Haunted Attraction: Ghosts in Small-Town Pennsylvania

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever worked at a haunted attraction?

[00:00:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, Donovan did.

[00:00:05] [SPEAKER_00]: But the scariest part wasn't the job.

[00:00:07] [SPEAKER_00]: It was what came after.

[00:00:11] [SPEAKER_00]: My name is Edwin.

[00:00:13] [SPEAKER_00]: And here is Donovan's true scary story.

[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_01]: My name is Donovan Snyder.

[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Born and raised in small town just outside of York or Gettysburg.

[00:00:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I grew up in a very religious family.

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_01]: We were brethren, which is a branch of Christianity very similar to Mennonite.

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_01]: As I got older, I grew away from the church for say, I mean, I still have my faith in God and all that.

[00:00:52] [SPEAKER_01]: But it definitely pulled away as I got older.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Growing up in the late 90s, early 2000s, just like most kids, you know, I got into the horror aspect of movies

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_01]: and I like to be spooked and scared and all that.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I would watch ghost adventures with my brothers. That was something we always liked to do.

[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_01]: That thrill of the paranormal was always there while I was growing up.

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I think I was about 14 or 15.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Before I could get a real, real job and down, there was a little haunted attraction here close to where we live.

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_01]: At the time it was called the Haunted Mill.

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people local to Pennsylvania know about it.

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they took volunteers and then you got paid through the month of October.

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_01]: At the end of the month you got paid for volunteering.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_01]: But anyhow, I was in the one area at the time it was called the Dark Sound and it was just a barn pretty much.

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_01]: And it was set up like a maze and people would go through.

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_01]: I was working in the one area they called it the Cyclo Horde where there was a cage

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_01]: and there was a long hallway that came in and a long hallway that let out.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_01]: The long hallway that let out was pitch black.

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Doing my job I chased somebody down the long hallway and it was very late at night.

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it was about one in the morning because that's how later we were.

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_01]: After I chased that person around I had to turn back and get to my post.

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_01]: While I'm coming back there is a trap door in that hallway that led to the entrance hallway.

[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_01]: That door opened and when that door opens it lets light into the hallway.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_01]: When that door opened and I saw that light I saw I guess an outline of a person.

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And it looked like they were beckoning me to come through the door.

[00:03:04] [SPEAKER_01]: So I hurried up and I went to go through the door.

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Next thing I know I'm back in the Cyco area like I faced through the door.

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Like it was never open.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_01]: And I was so tired and I was just like maybe they shut the door before I got there.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_01]: But as I got older and I think back to that instance it was very strange.

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_01]: While I worked there my friends worked in the far side of the barn, the dark stone,

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_01]: and they worked in the toxic area.

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_01]: The one guy, the one kid name was Wesley.

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_01]: He experienced what he told me was an apparition floating in the rafters of the barn

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_01]: that he could see just slowly, just almost circling above him.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_01]: Nobody else saw it only he saw it.

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_01]: And I remember that night that he saw it he quit. He never came back.

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Understandably over a decade later I'm back here in Mangusville as I live right across from the Haunted Mill.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_01]: And I went and I took a ghost tour that they had.

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Out of curiosity I went back to the dark zone which is now called the House of Eyes.

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_01]: The layout is all changed but I still remember in my head those areas,

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_01]: the back left corner in the middle to the right.

[00:04:33] [SPEAKER_01]: As I'm talking to the investigators they inform me that the two areas that I told them about

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_01]: are the two areas they've had the most activity.

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, there was something going on. I did see something.

[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_01]: My friend Wesley he also saw something.

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And what they also told me at that time that I didn't know was apparently a little boy

[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_01]: was working up on the rafters or playing up on the roof of the rafters.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_01]: He felt it was death.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Once again the click he saw the apparition up in the rafters.

[00:05:09] [SPEAKER_01]: That blew my mind a little bit. That caught me off guard.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people like even the hunters themselves told me of what they've seen.

[00:05:18] [SPEAKER_01]: They had what they called stick figure or I forget what they called it but it was like a stick figure that they called on camera.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_01]: A very long stick figure that was very tall in the room right above where the kid fell to his death.

