Adirondacks: A Ghost’s Revenge

From ghosties and ghoulies

And long-legged beasties

And things that go bump in the night,

Good Lord Preserve us!

An ancient belief about ghosts is that if they were murdered they return to avenge their deaths. In today’s world this notion is often rejected.

Adirondacks

One ghost legend that has been told in the Adirondacks for years is about a murdered hunter who returns to do exactly this.

Two hunters kept a camp not far from St. Regis Falls in the North Woods. Every fall season they returned to hunt for several days. Everyone assumed these two men Sandburg and Barry were good friends.

One season Sandburg came down from the mountain alone stating Barry had gotten lost. A search party was sent to look but an early snow hampered their efforts. They returned without finding any trace of the missing hunter.

The State Police felt that Sandburg wasn’t telling the whole story. They questioned him several times, each time he became more agitated to the point where he wouldn’t answer anymore of their questions. They had no corpse or other concrete evidence so they couldn’t prove foul play. The case was dismissed.

Hunting Camp

The following spring hikers found Barry’s body lying at the base of a tree. His skull was cracked. Still the police could not prove anything and the coroner determined the injury was due to “an accidental death.”

A rusted rife was found near Barry’s body. His hunting knife that he always kept strapped to his leg was missing. No one found this odd at the time.

The next fall Sandburg returned to the camp with a new companion. The first night this hunter turned in early. It had been a long trip and he was tired. In the middle of the night he was jarred awake by Sandburg’s shouts. The man in the tent heard him scream, “Don’t do it…stop!”

Scrambling for his flashlight he left the tent. He found Sandburg sitting in a camp chair dead. A hunting knife was stuck through his heart.

Later only one set of prints was found on the knife handle. They belonged to Barry.

Louis C. Jones, Things That Go Bump in the Night, 1959, Aeonian Press, Inc., New York