20 replies to this topic

[mini]

Has anyone been here, or does anyone know any information about this place? All I can find is maybe three websites belching out the same horribly miss-spelled paragraph, and it sounds like it could be a really interesting place. I have a friend that lives near there and I was trying to find out some more information for her and myself. If anyone can help, please post here. I will paste the only information about the place here if it will help with anything.

"Parish - Happy Valley - In the late 1800s there was a city its name was happy valley its is said it was a fairly big city. Until the black plague came and seemingly wiped out this city. Now very desolate there are roads thru out 5000 acres of land were "no won lives" there are many sightings of paranormal activity. If you where to get lost on one of its many roads you would be seemly lost for days. Back in 1976 there were some friends driving thru and they stumbled upon a skull one of them put in the rear of there car while they were driving the eyes of the skull lit up bright red. They were spooked and never returned since. To this day no won will go alone on any giving night."

Also, my friend tells me that the town used to be called Fraicheur in the 1800's

[Lil_Kev]

I actually live in Altmar, between Parish and Williamstown. I personally believe in a spirit world, just not these horrendous fabrications of what goes on in happy valley. In the fall of 2007, I visited Happy Valley a couple times, entering at St. Mary's road in parish, just before the High School. I didn't experience anything traumatic, or dangerous as suggested in the story circulating the web. I did however feel a strong energy throughout the seven mile stretch that I explored. There were at times different overpowering smells, and at one point an overwhelming sense of sadness. There were no physical signs or presences of spirits, more a feeling of knowing something is there.

The one other time I visited happy valley, I'm not quite sure where I entered, somewhere just outside of williamstown. There was little to no activity at all, except for a few orbs in some pictures I took of an old cemetery. Continuing in, there was absolutely nothing, until all of a sudden there was a loud sound of metal dropping on metal. I didn't stick around to find out what it was, but I am confident that it was a person or people, not spirits.

My point is, happy valley isn't the evil haunted place that people rumor it to be. There is a little spiritual activity, but again, far and few between, and at in intensity that you could pretty much find anywhere.

[music_freak1997]

i live in pennellville ny and i grew up hearing about happy valley, but never as an evil place just spooky. i was wondering if you knew any history or where i could find it about happy valley. i was wondering also if the cemetery you spoke of was on the grounds of an old church. it was a little tiny small white old church? i dont know much about it it was my aunt who saw it and we are looking for stuff about it. if you have any info could you email me at music_freak1997@hotmail.com just be sure to put happy valley in the subject line so i know whos it's from. thank you for your time.

kristen

I actually live in Altmar, between Parish and Williamstown. I personally believe in a spirit world, just not these horrendous fabrications of what goes on in happy valley. In the fall of 2007, I visited Happy Valley a couple times, entering at St. Mary's road in parish, just before the High School. I didn't experience anything traumatic, or dangerous as suggested in the story circulating the web. I did however feel a strong energy throughout the seven mile stretch that I explored. There were at times different overpowering smells, and at one point an overwhelming sense of sadness. There were no physical signs or presences of spirits, more a feeling of knowing something is there.

The one other time I visited happy valley, I'm not quite sure where I entered, somewhere just outside of williamstown. There was little to no activity at all, except for a few orbs in some pictures I took of an old cemetery. Continuing in, there was absolutely nothing, until all of a sudden there was a loud sound of metal dropping on metal. I didn't stick around to find out what it was, but I am confident that it was a person or people, not spirits.

My point is, happy valley isn't the evil haunted place that people rumor it to be. There is a little spiritual activity, but again, far and few between, and at in intensity that you could pretty much find anywhere.

[camdenny]

I live in Camden, NY about 15 miles away from Happy Valley. I've been there many times and have had some startling experiences there. There are stories all around here linking that place for everything from UFOs and ghosts and even time travel. I don't know if it lives up to all of that but it is a very interesting area. I have experienced mostly ghostly activity in the cemetery including some poltergeist type phenomenon. Multiple battery drains ect. Not the most active stop there is but I'm pretty sure that there is something going on there.

