Time really flies when you are not paying attention. It was 12 years ago that I self-published a collection of ghost stories and folklore about my hometown, Summit Hill.

Now scores of investigations and many new experiences later, I am in the midst of revising my original pamphlet to make it a richer and more full book about Summit Hill and the part of our history that is rarely recorded, the folklore and oral histories of the town that help to create its atmosphere.Everyone is aware of the facts and recorded history about Summit Hill. We are considered by scholars to be the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. Coal was discovered by Philip Ginder (not Ginter or Ginther, but Ginder) in 1791 in a spot that was somewhere at the southwest edge of our current community.One fanciful feeling is that the Philip Ginder monument at the west end of Ludlow Park marks the area near where this discovery occurred.Later the town built a school named in his honor, but the name at that point was Americanized to Ginter, thus the school was named the Philip Ginter School. The current field, which is all that remains, is the Ginter Field.All Hillers should know that the name of this stadium is the Philip GINTER Stadium. Somewhere the name "Ginther" entered the lexicon on that totally wrong.If we are going to rename the stadium, it should return back to the Ginder roots. The Ginter/Ginder controversy was so fervent at one point that the Historical Society museum has a "Day In History" article from this newspaper in which the matter was brought before the Legislature, which officially declared his name Philip Ginder and not Ginter, but the school was still named with the "T" spelling.We know that coal built our little town, as it did most of the towns in our readership and throughout the Carbon-Luzerne and Schuylkill county area. Our history books also tell us the Switchback Railroad was a historic invention that helped propel our area into the spotlight.They discuss the burning mine which lasted for decades and was another tourist attraction in the area. In its heyday, the town boasted five hotels, a theater, two supermarkets, dozens of bars and nine churches.It was also the home of one of two armories in the coal region. The armory in Summit Hill was where the weapons were stored and the Coal and Iron Police were based. This armory (now the site of the fire station) was also where our brave men went to sign up for the Civil War.Historians theorize that had Gettysburg fallen to the South, Gen. Robert E. Lee may have continued north to destroy the coal fields, and if so, our little town may have become strategically important to that campaign. Fortunately, we were spared finding out whether that theory was true by Gen. George Meade's victory in Gettysburg.Summit Hill has this rich history which has been recorded, but almost as interesting is the oral history of the coal regions, the darker side.In an area so ripe with trauma and stress, tragedy and hard living, it is almost a homing beacon for the ingredients that create a good paranormal incubator.Fourteen years ago when I started to look for this oral history, it did not take long to find it.In fact, the "Lady in White" ghost story was the first urban legend I heard in my quest to collect this paranormal folklore. It started with a casual chat with a neighbor. I told her I was collecting ghost stories about Summit Hill in the hopes of running a fundraising ghost tour in the fall.She told me the original legend: "At certain times of the year, on the night of the full moon, a woman will appear in the Polish National Cemetery. She is dressed in a gown or dress that flows as she glides through the cemetery. Eventually she heads for the gate and passes through it to begin her journey toward town, but for some reason she never quite makes it. As she nears the town, she fades away into the night."This story intrigued me as I had never heard it before that day. I told another neighbor about it, and to my surprise, his daughters were familiar with the legend and had told him about it years ago.I was amazed that this cemetery story existed and that I have lived here almost my entire life yet only heard about it in 2000. These neighbors' anecdotes placed the story at least in the 1950s-70s.A friend of mine moved the encounter into the 1980s when she described sitting in the cemetery one night with a friend and having their own close encounter with this lady in white. Their experience was so strong they have yet to return to the cemetery.Coincidentally, some older men related a story to me about playing football in the expansion to St. Michael's Cemetery when it was just a field.They told me they would play football on the field in the evenings and occasionally they would see a woman in a white gown appear on the road above the field.This happened often enough that the men attempted to chase her down or corner her to find out who she was, but for some reason, no matter how they tried she would disappear before the could reach her.And so began the collection of stories that eventually led to my first booklet and now will become a revised and expanded collection of ghost stories, anecdotes and research notes.I began revising and expanding this and hope to publish it in the near future. After I do, I would love to do the same for Coaldale, Lansford and Nesquehoning, so if you have stories, I would love to hear them.Write me at

dawargo@ptd.net.Till next time …