never able to pick up his trail. He couldn’t find tacks or anything else to indicate someone had been standing there.

Later that afternoon, Mark began work on site 165. Everything seemed to be going fine until Mark reached the center of the campsite. The engine on his backhoe suddenly revved way up then stalled. It wouldn’t restart. Mark climbed down to have a look at the engine. Upon closer inspection he found that the glowplugs were melted to the engine block. Mark was pretty upset. This was his personal backhoe, a brand new 1964 Dynahoe. The next day Mark had to get a friend to help him pull his backhoe out of the site and load it onto a flatbed trailer. Mark planned to take the big machine back to the dealer since it was still under warranty.

Once the dealer had his backhoe in the shop, Mark went to see his friend Eric Fuller who worked for the county. Mark needed to get the park job completed by the end of June or he would lose a lot of money on the contract. He talked Mr. Fuller into letting him use one of the county’s bulldozers for the rest of the week (people allowed that kind of thing back in the 60s).

Two days later Mark was back on the job site. Wouldn’t you know that after fifteen minutes, the bulldozer’s engine revved up suddenly then stalled. Again, upon inspection, it was found that the glowpugs were melted to the engine block. Needless to say, Eric and Mark weren’t friends anymore, and Mark never borrowed anything from the county again.

The dealership told Mark it would be at least two weeks before he would have his backhoe back. They had to replace the engine block. Mark was upset but he didn’t know what to make of the situation. He was a highly logical person and he decided it was just a tremendous coincidence. Eric Fuller had blamed Mark for the damage, saying that he overheated the engine by pushing it too hard. Mark knew that wasn’t the case. The work he was doing at the new state park was pretty simple compared to the heavy road construction contracts he usually got.

Mark was determined to get the job completed on time. The very next day he was out at site 165 with a shovel, a rake, a saw, and an axe. He did his best to get the site clear and level. He ran into a few problems though. For one, no matter what he did, the site just never seemed level. Also, when he stood near the center of the site he would become dizzy and disoriented. At one point, Mark let his shovel fall to the ground while he turned around to grab his axe. After grabbing the axe he spun back around to see his shovel standing upright! It wasn’t buried in the ground at all. In fact, he tip of the shovel was barely touching the ground, the darned thing was just standing there like a soldier at attention. After doing a few experiments Mark found that he could make the axe and the saw stand straight up as well. For some reason the rake refused to stand despite having the best foundation to stand on, the long flat edge of the metal rake. He could only duplicate the anomaly in this one spot.

A woman the locals called “Ms. Francis” stopped by the next day to take pictures of Mark standing different tools on end. The pictures hung in the park offices for years. I have tried to locate the pictures but have had no success. The park office was remodeled in 1989 and I don’t think anyone has seen them since.

Eventually Mark Ruger was able to get all the sites finished on time and the camp opened unofficially in 1965. The park was immediately a popular destination. Many families came up from Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. to escape the hustle and bustle of big city life.

One such family was the Gregersons, a young couple from West Chester with two young toddlers. The Gregersons just happened to be the first unlucky people who camped at site 165. Mr. Gregerson backed the family station wagon up into the site and began to unload all of their camping gear while Mrs. Gregerson kept the kids occupied looking at flowers and leaves on the ground. Once, the car was unloaded Mr. Gregerson got back in the car to pull it forward and park it for the weekend. However, the car wouldn’t start. Mr. Gregerson ended up pushing the car out of the campsite so he could set everything up for his family.

This immediately put Mr. Gregerson in a bad mood. He hurriedly put up the tent then left his wife and kids at the campsite so he could walk to the office and call a tow truck. Mrs. Gregerson was put off by her husband’s bad attitude and the fact that she was left at the site by herself with two young kids for about three hours. When she was just about ready to head to the office herself to check on her husband she saw him walking back toward the campsite. He looked angrier than ever. “Where have you been?” they both shouted out to each other at the same time.

