Episode 19:The Jitterbug Coal Incident
“Then things began to happen. Lumps of coal started popping out of the pail like Mexican jumping beans striking the walls and bounding back into the room.” — The Fargo Forum
Episode Transcript
Every now and then a story comes along that seems too far fetched to be even remotely possible. Yet in spite of how harrowing or bizarre, the account turns out to be true.
The story of Mary Ashford is just one example that comes to mind. It was the year 1817, when Mary Ashford went to a dance. It was May 27th and by the time she had left the social, Mary was reeling from a night spent with one Abraham Thornton.
She was last seen at about 4:00 am when she left a friend’s house with intentions of heading home after a long but enchanting night. Only she never made it to her destination. Because only hours later, Mary’s bruised and battered body was discovered in a nearby park.
Abraham Thornton was immediately arrested only to be acquitted a short time later, after providing a sound alibi. So in the end, Mary Ashford’s case went cold.
But here’s where the story gets odd. Over a century later, in the very same park, another young woman was found murdered. Like Mary Ashford, Barbara Forrest was a Erdington native, who had spent her last evening on this earth out dancing with her boyfriend.
It was May 27th, 1974. It had been 157 years to the day when Barbara was last seen in the wee hours of the morning heading home after a long but enchanting evening.
Soon an arrest was made, the accused being one of her boyfriends own coworkers. Only he too, was acquitted after providing a sound alibi.
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It’s stories like Mary and Barbara’s that shouldn’t be possible. But I can assure you, this one is true. And although they may be hard to believe, true stories of the impossible are more common than you might think.
I’m Courtney Hayes and you’re listening to haunts. Stay tuned…
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The spring of 1944 was a rather volatile time in our history. Set against the back drop of the Eastern Front, the future of humanity looked bleaker than it ever had before. And civilian-life at the time, well it was no cake walk.
The most basic of goods were being rationed by the day. Victory Gardens were becoming more common than sliced bread. Women entered work force for the first time; and although they were told that their contributions were necessary for the war effort, their compensation was only half of their male counterparts.
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Education was among the most effected on the home front. Between record low enrollment rates and deflated budgets, the American school system was drowning in the wake of the Second World War. But for one small schoolhouse in particular, that was only the beginning of the problem.
Nestled into the northern plains, the wild plum school of Plum Creek, ND was all but menacing. In fact, the institution was nothing more than a quaint one room school house with a swing set in the yard.
In the fall of 1943, only eight students enrolled at wild plum. With grade levels ranging from early childhood all the way up to high school and college prep, these eight students gathered together under one roof, to learn under the watchful eye of the teacher, Ms. Pauline Rebel.
Now in spite of the ongoing conflict in the east, that school year had started like any other for Wild Plum. The students were eager to learn, and their teacher was a diligent one. So together Pauline and her students set out to make the most of their situation. But come the 28th of March, 1944, these plans would come to a haunting end.
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It began during the arithmetic lesson. The student has just begun taking a test—each of them were in their seats with a pencil to paper. And Pauline Rebel was standing at the front of the class, watching each of her students as they worked.
It shouldn’t have been possible, what happened next. But all the same, the unbelievably terrifying events manifested right in front of their eyes.
You see, sitting next to the classroom’s idle wood stove there was a pail of lignite coal. Pauline and her students would often use this substance as a fire starter on the frigid days that are quite common during winter in North Dakota.
However, it was finally spring and this day had been a pleasantly warm one. So their wood stove remained empty while this pail was left full.
For a moment it was quiet, save for the scribbling sounds of the students writing. That is until the pail of coal began to violently shake and eventually tip over. Then as the coal spilled out onto the hardwood floor, the lumps began to ignite as of being set a blaze by an unseen force.
Now mind you, the school house was made almost entirely of wood. And as such, it wasn’t long before the building itself burst into flames. The blinds hanging from the windows began to smolder, the book case devolved into a roaring fire, and the oxygen inside the building was soon replaced with smoke.
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The scene that played out is truly an image from my own worst nightmares. And to make matters worse, Pauline and her students couldn’t find a logical explanation. In fact, the whole event seemed like the product of some otherworldly force— almost like magic… So it would seem the Wild Plum School House had been bewitched.
