Spooked!

Beyond Belief: Skeptic or Believer?

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 15:16:00 +0000

For a long time now, I've avoided blogging. I haven't had time and have let the daily grind wear me down to the point of apathy and exhaustion. It's hard enough feeling creative enough to research and write new articles for WhoForted? let alone constantly post on here. But this year has had some rough patches and drama that I just can't stay totally silent on. And since I'm sick to death of most social media these days, I figure that here is the best place to hop up on my soap box and openly express my opinions, beliefs, and disbeliefs. While I've done this a few times before, everyone's views and opinions are subject to change at a moment's notice. Life effects our views and stances on everything.

First, I would like to say that I'm still stubbornly clinging to my position on the fence between complete belief and utter skepticism. It's honestly one of the most difficult positions to be in; everyone wants you to choose a side as though this is some grand battle to the death where a winner will emerge victoriously. Unfortunately, that's not what I see happening. Die-hard skeptics will always dismiss anything weird as natural and explainable, even if they don't have the concrete answer to what caused it (which generally ends up being "it's a hallucination, of course"). And the adamant believers will continue to rally behind every absurd nonsensical idea or conspiracy and rally behind the blurriest of photos as concrete proof that every manner of paranormal thing absolutely exists without question. Personally, I try to observe the statements and evidence from both sides before weighing in, and even after that I'm not naive and arrogant enough to claim to have the definitive answer.

Let's face it; both sides can make valid points. But both sides are too busy badmouthing and ridiculing each other to ever sit down like grownups and come to a logical consensus. Why? Because both sides believe they're "right" and won't budge an inch. They're either trying to be the ultimate buzzkiller by eradicating all that's highly improbable but not impossible or acting like gullible lunatics who would probably elect Sylvia Browne as queen of the universe if they had the chance. And both of those extremes annoy me. There is room for skeptical, rational, logical thought and application of science in the paranormal realm. But there is also a need for open-minded willingness to examine the evidence on the side of complete skepticism. "I saw it, therefore it's paranormal" is just as silly as "it can't exist, therefore it doesn't."

But there seems to be a greater divide, and it has everything to do with religious beliefs. Most skeptics are atheists in the same way that most believers are religious. I break that mold a bit; I may be an atheist, but I don't think that removing religion removes all logic when it comes to unexplained phenomena. But it is important to examine things without getting religion all knotted up in the nix. That just clouds the path to definite answers and leads to unsubstantiated conclusions based on mythological concepts.

A lot of people I know are religious and I don't mind what anyone believes. I'm not a militant atheist. Personally, I see religions as antiquated replacements for law and justice giving false hope and promises to people and being used as weapons more often than guidelines for being a better person. But if someone feels comforted by the idea that some deranged puppeteer is messing with the strings and controlling our lives, then more power to them.

For those who don't understand my stance, I can't necessarily expect you to. But we live in a world where gay marriage and abortion--issues that would not be debated were it not for religious beliefs--are still argued over not as basic human rights but political matters of faith. So much for separation of church and state, right? For all my straight friends, family members, and readers, it's not so easy to understand the concept of being hated and told you're a "sinner going to hell" constantly by obnoxiously vocal members of society simply for being your own honest self. People are bullied, attacked, slandered, and even murdered every day for being who they are... and their sexuality would be completely irrelevant were it not for religious beliefs. There is no argument against homosexuality that isn't entirely based on faith and religion. Between the illogical hatred of others by some religious interpreters and the lack of any tangible anything related to faith, I just can't buy into it.

In many ways, I know there are plenty of people out there who would call be a skeptic. And to some extent, they would be right. I do believe reason is important; I agree with the ideals of some skeptics. I even like them. Yet I feel ostracized by them for even acknowledging the possibilities of unexplained phenomena. Because I can't dismiss thousands of cases of unexplained lights and objects in the sky, voices and human images appearing around the world, bizarre creature sightings, and so much more as all misidentification, hallucination, or swamp gas, I'm not following the herd. And it bothers me that people who promote critical, independent thought fail to recognize herd mentality when it's blatantly there.

The brilliant humorist Mark Twain once said, "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect." I take those words to heart, because Twain really understood people. It's important to ask yourself whether you hold opinions because they are how you feel or you're just falling in step with the masses. Good fences don't always make good neighbors. The fact that no one has a Bigfoot, ghost, or alien spaceship under glass in a lab doesn't mean they can't possibly be real. The final answers to all questions of unexplained phenomena won't be found by shutting the book on them and proclaiming "real" or "fake" without all the facts and evidence laid out on the table.

People on both sides could have a common ground if they would just admit it to themselves. The only honest answer anyone can give to the existence of anything is "I don't know."

Building Momentum (and Foundations)...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:27:00 +0000

It's been another long gap between posts for me. Part of that has been the usual busy autumn I've grown accustomed to (which usually means Halloween falls by the wayside and isn't the fun experience it once was), but added to that has been a heavy bout of depression accompanied by apathy. I guess this difficult year caught up with me finally and hit me harder than I had anticipated. All this led to a very unproductive period. I've been doing loads of historical research, but writing or any other productive behavior has escaped me.

Even so, it wasn't until today that I started gathering together the general thoughts, questions, and ponderings of the past few months and realized that overall, it hasn't been entirely in vain. It's been something far more than just feeling melancholy and unmotivated. There has been a shift from deep inside me, and the whole picture is finally coalescing into something approaching a definitive result. I still have some wrestling to do, sorting out the little details that conflict with one another, but it's reaching toward... something.

A lot of this has come about from asking myself a few simple questions: What do I believe? What do I enjoy? What's right (but mostly what's wrong) with the status quo of paranormal investigation? Of course, after finding out all my answers, it takes quite a while to tally up results and figure out what pieces can be fit together into something resembling a final product. Believe me, some of my answers mix together about as well as air and sand. Nevertheless, I do believe that some cohesion can be found in the building blocks of each of my convictions.

One thing is certain: I'm full of complexities, opposing forces, and attitudes/viewpoints that contradict what most people might expect in someone who considers himself a paranormal researcher and/or investigator. But I don't see that as a handicap; too many people fail to look at things from other perspectives and completely miss blinding faults because they follow along with mainstream ideology. I think in this sense writing for Who Forted? has helped me tremendously in just being myself. Surprisingly, I feel a lot more at home there than in most paranormal circles. At least I know that if I bring up something rational, logical, or sensible that thought won't be met with an icy glare or immediate blacklisting as a "difficult" person.

Does this all mean that this blog will suddenly stop being relevant? Does it mean that I'll never tackle writing about the paranormal ever again? Absolutely not! I enjoy playing a minor role as a modern Charles Fort gathering the strange, bizarre, unexplained things from history. I still find visiting reputedly haunted places for entertainment. And I think there's still a lot to learn about unexplained phenomena. There is also a lot to be learned from previous researchers (both in the paranormal and scientific fields) which sorely needs to be addressed by more people. I'm sure some of my thoughts might be met with hisses and boos from plenty of people, but I'm quite used to going against the grain. In the process of all this, I'll probably continue neglecting this blog, avoiding social media, and falling behind in a lot of other things, but hopefully the end result will be worth it.

Spooky Stays in Port Clinton...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 08:40:00 +0000

I was talking with one of Ohio's many ghost hunters earlier this week, and he mentioned to me some paranormal activity he had experienced firsthand near Port Clinton, Ohio. He had been an employee at Sleep Inn & Suites, just off State Road about four miles east of Port Clinton, between 2005 and 2007 where some unusual phenomena was reported: the sound of doors opening and/or closing, strange banging sounds in vacant rooms, footsteps, shadows, the elevator moving on its own accord, and other "phantom sounds." The majority of activity seemed centered around the third floor. It's not an old building (being built in 1999), but age isn't always a factor in allegedly haunted locations.

Because of all the activity and some of his own experiences with it (including hearing a child near the pool), he believed the hotel may have been "built over a cemetary [sic] or some type of weird place because that place is a portal for spirits..." I'm not sure about portals or vortices (not "vortexes") or any of those "gateways to another world" people often insist places with many supposed ghosts must have, but most places—even in the most remote areas—have an interesting story to tell. Sleep Inn is near a freeway and smack dab in the middle of unassuming rural Ohio. At first glace, it would be the last place you might expect to find anything of historical significance. I can safely say it wasn't built on top of a cemetery, but the land has some connection with the earliest days of Cedar Point Amusement Park and the rather sad story of Benjamin Dwelle.

Although the history of Cedar Point (so named for the cedar trees once covering the area) goes back much further, Cedar Point Resort started its first season in 1870. It consisted of a bathhouse, beer garden, and dance platform with a few refreshment stands, seesaws, and swings scattered around for the enjoyment of visitors. It was the handywork of German immigrant Louis Zistel who transported locals to Cedar Point on two boats he has built during the Civil War to transport Confederate prisoners to the prison at nearby Johnson's Island. The property was leased in 1882 to Captain William Shackleford and Benjamin F. Dwelle who added picnic tables, new boat docks, a dance hall, more bathhouses, and wooden boardwalks along the beach. The first roller coaster, the Switchback Railway, didn't open until 1892.

