Cashtown Inn B&B Investigation

Location: Cashtown, PA, about eight miles west of Gettysburg

Date: Friday, December 6 and Saturday, December 7, 2002

Moon Phase: Half

Solar Weather: solar flares-M Class, geomagnetic activity-quiet

Investigators present: Hillary M., Robert H., Paul M.

Equipment: Olympus C-3000 digital camera, RCA digital voice recorder, Sony digital video camera with Nightshot, Pentax PC-550 35mm camera, Extech EMF meter, Olympus 2000 Digital Voice Recorder, Extech IR thermometer, Sony Hi-8 Cam, Olympus C-4000 Digital Camera, Trifield EMF meter

History: The inn was built in 1797 as a stage coach stop along the Gettysburg to Chambersburg turnpike, by a man named Peter Mark. From the beginning his motto was "cash only" - he wouldn't take trade credit or barter, and within 5 years of being operated as a stage coach stop, the town was on the map as Cashtown.
  By 1861, when the Civil War started it was still being operated as a stagecoach stop and was a very busy and prosperous place. The inn was taken over by the confederate troops twice. First, in October of 1862 when Jeb Stuart and his men came through, they did a "lightening raid" and moved on quickly. But then on June 29th, A.P. Hill came in with the entire third core of the confederate army, which was about 22,000 soldiers. They took over the entire village of Cashtown, and A.P. Hill made the building his headquarters. On July first, General's Heath and Pedigrew set out towards Gettysburg from Cashtown, and the result of their little trip to Gettysburg was the Battle of Gettysburg. Cashtown then became part of the evacuation route, and the Cashtown Inn was used as a field hospital for the confederate soldiers.
  After that, the building was owned by a number of people, and was even a saloon and dance hall at one point. The present owners, Eileen and Dennis Hoover, bought the building as an Inn in 1996.
  Eileen and Dennis have had few ghostly experiences. One morning, very early, Dennis saw a shadowy figure walk through the downstairs hallway, then it disappeared. When they first moved in, Eileen often heard footsteps on the stairs when she knew she was alone in the house. She also often smelled cigar smoke, and got the impression that someone was actually blowing it in her face! Because these experiences made her uncomfortable, she came right out and asked the ghosts to stop bothering her…and she hasn't noticed a thing since.
  The guests, however, seem to have fairly frequent experiences. A journal is kept in each room, so guests may not only document whatever experiences they may have, but also read about the experiences of previous guests.
  Two apparitions have been seen in the Inn - one, a woman, has been seen dozens of times in the General Lee Suite. The other, a confederate soldier, has been seen in the Heth Room. Guests have also experienced cold spots, voices, the sound of someone walking up and down the stairs in the middle of the night, being touched, the sensation of someone holding their feet down in bed, unexplained noises, and in the A.P. Hill room, people sleeping on the fireplace side of the bed, claim to wake up from the bed being extremely hot, even though the fireplace was sealed off years ago.

