One of the most persistent tales in local lore recounts the ordeal of a Cashtown area doctor during the first half of the 20th century. While walking home one night after making a house call the doctor was waylaid near Cashtown Inn by a man wearing what appeared to be some sort of military uniform. The young soldier, whom upon close inspection now appeared to be clad in Confederate attire, forced the good doctor into a woodlot behind the inn where, to his sheer amazement and growing fright, he beheld a small campsite where yet another Confederate soldier was nursing a bullet wound. The doctor treated the soldier, then was released. Tired and frightened he proceeded to his home, but returned to the site next morning only to discover that all trace of the soldiers and their camp had vanished! On a later occasion, involving a different physician, a similar phenomenon occurred at the same location, under the same circumstances, with the same results - no trace.

For decades a phantom soldier has been sighted prowling the rooms and corridors of Cashtown Inn. Adults and children alike have reported seeing a man in uniform who suddenly appears at an open doorway or lurks about in the hallway, and just as suddenly disappears. Common features of these sightings have been a gray uniform, including kepi, short-coat, and blanket roll, and the apparition generally has one arm held down against its side as if standing at attention, or perhaps the arm is limp from a wound.

Descriptions of this Cashtown Inn specter are not unlike the shadowy figure captured in a turn-of-the-century photo of the inn labeled simply "Old Hotel, Cashtown, Pa." If that were not enough to pique the interest of any ghost hunter, a white smear in the photo covers the windows of the room where the sniper victim died. Coincidence or corroboration?

Cashtown Inn...haunted?