Throughout the 1880s, the park continued to expand and improve, making it a popular tourist attraction. The original lease ended in 1887; Shackleford was too sick to keep up with the business, so Dwelle joined forces with the other land owners (Louis Adolph, Adam Stoll, Jacob Kuebeler, and Charles Baetz) on the peninsula to form Cedar Point Pleasure Resort Company. In 1897, the park was acquired by the newly-formed Cedar Point Pleasure Resort Company of Indiana headed by George Arthur Boeckling who helped turned the park into the successful venture we know today.

You might think this would secure all of these men financially for the rest of their lives, but that wasn't the case. Although Benjamin Dwelle was one of the founders of the resort at Cedar Point, he has largely been forgotten. Perhaps it was his financial trouble which had a hand in that. Part of the reason for the 1897 change of ownership was that Dwelle defaulted on his portion of the loan payment. In May of that year, Dwelle was taken to Erie Circuit Court by several of his creditors. The ruling ruined him; Dwelle lost his land in both Ottawa and Sandusky Counties, much of his personal property, and all financial interest in the company at Cedar Point. He died just a few years later in 1903. His body was laid to rest at the family cemetery on part of the land lost just six years before.

If you look to the southeast across State Road from the windows of the upper floor at Sleep Inn & Suites, you might be able to catch a glimpse of a pond. On its northern shore are the gravestones of Dwelle Cemetery. The farm to the east was once Dwelle's farm; in fact, the land on which the hotel stands (along with the land on the opposite side of SE Catawba Road) was also Dwelle's property until it was taken by the Second National Bank of Sandusky shortly before his death.

If Sleep Inn & Suites is, in fact, haunted by someone from the past, who is responsible? Could it be Benjamin Dwelle and his family reclaiming their lost land? Or perhaps there are other secrets from this part of Ohio still undiscovered? This place isn't far from where the War of 1812 began with the Battle of Lake Erie. Apparently, a construction worker did fall to his death while the hotel was being built, which could account for some of the noises. Be it from the distant history or recent past of the Port Clinton region, we can only hope that someone finds the key to unlocking the strange incidents at this Lake Erie hotel.

1874 Map of Ottawa County (click to enlarge)

(Dwelle's land is in red with the cemetery in blue. The red "X" marks the present site of Sleep Inn & Suites.)

A Recipe for Autumn...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:21:00 +0000

I absolutely love cider; nothing says fall like it. I also happen to enjoy baking and tinkering around with recipes any time I get the chance. Just last week, I had a creative spark and made something that turned out very good. Of course, I don't always measure things exactly, so it can be tricky to make something exactly the same way all the time. But still, I figured I'd change things up and share this recipe with all of you. Here's something unique to make for breakfast on those cool autumn mornings.

Mulled Cider Pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup apple cider
1 tablespoon apple butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon grated orange peel
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

1. Heat a large skillet brushed lightly with oil or butter over medium heat.
2. In medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and blend with a wire whisk just until thoroughly mixed. (For a thicker batter, add an additional 3 tablespoons of flour.)
3. Pour approximately 1/3 cup of batter at a time onto hot skillet. Turn pancakes over when large bubbles begin to burst at the surface (1-2 minutes) and pancake is nicely browned. Cook an additional 1-2 minutes on the opposite side. Serve immediately with butter and maple syrup.

Yield: 6 medium-sized pancakes

(If you don't have apple butter, you can try substituting with 1 Tbsp. applesauce and 2 drops lemon extract.)

Spirited Spirits...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 10:24:00 +0000

If there's one bad habit I refuse to get rid of, it's enjoying a cocktail or glass of beer/wine from time to time. Now that doesn't mean I down gallon after gallon of it. (Maybe a few times back in my early college days.) But it's a nice way to unwind. Believe it or not, paranormal-themed spirits have been slowly making their way into stores across the nation. Here are a couple of them, just in time for Halloween.

Back in early spring, I had the pleasure to enjoy some of Dan Aykroyd's Crystal Head Vodka. It boasts a few different things, like being made with pure glacier water, quadruple distilled, and filtered through Herkimer diamonds (to give it some added boost of psychic energy). It comes in its own glass skull decanter which is actually quite nice and useful long after the vodka ceases to exist. And as far as the alcohol goes, it's not bad at all. And if you're all for things without any additives, this is your vodka. The price tag is a bit steep, but it's a neat conversation piece... if it lasts that long. You can hear the whole story from Dan--including the tale of the crystal skulls--in this video:

But there's another booze on the market, and this one supposedly has some haunted history to it. According to the website for Frozen Ghost Vodka, the spring in Western Canada where the water used in the production of this vodka comes from was the scene of a murder. Tobias, the victim, was buried in the ice at the site by a neighbor; the man confessed after being haunted by the ghost of Tobias. Rumor is that Tobias still keeps watch over his spring. Of course, we can only take their word for it. They don't reveal the exact location.

Even so, this booze boasts a spooky bottle to go with its watery contents from a haunted site. And at half the price of Crystal Skull, it's a bit more in reach of anyone who doesn't mind paying for premium vodka. And there's also Kraken Spiced Rum. While it's not "ghostly," it does involve a cryptid creature from myths. And it's actually rather good too. I'm sure there are whiskeys, rums, and other liquors out there with a supernatural twist, so keep your eye out as autumn gets into full swing.

The Night Jimmy Fallon Dissed Me...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 05:16:00 +0000

It's been an interesting year. Overall, I wouldn't rank it in my top ten best years ever, but there've been a few shining moments and amusing times to keep it from being a complete disaster. The important thing in life is not to lose your sense of humor, because really, life is funny and absurd. But no matter what, the best source of humor is always yourself. If you can't laugh at yourself, I don't think you should feel that good about laughing at other people.

So imagine my surprise this week when I was on Amazon and happened to see a Listmania! book list with my book Queer Hauntings staring back at me under the title "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." Now, I watch about as much television as a blind man, but I thought something had to be wrong. There's no way... right? So, I did a little searching and discovered Fallon's ongoing segment of his "Do Not Read List" of funny, weird, and downright strange books. And there it was: on August 29th, Jimmy held up my book.

Now, I know some people might be outraged; nasty emails must be flying around from enraged writers horrified to hear that someone made fun of their work. And there are other books, like this one, that probably could've used just as much (if not more) razzing. For me, it was basically shock... followed by a bit of chuckling as I watched. Why? Because he basically said all the things I've heard, all the jokes passed around, since I wrote the book! Even I had to admit that while writing it, there's a certain level of absurdity that comes along with writing something as bizarre and unexpected as a book about gay ghosts. In fact, I tried as much as I could not to write something too serious. After all, the topic just can't be taken that seriously!

It did help things fall into place for me, though. About a week ago, I was on Amazon and by book sales had suddenly skyrocketed. I just assumed it was with Halloween coming up. Now, I have a better idea. Although really, I didn't think that many people tuned in to Jimmy Fallon or any other late night shows. Let's face it: SNL was his peak. Still, his ratings have rebounded on Late Night... he even earned an Emmy nomination for it.

As they say, "all press is good press." Things like controversy, humor, and absurdity sell. How else could people like Sarah Palin sell any copies at all? And it wasn't even bad press. He never actually attacked the book; he just had a good laugh at the basic idea of it. So, I don't hate you, Jimmy Fallon. You might be on par with Conan O'Brien in the comedy department, but I don't hate you. I'm happy I could provide you with some good joke material just this one time. And in return, in those two short minutes, you probably provided the most publicity my book has received in the past two years.

Mainstream Horror Goes a Little Gay...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 08:45:00 +0000

Just in time for the Halloween season, there's a new film debuting this month. Well, technically, it's four films, each from the mind of a notable director of twisted scary movies. Dubbed Chillerama, it's most certainly not for the faint of heart or anyone with a distaste for the somewhat perverse. But if you're fine with porn stars, killer sperm, Hitler, and zombie spoofs, then it just might be up your alley. And the first film happens to be more than just a little gay-friendly.

Somewhere between the fictional worlds of Grease and Twilight, I Was a Teenage Werebear fits in quite neatly. In this musical comedy takes lycanthropy in a whole different direction. Set in the 1960s, it's the story of closeted teenager Ricky (Sean Paul Lockhart, a.k.a. Brent Corrigan) who runs into a rebellious gang who turn into a leather daddy "werebears" (one played by Ron Jeremy) when turned on by other guys. I'm serious. I kid you not. Don't believe me? Check out the trailer:

Now I have to give kudos to Sean for being one of the first porn stars to successfully make a leap from adult films to regular cinema. (Some of you might remember him as the merman from Another Gay Sequel.) While the other films sound just as weirdly amusing, I'll confess I'm slightly disappointed in one of them. And that would be The Diary of Anne Frankenstein. It's not because of the storyline (a comedic version of Hitler trying to create the perfect human killing machine); it's because when I first heard about it, I thought it was a different Diary of Anne Frankenstein. Unlike the one in Chillerama, the off-Broadway play of the same name seems a lot more hilarious. I just wish I had seen it when it was playing, but at least there's the video interview for Under the Pink Carpet:

That would've made this a truly must-see movie in my eyes! Still, I'm sure this film won't disappoint. You can catch the world premiere this coming week on Thursday, September 15th, at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Other dates are being added to the official website as they are arranged. I'm sure such a risque film might not necessarily make it to a theater near you, but you can always wait for it to come out on DVD and watch it later.

