{"id":306402,"date":"2026-10-14T11:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T11:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/306402\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T11:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T11:12:07","slug":"phantom-cigar-smoke-and-a-bloody-bone-saw-nepa-historic-sites-get-spooky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/306402\/","title":{"rendered":"Phantom cigar smoke and a bloody bone saw: NEPA historic sites get spooky"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are haunted houses, and then there are historic homes that may be haunted. During the spooky season, Northeast Pennsylvania believers and skeptics alike can soak up some history with their scares.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve seen some strange things\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lady who follows me every once in a while and you will get a whiff of her perfume,\u201d in the Schuylkill County Historical Society museum, said Executive Director Diana Prosymchak. She wrote the script for an upcoming haunted history walking tour in Pottsville.<\/p>\n

The tour guides tell stories about noted author John O\u2019Hara, a significant Pottsville figure. For believers in the paranormal, there is bonus content. The scent of cigar smoke is said to sometimes linger near his books in the Historical Society museum.<\/p>\n

Pictures of the Molly Maguires, an alleged Irish-American secret society, sometimes fall from the museum walls near the anniversary of executions at the town\u2019s old jail in the 1870s, Prosymchak said.<\/p>\n

The tour starts in the museum and continues downtown. \u201cI\u2019ve seen some strange things in this building,\u201d Prosymchak said.<\/p>\n

The Haunted Walking Tour is Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. Registration is required. Tickets cost $10 for society members and $15 for others.<\/p>\n

The society is also touring the Charles Baber Cemetery on Saturday, Oct. 17.<\/p>\n

Author Richard Bigg, a native of Pottsville, will discuss the headless ghosts of Schuylkill County at the museum Oct. 22.<\/p>\n

The National Register of Historic Places and a bone saw
\n\"The<\/p>\n

The exterior of the Old Jail in Jim Thorpe is featured in some Halloween-season tours. The building also operates a museum. (COURTESY OF THE OLD JAIL MUSEUM.)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A headless horseman will be part of a Swetland Homestead event. (COURTESY OF THE LUZERNE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY)\n<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Swetland Homestead in Wyoming on Thursday, May 28, 2026. The home dates back to 1803. (JASON ARDAN \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 3<\/p>\n

The exterior of the Old Jail in Jim Thorpe is featured in some Halloween-season tours. The building also operates a museum. (COURTESY OF THE OLD JAIL MUSEUM.)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

Guests at two Luzerne County Historical Society museums, the Swetland Homestead in Wyoming and the Nathan Denison House in Forty Fort, ask about ghosts year-round.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe single most common question I get is, \u2018Is this place haunted?\u2019 I can count on one hand with fingers left over how many tours I\u2019ve given where that question doesn\u2019t come up, and I\u2019ve been doing this 18 years,\u201d said Mark Riccetti Jr., the director of operations and programs.<\/p>\n

About half of the people who come to events are paranormal believers, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople go on the tours and claim they have experienced things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked if he believes in ghosts, Riccetti laughed. \u201cI think there is definitely a level of local folklore and mythology that is certainly true. A lot of these stories come from a time when something was scaring people, years ago, and they didn\u2019t quite understand what it was, so they created a mythology around it. I think all of that is very real.\u201d<\/p>\n

An event called Haunted Spirits and Shadows at Swetland will be repeated Oct. 16-17, beginning at 7 p.m., with tours staggered through the evening.<\/p>\n

Costumed docents will recreate a Victorian funeral. A headless horseman will make an appearance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a haunted house per se \u2014 no one is going to jump out and grab you, and there\u2019s no gore,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it will be very creepy and macabre. We\u2019ll have artifacts on display in our exhibition space, including an exorcism kit and a huge Civil War surgeon\u2019s kit with a dirty bone saw. Everything you hear will be our own local history and folklore passed down for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Swetland Homestead was built in 1803 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Currently, it is only open for special events or private tours.<\/p>\n

Society members pay $25. Tickets for the public are $30.<\/p>\n

Jim Thorpe<\/p>\n

The live guides on the Jim Thorpe Trolley Co.\u2019s 75-minute ghost and graveyard tour tell stories about the jail, mansions and graveyards of the picturesque Poconos town Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 7.<\/p>\n

Most riders are \u201cOctober people\u201d \u2014 believers in the paranormal or fans of a good scare \u2014 said ticket booth staffer Kalyn Humphreys.<\/p>\n

Customers who come for just the facts will find plenty, she said. The ride goes by the infamous jail where members of the Molly Maguires were held.<\/p>\n

The tours start and end at the Jim Thorpe Visitors Center. Tickets are $28 for adults and $19 for children.<\/p>\n

The website is jimthorpetrolley.com\/ghosts-and-graveyards-tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sold out in Scranton<\/p>\n

The Lackawanna Historical Society Scranton After Dark tours are sold out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are haunted houses, and then there are historic homes that may be haunted. During the spooky season,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5523,103691,52731,182,803,28,4961,231,178,180,179,289,6519,804],"class_list":["post-306402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-carbon-county","tag-forty-fort","tag-jim-thorpe","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pottsville","tag-schuylkill-county","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-hzs","tag-wyoming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}