This event is to honor J.R. Whitaker and his family that emigrated to America and eventually settled here in Gettysburg when they purchased the lodge from Oscar Shaw.

We will have an event on May 24th, 25th, and 26th. Each foraging event starts at 11:00am and ends at 4:00pm. The foraging part is FREE and all are invited. But there will only be 15 spots available for the paranormal investigation part of this event that will begin at 8:00pm and end at 2:00am and cost $60.00 per person if you’re not paying with a credit card. For zelle “preferred method”, cash app, or venmo payments, please message or call us. If paying by credit card, please be aware our credit card processor charges us and is added to the ticket price on our website.

We will meet at the furnace area at “Pine Grove Furnace State Park 1100 Pine Grove Road, Gardners, PA 17324”, where the bathrooms are located. If you have trouble finding the furnace, you can use google maps to find “pine grove iron works” point of destination on the maps. I suggest typing in the address ahead of time and then finding “pine grove iron works” on the map. The exact address provided will only bring you to the visitor center close by. I will have a visible sign stating ” J.R. Whitaker event” near the covered seating areas.

We will then drive to the abandoned prisoner of war camp “2.9 miles away” to forage and ground with mother earth and energize our spirits. We will then head to the Historic Rainworth Lodge, 14 miles away, to cook up our finds and share recipes and stories. That night we will then have a paranormal investigation at the lodge. This is also an experiment to see if this will help us during our investigation! If anything, we get to have experiences together and grow from it. We will have more events released later this year. All events go to fund restoration of the lodge.

This was beautifully written by J.R. Whitakers granddaughter, Holly, telling us about her grandfather.
“Joseph was born in Nottingham, England, Lena in Newfoundland. After serving in the Boer War, Joseph traveled back and forth to Newfoundland to establish a hunting lodge.  He met and married Lena. They built a lovely home in the middle of the wilderness and had four children, my mother being the youngest. In 1925 the family emigrated to the United States and Joseph became the superintendent of Buttermilk Falls State Park in Ithaca, New York.  Sometime around 1939 (give or take a year) the family moved to New Oxford and rented a home that was (and I believe may still) be called Squirrel Hill.  Shortly thereafter they bought the home in Gettysburg from Oscar” Shaw. Mr. Whitaker is also the son of a very well known English naturalist that had a hunting lodge in England. His lodge was also named Rainworth Lodge, hence where we got the name.