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Oct 19, 2006 7:01 pm US/Eastern
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Rte. 65 Trouble Could Be A Supernatural Matter
KILBUCK (KDKA) ―
The massive landslide on Route 65 in Kilbuck Township remains a "who" or maybe "what" done it?
The DEP is now drilling holes trying to determine if soil samples will solve the mystery.
But that would be in the realm of the natural.
People who've been living in the Emsworth area bordering the Wal-Mart property think the answer may be supernatural.
Before they ever began excavating for the Wal-Mart Super Center, the Dixmont State Mental Hospital stood on the property for more than 100 years.
After it closed, lots of adventure seekers explored the abandoned buildings and the tunnels that honey-combed the ground beneath it all adds up to a good ghost story.
Land from the construction site still creeps, like a "B"-horror movie, inch by inch.
Some say dynamite may have been the trigger. Others believe Pittsburgh Red Bed is to blame. But in this season of All Hallows evenings, there are those who wonder if the ghosts of Dixmont are afoot.
"It could very well be the spirits interrupting the construction," said Sherri Higgins, a paranormal investigator.
"Dixmont Hospital For The Insane," built in 1856 and originally covering 400 acres, was like a small town containing its own post office, morgue and cemetery.
"We felt like we were being watched at all times, and we heard sounds and we recorded some spirit energy," said Higgins, who visited the site in 2002.
"The spirits of the dead still walk the asylum there," she said.
Closed in 1984, most of the hospital's buildings were demolished in recent years to make way for the Wal-Mart development. What remains is the cemetery.
"My concern is what's happening to the graves that are there - I really like to know what's happening," said Higgins.
"And there's 1,300 graves in here - all these little stones are all graves stones," said Ralph Stroyne, a Dixmont property owner.
Most are patients buried in wicker coffins and pine boxes.
No names or dates are on the tombstones – just numbers.
The Dixmont Cemetery records came with the Bill of Sale when Stroyne purchased the hospital grounds in 1998.
He was born and raised on a neighboring farm.
"When we were young we used to hike up here, usually around Halloween because there was usually something strange happening," said Stroyne.
Over the years, the Dixmont Cemetery has been a magnet for people looking for a scare.
"There's a lot of people who've been up there doing séances and ghost stories," said Stroyne.
The graves were originally dug in perfectly straight lines, but through the years, the grave stones have slid down the hill.
And as 22,000 motorists recently learned, there's more than gravestones sliding around there.
But does Stroyne believe in ghostly intervention?
"I'm not sure - but you know they're saying there were a lot of patients up there through the years that were happy up there - had a great time up there and they don't want the place to be disturbed ... simple as that," he said.
The cemetery still belongs to the State of Pennsylvania – everything around it was sold.
For a time, various groups tried to keep the graves cleared of brush.
Included among the dead are patients, staff and their family members as well as three civil war soldiers who died of their wounds at Dixmont.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)