Monthly Archives: September 2016

Ohio Haunted Tour

Five of the Top Haunted Spots in Ohio

Fort Meigs State Memorial is located across the Maumee River south of Toldeo. Throughout the year, various events are held at Fort Meigs, including a lantern-lit Garrison Ghostwalk in October. For more information visit the website.

At the  Rider’s Inn in Painsville, owner Elaine Crane and the spirit of Mistress Suzanne invite you to stay awhile in one of the inn’s 10 antiques-furnished guest rooms. Rider’s Inn hosts “taleful” candlelit dinners with ghost stories and a guest psychic every October. You can book your haunted stay here.

In addition to being haunted, the Majestic Theatre in Chillicothe is America’s oldest, continuously operating theater. The theater offers ghost storytelling and a haunted tour, plus quality entertainment. Visit their website to find out what’s playing. The theater is located in Chillicothe’s historic district, where you can find interesting shops and restaurants within walking distance.

ohio-state-reformatoryThe Ohio State Reformatory is a chilling and thoroughly haunted old prison as well as the site for the filming of The Shawshank Redemption.  For a fee, you can join a tour regularly scheduled in the warmer months. On select dates in September and October, the building is home to the Paranormal Penitentiary, where you can join the Slayers of the Damned.

If you want to go on a ghost hunt, check out the possibilities here. For a less intense but fun experience, we recommend you join a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater.

marietta-castleThe Castle of Marietta is one of the best examples of Gothic Revival-style architecture in Ohio, and, of course, it is haunted! The Castle, now on the National Register of Historic Places, offers tours and events on select days.

In October, a guided lantern tour of The Castle is offered to hear—and maybe even experience—the ghostly apparitions, sounds, and strange occurrences that are on record to have impacted the staff, volunteers, and guests of The Castle in the past. The 2016 date for the tour is October 28th.

Author John Kachuba
Author John Kachuba

About the author:  John Kachuba is the award-winning author of 12 books and numerous articles, short stories, and poems. Among his awards are the Thurber Treat Prize for humor writing, given by The Thurber House, and First Place in the Dogwood Fiction Contest. John teaches Creative Writing at Ohio University, Antioch University Midwest, and the Gotham Writers Workshop. He is a member of the Historical Novel Society, the Horror Writers Association, and the American Library Association’s Authors for Libraries. John frequently speaks on paranormal and metaphysical topics and is a regular speaker at conferences, universities, and libraries and on podcasts, radio, and TV.

Want to read more about haunted hotels and ghostly places in Ohio? Get your own copies of John’s books  Ghosthunting Ohio and Ghosthunting Ohio – On The Road Again

Spotlight On Negative Ions

Sally Richards, Author of Ghosthunting Southern California, Talks About Negative Ions

Sally RichardsYou’ve heard the stories that begin, “It was a dark and stormy night,” right? Apparently there’s a reason that rain and lightning—not the night—are believed to be scientifically responsible for the increase in paranormal activity. One of the theories about ghosts appearing during storms at or near locations with bodies of water, is that ghosts feed off negative ions.

In a single cubic centimeter of inland office air, there are about 100 negative ions. Normal outdoor fair-weather ion concentrations are between 200 and 800 negative ions per cubic centimeter. At the beach, however, you’ll find more than 5,000 negative ions in that same amount of space.

The natural movement of the churning ocean and wind creates negative ions and provides an electrical power source of sorts. Negative ions are made through a process similar to how static electricity is produced through friction. When an event such as water passing through air occurs, the friction detaches an electron from a neutral molecule (atom) and becomes a positive ion, and the molecule gaining the electron becomes a negative ion. This is why an abundance of negatively charged ions are found near the ocean. Thunderstorms also create negative ions via the friction caused by clouds heavy with moisture moving through the atmosphere.

When humans experience high counts of negative ions, they yield biochemical reactions that increase the level of the neurotransmitter serotonin (which seems to dispel normal levels of the blues and calm stress). If you believe the theory of negative ions increasing paranormal activity, you can see why it’s easier to make contact in an environment filled with a natural electrical feed.

