Jean Bonnet Tavern

The story

The Jean Bonnet Tavern, also called the Old Forks Inn or Bonnet's Tavern, stands just outside Bedford, Pennsylvania, in Napier Township, where the old Lincoln Highway (U.S. Route 30) meets Pennsylvania Route 31, the Allegheny Road. Drivers on the Pennsylvania Turnpike can see it from the highway.

The land's written history begins with the Penn family, who transferred a parcel of 690 acres to a land speculator, Hans Ireland. In 1762 it passed to Robert Callender, a trader who did business with the Native American nations of Pennsylvania and whom the British recognized as the owner. The fieldstone building went up around 1762 or 1763; the exact year is not known, and even the present management says so. It is said to have been meant as a refuge for settlers moving through the area and as a location for a French fort and a trading post. Travelers who stopped here on their way to the place they called the "Old Shawnese Cabins," today's Shawnee State Park, mentioned it in their journals.

In 1779 Jean, or John, Bonnet bought the land and the building and opened an inn and tavern. Fifteen years later it played a part in a national crisis. In 1794, during the Whiskey Rebellion, farmers from the region who opposed the federal tax on whiskey met at the tavern and raised a Liberty pole as a sign of defiance. Troops sent by President George Washington put down the uprising within months.

Over the next two centuries the building changed hands many times. Most owners kept it as a tavern and inn, though some turned it into a private home. A family from West Virginia, the Bonnetts, trace their descent directly from Jean Bonnet. The National Register of Historic Places added the tavern in 1979, and it was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey.

The legend

According to Wikipedia, the ghost stories began to be publicized after a new family bought the tavern in 1957. The oldest printed source we found is Patty A. Wilson's *The Pennsylvania Ghost Guide, Vol. II*, which the tavern's own ghost page draws on.

The best-known ghost is "William." In the version the current owner told the Altoona Mirror in 2025, he was a man accused of stealing horses and hanged inside the building. The tavern's ghost page reportedly tells a broader version about horse thieves hanged at the inn. No historical record of any hanging here has been found, so this should be read as folklore. The owner says William sometimes signals he is "not ready" and seems bored, and that sightings happen in daytime because no staff stay overnight. He also says the tavern has seven ghosts in all and that he has seen every one of them, a claim from a single interview.

The second figure is Jean Bonnet himself. Guests and employees describe a lone man wandering the building and drinking at the bar, and local tradition says it is the tavern's 18th-century owner. Travel writers also mention a man in colonial or frontier dress in the restaurant and bar, often after closing time. Less well supported are a small boy who supposedly hauls coal through the kitchen and a woman whose heels are heard clicking across the floor; both come from a single weak source, and a "blue woman" mentioned online is not confirmed at all.

Other reported activity includes doors opening and shutting by themselves and guests feeling an unseen touch. The Central Pennsylvania Paranormal Association, during an overnight stay of unknown date, reported apparitions in frontier-style clothes standing in a doorway and looking on as a man played piano at the opposite end of the bar. The tavern's website shows a photograph from the restaurant said to capture a ghost, and links to a 2014 video by Mo Valley Paranormal.

On television, the tavern was featured on the Biography Channel's *My Ghost Story* in an episode broadcast on April 30, 2011. That date matches season 2, episode 5, "The Dark Spirit," but the episode listing does not name the location, so the match is not certain.

The tavern itself treats the subject lightly. Its own line is: "Maybe it's just folklore, but some say the Jean Bonnet is haunted." That is a fair summary. The 1794 Liberty pole is recorded by Wikipedia; the hanged horse thief is a story.

What remains today

The building is two and a half to three and a half stories tall and measures 40 by 51 feet. It is built of locally cut fieldstone, with walls more than two feet thick and two tiers of porches running the full length of the front and back. Inside, four levels covering nearly 8,000 square feet show large exposed chestnut beams and massive fireplaces. A log cabin from the late 1700s, moved from Fayette County in 2005, sits on the south side of the tavern, and there is a small garden and a goat pen outside. The tavern operates as a restaurant, bar, bed and breakfast and gift shop.

Visiting

The Jean Bonnet Tavern is a working restaurant and inn, so the easiest way to see it is to come for a meal or a drink. Overnight guests can stay in the bed and breakfast rooms. Its website has a page devoted to ghost stories, but the tavern runs no organized ghost tour, and private areas of the building are for staff only. Please be considerate toward other diners and guests if you come hoping for an encounter.

Sources

1. National Register of Historic Places file (NRHP #79002164) — U.S. National Park Service · Public domain (U.S. government)
2. Wikimedia Commons category : Bonnet's Tavern — Wikimedia Commons
3. USGS 1:250000-scale Quadrangle for Pittsburgh, PA 1959 — U.S. Geological Survey, 1959 · Public domain (USGS)
4. USGS 1:62500-scale Quadrangle for Bedford, PA 1908 — U.S. Geological Survey, 1908 · Public domain (USGS)
5. "19 Historic Taverns Across The US With A Haunted History" — Chowhound — Chowhound (weak source
6. "America's Most Haunted Restaurants and Bars" — SmarterTravel — SmarterTravel
7. "Hospitality on tap: Local pubs serve up great food, cheer, accommodations and even a ghost or two" (Rachel Foor, 31 Mar 2025) — Altoona Mirror — Altoona Mirror
8. My Ghost Story 2x05 "The Dark Spirit" (30 Apr 2011) — TVmaze — TVmaze
9. Official website
10. "Pennsylvania, Bedford County" (summary of the tavern's ghost page) — Frostburg State University, faculty page — Frostburg State University, faculty page
11. Wikipedia article — Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Text written by AI from the sources above and checked by a separate AI fact-check (how we work). Images: credits and licenses under each picture.