Experimenting with Ghost Humor...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:50:00 +0000

Sometimes, life can get a little overwhelming. Even the paranormal can get that way. I've been taking a bit of a break this week from things; getting off social networking sites as much as possible, stepping back from research, and watching some movies (which I haven't taken the time to do in many months). But I do have some interesting things to write about, even if it might be another week or so before I get to it.

In the mean time, I thought it was time for a little humor. That's something that's been sorely lacking these past few months. So without too much blabbering, here's a little blast from the past. What would the Muppets have to say about ghost hunting? Well, here's your answer:

Divide and Conquer...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 19:40:00 +0000

For those of you who haven't heard the news, I'm now a regular contributor for Who Forted? Magazine (those people who brought you Ghost Hunters, Inc.). What does that mean about Spooked! and its future? Well, a little bit of changes. But nothing too worrying.

For a long time now, Spooked! has become a jumbled pot of thoughts, odd new stories, supernaturally queer stuff, and whatever else I felt like writing at the moment. This blog has undergone a lot of reincarnations over the years, so it's been tough trying to toss everything I find interesting into it and not make it a chaotic mess. If I had a separate blog for all my interests, I'd probably have over a dozen blogs running at any given time. One is more than enough work, thank you.

Still, writing for WF? is a good opportunity for me to explore true history behind hauntings and those weird news stories I neglect so much these days in a different arena. That leaves the gay-themed paranormal stories and oddities for this blog, along with any other interesting paranormal bits and whatever books I happen to be working on at the moment.I think that'll help me balance things out a bit. I already have one post brewing for here, so apparently this separation of topics might be beneficial.

And I know what some of you might be thinking: He's writing for Who Forted? Great... now he's one of those people! If you mean someone who finds humor in the paranormal... well, that's been me all along. I haven't really changed. I've always done my best to strike a balance between believer and skeptic. And when people say and do stupid things, I don't think pretending it didn't happen is the best attitude. There still are some people in the paranormal field I do admire: Loyd Auerbach, Jeff Belanger, Joshua Warren, and many others. What I don't get it the superstar status we give people who haven't done much other than appeared on television.

I've been called many things over the years. Some of the best mudslinging has come when I've been accused of being a "non-believer" (though I've been attacked by skeptics for having a laugh at some of them as well). If saying many photos are dust or lens flare and not taking psychic claims at face value makes me a horrible person, then I'll gladly claim the honor. I've admitted to my mistakes (like the great "orb color theory" idea of a decade ago), but I won't back down on saying that a lot of paranormal claims have dull, simple explanations. Even so, there are things without logical explanation that do need to be looked into more. I've experienced and witnessed a few things I can't dismiss as illusion, mistaken identity, or psychological fabrication. So, I'm an optimistic skeptic? A skeptical believer? Something like that.

Regardless, I love a good ghost story. And I love digging through history to find the keys to hauntings and legends. Say what you will about the existence of ghosts; I think ghost stories are an important part of our history, culture, and society. I love doing my part to preserve these tales for future generations. How people perceive our world is just as important as how the world works. A little mystery makes even the worst times a little more bearable.

The Hunt for Humor Never Ends...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 07:03:00 +0000

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I miss Ghost Hunters, Inc. Say what you will, it was always entertaining to see the latest adventures of the gang--with plush Scooby Doo in tow--exploring the weird, forgotten, and mythical places around Pennsylvania and New York. Back when I first started out on AOL writing up local legends, browsing their site was a favorite pasttime. Even if they didn't find anything remotely paranormal, there was plenty to laugh about. Nick, Gow, Greg, and the rest of the gang were always entertaining. I'll admit I was jealous that my own paranormal group never came close to being that fun. Maybe that's why I let it die a slow, agonizing death.

There was, of course, their movie The Graveyard Shift before things sort of fell apart. Still, some of the people involved lingered on. Jason Gowin had Extreme Paranormal for a little while. Greg, Dana, Nick, and a few more people took a dive into the skeptical humorous side (more than was normal for GHI) and created Who Forted? to keep the funniness going. As glad as I am that some of the core people are still out there doing what they do best, I can't help but get a little nostalgic. Long before bland paranormal television, we had the most entertaining bunch in Ghost Hunters, Inc. And they really didn't even find ghosts. Ever. Well... there were those few questionable times...

When I had the chance to watch and review the new(ish) documentary film done by the old gang, I had to jump at it. The Bigfoot Hunter: Still Searching takes part of an unfinished older project from 2006 (GHI vs. Bigfoot) and expands upon it. It features bigfoot hunter (and all-around paranormal enthusiast) Tim Holmes from Elmira, New York, and his gal pal Becky Sawyer on two journeys into the remote wilderness in search of Sasquatch. The one-hour film, produced by Fight or Flight Productions, is planned to be unveiled at a theater in Toronto this fall. If you have the chance to be there for it, I highly recommend it.

I really don't want to give away too much, but here's the trailer to give you a taste:

Honestly, you can't go wrong with a "former Merchant Marine" going on and on about Bigfoot, "fake footage", and a never-ending stream of weirdness and random thoughts. I'm not sure what's scarier: being out in the woods in the middle of nowhere with Tim or Nick Foust being that heavily armed (and, apparently, very excited about it). You have to love GHI for their bravery; not many people would choose to venture out far from civilization with someone quite like Holmes. The action may be minimal, but the comedy lasts throughout. The "recreation" of a bigfoot encounter is priceless... as are the short clips of Nick and Gow dressed and ready for ladies night.

Overall, it was a very well-crafted documentary. For those snobbish people who dislike anything that isn't shot in high-quality, professional grade video, you'll be disappointed by this one. But if you're not hung up on petty things like that and love watching crazy people doing and saying crazy things while turning something as mundane as wandering the woods looking for a hairy inhuman beast into an amusing look at the people and experiences in question, this is right up your alley. As a fan of documentaries, I'd be glad to add this to my DVD collection. Let's hope they decide to release it at some point.

Pardon My l'Histoire...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 05:24:00 +0000

Whenever history is being told, remember there is almost always a bias on behalf of the person(s) telling it. Often, parts are left out, justified by one party involved, or even told inaccurately; it takes a lot of research and work to uncover the complete history of anything. I was talking with someone yesterday about California; they made the offhand comment that the city of Hollywood doesn't have a long history. This is both true and false. As a populated city, it's just over 140 years old. When you ask any American about the history of a place, it rarely goes back any further than the earliest settlers from Europe. After the founding of the 13 original colonies, of course.

So who really counts as the first people in an area? What makes for historic events? How old is civilization in a location? Generally, these are more opinions than concrete ideas. Most of us know there were Native Americans living across the United States long before Europe even knew this land existed. But even beyond that, there are chunks of missing history left out of teachings about whole states. Even my own home state of Ohio has a far more interesting past than many of us know about.

Ohio was one of the first states beyond the original colonies to be carved out of the land back two hundred years ago. But what was it before then? You might be surprised by the answer. And had history gone very differently, we might be speaking an entirely different language.

If we go back a hundred years before the the Constitution existed, Europeans were already settling and conquering and claiming land across North America as their own. What would eventually become Ohio was part of the French colony of Louisiana (also called "New France" at certain times). Aside from the British colonies and Spanish Florida on the east (and New Mexico to the west), the rest of the land was claimed by France. This French part of Ohio history is completely ignored, but it doesn't end there. In the 18th century, Ohio was someone else's land as well.

In the decades before the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (which almost made eastern Ohio into a state called Washington), the land owned by the French changed drastically. Spain acquired much of the western states and France split the land owned by England in half. Today, part of the section of New France stretching through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River all the way to the Atlantic Ocean still holds on to its heritage and early name: Quebec. Shortly before the British took possession of much of this land in 1763 through the Treaty of Paris, Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania and New York were part of Quebec. Forgotten by today's residents, a few clues remain behind. The city of Erie, Pennsylvania, still sits near Presque Isle (or presqu'île, the French word for peninsula); Ohio has towns named La Croft, Bellevue ("beautiful view"), Bellefontaine ("beautiful fountain"), Marseilles, and even Marietta (named for Marie Antoinette).

