Post
by Cousi » Thu Nov 15, 2018 3:16 am
This one took place at an old Boy Scout camp in the town next to mine. It wasn't a very old camp, having been built in the 60s (this took place in the 80s) some of the scout masters in the area had helped to build it. There were a number of stories surrounding the camp. Our troop had a ghost that regularly visited us whenever we camped there. We called him Wild Willy and legend said that he was a member of the troop who had died at the camp either from a tree falling on him during clearing the forested area for the camp or drowning in the lake. He was benign for the most part but we often felt him around us at the least comfortable times. The campground had a small cemetery on it, one tombstone showing the name of a William (I forget the last name) who had died at age 15 in the early-mid 1960s.
One of the most intriguing was one I didn't hear about at camp but from a friend who lived in the same town. Apparently that little cemetery had been larger and the Scouts had exhumed some of the bodies to move them. What remained were those whose families/descendants couldn't be reached or didn't want them moved. That was on the side of a road named General Knox road and it was named for the same Revolutionary War General who brought the cannons from Ft Ticonderoga to Boston, along the path that had centuries later become the road. Allegedly some of those tombstones were folks who had died on that trip and there were a few headstones too degraded to be read.
Anyway, this kid tells me about a Coffin Handle Charlie. A hermit that had lived on the mountain on the opposite side of the lake from the scout camp. He had a spyglass (a.k.a. telescope) he'd use to watch that cemetery. Whenever there was burial, Charlie would grab his shovel and dig up the coffin and steal the brass coffin handles and sell them for money, probably for booze. Intrigued, that became my ghost story next time we were swapping them around the campfire. I was disappointed to learn that most of the older scouts had already heard it, but one of the guy closer to my age asked if it was true and everyone kinda shrugged their shoulders. He decided for his Star Scout project, he'd organize a search to find out.
Over the summer, he took measurements and set up a grid pattern search. He got the Council to buy it as 'practice for a search for a missing person' or something. Anyway, we stayed in contact with walkie-talkies (remember those?) as we conducted the search. On our third day, someone said they'd found something. We all converged upon the tumble-down shack and started searching it. We found a broken old telescope, several shovels and about a half-dozen coffin handles. He brought them to the Council, they signed off on his project and he got his Star Scout badge. The coffin handles ended up in the mess hall for the scout camp.
Years pass. I join the Coast Guard, get married and have kids. The scout camp gets sold to the LDS church, of which I had become a member. The ward I was in decided they were going to have a Father/Son camp out. As we were getting ready to move by then, my son and I went. Over the campfire, I tell them about my history with this particular campground. They were shocked to learn that I grew up deeper into the woods and that we had to drive past the place to get to the closest grocery store.
City folk. What can ya do?
Anyway, I tell them about Coffin Handle Charlie and Wild Willy. They ask if Coffin Handle Charlie was true and I say "absolutely. If the mess hall is still standing you'll find the coffin handles on every other support." The Stake President (think catholic church Bishop) said "we can find out tomorrow. The mess hall is still standing and I have a key to get in." Sure enough, me and a few of the adults go inside the next morning and I point out the half-dozen brass coffin handles nailed to every other support in the hall.
The Stake President looks at me with a kind of half-grin on his face and says "well I'll be. Kinda makes me wonder about Wild Willy." Just then the back door of the kitchen slams shut. After we all jump and recover, we go investigate. The door is locked. The Stake President unlocks it but the door still wouldn't budge. The wood jamb had swollen as it rotted and when we forced it, it fell off the hinges.
Guess that answered that question.