HGB Ep. 411 - Miss Molly's Bed and Breakfast

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Moment in Oddity - Yemen's Well of Hell

There is a peculiar hole in the al-Mahra province of Yemen known as the Well of Barhout, but most people call it the Well of Hell. For years, locals have claimed that this is a gateway to the underworld and that the Djinn live within the depths. The truth is that this is a natural sinkhole and in September of 2021, 10 explorers made their way all the way to the bottom. The explorers found dead animals, snakes, frogs, beetles, waterfalls and stalagmites. Another claim about the hole is that it is part of a supervolcano that could one day wipe out the Earth, similar to the one that is claimed to be below Yellowstone National Park. The explorers found no evidence for that either. The most unusual find were cave pearls, which are very unique and rare because they need a completely flat surface in order to form. These are formed when dripping or flowing water gathers around a nucleus of loose material and deposits minerals in concentric layers. Since the nucleus is loose, the shape of a pearl forms. The Well of Hell may not be a prison for the Djinn, but it certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Lawrence Joel Awarded Medal of Honor

In the month of November, on the 8th, in 1965, Lawrence Joel was awarded the Medal of Honor, becoming the first living person of color to do that since the Spanish-American War. Lawrence Joel was serving as a medic with the 1st Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade during the Vietnam War. He was with his unit in the Iron Triangle northwest of Saigon when his heroism earned him the medal. The unit was outnumbered and under heavy assault and Specialist Joel received a severe leg wound. This didn't stop him from taking care of his wounded comrades and he continued his work despite being hit a second time with a bullet lodging into his lung. He didn't stop treating the wounded until his evacuation was ordered. President Lyndon B. Johnson presented the Medal of Honor to Specialist Joel on March 9, 1967, at the White House.

Miss Molly's Bed and Breakfast (Suggested by: Amy Martinez)

Miss Molly's Bed and Breakfast has been on the suggestions list for quite a while and we decided to produce it now because our longtime listener and Executive Producer Amy Martinez's daughter recently visited the location and had a chance to investigate. A sign outside one of the rooms reads, "Street ladies bringing in sailors must pay for room in advance." So clearly, this wasn't always a simple little hotel. This was once a brothel and many of the spirits from that time back in the early 1900s are still sticking around the bed and breakfast. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of Miss Molly's Bed and Breakfast!

The most famous and popular spot in Fort Worth, Texas is the Stockyards. This is a National Historical District in what was once dubbed "Cowtown" because four million head of cattle were driven through here between 1866 and 1890. When the railroad came to town, it only made sense to establish Fort Worth as a shipping point for livestock and the Union Stockyards were built. Wealthy Boston businessman Greenleif Simpson decided to invest in the stockyard and he renamed it the Fort Worth Stockyards Company. Simpson sought out other investors and one man he approached suggested that they build meat packing plants in the city, rather than shipping the cattle off to other markets. Two large meat packing plants would be built around 1900. Around this time, the Wall Street of the West would be built too, which was the Livestock Exchange Building that housed the railroad offices, telegraph offices and livestock commission companies. In 1907, the Cowtown Coliseum was built for rodeos and stock shows.

In 1911, the Stockyards became their own city known as Niles City, which eventually was annexed into Fort Worth. Droughts, floods and fires would come. The Stockyards would be rebuilt with flame-resistant materials. The business prospered through it all until World War II. At this time in America, the railway business was in decline and the highway system was growing with a trucking business that made small stockyards and meat packers able to pull business their way. The first meat packing plant, Armour, closed in 1962 and the other, Swift, closed in 1971. In 1976, the district earned protection and restoration began on various landmarks with the Exchange Building becoming a museum in 1989. The area has become a shopping and dining district with the Star Cafe in the midst of it and the restaurant has Miss Molly's Bed and Breakfast located above the eatery.

The building that houses the bed and breakfast today was built in 1910 as a high-class boarding house and was called The Palace Rooms. By the time Prohibition rolled around, the building had changed hands and reopened as The Oasis with rooms and a speakeasy. The authorities looked the other way most of the time, but there was the occasional raid. The nice boarding house was gone by the 1940s and replaced with a bordello called The Gavatte Hotel. All types came through from cowboys to businessmen to real shady types. Eventually, Texas outlawed prostitution and the building was on the market once again. It reopened as the Star Cafe on the ground floor and Miss Molly's Bed and Breakfast on the upper floor.

The Bed and Breakfast has eight rooms with one communal bathroom. The former madame's room is known as Miss Josie's Room and this has its on private bath. The other rooms are Cowboys, Miss Amelia, Cattlemen's, Rodeo, Gunslinger and Railroader. The rooms are decorated in a manner that takes one back with lace curtains, antique oak furniture and historic quilts, iron beds and shutters. Miss Josie's Room has elegant Victorian decor with elaborate wall coverings and window dressing and the ceiling is draped fabric. The bathrooms have iron tubs, pedestal sinks and pull-chain toilets.

Stories of unexplained experiences have plagued this location for years and many claim that it is one of the most haunted spots in Texas. Guests and employees claim to see shadow figures and to feel cold spots. The scent of perfume is on the air occasionally. Coins apport into rooms that have been cleaned. Belongings disappear or are moved around and found in odd places. Sometimes after they disappear, they reappear in the spot from which they had been missing. Toilets flush on their own, lights turn on and off by themselves and doors lock and unlock by themselves. Sometimes doors won't open as if blocked by an unseen force. A reporter staying overnight once awoke to find a beautiful blonde woman sitting on the edge of the bed. There is a young girl's spirit that has appeared in the private rooms of the owners. She appears to be around eight-years-old.

Innkeeper Paula Gowins told CBS 11, "I’ve had many reports from the guests of seeing things: transparencies, smoky apparitions. Like in this room, Ms. Josie King was the last madam. She had been sighted many times, usually at 3:00 in the morning at the foot of the bed watching the people sleep. (We) only had one couple jump out of bed.”

Texpart Paranormal LLC had investigated at Miss Molly's in November of 2008. They have great notes on their website about that investigation. One passage reads, "Entered room 5 at 8:08 PM we encountered a female spirit who was 42 yrs of age and she believed the current year was 1946. She said she entertained men in this bedroom. This female spirit thought she was still alive. After initial connection with the spirit my hair in the back of my head was caress. At one point Rosie’s right elbow was touched. She mentioned she was upset that her daughter was not with her. She stated that her grandparents raised her daughter who is still alive and that she was there waiting for her daughter. At one point she laid down in the bed in front of us. We did not find out what her name was. We exited the room at 8:30 PM." Another says, "Investigators reported hearing loud talking and clanking of dishes below them. Interestingly enough, they heard these noises at approximately 9:30 pm and the business below had closed at 7:00 p.m. Upon inspection, no one was left in that business to make such noises. Both investigators also reported hearing someone talking, walking around and shutting doors in room number 8 next to them. No one was ever- at any time in room number 8. It was shut off as a control room for recording." 

Amy shared in the Spooktacular Crew: My daughter and her fiancé took his little girl to Miss Molly’s, a haunted hotel, in the Fort Worth Stockyards last night. His 9-yr-old is into that which make her my kindred spirit. Anyway, Ross (the fiancé) lost his dad a few years ago. I get this text from my daughter this morning:

 

Jayde and Ross talk about the spirits of two little boys and how they seem to be able to leave the room they usually occupy, while the other spirits seem to stick to just the one room they always occupy. And they also relate how the madame would occasionally lock girls in closets. (Jayde Ghosts) They mentioned the cowboy Jake and how his spirit manifests too. He is known to hang out in the stockyards in multiple places. The innkeeper Carey thinks her brother is there and protecting the little girl spirit named Emily and one guest even felt hands closing around his neck one time!

Even though many claim that the spirits are not evil here, that hasn't always been the case and Jayde and Ross shared these experiences from the Innkeeper and a housekeeper at Miss Molly's. (Jayde 2)

Jayde and Ross decide that they want to do some investigating and they borrow equipment from the innkeeper. And what happens reminds us of being at the Clay County Jail where the woman named Joe that was with us seemed to have the spirit of her father there. (Jayde 3) A couple things that didn’t make it onto this recording was Ross asked his dad if he was happy and the answer was yes. Then he asked “do you miss us?” and Charlie said “no.” So Ross asked, “is that because you’re always with us?” And Charlie said “yes.” Ross also said that his Mom said there were things moving around behind them and he mentions a picture of an orb going into him. Amy sent that pic and we'll see if we can upload it to Instagram. Normally, we would just be like, this is a dust orb or something, but because of what is going on with the communication and his Mom seeing stuff, maybe this orb was paranormal in nature.

Karen wrote on TripAdvisor, "OMG - I stayed there Friday night and what a night it was! I saw a door move even with the door stop on. We listened to white noise and spirits spoke through the white noise and guessed cards that we picked from a deck. I saw an orb or something follow one of the young girls that was staying with her Grandmother. You've got to see the little bear. When it's turned on and you touch it, it speaks.... well, it was speaking without anyone touching it! I would recommend anyone that is interested in the hereafter to check it out!! Shelly was awesome. She stayed the night with us along with a couple other ghost hunters. Check it out! There are no TVs or phones in the hotel. It truly is like stepping back in time. Do not expect to sleep too much as there is activity all night long."

Mamie wrote on TripAdvisor, "My friend and I decided to stay at Miss Molly’s because of its close proximity to the nightlife and also because we had heard of the ghost stories. We stayed in the Cowboy Room and were the only guests there that night. Within the first 10 minutes of being there we had the cowboy room door close on us and the closet doorknob rattle when I made a joke about wanting my friend to go open the closet door. We immediately went to dinner and when we came back our keys were moved across the room. From then on we knew the ghosts were definitely just pranksters. Later we found the leather review book that people write in and started reading their stories on the couch and kept hearing banging and shuffling in the 2nd bathroom. We never checked because we were chicken but we later found it that someone was found stabbed in the bathtub a long time ago."

dancepatti wrote on TripAdvisor, "Miss Molly's is a cozy old bed and breakfast (they do NOT serve breakfast anymore so perhaps it is a BED and BATH now). We stayed because we wanted to stay in a haunted hotel and we got our wish. We stayed in room #3 one bed had a spirit sit on it in the middle of the night, the other bed was shaken by a spirit in the middle of the night. The cowboy room gave a good scare as we entered it the door slammed on us- and I do mean slammed. Later our inferred picture showed a silhouette of a cowboy by the furthest bed. It was an exciting night!"

