Bellows Pipe Village

Old Coot the guardian ghost of Bellows Pipe

“This unfortunate soul went by the name of William Saunders in life and earned his living as a farmer before being called away to fight for the Union in 1861.  His wife Belle assumed the worst when the letters stopped coming after receiving word that her husband had been injured in battle. But Bill Saunders had survived, only to return home and find Belle remarried. He retreated to a ramshackle cabin on Mount Greylock, where he lived out the rest of his days as a hermit, occasionally working on nearby farms. One day, a group of hunters entered his shack and came across his lifeless body. They were the first to describe a sighting of the Old Coot’s spirit fleeing up the mountain, but he’s haunted the trail ever since.”[1]

---

Real World

Bellows Pipe is a real spot along the Appalachian Trail as it runs across Mt. Greylock; there's a backpacker's lean-to shelter nearby.[2]