The Zappa Award is my acknowledgement of the incredible strangeness of a story, and on a website about haunted tourist attractions, you will find some extraordinarily strange stories...

This is a collection of the most outlandish "phenomena" that I've collected...   The Zappa Awards are denoted by this symbol:

JumpTo Index:  Alabama(2)  Arizona(2)  California(2)   Florida(2)  Georgia(2)  Greece(1)  Illinois(1)  Iowa(2)

Louisiana(2)  Massachusetts(1)  Mexico(2)  Michigan(2)  New Jersey(1)  Nevada(1)  Ohio(1)   Rhode Island(1)  South Carolina(1) 

South Dakota(1)  Tennessee(1)  Texas(13)  UK(2)  Utah(1)  Wisconsin(3)

Alabama: Guntersville - Whole Backstage Theater
This theater is said to be haunted by (this is a new one...) the pyromaniac ghost of an old man who lights mattresses aflame. Doors slam, and the sound of a little boy laughing can be heard.1120 Rayburn Avenue 256-582-7469

Alabama: Huntsville - Heritage Bible College - WHBC Frat House
I usually don't include college dorms, but this one was just to bizarre to leave behind. Dead youth minister Anthony Stephens' apparition haunts this dorm, by flushing all the toilets, whilst 2 other ghosts, reportedly of unfortunate youths named Robert Ekisbus and Adam Cooper, follow him, muttering the word "cheese"...
uh, yeah.

Arizona - Jerome - The Grand Motel
This former hospital has had electrical anomalies, and reports of 5 foot tall Hell hounds 200 Hill St

Arizona - Mesa - Coffee Talk
A phantom man and little girl haunt; a Devil's advocate is said to appear and give you information about your future life in exchange for something ominous. 48 N Robson
 

California: Devore - Treehouse Fun Ranch

A first for ghosttraveller.com... a haunted NUDE BEACH! The clubhouse, er... Treehouse in this case, is said to be haunted. A truck driver whose urn was under the bar is said to pull such tricks as turning on the fire pit and messing with the lights. They didn't say if he left his clothes on for this... 17809 Glen Helen

California: Los Banos - Pacheco Pass
The area surrounding the Pacheco Pass has a tragic history. The native Indians who originally carved the pass were forced into servitude when the Spanish arrived in the area. When they revolted, a bloody massacre of the Indians was the result. From 1860 - 1880 two highwaymen murdered, raped and robbed travelers along the pass. Drivers along this stretch of highway 152 are said to become "possessed", overcome with terrible visions and emotions, and overwhelming feelings of impending doom. Pacheco Pass begins a couple of miles west of Los Banos on Highway 152, at approximately the junction with Interstate 5. Follow 152 west past the San Luis Reservoir, and a few miles beyond. The byway does not terminate in a town or at any other definite stopping point.

Florida: St. Petersburg - Vinoy House Inn-

Haunted by a man in top hat and tails who likes, in particular,  to bother major league baseball players - waking them up at night.

Florida: Fort Pierce - Chinese Buffet

This place was supposedly closed down by the health department for (what else...?) selling cat and dog meat in the special - du - jour. I have no idea where this building might be, but locals say that a fire there also took the lives of 3 of the employees: the apparitions seen are the former cooks being chased by the pissed off cats and dogs

Georgia: Savannah - 17 Hundred 90 Inn and Tavern 

I was lucky enough to have stayed with my husband for a few days in the haunted room at the 1790 Inn and Tavern in beautiful Savannah, in the winter of 2003. It was a memorable visit.

The Inn plays up the haunted room, and will gladly tell you about it if you ask. When we stayed there, they even had a bizarre mannequin set up to gaze outside the window in the hall outside, probably for the benefit of the many tours that pass by and tell Anna's tale.

Anna lived in the late 1700's/early 1800's, when the inn was new and catered to sailors from the nearby port. She was only 17, but married a man who was old enough to be her grandfather - arranged by her family, of course. The old man owned the inn. She was basically the old man's slave, doing all the lowly work of the inn - and he was reportedly a drunk and took a liking to beating her up when he saw fit.

With all of the strapping young sailors around, since at the time Savannah was the main naval seaport in the US, she of course fell in love with one that was staying at the inn. Now, you'll have to forgive me, because it's been over a year since I heard the story so some of the details are lost to my Alzheimer's... I know that Anna and her beau set up a rondezvous to leave together and go up the coast to his home. The old man found out, and locked Anna in the (now haunted) bedroom upstairs. Her beau left on the next ship - I think because the old guy told him some kind of lie about her not wanting to see him, or the old man tried to cut his balls off with a butter knife - I don't honestly remember what the tour guide said. Anyway, more to the point, he proceeded to go upstairs, beat Anna half to death, then finished the job by throwing her through the glass paned window onto the cobblestones below. He said she killed herself - by throwing herself through a glass window - and since he was a prominent local businessman, no one questioned his word.

Flash forward to modern times - where Anna is still trapped in the little bedroom - and is really PISSED about her fate. Others have said that their bras and underwear have disappeared then reappeared in odd places later. Some men have said they have awakened to feel her caressing their faces, then opened their eyes to see her tear soaked face look at them, then fall from the window. One unlucky bridegroom on his wedding night claimed to be asleep in the dark room, was awakened by water dripping on his face, and opened his eyes to find Anna, hovering above the bed, crying her little dead eyes out just inches from his face.

I really didn't expect much from the haunted room. I have visited numerous haunted sites, been on many ghost tours. I was an ER nurse for 10 years, for God's sake - I don't excite easily; plus I'm extremely skeptical of ghost stories, as I've heard quite a few with this website and others I have managed, and 99.9% of them strike me as very explainable, or as a marketing scheme. The main reason I have this site is because I find the stories fun to hear and pass along. I have to say this room made me question some of my opinions. I'm sure all of these things had logical reasons for happening - but all I know is I've never, ever felt so uneasy in any place I've ever slept - or not slept, in this case.

First off, I want to say that I didn't hear the whole "Anna" story until after we had slept there 2 days. I only had a few vague haunting stories from the web. From the first day, it was just an odd room.

The first day, the pilot light kept going out on the gas fireplace. No big deal, could've been anything. This went on several times over the week - every time we wanted to start a fire. The maintenance man said he "can't figger it out"...

The first night I slept maybe 2 -3 hours, but laid awake most of the night, feeling oddly anxious. I saw and heard nothing unusual. Night 2 was no different; maybe 2 hours of sleep - after a long day of sightseeing. I took an Ambien (sleeping pill), which always knocked me out any other time (I had them because of the weird shifts I worked at the time, but had not had any other recent trouble sleeping) and it didn't so much as buy me a catnap. Still no weird noises, sights - but just felt sick down to the pits of my guts.

On the third night we went on the "Haunted Pub Crawl", which was excellent, by the way, and heard the more graphic "Anna" related stories. By this time I was sleep deprived and had a couple of glasses of wine in me - I thought I would sleep for sure that night, scary stories or not. I started to finally doze off that night...

Out of the blue there is this horrendously loud clatter from behind the headboard of our bed. It sounded like someone had released a live, angry, muskrat in between the plates of glass in the window that was partially concealed by the headboard. My husband, who had made a crack about how Anna can "kiss his ass" or something a bit before that, nearly soiled himself, leapt up out of the bed into some sort of ghost - fighting karate stance. I, at this point (mind you this noise is still going on - it must've lasted at least 30 seconds if not more) have practically gone fetal in the bed, and lost the ability to scream or to even move or talk. I think the word is "petrified". After about 2 minutes, we had composed ourselves enough to turn on the lights and see what was there. Not a thing. I slept not a wink on night three, and swore to my husband that I would "pack my shit and find another place to stay, even if I have to sleep in the car" if Anna pulled any more crap on me, even so much as a creaky door, on that night. She did not.

The next day we examined the window more closely, and saw that the spring inside the old window had broken (old windows were so heavy that they were equipped with a spring or leverage system to make them easier to open) and caused the unimaginable 12 AM commotion. Let me tell you, this is a reasonable thing, but I lived in an old late 1800's farmhouse for 14 years growing up that had the same sort of windows, and never once did anything like that ever happen - these springs are massively thick and sturdy.

