From the YouTube channel, Geist published October 30, 2020.
Learn more about the legend of the White Angel that haunts the tunnel at Shenks Ferry in this Geist video narrated by me!
Local legend hangs heavy at Shenks Ferry, but almost all revolve around a white angel —the ghost of a woman dressed in white. In one version of the story, she commits suicide because she’s left at the altar by her fiancé. Sometimes she appears hanging from the arch of the tunnel.
In another version, she’s murdered by someone on her way to her wedding, perhaps by a jealous lover. Some tell how she and her newlywed husband argue here in the tunnel, and he kills her.
Some say her husband was killed—perhaps murdered himself—in the tunnel. Her spirit lurks there today, still mourning his death.
But according to Jack Niess, a retired Conrail locomotive engineer, this is what really happened. The train hit a woman who had escaped from an insane asylum in Maryland. She had been wearing a white sheet or maybe a hospital gown. The train engineer had no idea they had hit a person in the dark; however, the conductor happened to be in the caboose looking out and noticed that they had hit someone. Neiss said the accident occurred directly above the Shenks Ferry tunnel.
To summon the spirit, you park your car in the center of the tunnel—the closer to midnight, the better. You get out and place your keys on the roof of the vehicle. Next, walk around your car three times. Get back inside and wait.
If you’ve done the ceremony correctly, if you’ve walked around the car in the correct direction, then her ghost will appear. Sometimes she’s hanging from the arch of the tunnel. Other times she approaches the vehicle.
To learn more about the White Angel of the Shenks Ferry tunnel, click here.
Geist
More excellent Lancaster County legend videos can be found on Geist’s YouTube channel.