Location:
Description: Over twenty acres looking out on Lake Klompus, an idyllic mountain lake excellent for fishing, the beautiful landscape boast fine hunting, long trails, camping sites and various annuities. There are thirty different cabins in addition to stables, a pool house, tennis courts, recreation center and admissions lodge. The cabin in question is at the end of the north path overlooking the lake. It’s a rustic two-room cabin with a fireplace and bathroom.
Ghostly Manifestations: Beginning in the spring of 1961, several guests at
the Lake Klompus Lodge began reporting strange activity in one of the cabins.
Some of them reported a strange figure that moved through the house and
vanished in the shadows. Others were intimidated by an odd invisible presence
they felt but could not see. One honeymooning couple checked out quickly when
they saw the rocking chair rocking steadily by itself in the middle of the
night. Other guests complained that someone kept knocking on the door all night
and wouldn’t let them get any sleep.
Another guest complained that someone, or
something, was lurking around the cabin and slipping in and out unseen because
things were being moved or left in odd places. A set of water skis were left
crossing the floor one night and a suitcase was once found balanced across the
backs of two chairs back to back as another young couple awoke. One certain
pretty young brunette once testified she looked in a mirror and saw a man with
a mustache standing behind her. Since it wasn’t her husband, she spun around to
confront him, but there was no one there.
Considering the numerous complaints, the
lodge closed that cabin and forgot it was even there for three years. On
September 30, 1964, television entertainer Alan Brady used the obscure haunted
location to launch his short-lived hidden camera show, “Sneaky Camera.” Four
people associated with his regular series, “The Alan Brady Show,” were then invited
to stay in the cabin and be subjected by several special effects that simulated
hauntings as Brady had their reactions secretly taped for the new show.
One odd thing happened: while the four were being filmed in the living room, the shadow of an inexplicable fifth person crossed the back wall of the bedroom behind them.
History: The Lake Klompus Lodge has had a long uneventful history since it
opened in 1923. Presidents and politicians have stayed there including
President Jimmy Carter in 1976. Rumors have it that while prohibition was going
on around the United States, illegal liquor was still being sold there because
the message had arrived yet and didn’t get to it until after the prohibition
act had been repealed.
The location was documented in Alan Brady’s short-lived 1983 series, “Ghost Stories.”
Identity of Ghosts: Amos Chantz was a regular guest at the lodge through the 1950s. He always stayed in that North cabin and often booked it well in advance. In the Fall of 1960, just before the lodge closed for the winter, he had won big in a poker game with several shady figures. That night, he vanished and his body was found buried under the cabin by lodge employees under some loose floorboards about a month after opening. No one was ever brought to trial for the murder, but rumor has it that Amos’s confused but benevolent spirit is still searching for the money that may still be hidden in the cabin.
Comments: The Dick Van Dyke Show, Episode “The Ghost of A. Chantz” Loosely
based on the hauntings of Big Moose Inn, Old Forge,