Friendly Ghosts at Childrens Lake?

Yes, my friends, the rumors of ghosts at Childrens Lake are real. According to folklore several apparitions have appeared at the lake. And not just at Halloween.

Looking to shed some light on this ghostly mystery, I recently took off on another of my road trips down history’s highway. Or perhaps I should say a road trip “on the trail of the Ghosts of Childrens Lake.”

There is one I found particularly fascinating. Legend has it that the shadowy soul or spirit of a young woman has been sighted at the lake numerous times over the years. Not a haunting or ghoulish ghost, but more just a slight whisper of white … a silent visitor wandering the waters edge.

I’m told that she’s affectionately nicknamed “The Nightwalker” since she has only been seen at night. She has been sighted walking along the lake and sometimes stopping to sit on a bench. Those who claim to have seen her have said that she appears to be looking for, or waiting for, someone.

Who might this mysterious manifestation be? Why does her spirit keep returning to walk the paths along the lake? Perhaps our ghost might be the spirit of a spurned maiden, rejected by a beau who used to walk down “lovers lane” with her during the lively heydays when the summer resort park thrived here.

Or perhaps our ghost is the spirit of Ivy Urich, a twenty three year old mother from Harrisburg, who brought her two young children to this popular lakeside park on June 29, 1910.

The annual Sunday school picnic in the park for members of the Park Street and Harris Street United Evangelical congregations had a well earned reputation as a fun filled event. More than 100 people had registered in eager anticipation of spending a delightful day in the park.

The trolley line offered reduced rates for picnickers, and special cars had been reserved and were waiting for the group at the Capitol City’s Market Square. Ivy and her children, four year old Dorothy and two year old Harold, woke up early that morning. The trolley was leaving at 8:00 for the two hour ride across the river and up through the beautiful Cumberland Valley and they didn’t want to be late. Her disappointed husband Charles had to remain behind in the city because it was a work day.

After they arrived at the lake and everyone retrieved their picnic basket from the trolley line’s “basket car”, the morning was busy with socializing and children’s games. A leisurely lunch was followed by a brief but necessary business meeting, and the afternoon was filled with lively competitive contests for prizes.

While Ivy was helping with the afternoon activities, her children were playing with others nearby. Around three o’clock Ivy realized that she had not seen Harold for about ten minutes and asked Dorothy where he was. When her daughter said she didn’t know, Ivy began a frantic search.

Harold had been last seen playing near the dance pavilion so she headed in that direction. In the worst possible scenario for any parent, she discovered his unconscious body floating face down in the lake near a tree just behind the pavilion.

The young lad was pulled from the water as a large crowd began to gather. A medical student and Dr. H. F. Gross, who had accompanied the group from Harrisburg, as well as Dr. M. R. Peters from Boiling Springs, worked for more than two hours to try and revive Harold. Their efforts were unsuccessful.

Harold Urich’s heartbroken and grief stricken mother was placed under medical care. His father, who had received word of the accident, arrived in Boiling Springs on the 6:10 trolley. Harold’s tiny lifeless body was returned home to Harrisburg by train and buried a few days later.

This was not the first time a young child is known to have faced death in the lake.

Twenty-two years earlier the two year old son of Boiling Springs resident Thomas Sweeney fell into the head race near the iron furnace office. A clerk in the office named L. K. Weller, hearing the screams of several women, plunged into the four foot deep water and pulled the child to safety. Thomas had already gone under the water twice and surely would have died had it not been for the women’s screams and Mr. Weller’s quick action.

Perhaps our ghost is the sad spirit of the recently widowed Myrtle Whitcomb, who lived on Second Street in the village.

On Saturday, May 21, 1932, six year old Raymond Harold Whitcomb went to the lake fishing with several of his local friends. Around three o’clock in the afternoon he and Roy Lutz, seven-year-old son of local businessman Milt Lutz, had moved to the bank of the intake water to the turbine in Jared C. Bucher’s Boiling Springs Electric Company building.

According to his friend, Raymond got too close to the edge, lost his balance, and fell into the water. The swift current pulled him under the water instantly. Immediately Roy ran to, and alerted, a gentleman named Lawrence Strickler who was nearby washing his car.

Lawrence Strickler was a thirty-four year old Army veteran of World War I. He was employed as a finance clerk at the Carlisle Barracks and, with his wife Nellie Wilson, had an three year old son of his own named Paul.

Strickler immediately raced to the power plant. By the time he got there two other men named Jonas Rupp and Albert Skelly had also arrived. As the men searched for the youngster, the power plant was shut down and the gates of the dam were opened to drain the water from the intake. After roughly one half hour the young man was spotted lying in the remaining water at the bottom of the ten or twelve foot deep intake.

A ladder was quickly lowered into the water. Mr. Strickler climbed down and, with the assistance of Mr. Rupp and Mr. Skelly, removed Raymond’s body. Lawrence Strickler rushed the young man to Dr. Gamble’s nearby office, and then to the Carlisle Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. Mrs. Gordon Whitcomb, forty year old mother of four, whose husband had died six years earlier, had just lost her only son.

Perhaps the mysterious “Ghost of Childrens Lake” is neither a spurned maiden nor one of these grieving mothers. Perhaps she is just a shimmer of mist drifting up from the water on a chilly night.

Or perhaps … just perhaps, she is a guardian angel sent to watch over the water and protect the children who still come to the lake each day … to feed the ducks and fish and play.

[Copyright 2018]