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_01]: As far as I know several people in this area have all had experiences.

[00:05:37] [SPEAKER_01]: There's actually other parts of the mill that all have reports of activity.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_01]: That's why a lot of people are attracted to this area because they're very interested in the paranormal.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_01]: My parents always told me the one thing that you never do is try to communicate with things from the other side

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_01]: because they're very religious but all they ever told me to fear really because they didn't really believe in ghosts

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_01]: was of course demons.

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_01]: To this day never I've never tried the Ouija board and I wouldn't even dream of it.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_01]: It's just something that my parents didn't even teach me that it's just something that I feel like I know.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I know personally that I should not communicate with the other side.

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Just a personal preference I have nothing against the people that do.

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Somebody has to venture forth and find out the unknown.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_01]: I was at a friend's house was about 16 17 years old and they tried to break out the Ouija board.

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I actually when I think back to it I got pretty mad at them.

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I remember not yelling at the top of my lungs but I said if you use that right now I'm going to leave

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_01]: and they're like okay we won't use.

[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I found out later that they did use it after I left the one kid he got really scared and he left afterwards

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_01]: and he told me you're right Donna we never should have used that thing.

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to tell you I told you so but sometimes you've got to be careful with that stuff.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I guess in my mid 20s 23 24 I went through a divorce.

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_01]: I was in a pretty dark area of that time and my interest in learning and hearing about stories grew.

[00:07:46] [SPEAKER_01]: It's almost like my friends and people that would hang around always had a story like an instance with a paranormal

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_01]: and it was very interesting to me that it's almost like I drew these people to me

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and they would tell me their stories and I found it very interesting.

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_01]: My ex-wife she had a story where when they were younger the basement was extremely haunted

[00:08:14] [SPEAKER_01]: and they knew for a fact that it was something malicious

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_01]: and her mother went down there and rebuked it several times.

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I think they ended up having to move.

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't believe they were able to get that entity out of there but I remember hearing that

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_01]: and just thinking wow that's scary stuff.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_01]: When you hear it and you have an experience because at this time I didn't have any actual experience personally.

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Flash forward to 2023 just in the new year I met my now wife Sydney.

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_01]: We were dating for roughly four or five months.

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_01]: She had just started a field work for her occupational therapy training for college.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_01]: So when she did that we moved in together but we were staying a few nights at her mother's house

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_01]: and a few nights at my apartment which was in Magnus Mills right across from the Hawni Mill.

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And I should note that I assumed I would have activity here at my apartment

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_01]: but I didn't which is very fortunate.

[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like right across the street you think somebody would wander over.

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_01]: At her mother's house so I'll tell you this little in-depth her one night where they were having dinner

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and her mom proceeds to tell me that my curiosity of the paranormal came out

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and I asked them just casually have you experienced anything

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_01]: and she immediately hit back with oh yes actually in this house.

[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And I said right here she said yeah actually we've had lights flicker we've had the one DVD cabinet out in the living room

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_01]: which was connected right to the dining room right where we were.

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_01]: She said I used to open on its own unexplained.

[00:10:13] [SPEAKER_01]: She said a friend of hers they have a little orchard outside of the kitchen.

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_01]: It's like a small Cape Cod house so it's three stories.

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_01]: It's the basement, the middle section and then the top where all the bedrooms are.

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_01]: But there's a little screed and porch just outside.

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a window looking into it from the dining room

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_01]: and then there's a door leading out to it from the kitchen.

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_01]: She said her and her friend were out there just hanging out looking out at the birds and squirrels and all that

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_01]: and all of a sudden her friend apparently noticed a figure in the garage window straight ahead.

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_01]: They told me that it was a shadow figure apparently I just found out that she saw an actual face looking right at her.

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't really scared I was almost excited to hear about it

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_01]: but once again I didn't want to stir anything up or challenge it or anything like that

[00:11:10] [SPEAKER_01]: but her stepfather chimed in he said yeah there was a time where she was away

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and I was in the living room and I heard the door to the basement slam shut.

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Very loudly he said it like it he thought there was somebody in the house

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_01]: and he's got a lot of guns so he did what anyone would do.