Former brothels have a tendency to be haunted because of the nature of the business and the violent history that can be connected to them. We don't know much about that history here, but clearly there are some unexplained things happening here. And on top of that, it seems that Ross got the opportunity to talk to his father through the veil. Good golly is Miss Molly's Bed and Breakfast haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 410 - Cerro Gordo Ghost Town

Moment in Oddity - The Steamboat Arabia

The Arabia Steamboat Museum is found in Missouri and remembers the Steamboat Arabia tragedy. The Steamboat Arabia was built in Pennsylvania in 1853. The steamboat spent its time transporting passengers along the Missouri River and she also carried cargo like merchandise for stores and the mail. The Arabia didn't  work very long as she sank on September 5, 1856. The Missouri River was a treacherous river and one of the biggest dangers were fallen trees that were hard to see because they would lie just under the surface of the water. On that fateful day, the Arabia hit one of those trees and sank in a matter of minutes. The 150 passengers and crew on board managed to make it to safety, so no one died. Over time, the Missouri River shifted. That didn't reveal the Arabia though as it had sunk 45 feet underground. A group of four men led an effort in 1988 to excavate the steamboat and they found a large collection of pre-Civil War artifacts and glass bottles that still held their contents. Some of those contents were preserved pie fruit and pickles. One of the excavators ate some of the preserved pickles and found them to not only be edible, but still fresh and that, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Sistine Chapel Opens to the Public

In the month of November, on the 1st, in 1512, the Sistine Chapel ceiling opens to the public. The Sistine Chapel is the chief consecrated space in the Vatican and someone very talented was needed to paint frescoes on the ceiling. Michelangelo, the greatest Italian Renaissance artist in human history, got the call from Rome in 1508. He had started his life in art at the age of thirteen working as an artist's apprentice. His talent was soon discovered and nurtured. Michelangelo crafted such works as the Pieta and David before he was called to paint the ceiling of the chapel. The frescoes he created were epic and featured nine panels of Biblical history, starting with The Creation of the World. Other panels feature the Creation of Adam with God and Adam stretching their arms out towards each other, the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and Noah and the Flood. Figures from the Old Testament can be found along the sides of the panels and Michelangelo used fictive architectural molding and supporting statues to pull everything together. The work took four years to complete and is a masterpiece.

Cerro Gordo Ghost Town (Suggested by: Julie Shjandemaar)

The ghost town of Cerro Gordo is found in California's Inyo Mountains. This fairly prosperous mining town was established in the mid-1800s and had been mostly abandoned for decades. New life was breathed into it recently after being purchased in 2018 for almost $1.5 million. This mining camp had been a dangerous place to live. People died from gunfights, disease and mining accidents. And now it would seem that spirits still remain because of all those deaths. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Cerro Gordo Ghost Town!

Cerro Gordo was founded in 1865.  The name in Spanish means “fat hill" and the peak sits eight miles east and 5,000 feet above Owens Lake, which had actually been a lake at one time, but is dried up now. Pablo Flores is credited with discovering silver ore here and he began mining and smelting operations. Growth for the mining town was slow as Native American populations kept people from coming. Fort Independence was built nearby and the soldiers here expelled the Native American populations. Everything was very primitive with this early operation. The ore was smelted in adobe ovens. Another miner named Jose Ochoa was pulling as much as 1.5 tons of ore out of the San Lucas Mine every 12 hours. As word about the silver ore got out, more miners came. 

The quality of the ore caught the attention of a Quebec-born sutler at Fort Independence named Victor Beaudry. He was a businessman and he decided to open a general store in the town. Beaudry was a smart man and he would trade provisions with the miners in exchange for portable silver and lead that the miners had smelted together. Beaudry also extended credit to the miners and this enabled him to eventually foreclose on their claims and he soon owned most of the Cerro Gordo mines. This included a half-interest in the largest, the Union, perched above the camp. Beaudry built two modern smelters in the town with his money as well.

The road in and out of the town became treacherous with bandits waiting to grab ore from miners heading down into other towns. Tiburcio Vasquez was a highwayman who worked in California from 1854 to 1874 and the Vasquez Rocks north of Los Angeles was a frequent hideout for him and so they named this for him. He was a real ladies man and considered handsome and a great dancer. His trademark was to bind the hands of his victims and leave them face down in the dirt. Vasquez was captured in 1874, tried and sentenced to hang. This execution took place on March 19, 1875. He had a lieutenant named Cleovaro Chavez and they would stop people to ask for "tolls." This became a lucrative business with dozens of teamster teams taking the route to Los Angeles with ore and then back to Cerro Gordo with liquor and sundries. The teamsters would try to warn each other if they ran into bandits and some would stash the ore along the road to come back for later. Vasquez and his crew left the area after stopping a stage coach near Cerro Gordo and shooting and wounding a man.

In April 1868, mining engineer Mortimer Belshaw arrived from San Francisco with plans to build a smelter. He bought a one-third interest in the mountain's largest galena lode, which is silver-bearing lead ore. Many of the mines, including the large Union Mine, were tapped into this vein of silver ore. He and his business partner Abner B. Elder built the Yellow Grade Road that led up to the mines. He also built the Belshaw House, a two-bedroom, 1-bathroom house that still stands in the mining camp and has served a variety of purposes from a private residence to a bed-and-(cook-your-own)-breakfast that sleeps up to five. Belshaw and Elder found a third partner, President of the California Paper Company Egbert Judson, and they formed the Union Mining Company. The group went forward with building a steam powered smelter and ran the thing 24/7. The smelter produced 120 silver and lead ingots a day, each weighing 85 pounds.

At this point, Beaudry and Belshaw were in competition, but they realized if they worked together, they could control the whole town. They produced so much ore that it couldn't be hauled down the mountain fast enough. Remi Nadeau was a French Canadian freighter they hired to haul the ore to Los Angeles in a trek that took three weeks. The ore would be separated at the refinery in Los Angeles.

As the town grew into a boomtown, trouble came with it and law enforcement tended to stay away from the town, which had about 5,000 residents at its height. There was at least one murder every week and shootouts were a normal occurrence. The danger was so bad that miners would stack sandbags in their beds in order to take the impact of stray bullets that might be flying when they were sleeping. A horrible mining accident happened in the 1870s when a mine collapsed and trapped around 30 Chinese miners. They were never rescued and are still buried underground. 

A man named James Brady took over the shipping contract in 1871 and he had a new method. He had established the town of Swansea on the east side of Qwens Lake and launched an 85-foot steamer he named Bessie Brady after his daughter. This saved at least two days in transport, so more money was being made. At least for a little while. Rain is not a usual thing in California, but at this time, torrential rains fell and Brady fell behind. Then Brady and Belshaw got into a fight over mining rights that ended up in court. Brady won, but he lost the shipping contract. Nadeau took over the freight again in 1873, but he wanted in on the action this time and so he was made a full partner in a freighting company they called Cerro Gordo Freighting Co. It was also decided to build stations along the route to make the trip easier.

Belshaw and Beaudry were considered Bullion Kings at the height of the mines' output. In total, the mines produced $17 million in silver and lead ore. That equates to $400 million in today's dollars. The mining industry helped to build Los Angeles. It's sad to think that this town became a mostly forgotten ghost town after spending nearly $350,000 on local farmers feed crops like barley and hay. The town was diverse with a large mix of Hispanics, Chinese, Whites and Native American, most of whom worked the mines for $4 a day and had a life expectancy of five years. John Simpson and his wife had built the American Hotel in 1871, there were two dance hall/brothels, blacksmiths, assay offices, a couple of general stores, saloons, restaurants and bunkhouses. Interestingly though, there were no schools, churches or a jail. 

Commerce slowed down in 1877 when the Union burned down. It was rebuilt, but left Belshaw in debt and he shut down his furnace and cut the pay to $3 a day. Many miners left and the Union closed down in 1879, Beaudry shut down his furnace after that and sent the last shipment of ore in November of 1879. Beaudry died in 1888 and Belshaw died in 1898. The best story is Nadeau's. He was smart and invested his money in wine grapes, barley and sugar beets. He bought land in downtown Los Angeles and built the Nadeau Hotel in 1886. This hotel was demolished in 1932 and a new building was built that is the Los Angeles Times Building that is part of Times Mirror Square today. 

Interesting story connected to this location from Haunted Places by Dennis William Hauck:

This wasn't the end for Cerro Gordo. Low grade silver ore continued to be pulled from the area mines into the 20th Century. High-grade zinc ore was discovered in 1907 in the Union Mine and a different kind of smelter was built at the base of the mountain and the ore was moved in buckets on a cable tramway. The operation was slightly successful until Louis D. Gordon bought the title and incorporated the Cerro Gordo Mines Co. Business started booming as 20 tons of zinc ore were mined daily. The ore was shipped via railway to the United States Smelting and Refining Co. in Utah for processing. Silver and lead were still being pulled between 1911 and 1919. Many of the tunnels were extended and while they aren't safe to enter now, there are 37 miles of tunnels snaking through the mountain.

American Smelting of Utah took over the mines from Gordon in the 1920s and then the U.S. Army came during World War II to get zinc out of the mines for the war effort. The zinc was used to make pennies because the copper was needed for war equipment. The pennies were steel and coated with the zinc to prevent rust. By 1959, the mines were no longer in use. W.C. Riggs had bought the property after the war and he hired a woman named Barbara and her boyfriend to work as caretakers. Barbara had previously worked for RKO Pictures and had been married to an assistant director. So apparently she ran away to a ghost town with her boyfriend. Riggs went bankrupt and didn't pay the couple, so they took him to court and were awarded ownership of Cerro Gordo in 1949. Eventually the boyfriend died and Barbara married Jack Smith. They sold the property to Jack Smith's niece Jody Stewart and she and her husband Mike began restoring the buildings and turning the ghost town into a tourist attraction.

They turned the general store into a museum and reopened the American Hotel. The Belshaw House was turned into a bed and breakfast where the guests make their own breakfast. A bunkhouse dating to 1904 was also opened as a place for up to 12 guests to bunk. In 2001, Jody died and Mike followed in 2009 and Mike's son Sean Patterson inherited the property. Sean hired a caretaker to continue the restoration and give tours. On July 13, 2018, a man named Brent Underwood spent $1.4 million to purchase Cerro Gordo along with some partners. There were twenty-two structures still standing of the 500 that were once here. These included the mining operation, Belshaw House, the American Hotel, a general store, an assayer’s office and Lola’s Palace of Pleasure. Underwood is the current owner and actually spent part of the pandemic snowed in on the property.

Underwood has spent 2020 and 2021 exploring his ghost town and refurbishing buildings. He has rappelled 1,100 feet underground into the tunnels and posted the videos on YouTube. Many parts of the Union Mine hadn't been seen in decades and Underwood found lots of artifacts in the mines and in the town. Many of these items told the story of the miner's lives. There were love letters, mining claims tobacco tins, old newspapers, divorce settlements and bank documents. There was even still some dynamite down in the mines. Things were really moving along for Underwood until tragedy struck. The historic American Hotel, the Crapo House and the Ice House at Cerro Gordo burned down in what is thought to have been an electrical fire in an early morning fire on Monday, June 15, 2020. In a weird coincidence, the American Hotel had originally opened on June 15, 1871. Interestingly, Underwood told the LA Times that he thought the cause of the fire could be paranormal. He said, “The caretaker here told me that he and another person saw a shadowy apparition moving in the hotel kitchen at 4 p.m. the previous day.” The Crapo House had belonged to William Crapo, who had gunned down a postmaster as he walked along the dirt road near the American Hotel. 

Fun Fact: Jeff Goldblum has been by the ghost town. He was there to film an episode of his TV show "The World According to Jeff Goldblum" that featured the history of denim. Many California silver miners wore them since they were specifically invented for them by Levi Strauss in 1871.

Caretakers for years have told stories of having strange experiences in the ghost town. Many believe the place is haunted. Lights switch on and off in unoccupied buildings on the regular. Underwood has experienced this himself. He said, "I went in, turned them off, re-locked the building, and they were turned on again that night." The strange happenings seemed magnified when Underwood was snowed in and around to notice them more. Books would spontaneously fall off of shelves. When its once or twice, it probably is nothing, but having it happen on the regular seems weird. Underwood's wallet moves around. He'll find it in places he knows he didn't put it.

