Beaver Creek’s best-known haunt cluster sits along Sprucevale Road on the remnants of the Sandy & Beaver Canal: Lock 41 (“Gretchen’s Lock”) is linked to the legend of Gretchen Gill, said to be the daughter of canal engineer E.H. Gill and buried there temporarily—an origin story locals still repeat even as some researchers argue the “Gretchen” details don’t cleanly match surviving records. Nearby at Hambleton’s Mill and the old canal-town footprint of Sprucevale, the park’s other marquee spirit is Esther Hale (“the Bride at the Bridge”), reported as a white-clad figure by the creek and mill with traditions that place her appearances on September 29 (St. Michaelmas Eve) and, in some versions, note the word “COME” appearing on the mill’s stonework on Christmas Eve. Layered on top of the ghost lore is true-crime history: Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd was killed by law enforcement on October 22, 1934 in fields that are now within park property.