I am finally convincing myself, 16 months later,  to try another - but I swore, website or not, that I would never, ever spend another night in a "haunted" room. I have never felt so bizarrely uncomfortable in my life - and I hope I never do again.

Georgia: Jekyll Island - Jekyll Island Club Hotel

One room is haunted by the former owner, who had a morning ritual of reading the Wall Street Journal and drinking a cup of coffee. Killed instantly in a train accident, Sam Spencer returns to his old room on occasion, where he frequently disturbs the paper of the guests, and spills coffee on the floor.  General Lloyd Aspinwall, the club's first president, (and long loooong dead) is seen strolling the grounds. The Sans Souci building is haunted by former member J. Pierpont Morgan, who likes to sit on the 3rd story balcony early in the morning, smoking a cigar. Guests can smell cigar smoke. A man in a 1920's bellman outfit likes to knock on the doors of newlyweds then disappear, after offering them freshly pressed laundry (and thus, winning the "Zappa" award).

Greece: Island of Santorini - The Undead
Not exactly haunted, this island is a bizarre burial ground for those suspected of vampirism in Greece (known as vrykolakes, Greek mythology states a vampire is able to walk the Earth during day or night, spreading evil). Somehow, the people on this island became known for dealing with the vrykolakes, and thus it is now nicknamed "Island of the Vampires". Superstitious Greeks would bring the bodies of alleged vampires there to be buried. From Athens, get a taxi to port at Pireaus.  There is a ferry to the island from there.  You might want to call ahead to reserve tickets.

Illinois - Wenona - Cumberland Cemetery??

This beautiful old cemetery is thick with local ghost folklore. Stories range from a hatchet man and his headless wife appearing to a "Horcow", some kind of bizarro, Island of Dr. Moreau, cow - horse combo that one reader claims to have spotted. Spook lights, a phantom little girl, and another reader claimed that her sister-in-law's car caught aflame when she was poking around there one night. Cumberland Cemetery is located within a mass of wooded country roads between Wenona and Magnolia. If you stop at a gas station in Wenona (Magnolia has no businesses as far as I know) I'm sure who ever is working can probably direct you to it. It is patrolled by county police at night.

Iowa - Dakota City Historic Village
Dakota City is a village which was built in 1978 to educate people about agricultural life in the rural early 1900's Midwest. Locals claim to see flickering lights in the buildings at night after close, and one tour guide has told tourists that she believed it could be haunted by a wrestler named Frank Gotch (who was a 'pioneer' of sports wrestling and died suddenly at a relatively young age in his hometown of Humboldt, IA - near this site). The specter of a fisherman has been reported, and there is a story of a fisherman drowning in the nearby Des Moines River. The strangest of all however, is the local legend of the Magic 8 Ball sign - if you ask the front sign of the "museum" (town) a question on a calm day, the hinged, hanging sign will swing right for "no" and left for "yes". My sources say unclear...

Iowa - Charles City - Woods behind the old Oliver, Hart-Parr factory (White Farm)
The woods behind the former life blood of the city, White Farm Equipment Company (closed and from all accounts demolished - but you can buy a brick from the place here!) is said by locals to be haunted by little girls dressed in white who giggle and sing. Seemingly plucked from the pages of a Hollywood screenplay of 'The Ring 3: Iowa', this deceased brownie troupe utters such bone chilling lines as "wanna come burn with me" and a soul crushing rendition of "Ring around the Rosy" that will turn your hair white. The history, it is said, is that a train accident in the 1920's burnt a car full of chronically unlucky orphans near here - and that their desolate and rarely visited graveyard is in the woods as well. Charles City is in Northeast Iowa, on Hwy 218

Louisiana: Houma - Bayou Sally Road

A ghostly hitchhiker is said to exchange a treasure for any traveling companion you wish to dispose of.

Louisiana: New Orleans - Hotel Maison de Ville
This building was once home to pharmacist Antoine Amede Peychaud, inventor of the "cocktail" (Hooray for Antoine!) A soldier haunts cottage 4, turning the radio to a country station then cranking up the volume.