In 2019, Zak Bagans and the crew of Ghost Adventures paid Cerro Gordo a visit and concluded paranormal activity here could be the result of two child spirits trapped in Belshaw House, an 1800s structure Underwood was living in. Roger Vargo and his wife Cecile talked with Bagans about their experiences staying in the Belshaw House. They were sleeping in the bedroom and something pounced on his wife that she couldn't see. Other people had similar experiences there. Robert Desmarais was a caretaker and he felt something jump on his chest and it knocked the wind out of him. So he knew it wasn't a dream. Another investigator captured an EVP of a child's voice and there were no kids in the town. Could these be children jumping on the people?

Alphonse Benoit was shot and killed in the poker room in the house. Zak thought he heard something coming from that room. There is a bullet hole with blood stains on the floor in there. Right near that area, Billy and Zak felt a definable cold spot. The EMF meter spiked there, a really big spike. Billy felt as though his fingers were really cold all of a sudden. Zak got out the thermal camera and it was clear that Billy's fingers were blue while the rest of his hand was the normal human red, orange and yellow and Zak's hand right next to his was completely red. And then they caught something bluish-green in the form of a human torso manifesting on the other side of the table.

Aaron and Zak heard footsteps in the house when they were lying on beds and their cameras did catch very faint footsteps. The ghost of Mr. Belshaw had been seen in the house. He appeared as a portly man, as described by eyewitnesses. Billy had set up a rig with a deep sea fishing pole where he sent an audio recorder and GoPro down into a very deep mine shaft. Billy felt a sharp tug at one point that he described as feeling like a fish on his line and the camera showed the line bobbing as if tugged. Billy was really shaken by the experience and it seemed legit. They also caught two long and interesting EVP on the recorder while in the shaft. One said, "Can anybody hear me?" and the other "I'm going to work." Aaron and Zak were investigating in the poker room and caught an EVP that they said sounded like, "You both just walked to me," but Kelly thought it sounded more like, "Do you want to fuck with me?" That sounds more accurate based on what happened here. They put an Ovulus near the bullet hole and the word "Slain" came up. A game camera seemed to pick up a figure that is not solid because the guys showed what they looked like crossing in front of a game camera.

Ghost towns are notoriously haunted because they were usually notorious places. That would be the case for Cerro Gordo. There are many reasons for this town to be haunted. Is the Cerro Gordo Ghost Town haunted? That is for you to decide!

Bonus - St. Augustine Lighthouse Investigation 2021

We arrive at the lighthouse and check in, do the bug spray thing and prepare our equipment. There were 25 of us - the largest ghost hunt we have ever hosted. We not only had our co-hosts Jerry and Tracy Paulley of Hillbilly Horror Stories, but Nick McGirr who hosts tours and investigations in Charleston also joined us and he had some nice equipment with him. We also had our hunt regular Dolly with us and she brought her new SLS camera with her. Many of the listeners also had equipment and we think everybody not only had a good time, but also had some unexplained things happen.

Everyone was invited to climb the lighthouse. The view from the top is so amazing, especially at night. Our host Amber and Diane talk about being locked in the lighthouse by something unseen. (Lighthouse 1) And Amber shares about being touched by a ghost at the lighthouse. (Lighthouse 2) Then we did a formal intro (Lighthouse Intro)

And we were off to investigate in the lighthouse. All the stories about the children who died here, do not give a specific date for their accident. The closest we've come is to a year, 1873. We never thought much about it until investigating this time and this came up on the Ghost Radar App. (Lighthouse 3) We got "summer," "real" and "research." Also the name "Adam." We also later got the name "Ellen" and the word "Florida."

Kathy Thomas was our spirit magnet in the lighthouse. She told us about hearing the little girls giggle when she was here before. (Lighthouse 4) Kathy felt the spirits more than once when we were at the base of the stairs in the tower and then we were able to verify her experience with equipment. (Lighthouse 5) So you hear there Kathy saying she feels cold spots, and then Kelly is using the temp gun and getting readings of colder temperatures near Kathy, especially her hand hanging by her side. Nick is capturing readings on his devices too. Then whatever this was leaves. Diane wanders down to the display cases and talks with one of the listeners about what she is experiencing. (Lighthouse 6) So she was feeling a cold area from her kneecap down and that's exactly the area that Kathy was getting her feelings of cold. Then whatever was around Kathy comes back and Diane is able to verify what Kathy is feeling not only with the EMF, but her own body. When you hear Diane talking about this, she has walked over to Kathy and crouched down with the EMF held up to Kathy's dangling hand. (Lighthouse 7) So Diane felt the same prickly feeling as Kathy and the EMF went off when we asked, pinging to orange and then red when asked. To Diane, this was the coolest experience of the evening. 

Next, we headed over to the Keeper's House and we started down in the basement where the most activity is usually reported. The creepiest thing down here was a mannequin in scuba gear. Dolly sat down next to it with her SLS and she captured something that was not the mannequin. (Lighthouse 8)

Then we started a series of Estes Method/Spirit Box sessions. Diane conducted the first one and unbeknownst to her, when she responded to questions or said something, other pieces of equipment started going off. (Lighthouse 9) What I liked on this was that I was getting nothing at the same time as the equipment stopped registering anything. And then the conversation picked back up with Nick asking questions. And Kelly felt something cold on her hand. Nick's equipment seems to support that. Kelly also described a spider web feeling and Kathy said she had that too. Then Diane blurts out Cornell. Diane did a little investigating about Keepers and wonders if this was Cardell, rather than Cornell. Second Assistant Cardell D. Daniels (1911-1914) Head Keeper: (1935 – 1943) Cardell had two kids, a boy named Cardell Jr. everyone called Cracker and a daugther named Wilma. In a previous St. Augustine episode we shared how Cracker launched his sister's cat Smokey out of the tower with a parachute, but the cat survived and showed back up a few weeks later. This was in the 1930s. In 1941, the Coast Guard took over the lighthouses and Cardell was given the option of retiring or putting on a Coast Guard uniform and he gladly accepted. The lighthouse also moved to being electrified during his time there. Wilma returned to the lighthouse for a visit in July 2021 at the age of 90 and climbed all the way to the top. She said of her father, "He'd sit on the railing with his butt. He was a real tall, thin fella. … He'd sit there and hold his feet up and slide all the way down." Cardell's wife Grace planted the yellow lilies that still grow at the lighthouse.

Kathy took over the Estes Method. (Lighthouse 10) She said "Rick" three times and this is after calling for help. We focused on a name, but that changed later when we went upstairs. Shantel pulled Diane aside and asked, "Do you think Rick could actually be wreck?" Then she pointed up and at the top of a display were these giant letters spelling WRECKED. We didn't stop to think of why the lighthouse was there. Because of shipwrecks. I don't know if we caught an EVP here, but I'll play it to see what you think. (Lighthouse EVP 1) Sounds like "job" to me. 

Nick takes over the Estes Method and things take a mean turn. (Lighthouse 11) Nick was firing off answers. He got Rick too. And we loved the "count to 3" and "smart." We went upstairs and did some work with the dowsing rods and Kelly got touched again. The REM pod also went off. Then our two hours was up. It went really fast and we had a great time! We really enjoyed Nick. He had a respectful investigation technique and he asked unique questions that were more personal.

HGB Ep. 409 - Gaither Plantation

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Moment in Oddity - Coffin in Golf Course Pond Complete with Skeleton and Axe (Suggested by: Mike Rogers)

Just another day out at the golf course...until you find a coffin in a pond and well, it wasn't empty. The coffin was discovered in 2018 in a pond at a golf course in Lincolnshire, England. Archaeologists estimated that it dated back to the Bronze Age. The coffin was made from a hollowed out oak tree trunk. The even more amazing part was what was found inside the coffin. The remains of a 4,000 year-old man, who was of high status, were inside along with a well preserved axe. And this was no ordinary axe. It was very rare, one of only twelve discovered in Britain. The coffin and axe are on display at the Lincoln Collection Museum. The Tetney Golf Club also has a tribute to the discovery made on the property. They have a photograph of it up on the clubhouse wall. An axe makes a pretty unique golf club and finding one in a coffin with a 4,000 year old skeleton, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Cherry Valley Massacre

In the month of November, on the 11th, in 1778, the Cherry Valley Massacre took place. Cherry Valley was just east of Cooperstown, New York and a man named Colonel Ichabod Alden was in charge of the 7th Massachusetts Regiment there. He had a long career in the military. He served in the Plymouth militia and then served in the 25th Continental regiment after the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775. But when it came to this moment during the Revolutionary War, he was out of his element. Alden had been warned that Native Americans were preparing to attack, but he ignored them. Chief Joseph Brant showed up with 600 Iroquois. He was joined by 200 Loyalists serving under Major Walter Butler. Alden had less than 300 men and they were quickly dispatched. Forty Patriots were killed, including Alden and all the members of the Wells family, and seventy were taken prisoner. The attack came to be known as the Cherry Valley Massacre and was one of the most horrific frontier massacres of the war. A monument was dedicated at Cherry Valley on August 15, 1878.

Gaither Plantation

Covington, Georgia is nicknamed Hollywood South due to the number of movies and television shows that have been filmed there. One location that not only hosts weddings and other events, but has also served as a set for films and TV shows is the Gaither Plantation. The house dates back to 1850 and there are two cemeteries on the property along with other historic buildings, one of which is an old church that was moved to the property. Several of the buildings, especially the main house, have paranormal activity. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Gaither Plantation!

Covington, Georgia is about twenty-six miles east of Atlanta. This is the seat of Newton County and was incorporated in 1854. The city is named for United States Army Brigadier General and United States Congressman Leonard Covington, who was a hero of the War of 1812. General Sherman marched through the city on his March to the Sea in 1864 and several buildings were looted and burned, but a few antebellum homes were spared, one of which was the Gaither Plantation. The plantation is now known as Gaither's at Myrtle Creek Farm. 

The Gaither Family has a long history in America with most descendants tracing their roots back to John Gater who arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1620. Dr. Henry Gaither passed 875 acres to his son, William Hubert Gaither who built the farmhouse on the property in 1850. Gaither married Cecilia Billups Wood in 1855 and the couple had four children: Sara Clara, Mary Jane, Henry and William Jr. Tragedy struck for the family when Sara Clara died at the age of nine. She was buried in a plot in the family cemetery on the property. The farm was set up as a cotton plantation and the family owned 130 slaves. The plantation did very well for years, even after the Civil War, when the slaves were freed. 

In 1888, the Gaithers son Henry got into a deadly conflict with a neighbor named George Smith. We have read two versions, but both end with George Smith dead. One version claims that Henry destroyed some turkey nests on Smith's property and the men fought with Henry using a big stick to club Smith. The other version claims that Smith was clearing land with fire and accidentally burned some of the Gaither turkey nests that were scooped up in the brush heaps. When Henry found out about it, he grabbed a shovel and hit Smith over the head, killing the man. Regardless of what the facts were, Henry went on the run and ended up in Texas somewhere, never to be seen again. 

In 1890, William Gaither died and the property passed to Cecilia. She had him buried in the family plot next to their daughter Sara Clara. Cecilia only stayed with the property for a few years after her husband's death, moving into Covington proper in 1906 with her son William Jr. Boll weevils hit in the early 1900s, devastating the cotton crop. This is a little grayish beetle with a long snout. These traveled up from Mexico to the United States in the late 1800s and by the 1920s, they were in all major cotton-producing areas. At the time, one third of the insecticide used in the US was just to go after the boll weevil. The boll weevil has been eradicated in all states except Texas. The Gaither Plantation couldn't make their tax payment in 1921 and had to declare bankruptcy. The Gaithers lost the family farm over twenty-eight dollars.