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If you have been following the show for a while, you would know that I strive to approach each case that we discuss with the utmost objectivity. So it’s worth mentioning that the likelihood of these events has been greatly debated over the years.
And as a matter of fact, Pauline Rebel’s claims were greatly scrutinized during the weeks that followed incident. So much so that the federal bureau of investigation got involved. But in spite of their combined efforts, the bureau and local investigators were never able to determine a definitive cause for the spontaneous blaze.
Why you might ask? Well, according to Pauline Rebel at least, the entire event was matter of paranormal activity. I know, it seems like the perfect case for an episode of the x-files. But in reality the federal bureau of investigation didn’t exactly see reason in that argument and the case remained unsolved.
So throughout the remainder of this episode, I think it’s only fitting that we perform analysis of our own to see if we can find the truth that lies between these varying claims. And what a better place to start than in the months leading up the curious event, when strange activity started to occur around the schoolhouse.
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As early as mid January, Pauline began to find menacing notes posted on the schoolhouse door. Now due to the bureau’s investigation, the contents of these notes were never released to the public. However, we can infer what may have been written in these messages, thanks to first-hand interviews with both Pauline Rebel, and Assistant State Attorney General W. James Austin.
According to Austin, the letters were “crudely written” and were often obscenely threatening in nature. In fact, one of the messages went as far as to threaten Pauline’s life by demanding that she quote “leave or be shot.” End quote.
Over the course of this 3 month period, Pauline received not one, not two, but 15 separate correspondence of this nature. And rightfully so she was scared. In fact, she later stated quote “I am bothered by the 15 notes threatening my life. I’ve only taught here seven months and I never expected anything like this.” End quote.
Okay. So someone from this small rural community obviously had it out for Pauline Rebel. But that’s hardly an indication of paranormal activity, right? Well as we learned in the beginning, this story is not all that it seems.
You see, in conjunction with these obscene letters, Pauline and her students began to catch glimpses of a “hooded mysterious man” lurking around the school house and the yard.
In the weeks leading up to the event, Pauline and her students encountered the figure in passing, but were never able to apprehend the assailant.
On one occasion, for instance, a rapping sound began to erupt from the school house door. Pauline, who had been in the middle of a lesson, flew to the door and shoved it open—likely expecting to find the author of those threatening notes on the other side. Only when the door swung open, there was no one to be seen.
And then, of course, on the day of the incident they saw him again. In fact, just seconds before the school house quite literally burst into flames, a dark hooded figure raced past the window. Yet, when the Pauline and the class came flooding out of the building mere minutes later, the figure was no where in sight.
In the end, this claim led some to believe that this masked individual had hexed the school. Or maybe, just maybe, this presence was the very embodiment of the hex itself.
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Of course, there were a fair few who rejected the the claim that wild plum had been bewitch. And really who could blame them. I mean what do you think is more likely: the idea that the school was haunted by the silhouette of a poltergeist or that this figure was merely just an enraged individual with a vendetta against Pauline Rebel?
Well a Mr. George Steiner, would likely argue the latter. Steiner was a local rancher who just so happened to have 5 children who he enrolled that school year. So when he got word that the school had caught fire, for obvious reasons, he dropped everything and raced to the scene.
He was the first adult, other than Pauline herself, to approach the school as the harrowing event was unfolding. And even though he heard the story directly from the horses mouth, he simply couldn’t believe it. What Pauline was claiming, what his own children were asserting, simply, could not have been possible. And he was bound and determined to prove them wrong.
Once the flames had been extinguished, Steiner took it upon himself to investigate the charred school house. He picked up several lumps of coal and found that each one was covered in a white dusty film that smelt of talcum powder. But before he could investigate any further, something strange happened right in front of George Steiner’s eyes.
You see one of the chunks that George was holding, sprung to life in his hand. According to Steiner’s own account, the coal jumped violently from his grasp quote “without making any noise at all.” End quote.
So it would seem his children’s claims were true, but even still, he didn’t believe them. In fact, he had been quite adamant that there was a scientifically sound explanation for this seemingly paranormal experience. They would just have to find it.
