The Haunted Mountain

Introduction

The Haunted Mountain is a humorous short story that was later revised and incorporated as Chapter 10 in the novel A Gent from Bear Creek. It satirizes the Western adventure format, blending frontier absurdities with hillbilly familial conflict, gold prospecting mania, and mistaken scientific ambitions. The story has also been examined in Robert McIlvaine’s article “The Influence of Joseph A. Altsheler’s Apache Gold on Howard’s ‘The Haunted Mountain’” (The Dark Man, Dec. 2015), suggesting literary influence from Altsheler’s youth adventure narratives.

Introduction

Breckinridge Elkins is waylaid on his way to a rodeo by his domineering Aunt Lavaca, who demands he retrieve her husband, Uncle Jacob Grimes, from another doomed prospecting journey. Uncle Jacob, determined to find the mythical Lost Haunted Mine, claims he has a reliable map bought from a drunken Mexican who inherited it from an Indian ancestor. Breckinridge reluctantly agrees to help and leaves a simple note for his aunt explaining their detour.

As they head into the mountains, they encounter Bill Glanton, a gunman from Texas, and Professor Van Brock, an eccentric scientist claiming to be in search of a “wild man” believed to inhabit the Haunted Mountains. Uncle Jacob immediately suspects they are also searching for the mine and changes course to avoid them, though they end up camping in the same area. The next morning, Glanton confronts Breckinridge, accusing him of sabotage, leading to a brawl. Eventually, both parties realize they are after different things: one gold, the other an anthropological specimen.

The conflict is interrupted when Van Brock is struck in the head near a cave and claims to have seen the wild man. Breckinridge enters the cave and ends up wrestling a grizzly bear, mistaking it for the wild man. After the confusion, he re-enters and finds the real “wild man” — a disheveled hermit named Joshua Braxton, who has been hiding from a matchmaking schoolteacher and her family.

Just as things settle, Aunt Lavaca appears with a sheriff and posse, having misinterpreted Breckinridge’s note as a ransom threat. Only the sudden emergence of a beaten Uncle Jacob clears up the situation. The sheriff, disgusted, leaves with the scientist, while Braxton, Glanton, and Breckinridge decide to remain in the hills — safe from women, civilization, and further chaos.

Characters

  • Breckinridge Elkins – Narrator and protagonist, a massive and strong but simple-minded mountain man sent to retrieve his uncle.
  • Uncle Jacob Grimes – Breckinridge’s gold-obsessed uncle, searching for the Lost Haunted Mine.
  • Aunt Lavaca Grimes – Jacob’s domineering wife who demands Breckinridge retrieve her husband; notorious for her voice and temper.
  • Bill Glanton – Texas gunman hired to guide Professor Van Brock; rough but fair-minded.
  • Professor Van Brock – Eccentric New Yorker searching for a mythical “wild man”; believes Breckinridge and Jacob are scientific rivals.
  • Joshua Braxton – The so-called wild man, actually a hermit hiding from an aggressive suitor’s family.
  • Joe Hopkins – Minor off-screen character; a traveler expected to deliver Breckinridge’s note.
  • Chawed Ear Sheriff – Local lawman who responds to Aunt Lavaca’s claim of kidnapping.

Published in: