Minink Hills (then North Water Gap) whistle stop!

These photos are of the remnants of where a train came through Minisink Hills. This line was called the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad. The large pillars (I was told) are part of a structure where the trains picked up coal. These pillars are just off of Binnekill Lane. The train tracks originally ran from New Jersey, over the Delaware River into Pennsylvania and connected to another set of tracks that are still used today. The massive abutments that once held the train tracks up rise very high out of the Delaware River in a ghostly fashion. I was able to walk along where the tracks would have been. I even found some coal. Coal doesn't naturally grow out of the ground around here. I have no idea what the large stone marker / monument with "JC 98" engraved on it means. The RockTenn paper mill (over 100 years old) is right across the Broadhead Creek from where the tracks ran. I don't think the tracks were ever used in connection to the mill since they would've been too far away.That overpass is Interstate 80. When I turned the bend and saw it, I froze because I thought I saw a person standing in the woods wearing red. My heart started racing and I immediately turned around. I heard that there is a homeless community that lived in the woods near some railroad tracks near where I was approaching. I guess I've watched too many episodes of Criminal Minds because I feared that some homeless people would be patroling the area to protect their place and they might do bad things to me or even kill me. I went slowly back to the bend and saw that I thought was a person dressed in red was just a large piece of red cloth or plastic stuck in some small trees. I wanted to go further but I don't think it would be a good idea to go alone.

Eilenberger's Mills in Minisink Hills, PA

Some old cars in the woods on Hillside Drive

I've always been fascinated by these old cars. With a little elbow grease and an oil change I'm sure they'd purr like kittens.

Cemetary behind St. Mark's Lutheran Church

The shack is on the edge of cemetary. There is a tombstone lying inside and some cylinders of whose purpose I am unsure of at this point.

Pococabana in Minisink Hills, PA

The Pococabana was a gigantic resort that existed from the 1950's to 1970's. Most of it burned to the ground in 1973. Some of the out building survived and are now apartments. I took this photo of one of the surviving buildings. It's kind of sad to see these photos side by side. I wil definitely be posting more about the Pococabana in the future. You can see the remaining buildings on both sides of Route 209 about 1/4 mile before Buttermilk Falls Road.

Schmitt's Mountain Resort / Pierce's Landing in Minisink Hills, PA

I found a tiny ad on page 37 of the June 6, 1948 issue of the Brooklyn Eagle. This is the text from the ad:

Schmitt's Mountain Resort
Minsink Hills, PA (Pocono Mts.)
Mother's home cooking, fresh vegetables, all new innerspring mattresses, rooms with running hot and cold water, sports, recreation hall, spacious lawns fun and relaxation. Accomodates 50 persons. Write for booklet.
832-836 WKLY, tel. Stroudsburg 2077-73

The newspaper page is in the form of a PDF and the ad is a little blurry. At least I now know that there was a booklet for the resort. I will be going to the Monroe County Historical Association in the coming weeks to do more research on Schmitt's. It became Pierce's Landing, an apartment complex in November 1994 and I've lived here since then. I heard the place was haunted when I moved in. I've lived in 2 apartments here so far and I've been in my current apartment since 2007. I've always lived alone here. I was touched on the shoulder and woken up by children's voices in my first apartment. I've been touched many times in my current apartment. I've woken up to hearing sighs by my bed and one time I woke up because I heard a child's voice saying "pa?" next to my bed. One morning in the fall of 2013 I saw a full-body apparition of a woman next to my bed. It's not a scary place though. It's a very nice, very well landscaped place to live. Eventually,  I will post a detailed documentation of my experiences here.

Found on Route 209 (Seven Bridges Road)

On my walk yesterday evening I looked down and saw this prescription bottle. I wouldn't have looked at it twice if it didn't have a Rea and Derrick label on it. That pharmacy hasn't been around in this area for decades. The date on the label also intrigued me - 1/8/79. The name on the label was Iola Strunk who lived in East Stroudsburg (2 miles away). She was born on January 7, 1922 and died on April 24, 2000. There's no way this bottle sat on the side of the road for almost exactly 14 years. How the bottle came to be there I will never know. It was not there when I walked in that same place the day before.

Schmidling house on Hillside Drive in Minisink Hills, PA

This house has sat empty since 1994. It's right across the street from my apartment and I can see it from my window. When I asked my landlord about the house he told me that the woman wanted her family to keep the house as it is after she died because she's going to come back and live in it when she is reincarnated. I was told that the family lives out of state. Someone busted the back door to get in and the doorway to get in is boarded up. I looked in a broken window and took some photos. I wish I could've walked in. About six months ago I had a dream that I was inside the house and the woman who lived there was standing in a doorway. She showed me how she could now appear as an old woman or a young woman or whatever age she wanted. I am still trying to find out the name of the family that lived there. I heard that all of Hillside Drive was once farmland and the medicine containers to treat mange on animals makes it obvious that there were once animals kept on the property.
Update: I just found out that Inez Zimmerman Schmidling lived in the house. She was 84 years old when she died in Mercy Hospital in Wiles-Barre, PA on October 23, 1996. I was told by one of my neighbors that her son was taking care of the house and that the house has extensive water damage and there is black mold everywhere. My neighbor told me that there is a very nice staircase in the house that when you walk up "it doesn't even feel like you're walking up." My neighbor is also the second person to tell me that Inez's bedroom is the only room in the house that does not have black mold. This is probably just because the water damage in this bedroom is not as extensive as it is in the rest of the house but...maybe there's a spookier explanation!
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