Through the next several decades, the property was sold to farming families, including the McIntoshs, Siegfrieds and Welchels. The buildings on the property changed over the years. The property started with the plantation house, outdoor kitchen, barn, outhouse and slave quarters. The barn was replaced in 1950 by Ralph Welchel. (Read p. 47 from Ghosts of Atlanta, Phantoms of the Phoenix City by Reese Chrisitan.) 

Some buildings burned down or fell apart and other buildings were brought to the property, including the Harris Springs Primitive Baptist Church. The church brought some bad history with it. Legend claims that the pastor of the church caught his wife having an affair and murdered her. He then killed himself. Newton County took over the site in 1996 and they host events, weddings and tours there, as well as renting it out for film and TV production. Paranormal investigations take place here too because there are several spirits on the property.

One of the events that had been hosted at the farm were re-enactments. The Union marched on the plantation looking for Confederate soldiers they believed were being hidden there. Supposedly, Cecilia had hidden Confederates in a secret passageway. Re-enactors who have camped out on the farm claim to have seen a man's spirit walk from the fireplace to the front window in the parlor. The scene replayed itself over and over in a loop. The apparition of a solider in a gray suit has been seen in the basement appearing to be trying to hide. The re-enactors also saw someone in the windows when no one was in the house, as did people who attended the Hummingbird Festival.

East Georgia Paranormal Lead Investigator Bobby Bishop was interviewed by The Covington News in 2007 and he told the paper that he was skeptical of most ghost sightings, but Gaither Plantation was one of three sites he believed was a hotbed of paranormal activity. They have done many investigations at the property over the years. On one of their first investigations, a sensitive on their team said they were uncomfortable on the stairs leading to the attic and they later found that they had captured an EVP at that same time that said, "Don't go up the stairs."

Jerry Love was once the Chairman of Friends of Gaither and he had people who rented the property tell him that they saw a man in a grey suit down in the basement and a woman who was rocking a baby in an upstairs window. He said, "Every time someone would ask me, I would unlock the house and go and look for the person they were seeing. Sometimes it was the face of a woman in the attic window. Other times they would say they saw someone looking out of the downstairs window. There was never anyone there when I went to look." And people have claimed to hear the laughter and playing of children when no kids are around. There are three other children buried in the graveyard where the Gaither daughter was buried. And there is a slave cemetery too, so this could be where the children are coming from.

There is a handle on the indoor well that is located on the ground floor of the farmhouse and it has been seen turning on its own. The spirit of Cecilia Gaither is believed to be here, possibly because she was not buried with the rest of her family and is troubled by that. The name Celie has been heard coming through and that was nickname that the children used for Cecilia. Cecilia's room is on the second floor and is probably the most haunted area of the house. The pages of a Bible that belonged to her have been seen turning on their own and a rocking chair in the corner is rumored to rock with nobody in it and it is too heavy to be rocked by wind. This chair did not belong to the Gaithers and is on loan from another location and the legend connected to it is that the woman who owned it had lost her baby. Occasionally there have been reports of people who have seen Cecilia sitting in the chair and rocking a baby, but perhaps it was the mother.

A volunteer and caretaker were in the kitchen when they heard voices coming from the front porch. They went to the door to see who was there and when they opened it, they found the porch empty. There was no one nearby who could have made the sound of voices they heard. The show "Vampire Diaries" filmed at the Gaither Plantation. Star Nina Dobrev claimed that a piano started playing on its own during a 2010 shoot. One of the Assistant Directors hollered, "Stop! Whoever that is stop the music. We're rolling. Cameras are on." When they went into the room where the piano was located, they found it empty. Nina also had the unnerving experience of having the lights go on and off erratically while she was in the bathroom. She thought the crew or some co-stars were playing tricks on her, but everybody denied playing with the power.

The Tyler Perry movie "Madea’s Family Reunion" was shot at the Gaither farmhouse and they experienced some activity. The director had called for quiet on the set as they prepared to film a scene. Suddenly, there were loud footsteps on the widow walk. The director yelled "cut" and was not pleased. He told an assistant to go find out who was up there and tell them to come downstairs. The assistant found no one, so they started the scene over again. Footsteps interrupted once again, only this time they were coming down the stairs. The director hollered for the person to come down and quit walking around. There was no response. A couple of people went and looked around and saw that there was no one on the stairs or near them. Just before the director yelled "action" to try filming for a third time he yelled, "Will the ghost of the house please cooperate!" They managed to film the scene without any further issues.

Central Georgia Paranormal Society investigated in 2013 and captured EVPs. In one recording, the group asked if there was a spirit in the house and it answered, "Hey!" In another capture they got the voice of a child saying, "Hello." They heard an audible heated discussion between two women coming from the empty attic. The front screen door also opened on its own and slammed shut. They investigated the church too and picked female voice in an EVP saying, "Willa." The group also has heard yelling, screaming and a choir in the church.

The Ghost Hunters investigated during Season 5 on episode 6. Judy Gaither Dial, the great-great-great granddaughter of W.H. and Cecilia Gaither, met the team and told them she has encountered the ghosts before. She told the guys that the doors on the buffet open and close on their own. And this isn't because the floor is unlevel because the doors will swing shut after they have opened. Judy also thinks that she was touched by Cecilia in Cecilia's bedroom. She felt a hand on her back when she was telling some friends about her great-great-great grandmother. The rocking chair in that room also moves on its own. The attic scares her and she won't go up there. Judy took the team out to the Baptist church that was moved onto the property and she told them that the chair behind the pulpit has vibrated and had an apparition of a man sitting in it. Marty Roberts, Jr. was the caretaker at the time of the investigation and he told the guys he had seen shadow figures and heard disembodied voices at the house. TAPS heard a voice in the attic and footsteps and shuffling. Jason put flour down on the floor to see if they could catch any footprints, particularly rodent footprints. This old school technique got them three footprints. They didn't match any of the patterns on their shoes. The team captured on video, the buffet doors opening on their own.

Judy has shared other experiences that she has had. She enjoyed sitting on the front porch swing and one time when she was sitting without swinging, she felt something unseen sit down next to her and then the swing started moving. Her feet couldn't reach the ground, so she knew it wasn't her moving the swing. Judy jumped off the swing and ran inside to tell Tracy, the caretaker at the time, what had happened. She expected Tracy to be shocked, but she only said, "It's happened to me too." Judy has heard many strange sounds in the house. Judy also claimed that a decorative bowl would move around. The Georgia Paranormal Research Team out of Dublin, Georgia investigated the house and they had an experience that backed up Judy's claims about the bowl. They placed a flat piece of paper under the bowl and then went to investigate the other rooms of the house. When they returned, not only had the bowl moved, but the piece of paper was crumpled up next to the bowl. They also recorded spirits knocking to let the investigators know that they were there. 

The church is reputedly pretty haunted as well since it was the scene of a murder-suicide. Whenever women sit or stand on the pulpit and sometimes even when they just pass by it, unexplained activity will start up in the church and women feel very unwelcome. The chair in the pulpit will begin to vibrate. A man has been seen sitting in the chair and his head would move around as though vibrating too, so maybe the chair just has issues with people sitting in it. 

There is much history at the Gaither's Plantation. Are some of the family members still sticking around? Do objects and furniture on the property have attachments? Is Gaither Plantation haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Halloween Special 2021

Happy Halloween! When one thinks of Halloween and Trick or Treating, more than just pillow cases full of candy come to mind. There's always that one creepy house in the neighborhood. The abandoned one. The one everyone claims is haunted. Maybe one with 999 ghosts and room for one more? Join us as we explore the history of the most famous haunted house in America, Disney's Haunted Mansion! Kindly watch your step as you board, please, and heed this warning - the spirits will only appear if you remain quietly seated at all times. Oh yes, and no flash pictures. Now, as they say, look alive and we'll start our little tour. There's no turning back now...

Every neighborhood has one, the haunted house. Walt Disney understood this and he knew eventually his main street would have one as well. The original concept was developed when Disneyland was being conceptualized. Marvin Davis at WED Enterprises drew a layout with a crumbling house on a hill overlooking Main Street. This idea was further expanded with Harper Goff, who is credited with being the very first Imagineer. Goff drew a panoramic view that he named "Church, Graveyard and Haunted House." These ideas were scrapped when a residential area was dropped from the plan for something better, a series of lands to visit. Imagine a time when Disneyland didn't have the Haunted Mansion. Gasp! But that was the case when it opened in 1955. 

The Haunted House idea was brought back in 1957 as Disney was looking for ways to expand his park. He put top animator Ken Anderson in charge of design. Anderson drew inspiration from the Shipley-Lydecker House in Baltimore as well as the Evergreen House there. Stanton Hall in Natchez, Mississippi also gave some inspiration. Anderson's creation looked much as one would expect, a dilapidated house that was dirty and old. Rather than putting the mansion on a hill in a residential area, the haunted house would be the centerpiece of a new land called New Orleans Square. This land was a way to embrace the influence of the south. Disney teased the idea with the BBC in London in 1958. He mentioned that he felt bad for all the ghosts that were probably displaced during World War II and announced that he was creating a retirement home for the world's homeless spirits at Disneyland.

The plan was presented to Disney who wasn't thrilled. Disneyland was a pristine park. He couldn't have a blighted plantation house in the middle of all of that. So the outside design was put aside as the team worked on the interior and it's not surprising that Anderson drew inspiration from a trip he made to the Winchester Mystery House. He also developed a good ghost story for the house that featured an old sea captain named Captain Gore who had disappeared under mysterious circumstances. (We can't help but wonder if Captain Culpepper Clyne who is featured in the WDW Haunted Mansion queque is a tribute to this concept.) The mansion was his house and guests would be guided through it by either a maid or butler. The tour would start on a moving platform that would take them down to the basement. The maid or butler tour guide would then take the group of guests around and point out secret passages, inanimate objects that would move and changing portraits. Special effects and illusions would be used to pull off the haunting activity. 

Guests started their tour in a picture gallery. The Captain had a bride named Priscilla and she would be in the next room. Guests would see her break into a treasure chest only to discover her husband was actually a notorious pirate named Black Bart. The tour guide would relate that Priscilla disappeared and it was believed that Captain Gore killed her. An ominous bubbling well would hint at her final resting place. Walt thought this was too much and Anderson came up with a second story about the Blood Family and their home Bloodmere Manor. This was an antebellum home moved from New Orleans and during its installation, a construction worker was accidentally walled up in the house. A third story was asked for and this one featured Walt Disney welcoming guests and then the tour guide known as the Lonesome Ghost would take over and share that a wedding celebration was underway until the bride, who could be seen at the end of a long hall, lost her head. Disney again shook his head as he thought that the tone wasn't right. 

Anderson then drew inspiration from Disney's version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. He decided that the tour would end in a graveyard with the Headless Horseman. He would appear riding through the bushes with only his cape visible above them. There would be lightning, the sound of hoof beats and the howl of a werewolf. A wedding party would start after the horseman arrived and guests featured Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and other boogeymen. Sounds pretty cool and everybody decided they would go forward with this. Now it was time to start designing all the scenes. And so WED started making mock-ups of various scenes. And Disney brought over two other artists from the studio, Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey.

Crump was a master of illusion and he loved to build mobiles he called kinetic sculptures. Gracey was a mechanical genius and master model builder. These two men would bring the magic to our favorite attraction. They were inspired by the illusions of nineteenth century magicians and things like spirit cabinets. The men would read ghost stories to each other and built model after model of special effects. Jason Surrell in his book "The Haunted Mansion, Imagineering a Disney Classic" shares a story Rolly told him, "Yale had all his ghosts and magic strewn throughout the room. Once, we got a call from Personnel, asking us to leave the lights on because the janitors didn't want to come in if it was dark. Well, we did, but we rigged the room. We put in an infrared beam, and when it was tripped, the room went to black light and all the ghost effects came on. When we came in the next morning, all the effects were running and there was a broom lying in the center of the floor. Personnel called and said, 'You'll have to clean up your own room because the janitors won't go in there anymore.'"

Gracey and Crump finally got a chance to stage a full mock-up scene to present to Disney and the Suits and it was a magnificent scene featuring the angry captain and his dead wife and ghosts that disappeared and water that dried up. The only problem was that the scene ran three minutes. Not only was this too long for the suits, but this meant the mansion would have to be a walk-through attraction. Disney was really disappointed. He didn't want to to be a walk-through. He wanted it to be a ride. And he didn't want a run down manor, which is what the plan was still embracing. The Haunted Mansion was stalled until 1961. There were attempts to get the Haunted House Project back off the ground, but it was tabled again as the team of Imagineers started working on the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. 

After the World's Fair was done, the Haunted Mansion got back on track with Marc Davis joining the team. Davis' focus became creating various gags and scenes and characters. He is the one who came up with the official host to replace the Lonesome Ghost, our disembodied "Ghost Host." The team developed the Stretching Room, which was originally called the The Elongating Room, the Portrait Gallery with a menacing character that crawled out of a picture, the Seance room with a full-bodied medium known as Madame Z, a Ghost Club Room and a room where a bride and her fiance were murdered. Claude Coats joined the team with a focus on designing the interior environments for Davis' characters to live within. X Atencio joined the team as a scriptwriter. He had just finished writing the script for The Pirates of the Caribbean ride. He would write our beloved Grim Grinning Ghosts song. 

In December of 1966, Walt Disney died and the creative leader for the mansion was gone. Marc Davis and Claude Coats were both placed in charge of the Mansion and creative differences cropped up as one thought the Mansion should be scary and the other thought it should be funny. And as we now know, the two camps collided. The first half of the Mansion has a spooky ambiance, while the second half is filled with whimsical characters. Although we know things have changed up a bit with the scary Hatbox Ghost making into the attic scene at Disneyland and the murderous bride Constance making it into the attic at WDW. Another conflict was whether this would be a walk-through or a ride-through attraction. The PeopleMover had a system called the Omnimover and this would be perfect for moving people through the Mansion quickly. These would become the Doombuggies we ride on through the attraction. This forced the Imagineers to change up some of their tricks and sight gags since people would be passing by very quickly. 

After all the ideas were combined with Davis' characters and Coat's backgrounds, it was left to X to write the story and it comes across as three acts. Act One features the foyer where we see some paranormal things going on, but no ghosts. We meet up with Madame Leota in the Seance Room who let's us know that the spirits are going to materialize and in Act Two, they do during our swinging wake in the Dining Room and our visit to the attic. In Act Three, the Doombuggy falls out of the attic window and into the graveyard for a wild ghost party and we meet our three hitchhiking ghosts at the end with the greatest gag of all. The ghost joins the guests in their Doombuggies. As we know, this got even better as technology got better and the ghosts pull all kinds of gags on the riders. Paul Frees became the voice of the Ghost Host and joins riders through most of the ride. Not many people know that a raven was supposed to be the first guide, but turned out to be too small. There are various ravens spotted throughout the ride that are a tribute to that original idea.

The Haunted Mansion officially opened its doors to the public on August 9, 1969 and with this came a record-breaking day for Disneyland. They broke their single-day attendance record with 82,516 people entering the park. Building on the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World had already begun and it was decided that the Haunted Mansion would be a part of this park as well, so two of everything was made when the Haunted Mansion was being constructed. The house for this one would have to be different because rather than having a New Orleans Square, the Magic Kingdom would have Liberty Square set up like colonial America. This mansion would be designed as a Dutch Gothic manor house. This mansion looks scarier than the one at Disneyland and that was on purpose. The ride was ready to go by April 1971, before the Magic Kingdom even opened, which wouldn't happen for six more months.

Tokyo Disneyland also was developed with a Haunted Mansion. This one was placed in Fantasyland to build a bridge to Westernland and is the same Dutch Gothic design as the one in the Magic Kingdom. Everything inside is the same as well. This opened on April 15, 1983. Disneyland Paris would host their Haunted Mansion in Frontierland and the name would change to Phantom Manor. The design was as a Victorian manor that was dilapidated and is the most sinister looking of the Haunted Mansions. A ghostly version of Thunder Mesa, which is the town found in Frontierland, replaces the Graveyard scene. Vincent Price's trademark laugh from Thriller plays throughout the mansion and he voiced the ghost host for this one until the park decided they wanted a French version of the narration. This attraction opened on April 12, 1992. 

Hong Kong Disneyland would have a version of the Haunted Mansion as well, this one is named Mystic Manor and has a really cool design. It was inspired by the Carson Mansion in Eureka, California. There is a Russian onion dome, Gothic arches and Cambodian temple features. Lord Henry Mystic would build this mansion and it holds his collection of artifacts he collected while exploring the world. Guests board his Mystic Magneto-Electric Carriage cars for a tour, which are not on a track like the Doombuggies and follow a path embedded in the floor. Mystic's monkey sidekick Albert leads guests through a wild ride through the mansion when a haunted artifact causes crazy stuff to happen. Mystic Manor features an Egyptian room, a Nordic room and a tribal arts room and music orchestrated by Danny Elfman fills the haunted house. This mansion opened on May 17, 2013. 

So what is your favorite part of the Haunted Mansion? When was the first time you climbed aboard a Doombuggy? Did anything scare you in the mansion? What is your opinion on the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland? 

Some other little known facts about the Haunted Mansion. Pet cemeteries are a part of all the mansions and got their start at Disneyland in an enclosed garden at the side of the mansion. This was created in the early 1980s by Kim Irvine, who was a senior concept designer in Imagineering. She also was the daughter of Leota Toombs who was the model for Madame Leota. Irvine had bought a bunch of statuary from local nurseries and had a writer create humorous epitaphs for them. Stay in the Stretching Room as long as possible and you will hear the gargoyles whispering to each other and you. In Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, the floor of the Stretching Room actually does go down taking guests fifteen feet underground. At WDW, the Stretching Room's ceiling goes up, while the guests remain on the same level in which they entered. The candelabra in the Endless Hallway is painted completely black on the back to keep it from reflecting in the mirror that is at the end of the hallway. There is a thin black scrim across the hallway to obscure any reflection as well and to give the hallway a misty look. The chair that is here has a face purposefully sewn into the design. In the mid-1980s, cast members wandered inside the mansion at Disneyland and popped out at various times, but this proved to be too scary and also dangerous for the cast members. 

The spell book in the Seance Room has a picture of the Hatbox Ghost dressed a scythe-wielding death figure on one page and the spell Peter Ustinov uses to call forth Blackbeard's Ghost in the 1967 film is on the other page. One of the pistol-wielding duelists in the Dining Room has a familiar face. He is the Auctioneer from Pirates of the Caribbean. The name of the ghost swinging from the top of the chandelier is named Pickwick. The organ is from the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the SEa. People may recall that Captain Nemo played this pipe organ. Constance's husbands were Frank, Reginald, Ambrose, The Marquis and George. The Hatbox Ghost was always supposed to be part of the Attic scene. Marc Davis designed him and he was actually installed right across from the bride. But the illusion that was part of him never worked and he was removed before opening day. He would return to the attic in 2015 with technology that wasn't around until recently and it makes his illusion work perfectly. There is a tribute to him in the WDW Mansion in the form of a hat rack. And if the hatbox ghost's face looks familiar its because he and Ezra share a mold. The ghost that tells you to hurry back at the end of the ride is called Little Leota because Leota Toombs is also the model for this one.

HGB Ep. 408 - Legends of Werewolves

Moment in Oddity - Death By Giant Umbrellas (Suggested by: John Michaels)

They say art is in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes art is meant to make a political statement. But art should never be deadly. Sometimes it is though and in 1991, it was downright bizarre. In 1991, husband and wife artist team Christo and Jeanne-Claude put up an environmental installation that consisted of thousands of giant yellow and blue umbrellas. The installation opened in California and Japan simultaneously. The giant umbrellas measured about 20 feet in height, 28 feet in diameter and weighed about 500 pounds. The California piece stretched for 12 miles and the one in Japan was 18 miles. People came from everywhere to see the art piece. Two months after the exhibit was installed, a ind gust uprooted one of the umbrellas and blew into a woman named Lori Rae Keevil-Mathews. The giant umbrella crushed her against a boulder, killing her. Christo ordered the umbrellas to be taken down after that, but the umbrellas weren't done taking lives. A crane operator in Japan named Masaaki Nakamura was electrocuted when the crane's arm touched a 65,000-volt high-tension line while he was removing an umbrella. Giant umbrellas killing people certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Sydney Opera House Opens

In the month of October, on the 20th, in 1973, the Sydney Opera House opens. The opera house is an iconic symbol for not only Sydney, but also Australia. The spot chosen for it alongside Sydney Harbor was a site once held sacred by the Gadigal people. The structure was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon and took 15 years to finish. The opera house was funded from profits of the Opera House Lotteries and cost $80 million to build. The distinctive design features geometric roof shells and there are several large auditoriums inside. Queen Elizabeth II dedicated the Sydney Opera House on that day in 1973. The first performance in the complex was the Australian Opera’s production of Sergei Prokofiev’s War and Peace. In 2007, the opera house was included on the UNESCO World Heritage List, giving it placement along side structures like the pyramids in egypt, the Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal. That made it the youngest structure to be included on the list and only one of two that made the list during the life of its architect. Utzon passed away in 2008.

Legends of Werewolves (Suggested by: Wes Hawkins)

Werewolf lore has been a part of human history for centuries and some of the best horror movies feature werewolves. We've covered the hysteria that surrounded the witch hunts and trials in Europe and America. Not many people realize that there was a similar hysteria when it came to reports of werewolves. It is possible that 100,000 people were executed for being suspected werewolves in Europe from the 14th to the 17th centuries. On this episode, we are going to explore some of the legends of werewolves throughout the world. 

Universal's The Wolf Man, An American Werewolf in London, A Company of Wolves, The Howling, Wolf, Teen Wolf, Wolfen, Ginger Snaps, Silver Bullet, Dog Soldiers, Underworld, Werewolves Within (which just came out in 2021) and then that Twilight series thing, are just a handful of the movies that have featured stories of werewolves. Many of us cut our horror teeth on these movies and if Rick Baker's special effects and make-up in "An American Werewolf in London" didn't make you actually consider going into the business of movie make-up, you better check your pulse. All of these movies have been inspired by the legends and lore passed down through the generations. They built a traditional lore that holds to a few basic principles. A person becomes a werewolf after being attacked by a werewolf and surviving. The full moon brings about transformation and the human either transforms completely into a wolf or a bipedal man-wolf. The only way to kill the werewolf was with a silver bullet. For some cultures, werewolves have been a very real thing and stories of skinwalkers and dogmen have even been a part of modern day America. Where did all of this start?

