The Stagecoach
The MPIG investigates a haunted stagecoach route.
“Excellent,” Nicole replied. “I have no idea what a lot of that stuff is, but if it involves horses and wagons, my grandpa owned it.”
“Max actually said that a stagecoach would usually be drawn by six to eight horses. But we won’t be using them for very long, so we should be good. We won’t tire them out or cause any damage to them.”
“Glad to hear that. I guess it’s true that you learn something new every day. I also doubt that most of our viewers will know that piece of information.” said Nicole.
A good deal of time had passed and I was wondering where Jonah and Max were. A short while after that, their lights became visible. “We’re ready to roll,” said Jonah. “Let’s get the horses out and the wagon off the trailer.”
“Wagon?” asked Brett. “Doncha’ mean stagecoach?”
“Stagecoach it is,” Jonah nodded.
I, Max, Brett, and Jonah went to the flatbed trailer. Max undid some straps and then climbed up to release some kind of braking mechanism on the wagon. Brett and Jonah put the unloading ramps into position and secured them. We all pushed the wagon off the trailer, as slowly as we could. It was much lighter than I thought it would be, and it wasn’t really hard to get it onto the ground. It didn’t seem like it would be hard to load it again when we were through with it.
The wagon, which we were now calling a stagecoach, was just a basic wagon that came straight out of Nicole’s grandfather’s barn. It was very likely an antique, but it was in good shape and the wheels were in excellent condition, which was important to us since it actually needed to be driven. Since Nicole’s grandpa (as she calls him) had passed away, we were able to “borrow” it easily and make some alterations. With plywood, two by four timbers, and red paint that we found in the barn, we were able to dress up the wagon and make it look much more like an old stagecoach than an old wagon. It would make fantastic B-roll footage, especially in the woods after dark. If our ghost-hunting was not successful, we might rely a great deal on our hastily built prop.
Max and Jenny unloaded the girls and got Marge, Marie, Mabel, and Macy tackled up. They hooked them to the makeshift coach, and then Max led them to the treeline where he racked them up to a small pine. I looked at my watch. It was already 11:30 PM.
Why, I wondered, am I always ghost-hunting around 12 AM? “They” (whoever they are) say that midnight is the “witching hour,” where the boundaries between our world and the spirit world are thinner than at any other time. I should have a 9-5 job and I should be asleep right now and I wouldn’t have to deal with ghosts, I thought. Of course I wasn’t being completely serious, and I smiled to myself almost as soon as the thought occurred.
“All right, folks, gather around, get into position, and get the equipment going again,” said Jonah. “Are you ready, Nicole?” She responded with her usual upturned thumb. “Camera ready,” she said.
“Super. We’ll do our introductions before we go into the forest. It’ll be good for Max and Jenny to hear a little bit of the story before they get in position. So...one, two, three, four: “Good evening everyone, I’m Jonah Oliver…”
“And I’m Morgan Burns,” announced Morgan. “And we are the Mackenson County Paranormal Investigation Group (M.P.I.G. for short)! We boldly enter into places that are supposed to be haunted and we search for ghosts!”
“If you’re a fan of ours, you already know that investigating hauntings and the supernatural is exactly what we do. We’re very happy that you’ve decided to watch this episode and spend some time with us,” said Jonah. (Morgan nodded in the affirmative. It was getting chilly and I could see my breath in the air already. Morgan was not dressed for the cold; she’d have to put her jacket on before we went into the woods.)
“And if you don’t know us yet,” Jonah continued, “our show appears on the internet, bi-weekly; once every 14 days. The news ticker currently floating by on the bottom of your screen gives you all the information you need to find us!”
“Morgan, what can you tell us about tonight’s episode?” asked Jonah.
“Folks, we’ve got a two-hour event planned for this evening. Currently we are on location at a portion of what used to be the Pine Hills to Clarkston stagecoach route. Because the trail is on private property, we will not be stating our exact location; however, we’ll note for the record that we do (as always) have permission to be here.”
“So, what are we doing tonight? In a few moments our investigators, me included, will enter the wooded area that you can see behind me, and walk out to the old trail. We’re going to attempt to make contact with one or more spirits who we believe might still be in that area. Jonah, over to you.”
“Tonight’s investigation will center on a stagecoach crew from 1870. In those days, there were typically two men assigned to a coach, the driver and another man who carried a weapon—usually a double-barreled shotgun. One man was the driver, and the other was called the man who ‘rode shotgun.’ As we will now see, at least one of the men—supposedly the stagecoach driver—came to be known as the headless stagecoach driver. Morgan?”
“Tonight’s episode is entitled The Headless Stagecoach Driver. As the story goes, near this very spot is an old stage coach line that came down through Oklahoma to Pine Hills, and then from Pine Hills to Clarkston before heading back north to Silver City. A long time ago, in 1870, as Jonah said, a coach that traveled the route was waylaid by highwaymen. It seems as though no one knows exactly why the coach was robbed. Jonah?”
“I’ve never heard a particular reason either, Morgan. Perhaps it carried a payroll in gold or silver. Perhaps it carried very little and the robbers were desperate—which is probably closer to the truth, since neither Pine Hills nor Clarkston or any other place in Northeast Texas has ever been a gold-laden metropolis. Whatever the case may have been, the coach was ‘held up.’”
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