Massachusetts: Leicester - Spider Gates Cemetery (Friends Cemetery)

Folklore abounds surrounding this cemetery. Stories include:
1)It is a gate to hell ("the 8th gate" to be exact) 2)there is a Satanic altar within the cemetery 3)a phantom cemetery can be found nearby, but once a person finds it, he or she will never again find it 4)there is a haunted house across from the gates 5)white goo oozes from the ground 6)stones in the area have Celtic runes etched into them , and 7)The heads of state and corporate powers that be meet here to discuss their evil business among the "runes".
Besides this there is the usual business about people killing themselves there, ghostly whispers, and children being murdered in the vicinity. Earle Street.  Patrolled regularly by police.

Mexico: Durango - Near Caballos
25 miles out of Caballos is the Area 57 of Mexico. This area is called "The Dead Zone" because a group of oil company workers searching for drilling sites found that no radio or TV communication could be transmitted here. Also called "Mar de Tetys", electromagnetic waves are blamed for the anomaly. Multicolored balls of light, alien like creatures. and the apparition of a tall fair haired man have been reportedly seen here.

Mexico: Veracruz - Forests of Mount Orizaba
This whole area has a legend of spirits known as Cheneque who try to lure little children into the woods to play with them. Almost described as an elf or sprite - very tiny in stature- the beings have been reported for centuries. As recently as 1970, a 6 year old who went missing for a month showed up again unharmed - saying that the Cheneque had taken care of him the whole time.
After this publicized case, truckers who drove through the area reported seeing the beings, who would quickly vanish. In a bizarre twist, these truckers decided that they wanted to catch one of the Cheneque, and whoever did it first would have the bragging rights. A huge hunt for them ensued. One trucker claimed that he had a group of them "cornered" on a road one night, and one of the Cheneque shot a beam of light at his truck - which then burned to the ground. Some of the ash was sent to the National University of Mexico, whose thermodynamic department concluded that whatever generated the heat to vaporize a truck in such a manner was "not known to modern science". Wow.

Michigan: Detroit - Museums : The Institute of the Arts (5200 Woodward Ave) has a sculpture in the African section of a man impaled with nails, that supposedly comes to life and does a "tribal dance" at night, and night guards report crashing noises with no apparent source; the Historical Museum (5401 Woodward Ave) is said to have a stain on the floor of the lower level that smells of sulfur and vanishes the re-appears, and a spook light.

Michigan: Clinton - Chateau Clinton Trailer Park: I don't usually like to include apartment buildings and the like, but between the name of the place and description of the haunting it was too fucking good to leave out... ('Chateau' hardy har) So Shadowlands says: "In the Spring, Summer, and sometimes early Fall, some of the streets will have fog only at the end of them, and there will be Shadows of teenager looking people walking down the middle of the street. Also, sometimes if you cross the middle of the streets you feel a temperature drop repeatedly." In other words, teenagers walking aimlessly through a trailer park in the fog. 38080 Le Chateau Blvd. Also, at the Rudgate Manufactured Homes Park and Pool (Gahhhh!!!!! They're killin' me here!) in Sterling Heights, there are ghosts of victims of the nearby train tracks, as well as ghost dogs and cats that were smeared on the train tracks at some point. Locals say the trailer park was stuck atop an old cemetery. 5150 Rudgate Circle

New Jersey - Totowa (Passaic County) - Annie's Road (Totowa Road)

Annie has quite a few stories about her. And none of 'em are very pretty. Local legend says that a young girl was killed along this road, either in the 1950's or 1980's, depending on who you talk to. The stories vary, but most involve her prom night: one version says she was decapitated in an accident afterward, one says she got drunk after her date stood her up and was walking along there when she was hit by a carload of her drunken classmates, and yet another says she was waiting for her date along the road when a truck driver nailed her.

Either way, Annie's dead now. Said to be buried along this road, Annie has been known to make appearances. Described as "short" and dressed in white, her fleeting image has been spotted near the I 80 overpass and all along the road. Some say she appears at 2 AM, and you should drive down the road with your headlights off to see her. Others say to drive the road at midnight while playing "oldies" music on the radio. People have reported odd flickering lights, and others say that Annie's crazed father paints a nearby guardrail red every year on the anniversary of her death. Yet others say that a blood stain can be seen on the road certain nights.

