Friday, February 25, 2011

South Park Spooks

Photobucket
Corvette Tunnel from Bridges of Allegheny County

South Park in Allegheny County covers 2,013 acres, spreading across the South Hills municipalities of Bethel Park and South Park. It has a host of activities and its trails, pool, rink, and golf course draw visitors by the carload.

It's also a popular place to cruise - H&H spent half his teenaged life loafing there - and when the sun goes down, the spirits come out. There are three particularly enduring eerie tales that are woven into the Park's lore.

One involves the old Sulli-Nesta ("Sully's") pool. It operated until 1977 as a segregated black swimming area, when it was finally filled in after the main Corrigan Drive pool became integrated. At least two people drowned there and the barn hops outside the pool often ended with post-dance brawls. Now it's best noted as the site for the Hundred Acres Manor Haunted House during the Halloween season.

Staffers and visitors there are treated to several spirits. Among several sightings, there are two noted reports.

One employee saw a figure running across the room and gave it chase. When he caught up to him, he realized that it was sunk up to its' ankles in the floor, as if it was running in shallow water. Then the figure disappeared.

The most renown spook is an elderly gent who worked in the old pool's pumphouse. He's been spotted by guests as they came out of the haunted maze.

In the old days, that spot was the edge of the pool where he used to sit during his lunch break. Woman are particularly uneasy around him. They feel him watching their every move and sometimes the sensations are so intense they won't work the area alone.

The sightings are mostly in the summer, maybe because that's when the pool was open, or maybe because the commercial haunts mask the activity of the real ghosts. There are also sounds of doors opening and closing, unexplainable animal-like noises, and voices heard in conversation.

Corvette Tunnel on Piney Fork Road is another spooked out place. Depending who you ask, it's either just under or sharing the infamous Green Man's Tunnel. This spot is haunted by the spirit of a girl that shuffled off this mortal coil when she slammed her 'Vette into another car while drag racing.

If you drive through at the stroke of midnight, it's said that you can hear her screams, screeching tires, racing motors, and see the headlights of the Corvette.

There's also a small creek running alongside the tunnel. Its tale is that a man killed his wife and disposed of her body by chopping it up and tossing it in that creek. If you're walking through the tunnel, the story goes that her invisible spirit clutches at your legs, begging for help.

Finally, its most famed legend involves the Green Man's Tunnel. A hideously scarred green man is reputed to pop up and frighten the romance out of young couples; the tale is based loosely on the real life experiences of Ray Robinson. H&H has the full tale here; it deserved its own post.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I went to the green mans tunnel an i feel in between two salt pails an i was walking up the second one an feel the green man grabed my hoodie an helped me an then as i got to the end i got pushed by something as i left i took pictures an i have his hand print on my hoodie an my hands when i went throw the tunnel where the guy got electrocuted i took pics an i have a pic with a red corvette with the lights on an a guy getting electrocuted when i got home an looked at them i scared an never went back since

Anonymous said...

Amazing that not one punctuation mark was used there...

Anonymous said...

a lot of drug abuse in the snowden area

Anonymous said...

*laugh

Anonymous said...

alot of drug use and prostitution 3803 snowden

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

This wedsite is about ghost stories not about drug

Anonymous said...

I just want ot know why the story of the vaudville actor who died in Clarion Hart Chapel his name can be found NO WHERE nor PHOTOS of him HMMM