Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms

Haunted locales are not restricted to houses and cemeteries. Even walls can be sites of ghostly activity. In our continuing series on the ghosts of Cooperstown, local author and historian Bruce Markusen tells the story of River Street’s haunted wall.

The Old Stone Wall on River Street

Both local residents and visitors to the village of Cooperstown will notice a stone wall on the west side of River Street. The retaining wall, located near the home known as Greencrest, runs adjacent to the edge of Cooper Park. The wall, thick enough to sit on, occasionally provides tired visitors with a place to rest. It also provides local residents with a most unusual story.

Throughout much of the 20^th century, those who walked the path of River Street noticed a strange tendency of the wall. Under normal conditions, the wall appeared to be straight, built flush against the grassy edges of Cooper Park. At other times, the stones of the wall tended to bulge out toward the street, giving the wall an uneven, buckling appearance. On occasion, the stones bulged out so much that they gave passersby the impression that the wall was about to collapse.

In the early 1960s, some Cooperstown residents found their curiosity so roused by the buckling wall that they decided to conduct their own investigation. They broke through the wall, in an attempt to find a structural reason for the flawed tendency of the wall. Expecting to find a logical reason for the problem, the locals instead made a ghastly discovery. Behind the wall, they uncovered a buried skeleton of a Native American—a great Mohawk chief—along with an array of pipes, weapons, and other artifacts.

The residents should have known better about the wall; if they had read some of the local history written by Ralph Birdsall and James Fenimore Cooper—the grandson of the legendary author—they would have heard the stories about how previous, thinner walls on River Street had supposedly been kicked down by the skeleton. After one of the older, flimsier walls had toppled over, residents saw the skeleton sitting behind the remains. The problems with the weaker walls eventually led to the construction of a sturdier one (the one that was investigated in the sixties), which didn’t fall over completely but instead showed the tendency to buckle over time.

The initial discovery of the skeleton, which was made by William Cooper in the late 18^th century, led to the determination that the remains were that of a great Mohawk chief. Based upon the writings of more than one historian, local tradition offered the following ghostly theory: the spirit of the buried chief, resentful of the white man’s intrusion on Native American soil, was expressing his anger by furiously kicking at the wall.

Beyond the possibility of paranormal activity, the presence of the Native American skeleton proved unusual for several other reasons. Locals wondered why a Mohawk Indian chief would have been buried behind a wall, instead of a more traditional ground plot? And why he would have been buried on the west side of River Street, instead of toward the east side, closer to the Susquehanna River, where most of the Indian graves were known to exist? In addition, the locals took note of the strange positioning of the skeleton. It was not lying down, or even standing up, as one might expect to find in unearthing the remains of a typical grave. Instead, the locals found the skeleton in a hunched position, with its chin pressed up against its knees and its hands touching his shinbones. It was the most uncomfortable of positions, one that would be difficult to maintain for a live human being. Even for an unfeeling corpse, it seemed like a cruel fate to be buried in such a painful pose for over a century.

Having noticed the unusual squatting position of the skeleton, some local residents adopted another theory that would become part of the Cooperstown legend. According to the legend, the locals speculated that the skeleton was actually pushing the stones of the wall outward in order to achieve a more comfortable place of rest. They believed that the deceased Mohawk chief, unhappy with the way he had been buried, was somehow using his bony thighs and calves to move the stones of the wall, thereby creating a more passable amount of leg room behind the wall.

Another legend also developed. According to this alternate story, the unfortunate manner of burial had motivated the Indian chief to tears. The flow of tears, especially over long periods of time, interacted badly with the mortar located between the stones. The unexpected moisture created by the ghostly tears did not allow the mortar to set properly, thus causing the wall to bulge awkwardly.

Given the emphasis that Cooperstown places on history, it might have seemed logical for the skeleton and the artifacts to make their way to one of the local museums. Yet, that did not happen. In fact, opinions vary as to what actually did happen to the skeleton and the artifacts. Some contend that the local residents either sold or gave the artifacts to another museum, one outside of Cooperstown. Others contend differently. They say that the local residents, feeling fearful over their discovery of a ghostly presence behind the wall and their unintended desecration of sacred ground, decided to return the skeleton and the artifacts to their place of burial and then seal up the disrupted segment of the wall. Given the two contrasting stories, no one seems to know for sure whether the skeleton is still buried behind the wall.

After the 1960s discovery, an unexpected development took place. The wall seemed to return to a state of normalcy. It no longer bulged or buckled as it had in past years, at least not to the point of being visible to the naked eye. This observation has let to still another theory. Some contend that the local residents returned the skeleton to its burial place, but actually changed its positioning so as to make it more comfortable. Perhaps they laid the skeleton on its back, giving it a much more restful posture. If that’s the case, the Mohawk Indian chief would have no reason to push its bones outward.

Whatever the case, this much appears to be true. The walk down the west side of River Street remains a bit uneasy for some folks in Cooperstown—at least those who believe in the power of ghosts and the legends of skeletons that move on their own.

Home