The Ghosts of Gudgeonville

 

Gudgeonville Bridge before its destruction

Perhaps the most famous haunted location in Erie County is the site of the old Gudgeonville Covered Bridge, which spanned Elk Creek for over a century near a gorge known as the Devil's Backbone. With rumors of paranormal activity stretching back to the mid 20th century-- and a verifiable track record of bizarre deaths-- it is no surprise that Gudgeonville has become a favorite spot for ghosthunters. But when it comes to this spectacularly spooky site, what is fact and what is fiction? Before we explore the legends, let's delve into the history of the bridge and the surrounding area. 

Located just south of I-90 in western Erie County in Girard Township, the Gudgeonville Bridge was an 84-foot-long covered bridge erected in 1868 over Elk Creek, which flows into Lake Erie at a point near Erie Bluffs State Park. According to local historians, the bridge foundation was constructed of remnants from the Beaver & Erie Canal (also known as the Erie Extension Canal), which was constructed between 1831 and 1844 and ran for 136 miles from Lake Erie to the Ohio River, bisecting Elk Creek at the village of Girard. If you're curious about how a canal crosses a creek, the answer is an aqueduct, which was erected 96 feet above the water level of the creek (the aqueduct over Elk Creek Gorge collapsed around 1871).

Elk Creek carves a serpentine gorge through most of Girard Township, and the two branches of Elk Creek (Elk Creek and Little Elk Creek) converge at a rock formation known as the Devil's Nose. A short distance to the south is the natural curiosity known as the Devil's Backbone, and it is between these spots where a covered bridge was erected to provide access to Gudgeonville, which wasn't actually much of a town, but the site of an 19th century factory which manufactured gudgeons, a type of fitting used in canal and shipping locks. Historic maps show the location of this factory at a spot on the west side of Beckman Road, near its intersection with Tannery Road. During its heyday in the 1880s, Gudgeonville boasted a handful of homes, stores and even a schoolhouse which operated into the early 1900s.

History records at least three catastrophic fires which struck the Gudgeonville covered bridge; the first occurred in the 1870s and resulted in the rebuilding of the bridge. Another fire, causing $3000 worth of damage, took place in April of 1965 and was believed to have been set intentionally. The fire which finally destroyed the bridge, which was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1980, occurred on November 8, 2008, and was determined by the State Police to have been a case of arson. The two men, both of whom had extensive criminal records, were arrested, tried and convicted.

The Legends of Gudgeonville Bridge

The bridge has played a starring role in local legend since the early 1900s. According to several websites, a headless horseman supposedly haunted the bridge during the era, and witnesses claimed that phantom hooves could be heard when the bridge was still standing. Of course, there is no record (at least that I could find) of anyone losing a head in the vicinity.

 Another popular legend pertains to the name of Gudgeonville. Supposedly, Gudgeon was the name of a mule who refused to cross the bridge during the mid-19th century and toppled over dead of a heart attack from fright. As the story goes, the mule's owner buried Gudgeon on the west bank of Elk Creek and had the name of his beloved mule painted on the bridge entrance. The name sort of stuck, and locals took to calling the spot Gudgeonville. Of course, this tale couldn't possibly be true, since the bridge in question hadn't been constructed yet (although an earlier bridge most likely stood at the same spot), and, as you can see by this 1855 map, the name of the town was already in use by this time.

 However, the most often told ghost tales involve the screams of a young girl who fell to her death from the Gudgeonville cliffs in the 1940s. Surprisingly, there may actually be some truth to this legend. My research turned up three people who actually plunged to their deaths in the vicinity of the bridge, though the earliest of these deaths took place in 1955. Strangely, all of these deaths involved victims between the ages of 10 and 15.

The Death of Ruby Shorts

At 2:00 in the morning of Sunday, September 18, 1955, a 15-year-old girl from Union City named Ruby Eleanor Shorts was killed instantly when she and her 46-year-old companion, Ralph Blaser, mysteriously fell from a 180-foot cliff into Elk Creek at Gudgeonville during what newspapers reported as a "moonlight stroll". According to the Kane Republican, the girl and Blaser were with a carload of people, including Ruby's mother, when they parked near the bridge and the two victims went for a walk alone. While Blaser would later recover from his injuries, Ruby's death was ruled accidental by the police, who, for some reason, weren't too curious as to why a 46-year-old man would go for a walk on the edge of a cliff with a 15-year-old girl at two o'clock in the morning.

The Death of Darlene Nichoals

On Monday, April 20, 1964, a 10-year-old girl from Girard named Darlene Nichoals plunged 225 feet to her death from the Gudgeonville cliffs. According to newspaper reports, Darlene and her mother had gone to the cliffs for a picnic and the young girl fell over the edge while attempting to pick up some moss. The Latrobe Bulletin reported that two college students found the girl's body in Elk Creek, and that Darlene was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Vincent Hospital.

  
The Death of Gerard Serfozo

Of the handful of verifiable deaths which have occurred near the Gudgeonville Bridge, none is as strange as the mysterious 1965 death of a 15-year-old seminary student named Gerard Serfozo of Erie. On Thursday, April 1, 1965, Gerard and a group of about a hundred students from the Divine Word Catholic Seminary in nearby Girard went hiking in the vicinity of the Devil's Backbone. Gerard told a priest that he was going back, and instructed the others in the group to meet him at the Gudgeonville covered bridge. It was the the last time anyone would see him alive.

Two days later, after an extensive search by more than 200 volunteers, including the State Police, Civil Defense units and Boy Scouts, Gerard's body was discovered by firemen in a flat-bottom boat shortly before 10:00 a.m. on the banks of Elk Creek, about a quarter mile downstream from the bridge. Deputy Coroner Wallace Mulligan made a positive identification at the scene, and the death was later ruled accidental by Erie County Coroner Merle Wood. An autopsy revealed that Serfozo had died from drowning after sustaining injuries from a fall.

 What makes this death so baffling is that hundreds of people searched for Gerard Serfozo for two days, only to find him a short distance from the bridge where he planned on meeting up with the rest of group. Though his death had been caused by drowning, his body was found on dry ground. Also interesting is the fact that Serfozo was a Boy Scout and an expert swimmer.

And yet another thing that makes this case so fascinating is that the Gudgeonville covered bridge was intentionally set on fire just two days after the discovery of the body. On Monday, April 5, 1965, fire caused an estimated $3000 worth of damage to the covered bridge, and although police concluded that arsonists had burned the bridge, no arrests were ever made. Could there be some connection? For now, this will have to remain an unsolved mystery. Forty-three years later, arsonists would finally succeed in destroying the historic structure for good-- though the destruction of the Gudgeonville bridge didn't put an end to the ghost stories.

 

 

The Legacy of the Bridge

After the bridge was destroyed by arsonists, Girard Township supervisors salvaged what they could and, for years, the wooden remains were housed in a field. In the summer of 2020, township supervisor Clay Brocious invited local residents to take home a little piece of the legendary bridge, and Erie County residents were eager to accept the invitation, much to his surprise. "The final count was I think 163," Brocius told YourErie. "The response was phenomenal, overwhelming, and it just goes to show how important this bridge was to a lot of people around here."

Of course, it has been reported that spirits can attach themselves to physical objects, so if you're one of the 163 lucky owners of a chunk of the Gudgeonville Covered Bridge and have been noticing some strange sights and sounds around your home, then it just might confirm that the ghost stories may have some truth in them after all.
 



Sources:

History of Erie County, Pennsylvania. Warner, Beers & Co. 1884.  
Brookville Jeffersonian-Democrat, June 4, 1884.
Kane Republican, Sept. 19, 1955.
Latrobe Bulletin, April 20, 1964.
Pittsburgh Press, April 3, 1965.
Scrantonian Tribune, April 4, 1965.
Allentown Morning Call, April 5, 1965.
Lock Haven Express, April 5, 1965.
Oil City Derrick April 6, 1965.