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Paranormal

The Weeping Woman of Fish Creek

by Jennifer Jones October 1, 2021

written by Jennifer Jones

From 1913 to 1915 hunters and railroad men in the area of Fish Creek about 40 miles west of Missoula, Montana were plagued by encounters with the weeping spirit of a woman. She would soon garner the name the Fish Creek Ghost and could possibly be one of the earliest ghosts said to have been captured on camera in the United States.

The first reported sighting was from a railroad crew. They stated in August of 1913 while on a train passing by the Fish Creek area they saw “a radiant maiden strolling majestically over the foothills in tearful meditation.” Quite the description, eh? As they watched she simply “melted away” right before their eyes. They said they all just stood there wondering if they had been seeing things. A month later these same men decided to go hunting in the same area. As they sat around the campfire reminiscing of bygone days they said they suddenly saw the “melancholy maiden” walking slowly through the trees about 100 yds from their camp. They called out to her but said she completely ignored them and just kept walking on her path.

The 1st Investigation

It took a couple of years but by 1915 word of the weeping woman and haunted cabin near Rivulet, Montana started making its way around Missoula. Three men named Ed Rendleman, W.E. Fuge (or Fudge), and F.J. Alberts went to the deserted cabin on the old Gossage homestead at Fish Creek to try and solve the mysterious sightings. And then things got weird. As the three men made their way to the cabin they noted there were no tracks in the snow. F.J. Alberts stopped at a stream near the cabin to refill his canteen and was surprised to see “12 or 15 clots of fresh blood” on the snowbank. He thought that his nose had started bleeding, but wiping his face he found no blood. Now properly freaked out he called to his friends but they couldn’t hear him. He ran to the cabin to tell his friends what he experienced and when the three men returned to the snowbank the blood was gone.

The men settled themselves in the cabin, starting a fire in the old fireplace and cooked a meal. They sat so they could see the front door of the cabin as well as the doorway into another room and most of the windows. And then, they waited. Eventually the men fell asleep and everything was fairly non-eventful until Alberts was woken up by Rendleman pinching his knee. Rendlemen didn’t say a word but slowly pointed across the dark room. When Alberts looked over he saw:

“a human face, with tearful, staring eyes. If the face had a body, I did not get it. The face was in the doorway leading from the bedroom. I saw it distinctly. It was a woman’s face, and about where the head of a short woman would have been. The face was weeping, very sorrowful.”

Rendleman said:

“I plainly saw a woman. She was dressed in a bridal gown, new, of light silk. She was crying. She came out of the bedroom and stood in the door. I pinched Alberts, to make sure he was awake. The woman stood there about 30 seconds, then crossed the room to the window at our left and disappeared. She was not more than eight or nine feet from us. No, we made no effort to seize the apparition.”

Ghostbusters Bill Murray GIFfrom Ghostbusters GIFs

The two men waited hoping the woman would reappear but to no avail. Around 3 am they woke up Fuge who slept through the entire event and made their way back down to Rivulet to catch the train home. I should point out that when the three men were interviewed, Fuge would say he believed that Alberts and Rendleman both dreamt the whole event.

The men knew they were being ridiculed for what they were saying publicly about their paranormal encounter. Two of the men wrote the following to The Missoulian on January 26th, 1915:

A great many of our citizens and others who have merely declared their intention of becoming citizens have a tendency to treat the matter of the Fish Creek specter or lady ghost with shrug of doubting shoulders and loud salvos of mirth. Perhaps, however, if they were suddenly confronted at midnight by a lovely young lady, dressed in milk-white bridal splendor, weeping bitterly but silently, wringing her little hands in abject despair, walking over the foothills in the silvery moonlight – then the matter would not be viewed in so gleeful a light.

The 2nd Investigation

Following the article of the three men’s experience in the haunted cabin, a man named Burt Duckworth decided that he was up for a challenge and would settle once and for all the question of if the cabin was truly haunted. Duckworth was described as a “good photographer” and set off for the cabin along with four others: Ray Hall, Harry Byrd, Ellis Rathburn, and Ralph Cuplin. Ralph Cuplin was said to have been an “excellent photographer” and brought with him an “electronically-equipped” camera.

