What haunted sites are in your neck of the woods?

Discussing Masque of the Red Death
User avatar
Blake_Alexander
Agent of the Fraternity
Agent of the Fraternity
Posts: 99
Joined: Thu Feb 24, 2005 9:32 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

What haunted sites are in your neck of the woods?

Post by Blake_Alexander »

As is the case this time of year I have been a little more inspired to work on my MotRD campaing ideas. One things that always helps aid in this inspiration is the tendency for local newspapers to print articles on some fo the more gothic happenings as Halloween tributes. Has anyone on this forum have encountered any interesting bits of gothic inspiration from their areas of late. If so, why not share it hear. Truth can make for some far stranger (and more interesting) plots starting points than fiction.
User avatar
LordGodefroi
Criminal Mastermind
Criminal Mastermind
Posts: 144
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:19 pm
Location: Wichita, KS, USA

Post by LordGodefroi »

One thing unique to the Mid-west (I'm in Kansas) during Halloween is the corn maze. And it's exactly what you think: A maze cut out of the endless rows of corn on a farm. Under the light of the full moon, a corn maze is pretty spooky. Children of The Corn, anyone ?
[url=http://www.classichorrorfilmboard.com/]Classic Horror Film Board[/url]

[url=http://www.halloweenartexhibit.com/]Annual Halloween Art Exhibit - Chicago[/url]
User avatar
Blake_Alexander
Agent of the Fraternity
Agent of the Fraternity
Posts: 99
Joined: Thu Feb 24, 2005 9:32 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Post by Blake_Alexander »

Johnson's Island is a 300-acre island is in Sandusky Bay, located on the coast of Lake Erie, 3 miles from the city of Sandusky, Ohio. It was the site of a prisoner-of-war camp for Confederate officers captured during the American Civil War. Johnson's Island was the only Union prison exclusively for Southern officers.

In the fall of 1861, the U.S. Army leased 40 cleared acres of the island from Johnson to establish a Prisoner of War Depot. The depot was in operation from April, 1862 to September, 1865. During this time, the island saw as many as 2,500 capture confederate officers housed here as prisoners of war. Among the more noted were Generals were Isaac R. Trimble and James J. Archer. It is estimated that as many as 10,000 prisoners of war passed through the Johnsons Island prison camp during these years, a small number of what disappeared while trying to escape across the ice to Canada. It if futher estimated that around 200 of the prioners died while imprisoned on the island as a reslt of as a result of the harsh Ohio winters, food and fuel shortages, and disease.

In 1866, the Army auctioned off all of the surplus equipment and materials, the buildings, and the stockade walls. Most of the lumber was salvaged, and some of the smaller buildings were moved across Sandusky Bay to Marblehead when the Bay was completely frozen with thick ice.

From 1866 to 1894, the island was used primarily for agricultural purposes. Fruit trees were planted along with general crops. The site of the Prisoner of War Depot was plowed under to raise crops. A small number of private lots were sold to individuals during this period.

In 1894, the first of two pleasure resorts was established on the island in the area north and west of the Confederate Cemetery. They were both named The Johnsons Island Pleasure Resort Company. The first resort went out of business in the fall of 1897, primarily due to the burning of the main pavilion and a wrongful death lawsuit for $10,000.00.

Forbidden Lore: Was the fire that destroyed the pavilion a mere act of negligence or was it the work of the restless spirits of the Confederate Officers who died while imprisoned on Johnson's Island.
User avatar
Blake_Alexander
Agent of the Fraternity
Agent of the Fraternity
Posts: 99
Joined: Thu Feb 24, 2005 9:32 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Post by Blake_Alexander »

Kelley's Island

Quietly nestled within the watery confines of the western basin is Lake Erie is Kelley’s Island, named after the man who co-founded the island in the mid-1800s. The entire island is over four square miles long.

Addison Kelley brought notoriety to the island when he opened a limestone quarry. But as soon as the quarry opened, there were problems. Most of the trouble stemmed from the fact that most of the workers were Italian-Catholic immigrants, while the quarry supervisors were almost all local Protestants. Often there were arguments and the workers often refused to work. The foremen would respond by forcing the workers to work longer hours, often at breakneck speed. As the crew began to work longer and faster, the potential for an accident to occur became more and more probable.

One fateful day, the quarrymen were at work constructing a tunnel designed to run under Lake Erie and connect the island with nearby Marblehead. A foreman ordered a man named Battaglia to use dynamite to blast away a rock shelf that was hanging over the top of a water-filled portion of the quarry. Battaglia initially refused, claiming the amount of dynamite was too big. But the foreman continued to yell at Battaglia until he finally agreed to detonate the charge.

