In the early 1700’s, a far flung outpost of the (some would say rag-tag) Carolingine army was stationed on Lake Merrit. Fort Entrepid faced the lake and was located roughly where Harrison and 20th street is today.

In 1724, the commander of the outpost, Lieutenant Buckley, was expecting the arrival of a British officer, Captain Formby. The occasion was the wedding of Buckley’s youngest daughter, Trish, to the dashing and well connected captain.

On the morning of 16th September, tensions were high as Formby’s entourage was two days late and the wedding had already been postponed. It was due to resume that afternoon when, as everybody had thought, Formby would surely have arrived. As it happened, Formby had arrived. In a very unusual travel arrangement, Formby had crossed the Sierra’s with only a guide and had made up the rest of the journey by himself, all the way to Fort Entrepid.

The first person Formby would encounter on arriving in the outskirts of the fort, was a scout who was positioned near where the southern end of Harrison Street is today. After traveling such a long way, Formby decided to take stock of his possessions and ready himself to meet the woman whom he had been so many years in correspondence with, yet had only seen pictures of. To his horror, he realized that an exquisite perfume that he had carried halfway across the country for Trish had evaporated. When he explained what had happened to the scout, the scout enthusiastically replied that he knew the whereabouts of a rare plant which secreted an unusual and delightfully fragrant sap.

By the late afternoon, Lieutenant Buckley had postponed the wedding once again and had decided to work off some stress by touring the outer perimeter of the fortress to make sure that all was up to scratch. All the troops were sharp and all stations were in excellent shape. That was until he arrived at the southern station. After all the stress of the day, Lieutenant Buckley could not hold himself back from running a lazy scout who had fallen asleep at his post, through with the point of his sword. The scout crumpled to the ground as a high pitched yelp came from the forest beside him. Lieutenant Buckley turned around to see the scout returning with a colorful bunch of strongly fragrant flowers. “Your guest has arrived sir!”, the scout declared, pointing at the bleeding mass of flesh that had been Captain Formby, now lifeless at Lieutenant Buckley’s feet. “What is your name private?”, Buckley said to the scout.. “Harrison Sir” the scout briskly replied. “You sir, have clearly saved the day.”, declared Buckley, “Those flowers will make a terrific gift for my soon-to-be heart broken daughter!!”. To this day, the ghost of Trish Buckley is said to be seen roaming up and down Harrison Street, often mistaken for an itinerant…