Category: Paranormal/Urban Legends

Investigation Team: Rosie Miller, Dave Miller
Investigation Date: May 2017

Located within Ohio’s only National Park, the covered bridge, cemetery and road all have reported apparitions.  Nearby in the remote woods is an urban legend, a witch’s grave, partially melted from continual lighting strikes.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: Rosie & I bicycled the National Park’s historical 19 mile Towpath Bike Trail.  It is the original tow path located beside the Ohio & Erie Canal built from 1820 to 1830.  The canal is still full of water for many of the miles. On the south end of the park off a spur of the trail is the covered bridge.  The covered bridge is patterned after the 1869 Smith Truss design. The original bridge was destroyed by 1975 floods and rebuilt.  The private cemetery nearby is dated back to 1847.

ALLEGED SIGHTINGS: Legend has it, the bridge is haunted by the spirits of a local farmer John Gilson who drowned (while his wife watched) in 1877 trying to cross the swollen creek.  Locals have heard disembodied voices pleading for help.  Witnesses have also reported the sounds of horse’s hooves, a faceless man wearing coveralls and lighted lanterns crossing the bridge. During my research an interesting find.  A new road was built just past the bridge which imposed on the Chamberlain/Everett Cemetery property.  While digging during road construction, workers unearthed a tomb with skeletal remains which turned out to be a native American of the Hopewell Indian culture 1,500 years ago.  Construction crews did not think much of the historical significance and built the new road over the burial ground.  Hence locals claim to have seen a ghostly hitch hiker on that road.  The cemetery next to the bridge & new road was abandoned with only a few bodies removed.  Nearby is a creepy, deserted house  (Photo#4). The old photo below (Photo#2) is Everett Covered Bridge after the 1913 flood.  The  flood damage closed the nearby Ohio & Erie Canal.

INVESTIGATION: What can I say, in the daytime it is a beautiful bridge.  I am sure it is creepier at night when your imaginations roam.  We spent 30 minutes sitting in or near the quiet bridge eating our packed lunch then walked part of the grounds nearby.  We had no experiences or sightings to verify this urban legend but enjoyed it for what it was – a beautiful, historic covered bridge looking very serene by the light of day!

Investigation Team:   Dave Miller
Investigation Date:     January 27, 2020

Another Ohio urban legend. This was the second of three investigations in Gratis the past month.
CLAIMS: So many weird claims circulate about the bridge. In one, a creature lives in the woods and you can hear it growl under or near the bridge. Secondly, legend has it a distraught mother threw her baby from the bridge where at night you hear it crying (hence the name Crybaby Bridge).

INVESTIGATION: Once a popular destination for teens, the steel bridge is closed and deteriorating, concrete blocks keeping people from driving onto the bridge. The road, barely wide enough for two cars, is also in bad shape near the bridge. A sign at the north entrance to Fudge Road says “Road Closed Ahead”, to deter people from entering (locals were tired of carloads of young adults drinking, making noise and looking for ghosts at night). The bridge is just a quarter mile from the southern entrance to Fudge Road with a no trespassing sign on a pole overlooking a field. A large creepy, abandoned house is on the left. I walked to the bridge and took photos. I can imagine how you would feel at night because on this dreary, overcast afternoon the dead trees, the sound of the rushing stream and the remoteness made it feel very eerie. Although there are no monsters that live under the bridge, it is a creepy place, ripe for tall tales that created this urban legend.

Investigation Team: Dave Miller, Jim Hall, Matt Miller                               Investigation Date: January 27 & March 2, 2020

CLAIMS: The bridge has a ghost story that goes back to the 1930’s. The urban legend is that some teenagers returning from a party at the Grange Hall took the curve wrong and crashed inside the covered bridge. One boy from the party was thought to have disappeared when in actuality, had gotten a ride from the doomed teenagers. As a result his body was not looked for in the crash but had gotten thrown out and remained hidden in the underbrush beside Sam’s Run stream. It was years later that his remains were found. Locals have claimed that strange things happen when they drive on the bridge. Your engine will die for no reason. A “shhhh” noise or voices may be heard or a tap on the window have been reported. Some think this is the unfound teenager trying to tell you where he is.
Historical Significance: the bridge is on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of only seven remaining Child’s Truss Covered Bridges in the USA. The bridge was built by Everett Sherman in 1877 at the cost of $2,400. The bridge is 85 feet in length.

INVESTIGATION: I visited on a cold winter afternoon. A brisk but very shallow stream, Sam’s Run, ran under the bridge. During my 30 minute investigation there was no other traffic. The bridge was located with sharp curves at each end so openings were cut on each side panel so approaching traffic could be seen before entering the one lane bridge. Standing on the bridge I could faintly hear what sounded like human voices. After walking and listening I moved across to the other side and listened. On this west side of the bridge I could also hear talking. I knew I was alone as farmhouses were a distance away. I walked down the slippery bank and under the bridge. There was no one around but I could hear voices. As I stood under the bridge at the edge of the stream I determined the voices were created by the rush of water over several rocks which sounded just like a human voice. Phantom voices were debunked.
Looking upstream and downstream, Sam’s Run was clear of debris with very little shrubbery and bushes 50 yards in each direction. Although the car wreck was 80 years ago, the banks could have been overgrown then to hide the teenagers body. But if it looked like it did today, it would be hard to believe that a body would fall out of a car and float downstream and not be readily discovered. There was only a ten foot drop from the bottom of the bridge to the water, not far for a car to plunge.
About a month later during the second investigation, Matt, Jim & I saw a slightly deeper stream and faster current. Still not fast or deep enough to carry a body downstream very far. The faster rushing water did not create a human voice sound over the rocks.

Investigation Team: Jim Hall, Jim Bucher (BuchTVguy), Dave Miller, Tammy Brackney (Upper Deck Bar Manager) Jeff Klaene, Mike Sopronyi, Jacque Kelly

Investigation Date:  October 18, 2017

This is a follow-up investigation from six weeks ago due to recent paranormal reports. Special Guest TV Personality Jim Bucher and his crew filmed the investigation, interviewed investigators and made many posts on Facebook Live (go to Jim’s face book at BuchTVguy) to watch the posts. A couple of the posts are on my Facebook site). Buch joined us to investigate and obtain evidence of the possible Bugs Moran gangster ghost & other paranormal claims. Jim’s posts are all hilariously entertaining yet explain the history & nature of the investigation very well.

RECENT SIGHTINGS & CLAIMS:  Two weeks ago on a Tuesday evening two bar patrons were playing pool just after the 12 midnight closing time. The front door was locked and everyone was gone but the two men and a female employee. The man playing pool saw someone walking across the room towards him in the low lighted room. The second man seated across the room yelled “there’s a man in here”. The female employee who was counting down the cash drawer ran into the room but saw no one. Seconds later she said the room became freezing cold and she froze in her tracks until the coldness passed. The three of them did a systematic search of the first floor and the basement but no one else was in the bar except them three.

The following Tuesday Jacque and I interviewed the female employee and one of the men. After related his experience he said that he had another paranormal encounter at the tavern. A couple of years ago he had too much to drink to safely drive home so he went up to the second floor and went to sleep. He was awakened around 3am due to footsteps coming up the stairs. Several times over the next hour he could hear footsteps coming up the stairs but as he peered down the hall the footsteps silenced at the top of the stairs and no person was visible.

INVESTIGATION & FINDINGS:  The crew investigated the second floor, then first floor & lastly the basement from 12midnight to 2:00am. We had access to the second floor for the first time. Tammy said it is rented as a clubhouse for a local motorcycle club but it used to be a couple of rooms/apartments decades before. Cameras & tape recorders were placed in the rooms and stairs when the investigators went to other areas of Upper Deck. Jim Hall caught elevated EMF readings on several areas of the first floor but debunked them as excessive electrical wiring. No paranormal activity was noticed that night.

However, the following day when playing back a tape recorder that I placed at the top of the second floor stairs, I caught an unexplained slam around 1:10am and a second slam about a minute later. It sounded like doors slamming. All investigators were on the first floor at the time and nowhere near the second floor. We plan to interview many more John Bulls/Upper Deck patrons in the near future to hear their paranormal claims and then schedule a third investigation at some point.

EXTRA FINDINGS:  Read Jim Bucher’s column “On the Beat” as he wrote two articles about Bugs Moran and the ghost hunt at Upper Deck Tavern. Go to DaytonCityPaper.com then click on Back Issues. Then click on the October 10 edition and go to page 10. Next click on the October 24-30 edition and go to page 9. I can’t stop laughing at the October 24th column. Great job Buch! (both articles are also on my Face book page).

