Haunted Billie Creek Village: The Acker Farm Experience

The second day of the Covered Bridge Festival started off like the first – lots of folks in the tiny town, visiting vendors, observing demonstrations, checking out the historic buildings, grabbing quick bites from the General Store or Gaebler’s Café.

I looked up to greet a new customer, who was decked out in a festive orange Halloween dress with a Bat hair band and earrings.  I complimented her outfit and chatted about the festival, asking her where she had been, to which she replied, “I came JUST to Billie Creek - for the hauntings.” Um, what?  I explained that I knew nothing about that, and she would go on to say that the Discovery channel had done some filming in the town, and she had been researching Billie Creek hauntings and was visiting from out of state to “take pictures” to see what she could capture.

I made a mental note to ask the manager if this was accurate.

At the end of the night, I ran into the property manager, explained what my customer had told me and asked her of there was any truth to Billie Creek having unexplained phenomenon.  She sheepishly said “Well… yes.”.

She proceeded to tell me a few stories, one of which was that a church bell could be heard ringing at 3:03 am…but neither of the churches on the property had bells in the spiers…and the school house bell had no clapper, so it would not ring.  Other stories had to do with orbs in photos and things that, to me, could be explained.  I brushed it off as “Covered Bridge Lore” and proceeded about my evening.  After the store closed, I heard the resident gray cat, Luce, crying to be let inside for the night, so I knocked on the store window, alerted the manager to the cat, watched that cat go inside for the evening and said good night to my co-vendors.

I then decided to look on the Discovery channel for videos and to test out the church bell ringing!  I DID find filming was done there.  SO, I set my alarm for 2:50 am to rise and walk the town square, in hopes of hearing the church bells at 3:03 am.  My alarm went off and I blearily got up, put on my sneakers, and went out of my tiny trailer into the darkness with my little lantern and my phone. I walked the tiny town square to stretch my legs and made it around 2 times before my clock struck 3:03 am.  And to my relief, I heard nothing.  Just an owl in the woods and a few frosty cricket chirps.

I then realized that I had to find the restroom to relieve my bladder before I retired for the night, so I turned toward the bathrooms.  As I started to walk in that direction, the town square light above the restrooms went out.  That was the only light in town that shut off.  For a brief moment, my mind went to the stories of the hauntings.  “Get a grip.” I told myself.  I could find the restroom with my tiny lantern…so I kept walking in that direction, maybe 200 paces from my trailer. 

The restroom was inside an old wooden barnlike structure located behind the General Store, which had a raised wooden porch around it, sort of a board walk.  I knew I had 2 steps to go up and then another 10 steps to the restroom door.  As I approached the porch, a rustle could be heard underneath.  My heart skipped a beat. I walked a bit faster. I told myself, it must be a raccoon or an Opossum.  As I stepped up on the porch, I could hear something move beneath me.  I practically lept toward the restroom door as my heart jumped out of my chest – I could see the light on inside the restroom shinning around the doorframe as if to signify a safe zone…  Just as I reached out for the door handle to swing the door wide open, something rubbed itself up against my leg!  I made a noise I am not proud of, clinched my thighs together and said a silent prayer that I would not pee myself!  As I looked down, expecting to see something ghoolish, I spotted little Luce, the grey cat that I had let IN the store mere hours before.  She must have been let out – and was probably just as afraid of that embarrassing noise that I made – as I was of her rubbing up against my leg… Suffice it to say, I made it to the bathroom and back to my trailer with no further incidents.

Case closed. For now.