Unfortunately, the charge was indeed too large. As a result, the ensuing explosion not only ripped away the rock shelf, but some of the quarry wall as well. The rocks tumbled into the water below, creating a giant wave of water. Before they could escape, the giant wave engulfed Battaglia and many of his co-workers and swept them out into Lake Erie. Most of their bodies were never recovered.

Although the area around Lake Erie is well-known for its violent and sudden storms, soon after the quarry accident, rumors began to spread. Islanders began saying that during storms, the ghosts of the quarry victims wake and walk the watery tunnel they died trying to complete. It is also said that these spirits have cursed the quarry and all those who come into contact with it. Stories began to circulate that should anyone associated with the quarry find themselves on the waters of Lake Erie during a storm, the spirits would try and drag them down into the water.

Over the years, there have been many stories that may substantiate the claim of these ghostly workers. In 1932, the Sand Merchant capsized during a violent storm, killing all but five members of the crew. The survivors claimed to have heard ghostly voices and that the waves appeared to be like hands reaching out for them.

Forbidden Lore: Are the spirits of Battaglia and his fellow crewmen at rest are are they wait to haul the living down to share in their watery graves.
User avatar
Dr Bloodworth
Criminal Mastermind
Criminal Mastermind
Posts: 144
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2004 9:38 pm
Location: Lancaster, PA

Post by Dr Bloodworth »

Whilst I am a latecomer to this thread, there are a few around these parts that are worthy of translation into Gothic Earth.

Rehmeyer's Hollow
A fairly large plot of farmland in southern York County (Pa.). Nestled among densely wooded hills and on the banks of a burbling creek, there rises a house. Vaguely disturbing to the eye (perhaps the bizarre angle at which it lies in relation to the road, or perhaps the glass-paned windows which give the impression of accusing eyes staring out of a wood-sided exterior), the home is, or was, that of Nelson Rehmeyer.

Nelson Rehmeyer referred to himself as a braucher, more commonly referred to as a pow-wow doctor. He studied the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of braucherei or pow-wowing, the foundations of which were laid in the Egyptian Mysteries of Albertus Magnus, in the 6th and 7th Books of Moses, and in The Long-Lost Friend of J.G. Hohmann. This was a system of Christian magick which was dedicated to healing and the lifting of curses.

Unfortunately, Rehmeyer himself was suspected of curse-laying. One of the cursed individuals, John Blymyer, allied himself with two others (John Curry and Wilbert Hess), and an expedition to perform a magickal lifting of the curse on the Hesses led to Rehmeyer being bound and beat to death, and his body burnt. All three were tried and sentenced to prison for the murder of the old witch-man.

Forbidden Lore: While the most obvious thing is to make Nelson into a ghost, avenging himself (Blymyer's testimony during his trial indicated that he believed he saw Rehmeyer's ghost shortly after the murder) another option would be to make the house itself an Animator.

RL Note: You'd have to fudge the timeline a bit, as the murder of Rehmeyer actually happened in 1928. But this is a very MOTRD tale, IMO, and you could also fit it into Ravenloft.
Better to betray the world, than for the world to betray me.
User avatar
Dr Bloodworth
Criminal Mastermind
Criminal Mastermind
Posts: 144
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2004 9:38 pm
Location: Lancaster, PA

Post by Dr Bloodworth »

The Seven Gates of Hell
Urban Legend Version: A popular urban tale around these parts, and one I've researched quite a bit, is of the Seven Gates of Hell (chronicled in both Weird U.S. and Weird Pennsylvania, BTW), a trail through the forests along the northern banks of the Codorus Creek (the same creek that runs past Rehmeyer's Hollow). Supposedly, sometime in the 1800s (I've heard the 1850s) a massive asylum along Toad Road burnt to the ground and several escaped inmates were killed in the forests after the disaster. The city council of York supposedly constructed seven iron gates along the trail to the ruins, and a popular dare is to advance along the trail passing the gates. No-one has ever made it past the 5th gate.

Forbidden Lore: Obviously, you could make the forests be stalked and haunted by the ghosts of countless inmates. I've always chosen to pursue a different path, and make the area be haunted by a hybridized creature with elements of both a fire-themed ghost and feyr.

