Sussex County is chock full of spooky ghost stories that can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. There’s the story about Maggie’s Bridge, located a bit west of Seaford. According to the legend, the bridge is the site of a fatal crash where a pregnant woman named Maggie perished. Some claim that if you stand on the bridge at night and shout out, “Maggie, I have your baby,” you will hear a sobbing Maggie as she searches for her baby in the marsh.
The Lewes Historical Society (LHS) has its share of ghost stories and sightings that are highlighted on two of their walking tours – Lewes Legends and Haunted Histories Paranormal Investigations. The Legends tour happens on Wednesdays and Sundays. The Paranormal tours will be ending soon but will start up again in January. (Due to the nature of the tour content, it is not recommended for children under the age of eight.)
Master storyteller and tour guide Bill Hicks muses about a somewhat ghoulish experience he had while ascending the stairs of the Burton-Ingram House on the LHS campus. “I felt a tightening in my chest, like I was having a heart attack,” he said. He moved down one step and the pain stopped. He moved back up a step and the pain reoccurred. “Now I usually don’t go any further than the landing,” he added.
That landing has its own curious story revolving around an old disk-driven music box that sits on a table there. The box has been known to start playing notes without the aid of the human hand. One LHS member experienced it first-hand while on a private tour with Hicks. And Hicks heard it too. He says has also heard footsteps upstairs in the house as he was turning off the lights and closing the door after a tour.
The Legends Tour includes the story of the Cannonball House (bombarded by the British in the War of 1812) when “spirits” apparently insisted on rearranging the tools of a maintenance man who was restoring the (now) museum. The man would neatly arrange his tools each night, only to find them scattered the next day, with a door to the attic ajar. He resorted to nailing the door latch shut. The next morning, he found that the nail had popped out, and the tools were scattered.
And then, there is the story of Susan Rowland who mysteriously got her dress caught in the fireplace there (burning to death in 1917), it’s no wonder it is considered one of the most haunted in Delaware! Participants in the two-hour Haunted Histories Paranormal Investigations tour will hear spooky and “true” tales of long-ago residents with stories to tell.
Tour goers are encouraged to bring flashlights, and some bring paranormal equipment. Donna Siekman is a paranormal enthusiast who has used a K-II meter on the Legends tour to detect supernatural beings. It is an electromagnetic field detector. She got a reaction pointing the meter up a flight of steps in the Cannonball House and an even bigger reaction when Hicks was wrapping up the tour with a few of his own odd experiences in the Tavern. “The meter was going crazy, all the way into the red zone,” she said. The red zone indicates a high energy source.
Curiously, the theme of this year’s Sea Witch Festival is Paranormal Piranha. So get ready for some spooky fun! The festival takes place October 25-27 in Rehoboth Beach.
By Mary Jo Tarallo, Guest Journalist
Mary Jo Tarallo spent much of her career in public relations with various non-profits and spent 40 years involved with the ski industry as a journalist, public relations director for a national trade association and as executive director of the Learn to Ski and Snowboard initiative. Prior to her ski industry involvement she worked for the Maryland International Center in Baltimore and United Way of Central Maryland. She won a Gold Award for TV programming for a United Way simulcast that starred Oprah Winfrey. She has been cited for her work by numerous organizations. Mary Jo grew up in Baltimore, attended the University of Maryland and Towson University, lived in Washington, DC for 21 years and has been a full time resident of Rehoboth Beach and Milton since May 2019.
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