Category: Paranormal/Urban Legends

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: May 9, 2024

It was daytime when I looked southeast to Marfa in the distance. When planning this trip, I had considered camping overnight at the desolate Marfa Light Viewing Campground east of town. The Marfa Lights are mysterious lights seen at night that dance across the foothills of the distant Chinati Mountains. The lights have been recorded since at least 1883, and the lights have unsatisfactorily been explained as an atmospheric phenomenon which distorts and reflects the distant light of campfires or headlights. But some people say that it is unworldly as often the lights move vertically or in circles while changing colors. Yet police will tell you that it is just distant automobile lights. Others say its flying saucers & UFO’s while many refer to them as the ghost ball lights. I talked to a few locals about the mysterious lights.

A waiter named Aaron in nearby Fort Davis told me he has witnessed the lights twice and believes it is UFO’s and aliens. Sometimes he didn’t see any lights. He witnessed red, blue and amber points of light. The lights darted around and then came together and shot straight up.

A man in Carlsbad said he and friends have seen the lights on three different occasions. He is unsure what causes the lights but doesn’t feel it is aliens. He thinks it could be a divine being protecting water, which is residents most precious commodity. He doesn’t think it is automobile lights because the road is in a different direction. He said the dark sky is beautiful there on a clear night. June is the best month to see the lights.

Whatever the theory, adding to the mystique is the fact that “The Twilight Zone’s” creator Rod Serling, an advanced flight training officer, once trained here back in the 1950’s. That’s a nice sci-fi touch to this baffling and bizarre area.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: May 12, 2024

It was Mother’s Day. Jacque had sent Rosie a surprise gift and Rosie talked to Matt, Holly & Jacque on the phone throughout the day. We left Carlsbad KOA Campground after getting our photos taken with green aliens and headed to Alamogordo via famous Roswell. Naturally, I stopped by Roswell for lots of alien photos and purchased a few souvenirs for family and friends. The real find was stopping in The Alien Invasion Store, next to the International MUFON UFO Museum. I interviewed manager Gina. Her husband’s grandfather was the Assistant Fire Chief at Roswell and responded to the 1947 UFO crash. I bought an artist’s sketch of what he witnessed as he pulled up to the site. A complete story of what he saw is under “Paranormal Category” on my website. My favorite photo during the visit is the “Welcome to Roswell” crash scene art where I stand in the scene (Photo #5). Can you find me?

Expedition Team: Dave Miller

Date: May 13, 2024

Not the total encounter I was hoping for. After hiking two trails down at White Sands National Park, then driving up 4,000 feet to hike a trail at Lincoln National Forest, we finally pulled up to the Big Foot Encounter building. It was seven minutes until 5pm. The front door opened, and the employee was locking up for the day, seven minutes early. I wanted to go in and view the books, displays and have the “encounter”. Another man and his son were walking up also, and the employee just said sorry, and closed the door. What a bummer. I still took some photos outside of the building and who knows, maybe someday we will return.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: April 30.024

This historical marker chronicles the death of Captain Thomas Mantell Jr., as his plane crashed while chasing a UFO. No one knows if the crash was caused by pilot error or if it was a ray shot from the UFO. The story is intriguing.

Captain Mantell (who was born in Franklin) was Flight Leader of the 165^th Fighter Squadron of the Kentucky Air National Guard. On January 7,1948 while on a training flight with three other P-51D Mustang airplanes, was directed by the airport tower to pursue an unidentified flying object. While in pursuit of the UFO, he died in a plane crash near this marker site. Mantell’s death while chasing the UFO made national headlines. Intense military investigation of the incident became part of Project Blue Book. Still today, there is much uncertainty about what Capt. Mantell was pursuing.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: February 13, 2024

On the silent, empty fourth floor of this famous, historic inn/restaurant, I stood in front of the room called “Sarah’s Room”. Sarah Stubbs moved to the hotel with her mother after her father died. Her uncle was the inn manager at that time. Sarah’s toys and a few pieces of furniture still occupy the room. An apparition of a woman, supposed Sarah, is seen in the room or on the fourth floor. The ghost of a small girl named Eliza and a man named Charles, who both died in the hotel, are also seen. I creeped quietly around the fourth floor, taking photos and doing an EVP. I did not discover any paranormal evidence.

The Inn began operating in 1803 and is Ohio’s longest running business. Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and twelve Presidents of the United States have stayed at the hotel.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller

Date: February 6, 2024

Established in 1861, this 160-acre facility trained Union soldiers for the Civil War. It then transitioned into a Confederate prison. During its lifespan approximately 26,000 prisoners were held here, 9,000 at one time. Sadly, over two thousand prisoners died at the camp due to cold winters, lack of clean food and water, dysentery, and smallpox. While many were buried in individual plots, many victims of contagious diseases were dumped into mass graves. In 1908, most of Camp Chase land was bought and sold to build residential housing.

