Franklin County Historical Society-Kittochtinny

10/12/2026

Thank you Adamson Family Dentistry for sponsoring the Haunted Jail 2026!

10/10/2026

UFOS AMONG US

There were two times that reports of Unidentified Flying Objects made front page headlines in the Chambersburg Public Opinion in the late 20th century.

The first time was in May 1975, when two people separately reported a UFO sighting near St. Thomas to the Pennsylvania State Police. The first was a woman who saw a large orange-colored object in the sky near Williamson. It moved rapidly towards St Thomas before disappearing over the mountains. The second was from a man, a “former U.S. Army command officer” per the paper, who saw the same object over St Thomas, heading west. The State Police didn't seem to take either report too seriously.

The next local UFO outbreak came 21 years later in March of 1996. This time the target area was Path Valley, where the area was “buzzing” with UFO reports, per the Public Opinion. People reported spotting the same object over a five day period. It was described as a horizontal bright disk that flashed red, green and blue lights and moved very rapidly from east to west before disappearing suddenly. Some people also said it had “spider legs” or “tentacles” hanging down from it. A UFO expert from Maryland was even consulted. A Public Opinion headline that ran on March 15, 1996, summed it up: “UFO: WE KNOW WHAT IT ISN'T, BUT NOT WHAT IT MIGHT BE.”

Have YOU ever seen a UFO over Franklin County? Let us know!

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We are closed for tours during the month of October, but out Genealogy and Research library is still open Tues-Sat 10-3. Call us at 717-264-1667 or email [email protected]

10/09/2026

Thank you Salzmann Hughes, P.C. for sponsoring the Haunted Jail 2026!

10/08/2026

This picture may look like an ad for our Haunted Jail event, but it is not! This dark and spooky looking cell is located in the dungeon of the Old Jail. These future historians squeezed into the hidden cell* on their recent field trip.

Over the last two weeks we've been pleased to welcome several hundred Chambersburg Area School District and Greencastle-Antrim School District 8th grade students.

A huge shout out to the teachers and volunteers who made these days possible!

*The hidden cell is thought to have been used on the Underground Railroad. The cell is blocked by a large fireplace. People escaping slavery on the Underground Railroad usually traveled at night and rested during the day. Chambersburg had an active abolitionist community in the years leading to the Civil War. Famously the abolitionist John Brown stayed here, near the jail at Mary Ritner's Boarding House. Mary's late husband, Abraham Ritner, had been a conductor on the Underground Railroad, while working as an actual train conductor for the Cumberland Valley Railroad.

10/07/2026

HORROR AT THE HAUNTED JAIL!
Tickets now available. Tickets will also be available at the door, cash or credit accepted. Please be in line by 9:15PM.
October 23, 24, 30, 31 7PM-9:30PM

ADMIT ONE to Horror at the Haunted Jail 7PM-9:30PM - Please be in line by 9:15 to guarantee your spot! Tickets will also be available at the door cash or credit. READ CAREFULLY: Horror at the Haunted Jail is very scary! There are bright and flashing lights, loud noises, gore, horror, uneven floors,....

10/07/2026

Thank you Franklin County 11/30 Visitors Center for sponsoring the Haunted Jail 2026

10/06/2026

Thank you Downtown Business Council of Chambersburg for sponsoring the Haunted Jail 2026!

10/03/2026

THE WHITE LADY OF POND BANK

She is known by different names---the White Lady, the White Woman, the White Witch—but the stories about her are all much the same. She's been scaring people along South Mountain for generations. She appears in two areas--- she wanders the woods and fields near the village of Pond Bank and along Loop Road in South Mountain. Some say she is looking for a child or a lover who drowned. Some say she drowned herself. Sometimes up on South Mountain she is accompanied by a little white dog. But she always looks the same---haunted, bewildered, and wearing a long white dress. She has been known to leap onto the hoods of passing cars at night. She even appears in John Putch's satirical “Route 30 Triology,” movies, played by his sister Pamela Putch.

A book published in 2018 claims that the start of the legend of White Lady of Pond Bank was nothing more than a prank pulled by two teenagers in 1952, who dressed up a dummy in women's clothes and fastened it to a rope to swoop down on passing motorists. But the tradition of the White Lady in ghost stories in many areas goes back for centuries, which makes us suspect that the pranksters were just taking advantage of a tale that had been told here for many years.

So is she real? Take a drive along a lonely mountain road on some dark October night and find out for yourself.

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We are closed for tours during the month of October, but out Genealogy and Research library is still open Tues-Sat 10-3. Call us at 717-264-1667 or email [email protected]