The most bizarre stories of all, however, involve the sightings of wood chopping dwarves along this road (at midnight!) - which could be explained by a nearby settlement of dwarves who built their homes at a small scale.

Totowa is near Patterson, NJ.  This area is heavily patrolled.  The locals have been tormented by random assholes in the past because of these stories. Please do not be the next random asshole to land in jail.

Nevada: Fallon - Grimes Point Archeological Area

Winning one of our "Zappa" awards, this area has cryptic writing on some of the rocks, left by the Shoshone Indians,  that sends visitors into a sort of "trance" within hours of viewing if they quietly contemplate life while sitting on the rocks. Also, "glowing figures" are seen walking about on moonless nights on the Loop Trail, and people have claimed to have seen them on the 'cave tour' that is there.  Can you say... "nuclear waste dump nearby?"... East of Fallon on Hwy 50

Ohio -Bowling Green - Holcomb Road

Local legend says a horrible school bus crash claimed a bunch of Catholic schoolchildren and thus the area is now haunted by glowing red eyes; people claim that little stick dolls appear hanging from the trees, writing appears on rocks, dead animals are found, and clothing is scattered about the area. The schoolbus driver's face is said to appear in a tree. There is supposedly a ghostly reenactment of the wreck on occasion. just off of 199 near Bowling Green

Rhode Island - Rumford - Bent Road /Wannamoisett Country Club 18th hole

If you walk off of bent road onto the fairway of the 18th hole, it is reported that two Indians on horseback will run at you then disappear just as they get close.

South Carolina: Woodruff - Seven Devils Bridge

This foot bridge, according to area lore, drives you ridiculously insane if you cross it on the stroke of midnight - you will experience fits of uncontrollable crying, screaming and mental breakdown.  Hmmm, not unlike me in the first week of my cycle.

South Dakota - Little Eagle - Little Oak Road

Locals say that part of the road was built over a cemetery. Stories about a tall man with glowing red eyes who dances and jumps in the air, then vanishes, are told. Little Eagle is about halfway between Bismarck, ND and Pierre.

Tennessee: Hendersonville - Trinity Broadcasting Theatre
Formerly Conway Twitty's "Twitty City", it is now the base for the giant pink and purple haired televangelist lady and her husband (Jan and Paul Crouch) who broadcast their Christian programming from here. A ghost of a man in black whose description sounds vaguely like Johnny Cash or Roy Orbison (take your pick) wanders the halls listening to the gospel get fired out to the nation from their 5000 watt mega tower. 44 Music Village Blvd

Texas: Bandera/Kerrville - Kerr County - Bandera Pass
This stretch of land on the border of Bandera and Kerr counties is haunted by a headless horseman, a phantom wagon full of dead settlers and spook lights. The area was the site of a lot of Indian attacks during expansion.

Texas: Brownsville - Farm Road 511
A definite recipient of the Zappa Award for the utterly (udderly?) bizarre, this road is very well known, even by local news media, for phantom ghost cows that pop in front of cars then disappear just as quickly, often causing accidents.

Texas: Brownsville - Paredes Line Road
A ghostly sheriff who died on this road in a car accident is reported to pull over speeders, ghost-y squad car and all, and warn them to slow down.

Texas: Burkburnett - Goat Man's Bridge
An unused bridge in the area is said to have the body of a satyr - upper half man, lower half goat. Others have said you can hear children screaming on the bridge, an apparition of a man, and an obscured from view church of Satan. What are these people smoking in this town? Burkburnett is on I-44 on the Oklahoma border in Wichita County

Texas: Burnet County - Joppa Bridge??
The people in this area feel that trolls (yes, TROLLS) live under this bridge, and if you listen closely, you can hear them frolic and run about under the bridge.

Texas: Cleburne - "Old Foamy"
Can it be true? ANOTHER goat man story...
This stream is known for a goat man who will appear if you honk the horn 3 times

Texas: Euless - Midway Recreation Center

A dead former employee is said to turn on the lights at night and conduct an otherworldly workout session to the tune of rap music. His "grunting" can be heard throughout the building as he struggles through that last set of bench presses. He must be in hell if he's still having to work out every day...

