Harpers Ferry National Historic Park Visitor Center, 171 Shoreline Dr, Harpers Ferry, WV

Description

We had fun this year - let's do it again next year!

Getting it on the calendar. Same time, same park, more stamps, more fun!

Hope to see everyone back in Historic Harpers Ferry.

Happy Halloween!
____________________________

Sep 25, 2011: Ghosts of Harpers Ferry!
Hello everyone,

The Christmas merchandise has made an appearance in Michael's, so that means it must be time for us to send out some details about the Ghosts of Harpers Ferry event on October 29!

We're so pleased you signed up and are working to find a location that will accommodate everyone on the waiting list. We have a couple special things planned, which means we need to know who will be there. If you don't think you can make it any more, please remove your name from the list.

Clue distribution will begin at 10 a.m. As the event nears, we'll send a message with the location of clue pick-up.

We see there are a number of people visiting us from outside the area, so if you have any questions about places to stay, please let ask!

More details to follow....
Have a hauntingly good week...

Oct 1, 2011: Ghosts of Harpers Ferry
Greetings ghostly guests!

It's just past midnight following the first day of October... let the spooks begin!

In 28 days, we'll be pushing the denizens of Harpers Ferry's haunted streets aside to make way for some letterboxing revelry, maybe even a little haunting of our own. Keep watching AQ for updates from us. They just may contain a clue leading to a secret box... (First clue: there are no clues in this message.)

To start getting you in the mood for Harpers Ferry's spectral past, we'll leave you with the sad tale of Jenny, a poor woman who lived along the railroad tracks:

The railroad reached Harpers Ferry in 1833, linking the town with the east, and part of the track passed through the Armory Yard. Years before storage sheds were built along the river bank. Upon completion of the armory, when the sheds were no longer needed, they were neglected and finally abandoned. Some of the less fortunate people in town occupied these teetering shacks, making them their homes. Jenny was one of the sad but lucky people living there through steamy summers and cruel winters.

One chilly night, Jenny got so close to her fireplace, her ragged dress caught fire. In panic, she fled from her shack, ran down the railroad tracks, and was struck and killed by the night train.

Today, engineers from nearby towns say they do not like coming through Harpers Ferry on misty nights. They often see a ball of fire careening wildly down the tracks emitting unearthly screams. They try to stop their diesels, but never in time. There is a bump, and when they finally get their train stopped, they investigate, but find nothing. The railroaders know Jenny has made another trip down the tracks desperately seeking help.

Watch and listen as the trains pass this point in the old armory yard. You will be able to tell which engineers have met screaming Jenny by the slack speed they guide their trains over this section of track.

Sometimes in the night, you will hear some train conductors, wildly blowing their whistle. You'll know then that Jenny has once again returned.

See you soon!

Oct 12, 2011: Greetings Fellow Phantoms
Did the story of Screaming Jenny prepare you for the spooks that await you in Harpers Ferry? No? Then perhaps a visit to our photo album will excite your inner spirit. And who knows, maybe a ghost will help guide you ...

Oct 19, 2011: Who's Haunting Now?
When abolitionist John Brown attacked Harpers Ferry in 1859, one of his fellow raiders, and the first person killed, was a black man named Dangerfield Newby. Dangerfield had been freed by his white owner, but his wife and seven children were still enslaved near Warrenton, VA. His wife's master told Dangerfield that for the sum of $1500.00 he would sell him his wife and youngest child. When Newby raised the sum to purchase them, the master raised the price. Disillusioned and desperate he joined John Brown, hoping to free his wife and children.
The citizens of Harpers Ferry armed themselves against the raiders in the early hours of the October 17th. There were a lot of guns in town since they were manufactured there, but there was very little ammunition, and the townspeople were firing anything that would fit into a gun barrel. One man was shooting six inch spikes. It was one of these that hit Dangerfield Newby in the throat, killing him instantly. The townspeople became so enraged that they took their fear, ignorance, and frustration out on Newby's body. It was mutilated and dragged to a nearby alley where it was left to the hogs, who are said to have consumed it.
To this day that alley bears the name of "Hog Alley." Some night as you walk the streets of Harpers Ferry, should you happen to meet a black man about 45 years old, wearing baggy pants, and old slouch hat, and bearing a terrible scar across his throat, you will know that you have met Dangerfield Newby, still trying to free his wife and children.

With that grim story, we suggest you look at the photo album...