The ghostly domain of this woman was said to stretch from Cyr to the Fish Creek bridge and the surrounding areas. To get to the area the men would take the westbound Coeur d’Alene train and get off at the Rivulet Station. The cabin itself was accessible only by horseback or walking. It was described as a story-and-a-half built on a flat in Weeping Woman gulch. The inside had a large room with a stairway leading up to the half story which was used for sleeping. The property also had a hay-barn, and a small chicken pen which were both on the verge of collapse.

The men arrived at the cabin around 3:30pm and were tired and hungry from the miles long trek through the hills. Ray Hall cooked their dinner and they then proceeded to thoroughly investigate the entire cabin, taking pictures as they went. By the time they got finished taking pictures of the outside of the cabin, the sun was going down and the men decided it was time to figure out where they would sleep. They set up their fancy camera near the door so it would cover as much of the room as possible. A rubber cord with a button stretched across the room to where the men set up their sleeping bags.

The men were all sleeping peacefully when suddenly Ellis Rathburn jumped up from his bed and ran out the front door jumping over two other men in the process. At the same time, one of the men, Ralph Cuplin had the presence of mind to press the button on their “electric camera” and capture a picture they said proved that there was something spooky happening in the old deserted cabin. The men said they saw standing before them the ghost of a weeping woman who promptly vanished as soon as the camera button was pressed. Burt went on to describe their feelings:

Our feelings are best described in the language of Edgar Allen Poe: We were filled with a fantastic feeling ne’er dreamed of before”

As a paranormal researcher I find this story fascinating, mainly because of how well it was documented. Typically, when researching old ghost stories, and ghost stories in general, the details are very vague. Names aren’t mentioned, dates aren’t solid, etc. Not only were the names of numerous people who experienced this ghost in the woods posted in the local papers, but they were all verifiable.

All of the men mentioned in this post were verified as living in the Missoula area during the time the events occurred. Additionally, the lore behind the cabin, although much more vague, was also somewhat verified. The papers said that the cabin was haunted by a woman who was murdered in the area years prior. The name of the owner of the cabin was said to have been Gossage. There was a man named Robert C. Gossage who owned the land that the cabin was located on. However, I could find no mention of anyone connected to the Gossage family having died in the period of time before the ghost began to be seen. Interestingly, it doesn’t appear that the Gossage family stayed at the location for very long.

Was the Weeping Woman of Fish Creek a carefully planned hoax or were there actual strange events happening in this remote area of Montana? Personally, I’d like to believe the stories of the spirit haunting the cabin, but hoax or not, it’s a fascinating tale.

Sources:

The Missoulian (Missoula, Montana) 25 Jan 1915, Mon • Page 2
The Missoulian (Missoula, Montana) 26 Jan 1915, Tue • Page 10
The Missoulian (Missoula, Montana) 06 Feb 1915, Sat • Page 8
U.S., General Land Office Records, 1776-2015

October 1, 2021 0 comment

Uncovering the Legend of Whiskey Pete’s Ghost

by Jennifer Jones March 6, 2020

written by Jennifer Jones

There’s a legend surrounding Whiskey Pete’s Hotel & Casino in Primm, Nevada that says the place is haunted by old Whiskey Pete himself. Patrons and staff alike have reported the unnerving feeling of being watched. As they look around they spot an elderly man wearing old fashioned western wear who then promptly vanishes before their eyes. The legend says that Pete still haunts his former property because his grave was disturbed during the construction of the resort, and he wants everyone to know that he’s still around keeping an eye on things.

I had heard of this legend before, and honestly, I chalked it all up to be a legend because there are never any details to the reports such as who saw the ghost and when. On top of that, I didn’t realize that Whiskey Pete was even a real person and it all just sounded too much like an urban legend to me. But, as it turns out, Whiskey Pete was a real person and his grave was actually disturbed.

The Beginnings of Whiskey Pete

Long before the hotels that straddle the freeway in Primm, Nevada sat a small service station called the State Line Station, which was run by a cantankerous moonshiner named Pete McIntyre. Most people in the area knew him as Whiskey Pete, and it seems like Pete was the type of guy who took no crap from anyone! Pete was very well known in Las Vegas and there were a few who did not care for him much and felt that he could get away with anything.