[00:11:33] [SPEAKER_01]: So God is gone started upstairs clear the upstairs clear the main floor and then went down to the basement.

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Nobody was nobody in the house he checked everywhere but he knows for a fact and apparently he's had several experiences so didn't shake him at all.

[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_01]: But I'm just there at the dinner table thinking wow this is pretty crazy.

[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Shortly after that I would say probably three weeks to a month we set up shop in the basement of course that's just the only free room they had.

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER_01]: We had our bed down there we put some LEDs on the wall and it was a very large room a lot of space

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_01]: and then like most patients there was a support beam in the middle the dead center of the room

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_01]: and then to the right of that support beam to the left if you're facing from the staircase to the left of that support beam was a little cabinet going from the support beam to the wall.

[00:12:37] [SPEAKER_01]: So it was like a little prep area where you could fold your laundry and all that.

[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_01]: And then to the right was just nothing but a big area where we had a little table set up in the right corner

[00:12:47] [SPEAKER_01]: and then straight ahead lined up with that support beam is where we had our king bed that we set up.

[00:12:57] [SPEAKER_01]: There was only one light into the basement as most basements are set up where you turned on from when you walked down you turn it on.

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_01]: So we'd always turn that light off and have the LEDs lit up so we could you know have a little bit of light so we weren't to pitch black.

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Something that started happening is we would come back from work and we could have done dinner and the LEDs would be a different color.

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_01]: We always kept them on purple or light blue and they would change to red blue dark blue orange for some reason.

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And we didn't know why we didn't really look into it too much.

[00:13:39] [SPEAKER_01]: It didn't really startle me that much.

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_01]: At first I thought it was her changing the lights.

[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_01]: It had a little pow wow and said oh hey you're not changing the lights.

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not changing the lights who's changing the lights.

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_01]: We did eventually find out that it was her brother also had LEDs and his lights would change ours without us knowing.

[00:14:04] [SPEAKER_01]: We did not know that at the time.

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_01]: So it was still startling to us and it ties into what happens to me and sets the stage a little bit.

[00:14:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Shortly after the whole dinner scenario I'd say it was about two to three weeks.

[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_01]: We were going to bed and she went to bed first. She fell asleep first and I was watching TV.

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_01]: I should note that Sydney talks in her sleep a lot.

[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_01]: She will just have conversations like she's at work.

[00:14:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Just say yachts and eds things. Nothing too wild I've gotten used to it.

[00:14:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I eventually nod off. The TV was left on and it's a TV that doesn't auto shut off.

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_01]: So the next thing I know I'm adding a dream an out of body experience stream where I'm in the right corner of the basement to the right of our bed.

[00:14:56] [SPEAKER_01]: And I specifically remember coming to and seeing us in bed.

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I looked to the left and I saw a slanted bed and I remember feeling happy.

[00:15:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm like man this is it. Hey there we are.

[00:15:09] [SPEAKER_01]: But all of a sudden I look over towards the stairs right where that support beam is which is only a few feet away from the end of our bed.

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And all of a sudden I just see a full black figure staring directly at the bed where we were sleeping where I just looked at us.

[00:15:28] [SPEAKER_01]: And I remember in the dream I was I froze and I was just staring directly at wondering what in the world what is this.

[00:15:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I was frozen in fear in the dream.

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_01]: And next thing I know it slowly turns its head towards me in the corner looks directly at me.

[00:15:49] [SPEAKER_01]: And when that happened I instantly woke up in bed and when I woke up I was drenched in sweat and it was not we were in the basement.

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_01]: It's very cold down there.

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't sweat that often. I wasn't even hardly under the cup as I was drenched in sweat.

[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_01]: My eyes wide open and the first thing I noticed oh my goodness the lights are off it's pitch black down here.

[00:16:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't see it then.

[00:16:16] [SPEAKER_01]: And I just had this dream.

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm looking straight up in bed as anyone would if they woke up.

[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't jump up my eyes just flung open.

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Just a palpable fear.

[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Not danger. I didn't feel like I was in danger. I just felt like someone was checking out what's going on.

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_01]: But I didn't look forward because I didn't want to give it presents. I didn't want to give it a type of power like I actually recognized it.