Investigation: We arrived at the Cashtown Inn Friday night around 6 p.m. We immediately began taking a look around, scanning the building for EMF readings (we obtained nothing out of the ordinary), and taking control pictures. I did get one pink orb hovering above the bed in the AP Hill room. We then enjoyed a delightful dinner downstairs (try the pecan chicken!). After dinner, Paul and I trekked into Gettysburg to do some investigating in the park, while Robert stayed at the Inn and napped.
  We arrived back at the Cashtown Inn around 9:30 p.m., exhausted after working and traveling all day, so Paul decided to retire for the night. Robert and I headed up to the General Lee Suite for an EVP session at 10:18. I sat down in the living room section, and Robert laid on the bed of the bedroom section. The room was a comfortable sixty-nine degrees, and I did get a few faint orb pictures, one of them on the bed next to Robert. Four and a half minutes into the recording, we got an EVP of a quick, breathy whisper. Ten minutes later, I got up to go downstairs for something. When I approached the door (I was about six feet away), I saw the light move under the door, as if someone was on the landing on the other side. When I got to the door, I opened it and looked down the steps, but there was no sign of anyone. This was quite strange because the General Lee Suite is the only guest room on the third floor, and it would have been impossible for someone lurking outside the door to scurry down the steps that quickly without being seen or heard. After this, we spent sometime downstairs in the common areas, but didn't feel like we were getting much, so we retired for the night.
  The next morning, we awoke at 5 a.m. and went downstairs to the common rooms to see if the activity would increase in the early morning hours. We began in the bar area and breakfast dining room. We turned out all the lights we could find, spread out around the room, and began our session. We spent about twenty minutes in this room, and although we did not obtain any EVPs, we did get a moving orb shot. We also were able to track an orb moving around the room. This orb seemed to be fond of the area inside the front door to the room.
  At 5:40, we moved into the front sitting room. I also got a moving orb picture during this session. Three minutes into the recording session, Paul thought he saw a shadow move across the Christmas tree in the corner. Robert took a picture of Paul and got a moving orb on his leg!
  At 5:52, we moved into the large back dining room, which was a cool 62 degrees. We did get a few orbs here, but not much, and we did not want to get in the way of the owner preparing breakfast, so we all went back to bed.
  Saturday night, we began in the General Lee Suite. Paul and I sat in the living room area, and Robert laid on the bed. About five minutes into the recording session, I got a moving orb on the beam over Robert's head!
  At 10:40 p.m., we moved into the AP Hill room, which is rumored to be the most haunted room in the Inn. A few minutes into the session, I got a picture of a pink orb in the corner next to the fireplace. Three minutes later, I got two strange sounds on my recorder after asking if whoever was with us was an owner of the Inn. Five minutes into the recording, I got an orb on the ceiling over Robert's head. After a few more minutes, we decided to call it a night.

Conclusion: Our first impression of the Cashtown Inn was that of a warm and inviting place to spend the weekend. The building has a very light and friendly feel to it, and personally, I wondered if the rumors of hauntings here could possibly be true.
  During the weekend, I read both journals in our room, the A.P. Hill room, to see what kind of experiences might be had there. There seemed to be two running themes to the journals - one, that the side of the bed closest to the fireplace would mysteriously get very hot in the middle of the night. Prior guests had often woken up sweating. The other was several strange noises being heard at the foot of the bed. Anticipating these experiences, Paul slept on the side of the bed closest to the fireplace, and I slept on the pull-out couch at the foot of the bed. What I discovered was that the heating system, which was baseboard radiators, made ticking and popping sounds every time the heat came on. Paul did not experience any hot flashes, and slept like a baby. Therefore, I have no explanation for the hot sensation which has awakened guests, but I do believe that most of the noises heard are caused by a combination of the heating system and overactive imaginations.
  During our investigation, we believed that we were getting very few results, and found the place to be far from the "extremely haunted" Inn that we had read about. After reviewing our results taken during the two nights, we did find that we had documented more than we originally thought. We actually got far better results in the one hour that we spent downstairs in the early morning hours, than we did in the guest rooms at night.
  All in all, we do believe that the Cashtown Inn is haunted. However, the history of the building seems to be far richer than the ghostly activity. As mentioned previously, the atmosphere at the Cashtown Inn is very warm and friendly. It is the perfect place to go to spend a quiet winter's weekend, catching up on sleep and getting in touch with the area's history. If you do go there looking for ghosts, the owners will accommodate you any way they can, and are more than happy to share their stories.
  Most importantly, there is nothing to be feared at the Cashotwn Inn. It seems that the ghosts are friendly, tend to keep to themselves, and will gladly leave you alone if you simply ask them to.

We wish to thank the owners of the Cashton Inn, Eileen and Dennis Hoover, for their honesty and hospitality.

Submitted by Hillary Murdoch