The (Possibly) Real Version: The version I've heard from older folks (my grandparents and great-grandmother) was that up near Codorus Furnace (an old Revolutionary War iron-smelting facility) there lived an old hermit, who my grandfather says was a doctor of some sort. I recall seeing the abandoned house he lived in, it was vaguely disturbing in a way... it was a somehow ugly house, sitting very close to the road. The house was fronted by trees, and he supposedly used to have them all posted with bizarre NO TRESPASSING signs (some said "No Trespassing Under the Sign of the Toad"). I found on old maps that Trout Run Road (on which the Seven Gates are often reputed to lie), where it turns a sharp corner, originally extended along the banks of the creek to join with Codorus Furnace Road, coincidentally right where the house lay. Combined with the "toad" business, I wonder if this was later remembered as Toad Road, and whether the old hermit/doctor's house became remambered as an asylum.

Forbidden Lore: This version could potentially be more sinister. The business about the toad, and the storied nature associated with hermits probably worldwide, could easily suggest some sort of demonic connection. I've used a version of "The Watcher in the Valley" from COC for the story.
Better to betray the world, than for the world to betray me.
jules
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 263
Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 4:20 pm

Post by jules »

how about pike-place market in washington state?(check out this book for more info than I can give you at this time,"weird hauntings")This book is by the same people that do weird u.s. & they have other book in the series as well including "weird washington" witch is avalable on amazon.com!
User avatar
Sassey
Conspirator
Conspirator
Posts: 17
Joined: Thu May 29, 2008 11:33 am
Location: Ohio, USA
Contact:

Post by Sassey »

I'm in Columbus, Ohio and we have quite a few haunted things.

1. Ghost at the James Thurber House. Made famous in many of Thurbers books.
2. Ghosts on the OSU campus. many of these sightings deal with a doctor that murdered a girl in the twenties.
3. Ghost of Abraham Lincoln and his wife in the downtown statehouse. Seems that Abe danced with a girl at a ball there and his wife was furious.
4. Ghosts at the Indian burial mounds.
5. Ghosts at the Confederate cemetery (we had a bunch of southern prisoners at a prison here and those that passed were buried in a graveyard soley for confederate soldiers.
6. The roving lion in the City of Gahanna.

More if I thought long on it, but I'm tired :)

/cheers!

-Dave
Check out my horror RPG campaign at fellowshipwhitestar.com
User avatar
Rotipher of the FoS
Thieving Crow
Thieving Crow
Posts: 4683
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2003 4:18 pm

Post by Rotipher of the FoS »

I was born in Urbana, Illinois. Legend has it that a ghostly version of Abraham Lincoln's funeral train (which really did stop in Urbana, to pick up fresh flowers) passes through town on the same long-abandoned rail line, on April 29th of each year. The train is allegedly crewed by skeletons, some of which play somber notes on musical instruments. Nowadays, when there's a glitch in the railroad-crossing gates and they lower for no evident reason, people joke that Lincoln's ghost-train must be passing by.

This is a good ghost story for MotRD, as Lincoln's train passed through so many cities that you can easily get your PCs to a place where they might encounter the ghost version. The fact that plenty of the many, many citizens who'd gathered to pay their respects to the original funeral-train would still be alive, in the era when MotRD is set, adds an interesting touch.


These days, I live in Allentown, Pennsylvania, less than three miles from the King George Inn. It's supposedly haunted by at least three ghosts: an adult male who makes trouble in the kitchen (spilling things, misplacing utensils), and a mother and child who've been seen in the cellar. The inn, as its name suggests, dates back to pre-Revolutionary times; it's become quite famous among ghost-hunters in the region.
"Who [u]cares[/u] what the Dark Powers are? They're [i]bastards![/i] That's all I need to know of them." -- Crow
User avatar
Dr Bloodworth
Criminal Mastermind
Criminal Mastermind
Posts: 144
Joined: Fri Nov 26, 2004 9:38 pm
Location: Lancaster, PA

Post by Dr Bloodworth »

Haha -- so I now live across the street from an abandoned house whose datestone dates it to 1789. Research is in order!
Better to betray the world, than for the world to betray me.
User avatar
Griselda
Criminal Mastermind
Criminal Mastermind
Posts: 133
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2008 11:07 pm
Location: Medina OH

Post by Griselda »

Like Blake_Alexander and Sassey, I'm in OH, and I'm an armchair ghost-chaser.

Here's some of what's local:

* Hinckley Library -- This little century house used to be the home of the town doctor and his sister, who kept house for him, at the turn of the century. People have reported seeing a woman in a long blue skirt and hearing footsteps. Now I went there frequently when I was younger, and I can remember hearing someone walking upstairs, but as I didn't know the story then, I'm not sure if I was hearing another patron or the residents. The house has since been remade into the Historical Society because the weight of the books was causing the house to sink on its foundation. I haven't heard if the residents like the change....