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the beginning of so many legends. In this story, Gilgamesh turns away a potential lover when he learns that she turned her ex into a wolf. 1020 AD would find the first use of the term werewulf in English. There is the story of Niciros that other scholars claim is the first story of a werewolf. The Werewolves.com website claims that this is the real first story because this is an actual transformation like what we are used to when it comes to werewolves. This was written by Petronius, who obviously was a Roman writer. He was a scribe in the court of Nero, so no wonder he was able to come up with a horror story of man becoming wolf. He included the story in his anthology titled Satyricon, which was written around AD 61. It tells the story of friends Niciros and a companion. They are traveling and need to relieve themselves. They are outside traveling and so naturally this needs to happen in nature, but they pick a bad spot, a cemetery. It clearly is disrespectful to urinate in a cemetery. Things get really weird when Niciros' friend rips off his clothes and urinates a circle around himself. He gives a maniacal laugh as he tranforms into a wolf and heads into a nearby town. While there, he kills a bunch of farm animals and is finally stabbed in the neck by a townsperson, killing him. So apparently, no silver bullet is needed here.

Probably the next werewolf legend would come out of Greek mythology. Lycaon was the son of Pelas, and he was called to serve a meal to Zeus. He served Zeus human flesh, which so outraged the god that he turned Lycaon into a wolf. This is where we get the term for the werewolf transformation, Lycanthropy, which is the supernatural transformation of a person into a wolf and sometimes other creatures like cats, goats, oxen and dogs. The full moon coming into play as part of the lore may have been inspired by the fact that some people go crazy when there is a full moon and reveal the beast inside them. Maybe that's why several serial killers centuries ago were thought to be werewolves.

There were medical conditions that may have led to some rumors and stories of werewolves. Pitt-Hopkins syndrome was officially discovered in 1978, but has been a condition for centuries probably that causes lack of speech, distinct facial features, difficulty breathing, seizures and intellectual challenges. Food poisoning sometimes caused people to act like an animal as did rabies. Hallucinogenic herbs could cause people to act out in strange animalistic ways. Medical lycanthropy is a psychological condition that causes people to believe they’re changing into a wolf. And hypertrichosis is a genetic disorder that causes excessive hair growth all over the body. 

Werewolves started making appearances in the lore of cultures around the world. Witchcraft and werewolves seemed to go hand in hand and their trials were very similar or sometimes held at the same time. People claimed that witches could shapeshift into wolves or that they would ride wolves to Sabbats. Let's look at some of these legends:

Nordic Werewolves

The Nordic people had shaman among them. Some of these shaman would go into the woods and abandon human contact and their identity. They would conduct initiation rites to become wolf-warriors. They would live their lives in the wild and people started referring to them as wolfmen. Nordic folklore has The Saga of the Volsungs. In this story, a man and his son, Sigmund and Sinfjötli, find wolf pelts that have the power to turn people into wolves for ten days. They use the pelts on themselves and they do indeed turn into wolves. Then they go on a killing rampage in the forest until the father ends up attacking his own son, leaving a mortal wound. A raven brings a leaf with healing powers and the son is saved. There is also Egil's Saga which features the character Ulf Bjalfason. At night, his mood would darken and he would isolate from people. Villagers thought his behaviour was suspicious and they started calling him Kveld Ulf, which means night’s wolf. We're not sure if he killed anyone, but people believed he changed his skin. And in Norse mythology, Loki's son is the Great wolf Fenrir who kills Odin during the events of Ragnarök. He symbolized power, wildness and chaos.

Irish Werewolves

In Ireland, a story about two werewolves was written as a treatise, which means it was treated as fact rather than legend. The story goes that a priest was traveling from Ulster to Meath when he was approached by a wolf. The wolf spoke to him and he wondered how a creature could look like a wolf, but talk like a man. The man said that he and his wife were from Ossory and that they had been cursed to be wolves. It seems that in Ossory, every seven years, a man and woman would be compelled to take the form of wolves. When the seven years was up, they returned to human and two more people would become wolves. He told the priest that his wife was sick and dying and he asked the priest to come to his wife and give her absolution. The priest was terrified, but followed the wolf. The male wolf peeled the wolf skin down his wife to the waist to prove to the priest that she was a human and the priest gave her the viaticum. The wolf rolled her skin back up and she returned to her wolf form. This was indexed in the Topographia Hibernica in 1188.

South America Werewolves

El lobizon is the South American werewolf. The legend is shared throughout Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay and was started by the indigineous people known as the Guarani. There was a belief that the seventh son in a family would turn into a werewolf on the night of a full moon. The creature symbolized death and eventually melded with the legends Europeans brought with them and became a half man and half wolf.

Mexican Werewolves

Mexican werewolves are called Nagual (Na'wal). Mesoamericans believed that the Nagual was a guardian spirit that lived in animals, but they also believed that it was something that gave men the power to transform into an animal. This was much like a magician who could disguise itself. A Nagual was a powerful man disguising himself as a wolf in order to cause harm.

Montreal Werewolves

The First Nations people of Montreal had a rich tradition of stories about werewolf-like creatures that they called Waheela, Shukla Warakin, Amarok and the Wendigo. Werewolf sightings started in Montreal in the 1600s. The stories came over with the French colonists who had been dealing with werewolves since the late 1400s. One of the first legends was about a man named Jean Dubroise who had one of the most productive farms on Montreal Island. His neighbors were confused though because they never saw Dubroise working the land. A fellow farmer was walking home one night and decided to cut across Dubroise's property. His name was Alphonse and he was enibrated, so take that into account as we share his experience. He heard a very loud noise overhead and when he looked up, he saw a large flying canoe. This canoe landed in a field on Dubroise's farm and Alphonse claimed that the Devil stepped out of the canoe and he told the others in the canoe to get out as he cracked a whip. Twenty hunched-over wolfmen climbed out of the canoe. Alphonse jumped in the bushes to hide and watched the werewolves do all the work on the farm.

Later, when the werewolves, Devil and canoe left, Alphonse went to the church and reported what he had saw, also including that Dubroise had come out to talk to the Devil and that he thought the man had sold his soul in exchange for the work. The priest was alarmed and the next day led a group of parishioners to the the farm where they poured holy water everywhere. They hid and waited to see what happened that night. The Devil showed up with the canoe and when everyone stepped out onto the ground, they shrieked in pain. The werewolves ran away. The Devil believed that Dubroise had betrayed him, so he tore the door off the house and dragged the man to the canoe and took off. The Priest and other men rounded up the werewolves and pricked them with a knife, which was the only way to turn them back to men. The men asked for forgiveness and became devout.

Another interesting legend was about a miller named Joachim Crete who took in a French immigrant named Hubert Sauvageau. Not long after that, local sheep and cattle started turning up dead, clearly attacked by a wild animal. Crete figured out what was happening when he ran into a werewolf late one night walking home. He took out a scythe and cut the creature's ear off, causing it to flee. Crete found Sauvageau the next morning in the bathroom washing his head, which was bleeding. He saw that the man was missing an ear. In the 1880s, Montreal had a rash of sheep killings in which the poor animals had their throats torn out. The townspeople believed a local man was a werewolf and they searched his property. They found a wolfskin belt and when they confronted him, he admitted that he turned into a wolf when he put the belt on and that he had killed the sheep. The townspeople burned the belt and this stopped the killings. 

And there is this story that appeared in the Quebec Gazette on December 2, 1767 about the Kamasouraska area, “We learn that a Ware-Wolfe, which has roamed throughout this Province for several Years, and done great Destruction in the District of Quebec, has received several considerable Attacks in the month of October last, by different Animals, which they had armed and incensed against this Monstre; and especially the 3rd of November following, he received such a furious Blow, from a small lean Beast, that it was thought they were entirely delivered from this fatal Animal, as it some Time after retired into its Hole, to the great Satisfaction of the Public. But they have just learn’d, as the most surest Misfortune, that this Beast is not entirely destroyed, but begins again to show itself, more furious than ever, and makes terrible Hovock wherever it goes.—Beware then of the Wiles of this malicious Beast, and take good Care of falling into its Claws.”

Thiess of Livonia

Livonia was once part of Estonia that is found in the Baltic. This became a hotbed for werewolf persecution in the 1600s with 18 trials for 31 people accused of being werewolves. One of these people was an octogenarian named Theiss. The trial was held in Jurgensburg and Theiss made a full confession, claiming that he shapeshifted into a wolf along with other men and that they went to hell three times a year to guarantee a good harvest. He proclaimed they were the hounds of God and kept the evil ones from stealing their seeds, crops and livestock. He claimed that there were werewolves in Russia and Germany as well. His accusers tried to get him to admit he made a pact with the Devil, but he never did. He was sentenced to receive ten lashings. 

The Galician Werewolf

Sabine Baring-Gould wrote the hymn "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and he was a clergyman who talked openly about a case of werewolves in 1849. This happened in what would become modern-day Poland near a thick pine forest. A beggar named Swiatek lived in a hovel outside the church and the villagers brought him alms and food. He seemed particularly fond of one of the families young daughters. He gave her a ring one day and told her to go to a pine in the churchyard with it and recite an incantation. He said she would find more jewels after doing that. The young girl disappeared, as did the beggar. Then other children who played amongst the pines disappeared. The villagers believed that wolves were carrying off the children and they killed any wolves they saw. Swiatek was found some time later at a home with his wife and children. Villagers had smelled cooking meat and thought that Swiatek and his family had cooked a couple of ducks that had gone missing. When they busted in the door, they saw the man hiding something in his coat. They grabbed him and when they opened his coat, they found the head of a young girl. The beggar confessed to killing and eating six people. He was placed in jail, but killed himself before the trial for lycanthropy started.

Jean Grenier

In the early spring of 1603, the St. Severs district of Gascony, South-West France found itself the center of werewolf attacks. Boys and girls started disappearing and two girls claimed to have escaped the attacks of a wolf under the full moon. The local magistrate started an investigation and everyone was shocked when a 14-year-old boy named Jean Grenier stepped forward and claimed to have committed the attacks. He claimed that he had a wolf-skin and when he put it on, he would turn into a wolf. He claimed to be part of a pack of werewolves with nine members and that they hunted three times a week, usually feasting on young children. Grenier went on to say that another boy named Pierre de la Tilhaire, had taken him into the forest one night to meet "The Lord of the Forest." This creature marked Grenier's thigh and gave him an icy kiss and a wolf-skin to help him transform into a werewolf.

Grenier confessed to the murders and shared details no one else knew. The court took pity on him since he was young and poorly educated and sent him  to be with the Franciscans at the friary of St Michael the Archangel, Bordeaux, in 1603. A friend visited him seven years later and claimed that Grenier had hands with nails like talons, his teeth had become longer like fangs, his eyes were sunken and black and he ran on all fours. He would only eat raw meat. He died a year later with most people assuming that he had a mental disorder.

The Werewolf Demon Tailor

There is another tale that comes out of France and that ended with a tailor being burned at the stake in 1598 for being a werewolf. No one knows his name, but he came to be known as the Werewolf of Chalons or the Demon Tailor. Chalons is in the Champagne region and he owned a tailor shop here. It was said that the tailor liked to lure children into his shop with promises of treats. He would abuse the children, kill them and then cut up their bodies, consuming some of the flesh and storing the rest in barrels in the shop's cellar. He also committed crimes out in the forests, attacking travelers in the form of a wolf. Eventually, the bones were found in the barrels of his cellar and he was put on trial. He was sentenced to burn at the stake for being a werewolf even though he professed his innocence. His name and nearly all records of this case were then disappeared from history, but word-of-mouth kept the story alive.