[earth_spirit]

Check with the folks at the NY/PA Paranormal Society. They've done research at Happy Valley with some rather interesting results. You can see the photos here:

NYPAPS

[earth_spirit]

The Central New York Ghost Hunters Society uncovers more information about Happy Valley during a 2003 hunt:

Central New York Ghost Hunters Society

[bedmit]

The Central New York Ghost Hunters Society uncovers more information about Happy Valley during a 2003 hunt:

Central New York Ghost Hunters Society

i don't suppose that you have another link to their page? i tried this one and it didn't work, gave me a 404 error

[outoftheordinary]

My family used to camp in Happy Valley when I was a kid, I never really heard any of the stories until I was a teenager, and I have been pretty intrigued with the area, not so much because of all the rumors of hauntings and unexplained phenomena, but mainly because no one really knows what happened to the community. The Williamstown Historical society has it down on their website that the most popular belief is that everyone in the town died of "black water fever", which I found out is another term for Malaryia, which is, as far as I know, only known in tropical climates. I had always heard that it was the black plague. I've been researching the history of Happy Valley for over a year, and have came up with some conclusions of my own. You can check it out on my website <A HREF="http://www.outoftheo...y.t35.com/">Out of the Ordinary</A>

Has anyone been here, or does anyone know any information about this place? All I can find is maybe three websites belching out the same horribly miss-spelled paragraph, and it sounds like it could be a really interesting place. I have a friend that lives near there and I was trying to find out some more information for her and myself. If anyone can help, please post here. I will paste the only information about the place here if it will help with anything.

"Parish - Happy Valley - In the late 1800s there was a city its name was happy valley its is said it was a fairly big city. Until the black plague came and seemingly wiped out this city. Now very desolate there are roads thru out 5000 acres of land were "no won lives" there are many sightings of paranormal activity. If you where to get lost on one of its many roads you would be seemly lost for days. Back in 1976 there were some friends driving thru and they stumbled upon a skull one of them put in the rear of there car while they were driving the eyes of the skull lit up bright red. They were spooked and never returned since. To this day no won will go alone on any giving night."

Also, my friend tells me that the town used to be called Fraicheur in the 1800's

[NYPAPS]

This ghost town is now owned by the state and is a wildlife management area. You can however room freely check out the old school house and cemetery. When we researched this land, it wasn't the Black Plaque it was some other sickness that came from the water supply. the whole town got sick and most had died, it is worth the trip to check it out and to look up the history some people around the area will look at you as if you are crazy but don't give up keep going and you will find the people that have info and documents to prove their facts! It is smiliar to Love Canal in Niagara Falls NY

Has anyone been here, or does anyone know any information about this place? All I can find is maybe three websites belching out the same horribly miss-spelled paragraph, and it sounds like it could be a really interesting place. I have a friend that lives near there and I was trying to find out some more information for her and myself. If anyone can help, please post here. I will paste the only information about the place here if it will help with anything.

"Parish - Happy Valley - In the late 1800s there was a city its name was happy valley its is said it was a fairly big city. Until the black plague came and seemingly wiped out this city. Now very desolate there are roads thru out 5000 acres of land were "no won lives" there are many sightings of paranormal activity. If you where to get lost on one of its many roads you would be seemly lost for days. Back in 1976 there were some friends driving thru and they stumbled upon a skull one of them put in the rear of there car while they were driving the eyes of the skull lit up bright red. They were spooked and never returned since. To this day no won will go alone on any giving night."

