Unexpected Christmas turkey

Occasionally New Hampshire's SeacoastOnline.com site has some intriguing tidbits of Maine news. For instance, this story about a turkey who was late for Christmas dinner at a home in Eliot:

Turkey intruder ruffles feathers
By Deborah Mcdermott
December 31, 2011 2:00 AM

ELIOT, Maine — A home intruder ran afowl of the law this week, making for a most unusual day for Eliot police Officer Dave Arsenault.

Arsenault responded to a Garrison Drive residence around 3:45 p.m. Dec. 26, after the owner reported coming home and hearing something moving upstairs.

On inspecting the outside of the house, the owner found a broken window in a second-story bedroom.

As Arsenault entered the house, he, too, heard the noise and thought he'd caught a burglar red-handed.

With gun drawn, the officer began a systematic search and when he arrived at the door of the bedroom where he'd heard the noise, he prepared for confrontation.

Kicking the door open, he found himself facing not a burglar but a wild tom turkey.

"It appears as if the turkey flew into the window and gained entry to the room. It was basically trapped, and it was quite frustrated," Police Chief Theodor Short said.

Arsenault and the homeowner tried unsuccessfully to throw a sheet over the bird, which did not appear to be injured.

Eventually, the turkey found his way to the window and out on his own.

"I guess you could say he flew the coop," Short said.

Source: http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111231/NEWS/112310322/-1/NEWSMAP

Eliot farmhouse ghost generates book

The Canton (MA) Citizen just featured an article about Maine resident Helen Goransson. Goransson has written a book that emerged from research she did into her old farmhouse's history when it became apparent it was haunted. (Be sure to click on the link to the Canton Citizen below to read the full article, which contains an excellent interview.)

Canton native Helen Goransson exorcises ghost with her recent book
By Jeffrey Pickette, Citizen Staff
September 2, 2010

She heard stomping footsteps when there was no one upstairs; she heard music playing and other “funny sounds” when it should have otherwise been silent; she would turn on a light, only to find it mysteriously turned off a short time later; she would find doors that should be locked suddenly swung wide open.

These were just some of the odd occurrences that took place from time to time at Helen (Gerzon) Goransson’s farmhouse in Eliot, Maine. The Canton native bought the house with her husband Paul, also a Canton native, 25 years ago.

“We always thought the place was a little bit creepy,” Goransson said. “And then we had some strange things happen that were sort of inexplicable, so we said it must be ghosts, half jokingly; we’re too smart to believe in ghosts. And over the years it just became more and more insistent that these are not all coincidences if you have hundreds of them.”

If you suspected that there was a ghost haunting your house, maybe you would consider hiring an exorcist or may even consider moving. Instead, Goransson got to know her ghost and wrote a book about him, Views from Rosemary Hill, published this August.

After moving into the house, Goransson found an old plaque that belonged to Sylvester Bartlett. She went to the local library to research this man and found out he used to own her farmhouse. However, over time she determined that her ghost was not that of Sylvester’s, but rather that of his son, Ralph Bartlett (1868-1960), a successful 20th century lawyer and socialite.
[...]
Goransson describes the book as a “history, mystery, ghost story, and love story.” It’s autobiographical in a sense as well, since she and her husband are the young couple that buy the farm in the book (just like they actually did in 1985), but she changes their names, like she did with many of the modern day characters in the book. However, she did not alter any of the historical character’s names, and the events drawn out in the book are true, based on years of primary source research.
[...]
She has been married to Paul since 1975, and since then the two have lived everywhere from Northern Africa to South America to Mexico, before settling in Maine. Together they have two children, ages 27 and 25.
[...]
For those interested in purchasing the book, contact Helen Goransson at heleng@bondgarden.net or visit Amazon.com. Part of the proceeds will go to the Eliot, ME Historical Society (www.eliothistoricalsociety.org).

Read full article here:
[Source: http://www.cantoncitizenonline.com/090210/goransson.htm]

Readers may also recognize the Goransson name in connection with husband Paul's exposure during his climb of Vinson Massiff, a peak in Antarctica, back in 2005 in the company of his son. Article here: http://cs.armstrong.edu/antarctica/fosters011405.php

Rumors of a haunted Maine library

The Britannica Blog has a Maine library on its list of haunted United States libraries. The text it quotes comes directly from page 560 of The Whole Library Handbook 4 by George M. Eberhart (also the author of the blog post), which you can see online at Google Books here.

To quote the source: "Eliot, William Fogg Library. A newspaper photo apparently shows a transparent skull floating above a staircase." This same quote appears on the Spirits of Maine page, with the addition of the following: "Also window randomly broke while kids were playing outside."

I haven't found anything else explaining this online. Perhaps an inquiry is in order.