[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Like before I know what's going on before I can even gather my thoughts all of a sudden Sydney to the left of me springs up in bed.

[00:16:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Straight up in the little slouch forward like sitting straight up looking dead ahead right at the post and says

[00:17:03] [SPEAKER_01]: What the hell is that?

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_01]: As she slowly points forward.

[00:17:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I said what do you see? What's there? What is it?

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't look ahead. I looked directly at her to the side to the left.

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_01]: And then she slowly lowered her hand and slumped back in bed and started snoring right afterward.

[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_01]: At this point I was just like okay. I have no idea what's going on.

[00:17:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just completely just my mind is just thinking like what in the world is happening. I was very scared because I never had anything like this happen.

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I feel like most of everyone's had the out-of-body dreams but anytime that I have those it's never been anything where I see something and then in the same room let alone

[00:17:51] [SPEAKER_01]: and then step back to reality and then this stuff happens I've never experienced anything like that.

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_01]: So I remember I just said you know what just try to go to bed.

[00:18:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I said because if you get up you got to go all the way over and turn the lights on just leave a B so you get to that.

[00:18:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously it doesn't want to hurt you just leave a B.

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_01]: After probably what felt two or three hours I think I finally managed to go back to sleep and I woke up.

[00:18:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Of course the first thing I said when I woke up said you woke up with me and I said do you remember anything of what happened last night?

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_01]: And she said no why are the lights off? I was like I don't know but do you remember jumping up in bed and pointing and saying what the hell is that?

[00:18:36] [SPEAKER_01]: And she said no I don't remember anything.

[00:18:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I should also say that she did burn incense in that basement before we moved in.

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_01]: So I feel like if it was a malicious spirit I feel like it would have been either sated a little bit or flushed out or but like I said I didn't feel anything malicious or evil

[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_01]: but what I did feel was that I felt like it was a man definitely felt like almost like a man checking on hey why are these people in my basement?

[00:19:11] [SPEAKER_01]: They're like confused of why there's people at his house.

[00:19:17] [SPEAKER_01]: That's what it felt like to me I did later find out after I told them that her mom never told me this of course but her sister did.

[00:19:24] [SPEAKER_01]: She said yeah they actually found an unmarked grave back behind the house a little bit away from the garage where they saw the face her friends all face in the garage window.

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_01]: We visit a lot. I still look in the garage and I try to see if I can catch him in the act like peeking at us.

[00:19:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Not in a quirky way just because of the curiosity but after that happened I was a little I was shooken up.

[00:19:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I had issues sleeping there for the first few weeks but I eventually got over it just as soon as I got over it about three weeks later.

[00:20:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Same thing Sydney went to bed and I was watching TV and I was slowly start to doze off and all of a sudden I hear something right up against my ear.

[00:20:23] [SPEAKER_01]: It sounded like one of two things but what I feel like it was come out here.

[00:20:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I looked around at this point I woke her up I wasn't too concerned about making her mad I said did you hear that?

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_01]: She said what? I was like I swear I just heard somebody saying come out here.

[00:20:44] [SPEAKER_01]: She's like I didn't hear anything. I was just like of course not at this point.

[00:20:53] [SPEAKER_01]: I feel like he may have been outside in the garage at the time and maybe he was trying to reach out to me and communicate with me and make himself known.

[00:21:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm out here if you want to come hang out and see me but of course I did not interact that's just how I am how I was talk how I feel.

[00:21:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Sydney told me that her father-in-law got a metal detector and they've been metal detecting out back behind the house.

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_01]: It was like an old dump apparently they found medicine bottles from the late 1800s back there.

[00:21:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So whoever is buried back there could be a pretty old soul.

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_00]: If you or anyone you know has a story to share in Spanish let me know it's for a podcast in Spanish called Terror Historias Reales

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_00]: and my contact information is in the description of this episode.

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_00]: To show your own story here visit truescarystory.com and fill out the form and to listen ad free and support the show at the same time join us on Scary Plus.

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_00]: If you're following the show I will talk to you next week.

[00:22:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you very much for listening.

[00:22:10] [SPEAKER_00]: You've been scary everyone.

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_00]: See you soon.