Also, my friend tells me that the town used to be called Fraicheur in the 1800's

[beckegoss3]

My husband and I have been taking our suburban to Happy Valley the past couple of summers to have some fun in the mud. We have heard the stories about the black plague wiping out the village, but haven't noticed anything evil or spooky. It really is a beautiful place to "get lost" in..there are many different ways in and out, and you should really have a map of the area so you know what road you're coming out on. I just discovered the cemetery last week when we were there. We plan on going back so I can explore it. I will take some pictures while I am there. I do have some pictures of some oddly bent birch trees from last week and also some of what was the church. Unfortunately, it burnt down sometime early last summer, so I never did see it in its original condition. I do have friends that have and I had found a site with a picture of it (www.wierdny.com?), but I seem to be having trouble finding that tonight. Also, it is state land now, but a lot of it is up for sale through local real estate agencies. If you'd like to view my pictures (there are about 7), I have them on my myspace account. www.myspace.com/beckegoss3 Just add me as a friend and say you are looking for the Happy Valley pictures.

[mini]

Thankyou for all of that information, it was extremely helpful. :)

[outoftheordinary]

Happy Valley was once called Fraichuer, as your friend said. It was a very small community, and only had its own postal route for about 3 years. There was a cheese factory there, but other than that the only means of survival for the people that lived there was farming. The town was eventually torn down, but it wasn't until the 1930's, and up to that point there were still a lot of people living there. Black Water Fever, what is most commonly thought to be the illness that killed the residents of the area is what they used to call malaria in the old days. Its not completely unheard of in this area, but extremely rare. Most cases of it in NY State occurred in the 1600's to the earliest settlers of the area. There is no solid documentation that an epidemic of it ever occurred in Happy Valley. The most important thing to know is that the land wasn't all acquired at one time by the state, but rather a little at a time. During the great depression farmers could no longer survive off of the land, and were therefore abandoning their farms and moving to cities to work. It was at this time that NYS DEC began the Reforestation act, because there were literally hundreds of abandoned farms all over the state, and at this point much of NY's natural beauty had been destroyed and land reaped because we were over farming the land. So what the state did was take over all of the abandoned farms and planted trees on the land, and turned the land into protected wildlife areas. It served two important purposes, creating jobs in a time when they were hard to come by and saving NY's landscape. I am well informed that most of the land in Happy Valley was acquired this way. Even until the 1970's there were still a few of the original inhabitants of the area living in Happy Valley. At that point they were very elderly and once they died their land was to go to the state. So if you look at it that way, the residents of Happy Valley did indeed die off, it just wasn't as spectacular as the legend suggests.


check out this site for tons more info
Happy Valley

[scarycoop]

My family had a camp in happy valley for 10 years when I was a kid...it was right across from st. mary's pond..its still there just a little run down..I know that area like the back of my hand..I still go there a couple times a month..me and a friend found an old stone foundation in the middle of the woods..we go there and have fires and what not..it's not to far from the cemetary..I remember one time being drivin out of there by something..the sound( whatever this was) made was unexplainable...I can only describe it as if a human being had his leg caught in a bear trap or something...it was about 1:30 am and pitch black of course..it sounded like it was about 30 feet away..I'm a grown man and I was out of there!!!!been back several times and never heard it again....another time we walked from the foundation to st. mary's road and on that road is a small one room cabin with the name "gramps camp" on it...so we went in to scope it out...nothing but old crusty books,a bed and a wood burning stove..there was a cast iron pan on the floor leaning up against the wall...we talked about the pan and said "they dont make them like that any more..so we proceeded to go around back, there was an old fish scaling table and nothing else...when we went back inside...I looked on the floor where the pan was..and it was gone...only to find it now placed up on the wood burning stove.....

