The Home Page Network

Photo provided
Bill Robertson to talk about ghost hauntings on Tuesday, Oct. 11.

With Halloween just around the corner, Bill Robertson of Duke Center in McKean County, Pa. is presenting a free Golden Afternoons program on Ghost Hauntings in Tioga and Potter counties and other areas at 1 p.m. this coming Tuesday, Oct. 11.

The program will be in the lobby at the Deane Center for the Performing Arts at 104 Main Street in Wellsboro. Refreshments will be provided.

Golden Afternoons is free and open to adults, 55 and older.

Robertson will talk about local ghost hauntings taken from three books he wrote during the past two years. The books are: “Ghosts Revisited” released on Oct. 23, 2020; “Ghosts Revisited 2” released on June 11, 2021 and “Ghosts Revisited 3” just released on Sept. 26 of this year. The three cover different hauntings in Pennsylvania and Western New York.

Ghosts Revisited” includes 32 chilling tales, such as the vampire at the Erie Cemetery, the Seneca Bogeyman that roams Allegany State Park, the bride who burned to death at Hotel Conneaut and the ghost of a serial killer that resides at the Bergen House near Rochester, N.Y. along with phantoms at Gettysburg, the Dunkirk Lighthouse and Eastern State Penitentiary. The second book contains 28 more haunted tales and the third another 34.

“Wherever I go, people are always sharing ghost stories with me so it won’t be long before I will be publishing ‘Ghosts Revisited 4’. I plan to keep on going until I run out of stories,” Robertson said.

“During my program, I will be showing a 20-minute film that Mark Polonia created based on the first book in my series, ‘Ghosts Revisited.’ I have asked Mark to attend the program on Oct. 11 to explain how he made the film.”

Robertson will then discuss hauntings in this area, including those in Tioga County at North Hall and Straughn Auditorium on the Mansfield University campus; on Extension Street and in Barclay Mountain Cemetery in Mansfield and in Fallbrook Cemetery as well as two in Potter County, the Legend of Ole Bull and the Germania Hotel and another at Elmira College in New York.

“I actually visited each site and will be providing directions to these haunted locations and tell people what they can expect to find at each one.”

A 42nd Bucktails Company I re-enactor, Robertson is an author best known for the 10 books in his Bucktails series about the Civil War, three French and Indian War novels, a Viking novel, seven volumes of short stories, 11 collections of poetry, three audio books and 13 e-books.

He also wrote two volumes of local folk tales and ghost stories, “Fears Forever” and “Come in…”

Born in 1950 in Bradford, Robertson graduated from Mansfield University in 1972 with a degree in English. Since college, he has worked in factories, taught high school English and has a successful house painting business.

He began freelancing short stories, poetry and articles in 1978. His work has now appeared in many magazines, e-zines and anthologies in the U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Romania, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia.

For more information about this Golden Afternoons program, call the Deane Center at (570) 724-6220.

Diane Eaton
dianetn@ptd.net
(570) 724-3800