Oct 22, 2011: Take a stroll with a spirit...
Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery. John Brown, 1837
For most of the citizens of America, the Civil War began in 1861 with the firing upon of Fort Sumter, but for many, the war for freedom began many years before. For the abolitionists of the north and the slaves who were held in chains in the south, the Civil War was about the question of slavery. To those people, the war actually began in 1859, although for the instigator of this savage event, a man named John Brown, the war had begun much earlier than that.
On October 16, 1859, the fanatical prophet of doom led a small army of five black men and thirteen white men into the village of Harpers Ferry. He brought along a wagon filled with 200 rifles, 200 pistols, and 1000 pikes to arm the slaves that he was sure would rally to his cause of freedom... at any cost. He would lead his army south along the Appalachians and destroy slavery through the plantations of the south.
Brown quickly seized the federal arsenal, the armory, and the engine house and then gathered up hostages from the village. After that, things started to spiral out of con- trol. The first man killed was the town’s baggage master, a free black man. The army of slaves did not appear, but the townspeople did after Brown and his men opened fire on an incoming train. Before the battle was over, Brown would lose nine more men, two of them his own sons.
Federal troops soon arrived from Washington and in command was Colonel Robert E. Lee, who had come so quickly with 100 men that he had not even had time to put on his uniform. A dozen of Lee’s men stormed the arsenal and fought their way inside. Brown was slashed with an officer’s sword and captured, to be held by the state of Virginia for treason.
He was hanged on December 2 in nearby Charles Town. No one had any idea what an effect Brown’s attack on Harpers Ferry would have on the northern public. Those who opposed slavery spoke out in anger and marveled at the courage shown by Brown. Herman Melville would call him “the meteor of the war.” In the south, people were horrified by the raid and by the sympathy shown to Brown for his reckless actions. It would be one of the catalysts to the coming secession by the southern states.
As for the village of Harpers Ferry, the events of that day have left a lasting impression..Along the streets of the town, a strange, gaunt, white-haired man walks along with a small black dog at his side. The two odd companions stroll past the storefronts and the buildings and the tourists who come here notice him and remark on his eerie resemblance to the man that made this town famous, John Brown. In fact, the resemblance is so uncanny that many will ask this man if they can take his photograph. Little do they know that when they get their film developed, no man will appear in their photograph.
The man walks down the street to the door of the fire engine house, where he abruptly vanishes. Such are the encounters with the ghost of John Brown.

Perhaps John Brown is not the only spirit strolling the streets of Harpers Ferry... take a look in the photo album to see what you may see...

Oct 25, 2011: A Hidden Treasure
In 1747, Robert Harper, an architect and millwright from Philadelphia, crossed the Potomac River at the place where it is joined by the beautiful Shenandoah. Known then as “The Hole,” this point of land was then under the control of a squatter, Peter Stephens, who was operating a ferry from land belonging to Lord Fairfax.

So impressed with the wild beauty of the area and the potential water power the rivers promised, Harper purchased the Ferry and Stephen’s squatter rights. Harper later received a 125 acre plat from Fairfax.

Arriving at this untamed wilderness from Philadelphia sometime later, Rachael Harper was said to have cried for days and begged her husband to return to civilization and abandon “The Hole” he chose for their new home. Instead, Harper built a Mill, and improved the Ferry service across the rivers.

After losing their cabin along the Shenandoah to flood, the Harpers later built a new and grander home high above the flood plain. The Harper House stands today as the oldest surviving structure in Harpers Ferry.

During the revolution laborers were hard to find and the aging Harper was forced to do much of the work himself with the result that his health began to fail, and fearing the roaming bands of renegades and plunderers, Harper instructed Rachael to bury all of their gold and tell no living soul of its whereabouts.

Wartime construction was slowed and Harper Died before the house was completed. Trying to finish the building herself, Mrs. Harper, Falling from a ladder, was killed instantly - carrying the secret of the buried gold to her grave.

During the 1800’s it was widely believed that this building was haunted and was greatly feared by many local residents.

It is not uncommon today that visitors to Harpers Ferry claim that when passing under the walls of this old building, they have seen an old woman dressed in 18th century fashions, peering from an upper-most window. Her gaze seems fixed on the old Harper Garden.

It is reasonable to believe that the Harper Treasure was discovered long ago by some enterprising town resident, but Rachael Harper, ever true to her trust, seems to be guarding the gold steadfastly

Oct 26, 2011: Cave of Experiments
Dr. Brown was employed by the War Department and had been stationed in the west before being ordered to Harpers Ferry to attend to the needs of the armory workers. Out west he had to care for Indians as well as the members of the United States Cavalry. It was there that he became interested in Indian herbs and began experiments with them. Arriving at Harpers Ferry, he moved to a house on High Street. The structure was destroyed during the Civil War but an enlarged natural cave, which housed his medicines, may still be seen today from Potomac Street. More creepily, he conducted animal dissections in the cave, as well.

