Ep. 54 - Hawk Mountain

Is it possible that some kind of great evil could whisper in the ear of a man and compel him to kill? That is what Matthias Schambacher claimed. The German Schambacher had immigrated to America and eventually opened an inn with his wife in 1851. The couple would use the cover of their inn to murder people and do away with their bodies. Those murders left behind ghosts and Schambacher may have even gotten a final strike from God, when lightning hit his tombstone as he was lowered into the ground. The natural and the supernatural seem to occupy the same place here.

The Blue Ridge Mountains are gorgeous with their tree covered peaks and blue-green hue. I've driven the Blue Ridge Parkway and spent time in the Crown Jewel of the range, Asheville. The entire range is just amazing with many peaks, all identified with individual names. One of these peaks is Hawk Mountain, which rises to 1,521 feet. Many take advantage of several of the hiking trails that traverse the 2600 acre Hawk Mountain Sanctuary located on Kittatinny Ridge. The sanctuary provides a refuge for birds of prey. The Sanctuary was founded by a woman named Rosalie Edge who bought the mountain in 1934 to stop the killing of hundreds of hawks and eagles in annual shoots sponsored by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The Mountain had been known as North Mountain and she was the one who changed it to Hawk Mountain. Some hikers perceive an ominous feeling among the ridges of the mountain. They might attribute the atmosphere to the low lying fog or the density of the foliage. Or could it be the ley lines that run beneath the mountain? They had drawn Native Americans to the area in search of a mystical place to conduct their ceremonies. Could there be something else there, calling to them? Whispering to them? Matthias Schambacher claimed that something whispered to him there.  

The Unami branch of the Lenni Lenape tribe called Hawk Mountain home for decades. The tribe chose Hawk Mountain to build their ceremonial ring, most likely because of the ley lines that were there. There was something sacred here for them and that was interrupted with the arrival of European settlers. The two groups tried to coexist, but disagreements would arise and things would get violent. There was a particular moment in the winter of 1756. I don't know the specifics of what caused the issue, perhaps it was the fact that the Gerhardt family had built a cabin on Hawk Mountain next to the pond where Lenape chiefs had built their ceremonial circle, but on this day, a war party of Lenape converged on the cabin and attacked the Gerhardt family. All were slaughtered except 11-year-old Jacob Gerhardt, who hid in some nearby underbrush. The Gerhardt couple and five of their children died, but Jacob survived and was sent off to be raised by other family. In 1793, Jacob returned to his family plot of land and he built a rectangular one and a half story home of stucco-coated sandstone and chestnut. Jacob would live here for 58 years until his death. 

People called Jacob's home the Blue Mountain House and the next people to own it were George and Priscilla Bolich. This was the perfect spot for people to stop on their travels over the mountains and they ran it as a tavern for 52 years. Then they sold to Matthias and Margaret Schambacher in 1851. The couple continued to run the house as Schaumboch's Tavern and they lived there as well. Applejack, which was a homemade apple brandy, and Blue Mountain tea was served up in the dining room. Guests claimed that Margaret was even-tempered and nice, but Matthias was the exact opposite. He was described as small in stature, but unnaturally strong and he was cruel. The couple mainly kept to themselves and didn't associate much with locals. And in return, the locals were not interested in staying at the tavern. But strangers were and rumors started circulating that people who stayed at the inn, never left. Traveling merchants would head up the hill towards the tavern and never come back down. Adding fuel to these rumors were people who had stayed at the tavern claiming they would never stay at the Schaumboch's Tavern again. They told stories of feeling imminent doom, hearing footsteps in the hallway that stopped right outside their doors and strange noises coming from the barn.

Matthias started bringing clothing to the town to sell, along with other items, and locals were getting a little suspicious as to where these things had come from. When he showed up with Civil War uniforms to sell, suspicion turned to way more. Townsfolk had seen a peddler wielding those wears earlier and they knew he had stayed at the tavern. A couple of townspeople ventured out to the property to spy on Matthias and some claimed to see Matthias scrubbing blood from the barn walls. A man from Auburn had been told by Matthias that he could put his horses in the barn when a bad storm was on the way. This man got his horses to the barn, but they reared up before going in and refused to enter. When the man looked in the barn, he saw what looked like fresh blood and he kept going down the road with his horses. A man named Elias Featherolf had been walking up the mountain one day and as he passed the Schaumbacher property, he heard a strange noise coming from the barn. He walked a little closer to the barn and realized thatit sounded like someone moaning. Elias eased into the barn door and saw Matthias up in the loft with a hatchet in his hand. Matthias saw Elias and yelled, "Go away; go away quick or I’ll sink this hatchet in your head!" Other people started claiming that Matthias chased hem with a bloody hatchet. With stories like these, one would think that the authorities would pay the Schaumbachers a visit, but that didn't happen.

The truth would eventually come out when Schaumbacher was on his death bed in 1879 at the age of 55. In his delirium, Matthias confessed that he and his wife got the travelers drunk on homemade applejack and then they would coax them into the bar. In the barn, they would rob the men and then drive an axe into their heads. Some accounts say that Matthias then put the bodies in a well, others say that he buried the bodies in the woods. And there are even some claims that the bodies were butchered and parts were served up in the dining room, but we doubt that was the case. Whatever became of the bodies, Matthias admitted that the couple had killed eleven men. The possessions of these victims were then taken into Port Clinton where Matthias would sell them with his brother. Matthias was buried was buried in New Bethel Churchyard.

The confession wasn't all that Matthias had said. He claimed that the murders were not his deeds. He said that a great evil lived on the mountain and that it whispered to him repeatedly. The voice urged him to murder. So the deeds were actually his, but the inspiration may have come from somewhere else. The property passed through several hands after that. There was William Turner who ran the tavern for twenty years and then in 1922 a man named John E. Wenz got the place and he and some fellow bootleggers, set up a gin mill inside. Prohibition agents came in 1930 and when they tried to enter a shed on the property, gunfire erupted. Reinforcements were called from Redding, Pennsylvania and everyone was arrested. The Schaumboch Tavern had been left in shambles, but it got new life in 1938 when Wenz sold it to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. The house was now going to be its headquarters. Maurice Broun and his wife Irma moved in and they cleaned up the cottage and the grounds and they eventually added electricity and plumbing. Broun was an ornithologist who had come over from Boston and he was dedicated to protecting the hawks on the mountain. The couple stayed until 1966, but the house would serve as a headquarters until 1975. And while one would think the protective nature of the Brouns would keep them from experiencing anything weird on the mountain, it did not.

The Brouns heard disembodied wails as though someone were being tortured and items would go missing or be moved around. They also heard strange knocking. Buried remains were discovered. A greenish ghost light was seen on the property. This is a light that has been reported down through history, all the way to to 1969. In 1969, several tourists saw and chased a greenish white light that blinked on and off for nearly two hours. It disappeared every time they got close to it and they found no explanation for the ghost light. Some claimed it was the spirits of the Gerhardt family, but others claim it is Matthias wandering around the mountain. Others attribute the light to a luminous ten-foot-tall figure that some associate with the ceremonial ring of the Lenape. Ghostly faces have been seen in the windows of the old headquarters in the nature sanctuary. And the cemetery where Matthias was reputedly buried at New Bethel Church is said to be haunted by his restless spirit. Legend claims that a bolt of lightning struck his tombstone as his body was being lowered into his grave.    

There were other spirits too. Employees claimed to see the spirit of a young girl floating 18 inches above the floor. The story was that she had died in a fall down the stairs and the reason she appeared to be floating was because the house had been remodeled and the living room floor was lowered 18 inches. 

Berks Book excerpts.

The following was reported by username Arkham12:

"This is just a strange event that happened last year at this time to my brother and I. We were walking our dog along the state game land trail near or on where the Appalachian Trail goes through leading to the Pinnacle. It was right above the big clearing where I believe they have a stargazing group meet, maybe also a boy scout meeting area. This is below Hawk Mountain in the valley. Anyway, it was pretty deserted with only us on the trail. We heard a "whoomp" off in the trees above us on the mountain.. It was like something heavy hitting the ground, or maybe a car door being slammed but there was no bang, only a "whoomp." It spooked us so we decided to head back. We thought we heard it again as we were walking and we kept going. After a minute or two we stopped to listen, and we heard it again, this time AHEAD of us but still above us in the trees along the trail. Another "whoomp." We agreed that it seemed like it was paralleling our course and following us, but we didn't hear any sounds of it moving through the trees. We both used to hunt and you can hear deer or people, even squirrels, moving through brush. The dog seemed to want to go back down the mountain, which also unnerved us. We picked up the pace and headed down to the parking lot and we were the only car there. We'll be going again once the fall leaves change more and we're also curious to see if we can hear it again. Has anybody ever had similar experiences like this? I've heard of some truly creepy and ghostly sightings nearby.

Did any of this really happen? Is this just mountain folklore? Are there strange things happening in this patch of the Appalachian Mountains? Is Hawk Mountain haunted by the condemned soul of Matthias Schambacher? Perhaps haunted by the souls of his victims? That is for you to decide!