Friday, October 13, 2017

The Love-Crazed Maiden of Charlie's Puddle

The Rittman Historical Society presented an incredibly well-researched, informative, and spine-tingling group of Halloween tales at their monthly meeting last night, held in the old Knupp Church.


My favorite tale was about the Indian maiden who was driven mad after her love was killed in a skirmish with another tribe. It is said that, each year, as the hour grows close to midnight on October 21st, the love-crazed spirt of this woman "... rides a canoe up and down the River Styx and into the center of Charlie’s Puddle... before disappearing (Rolik, 2011)."




The 21st of October is fast approaching, do you think her spirit will emerge for a midnight ride this year?

Here is a full article published by The Daily Record about the maiden, as well as a ghostly train said to recreate its final, fiery ride off of a train trestle not far from the maiden's haunting grounds: http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/20111110/hunting-for-haunted

San Felipe de Neri Church

Built in 1793 and on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, this church is one of the oldest buildings in the entire city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is still a functional Catholic parish. According to the church website, the original church collapsed in a rainstorm in 1792. This earlier church stood to the West of the town's plaza, with a cemetery to the East. In 1869, all of the burials that could be located at this cemetery were moved to the newly founded Mount Calvary Cemetery. There are stories of forgotten burials being found during ongoing construction projects (Source: Ghosts of Old Town Albuquerque by Cody Polston). The site of the cemetery is now a quaint plaza with specialty shops and a fountain. I can't help but wonder if there were coffins under my feet as I browsed...