This is my favorite ghost story. It all started when Parley Jensen was born on Jan. 11, 1906. Parley was a son of Cecelia and Jens Jensen.

My rather intimate recollection of Jens Jensen was after Larry McNichols and I put our cars in the same place and at the same time which totaled my car. I was shaking when Mr. Jensen entered the room of his house where he conducted business as the Justice of the Peace. He hammered a gavel on top of a desk and said, "How do you plead?"

Neither Larry nor I answered but a highway patrolman said, "They plead guilty your honor." It was definitely not a pleasant experience for me.

Jens Puul Jensen was Justice of the Peace in Mancos from 1908 to 1958. He came to the Mancos Valley in 1895. Cecelia came in 1887. She lost the sight in one eye while helping repair a hay rake.

Parley grew up in the Mancos Valley and graduated from Mancos High in 1927 having been a valuable member of the senior boys basketball team. He worked at odd jobs after graduation and then in 1933 took the opportunity to work at the Doyle mine. The two things he disliked about the job were being unable to attend to his church duties on Sunday and the second not being able to go hunting.

It was Sunday Feb. 16, 1936, when Parley's family, while walking home from church, heard a loud clap of thunder even though there were no clouds in the sky.

The loud clap of thunder was the breakup of a huge wall of ice and snow. It crashed into the buildings surrounding the Doyle mine and carried six people to their deaths, Parley being one of them.

It wasn't until May 1 that Parley's body was found. The cortege to the Cedar Grove Cemetery after Parley's funeral was one of the largest to make its way to the graveyard.

Around the year 2000, Gwynne Spencer bought the old Jensen home. It was a house Mr. Jensen had built south of the river and east of the Spruce Street bridge.

It was a warm day in mid-October when Gwynne poured herself a cup of iced tea and walked into the living room on her way to the west porch.

"What are you ... " The man appeared not to have heard her but simply shifted the pack on his back before putting his rifle over his shoulder.

Gwynne asked, "Where are you going?"

"Hunting." He then walked through the east wall of the living room.

Gwynne and I were working on a cemetery book which would be titled "Serious and Grave Plots." She gave me a call and asked if I knew who had lived in that house before she did. I only knew that it was one of the Jensen homes.

It was two years later that Gwynne, on the same day in October and at the same time, poured herself a cup of iced tea before walking into the living room. She didn't have to wait very long. A man appeared who was obviously going hunting. He shifted his pack and shouldered his rifle.

"Wait!" Gwynne said emphatically.

The man turned toward her with a quizzical look on his face.

Gwynne asked, "Who are you and where are you going?"

"Parley going hunting.

Gwynne called the next day and said I needed to put that date and time on my calendar.

Even though I had forgotten about the date and time the year passed and Gwynne gave me a call. "Be here tomorrow at 11."

I was there at 11 and saw Parley just as Gwynne had said.

"Happy hunting Parley."

He turned and smiled at me before saying, "Parley late."

Gwynne passed away before she had another encounter with Parley and I have let the two of them do their own things - Gwynne to be a real character and Parley to be a real hunter.

Darrel Ellis is a longtime historian of the Mancos Valley. Email him at [email protected].