Ghosthunting Southern California
Ghosthunting Southern California

A comparison of the environmental factors of paranormal activity gathered on successful investigations versus less productive ones seems to give credence to the theory of negative ions. I own a battery-operated negative-ion pet brush that creates trillions of negative ions per second. It’s mobile and soundless, but you have to be willing to brush your hair at an investigation. Mini negative-ion generators are also available with a USB plug, and there are bracelets that are said to create negative ions using light and natural minerals (but I have found nothing in these products that would actually cause them to do so), and even a mobile wall unit that plugs in and is only a few inches in size. If you use an EM Pump and a negative-ion generator, the negative-ion generator naturally negates most EMF.

Just to test this theory, I invite you all to start keeping a journal of the paranormal activity you do (and don’t) get and start writing down things like weather temperature and barometric pressure. There are also small devices to count negative ions. Add them to your ghosthunting tool kit and see what kinds of trends you find.

In Ghosthunting Southern California, author Sally Richards takes readers on an eerie journey through the region on a series of paranormal investigations to historic locations marred by tragedy and unfortunate happenstance that have caused the dead to rise. This Halloween, join her if you dare!

About the author: Sally Richards is a historian, paranormal investigator, and spiritualist medium. She brings history alive as she investigates locations alongside high-profile experts and others who share a similar curiosity of the paranormal, bringing you the latest on “haunted” locations throughout Southern California.

Theater Superstitions and Traditions

Theaters are rich sources for paranormal phenomena. Before you venture into a theater to start hunting, it’s important to know a bit about theater traditions, superstitions, and folklore. L’Aura Hladik, author of Ghosthunting New York City, shares with us one of ten theater superstitions.

Never say “Macbeth”

MacbethNever say “Macbeth” in a theater. It’s traditional to avoid uttering the word “Macbeth” inside a theater. Actors, stagehands, and theater patrons refer to the play as “that Scottish play,” and they call its leading-lady character “Lady M.” If one does say “Macbeth” inside a theater, he must promptly exit the theater, spin three times counterclockwise, spit, swear, and then knock on the theater door and ask to be let back in. If that “undoing” ritual is not conducted, the curse of Macbeth will bring bad luck, leading to accidents on set and catastrophes in the lives of the performers and staff. Granted, Macbeth has more swordfights than most other plays, which in itself increases the chance of accidents. However, there are many stories of theater personnel thinking the superstition was silly and subsequently suffering the consequences with minor accidents and bad luck.

There are various theories about the Macbeth curse. Some say that the lines Shakespeare wrote for the three witches are actual incantations, and that therefore each performance of the play casts forth spells and curses. Others believe Macbeth is cursed because, being a crowd-pleasing production, theater owners would stage it as a last-ditch effort to save a struggling theater. Sadly, within weeks of the play’s performance, the troubled theater would be out of business anyway; thus The Tragedy of Macbeth became a “kiss of death” production.

L'Aura Hladik
L’Aura Hladik

In her book Ghosthunting New York City, L’Aura Hladik visits more than 30 legendary haunted places, all of which are open to the public—so you can test your own ghosthunting skills, if you dare.

About the author: L’Aura Hladik Hoffman is the author of Ghosthunting New Jersey and Ghosthunting New York City. She is also the Founder and Director of the New Jersey Ghost Hunters Society.

About the series: America’s Haunted Road Trip is a one-of-a-kind series of haunted travel guides. Each book profiles 30 haunted places that are open to the public. The author visits each place, from inns and museums to cemeteries and theaters, interviewing people who live and work there. Also included are travel instructions, maps, and an appendix of many more places that the reader can visit.

Photo credits
Photograph of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, based on an 1888 production, Folger Shakespeare Library Digital Image Collection.
By Window & Grove (photographer) [CC BY-SA 4.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons

Mattie’s House of Mirrors—Downtown Denver

Ghostly Activities in Mattie’s House of Mirrors

House of MirrorsKailyn Lamb, author of Ghosthunting Coloradolooks at locations throughout the state and dives headfirst into the history behind the ghosts and what has made them stay. Join her investigation of Mattie’s House of Mirrors.

One of the busiest bars in the lower downtown area of Denver was once home to one of the city’s more popular brothels, Mattie’s House of Mirrors. The House of Mirrors was built in 1889 by Jennie Rogers, whose primary objective was to compete with the brothel owned by Mattie Silks. When the building first opened, it was located on Holladay Street; in the late 1880s to early 1890s, the street would later be called Market Street. In 1894, before Rogers opened for business, brothel owners were shaking in their boots due to the murders of three prostitutes on Market Street, which became known as Strangler’s Row as a result.