Pete is a difficult guy to trace through historical records. He does not show up in the 1900, 1910, or 1920 U.S. Census that I can find. He does show up in the Tulare County jail, however, in January 1918. He was arrested for running a “blind pig” otherwise known as a speakeasy. While he was eventually sentenced to 30 days in jail, he actually served a little over two months because he could not make bail initially. His place of birth listed is Arizona, which differs from where he would list his place of birth in the 1930 Census. The jail records state his occupation was a miner. In 1922 he was again arrested for bootlegging, this time in Nevada, and spent 6 months in jail.

He’s first listed on the 1930 U.S. Census living in Crescent, Nevada, a small mining town near the Nevada California line. He lists his occupation as the proprietor of a service station. He’s first mentioned in the Las Vegas newspapers in 1928 when the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce read a letter from a woman who stopped at Whiskey Pete’s gas station. According to the woman it was about 11 p.m. and she stopped to have her oil and water checked and to get gas. Whiskey Pete came out to serve them and when he realized that the car only needed water he became “abusive and threatening and refused to let them have water.” He forced the woman to drive to the next service station with an empty radiator and an overheated engine. The Chamber of Commerce said that for months they had received similar complaints from tourists driving to and from Las Vegas to California. One of the complaints said that Whiskey Pete shot at them and another said he threatened to shoot them. They referred the information to the Las Vegas sheriff so that he could have a chat with Pete.

Pete’s attitude might have chilled out for a bit but by March 1931 Pete was facing a charge of assault with a deadly weapon for shooting the Elgin postmaster, Rube Bradshaw in the shoulder. Unsurprisingly the two men had different versions of what happened. According to Rube, he stopped at the gas station with his two sons and when he walked inside Pete was already “surly”. When he asked Pete for a cup of coffee he said Pete became enraged so he simply said he’d get his coffee elsewhere and started to leave. When he reached the door he said that Pete called him a “vile name” and when he turned around to face him, Pete shot him in the shoulder with a pistol.

A preliminary hearing was set for Pete at which he pleaded not guilty and was released on bail. Pete told the reporters that he resented the bad reputation he had and that his remote location makes it necessary for him to be armed at all times. He also made sure to let the reporters know that he was paying for all of Rube Bradshaw’s hospital and medical expenses. Eventually, the charges against Pete were dropped when Bradshaw failed to show at court three separate times.

At some point in early 1932, Pete married a woman named Lauretta Frances Enders. By October she had apparently had enough and took him to court on charges of insanity. According to physicians Pete was just fine mentally, but physically he was likely to die in a matter of days due to “miner’s consumption.” Mrs. McIntyre was the only witness against her husband and claimed that he would “fly into a rage every time he sees me and accuses me of all sorts of things.” Pete quickly admitted to flying into rages but added: “who wouldn’t when they find their wife running around naked in the hills with other men.”

He said that a few weeks prior, Lauretta took him to the Stillwell Sanitarium in Banning, Calfornia and remained there with him, helping to care for him. As soon as he showed signs of recovering she left him. Lauretta was supposed to be looking after the service station, but when he was well enough to go home he found she hadn’t paid attention to it at all and was “running around with other men.” The judge denied Laurett’s motion to have him committed and there is really no mention of her after this.

By December of 1932, Pete declared that he was too busy to die and that he was now four months past his funeral date. By September of 1933, Pete was living back at Stillwell where he told reporters he was doing okay. Whiskey Pete McIntyre died on the 11th of November, 1933. It was soon announced that his funeral was to be held in Las Vegas, and this is where things get weird.

Buried Standing Up

At some point prior to his death, Pete told his friends that he wanted to be buried standing up near his service station. His exact words were “Bury me up on the hill, standing up facing the valley so I can see all those sons of bitches goin’ by.” His friends did as he asked and used dynamite to blast a 6′ hole in the limestone cliff overlooking Highway 91 from behind his service station. Over the years Pete’s grave became lost to time. People repeatedly stole his grave marker until it simply wasn’t replaced. His service station was sold a few times until the location was eventually developed into Whiskey Pete’s Casino in 1977.