One thing is certain; the French had a better rapport with the native Indians than their British counterparts. Centers of trade and forts sprang up throughout Ohio. One French trading post was just down the road from where I live, where the Cuyahoga River meets Tinkers Creek. Another was to the south in Boston, Ohio, where early settlers found apple trees planted by the French in the 1600s. And when the British tried to take over land, the Indians tended to side with the French. After the US became independent, they sided with British Canada. This is part of the reason there was such animosity between early settlers and the natives. Indians allied themselves with the wrong side regularly. Their punishment would eventually be to live on tiny reservations, stricken with poverty and alcoholism.

While there's a lot of history we'd rather forget, there's no valid reason to deny the French past for Ohio and many other states. We seem so keen to remember the British and American portions of US history yet ignore all the rest. But this is why I love history; it's a fascinating, unending discovery full of myths and mysteries. There's always something new to learn, even about your native town.

Dead Women Tell No Tales... Or Do They?

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:22:00 +0000

It's been 13 years since one of Columbus' oldest landmarks met the wrecking ball in the name of progress. Built in 1834, the Ohio Penitentiary saw thousands of criminals pass through its doors. From Morgan's Raiders to the author O. Henry, many well-known people spent some time behind bars on Spring Street at this prison in its 150 years of operation. Today, it's the site of Nationwide Arena, a few random modern buildings, and plenty of parking spaces. But there might be a few leftover dead people lingering around.

People believed the old Ohio Penitentiary was haunted before it was demolished. Stories say that some of the 332 people who died during an arson blaze on April 21, 1930, still roamed the halls. Ghosts of many executed prisoners who breathed their final breaths inside the high stone walls were said to roam their old cell blocks and wander through the execution chamber. Though the building is gone, paranormal activity has still been reported at the site. If these prisoners really did stick around, perhaps one of them is the ghost of Ohio's first black woman to be executed. And it's quite likely she was a lesbian.

In the 1950s, sexuality was still a very taboo subject. Even newspapers, when faced with the task of telling tales of murder, often avoided the subject or (in certain cases) changing around the facts to make things sound, well, . . . less gay. That was certainly the case for Betty Butler.

By all accounts, Betty hailed from Cleveland, Ohio, where she had lived with her husband Harry, a strict Methodist, and two children. The exact reason why they couple separated is unclear, although court records indicate that Betty "associated with lesbians" in northeast Ohio. For one reason or another, Betty found herself in Cincinnati. She befriended a woman six years her senior by the name of Evelyn Clark. Some say they were lovers, while others say Betty was a woman caught up in poverty who had sex with Evelyn in exchange for money and shelter. Either way, their relationship was quite rocky. Arguments were frequent, and violence was not uncommon.

On September 6, 1952, the women were in a rowboat, joined by 42-year-old Deezie Ivory, enjoying the lake at Sharon Woods Park. A quarrel erupted between Betty and Evelyn; to escape the fight, Deezie quickly rowed to shore. There around 5:00 PM, the argument reached its peak. Betty strangled Evelyn, rendering her unconscious but still alive. In full view of the crowded park, Betty grabbed Evelyn by the ankles and held her head beneath the lake waters. "If I can't strangle her," she cried, "I'll drown her!" Leaving Evelyn partially submerged in the water, Betty nonchalantly said, "My work here is done," and walked away. She was stopped by park rangers before leaving the park; attempts to resuscitate Evelyn were unsuccessful.

Newspaper accounts varied when reporting the details. Some claimed the women argued over a man and it was a crime between "love rivals" while the Plain Dealer claimed it was a "sex revenge" murder. Jet Magazine made full mention of the "abnormal relationship", but seemed to waffle between Betty willingly becoming Evelyn's girlfriend and her being taken advantage of by a lesbian. In any case, it seemed the press was uncomfortable addressing the possibility that this was a legitimate same-sex relationship. They avoided the exact details of the crime as much as humanly possible.

Betty Butler was charged with first-degree murder and taken to jail. Her trial was swift; though Betty claimed it was self-defense "to escape [Evelyn's] perverted intentions" of keeping Betty as a "sex slave", she was found guilty and sentenced to death. She was sent to the reformatory in Marysville, Ohio, to await her execution. While in prison, Betty took up charcoal drawing and found she had a knack for art. "It's one of those things I didn't know I could do until too late," she said.

Her execution was delayed three times by appeals, but she met her fate on June 12, 1954 at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. After a last meal of scrambled eggs with cheese, toast, and apricots, Betty went to the electric chair dressed in a pink and black dress with white bobby socks and white Oxford shoes. At 8:00 PM, still clutching her rosary (Betty had turned Catholic while in prison), the switch was thrown. She was pronounced dead at 8:10 PM. She was the last woman executed by the State of Ohio.

Women were housed in a building at the southeast corner of the prison, not too far from the "Death House" where the electric chair sat. Today, this spot is covered by McFerson Commons, better known as Arch Park (so named because of the stone arch found here, the only remnant left of the 1897 Union Station which once faced High Street before being demolished in 1979) at the corner of Spring Street and Street. Perhaps if you take an evening stroll in Arch Park, you can still catch a glimpse of Betty, or maybe she finally found peace and has moved on to a better place.

For more information on Betty Butler's story, read The Penalty is Death: U.S. Newspaper Coverage of Women's Executions by Marlin Shipman.

A Rose By Any Other Name...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 04:45:00 +0000

About a week ago, author Deonna Sayed brought up an interesting and very valid question:

What makes someone a paranormal investigator? Is it active field work (with or without a team)? Watching "the shows"? Going to a few conferences? Just knowing people in "the field"? At what point does someone earn the right to claim the title?

These days, there are people out there who watch a few episodes of Ghost Hunters and BAM! They're "paranormal investigators". It's a word thrown out to describe the thrill-seeker who pays fifty bucks to tramp around a haunted prison with a hundred other people in a black logoed t-shirt as well as the die-hard individuals who've spent decades tirelessly perfecting their methods just the same. And honestly, it's a self-denoted title; there's no college accredited degree for investigating ghosts, no ectoplasmic trophy differentiating the "amateur" from the "expert" in the field (although many people use the word expert to describe themselves).

But we can't just blame it on the explosion of paranormal television. In the past decade--yes, even before cable ghost busters--I have watched people join a group, go on one investigation, quit within a week, start their own "group" a day later, and suddenly say they're "experienced professional paranormal investigators". There might be something psychological at play here: the human need for superiority, recognition, praise, and/or approval. No one likes being low man on the totem pole. We live in a world of instant gratification. Why work toward something when you can jump right to the end goal?

So, let's take a closer look at Deonna's question and break it down. Does active field work make you an investigator? Yes and no. Just like you can't learn proper brain surgery from reading a book and watching a documentary, the best real way to earn the title of investigator is to, well, investigate. A lot of important things can be learned from reading books or observing others do some form or work, but real know-how is a hands-on experience. Not everything works as well as it seems on television, and some methods used by others may be completely unreliable. Trial and error rules out the bogus from the plausible. That's something you can't simply sit back and take notes to learn. Repeated effort (and failure) is a wonderful way to learn and one way true progress is actually made.

Does watching a show make you an investigator? That's a big fat "NO". I've watched building and construction documentaries and shows, but I'm not an architect not do I pretend to be. You can learn some things for television, but it's no substitute for real life. The same applies to online websites. And for the record, no; playing Farmville doesn't make you a farmer. So how about going to a conference? Again, it's the same thing. Does going to a book conference make you a writer? Maybe if you're a hipster...

So what about knowing people in "the field"? Again, that doesn't necessarily make you an investigator. It can, however, better educate you and help you learn skills, bounce ideas off someone more knowledgeable than yourself, or even give you role models who point you in the right direction. Of course, some people like to "collect" popular people as friends as if associating yourself with a para-celebrity will suddenly give you credibility. If you want to befriend someone in the field, ask yourself why you want to know them. If it's for sharing limelight or to show off that you know the "in crowd", it's for the wrong reasons. On the other hand, if it's someone you admire or find fascinating/interesting/good-natured on a human level and wouldn't care if they were a nobody, then I say go for it.

The reality is that there are several true categories of "paranormal investigators" all lumped under the same umbrella term: the beginner curious to find explanations for the unknown, the history buff tickled at the idea of discovering 'living history', the entertainment junkie looking for a good scare or creepy old building to wander around in, the scientific-minded seeker who wants to validate or disprove the phenomena, the writer looking for an interesting story, the social person looking for a different sort of group activity, and the seasoned "professional" archiving and collecting data to try to arrive at a hypothesis. Some people are a combination of these. Others fall somewhere between. We don't have specific terms for each type of ghost hunter; to many, they're all "investigators".

Over the years, I've referred to myself as an "investigator" less and less. It's not due to early retirement or somehow being a sudden complete skeptic. (I've always held a certain level of skepticism; I find it invaluable when dealing with strange occurrences and eye-witness testimonies.) The main reason is that in recent years, I've spent more time writing about locations and researching the historical background of legends and places that I haven't spent enough time actually investigating allegedly haunted places. Do I miss it? Of course I do. And my days of looking for the unexplained are far from over. But it's the history that drives me forward. Having a psychic tell me that a 12-year-old girl died in a hotel room is all fine and dandy, but finding a documented account of that event correlating to a legend of a ghostly girl brings me a level of excitement I can't even describe. More often than not, the real history is much more interesting than the rumor.

