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 Ram Tail Mill SitePosted by:  dremoto
N 41° 48.889 W 071° 41.850
19T E 275942 N 4632733
Rhode Island's only "official" haunted building is the former Foster Woolen Manufactury, known as the Ramtail Factory, off Ramtail Road in Foster. It's even recorded in the state's census of 1885 as being haunted.
Waymark Code: WM4PJA
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 09/15/2008
Views: 82
Rhode Island's only "official" haunted building is the former Foster Woolen Manufactury, known as the Ramtail Factory, off Ramtail Road in Foster. It's even recorded in the state's census of 1885 as being haunted.
The story goes that the factory was owned by five partners and headed by William Potter, according to the booklet Peleg's Last Word, written by Margery I. Matthews of Foster. One of the partners, Potter's son-in-law Peleg Walker, the night watchman, had a falling out with the others. He was said to have warned that one day, they would have to "take a key from a dead man's pocket" to open the factory.
Shortly afterward, Walker, then 35, was found hanging from a rope in the belfry on May 19, 1822. The keys to the factory were found, as promised, in his pocket.
For nights to come, the factory's bell would inexplicably sound each night at midnight, Matthews wrote. The partners cut the rope, and eventually removed the bell, but they couldn't silence it. There also were reports of a man believed to be Walker walking through the factory, with his trusty lantern, when the factory was sealed up tight.
As if that's not enough, late one night, villagers were said to be awakened by the unearthly sound of the mill's massive water wheel turning backwards, against the flow of the flume. And another time, they found the factory running at full speed -- every wheel, loom and spindle turning -- when no one was there.
The millworkers were said to be so spooked that they fled the tiny village of Ramtail and the mill eventually went out of business. It was torched in 1873, but Walker's spirit was said to remain.
The stories were so pervasive that the official 1885 state census listed the site as a haunted building, Matthews wrote, noting that Walker is probably the only ghost counted in an official state census.
Today, all that's left are the foundations of the mill and nearby houses, scattered under the brush along the Ponaganset River.
But it's said that on some moonlit nights, the ghost of Peleg Walker can still be seen swinging his lantern through the ruins, and at midnight, when conditions are right, you can still hear the bell toll. - Source Providence Journal Bulletin
Public access?:
Instead of going down Ram Tail Rd. Travelling Past Ram Tail Rd on your right, take the next right onto a dirt road and follow to the end. ONce there follow a path leading into the woods for access to the site.
Website about the location and/or story: [Web Link]
Visting hours: Not listed
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