SPOOKS has had the opportunity to visit the Claysville truck stop on two occasions and was able to capture some interesting footage and learn about the unique history of the location. Below is a write-up of the experiences and history of the location, as told by Tracey. Please do not try to visit this location at this time. There are guards on duty and they will not allow you to enter the building, as it is private property.
We will be adding additional pictures and video soon, but in the mean time, check out some of the footage on YouTube and read more about the location below.
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We are an asset management company. Banks
hire us to manage their properties, both commercial and residential. They are
either about to go to sheriff sale or are in foreclosure. Essentially we are
the middle man between a prior owner and the next, without owning the property taking
care of all the property needs. We could be managing a property anywhere from a
month to eighteen months, sometimes longer, depending when it is sold. Part of
our job is making sure nobody enters the property and keeping all buildings
secure. In this case, it means having someone watch over the property 24/7. When
entering the buildings, we unlock the door(s), enter, and then lock them behind
us. With each property, we are faced with new challenges and stories to tell. This
one is at the top the list.
The property is located in Claysville PA, Exit
6, just off of interstate 70. It is a truck stop situated on 40 acres of land
and it has existed for approximately half a century under several different
names. It had survived a serious fire more than a decade ago, on Saturday
August 7, 1993. The main building originally had a third floor and a laundry
mat, Snowy White. When the fire broke out there were approximately 40 people in
the building. It took approximately 200 fire fighters from 24 fire departments
in Pennsylvania and West Virginia to bring the fire under control in three
hours. Arson was suspected. The building
was renovated and reopened with now only two floors containing a restaurant,
two fast food restaurants, general store, motel, drivers lounge, shower
facilities, offices, and a few coin operated laundry machines. Also on the land
are two other buildings. One is a small building like a construction trailer,
which had a business called Idle Air. The other building is a large service
garage where semis were serviced. It has
been said that they would get around 158 trucks visiting per day.
On May 22, 2014, we began managing this
property. From the very beginning we didn’t feel good about this place. It immediately
began affecting Dale’s sleep. There were many nights where she couldn’t sleep
or if she went to sleep, she would only sleep a couple hours and was up again
most of the night.
One afternoon, Dale and Sherrie were at the
property. They entered the building, locking the doors behind them. Dale and
Sherrie were in the accounting office. They left the accounting office and went
down the hall to the executive offices for about an hour. When they returned to the accounting office,
they noticed something to the right of the door. Sherrie asked Dale if she
noticed it when they left the accounting office earlier. They both insisted
they weren’t there before. Sitting to the right of the door were two football
player dolls. One of the dolls looked like Dale’s son, wearing #10 (his
football number), and the other looked like her son’s friend, wearing #12 (his
baseball number). Neither knew how these
dolls got there and the similarities were uncanny.
After this encounter, we spoke to employees
of the restaurant who had been here for a long time. They told us they had
experienced things they couldn’t explain, such as dishes falling off a shelf
when no one was near them. We also learned that in the service center, in the back
of the lot, a man had hung himself. In the hotel truck stop, another man had
died of a heart attack. There was also a third man who had killed himself, who
was a disgruntled employee of the truck stop. However, his death was not on the
property.
On a separate occasion, on a one Saturday morning,
an employee called and said there was music playing upstairs, older country
music. The only music would come from the accounting office and it was locked. Employees
don’t have access to the offices, only Sherrie, Dale, and I can access them. She
wanted to know if anyone was there. I told her no, and that I was leaving soon
to go there. She got frightened, went to her car and tried to explain again the
kind of music she was hearing. She turned on her radio in the car to try to
find the station that was playing, which she thought she heard in the building,
and was unable to get any stations in her car. It was all static. When I
arrived at the property, there was no music playing in the building and her car
radio was fine.
In the weeks that followed, there were unexplained
occurrences. There were reports of strange noises, such as something being
dragged across the floor or an occasional door shutting, an occasional whisper,
and even whistling. Also, we cannot explain how an air freshener that was
fastened to the top corner of a wall was there one day, then gone the next, just
leaving the plastic holder. In the motel rooms, drawers were opened. When we
would walk by the supply room, there would be a very strong foul odor. Then
moments later, you could smell the box of air fresheners that sat open on the
shelf near the doorway. A Spider Man action figure just showed up in an open
box next to a supply room, we had passed by that box on numerous occasions, it
was never in there. Oh, back to the dolls, they shifted positions.
The truck stop is scheduled for sheriff sale
on October 7th of this year. Once the paper work and the closing is
complete, we will say farewell to this mischievous property. Maybe we’ll get
some sleep.