Some of us live to find that piece of concrete evidence to prove ghosts aren't all in the mind. Others just live to be scared out of their wits. Is everyone with a flashlight, camera, and EMF meter a "paranormal investigator"? Hardly. There are the inexperienced and experienced, the green and the seasoned, the serious and the carefree. Only you know where you fall on the spectrum; whether you choose to state the truth or bend it is your own choice. But if you're true to yourself, positive things can happen. Only by knowing where you stand can you find the path to where you want to be.

Let's Hear It for the Boy...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:22:00 +0000

Generally, I don't watch any paranormal television shows. Sometimes I'll watch an old episode if it deals with a place I'm curious to find out a general synopsis about or (as in the case if Haunted Collector) if there happen to be antiques being discussed. I'd much rather be out exploring new locations than playing armchair observer. But it seems I might have to start tuning in later this year to a show I haven't watched in years. It's the perennial favorite SciFi Channel series Ghost Hunters.

I never watched a single episode of Ghost Hunters Academy nor did I ever submit an audition tape to any paranormal show (unless you count responding to an email from an agent of a well-known actor looking for possible cast members for a show that never made it off the ground). I do admire people who have been in front of a camera and while I haven't been on any major network I have found myself being filmed for television, so I know how much actually goes into a short piece. (And the fun of walking up the same hill three times to be filmed from different angles.) So of course, when I learned about the winner of the last season, I didn't think anything of it.

Yes. I'm so far out of the loop I couldn't tell you anything about ghost shows from the past year. Even worse, I doubt I'd recognize any of the names. But I guess I'm still used to the good ol' days of paranormal investigation when the people we looked up to were rarely on television and all we learned came from books, documentaries, and the occasional online discussion. I sort of miss those days.

Anyway, I was poking around through news articles the other day trying to find an old cold case I read about when I stumbled across some things about Adam Berry, the newest cast member of Ghost Hunters. And I was taken aback slightly. For the first time, someone openly acknowledged their sexuality before becoming a cast member on a hit paranormal show. That's right; we have ourselves an out gay man on television who happens to hunt ghosts. For anyone who lives under a log like myself and missed it, here's his audition tape for the show:

According to an interesting interview with AfterElton, Adam said he hadn't experienced any negative treatment on the basis of his sexuality, which is quite promising news. Author Deonna Sayed interviewed me a year back about being a gay ghost hunter and I mentioned some of my own past issues in the field. Of course, I'm in Ohio and not Provincetown, Massachusetts like Adam. As they say, it's all about location, location, location. Both Adam and his boyfriend founded Provincetown Paranormal Research Society (and I believe I ran across the name somewhere in my research, likely when I was in Salem shortly after my book came out), and he's spent about two years looking for spooks. Whether or not they've checked out some of the places I interviewed for my book and the others I've saved for a sequel I'm not sure. " I’d love to investigate something [gay] in Provincetown," Berry told AfterElton. Maybe one of these days I'll try to set up a brief interview and fill him in on some great spots in his neck of the woods.

I do hope the show goes well for him and the trend of tolerance continues. Of course, this means I might have to go back a few months and catch up on the past season that I missed entirely. Between college, writing, and editing, this year has been a bit of a blur for me. But at least now there's another source of televised amusement for the dull times. Yes, I know I'm terrible... suddenly watching a show with a gay cast member. But it's always good to see "family" on the air. And who knows; maybe one day, I'll be thought of as a freak more for wearing a bowler instead of being one of the rare few gay ghost hunters.

When Being First Means Second...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 05:25:00 +0000

A lot of paranormal shows (as well as paranormal groups) relish in the idea of being the first investigators allowed into a reputedly haunted site. It can be a big announcement if there's enough publicity. But sometimes, things turn out to be incorrect. With a little digging, anyone can find these mistakes.

Such a claim was made back in an episode of Ghost Adventures aired on February 18, 2011, when the team went to Salem, Massachusetts, for a two-part investigation including the Lyceum Restaurant and the famous Witch House owned by Jonathan Corwin. The episode talked about the Witch House investigation and the difficulties of getting access and permission to film at the site. They showed a local Salem News article about the show which stated, "This may be the first time ghost hunters have been allowed in the home. . ." Unfortunately, this guess was snagged by Zak Bagans and mentioned several times as false truth.

"That's cool, man! We had to... you had to go to a committee and a board hearing..." Zak said while talking to author Jeff Belanger during the filming, "but we won! We won lockdown at the Witch House!" Later, inside the home, Zak went on: "This is a huge moment for the Ghost Adventures crew being the first allowed to investigate the historic 'witch house'. . ."

Actually, he might be right that no one has ever been "locked down inside" for a night in the museum. (Not many people feel the need to lock themselves inside a haunted building at night.) But as far as being the first people to investigate at the house... well, that's wrong. Another television show actually did investigate the Witch House just a few years back. Episode six of the second season of Dead Famous aired on October 18, 2005, in search of Betty Davis. (Click here to watch a clip.) During their hunt for the famous actress, they stopped for a brief ghost hunt inside the Witch House. They even interviewed warlock Christian Day briefly for the show. (If you have seen the episode, Christian was the one performing the ritual inside the house for Zak and the gang--much to their horror.)

With so many paranormal shows having come and gone in the last decade, it's easy to forget about them. And as always, we do love to forget our history, be it recent or long ago.

Having watched both of these episodes--and the reactions of the hosts--it makes me glad, in a way, that I am who I am. Both Chris Fleming and Zak Bagans seemed completely clueless about witchcraft or anything outside traditional Christian beliefs. Most of my life, I've experienced different things, different places, and different people. I've exposed myself to so many ideas, religions, and types of people that nothing really seems bizarre or foreign. Some things are definitely different, but not too shocking. It's always amusing to see people be shocked (or overreact) to anything outside their own view of "normal life." This world is a complex, unique place where everyone sees things in a different way. It's hard to find out what really is average or normal when it's all relative and subjective.

While our life experiences shape who we are, we tend to limit our view of the world to what we know or familiarize ourselves with. That leads to misunderstanding people and beliefs as well as coming across as ignorant or self-righteous in front of a camera or a crowd. There is no true right or wrong, only different. Opinions, morals, and views of truth and history are all based upon a society or individual point of view. But one thing is for certain; only one person can be the first.

Some Things are Better Buried...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:08:00 +0000

Another long week is drawing to an end and is heading into a bit of a busy weekend. Finally, my library talk on Australian ghost stories and legends went off without too many hitches on Tuesday. I did enjoy the experience and everyone seemed to enjoy both the presentation and prizes, yet for many reasons I'm just glad I can toss everything back in a box and forget about it.

Now that's not to say I suddenly dislike Australia or have anything against the country. That's certainly not the case. But after a few events earlier this year, the last thing I wanted to do was reflect more on my trip and dust off my box of brochures from my various adventures. I guess you could say there were some bittersweet experience in the months following my big trip. Those fun trust issues I can have from time to time were brought forth in the most severe way yet. I would even hazard to say that the events of this year have permanently altered me. Whether it's for the worse or better is still up in the air.

Normally, I'm a very lax person when it comes to getting over petty disagreements or situations, but there are always exceptions to the rule. I'm not one to hold a permanent grudge on most matters and I've gotten over a good many things over the years (and amazed some friends and exes at how forgiving I can be sometimes). That doesn't mean I always make nice, though. Sometimes, a string of events, behaviors, and issues connect into one big ball of bile that taints something so strongly that you have to either lock it all in some trunk to be shoved between empty rafters in the far recesses of the subconscious... or let it make you bitter.

Bitterness can be a tough thing to shake, but I prefer blocking things out over becoming a grumpy old man.

A lot of people who know and have met me have realized I can appear tranquil on the surface while there's a hurricane going on inside me. I can smile and be friendly with just about anyone—even if I can't stand them—and at other times, that extreme shyness I've battled most of my life can downright paralyze me (yes, even lead me to have a cocktail too many in a social situation to calm my nerves, which usually leads to even more shyness since I don't want to sound like an idiot by opening my mouth with liquor in my system). I can be a very complicated and hard-to-understand individual. And with that, there are plenty of faults which come with the territory. But I do believe in giving people benefit of a doubt. I also have come to expect the same in return; it just doesn't always work out like that.

There's a quote that I love, often attributed to Einstein, which seems to pinpoint the source of so much of my disappointment and bad experiences: “Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I am not yet completely sure about the universe.” Sometimes, this stupidity can be downright hilarious. At other times, though, it can be the source of anger, frustration, sadness, or any one of a number of negative emotions. Too often lately, it's been the latter instead of the former. I have to work on bringing the balance back in favor of laughing at all things stupid instead of wishing it were some terminal illness.

