BEAR
LUMS POND STATE PARK
1068 Howell School Road
Status: Man-Made Freshwater Pond; State Park; Murder Site
By <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/86772257@N00">Moon Rhythm</a> from living under the milky way - <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/86772257@N00/322644825/">daywalk in bear, delaware</a>, CC BY 2.0, Link
History
This pond was originally built on St Georges Creek to be used as a source of freshwater for the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in the 19th century. The canal connected the Delaware River with Chesapeake Bay.
The pond – at 200 acres (81 hectares) this pond is the largest in all of Delaware – was used for power both for the locks and a grist mill.
In the mid-20th century ownership of the area was transferred to the State.
The area had been used as a recreation area since the 19th century, so Delaware opened it as a as a State Park in 1963.
The park is named after John Lum who ran to grist mill that was once on this site.
Although swimming is not allowed in the pond both boating and fishing is.
The area is also used for hiking, cross country skiing and camping.
Paranormal Activity
The most common report of paranormal activity is that of a teenage girl’s muffled screams and pleas for mercy. They are heard both day and night; most frequently by people on Lums Pond’s Swamp Trail.
This said to be from 1870 when a young girl ran away from home and sought shelter in the forests around the pond.
Unfortunately, she ran into a man who beat her, raped her and murdered her. The murderer was never caught. This crime cannot be verified in historical records but reports of phantom cries date back to the 1870’s.
The apparitions of John Lum and his son – who worked the mill with him – are still seen wandering the grounds. The sounds of the non-existent grist mill and it’s water wheel are also clearly heard. People following the phantom sounds eventually make their way to site of the former mill; but there is nothing there now.
The park is said to be between two of the stops on the Underground Railroad that once took slaves to freedom but not everyone escaped. The apparitions of slaves as well as disembodied voices and other unexplained sounds are heard in the park. This activity is said to be the slaves who died attempting to escape.
DELAWARE CITY
FORT DELAWARE
45 Clinton Street (Address of Ferry Dock)
Status: Historic Fort; Living Museum; State Park; Bird Sanctuary
By <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Mpdoughboy153&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="User:Mpdoughboy153 (page does not exist)">Missy Lee</a> - <span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
History
Fort Delaware is a former harbor defense fort and Civil War Prison located on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River. Its main purpose was to stop any enemy from penetrating the harbors of Wilmington and Philadelphia.
Pea Patch Island was seized by the US Government from a private citizen after he refused to sell after a French engineer identified it as a defensive site. The sea walls – as well as a wooden fort – were built during the War of 1812. The wooden fort was demolished in 1821.
Construction was begun on a star shaped fort at some point in 1817; its main purpose was defense of Philadelphia before a force could get near the city itself. Despite numerous issues with building on the silt the fort was operation in 1825.
In 1831 a fire damaged the fort – parts of the old fort can still be seen in the seawall – and a new fort needed to be built. The pentagonal fort there today was originally built between 1848 and 1860. Its foundation goes down 40 feet in places to avoid the shifting ground that plagued the last fort.
During the Civil War the fort held Confederate POWs up to and including Generals. By the end of the war the fort held 33,000 men. 2,500 prisoners died during captivity from such causes as smallpox, tuberculosis and diarrhea. 109 Union soldiers and 40 civilians also died at the fort during this period.
The fort was kept garrisoned through the rest of the 19th Century but eventually went into a caretaking mode until the advent of World War I when it was garrisoned again briefly. World War II also saw soldiers in the fort again after the attack on Pearl Harbor but when that war ended the fort was declared surplus and closed down for good.
The State of Delaware acquired the site from the US Government and eventually created the Fort Delaware State Park which encompasses the entire island. The Park functions as a living museum as well as a bird sanctuary.
In October of each year haunted tours are offered at the fort.
Paranormal Activity
Although this location is considered the most haunted place in the State there are very few details as to what exactly can be found.