* The Peninsula Python -- This 18-foot cryptid snake terrorized residents along the Cuyahoga River in June 1944. Despite professional searchers, numerous sightings by farmers and a track described as "the width of an automobile tire", the snake was never caught.

* River Styx Road, Medina -- Settled in 1815, this swampland really did look like a mouth of Hell, writhing with copperheads and quicksand. Around 1858, Charlotte Baker (known to be a medium) held a seance to determine who had set a neighbor's barn on fire. Though the ghost of a disgruntled farmhand confessed, the neighbors implied that Charlotte seemed to know too much and spread rumors that she had done the deed. Charlotte wasted, whether from a broken heart or tuberculosis. One of her last requests was to be buried near the family home by the kitchen door, and her mother agreed. Just before Charlotte died, her mother had a dream of a headless woman making tea in her kitchen and hearing a voice say, "This you will have to do for the rest of your days." Charlotte's ghost then started visiting her mother on Friday evenings, requesting tea and toast to be left on the table. The mother did so and found them consumed the next morning. This was kept up without fail until the mother passed, about five years later.

* Ohio State Reformatory -- Parts of "The Shawshank Redemption" were filmed at this medieval-inspired prison, which has a haunted reputation like Alcatraz. Tour guides, former guards and casual visitors all agree you do not want to hang out after dark, especially in the block known as "the Hole".

* Buxton Inn -- This bed-and-breakfast boasts a handful of ghosts, most notably Major Buxton and Ethel "Bonnie" Bounell, who were previous owners at different times. Both have been seen at the inn, either enjoying the current owners' arrangements or overseeing things. Guests have even reported a ghost cat coming into their rooms and purring, possibly the big grey cat (also called Major Buxton) who used to greet guests in the 1930s.

Check out Chris Woodyard's series Haunted Ohio for more on the Buckeye State's not-so-dearly departed and some other strange happenings.
jules
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 263
Joined: Fri May 09, 2008 4:20 pm

Post by jules »

pike place market has a native American ghost, fyi
Boris Drakov
Criminal Mastermind
Criminal Mastermind
Posts: 103
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:13 pm

Re: What haunted sites are in your neck of the woods?

Post by Boris Drakov »

http://stovnernorsk2st4a.wikispaces.com ... stning.jpg

The old fortress of Akershus said to be haunted by the ghosts of many an executed prisoner, foremost maybe the rebel nobleman Knut Alvsson who was betrayed by the Danish king and killed under the protection of a truce.

http://www.gravferdsetaten.oslo.kommune ... 0x200).JPG

The old Aker Church, the oldest building in Oslo dating back almost a thousand years is located on top of the Dragon's Holes silver mines, abandoned since the 12th century and said to be guarded by a sleeping dragon. ( I kid you not. )

http://media4.origo.no/-/cache/image/19 ... 2x450.jpeg

The Monastary of St. Edmund's of Oslo's main island. Built in the 12th century and burned down in 1532 for the monks having gone against their king. Or was that just the official explanation?
"I kneel for no-one!"
User avatar
kultra
Conspirator
Conspirator
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2013 1:42 am

Re: What haunted sites are in your neck of the woods?

Post by kultra »

Boris Drakov wrote:The old Aker Church, the oldest building in Oslo dating back almost a thousand years is located on top of the Dragon's Holes silver mines, abandoned since the 12th century and said to be guarded by a sleeping dragon. ( I kid you not. )
I did a google search for the silver dragon in the silver mine in Oslo, and in addition to the links to the Aker Church, I found the homepage of a silver mining corporation called Silver Dragon Resources Inc., who have a silver dragon as their logo. Their website mentions Chinese and Indian dragons.

http://www.silverdragonresources.com/Co ... hology.asp

I can only assume there is some ancient and evil mythic conspiracy between them, lol :azalin:
Boris Drakov
Criminal Mastermind
Criminal Mastermind
Posts: 103
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:13 pm

Re: What haunted sites are in your neck of the woods?

Post by Boris Drakov »

^^

But of course. :D

http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piken_fra_karpedammen

The girl from the Carp Pond. An orphaned seamstress girl drowned in the Larvik Manor's fish pond in 1677. For over a hundred years her ghost lured children into the pond to die before she was stopped. Her most priced possession had been the half medallion her dead mother had given her and the other half to her brother. Only when the count's daughter in 1777 managed to find and join the two halves once more did the haunting desist.

The same manor sports another ghost too. The Grey Lady. An unnamed portrait of her hangs in the main dining room and if you look at it out of the corner of your eye you can clearly see its gaze following you around the room. Sometimes chairs, tables and other heavy objects will mysteriously move of their own accord in the dining room.
"I kneel for no-one!"
Post Reply