The most common ghost
encounters people experience are subtle in nature. These encounters can be
scary, but most witnesses do not report the widespread stereotyped spirits that
are portrayed in books and films.
Ghosts rarely confront or
come after the living.
On this blog, many stories of
true hauntings are shared. The witnesses in these stories often report just
feeling the ghost’s presence as opposed to seeing it. But they know a presence
is there and the fact they cannot explain it is scary enough.
How is that chair moving? Where did those footprints
come from? Who is walking upstairs? Who opened that door? Who slammed the door
shut? Where is that rose perfume coming from? What brushed against my leg? Who
is whispering? Who is humming? Who turned off the light? Why is my dog
growling? Where is the banging sound coming from? Why is this side of the room
freezing cold?
People that experience
hauntings often report unusual smells and sounds. These may lead to a
sighting, but more often not.
This is why seeing an
apparition is considered the "Holy Grail."
A hundred to one, people
report being touched by something unseen as opposed to accounts that state a person saw a ghost touch them.
In the accounts I share,
hardly ever is there an encounter where a ghost talks to someone—granted they
make noise, but they do not carry on conversations.
EVP’s are the exception to
this--but in these instances, the ghost’s voice is recorded--the spirit is not
seen or heard talking in real time.
One of the creepiest things a
witness can experience is seeing a ghost in a photo when it wasn’t there at
the time the picture was snapped. This happens more often than most realize.
The fact that witnesses
experience all this “unseen” activity actually makes it scarier. When
something is unseen people’s imaginations, kick in, and their imaginings often make things tens times worse than they actually are. Most hauntings are benign in
nature but the way the living experience them makes them infinitely scarier.
The Silver Run 1,376-foot
tunnel is a former Baltimore & Ohio Railway tunnel that lies between
Clarksburg and Parkersburg located in Ritchie County in West Virginia.
Over the years many witnesses
have seen the specter of a young woman appear out of nowhere near its entrance.
Train engineers for almost a
century reported seeing this ghost at night. They described her as wearing a
long flowing white dress.
An early report about one
engineer’s experience in the 19th century described what he encountered on his
midnight run.
“ . . . as he was coming around a bend approaching
tunnel #19 he saw a girl suddenly appear on the tracks. She had pitch-black
hair and bloodless skin. She was wearing a light colored gown, standing at the
entrance to the tunnel.”
This engineer first thought
she must be “sleepwalking” so he slammed on his brakes frantically to avoid
hitting her. The figure appeared to be unaware of the train that was barreling
down on her.
At the last minute, when the
train was about to hit her,
“She screamed and jumped straight up into the air.”
When the train stopped he got
out to look for a body but there was no evidence a person had been struck.
When this engineer reached
Parkersburg he told about his encounter with this strange girl, the
stationmaster reassured him not to worry several others had reported the same
sight.
Other engineers continued to
report seeing this ghost at the Silver Run Tunnel. One engineer reported his encounters
so often the railroad officials felt he was “cracking up.”
They replaced him with a new
engineer by the name of O’Flannery. This Irishman proclaimed that no ghost was
going to get the best of him.
On his first run he put his train at
full throttle and stated he was not going to stop regardless of what happened.
At dusk he reached the tunnel. It was foggy and there was a full moon.
He spotted the woman in white
but he kept going. The ghost screamed and shot straight up.
When he reached the station
at Parkersburg he noticed a crowd waiting for his arrival. When he asked what
was going on he was told as his train passed each station they telegraphed to
say there was a girl riding on the front of the train—her arms outstretched and
screaming.
The fog had lifted by the
time he arrived and when he inspected his engine nothing was there.
He requested a transfer after this.
The story behind this
haunting is vague. It is believed a young woman was traveling from Grafton to
Parkersburg to get married.
“Something happened to her
along the way.” One version states a jealous former lover followed her, stabbed
her and then threw her off the train. Another version states this young women
jumped off the train committing suicide.
Years later, the legend
states when part of the tunnel was being dismantled the workers found a
skeleton behind one wall. It was wearing the remnants of a white wedding dress.
Today the tunnel is a part of
the recreational North Bend Rail Trail so
it is mostly bikers and hikers that encounter the ghost at Silver Run. Two
recent witnesses were a man and a woman hiking through the area.
As they walked into the
tunnel they spotted this female ghost standing directly in front of their
flashlight beams. They left the tunnel quickly. They did not know the tunnel
was considered haunted until after their encounter.
One ghost hunting couple also
encountered the Lady in White as they
investigated the tunnel. She made an appearance and these two have not returned
since.
The following video shows
what this abandoned train tunnel looks like today.
The Battle of Edgehill was
the first battle fought during the English Civil War. Arriving at an impasse
with the Parliamentarian government, King Charles l declared war and led his soldiers
against the Parliamentarian army.
Parliamentarian cavalry break
through lines of the Royalist army.
Illustration by Ron Embleton
The King's troops were
marching from Shrewsbury toward London when the Parliamentarian or Roundhead forces lead by the Earl of Essex intercepted them at
Edgehill midway between Banbury and Warwick.
Over 30,000 troops clashed in
this 3-hour battle on October 23, 1642. A thousand men were killed, and neither
side was able to declare victory. The dead bodies were looted for their clothes
and money, and the wounded were left to die where they lay.
Three months later these
corpses were still strewn across this battlefield. Just before Christmas of
1642, a group of shepherds saw a strange sight. They watched, as the Battle of
Edgehill was re-enacted in the sky above them.
They heard the cries of men
as they died and horses’ screams. They also heard the clash of armor. They described to the local priest what they had seen and heard. He told them that he had also
seen these phantom fighting soldiers.
After this, there were so
many reported sightings of this unusual battle, a
pamphlet by the Kineton villagers, detailing the sightings entitled, A Great Wonder in
Heaven was published in January of 1643.
News of this ghostly activity
reached King Charles’ ears. He sent a Royal Commission to investigate. These
men also witnessed this phantom battle. They even reported recognizing some of
the deceased soldiers' voices.
Fight for the standard.
One voice they recognized was
that of the king’s standard bearer, Sir Edmund Verney. He had been captured
during the battle and refused to give up the standard, so the Roundheads cut off
his hand to take it. When the Royalists recaptured this standard, it is
said that Verney’s hand was still attached to it.
The ghostly activity became
so pronounced at Edgehill that the villagers decided they best give the fallen
soldiers a Christian burial. When this was done, the sightings appeared to stop.
However, even today, people
still report odd sounds and sights at Edgehill. Witnesses have heard the sounds
of screams, battle cries, cannon fire, and the thunder of horses’ hooves. Apparitions
are still seen.
It is stated these sights and
sounds become more pronounced on the anniversary of this battle.
In Helena, Montana on 9th
Avenue sits a Victorian mansion that was built in the 1880s.
One mansion on 9th Avenue that
has been renovated.
The original owner William
Zastrow lost his first wife and then remarried. After his death in 1912 his
second wife Marie lived in the home until 1927. William Zastrow had no
children but like many of his neighbors he took in borders in the 1890s because
of the mining boom.
It is believed at this time a major tragedy
took place in the home--but the details are lost to history.
In 1995 a Helena newspaper, Independent Record published a story
about the Zastrow mansion being haunted.
A Mystery
A mother and her young
daughter lived in the home in the early 1970s. This daughter played with a
neighborhood boy that lived close by.
The two would ride their
tricycles endlessly around the upstairs hallway. The mother would hear them
laughing and pedaling as she did her
chores downstairs.
One morning the mother heard
the two playing upstairs. She had not noticed the neighbor boy enter the home but she was glad her daughter had a playmate and that the two had so much fun
together.
At lunchtime she went
upstairs to get the two so they could eat. As she walked up the stairs their
laughter ceased but she heard two voices whispering.
When she reached the landing
her daughter was playing quietly in a corner. The rocking chair at the end of
the hall was rocking slowly back and forth.
There was no sign of neighbor
boy. She searched but there were no other children upstairs.
A Crying Girl
Not long after this the
mother awoke one night to the sound of a child crying. She immediately went to
her daughter’s room but she was fast asleep.
A few nights later she awoke
again. This time the sobbing was even louder.
She turned over and saw a
little girl with old-fashioned brown ringlets partially covering her face. She wore a
rumpled Victorian-era dress.She stood next
to the bed crying hysterically then she faded away.
The mother awoke the next
morning feeling that she must of had a weird dream. But when the same image
continued to appear at her bedside always crying she knew it wasn’t a dream.
The mother became depressed
feeling there was nothing she could do to help ease this little girl’s sadness.
As time passed, the girl would
turn away and head toward the hall where two adults stood, a male with a mustache and
a woman wearing a black silk Victorian dress.
Each would take one of the
girl’s hands. It appeared she did not want to go with them for she tugged at
their hands trying to free herself and crying even louder.
The mother watched this scene unfold several times--each time the three would then just disappear through a wall.
After a time, the little girl
still appeared but now she would walk into the hall and stop and gaze out a window
that overlooked the valley.
Always the ringlets fell over
her face so the mother never saw her face clearly.
She felt instinctively this
little girl must have lost her real parents and "didn’t know how to find them."
Months before this woman moved
from the house she arranged to meet with a circle of friends in the home’s
backyard one evening. They held hands and tried to send positive thoughts to
the little girl.
They communicated that
everything was all right and that she should "step into the next world." But this
ceremony did not work for after this the mother still heard her crying.
The group once more gathered and tried,
this time the crying stopped.
The Next Owner
A single woman stayed in the
home in the late 1970s.
She never saw the little girl
ghost but she felt she still haunted the house. She experienced what she described as "tricks" this ghost played.
Her most cherished possession
was an old German clock. Even though this clock had always worked, once she
moved in and hung it on the wall it stopped working.
She had it repaired several
times but each time she returned it to the old home it stopped. She finally
gave it to a friend for safekeeping. At its new location it "kept perfect time."
She had a family antique
chair reupholstered but soon after it was unwrapped and placed in the home a
purple stain appeared on the back of the seat.
The owner knew she had not
done this so she wondered if this had happened at the upholstery shop. Upset, she
planned to return it but the next morning the stain was gone.
The stain appeared several
more times it then would completely disappear again.
The new owner found out about
the crying child several years after she moved in. She felt this little
girl was now happier since she enjoys playing pranks. In the winter months when there
is frost on the mansions' windows neighbors report seeing an oval shape wiped
clear in one window pane. They state they see a small face hidden by ringlets
looking toward the valley.
