Antsy In Antes

Image from Mr. Boonie
Antes Fort was once a colonial outpost in Lycoming County, near Williamsport. William Penn's agents had bought the land from Andaste Tribal Chief King Wi-daagh.

Wi-daagh eventually came to realize that for the few trinkets he received in exchange, he had been swindled by the Englishmen. His spirit has since been seen roaming the Nippenose Valley, a sacred site to the Andastes, as an eerie form of eternal protest.

A stone column from the Pennsylvania State Capitol was placed to honor King Wi-daagh along the banks of Antes Creek in 1900, commemorating the treaty. Visitors report a ghostly mist coming off the waters of Wi-daugh's Spring, especially during the fall; some say its natural, some say it's Wi-daagh forming the mist.

In another dirty deed done to the Native Americans, Colonel John Henry Antes, who commanded the fort in the late 1700s and became the town's namesake, gave the local Indians some blankets that had covered smallpox victims.

The early biological warfare trick worked and decimated the Indians. They swore never-ending revenge, and it's said that the homes in Ante's Fort have been haunted by the dead Indian's spooks ever since.

(These tales were used with permission by HistoricWilliamsport.com, and are from "Spooky Lycoming County" by Lou Hunsinger Jr.)