Mr. Gregerson swore that he walked to the office, made a phone call, then walked right back. Only, when he reached site 165, his wife and kids were gone. He assumed they went for a walk to the restroom but he didn’t find them there. He then ended up walking the length of the park several times looking for his family.

Mrs. Gregerson was indignant. She swore up and down that she hadn’t gone anywhere for the past three hours. Soon a tow truck showed up to haul the Gregerson’s station wagon to a local mechanic. Needless to say, the young couple spent the rest of the evening in terrible moods. They sat in silence glaring at each other over a cold can of pork ‘n beans while the kids squirmed and fussed. Both were glad when it time to put the kids down for the night.

Mr. and Mrs. Gregerson sat around the fire for a while. Eventually they made up and apologized for being so angry. Mr. Gregerson held his wife close. They decided they would do their best to enjoy the rest of the weekend and not worry about the car. After sometime they became sleepy and went to bed.

A couple of hours later they were both awakened by the sound of someone talking in what sounded like a foreign language. It was a male voice that sounded muffled, but not too far away. Mr. Gregerson called out, “who’s there”. The voice stopped immediately. The young couple was pretty freaked out but, thankfully, the kids were still asleep.

As they were both nearly back to sleep, they heard a yell come from down in the gorge. It sounded not quite human, almost ape-like. Soon they could hear footsteps around their tent. Again the couple was pretty freaked out. They sat there nervously staring at each other in the dark. What happened next really startled them. The Gregerson’s youngest son suddenly sat up and started saying something that sounded like “naythaway-yamah” over and over. Mrs. Gregerson rushed over to her son. As soon as she touched the boy he fell back to sleep, breathing loudly. The Gregersons spent the rest of the night lying awake listening to one terrifying sound after another.

In the morning, as the bleary-eyed couple was cooking breakfast over the fire, a man drove up in their station wagon with a pickup following close behind. The man got out of their car and introduced himself as the local mechanic. He also introduced his teenage son who followed him over in his truck. The mechanic explained that when he went to check out the car there absolutely nothing wrong with it. He looked the car over anyway but said it was “in fine shape”. Mr. Gregerson offered the man money but he refused saying he was just happy to help. As the mechanic and his son were driving away he saw Mr. Gregerson hurriedly tossing all of the family’s camping supplies in the back of the station wagon. The Gregersons were gone ten minutes later.

The park rangers soon became worried. Not one person ever stayed on site 165 more than one night. Some people would ask to be moved to other sites but most would just leave in the middle of the night, or as soon as the sun came up. Sometime around fall 1967 the park decided to close site 165. Over the next few years, people in nearby sites reported strange events events like glowing orbs floating around or small rocks falling from the sky in the area around site 165. In 1971 when the park officially opened, the sign for site 165 was taken down and all of the numbers were shifted down. The current site 165 is actually the old site 166, and so forth.

Eventually things settled down and the old site 165 was forgotten. Only a few of the older employees of the park remembered it when I started my research. None of them were actually working there at the time of the incidents, but they had heard the stories. This was in October of 1998 when I was there.

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UPDATE

In 2003 I got a phone call from an ex park employee who lived in Hutchinson. He told me that there had been a new development with the original site 165. Three teenage boys had cut through the old site on their way down to the Great Gorge Trail instead of using the path. Suddenly, one of the boys vanished. The other two boys panicked and ran back to their parents. No one seemed to believe their story. People started searching all over the park and in the gorge but the boy was nowhere to be found. The park rangers were called, then the local police. As the sun was setting someone spotted the boy walking back toward camp. He was covered in dirt from head toe and his hair was a mess. The police questioned the boy but didn’t much from him.

According to the boy’s account he was walking with his friends when he heard a buzzing noise then saw a flash of light. The next thing he remembered was walking down the road as the sun was setting.

It sounds like whatever was happening at the old site 165 in the sixties is still happening. If you’re ever at Ohiopyle state park enjoy the scenery as you hike. But, you might want to stay away from the old site 165.