The Berkshires in western Massachusetts are known for their natural beauty, but nestled within this picturesque landscape lies a ghost story that has haunted locals for over a century. The legend of “Old Coot,” a Civil War veteran whose spirit supposedly roams the snowy slopes of Mt. Greylock, gained widespread attention after the North Adams Transcript published the eerie tale in 1939 under the headline “Ghost on the Thunderbolt.”
The story begins in 1861 with William Saunders, a North Adams farmer who left his wife, Belle, and children to fight for the Union Army during the Civil War. A year later, Belle received a letter informing her that William had been gravely wounded. Weeks turned into months, but Belle heard nothing more about her husband’s fate. Believing him dead, she hired Milton Clifford, a local man, to help run the farm. Two years later, Belle married Clifford, and he became a father figure to her children.
In 1863, long after the war had ended, a bearded man in a Union uniform stepped off a train in North Adams. It was William Saunders, tired and changed beyond recognition. Heartbroken to find his wife with another man and his children calling Clifford “daddy,” Saunders retreated to the dense woods of Mt. Greylock. He built a small shack along the Thunderbolt Trail and lived a quiet, solitary life, occasionally returning to town for supplies or to take odd jobs on local farms—including his own. The townspeople, unaware of his true identity, nicknamed him “Old Coot.”
Saunders lived in isolation for years until one bitterly cold morning in mid-January, hunters discovered him dead in his shack. As they searched his belongings, they uncovered his true identity. The group of men claimed to have witnessed a dark shadow leave Saunders’s body and dart into the surrounding woods. This was the first sighting of the ghost of Old Coot.
Since then, hikers, skiers, and bikers on the Bellows Pipe Trail have reported sightings of an old, bedraggled man walking bent over, especially in the months of January and March. Some even claim to have photographed Old Coot’s ghost, though the authenticity of these photos remains in question.
Whether a publicity stunt for an upcoming ski championship or a genuine haunting, the ghost of Old Coot remains one of Massachusetts’ most enduring legends.
