HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Penn State's student union, home to the preserved skeleton of Old Coaly the mule and its hoofbeat lore
East Pollock Rd, University Park, State College, PA 16802
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free to enter the HUB-Robeson Center and view the Old Coaly skeleton display on the first floor near the gallery entrance during building hours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Modern campus student union building
Equipment
Photos OK
Old Coaly hauled limestone for Old Main (1850s) · Student-preserved skeleton as a Penn State founding artifact
Old Coaly was a mule brought to the Farmers' High School, the institution that became Pennsylvania State University, in the mid-1850s. The animal hauled limestone used in building Old Main, the campus's central administrative building. Old Coaly became a fixture of early campus life and a symbol of the school's agricultural origins.
After the mule died, students had the skeleton preserved as a tribute rather than disposed of, an unusual decision that turned the animal into a lasting campus artifact. Over the following decades the skeleton was moved among several buildings, including Watts Hall, before settling at the HUB-Robeson Center, the University Park student union, where it stands on the first floor near the gallery entrance.
The HUB-Robeson Center itself is the hub of student life at University Park. The Old Coaly display draws visitors as a curiosity and a connection to the university's nineteenth-century founding, and the skeleton's long history of being moved from building to building is the seed of the campus ghost lore attached to it.
Sources
The legend of Old Coaly follows the skeleton from building to building. In the rooms and halls where the preserved bones were stored, students reported hearing what sounded like hoofbeats moving down dark corridors, and others described the distinctive braying of a mule with no animal present. Penn State's own retelling of the campus's ghost lore includes Old Coaly among its best-known stories.
Student reporting adds that the ghost of the mule has been seen and heard at various spots around University Park, with the skeleton's current home in the HUB-Robeson Center described as a focal point for the tales. The accounts are presented as good-natured campus tradition rather than documented investigation.
Both the university's account and the student newspaper carry the story, giving it two independent retellings, but the lore remains the kind of long-standing campus legend that is not tied to dated, verified incidents. It is held here as a needs-review entry.
Notable Entities
Visit the preserved skeleton of Old Coaly, the mule that hauled limestone for the construction of Old Main in the 1850s, on free public display on the first floor of the HUB-Robeson Center near the gallery entrance. Open to the public during normal building hours.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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