After my cancer checkup at the OSU James Hospital, I drove over to the cemetery. Near the front gate entrance was a State of Ohio Historical Marker talking about the history of the camp. The cemetery is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. I squeezed through the heavy, front gate entrance. Inside were rows of white grave markers on each side of a main stone arch. The arch has a confederate soldier on top with the inscription, “Americans”. A large stone below the arch is inscribed “2,260 confederate soldiers of the War 1861-1865 buried in this enclosure”. As for ghosts, neighbors claim to hear sounds of soldiers marching but the most reported apparition is the Lady in Gray. She wears a gray dress, is sometimes heard crying or just standing between the grave marked “Unknown” and the grave marked “Benjamin Allen, Tennessee 50^th Regiment”. She has been seen since the early 1900’s. Wife, girlfriend, sister, no one knows who the ghost is. I took lots of photos and did an EVP but obtained no evidence. Other than cars going by on the nearby street, the cemetery was eerie and quiet. Several people peered through the iron bars above the five-foot-tall outer gates to see what I was doing. It gave me the impression that not a lot of people visit this cemetery.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller

Date: February 6, 2024

Reputed to be one of the most haunted locations in Central Ohio, this cemetery is also known as the “London-Darbydale Cemetery” and the “Woolyburger Cemetery”. The entrance to the cemetery is creepy. I parked on the side of the road just off state route 665 a mile west of Darbydale. I walked two hundred yards on a path through a tunnel of trees and came to a short fence. Beginning on the bottom of a hill and ascending to the top were old tombstones on each side. This narrow hillside cemetery was surrounded by thick trees with the Big Darby Creek downhill to the west. Very quiet, very creepy and no houses anywhere nearby. The oldest gravestone is from 1811 with most of the people buried there is local pioneers. Lots of strange tales surrounds this cemetery. First, Wooly Booger is the name of a Bigfoot like creature who may live in the nearby woods. It is believed this is where the name Woolyburger may have come from. Ghost legends associated with the cemetery include the “Little Girl in White”, a young girl murdered in a pond behind the cemetery who is seen walking through the gravestones. People visiting the cemetery at night have seen dark robed figures conducting rituals who then run off in the woods. Two murders, one in 1957 of a woman’s body, and again in 1979 of a man’s body in the pond behind the cemetery, add to speculation that their ghosts haunt this isolated cemetery. All I can say is that this remote, secluded cemetery is unsettling. From atop the hill I could see my truck through the tunnel of trees, and it looked like a day’s walk to get there safely. I took many photos but saw no apparitions on this day.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: February 3, 2024

It is told that a car full of teenagers sped down Corwin Road and tried to make a 90 degree turn onto the bridge (located on Middletown Road). The car plummeted from the bridge into the icy Little Miami River. All teens in the car were killed and one woman had her head decapitated. Her head was never found. The bridge (built in 1982) is now haunted by the woman. Her ghost roams on the bridge or near the bridge. To me, this smells like an urban legend because no newspaper article can confirm the car crash.  Locals say if you stop your car on the bridge at midnight, you will either see the ghost head or it will drop into your car. That’s rather hard to believe.

Rosie and I had just completed a 2.5 mile hike a half mile down the road at Caesar Creek Gorge State Nature Preserve. We were about to head to a county park a mile distant to hike another trail before dark. I took photos of the bridge and walked on it peering at the river below. I did not have my tape recorder to do an EVP. The river water was rushing fast due to the recent rain, but I saw nor heard nothing out of the ordinary. It was an hour before dark as Rosie drove slowly across the bridge, turned around and then drove back across. No head fell into our open window. Perhaps its scarier at midnight.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller

Date: February 6, 2024

I place this location under the Paranormal Category only because it is remote and creepy location. However, I feel that any haunting here is just a made-up urban legend. The Gates of Hell has also been referred to as the “Blood Bowl” or the “Portal to Another World”. Actually, this “evil” place is just a large drainage culvert directing water from Glen Echo Creek under High Street to flow into the Olentangy River. The site is behind a Tim Hortons restaurant but is well isolated by trees on both banks. The creek banks are also very high and steep. Concrete walls were poured to prevent erosion making it a great place in dry weather for skateboarders. The “Blood Bowl” name came from alleged stories of skateboarders who were injured, bloodied, or died from severe daredevil accidents. Another urban legend claims that inside the dark tunnel is a portal to another world and that people perform dark rituals there. The bottom line is that this is just a water drainage culvert that looks foreboding and has metal bars (or gates) in front of the entrance to prevent logs and other debris from clogging up the tunnel.

Upon investigating, a almost broke my neck sliding down the steep creek bank. The place is creepy because of (1) the wooded, quiet, isolated area and (2) the creepy entrance to the culvert (Photo#1). Once inside the culvert you see colorful graffiti everywhere. Photo #2 is me standing in the tunnel and looking out through the metal gates.

Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Date: December 2, 2023

Naturally, we asked the park ranger for any paranormal or urban legend stories associated with the fort. The ranger told us that during the summer of 1862, Confederate soldier Patrick Garrity fired his rifle at the Lieutenant, but the gun misfired. Garrity then swung his rifle like a club at the officer. Trying to flee, Garrity leapt from the drawbridge and into the murky moat and drowned. Why Garrity attacked his officer, no one knows. Fort staff and volunteers say Garrity’s ghost still haunts the fort. Sounds of slamming doors and shadow figures have been reported and are usually linked to Garrity. I arrived at the fort 20 minutes before closing so other than learning this urban legend from a ranger, I had no time to investigate. As I prepared to enter our car and drive away, a creepy fog came out of the Savannah River and encircled the fort.