The spectral figures of the swamps in the backwoods often are thought to call out names and seek to drag others into their clutches so that they, too, might meet their cruel fate of undeath. However, this is not the case for this legend of Centre County. 

Swamp Church is haunted by a woman in white, a specter of a woman in her wedding dress, who’s cursed to remain in this church until her lover returns unto her. This legend revolves around a woman shunned from her community due to pregnancy from a deceased husband.

This is the story of the Swamp church ghost, supposedly the apparition of a woman who was in love with Will Stalwart when he was suddenly enlisted in D Company of the 148th Pennsylvania volunteers. He left to serve in the Union Army, and the woman stayed hopeful for his return. On their last night spent together, the woman becomes pregnant. They had planned to marry, but he’d left for the war before they could wed. No one had believed her that his child was conceived in a holy manner, and thus she’d been shunned by her community. William had met his end at a crossroads, Chancellorsville in Virginia, and would never return home or to her and his child. Leaving her to wait endlessly for her lover to return from war.

The church turned her away, with only the divine as her witness. She was then cursed with an afterlife in which she goes to the church where her lover awaits her and shows everyone who she comes across her child, longing for someone to accept her and her infant, as it is the last son of William Stalwart and herself. She still remains upon heaven’s steps, waiting to be accepted to meet with her husband.

The area of Penn’s Creek is home to several paranormal legends, Swamp Church being no exception. With tales of a headless railroad worker in an endless search for his own head and a handcar that moves along the railroad tracks with no driver. The entire Creek area is infused with the myths and legends of the dead who yet linger close to the material threshold we find ourselves inhabiting. These circumstances lead us to speculate that the Creek is responsible for the hauntings plaguing this area. 

The Creek itself stems from within Penn’s Cave, which is filled with limestone, which is a material that investigators of the paranormal suspect to be a conduit of energy that is possible to house the essence of the lost souls of this area—keeping the White Woman of Swamp Chruch, the Driverless Handcar, and the Headless Spirit all trapped here. Doomed to an eternity in search of things that may never be recovered.

The drive to Swamp Chruch was rather short and straightforward. Only a few turns were needed to navigate into the forests outside State College and find ourselves at the step of Swamp Church. We’d used our maps to get us there, but it was straightforward. We’d gone over the route and had just needed to double-check our route on the way there. It was more our nerves and anxiety of using paper maps, specifically printouts, to find our way there that gave us trouble rather than actually finding our way there. We hadn’t even needed the map to leave after we left. 

The weather was perfect; it was dark and gloomy, with little traffic. We’d also put on a playlist that was perfect for the occasion. (Which I will link at the bottom of the post.) We had gone along several stretches of road where you could look out on the hills and fields nearby to see crooked trees and decrepit barns. One of which had vacant windows for eyes that gazed down the hills. 

We hadn’t seen a single soul on the roads near the Church. No single person could be seen anywhere despite a few clusters of houses and homes nearby. It was extremely spooky to be completely alone on these roads as they kept getting darker and darker.

We had only spent a minute or two at the Church once we’d arrived, as it was private property, and I am pretty sure we had trespassed to get the pictures we got. However, we had been warned, by Professor Tuttle, that the owners of the Chruch don’t take too kindly to trespassers. So, we hadn’t sat around to find out if he’d told the truth or not. 

Instead of sitting around at the Church discussing it and our findings, we quickly took our pictures and ran away. We drove just down the road to “Union Cemetery, ” a completely fenced-in cemetery we’d gotten pictures of, to discuss the Church and retell the story. Even at this cemetery and its many houses, we hadn’t seen a single person as night slowly crept upon us.

Afterward, we’d gotten into our car and drove back to State College, and on the way out, we’d passed on a person in this small cluster of buildings. It was a woman who was sitting on the porch of her home smoking, and she had waved at us on the way out. It had felt extremely surreal to have that happen only as we left.

I would love to try another legend trip here soon. Hopefully, I could do one this summer while I have time over break. I particularly would like to attempt to travel to a location much further away to challenge myself, and whoever I go with, to use a map over a long distance, rather than a twenty-five-minute drive with someone who had grown up in State College and had known the main roads we used. I had thought about going to Sleepy Hallow New York in this fashion, which might be a bit of a challenge. 

Unfortunately, we had not seen any ghosts or moving handcars. But, the feeling of being in the spot of a potential haunting on the dusk of a gloomy day is an incredible feeling.

 

 

Spotify Playlist Link: The Haunting