Texas - San Antonio - Running Amuck With Ghosts, Donkey Ladies and Enchanted Fishies

Here are a few of the streets and public places said to be haunted in this paranormally active city:
Train Tracks, southwest side of city: the old school bus full of kids/ horrific bus accident story. Supposedly your car will be pushed by a force over the bridge and leave their tiny handprints on your car. Espada Park is said to have this phenomena, and also reported at Shane and Villamain Roads.
North Star Mall: workers report hearing their names whispered in the empty mall after close, and see shadowy apparitions. San Pedro Ave.
Comanche Lookout Park Nature Preserve: said to be haunted by soldiers and Natives who fought to the death here hundreds of years ago. 15551 Nacogdoches
Old Nacogdoches Road: Native Americans, and soldiers spotted here as well, especially near the creek.
Old Stone Ridge Road: Haunted by a "DONKEY LADY" near the children's cemetery. (Finally, a companion for Goat Boy!)
Rivercenter Mall: It just keeps getting better. A "FISH GHOST" is said to swim up to unwitting pedestrians in the San Antonio River near this mall and talk to them.849 E. Commerce

Texas - Premont - Premont Water Treatment Plant

A "winged dog" can be seen standing on mounds of poo surrounding the sewage. Can you say "methane intoxication"? Agnes St.

Texas -Road leading out of Maxdale toward Oakalla - The "Ozone" Bridge

Locals have dozens of stories about this road. Most involve the area surrounding the remains of a bridge that has a historical marker near it to explain it's history. The marker reads, "In July 1913, the Bell County Commissioners Court, in response to repeated flooding in this area, approved construction of a bridge at this site to provide access to Killeen for residents of the Maxdale Community. Before it was completed, however, the bridge was destroyed in a flood. The Bell County Commissioners Court contracted again with Hess & Skinner Engineers, agents for the Missouri Valley Bridge Company, to build this bridge. Completed in 1914, the Maxdale Bridge employs a Parker truss design, which allows for maximum strength at mid-span. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1990." Local folklore says that screaming children are heard at night, that phantom cars try to run drivers from the road, and remnants of Satanic rituals are found strewn about. There is a popular but undoubtedly false story about a school bus that went over the side, killing all of the children on board. A nearby cemetery is said to be haunted by an old, limping man. Some visitors say that they feel dizzy and very strange in the area of the bridge, and one man reported that he and his friends saw the apparition of a white man in jeans and a t shirt there after feeling strange like his ears were plugged. Some of the accounts almost sound as if there is something in the air causing people to hallucinate, as one man said that he went there to mourn the loss of a friend who died near the bridge in a car accident, and he found himself suddenly lost among a surreal scene of EMT's and ambulances, like he was in a dream. Others report the strange scent of marigolds when there are no flowers around. Very odd stories indeed. To get to the bridge, From Killeen, take SH 195 south about 10 miles then go west on FM 2670 about 3.7 miles then go south on Maxdale Road .3 mile to marker (south side of bridge).

Texas - Laredo - Circle K Convenience Store

It is said that the ghost of a little girl wanders the aisles, wearing a sun dress and carrying a carton of milk and package of Nutter Butter cookies. McPherson Road
Texas - Kilgore/Longview -

A (*ahem...) "Chicken Man" is said to have made the Tywhiskey Creek area his, er, it's home the early 1970's, when several sightings occurred. One "Bigfoot" web page says that a creature, nicknamed the "Marion County Monster", had a rash of sightings in 1965 in nearby Longview, TX.  A "monkey man" sighting took place near Rabbit Creek by Kilgore in 1999.

Texas - Harker Heights - Soccer Field

A red eyed, phantom cowboy crosses the soccer field and vanishes into the neighboring sewage treatment plant, local soccer moms report. The story continues, after the cowboy vanishes into his stinky eternal abode, an apparition of a Native American bursts forth from a grove of trees, gunshot noises are heard, and the Indian falls over, dead yet again. Hmmm. I saw a show like that in Virginia City, NV - but it cost me $2.50...

