In April 1944, in the last year of World War II, investigators believed the Wild Plum school, a one-room schoolhouse in Stark County, North Dakota, might be haunted or possessed.
On March 28, teacher Pauline Rebel watched as a pail of lignite coal near the room’s stove begin to stir. Abruptly, lumps of coal popped out of the pail, striking the walls and ricocheting around the room, injuring at least one student. The pail then tipped over and the coal ignited, setting fire to the room and its contents.
Chemists found no scientific reason for the coal’s igniting, nor did the FBI. Despite speculation that the coal might have been mixed with fool’s gold – which could have caused the combustion – no definitive answers were forthcoming. Mrs. Rebel told investigators about a “mysterious masked man” who left obscene and threatening notes at the school, and suggested he might be behind the occurrence, but nothing came of this information.
Two weeks after the initial incident, students refused to return to the now-closed school building. Parents insisted it was a hoax. Who was right? What happens next?