Dr. Brown died in 1833, leaving a very strange will. In it, he instructed that he be interred in Harpers Cemetery in a standing position, the casket to have a glass window, and his head to be exposed above ground.

He left money to hire men to sit by his grave for nine days and nine nights. They were to help him from his grave when he arose from the dead. The nine days came and went, but Dr. Brown did not rise from his grave. The money exhausted, the men went home. Now, one would expect, Dr. Brown would be buried in a conventional manner, but, no, they left him just as he was.

Time had its way with his body, and eventually the glass broke. His head separated from his body and lay there in the cemetery. One day, some town children returning home from school took a short cut through the cemetery and reportedly played a game of kick ball. One hundred years passed before a gentleman from Pennsylvania wrote a letter to the superintendent of the John Brown Farm in North Elba, New York. In that letter, he claimed to have the skull of John Brown, the abolitionist. After debating the matter, it was decided that it was impossible, because John Brown’s grave had not been disturbed. However, the skull, probably that of Old Dr. Brown, was forwarded to North Elba and now lies buried on the same spot as that of the more famous John Brown.

The cave sounds awfully creepy for me, check the photo album for a different kind of fright!

Oct 26, 2011: The ghosts are angry
Looking at the weather for Saturday, it appears we may have angered the spirits of Harpers Ferry! The weather forecast seems to be changing hourly, but be prepared for cold, potentially some rain, possibly some snow, and with any luck, some sun!

On a personal note, my box Water for Elephants is currently listed as unavailable (because it flooded), but I'm going to try to get it out in the wild again by Friday.

We're also listing a couple event boxes.

See everyone soon!

Oct 27, 2011: Boo!
Did I scare you? Perhaps a look in the photo album will...

Oct 28, 2011: Go away SNOW!
Hi all,
The weather reports are WAY more scary than any ghosts we may encounter in Harpers Ferry this weekend.

I called the National Park Service today and they assured me the park would remain open. Private Quinn's will be open for normal business and will keep our reservation on the second floor as planned. All this being said, be prepared for lousy weather and slippery conditions.

So, if you are into the idea of "extreme boxing" we will still plan to see you at 10am tomorrow. If it seems the hiking is too dangerous because of conditions, we will have those stamps available in the restaurant instead. If the weather deteriorates while we are boxing, we can have our meal at Private Quinn's earlier than originally planned.

Please come if you can. Maybe in the middle of January or February we will send invites to all our original, pre-snow guests for a "Halloween in Winter" event... because then it will be 65 and beautiful I'm sure. Grr.

Be safe!
Zigzags.

Oct 28, 2011: I could snow... way more scary than any old ghost story!
Check the photo album for the final clue...

Oct 29, 2011: Walkin' in a winter wonderland
As in, I wonder why Mother Nature is so MAD?

So, we're here. Lower town has more sleet then snow for now.

Private Quinn's called this morning to get a head count so they can be sure they have the staff. At this point, I'm guessing we will be their only customers today, so it's understandable she doesn't want to overstuff and empty restaurant.

I know it's late, but if you have not set your current plans, please do so ASAP.
You can call me at 301-514-3311 or reply to this AQ mail.

Thanks!!!

Oct 29, 2011: Stamps Listed
Thank you to all who were able to attend today. Despite the event being quite different from what we had planned for it to be, we stil had fun and hope you did too.

I have listed the boxes under:
"Ghosts of Snowy Harpers Ferry - 2011"

To make littlel easier to log, all the boxes that would have been planted in the wilds have been listed as a series.

So far there are also two events stamps listed so far. I believe Four If By Sea will be adding more events boxes though.

Thanks again,
Safe Travels!

Oct 29, 2011: Geez, typos galore!
Sorry for all the typos. Apparently, the snow has caused my brain to freeze. :)

Jul 23, 2015: Sad, Sad, Sad
I'm sure most of you have heard, but thought I should share anyway. This early morning Harpers Ferry suffered a devastating fire. 8 businesses (and 2 pet cats) were lost including Private Quinn's Pub where we had our event so long ago. I'm so, so sad about all of the loss for everyone involved. :(

~Becki
Zigzags in the Woods

Signups

1. zigzags in the woods
2. Four If By Sea
3. Super Rod
4. J and J in VA (2)
5. Qingwaa (5)
6. paper trail
7. MAK-O

Total signups:12

Waitlisted

Nobody has been waitlisted as of yet!