Queue Superintendent R.L. Swenson who arrived at the school a short while later. He too had taken a moment to survey scene. But in the end, he couldn’t find a logical explanation either.
As a matter of fact, the superintendent had been so troubled by the incident, that he contacted Charles Schwartz—North Dakota’s state fire marshal—to report what he described as strange happenings at wild plum.
It wasn’t long before the first responders and investigative personnel arrived at the scene, each of whom were equally puzzled by the chucks of jumping coal. And when they were unable to find any obvious answer, Schwartz collected a sample which was then sent to Dickinson State Teacher’s College along with the University of North Dakota for a more thorough analysis.
But as you may have guessed, they had no luck. Even the tenured chemists of these universities were unable to determine a cause for this spontaneous combustion. In fact, the sample of coal they had received was, well, utterly normal—which only fueled the fire when it came rumors of paranormal activity.
And to make matters worse, even after Schwartz had exhausted all of his resources at the state level, he was no closer to an answer. So he decided to take a chance.
Two weeks after this bizarre event took place, Charles Schwartz sent a sample of the aptly named jitterbug coal to the FBI. Now given the bureau’s ongoing effort with the Second World War, Schwartz likely expected that to be the end of his investigation. But just as he was about to give up hope, they replied.
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After contacting the federal bureau of investigation, the search for answers led Schwartz to Philadelphia. It was here that he met with Samuel G. Gordon, the curator of minerals at the Academy of Natural Sciences. And as luck would have it, Samual Gordon may have been able to shed some light on this dark incident.
You see, Gordon had a theory that the lignite coal from wild plum wasn’t actually coal, at least not entirely. Instead, he believed that pyrite may thrown into the mix. If that was the case, at least in theory, the reaction of these combined elements could have ignited a spontaneous blaze. But as I said, it was only a theory.
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Of course, Gordon wasn’t the only one who had a theory about the jitterbug coal incident. So before we end today’s episode, I think it’s only fair that we discuss the other hypotheses in play.
As we learned at the top of the episode, Pauline Rebel and her 8 students were of the mind that that the school house was bewitched, or perhaps even haunted by a dark hooded specter. And although it may seem outlandish to some, you should know that many Plum Creek residents believed in the haunting. But what about the other, less mystical theories?
Well, let’s just say, that the students’ parents saw the event in a slightly different light. In the weeks that followed the fire, classroom parents likely didn’t hear the end of the Jitterbug Coal Incident. Between the ongoing press coverage, and the near constant complaints from their children, needless to say, they were growing tired of the entire ordeal.
To put it bluntly these parents were fed up; especially, when their children refused to return to school. Because from their perspective, it was the students who started the fire in a rather disgraceful attempt to close the school for good.
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I don’t know which is the bolder claim to make: the argument that the wild plum school house was haunted and cursed by an unknown assailant or the claim that the students started the fire themselves.
Does it seem unlikely that the schoolhouse was bewitched? Absolutely. But does that make the following argument anymore sound:
According to the parents at least, during their arithmetic test, the class somehow started a roaring fire that burned down the entirety of the schoolhouse. Oh and Pauline Rebel, who had been diligently watching the class as they worked, apparently didn’t notice their actions or even attempt to intervene.
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Both of these theories seemed incredibly implausible in the eyes of investigators, both at the state and federal levels. Which is precisely why, they never determined a cause—leaving the small ranching community of Plum Creek ND baffled, frightened, and more than a bit haunted.
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“Then things began to happen. Lumps of coal started popping out of the pail like Mexican jumping beans striking the walls and bounding back into the room.” An excerpt from the Fargo Forum published April 13, 1944.
Credits
Sources
https://www.pacificatrocities.org/blog/world-war-ii-a-short-story-of-bread
https://www.history.com/.amp/news/how-world-war-ii-empowered-women
https://www.theedadvocate.org/uncovering-devastating-impact-world-war-ii-american-education/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_home_front_during_World_War_II
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Mary_Ashford_and_Barbara_Forrest
https://news.prairiepublic.org/show/dakota-datebook-archive/2022-05-29/haunted-coal