UK: Newland- The Ostrich Inn
This 14th century Inn is home to commonplace poltergeist activity. A former landlord and his wife murdered up to 60 wealthy guests in the "Blue Room" suite. Get this: a lever would be pulled and the bed would tilt, hurling the unsuspecting patron into a vat of boiling liquid in the "brewing room" below. The couple would then take the boiled bodies and dump them in the river, no double snagging any belongings they had brought with them.

Electrical anomalies, lights flipping on and off, shutters slamming open and shut, wandering apparitions, including a woman in full Victorian dress, are among the frequently reported activity here.

West Boldon, England - Wheatsheaf Pub

There were a few of the standard hauntings going on here - chairs that move themselves, an otherworldly shove on the back here and there - even a phantom child's handprint in a glob of jelly one strange afternoon. As these places often attract ghost hunters and psychics, a psychic medium decided to troll the place for spirits in 2004. If you read this site much, then you probably know that I don't have a whole lot of, er... "faith", in most people who claim they are "psychic". (I think it's probably because of my strong roots in science...)

When this particular medium said that, among 37 others, there was a spirit of a nine year old girl crying out to her - I would've been the first to roll my eyes and say.. "whaaaaaatevaahh". She said the girl was named Jessica Hargreaves and that she was raped, murdered, and buried behind the mortar of the pub's fireplace in 1908. She even claimed to have spoken with the dead baby rapist who killed her.

Then something happened that even gave Jaded Old Me the willies (at least slightly). The pub owners decided to tear open the wall where the fireplace used to be, and within it they found a chunk of human hair, some girl's clothing and a rotting heel of a girl's shoe. St Nicholas Road

Utah: Echo - Kozy Cafe and Motel
Former owner "Fat" must still like pie and coffee, because from the netherworld he likes to ask for a refill on his coffee when the place is empty, and also squeak his regular bar stool at the counter. Waitresses report the scuffing noises of Fat's cowboy boots lumbering across the room toward the jukebox, and shortly afterward a Johnny Cash song spontaneously starts to play, with the volume cranked. 3525 S Echo Road (435) 336-5641

Wisconsin: Boltonville - Jay road-"Seven Bridges Road"

A phantom lady jogger runs along this road, which is lined with a marshy wetland.  She apparently was hit by a drunk driver when jogging here early one morning, and her body was never recovered out of the water.  She turns to face your car, and when you "hit" her, she either vanishes into your hood or her disembodied head cuts through the windshield to stare you in the face... yikes!

Wisconsin - Baraboo - Old Baraboo Inn

This town, best known for being the home of PT Barnum's partner Bailey, has a lot of offbeat little attractions. One of the most offbeat might be the Old Baraboo Inn, a 141 year old saloon that was renovated in 2002 into a restaurant, was investigated by a local paranormal research team in 2005 after three years of bizarre occurrences witnessed by staff, tenants to the upstairs apartments, and dozens of customers. Phenomena includes: floating and flying objects, such as dishes, a 200 lb griddle, plastic containers, a broom, and pictures from the wall as well as other poltergeist activity such as doors that slam open and shut by themselves. The walk in cooler is notorious, says the owner, for locking people in and shutting the lights off. When "If the House Is A-Rockin" by Stevie Ray Vaughan is on the jukebox, regular customer Char Lotte says, then the spirit of a prostitute nicknamed "Mary" is apt to appear in the bar room and "cut a rug" (Stevie Ray Vaughan, incidentally, died in a plane crash in East Troy, WI in 1990 - 120 miles away). The former house of ill repute has seen the deaths of at least three prostitutes ("Mary" bled to death) and two former owners. Upstairs tenants have complained of female apparitions in "saloon" attire, as well as hearing their names called in a female voice and relentless tapping on the door. 135 Walnut St

Wisconsin - Genoa - Big River Inn Restaurant and Motel

The restaurant in particular has had odd occurrences such as lights turning back on after the room is closed and locked up, and strange footsteps up the vacant basement staircase. Also, occasionally eight coffee cups will go missing, which the staff attributed to the ghost of a (dead) former owner named Kenny (insert your South Park joke here) who would guzzle eight cups of coffee a day when working there. Kenny reportedly always watched CNN and wouldn't change the channel for anyone - and today workers claim that the TV switches to CNN by itself all the time. 500 Main St.