[music_freak1997]

my email is music_freak1997@hotmail.com - if you could contact me it woul dbe great... kristen

My family had a camp in happy valley for 10 years when I was a kid...it was right across from st. mary's pond..its still there just a little run down..I know that area like the back of my hand..I still go there a couple times a month..me and a friend found an old stone foundation in the middle of the woods..we go there and have fires and what not..it's not to far from the cemetary..I remember one time being drivin out of there by something..the sound( whatever this was) made was unexplainable...I can only describe it as if a human being had his leg caught in a bear trap or something...it was about 1:30 am and pitch black of course..it sounded like it was about 30 feet away..I'm a grown man and I was out of there!!!!been back several times and never heard it again....another time we walked from the foundation to st. mary's road and on that road is a small one room cabin with the name "gramps camp" on it...so we went in to scope it out...nothing but old crusty books,a bed and a wood burning stove..there was a cast iron pan on the floor leaning up against the wall...we talked about the pan and said "they dont make them like that any more..so we proceeded to go around back, there was an old fish scaling table and nothing else...when we went back inside...I looked on the floor where the pan was..and it was gone...only to find it now placed up on the wood burning stove.....

[quake and bake]

Did you know 2 days after the fire when the ashes cooled and the Altmar fire dept was investigating the cause of the fire, the bones of 6 human child size skeletons were discovered in the ashes below the foundation of the chimney. Not to be alarmed! it was also soon discovered the bones to be over 100 years old . Although markings and fractures on the skulls indicated foul play, it was determined well over the statute of limitations for an investigation into the cause of death or the persons responsible. It was also determined most likely to be the 6 area civil war orphans that disappeared from the area in 1867, the first year of the schoolhouse No. 11 to be used to educate the children from the settlement of Happy Valley in the town of Albion NY.
I have frequented the area for many years and vaguely remember conversation of my grandparents referring to the disappearance of the 6 children ,It was believed they had been swept down the Salmon river and washed into lake Ontario. According to the report of a local farmer who is said to have witnessed the incident in the summer of 1867. Who as it turns out was the caretaker of the Happy Valley cemetery, and local carpenter . I have spent nights in the one room schoolhouse and have heard the bell ringing through the walls. I have been awakened to children drawing on the chalkboard that seemed to vanish when I appeared. Although their writings and pictures remained on the board usually with initials and dates. I for one believe these were happy ghosts as there was always laughter to be heard . Plenty have claimed the place to be haunted and erie but I always felt the presence of friendly spirits,until my last visit to the remains of the schoolhouse .The air is still , quiet and not a bird to be seen or heard. the trees have all died and the ringing of the bell has turned into moans. For some reason the schoolhouse six are no longer at rest, and yes I to feel sorry for those responsible for burning of the schoolhouse. Their day will come.

someone sent me this on the subject.
I have held my tongue until now, but feel a higher power within me urging that I come forward. At the request of the owners of the schoolhouse, I was asked to stay at this schoolhouse in April, 2002. The reporting of paranormal activity within the walls of the structure had long concerned them. They found themselves withdrawing from their trips there and were increasingly disheartened by the acts of what they deemed to be vandals. Yet in the back at their minds there was unsettlement as they were not oblivious to the tales of the hauntings. I was asked to perform qualitative research at the property. By recording EMF (Electromagnetic Field) readings at the haunting location, coupled with participant-observation, I found my first evening to be relatively mundane in nature. On the second evening, the levels elevated but what was more astonishing for me, the observer, was the childrens’ singing to be heard above anything else. I was awakened at 6:50 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, April 20, 2002, by the fierce ringing of a bell. I then heard what sounded to be the galloping of horses, appearing to be circling the schoolhouse, which I was inside of. The room lit up as if there was full electrical current running through it at a very high voltage. The building shook with great force and I felt that the roof was going to cave. I took the best shelter that I could and prayed that I would survive. Within seconds, that felt like minutes, the event subsided but not without damaging my equipment. Every camera had fallen off a mounted wall location, smashing lenses and busting open. I am not a professional but the study of paranormal activity has been a long-hobby and interest to me. I do feel there is a entity of some sort within the confines of this school house. The fire that occurred on the property the summer of 2008 may have been someone’s attempt to rid the spirits, but it is known that it is the soil of the earth from which they come, not a dwelling. Therefore it is my conclusion that it is reasonable to assume the spirits remain present. If indeed there were human skeletal remains discovered concluding the fire, this property was a burial place. The spirits will never leave, be they friend or foe.