Investigation Team: Dave Miller
Investigation Date: October 2017

Urban Legends……Can’t live without them.  But there is usually an element of truth to folklore and legends.  HF of Moraine told this story to me in early October. His mother said that back in the l930’s there was a woman who lived alone in a house in the woods up on Pinnacle Hill. Locals said she was a witch! One night a few days before Halloween locals burnt her house down with her inside. It is said that as she was dying that she yelled and placed a curse on the locals. Fast forward to the 1980’s. HF, his wife and a neighbor couple were outside in the backyard on the week before Halloween. They looked up across the Interstate 75 and the river and saw a red glowing “fire” up on Pinnacle Hill. They drove up to investigate. This was before Main Street so they had to take Vance Road. The wives stayed in the car. The two men advanced. Ahead in the woods they saw a red glowing area, not sure exactly what it was. As they neared a clearing they heard a woman’s voice cackle. The two men took off running and high tailed out of there. HF claims it was the old witch that his mom had told him about years before.

Later that day I met with GP whose parents owned the land where Deer Meadow Park is today and the land north of it. His playground as a kid in the late 1930’s was the Pinnacles. He said he remembers a house in the Pinnacles wooded area east and south of his parents property. A real mean husband and wife lived there. When GP and his friend went on their property to pick berries they were threatened with a shotgun to leave. A mean couple but not a witch.

I spoke to DR of Moraine. His father tells the story of a single old woman who lived in a cabin on the Pinnacles. She owned a half dozen dogs as pets. As the story goes, the reclusive old lady died in her house. After a few days the dogs became hungry. You can guess what happened next. Eventually, the dogs broke out of the house and ran as a wild pack through the area for years.

INVESTIGATION: I reviewed 1938 and 1949 aerial maps of the Pinnacle Hill area to look for houses in the wooded area. The new subdivision construction is removing much of the forest on Pinnacle Hill. I hiked a couple miles of trails on Pinnacle Hill on October 14. I came upon the remains of a house near the area described. I found a few old bottles (see photo) and items from the kitchen. Was this her house?

Is this an urban legend molded from the above three local tales or is the witch tale true? Next Halloween on October 30 or 31 drive by Pinnacle Hill and look for a glowing fire (and I don’t mean the methane gas flares from the landfill) or the sound of a woman laughing. You be the investigator and tell me what you find. (Contact me if any of you readers have any Pinnacle Hill tales similar to this story).

Investigation Team:  Dave Miller, Jim Hall, Carin Bell, Tammy Brackney (Upper Deck Manager)

Investigation Date:  Wed., August 23, 2017

SIGHTINGS & CLAIMS: Upper Deck waitresses reported being touched, their hair being pulled, sounds of chairs/stools being pushed in, footsteps going up a staircase, footsteps on the second floor when unoccupied. A shadow figure of a man was seen standing in a storage closet off of the pool room. In the basement, an apparition of a man wearing a suit and top hat like a 1930’s gangster was seen standing in front of the meat slicer. The employee could see through him and clearly see the slicer behind him. Employees are afraid to go down into the basement and feel like they are being watched.

TAVERN HISTORY:  The building has been a tavern &/or sports bar since the early 1940’s. A homicide took place in the mid-1965’s as Frank Ramsey shot Roy Rogers (they were two local Frigidaire plant workers) in the bar room area after an argument. Prior to that former Chicago Crime Boss Bugs Moran (please read my previous adventure # 46) kidnapped and robbed the bar manager of $10,000 in 1946 but was arrested. Could the apparition in the basement dressed in gangster attire be Bugs Moran since his last heist was this tavern in Moraine? (Bugs was convicted and later died in prison) . Two people died upstairs when the second floor used to be rental apartment rooms (it is now a meeting place for a motorcycle club).

INVESTIGATION: Video and tape recordings were taken from 12:10am to 1:35am in the basement and first floor rooms. The tapes are being reviewed but have revealed no findings as yet. The basement is very eerie. Lots of basement overhead wiring registered high EMF readings which probably contribute to the feeling of being watched. At 1:25 just before leaving, Jim, Carin and Tammy heard the two doors to the kitchen swing and bang open several times. Upon investigation, they found both doors were securely latched in place.

SIDE NOTE: What intrigued me was that during a preliminary walk through in July when Upper Deck staff told us about the gangster looking apparition in the basement, no Upper Deck employee had ever heard of Bugs Moran nor knew that he had robbed the bar manager of this tavern 71 years earlier. Although we obtained no direct evidence yet to confirm that Bugs Moran was a possible ghost at the tavern, it is still an investigative angle we will pursue. Just two weeks ago two patrons and one employee had a major sighting which I will present in a follow-up adventure.

