The White Lady of Wopsy
Juniata Gap Road (Wopsy Lookout), Altoona, PA 16601
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public road; the summit is occupied by communications towers and is not a developed park.
Access
Limited Access
Steep, winding mountain road with sharp curves including Devil's Elbow
Equipment
Photos OK
Wopsononock Mountain, often shortened locally to Wopsy, rises west of Altoona in Blair County, Pennsylvania. The mountain was a popular Edwardian-era getaway. The Wopsononock Hotel and observation tower at the summit operated as a resort for Altoona residents and visitors and was served by a narrow-gauge railroad nicknamed the Alley Popper. The hotel burned in 1903 and was never rebuilt.
The road climbing the mountain, today's Juniata Gap Road, includes a sharply hooked curve at higher elevation known as Devil's Elbow. The curve has been the site of numerous serious automobile accidents through the twentieth century.
One accident that local historians have linked to the modern folklore occurred on October 11, 1926. Margaret Gray and Chester Troutman, a World War I veteran, were returning to Altoona when their vehicle left the road near Devil's Elbow. Gray suffered a compound depressed skull fracture and was admitted to Altoona Hospital at 2:00 a.m. on October 11; she died at 11:10 that morning. The incident is the strongest documented historical anchor for the legend, though folklore predates and surrounds it.
The summit today supports a cluster of television and radio communications towers; the original hotel site is unmarked. Local TV station WTAJ and the public-broadcasting series Past PA have produced segments on the folklore.
Sources
The White Lady of Wopsy is among the best-known pieces of Pennsylvania regional folklore. Across versions collected by historians and journalists, three elements remain constant: a woman in a white dress, sometimes carrying a lantern; the curve known as Devil's Elbow; and the road climbing toward the former Wopsononock Hotel site.
The most common version holds that a newly married couple in the early twentieth century were traveling by carriage up the mountain to honeymoon at the hotel when the carriage went over the embankment at Devil's Elbow. The husband was killed and his body never recovered; the bride survived briefly, wandered into the woods, and died of exposure. Other versions cast the couple as eloping or as descending from the resort. The 1926 traffic death of Margaret Gray near Devil's Elbow has been advanced by historian Jared Frederick as a plausible historical anchor for the modern folklore.
Reported phenomena clustered along the road include sightings of a woman in white walking the shoulder, a figure entering vehicles at the summit and vanishing as the car nears Devil's Elbow, and the figure observed in rear-view mirrors but absent when the driver turns to look. Communications technicians servicing the summit towers have reported seeing the woman in some published accounts.
The road is also reached from the Buckhorn Mountain side, and the legend is sometimes attached to that road as the White Lady of the Buckhorn. WTAJ, the local CBS affiliate, has covered the folklore in news segments, and PBS's Past PA series produced an episode on the legend.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Drive the historic Juniata Gap Road, locally called the Wopsy Road, between Altoona and the former Wopsononock Hotel site at the summit. The curve known as Devil's Elbow is the focal point of the regional White Lady folklore.
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