The Bedburg Werewolf

In 15th century Germany, there was the Bedburg Werewolf. The story was passed down through pamphlets that finally made their way into Montague Summers work "The Werewolf." This was about a man named Peter Stubbe who was a wealthy farmer in Bedburg. Rumors started to circulate that he was turning into a wolf-like creature at night. Apparently there were some gruesome murders taking place and Stubbe was stretched on a rack until he confessed to practicing black magic and that the Devil gave him a magic belt that helped him turn into a large wolf. He would return to human after taking off the belt. He went on to claim that he had killed fourteen children and two pregnant women and eaten some of their flesh. He was sentenced to death and the execution was carried out on October 31, 1589. It was brutal. He was put on a wheel and had flesh torn from his body with burning pinchers and then his limbs were broken with the blunt end of an axe. He was beheaded and burned on a pyre. No magic belt was ever found.

Wolf of Ansbach 

This is probably one of the most famous werewolf legends in history. Here is a poem about this creature:

I, wolf, was a grim beast and devourer of many children
Which I far preferred to fat sheep and steers;
A rooster killed me, a well was my death.
I now hang from the gallows, for the ridicule of all people.
As a spirit and a wolf, I bothered men
How appropriate, now that people say:
“Ah! You damned spirit who entered the wolf,
You now swing from the gallows disguised as a man
This is your fair compensation, the gift you have earned;
This you deserve, a gibbet is your grave.
Take this reward, because you have devoured the sons of men
Like a fierce and ferocious beast, a real child eater.

So what really happened here? There was a Bavarian town called Ansbach that suffered a rash of animal killings that were followed by the killing of children in 1685. Wolves are not known to hunt alone. They work together as a pack, so to have a lone wolf is strange. Add to a lone wolf that it began hunting children and it wasn't a far leap for villagers to proclaim that a werewolf was among them. And the villagers knew exactly which of them was transforming into this creature.

There was a Burgomaster, which is like a mayor, of Ansbach who was named Michael Leicht. Everybody hated this guy and with good reason. He was a cruel leader and kept the town under a yoke. Nobody was sad when he died, but soon after his death, villagers started claiming that he had escaped death by transferring his spirit to a wolf. Drawn images of him in the form of a wolf wrapped in a white-linen shroud started circulating as people claimed that he visited his old apartment, scaring the new tenants. Villagers gathered together and decided to hunt down the wolf before their children were killed.

The hunters created a wolf pit, which was a hole dug in the ground with stone walls to secure it and then branches and straw were placed over the top to conceal it. They placed raw meat in the pit to attract the werewolf, but when they got no success with that, they switched to live bait and put a rooster in the pit. The wolf came along and fell into the pit and the hunters killed the creature. They then pulled the body out of the pit and paraded it through the streets. But before they did that, they cut off its muzzle and put a cardboard mask on the head with the features of Leicht drawn on it. They also put a wig and cloak on it. When the parade was over, the wolf was hanged by a gibbet on a hill, so that everyone in the village could see it.  

The villagers felt that this display represented several things. Number one, they were no longer in danger, but by skinning the beast and putting it in human clothes, it was like they were getting rid of their political enemy. It made them feel as though they took the Burgomaster out themselves. But they also felt that this sent a message to the Devil that they would take out any of his evil servants that he might send. Villagers had been killed by the beast, but there is no record as to how many that was and many still lived in fear believing that more werewolves were around them. One has to wonder though what they thought when the creature did not revert to being a human once it was killed.

The Beast of Bray Road

Probably the most famous modern day tale of a werewolf creature is the Beast of Bray Road, which is often referred to as a dogman. Diane interviewed Linda Godfrey several years ago who is the expert on this case and has written several books about this creature and other weird anomalies. The first sighting of this creature was in 1936 in Wisconsin, but it gained popularity in the 1980s. It was first seen on Bray Road, which is where its name comes from, but has wandered to the counties of Jefferson, Walworth and Racine. Godfrey was a reporter at the time and she was assigned by the Walworth County Week to cover the story. She was a complete skeptic and expected to find that the story was made up. The more people she interviewed, the more convinced she became that there was some kind of bipedal wolf-like/dog-like creature roaming Bray Road. The creature stood around 7 feet tall with brown or gray hair and left behind animal mutilations and scratches on cars. Sightings have been reported both at night and during the daytime and as recently as July 2020. The show Expedition X went in search of it in 2021. There are some who claim that this was actually just a wolf or black bear. But the way Godfrey described it as walking makes it sound as though it is very comfortable walking on two legs.

Tales of werewolves can seem pretty unbelievable. But there are so many first person accounts and the legends have been with us for so long, it seems as though there must be some truth to them. Were there such things as werewolves? Do these creatures still wander the earth? That is for you to decide!

Show Notes:

Montreal's Werewolves: https://hauntedmontreal.com/haunted-montreal-blog-65-montreals-werewolf-legends.html

HGB Ep. 407 - Haunted Cemeteries 20

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Moment in Oddity - Hemlock Water-Dropwort Causes Death Grin

Hemlock Water-Dropwort is a plant that grows wild across the island of Sardinia. Sardinia is a mystical place with over 800 graves that were reputedly built for giants, although many archaeologists just claim they were for ceremonial purposes or regular human burials. When it came to death, the Sardinians conducted death rituals and they incorporated the Hemlock Water-Dropwort in those. The plant, which is related to carrots, is highly poisonous and causes intoxication followed by death. And that death leads to a creepy broad smile being frozen on the face. Probably similar to the grin of the Joker in Batman comics. It is believed that this served as the inspiration for the Greek poet Homer's description of Odysseus' having a Sardonic smile. Modern day scientists hope to use the properties of the plant to do the opposite and actually relax muscles, rather than contract them. A plant that leaves behind a grinning corpse, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Peking's Summer Palace Destroyed

In the month of October, on the 18th, in 1860, Peking's Summer Palace was destroyed. The Manchu emperors built the summer residence in the 18th century. The Old Summer Palace was called Yuanming Yuan, which means "Gardens of Perfect Brightness." This had been the pinnacle of Chinese imperial garden and palace design. In 1860, the Second Opium War was under way and a small group of British troopers were sent to meet with Prince Yi under a flag of truce. This was to negotiate the Qing surrender. However, there was no surrender. The men were tortured and imprisoned and 20 were killed. James Bruce, who was the British High Commissioner to China, ordered that the Summer Palace be destroyed. It took three days worth of burning and 4,000 soldiers to destroy the palace, which they had looted of its precious artworks before. The palace was rebuilt in the 1870s and destroyed again in 1900. The Chinese Communists rebuilt it in the 1950s.

Haunted Cemeteries 20

We like to think of cemeteries as open-air museums. They not only represent the culture and beliefs of an area, but they serve as a historical record of who has lived in the region. For many people, the only record we have of their life is their headstone. They are so important and should be considered, even when making the choice to be cremated. Cemeteries are important as well because many still harbor the spirits of those who have left this plane of existence. On this haunted cemeteries episode we are going to explore cemeteries in Missouri, Massachusetts, New York, Texas and Montreal!

Let's first examine the historical use of stone in American cemeteries. Slate was one of the earliest stones used and they are seen throughout New England. The use of slate started in 1650 and continued through to 1900. These stones are gray and fairly thin as compared to other stone headstones and they withstand the affects of acid rain. Brownstone, a type of sandstone, came into common use in 1650 also, particularly in Connecticut where brownstone quarries were located. This proved to be a bad choice because they weathered horribly. This was no longer used after 1890. Marble came into use in 1780 and the most prized variety was white with a satin finish. Limestone was also used at this time and is darker in color, appearing gray. They were both used through 1930 and are easily weathered. Granite started being used in 1860 and is still used today. This was a perfect choice for headstones because granite is one of the strongest materials on the planet. Granite comes in a variety of colors, but mostly gray. 

Old Baptist Cemetery

Old Baptist Cemetery is located in Hannibal, Missouri at Section and Sumner Streets. The cemetery was officially platted in 1844, but burials were taking place here well before in the early 1830s. This is the oldest cemetery in Hannibal that still remains. An old city cemetery was here before, but long ago was built over. They moved everybody, at least that is what they claim, but bones are still found where apartments were built over the former cemetery. The Old Baptist Cemetery was made famous by Mark Twain who included it in some of his writings.

 Early pioneers of the area are buried here, along with Civil War soldiers. By 2002, the cemetery was in sorry shape and an effort was made to revitalize and restore it. Frank Salter who headed up the effort said, "Imagine a cemetery bigger than a football field with a lot of stones - none of which are perfect. They're all tilted or broken or fallen over, and there are hundreds and hundreds of them. Our hope is to fix what we can on a slow basis and try to keep it in the forefront of people's thoughts. We want to preserve what's left of the cemetery before any more is lost to obscurity. Just raising historical consciousness is kind of the grand goal." 

Mark Twain's father had originally been buried here, but was moved to Mt. Olivet Cemetery to be next to Twain's mother. Notable burials include mostly people related to more well known people. There is Jenny Hatch who was the wife of William M. Hatch, whose son, William Henry Hatch, became a well-known Congressman. John and Emily Garth were the grandparents of John Garth, who built the Garth Woodside Mansion we mentioned in the Haunted Hannibal episode. Celia Stone was the first wife of the Rev. Barton Stone, one of the founders of the Disciples of Christ (Christian) Church. Col. Stephen Lee built and operated a large distillery in Hannibal's early days.

The head of Haunted Hannibal Ghost Tours, Lisa Marks, claims that many guests on the tour have encountered paranormal activity at the cemetery. She writes on her website, "What is remarkable to me is when I hear dozens of people tell me what they see, and their stories all match -- after so many people say that there's a 5-year-old-girl playing peek-a-boo in the northwest corner of the cemetery, you can't help but become a believer! There's also a man near the west fence line, very tall, dark, wearing a long overcoat; a Civil War soldier who is wearing his hat; a man named Edward in the northeast part of the cemetery who isn't hostile, but not particularly friendly, either (he kinda wants to be left alone). I have lost count of how many people that have taken our tour, people who are 'sensitive' to paranormal activity, that have told me there are more than twenty spirits at Old Baptist Cemetery at any given time."

Dean Hill Cemetery (Suggested by: Zach Frerichs)

Dean Hill Revolutionary Cemetery is also know to locals as The Rev and is located at 304 Caswell Road in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. It was established in 1791. It’s unknown whether it’s soldiers or more sinister entities that haunt the place, but there are rumors of satanic practices and eerie feelings coming over its visitors. Some have heard loud screams at night. Local tales say a man was killed and burned along this road, and a teenage girl died nearby when her car hit a tree. No trespassing signs are posted in the woods around the property; the area is patrolled by police. Zach told us that people claim to see the apparitions of eyeless soldiers who are screaming and that there is a portal to hell here.