Investigation Team:  Dave Miller, Justin Eller, Holly Miller, Jim Hall, Penny Sabin and Larry Sabin
Investigation Date:        2017

Back for the fifth time to one of the most haunted places in America. We spent time on all five floors and in the death chute or death tunnel. The former sanatorium was dark, spooky and foreboding as ever but we came up empty. No evidence was recorded on cameras or tape recorders although several members thought they heard something in the death chute and became very scared.  We ended the investigation at around 3am.

Expedition Team:  Dave Miller                                                                                     Expedition Date:  April 1, 2017

My most significant archeological find yet! While trekking just west of the City of Moraine Payne Recreation Center, I discovered two large monolithic standing stones similar to the famous Stonehenge rock formation found in England.

I took photos and contacted professors at the University of Dayton. Archeologists date the stones back to around 1970 and are checking if the stones are aligned with planets, stars or other celestial objects.

However, here’s the greatest discovery – After consulting mathematicians at Stanford University, they determined that the small standing stone points towards the Pinnacle Road Landfill. More amazing the large standing stone points towards Family Market where young Moraine Neanderthal’s once purchased beer and cigarettes.

Investigation Team:  Jimmy Hall, Carin Bell, Jeremy Bryant, Penny Tincher, Tim Sabin, Dave Miller

Investigation Date:  October 26, 2016

Ellerton Cemetery, located near the corner of Route 4 and South Union Road, was established in 1815. It was a clear, pleasant evening as the team roved the large area located just behind the church buildings. The City of Moraine is in charge of maintaining the property. In the dark, the foreboding markers looked like a scene out of “Night of the Living Dead”.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:  The National Park Service lists the cemetery on the National List of Historic Places. Several Civil War soldiers are buried there along with many pioneer families from Moraine, West Carrollton and Jefferson Township.

INVESTIGATION:  The team split up into pairs or by themselves. Jim and Penny both received high spikes on their mel meters (EMF detectors) near several tombstones of the Michael family. There were no electrical power lines or underground lines to debunk their findings. Two small lights glowed in the distance but were debunked as they turned out to be a solar angel and solar cross. Carin was reading a marker and commented how young the mother and daughter was. Immediately, Jeremy & Carin’s EMF meter spiked for a long period of time. Jim did several live updates that night on Facebook live.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller

Expedition Date:  July 2016

For those of you living in the Dayton area you are all familiar with this 56 foot tall tower located in the woods of Hills & Dales Metropark next to Community Golf Course. I remember my Moraine Meadows Elementary School 5th grade class taking a field trip and picnic to the tower back in 1965. But did you know who built the tower, why it was built and it’s ghostly urban legend?

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:  This giant turret-shaped stone tower has also been called Frankenstein’s Castle, Stink Tower, Patterson Tower and other monikers. The tower was believed to have been built by John H. Patterson as an observation tower or a fire lookout.

PARANORMAL CLAIMS:  For over forty years there were rumors that many people had been killed in the tower. After much research I discovered the tower was closed in the 1970’s after two teenagers were struck by lightning on May 17, 1967 while seeking refuge in the tower from an electrical storm. A 16 year old Bellbrook High School sophomore died  (Photo #6) and her companion, a 17 teen year old Bellbrook High School junior was seriously burned. (For a full story on the tragic lightning deaths, see the May 18, 1967 edition of the Xenia Daily Gazette).  Legend has it that the charred outlines of the teens were seen on the tower stone walls and steps. This fueled rumors and sightings of apparitions, nocturnal lights and a woman in a white dress appearing in the dark tower especially during storms.   

THE INVESTIGATION:  After additional research, I discovered the tower was built as an observation tower to overlook the park. It was NOT constructed by Patterson (who died in 1922) as work didn’t begin on the tower until 1940. Constructed by stones salvaged from condemned buildings it was built by the National Youth Administration (NYA) and finished in February of 1941. The tower has three feet thick walls and 50 steps to the top. The tower originally had a roof until it collapsed with age (Photo #1).

On July 3rd I hiked two miles in light rain. Although I have been to the tower a half dozen times before, returning to the tower for the first time in about a decade still brought goose bumps as the stone edifice slowly appeared through the trees. The iron door was gone and the entrance concreted shut. With the entrance door barred, I remember climbing and squeezing in the lower left window in the late 1980’s and walking up the spooky, winding stone staircase. Three windows wrapped around the tower at various heights. Today, the windows had bars preventing access except the left window in the lower set of three windows (Photo #5).  We spend two hours until just past dusk taking photos, EVP’s and listening for anything unusual. We found no evidence during this investigation.