The only known image of Whiskey Pete’s original grave. Used with Permission.

On February 2, 1994, construction workers were grading land for a railroad track that would connect Whiskey Pete’s to Buffalo Bill’s on the other side of the freeway. While working near the original site of State Line Station, they struck a crumbling wooden coffin. Inside they found the skeletal remains of Whiskey Pete himself. Even though some of the legends said he was buried with a 10-gallon hat on his head, his six-shooters strapped to his side and a jug of whiskey, all they found was his bones. He had a little bit of hair left on his skull, dentures in his mouth, and a couple of buttons left on his shirt.[mfn]Remains of Whiskey Pete found -Las Vegas Review-Journal – February 5, 1994[/mfn]

Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal February 5, 1994

Pete’s coffin was said to be about 80% intact and buried at an angle to the highway. The project manager said they knew that Whiskey Pete was buried somewhere in the area, but they had no way of knowing exactly where. “The tractor caught the edge of the box and the skull popped out. There was Whiskey Pete staring at us.”

Although the resort said that Whiskey Pete would be reburied somewhere on the property with a memorial, it doesn’t appear that any memorial has been set up, and it’s unknown exactly where Pete has been buried. It’s rumored that his remains were reinterred in one of the caves he used to make his moonshine.

March 6, 2020 0 comment

Forgotten History Urban Legends

The Headless Ghost of Stony Creek

by Jennifer Jones January 7, 2020

written by Jennifer Jones

On July 15, 1919, an article was published in the Baltimore Evening Sun about a headless ghost that had been seen wandering near an area known as Stony Creek. It sounds like the perfect beginning to an urban legend, an urban legend that for some reason never really stuck. Maybe because the area is now highly industrialized and is home to a superfund site and a hazardous waste landfill.

Apparently, this ghost without a head was seen wandering around Stony Beach and the surrounding woods woefully moaning and asking where his head was. Who’s got my head? Young people in the area began flocking to the beach with the hopes of catching a glimpse of the headless phantom.

The appearance of the headless ghost was said to originate from one of the worst maritime disasters at that time that took place in the area on March 7th, 1913. At approximately 10:30 a.m. that morning a British tramp steamer named the Alum Chine was mid-stream in the Patapsco River between Sparrows and Hawkins Point where 350 tons of dynamite was being loaded.

Suddenly, smoke was seen pouring out of the ship and the men aboard began yelling that she was going to explode. Within minutes the ship exploded spewing a 50-foot tower of flame into the air followed by a large mushroom cloud that could be seen from miles around. The blast was so intense that windows in the surrounding towns were blown out, debris fell down as far as 2 miles from the scene, and a 6-foot tide poured into Hawkins Point.

The explosion not only instantly obliterated the Alum Chine, but also a loading scow that she was tied to along with a nearby tug named the Atlantic. Men weren’t just killed from the blast, many were killed or seriously injured from shrapnel, rivets, and chunks of iron and wood, and body parts that rained down upon them. By that evening it was determined that at least 20 men were killed and their bodies brought to morgues in Baltimore. The number of dead would eventually rise to 33, but there were most likely more.

Many of the victims were unable to be identified given the sheer trauma that was inflicted on the bodies. At least 12 of the unidentified dead were buried at the Davis Chemical Plant in Baltimore. In 1952 the remains were reinterred in the Old Marley Methodist Protestant Church Cemetery in Glen Burnie, Maryland.

Almost two months after the explosion, the body of a headless, unidentifiable man washed ashore near the mouth of Stony Creek, and this is when the legend of the headless ghost began. The body was buried in a field on the farm of a man named Arthur Riddlemore, near where it had been found. Within weeks of this body being found, stories began circulating about a wailing headless ghost in the area.

The Headless Ghost of Stony Creek - The Dead History — The Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) · 4 May 1913, Sun · Page 3

It’s unknown if the woman ever determined the headless body belonged to her husband. Who knows, maybe there’s a ghost out there today, wandering around a toxic dump still looking for his head.