In a lot of ways, my inner turmoil has been one of my biggest writing blocks this year. In previous years, being busy with adventure has kept me from getting much written. Having an emotional battle raging through my mind and body might be vastly different, but it produces the same effect. Hopefully, I'll tackle some of this baggage and depression and get things sorted out in time to start some new projects. One thing we can't change is the past; but we can stop looking over our shoulder and focus more on the journey ahead. At this pinnacle in time, I honestly can't say where the next ten years of my life will take me or even where I'll be at the end of it. Hopefully, there will be some more interesting books and projects woven in with the madness. I have ideas in my head and a few good people I consider friends still in my life. Hopefully I'll bring those back to the foreground soon, get back to actively writing more, and start back at making my life an eye-opening, awe-inspiring experience instead of something to cringe at.

Paranormal Misdiscoveries...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:55:00 +0000

There is a ton of absolutely mind-boggling ghost hunting out there. And even more, there is an unending wealth of erroneous history, bad investigating, and sheer stupidity. Most of the time, I just breeze by these things and roll my eyes. But yesterday, after watching a half hour video by Discovery Paranormal, I just couldn't bite my tongue any harder. It was begging me to pick it apart... and shed some truth on the reality behind the "Lehigh Valley Train Crash of 1911".

The video starts off with a walk down railroad tracks to the site of the accident, which occurred on August 25, 1911 on a trestle near Manchester, New York, spanning the Canandaigua Outlet. Three passenger cars plunged off the bridge when a faulty steel rail broke apart under the train (which was traveling at excessive speed). According to Michael Angley, the narrator for the show, they also investigated the nearby roundhouse which was "the last place the passengers were before the crash." We'll get back to that major mistake later, but first let's get to the bridge investigation.

It's obvious from the terrible audio that he's using the same full spectrum HD camcorder I have (and didn't feel the need to bother with an external microphone). Heading down the tracks, he says that the train "went down in the ravine," which is a partial truth. Three of the 14 excursion cars went down; that is all. The team's psychic Tammy sensed "it's like fear... it's like 'oh my god, we're going down' kind of feeling... people were scared; I hear children crying and... crash." Really. At a train crash site? But then, Michael goes on: "...back then, those trains they had no safety devices; you know, it was 1911. We're talking about... you're going down 40 feet in a wood and metal coffin; essentially, you're dead."

The first railroad safety improvements (beginning with air brakes) were made in the 1870s. He makes 1911 rail travel sound downright rustic. But if you look at photos of the crashed cars, you will see that they were a far cry from the old wooden cars heated by wood stoves used in the 19th Century. Very little has changed with passenger car design since that time. Today, if you plunge 40 feet off a bridge in an Amtrak car, the only safety feature you can brag about is emergency exit windows. That doesn't help when you're already dead. Michael went on, "...they used that shop back there as the temporary morgue." Actually, the makeshift morgue was in the basement of a country furniture store in nearby Shortsville, just south of the crash site. But I digress.

After many more obvious revelations from the "psychic", the team headed down the ravine to the bottom where the crash happened. And they brought their trusty dowsing rods. Thanks to the wonders of high definition filming, you can watch as the hands of the dowser rock back and forth ever so slightly, causing the rods to cross over and over. And they don't even wait for a question sometimes! While busy talking to a ghostly little girl, the group fails to address an important point: this train carried a number of Civil War veterans and their families returning from Rochester. The brooches worn by unidentified women from the wreck may have been mourning jewelry bearing the initials of dead soldiers. You would think the psychic would have at least picked up on that much, or that someone had bothered to actually read all the newspaper stories about the accident.

But the ghosts were far too busy trying to rush the intrepid ghost seekers to the more important destination: the roundhouse to the west. Ah yes, the roundhouse; that place where passengers wait to board trains. Oh, that's a station... nevermind. For those of you who don't know, a roundhouse is where locomotives are stored and repaired. There is absolutely no reason any passenger would be wandering a roundhouse unless he or she was an employee of the railroad. Still, the team decided this was the most likely spot to look for ghosts (instead of the makeshift morgue, that actually would make any sense whatsoever).

"...if a crash happened here, the victims--or the passengers--would go back to the place that they knew the most, which is the round house [sic]." Inside the old locomotive warehouse (I mean "passenger waiting area/place they turned around trains"), they bring out recorders to capture really vague nonsensical "voices" and sounds. Michael says, "the historian said that the train was still, uh... that the platform was probably still here." Once again, roundhouses did NOT have station platforms. Oops. Just then, the psychic says the first thing that actually makes sense: "...there's a man here... he's really, um, getting people to work..." Finally, something that talks about what the building was really used for--locomotive repair.

The dowsing rods come out yet again and questions fly while the rods swing back and forth a lot. You can really see the hand movements better here (around 15 minutes into the video) when he's asking how many ghosts are inside the building. And the questions keep getting better. "It was a grand building at one time, wasn't it? It was round all the way around?" Both get a 'yes' from the rods. (A roundhouse is commonly a half circle or smaller, otherwise there'd be no place for locomotives to enter. Only a few full circle roundhouses were ever constructed.) There's just one minor problem with this place. The round house was built in 1916, five years after the accident.

The psychic (and by now I use the term loosely) goes on to tell about sensing the passengers. "It's like they were anxious to see their relatives... and they were going on a trip and they couldn't wait to get there. They were almost there..." Thanks for that obvious report. "This is where they changed over, they got a little rest and something to eat..." (This town was NOT a stop for the speeding train in 1911.) Here they bring out "Pete's Ghost Box" to communicate with the spirits. Of course, when using a Ghost Box, you don't actually need to pay any attention to what words are coming out of it (as the team wisely shows us). Never mind that it sounds more like an Ovilus than a "Frank's Box" sweeping radio frequencies. In sure it's just coincidence and they really know what their equipment is called.

After reading off the list of the dead (and getting different answers from the dowsing rods; watch for the hand movements yet again), they announced they "found a bunch of spirits that have not moved on" at the roundhouse. Michael ends it with "Who knows when a train will ever come for them." If they're waiting in the roundhouse, my guess is probably never. And so ends a bafflingly unresearched investigation. Could it have been worse? Absolutely. But this is one video that makes me wonder why some people call themselves serious "paranormal investigators" who, as the website states, are "dedicated" to "collecting hard evidence of paranormal activity."

The Ghosts of Railroads Past...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:36:00 +0000

In keeping with my last post, I've been thinking a lot more lately about how much I've enjoyed railroads over the years. They're still my favorite means of transportation, and it's quite sad seeing how rail travel has died out over the years. People might say that the automobile killed streetcars and passenger railroads, but that's not entirely true. They were still very popular when the transit systems were dismantled. It was mainly a change in public mindset brought on by billions of federal dollars spent to build national highways. In nearly every metropolitan city across the nation (and many small towns in between), it was possible just 60 years ago to get almost anywhere via interurban streetcars and trains.

Since the mid-1800s, railroads shaped and formed this land and our cities. The stories of Casey Jones and John Henry are forever remembered in their old folktales. And it's hard to travel anywhere without passing (or crossing over) an old railroad line, if you know where to look. Many of our towns sprang up from railroad lines snaking across the landscape. Sadly, many of them died out when the trains disappeared. In the Cuyahoga Valley alone, I can think of several towns that have disappeared off the map when the Cleveland Terminal & Valley Railway was sold and switched entirely to freight.

Slowly, I'm working on compiling together some of the thousands of old legends and myths associated with the railroads. Eventually, I'll be setting aside part of my website for them, but there's a lot to wade through before I get there. I find railroad ghost stories just as fascinating as the golden age of steam. Just in Ohio, there are dozens of ghosts associated with train wrecks and accidental deaths from the Ashtabula Train Disaster to the tragedy outside Republic, Ohio, or even the specter of Lincoln's Funeral Train. Even one of my first visits to a haunted place as a teenager was train related: the old depot in Galion, Ohio.

All of the hauntings I've heard have involved steam locomotives, oddly enough. I'm sure there are diesel engines behind hauntings out there somewhere, but I'm content to stick with steam. It's a dying technology; if we don't keep teaching generations about operating old steam engines, they'll become mystifying museum relics. Few people who are alive today can operate an old engine. They require skill and finesse you won't find in a simple diesel engine. Perhaps that's why when it comes to historic preservation, I think railroads are so important.

Interestingly enough, we owe much of the current railroad preservation efforts to two men: Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg. They pioneered railroad pictorial books and started the California State Railroad Museum. Much of our history would be forgotten were it not for these two men. And what's even more interesting is they were a couple. Yes, railroad preservation owes a lot to two gay men. You can still see their private car the Virginia City (complete with its elegant interior that would make Liberace jealous) in California.

Local Ghosts by Rail...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:19:00 +0000

Back around 2004, I was trying to put together a ghost tour on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be; there were some issues raised by the fact that it was both true ghost stories and locations in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I can't blame anyone for the plans being thwarted. There was (and still is) some threat of vandalism within the park system, and inviting people to start exploring the valley for ghosts late at night always carries with it the risk of unscrupulous individuals wreaking havoc on historic places.