This was posted on the Internet in 2017, "I lived on Dean Hill for a few years with an ex boyfriend in school. We took many trips to the Rev(walking distance) but the one that conjures up goosebumps for me is the last time.... it was Fall of 2004 and they had been building on that road during the year, so there was a lot of activity in the cemetery and reports of kids goofing off. A small group of six of us decided that we would respectfully poke around to see if anything else had been moved or damaged. It was always very upsetting to us that people were so disrespectful of the cemetery. This was people's resting place for all eternity! We always did our best to be respectful, no cameras, no electronics, nothing with a magnetic field as not to disturb or agitate the dead. We even walked this time, candles in hand, as the last time we went, my car stalled completely and refused to turn on(a brand new vehicle), even though in daylight the next morning, absolutely nothing was wrong with it and it started up no problem. That night was so quiet, no wind, no drums, no screams, no footsteps... just still silence. There was a tall thin grave marker in the front of the cemetery, and her name was the same as mine, only spelled Rebekah. You could barely make it out, but she was young when she died and she had children. We sat, forming a horseshoe around her stone and slowly started talking to her. We asked that she say hello and that we meant no harm, but wanted her to make an appearance. We were pretty hopeful about this kind of connection; we had all been part of many a seance in the years prior, some in that cemetery, and we took it seriously. As we held hands, you could feel the electricity moving between us and after a few minutes, you could feel the wind pick up and ground beneath us almost vibrating. And then it happened. The coldest, iciest pair of hands I've ever felt rested gently on my shoulders. Thinking it was one of our friends, I looked above me, expecting to see them laughing. Instead, I saw her. I froze in absolute terror, realizing she was touching me... and I could *feel* her. She was pale white, almost grey, and completely see-through. When I think back I remember that I could see tree branches showing behind her chest as I looked up at her. She was young. She must have been pretty when she was alive, her face half covered in long, tangled ringlets of hair. But her eyes..... were empty sockets of black nothingness.... that's what I remember most. She was see through except for her eyes. Solid black voids... Then she opened her mouth slowly, as if to say something to me. I FREAKED out and jumped up, my candle falling out of my lap, screaming. My friends had no idea what had happened, and I could hear them calling to me as I ran alone, back down Caswell. I heard a haunting, low laughing following behind me; gently, almost cajoling. My shoulders were freezing the whole way down the road until I made it to Dean Hill, absolutely breathless and still yelling. My friends reported to me afterwards that they couldn't see me in the dark running, but they could see a thin, white wisp trailing behind me, similar in fashion to if I were wearing a cape. That was 13 years ago and I can still feel her bony, cold fingers digging into my skin. I never went back."

Pinewoods Cemetery (Suggested by: Mandi Schumacher)

Pinewoods Cemetery is also known as Forest Park Cemetery and is located in Troy, New York. It is believed that the cemetery was loosely founded in 1856. Officially, it was established by wealthy businessmen in 1897. They designed it as a large park and while it was very attractive with trails and lots of trees, the cemetery went bankrupt in 1914. Before that happened, the businessmen built a receiving tomb of granite with a copper ceiling. Inside were catacombs where bodies could be stored during the winter months when it was too cold to dig graves. Another company bought the tomb and surrounding land and sold off portions of the land that are today part of a golf course at the Country Club of Troy. The cemetery went bankrupt again and was left abandoned. A man named William Christian watched over the 1,000 graves until his death in the 1960s.

There are many legends connected to this cemetery and people believe it is haunted because some burials were grave robbed and one winter, a few bodies were left in the receiving tomb and never given a proper burial. The cemetery is not open to the public, but people have been inside over the years and claim to have felt their hair get pulled or been scratched. They also claim to have seen strange orbs and heard disembodied voices. Cellphone batteries have died inexplicably. One of the legends is about the statue of an angel that has no head. The statue of the headless angel is about ten feet tall and stands in front of a cross and is found just off of one of the walking paths. Boys who would wander into the cemetery at night when it had been open claimed to witness blood coming from the eyes of the angel. It so freaked them out that they decided to cut the head off the statue and they threw it into the woods. Legend claims that the statue still bleeds from its neck. This blood could possibly be moss that grows on the statue after it has been humid. 

The sounds of children laughing have been heard in the cemetery and there is apparently the apparition of a friendly soldier here. The legend behind this spirit claims that his name is Harold Hubbard and that he was a veteran of World War I. He had been depressed and was having troubles in his family. Harold went on a date with a girl and was walking home in the wee hours of the morning on November 11, 1916. He arrived at the cemetery and decided to end his life there by shooting himself in the head. Now people claim to see Harold walking among the graves. He would occassionally appear to people having mental anguish and he would bring them comforting thoughts. He seems to exude positive energy in the afterlife. There are those who say that if you go to the gates of the cemetery, which have been dubbed the Gates of Hell, and say the name Harold three times, he will appear to you and say hello.

Martha's Chapel Cemetery (Suggested by: Chelsea Flowers)

The reputation of this cemetery starts with it being at the end of a road called Demon's Road. The actual name of the road is Bowden Road. Martha’s Chapel is seven miles southwest of Huntsville, Texas. Catholicism was the prevalent religion in Texas in the 1800s due to the Spanish and Mexican influence. The Rev. Moses Speer came to Texas in about 1837, to convert souls to the Methodist faith. He traveled from town to town and home to home and won many souls. This was the beginning of the Texas Mission and William Robinson, who was a devout Methodist, gave 30 acres to the cause to build a church, school and cemetery. This was called the William Robinson Settlement and this was the first church in the county. While Reverend Speers was at the settlement, he became sick and passed away. He would be the first person buried in the new cemetery in 1840. The church would take on the name Trinity Church in 1843. A new church was built about 10 years later and this one became a barn. Eventually, the site was named Martha's Chapel after one of the first church members who was buried in the cemetery, Martha Palmer. All that remains of the settlement is the cemetery, which holds the bodies of many early pioneers to the area.

That's the official history, but legends have clung to this land and there are claims of a curse. The Native Americans in the area claimed that something sinister had happened here. It was believed that blood had soaked the land, all the way down to the bedrock. Supernatural activity occurs all along Demon Road and on into the cemetery. There are tales of creatures and spirits. One of those spirits belongs to what appears to be a young boy riding on a tricycle. He reportedly has glowing eyes and people claim that he disappears into a strange fog if you try to go near him. There are other times when he will just stop his tricycle and stare at a person in an unnerving way. Total nightmare fuel. This has spawned tales about the young boy being able to read a life and if he finds that the observer is wanting in some way, he will later visit them at night in their bedroom and suffocate them to death. Then he drags the soul to hell. The boy and his tricycle usually appear on New Moon nights, so stay away from the cemetery during that time of the moon phase.

In 2001, a man named Bob and his buddy decided to pay a visit to Demon Road. They drove from Houston and parked by the graveyard. Bob's buddy had fallen asleep, so Bob left him to his dreams and got out of the car with his camera. Bob wandered among the tombstones, taking pictures and reading epitaphs. After a few minutes, he felt the ground shake below him and then clumps of soil started pushing up and then there was a hand. It grabbed his pant leg and as Bob reached down to make it let go, the hand clasped his wrist and started pulling him down to the ground. Bob started to scream and his friend appeared next to him and starts stomping on the hand and pulls Bob away. The run to the car with Bob in the lead. He gets to the car and is startled to see that his friend is still asleep in the car. Then who was that person that helped him? He turned and saw that he was all alone. Bob jumps in the car, fires it up and speeds out of the cemetery. After a couple of minutes, he looks over at his friend who hasn't stirred at all. He shakes his leg and realizes that his friend is dead. He had a heart attack on the ride down. 

That story is creepy enough, but in 2010, there was another one that was even worse. Apparently, spirits from this cemetery will follow you home. A woman visited the cemetery with her husband and some friends. They were visiting the grave of a friend. A bizarre man came into the cemetery and started wandering around. They took their leave. A few days later, the woman was getting into the shower and when she turned to close the curtain, she saw the strange man in the doorway. He then faded away as though he were made from fog. And this spirit isn't the only dangerous entity at the cemetery. There is an evil creature here that is described as being pale white with lizard-like skin and a mouth full of sharp teeth. The face is featureless and the thing crawls on all fours. It usually hides in the bushes. People claim that it is some kind of skinwalker. 

Those are some far-fetched stories, but there are people who claim to see apparitions wandering among the tombstones and people have trouble getting their cars to start. Visitors even sometimes find hand prints on their cars that were not there before. And in 2018, a Google Maps Street View caused quite a stir. The view features the fenceline of Martha Chapel Cemetery and there is sunlight coming through the trees. There is a tree prominently in the center of the view and upon closer inspection, there appears to be a little girl peeking from behind the tree. Even creepier is the tall black figure in the distance past her shoulder that seems to be wearing a long cloak.

Here is the link to see the pictures: https://www.chron.com/culture/main/article/Creepy-figure-spotted-in-Google-Maps-Street-View-13196274.php#photo-16096001

Mount Royal Cemetery

Mount Royal Cemetery is located in Montreal, Canada and is said to be one of the most haunted locations there. This is located high up on the slopes of Mount Royal and was established in 1847. The Protestant St. Lawrence Burial Ground had been the first cemetery here, but it was full. And it was in the middle of town. Europe had started moving cemeteries outside of city limits and Montreal decided to follow that trend when establishing Mount Royal. It was officially opened in 1852 and covered 165 acres. At first, only people of Protestant denominations were allowed to be buried here, but over time the burial ground was opened to all faiths and races. The first person buried here was Reverend Squire and that occurred on October 19th 1852. He had been to the Ottawa Hotel to visit a man dying of cholera and he himself caught the dreaded disease and it killed him.

Other people who were buried here include  six victims of the Titanic's sinking. One of those victims was Charles Melville Hays who was the President of the Grand Trunk Railway. He wouldn't be buried until a month after the tragedy. Hays was found floating in the water and was identified by the watch he wore. He was transported by train from Halifax to Montreal. There are 459 graves from those who died in war, 276 from World War I and 183 from World War II. There is a nursery for the children, many of whom died from contagious diseases. Montreal Mayor John Easton Mills died from typhus in 1847 after caring for several Irish refugees who were carrying it and is buried here as is Canadian Prime Minister Sir John Abbott, who died from brain cancer in 1892. There is an area called the Montreal Sailors' Institute Lot with the bodies of 550 sailors buried here since 1890. Most drowned and there is a commemorative plaque.

The cemetery was designated a National Historic Site in 2002 and features beautiful monuments and statues and lush gardens. There are over 200,000 bodies buried in the cemetery. But there are even more bodies in this area because there are several cemeteries nearby, including a Catholic one and two smaller Jewish ones. Mount Royal is said to be the haunted one. One of the legends here claims that shadowy figures roam the graveyard after sunset. These shadows seem to almost flicker in the cemetery. A former Westmount High School student once related a scary experience he had after visiting the cemetery. He wrote, “I wish to remain anonymous, so I created this email account which I will delete within a day or two.  I used to live in Montreal and I did have a spirit follow me home once after a walk on the Mount Royal Cemetery. I was in a college at the time and with a friend.  I didn’t know it until that night when I was alone and woken up by a male figure quietly saying my name.  I promptly told it to go away without even realizing how quickly I was responding and turned on my other side. By the time I realized that I had just seen and heard something abnormal, it left but within a second I was drenched in sweat from fear. I got the strength to turn on the light after a few seconds and saw nothing. I never had an event take place afterwards.  NO I WAS NOT HALF ASLEEP AND IMAGINING IT. I can say for certain I was woken up by this spirit.”

The apparition of an Algonquin warrior has been seen near the cliffs overlooking the Camillien Houde Lookout. This is the best known ghost here and the most mysterious. First Nations burial sites had been found on Mount Royal and some indigineous graves had been found on the mountain with the bodies in the fetal position. Was this cemetery platted over those ancient graves? There are those who claim that rituals have been carried out in the cemetery and someone claimed to see a circle of candles floating. And another person claimed to see a massive white dog in the cemetery. Paranormal investigators like to hunt in the cemetery. They claim to have captured disembodied voices, a girl giggling, the sound of wood creaking like a coffin opening. They also claim to have seen fairies.

With all these crazy experiences going on here, its not hard to understand why they say this is a City of the Dead overlooking a City of the Living. And really, all these cemeteries are cities of the dead. Are they home to ghosts? Are these cemeteries haunted? That is for you to decide!