A female apparition has been seen walking through the wall of the Officer’s Kitchen and is thought to also be responsible for calling out people’s names and saying – the ever popular – “Get Out!”
The prisoners lived and died in terrible conditions as the rules for POWs had not been created yet. It is easy to understand how they can be very angry and destitute; not to mention plain old miserable. While individual ghosts have not been identified thousands died here and pretty much every possible form of paranormal and haunted activity has been witnessed here over the years.
The ghost tours come in a 3 hour and a 5 hour version so if you’d like to experience the many ghosts of the Fort its just a click or call away.
DOVER
WOODBURN MANSION
(Governor’s Mansion)
151 Kings Highway SW
Status: Official Residence of the Governor of Delaware
Public Domain Photo
History
The land that the mansion stands on originally belonged to the Swedish Royal Family who granted it to David Morgan in the late 17th century.
A century later it was bought by Charles Hillyard III who would build the home that would be eventually called Woodburn in 1790.
Hillyard’s daughter inherited the property and her husband was the first to lease the house to the State Governor in 1820.
In 1825 the house sold to Daniel Cowgill and his wife who kept in the family until 1912 when it was sold to future US Senator Daniel Hastings. Hastings made numerous changes to the interior and had the reflecting pool, pillars and front porch added.
In 1918 it was bought by a retired dentist called Frank Hall who renovated the interior of house once again. When Hall died in 1953 it was proposed that the mansion become the Governor’s official residence but the State Legislature vetoed the idea.
The majority of the land was then split from the house and given to a school leaving only an acre and a half around the mansion.
In 1965 Governor Charles Terry secured the mansion for the State of Delaware and it has remained the Governor Residence ever since.
Paranormal Activity
Many consider this mansion to be the most haunted house in the State.
It is said there are several nice and benevolent ghosts and one rather malevolent and nasty one.
The first recording of paranormal activity was in the early 1800’s when a guest of Daniel Cowgill passed a gentleman in 18th century attire on the staircase. He later learned this apparently very solid apparition – who he took as just another guest – was, in fact, Mr Cowgill’s deceased father.
A soldier forever dressed in his uniform from the Revolutionary War is seen floating throughout the house.
The ghost a little girl in a red-checked gingham dress. She has seen since the 1940’s and is unusually seen dancing and playing in the garden.
At least one ghost has been seen helping himself to the house wine. One of the owners of the house would leave a full decanter of wine out every night only to find it emptied every morning.
As for the not so pleasant ghost: it is that of a southern slave catcher who got his head caught in the popular tree that is still on site. He got his head caught in a hole in the tree strangling himself to death. To this day his unpleasant death is replayed before witnesses.
Other Reported Activity: disembodied voices; phantom footsteps and feelings of being watched and not alone.
LEWES
LEWES MARITIME MUSEUM AT CANNONBALL HOUSE
(Cannonball House)
118 Front Street
Status: Former Residential Home; Former Restaurant; Former Retail Store; Museum; Heritage Property
History
This building was constructed circa 1765. It was first used as a home for 2 pilots on the bay and river.
It gained its famous name from a cannonball – which can still be seen here – fired from a British frigate in the War of 1812 that embedded itself in the wall of the house. The building has been used as a restaurant, a laundry store and was even the mayor’s office for a while.
In the early 1960’s efforts began to save the historical houses in Lewes which were beginning to suffer the ravages of time. This house was bought in 1963 by the Lewes Historical Society who converted it into a maritime museum.
Paranormal Activity
There are two ghosts said to haunt this house.
Phantom footsteps are heard walking back and forth on the second floor. This is thought to be an unidentified woman pacing while she awaits her husband to return from the sea.
The second ghost is that of Sarah Rolan who is said to have stood to close to the fireplace and had her dress caught on fire. The fire spread quickly up her dress causing her a painful death. Sarah is known to cooperative with investigators and even answer questions. Unsurprisingly she responds to any flame and some light sources.