By day White Clay Creek State Park provides family-friendly adventure for Delaware and Pennsylvania residents alike. But for visitors that know where to go, an eerie legend haunts the cemetery nestled inside the lush parkland.
Adventurers come to White Clay Creek State Park to fish, hike, picnic, play sports, and learn about the local flora and fauna.
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Summer camps for children keep kids engaged and outdoors during the out-of-school months. But over the fire after dark whispers of a local legend disturb the scenic peace of the area.
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The story is set as Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon begin charting the land between colonies. A mischievous young man named Fithian Minuit got into Mason’s things and swallowed his portable chronometer.
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Mason was furious and allegedly put a curse on the child to forever bear the sign of his crime. As a result, Minuit’s chest would tick with the sound of the chronometer for the rest of his life.
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When Minuit got married and his seafaring wife heard the ticking in his chest, they decided it would be a symbol of their undying love. And undying it was. Visitors to the State Park say that if you lay your head on Minuit’s tomb in the graveyard you can still hear the faint ticking.
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Some say that this eerie story was the inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Not enough is known about Minuit’s life to say whether he was insane as the protagonist of Poe’s story was, but it’s not hard to believe that a lifelong ticking might do strange things to a man’s mind.
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White Clay Creek State Park discontinued their ghost tours years ago due to the plethora of other Halloween time options in the area. But tour or not, nearby residents still claim they can feel, and hear, Minuit’s spirit.
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Learn more about White Clay Creek State Park with a visit to the park’s official website, here.
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Address: White Clay Creek State Park, Park Office, 750 Thompson Station Rd, Newark, DE 19711, USA