In Mattie’s, Mirrors Covered the Walls

Silks took over the business in 1910. Once she was in control of the building, she converted the lower floor into a respectable restaurant. The building gained its name the “House of Mirrors” because any and all space was covered in mirrors. The upstairs of the building was a little less family friendly than the restaurant.

The Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society (RMPRS) investigated the building in 2000 due to the alleged activity reported there. While there are plenty of rumors about people who have died in the building, the RMPRS could only find the record for the death of one woman, Ella Wellington. She was at one point an owner of the building; however, in addition to that, she may have also been an accountant or working girl for the location. RMPRS could not determine the cause of her death.

Some of the reports of ghostly activity come from the room in which Wellington died, but the activity is not limited to that room. Some activities that have been reported are the piano playing by itself, the elevator moving between floors when it has not been called, and the smell of smoke in the bathrooms. Several people have also reported hearing parties when no one is in the building. Several staff members refuse to go to the upstairs area of Mattie’s alone. During this investigation, the researchers were able to pick up what sounded like a conversation between two voices in a corner. The recorded conversation can be found on the RMPRS website.

The building now houses a bar called LoDo’s. It is no longer covered in mirrors, but a plaque can be seen on the front of the building commemorating Mattie Silks and her House of Mirrors.

The Ghosts of Currituck Beach Lighthouse

Kala Ambrose, author of Ghosthunting North Carolina, recounts the tale of Currituck Beach Lighthouse

kalaparanormalThe North Carolina coast is one of the most dangerous of the Atlantic for ships. The unpredictable and treacherous currents and ever-shifting sandbars have run more ships aground here than anywhere else along the Eastern Seaboard, giving the North Carolina coast the nickname Graveyard of the Atlantic. This is why so many lighthouses were built in the state, as a warning to sailors as they approached the coastline.

Built in 1875, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse is located to the north of Bodie Island and was the last major lighthouse erected on the Outer Banks. Its most distinguishing feature may be that it remains in its original brick form, rather than being painted in a bold black-and-white pattern like most other North Carolina lighthouses.

The Story of the First Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter, Sadie

Currituk Beach LighthouseEach lighthouse hired what was called a “keeper,” a man who would care for the lighthouse and ensure that the light was in good working order at all times. A small cottage was built next to each lighthouse in order to house the keeper and his family. Once construction was complete on the lighthouse and cottage, the first lighthouse keeper for the Currituck Beach Lighthouse settled into the cottage with his wife and their daughter, Sadie. Sadie slept in what is referred to as the north bedroom of the cottage.

One day Sadie was playing on the beach and went missing. Her body was found washed up on shore the next day. Shortly after her demise, people reporting seeing the ghost of a little girl appearing around the lighthouse and the cottage. Rumors began to spread that the keeper’s cottage was cursed and that illness, misery, and death fell to anyone who slept in the north bedroom. Over the years, lighthouse keepers and their guests who slept in the north bedroom reported seeing and feeling a ghost in the room, and several became ill while sleeping in the room.

Ghostly Apparitions and Other Restless Spirits Frequently Seen Around the Lighthouse

Currituk Lighthouse StairsUntil recently, it was unclear why so many spirits appeared in this area. In 2009, after a ferocious winter storm along the Outer Banks, waves from the Atlantic Ocean dredged up a shipwreck, placing it at the edge of the shore. The ship appears to be from the early 1600s and may be the oldest shipwreck ever found along the coast of North Carolina. East Carolina University (ECU) students, underwater archaeologists, maritime history experts, and members of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission worked around the clock in a race against the tide to pull the shipwreck farther up the beach to safety. The ECU team continues to work on identifying the ship; most recently, coins were found with fleur-de-lis symbols on one side and the image of King Louis XIII on the other. While the name of the ship, along with her crew and passengers, has not yet been identified, such a large ship most likely was carrying a full load of goods and passengers.

The ship sank more than 200 years before the Currituck Beach Lighthouse was built near its underwater grave. It’s very likely that the ghostly passengers wandered the coast of Currituck Beach for hundreds of years and now make the Currituck Lighthouse and keeper’s cottage their home. Many also suspect that young Sadie may have been lured into the ocean after seeing one of the ghosts in the water, which led to her drowning.

Photo Credits
Currituck Beach Lighthouse (outside) by Warfieldian (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Stairs inside Currituck Beach Lighthouse by By rpertiet (The Stairs) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons