The Green Mountain ghost

The Green Mountain Ghost
by Rhetta Akamatsu
Gather.com

While adding to the ghost listings on the haunted hotels section of Ghost to Coast (http://www.ghosttocoast.us/), I came across this fascinating ghost tale:

Boots Berry, the ghost at the Green Mountain Inn, was a hoseseman, tap dancer and a local hero. He was born at the inn in 1840, the son of a maid and the man who took care of the inn's horses. he grew up around the inn, and as an adult he took charge of the horses himself. He became a hero when he singlehandedly stopped a runaway coach, saving all the passengers from death or injury. But his newfound fame was too much for him to handle, and he fell victim to drink, lost his job, and drifted to New Orleans, where he learned to tap dance while spending time in jail for drunkeness. Eventually, he drifted back to Vermont and the inn in 1902, homeless, impoverished, and in sad shape. Despite all of that, he still had a hero's heart.

About that same time, a terrible storm hit town and a young girl somehow became stranded on the inn roof. Boots managed to climb to the roof and rescue the girl, lowering her safely to the ground. But then he slipped and fell to his own icy death. Just before he fell, the spot on the roof where he was standing was just over 302, the room where he had been born 62 years before.

Now, guests often hear tap dancing from the third floor of the Inn, especially during stormy weather, indicating that Boots may well still inhabit the one place where he was happiest and most successful.