But times have changed. Ghosts and hauntings have gained popularity and are seen as a possible source of revenue for many businesses. Slowly, the National Park Service has opened up to the idea of telling ghost stories. They may deny any possible existence of paranormal phenomena, but seeing how popular Gettysburg is with tourists looking for a few ghosts and scares can be an influential power. And now, even the scenic railroad has opened up to otherworldly possibilities.

For anyone looking for something spooky to do this weekend (or during a few other weekends this summer), one option is the new Train to the Paranormal on which visitors can leave Northside Station in Akron for a trip full of ghosts and psychics. On the journey south, guests are accompanied by two mediums—Anne Miller and Helen Mayor—who will offer personal readings to anyone interested. The train stops at North Canton where passengers disembark and board a bus for Canal Fulton. At the Warehouse on the Canal, they will have dinner and drinks in the style of a Victorian wake followed by a ghost walk of the old canal town. The 5 1/2 hour round-tour costs $80 per person and ends back at Northside around 11:00 PM.

Canal Fulton is a lovely (and spooky) little place, full of many ghostly tales. I have been there several times, both to investigate the Warehouse and take Sherri Brake's tour. I've been on a few investigations with Sherri over the past decade and highly recommend her Haunted Heartland Tours. I have also worked with Anne Miller and her daughter, Brenda Brand, on a few investigations (all four of us investigated a few places in the valley together back in September 2005 for the Akron Beacon Journal) and find them both delightful people. Undoubtedly, this is one railroad trip worth taking.

Hopefully, one of these days I'll give another go at an event tied in with Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. I have a few ideas kicking around inside my head as we speak, but they'll require plenty of planning and cooperation with a few businesses. But until that time, at least you can enjoy a few ghost hunts dreamed up by other creative people.

The Burning Truth of the Cuyahoga...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 22:58:00 +0000

The story of Cleveland becoming the home of the "burning river" dated back some 40 years when, for the first time, pollution caused the Cuyahoga River to catch fire. Right? Well, one part of this is true. On June 22, 1969, an oil slick on the river did catch fire and subsequently caught the attention of national media. It also burned in 1950 and 1952. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

"The fire was caused by the water. It flooded some place where was stored some gasoline and carried it down on top of the water to those stills above Wilson Av. to the right as we go in to Cleveland. The water got high enough to carry it in to their fires where it ignited and went down among the tanks below, and as they got hot they blew up and gave their contents to the flames. . . They put timbers across that big creek and threw wood, lumber and anything they found handiest above them into the water and so stopped the surface water and Oil from running down, but they had several acres of burning Oil above. It commenced burning Saturday and we could see the light still Monday morning."

The above account by Alexander Snow in a letter to his son, Fred, wasn't from 1969 or even the 1950s. This blaze touched off on Saturday, February 3, 1883. This was just one fire of the dozen or more on the Cuyahoga since 1868. During the late 19th Century, the river was “so flammable that if steamboat captains shoveled glowing coals overboard, the water erupted in flames” according to author Ron Chernow. Boats were to blame for several of the fires on the sludge-covered river.

Recorded incidents of the river in flames occurred in the following years: 1868, 1883, 1887, 1912, 1922, 1930, 1941, 1948, 1950, 1952, ad 1969. That's more than a century of stories of "the burning river." Yet we only seem to talk about the 1969 fire which led to stricter EPA regulations ad the Clean Water Act. Time and National Geographic magazines widely reported on the last Cuyahoga River fire, which helped it gain such notoriety. In recent time, it inspired "Burning River Pale Ale" made by the Great Lakes Brewing Company.

Rivers flowing through all major industrial cities have been polluted since the mid-1800s when manufacturing boomed. Over the years, the Cuyahoga hasn't been the only "burning river" in the United States. Dearborn, Michigan's Rouge River suffered from several fires. On June 8, 1926, a fire broke out in the Jones Falls area of Baltimore, Maryland, blowing manhole covers off sewer lines and sending a river of flames to the harbor.The Buffalo River burned in 1968 (and July 29, 1880) as did the Chicago River on April 18, 1899 (and many other times, including as recently as 2008) and Philly's Schuylkill River in the 1950s. For as log as mankind has been dumping flammable liquids into our waterways, we've been creating floating infernos.

To call the Cuyahoga the "Burning River" might be accurate, but it's a name synonymous with so many other rivers. Perhaps Cleveland can claim the title for the sheer number of fires on its river. Today, those of use who've been along the Cuyahoga River anywhere between Akron and Cleveland know full well that it's still polluted. Perhaps it won't flare up again, but the root-beer-float-style foam that churns up in some areas is enough to make most people think twice about fishing there. The "Crooked River" is aptly named on so many levels, but we can't say that 1969 was the only year to immortalize a city as the home of a watery inferno.

Most of the information on Cuyahoga River fires was taken from Jonathan Adler's 2003 article 'Fables of the Cuyahoga: Reconstructing a History of Environmental Protection' in the Fordham Environmental Law Journal, Vol. XIV, pages 89-146. The quote attributed to Alexander Snow was published in the book History of the Family of Benjamin Snow (1907; page 126).

The Never-Ending Forgotten History of the Valley...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:27:00 +0000

After a lot of debate, I decided to bring back the Haunted Cuyahoga section of my website. Yes, a lot of my old research (and some rescued documents from Jaite Mill) were turned over to Jeri Holland of Cuyahoga Valley Paranormal about a year ago. I'm still leaving much of the valley's hauntings in her experienced hands. Still, there's so much I've wanted to write about... and so many corrections to make from the old information I had posted. Most of the old pages hadn't been updated since the time when I started looking for ghosts in the Cuyahoga Valley around 1999. Sadly, a lot of that information was total speculation; a lot of research over the years changed what is real from what is urban legend.

In September, Jeri's book Haunted Akron: Ghosts of the Rubber City will be published by The History Press. In it are a few stories from the valley in the southern part within Akron city limits. Since we both feel passionate about history and tossed tons of researched material back and forth over the last few months, we've both been excited by all the new discoveries in both bizarre local history and haunted places. There was the murder of a mixed-race man in a long-since-vanished town, a gruesome suicide at an old canal lock, and a haunted pond in Green Township. But when I scoured old maps and newspaper articles sent to me by Jeri and pinpointed the real location of the "haunted River Styx railroad bridge," you can't imagine how excited we both were.

And there's so much more to tell about; so much so that Jeri is already planning a second Haunted Akron book. At the same time, we're working together to get a early start on teaming up as co-authors for a book on ghosts in the Cuyahoga Valley tentatively planned for The History Press next year. I'm slowly adding some new discoveries to my site, though a lot of it will remain hidden until the book eventually is written and released (though I may share some stories at library talks before then). It's hard to keep all these stories to myself. I've always know that the Cuyahoga Valley has had some wild tales in its past; I ever expected the list to keep growing.

While not all stories involve ghosts directly, there are plenty of downright creepy sites to see. Along Riverview Road, I found the site of a fatal shooting by an "insane," drunken husband. Near a old canal lock, there are apple trees growing which are likely the offspring of trees planted by French traders in the 1600s. And, of course, one tale is a particular favorite of mine: the railroad station along the Valley Railway built on top of an old Irish cemetery! Yes, the bodies are still there... and I'm pretty sure that no one--not even the National Park Service--realizes it.

Hopefully before the heat of summer dies down, I'll have a chance to check out some of these places and (perhaps) have an investigation or two. This is the one thing I've missed the most: being the first person to look for ghosts in certain locations for many decades. Back when I started exploring the valley, it was like that. As some spots have become extremely popular, it took the fun and excitement out of investigating. I've never been crazy about going places that hundreds or thousands of would-be ghost busters trample to death. I like being unique, and in finding these new places that haven't been exhausted to death is the best way to do that.

Bits of the Strangely Newsworthy...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:07:00 +0000

While I've been busy digging through Akron history, here are a few of the more bizarre (and slightly morbid or preternatural) news stories I missed from around the world.

Exterminating Self-Extermination...

Euthanasia can be controversial, but what about the right to do yourself in? While assisted suicide of terminally-ill patients is fine in Oregon, the state's House of Representatives has decided it's not right to cash in on someone else's desired death. A bill was passed on Monday making the sale of "suicide kits" illegal. California woman Sharlotte Hydorn has been selling asphyxiation kits for $60 each (plus shipping) to would-be final clients for some time, but now might face up to 10 years in prison for selling her wares (called "exit kits") to people in Oregon. I guess for those down-and-out souls on the rainy, dreary coast, it's back to the tried and true methods like arsenic, hand guns, and hangings.

File Under V for Vanished...

Many people have complained about the blacked-out portions of US military records dealing with unidentified flying objects. It could be worse; they could have disappeared. So seems to be the case in Australia where, after an exhaustive two-month search, the records housed by the military related to UFO reports (or "X-Files") are AWOL. The case files were recorded up until 2000 and a newspaper recently requested copies of the old documents, at which time the disappearance was discovered. Officials say they must have been lost or destroyed. Another government cover-up of alien contact? Or the cleaning crew doing overtime? One thing is for certain: no Aussie cattle are safe.

Recalculating the Apocalypse...

We can't blame Harold Camping for miscalculating the Rapture. Of the thousands of years of human time, narrowing down that one single day when the good Christians of the world would be beamed up to heaven must be a daunting task. After apologizing for his error, Camping has announced the real date of the end of the world: October 21, 2011. It's time to get those new billboards and signs prepared and enjoy the last few months before demons rise up and slaughter the wicked. Luckily for him, the new date falls much closer to Halloween. If you want to show the streets of the United States filled with ghouls, devils, and monsters, there's no better month than October.

Presidential Tomb Raiders...

The days of corpse theft are still alive and well . . . at least in the Mediterranean. Last month, three men were convicted of stealing the body of Cyprus' late President Tassos Papadopoulos. They planned to use the deceased as a bargaining chip to negotiate for the release of one of the men's brothers who was serving two life sentences for murder. (Luckily for him, not for the murder of the president.) Papadopoulos died of lung cancer in 2008; his body was stolen less than a year later. Desecration of a grave is a misdemeanor in Cyprus and the men were sentenced to 18-20 months in jail. While they may not have freed the convicted murderer, at least they won't have to wait to visit him behind bars.

Politics are Cutthroat...

We may think that politicians are insane fools, but in the republic of Kyrgyzstan, they certainly can be creative. It seems that Parliament in the former Soviet Central Asian country was having a lot of trouble. Obviously, it couldn't be caused by all the disputes and troubles caused by living people. It must have been the work of evil spirits. So they took it upon themselves to go back to their roots by asking, "What would our ancestors have done in times like this?" The answer was a eureka moment: Let's sacrifice some sheep! To appease the "evil spirits," rams were led to the green lawn in front of governmental headquarters and ritually slaughtered. According to Kurmanbek Osmonov, a member of Parliament, "This is a popular ancient tradition, carried out in order to avoid a repeat of last year's tragic events and for peace and harmony to triumph." Only time will tell of the sacrifice worked or, for that matter, if the trend will catch on and make politicians far more amusing.

Back to Local Ghosts...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 03:21:00 +0000

Another year is rushing by. Though I've felt like my life has been quite boring lately, it hasn't been entirely without amusement and productivity. Most of my writing time has involved PowerPoint shows for libraries (I'm expecting to do several this fall on various places, including the Cuyahoga Valley) and helping with a book. Haunted Akron—written by long-time investigator and former arch enemy Jeri Holland (it's a long story, but we used to fight over the valley many years ago)—will be released this fall as part of the "Haunted America" series by The History Press. I've been helping with research and acting as contributing editor, making sure it's as free of errors as possible and polished before submission. I can tell you now; if you know about haunted places in Akron, you'll find plenty of surprises in this book.

There will likely be a sequel, hopefully within a year. There were so many hauntings in the Akron Metropolitan area that there wasn't enough time to thoroughly research them all and still meet the deadline. Some well-known ghost stories were left out due to time restraints, but other forgotten stories have been brought to light for the first time in a century. Then there's the surprise twist to an old story covered by many people over the years. Every paranormal investigator who has waited for a ghost train to appear at a certain bridge in northeast Ohio has been looking in the wrong place. Luckily, that legend has finally been told correctly in Haunted Akron. I'm looking forward to investigating the real haunted bridge this summer with Jeri and a few other friends.

Aside from the sequel, Jeri and I are teaming together for a new Haunted Cuyahoga book (likely to be named "Ghosts of the Cuyahoga Valley")slated for next fall, published by The History Press as well. I've enjoyed working with Jeri the past few years. We both feel passionate about history and love to dig up old stories from books and newspaper archives. This time, the Cuyahoga Valley will be covered in-depth and accurately. I'll be dusting off my old research from my old book, correcting errors and including many more tales recently uncovered along with stories meant to go in the unfinished sequel. I am looking forward to the chance at working with The History Press. Well, officially working with them this time.

Since Jeri has a bad case of stage fright, I'll be helping out with talks at libraries and events dealing with ghosts of Akron this fall. My talk at Cuyahoga Falls Library on Australian hauntings will kick things off on July 5 at 6:30 PM. From that time on, I'll be heading into my usual busy autumn filled with ghosts and goblins. I have some other plans in store as well, but I'll save the details until they happen. I really do need to get back to work on seeking out those bizarre, unusual ghost stories I do love to find. But for now, I have much more work to do.

The End is Nigh, Again...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Thu, 19 May 2011 09:25:00 +0000

"The present week is a time of great interest to the believers in the personal reign of Christ, and in the Second Advent as now near. This week, we believe, will conclude the 2,300 years from the going forth of the decree to restore and build Jerusalem, at which time the word of God has been given that the sanctuary shall be cleansed, and there shall be an end of indignation." - Horace Canfield

Sounds familiar, right? Well, perhaps. Some of you might know that May 21, 2011 is Judgement Day (or what you could call "Rapture Day"), according to followers of Howard Camping. Never mind that his 1994 prediction of the end of the world came and went; apparently, his math was wrong and Saturday is the real date. He purports that there will be a catastrophic earthquake in New Zealand (sorry, kiwis) that ripples across the globe causing mass destruction. The saved will go to Heaven, while the rest of us... well, you might as well stock up on marshmallows and ice.

There have been a lot of similar predictions throughout history. Entire religions, sects, and cults have formed over a belief in Armageddon. Which beings me to the above quote. It came from the American Democrat, an Akron, Ohio, newspaper, during the 1840s.

Between 1841 and 1846, a religious craze swept northeast Ohio. Millerism, or Second/Seventh-Day Adventism, was founded by a farmer and war veteran turned pastor named William Miller. While Miller wasn't what you might call educated, he was devoutly religious and read the Bible... well... religiously. You could say Miller was one of the first conspiracy theorists; he had an unhealthy obsession with hidden symbols and prophecies found in biblical texts. It was this work that helped him discover the day when the world would end: April 4, 1843.

It came and went. Luckily, he realized there was an error in calculation. The true date was April 23, 1844.

Again, nothing happened. Well, at least as far as the Rapture is concerned.

Plenty did happen, concerning the thousands of followers (called Millerites). Both times they prepared for the end of the world. Some went so far as to commit suicide. Even after the failed predictions, believers lost their minds. In November 1844, Ira Viets of Cuyahoga Falls chiseled off his own penis, taking the doctrine, "If thy member offends thee, cut it off" far to literally. The final blow (no pun intended) for Akron's Second Adventist movement came when their "Tabernacle" was blown to smithereens with a keg of gunpowder on December 23, 1845.

A few sex scandals over the next year and the Millerites fizzled out. Yet many other doomsday prophets would come between then and now. We seem to be a people obsessed with destruction (or fear-mongering). From Jonestown and the grape FlaVor-Aid® deaths of 1978 to the Apocalypse of 2012, we take the end of the world very seriously. Our fear of death and destruction brings about its own self-fulfilling prophecy.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "Life is a journey, not a destination." Unfortunately, in our modern times, we've forgotten this almost entirely. We fear death and the end of the world. We rush from place to place without paying any attention to the trip in between. Life is all about the instant gratification; less cerebral, more limbic. Honestly, death can come at any moment of any day. Why spend life focusing on the end results when there's plenty of living to do? Whether your travels are short or long, enjoy what you have while you have it.

Weird World News...

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Summers) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 22:06:00 +0000

It's time again to break from reality and take a peek at some of the more bizarre things that have happened in our world.

Three Cheesus Pizza...

The Holy Trinity might need to be re-written as dough, tomato sauce, and mozzarella. Last month in Brisbane, a pizza emerged from the oven at Posh Pizza bearing the likeness of Jesus.A fluke or miracle, the unlikely image quickly became the talk of the town. While many see Jesus, others see a variety of famous bearded men (including Viggo Mortensen and Christian Bale). ''It's open to interpretation as many of these crazy, out there things are,'' employee Maree Phelan, who made the pizza in question, told the Herald Sun. The store auctioned the vacuum-sealed pizza on Ebay, raising $153 ($164 US) for charity.

Your Plasma or Your Life!?

Aaron Homer, 24, was sentenced to three years of probation in an Arizona court last month for stabbing his roommate, Robert Maley. The incident occurred following an argument over sucking blood. Homer and his girlfriend Amanda Williamson initially claimed self-defense when police arrived following a report of gunfire at the apartment. The couple later admitted to stabbing 25-year-old Maley after he refused to let them suck his blood. Homer told police he became enraged when Maley made fun of the couple for being pagan and into "vampire stuff." (Police report available at Smoking Gun) Maley fled the scene, fearful of arrest on outstanding warrants.

Homo Erectus Flamboyantensis?

Have scientists found an early case of homosexuality? Here's what infoMania's Brian Safi has to say: