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 165th 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.
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.
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 50th 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Joe Gillivan
Date: December 2, 2023
This 1847 fort on Cockspur Island was a Confederate Fort until the Union Army took control in April 1862. A total of 5,275 shells and shots battered the fort in 30 hours of bombardment. The Confederates surrendered because the Unions new type of experimental rifled cannons with new projectiles bored through the forts 7 ½ foot walls. In talking with the Park Ranger, he told us this paranormal story. The ranger was playing drums to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” during a short ceremony within the fort. A spectator was videotaping the event and standing right beside the ranger. When they played the tape back a mystery voice hummed the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” song that the ranger drummed. The spectator said it was not him and the ranger knew it wasn’t the spectator nor himself. As no other person had stood near them. Who was the ghostly presence that hummed?
Joe Gillivan also related an unexplainable observation. Joe was completing hiking the Lighthouse Overlook Trail and approached the fort from the northeast side. Looking up at the area of the northeast bastion, above the 32-foot wall Joe saw a man in union uniform. The time was 5:30ish and Joe knew the fort closed at 5pm and no one should have been in the fort. Did Joe see a ghost of the past or was some park employee dressed in Union garb still inside the fort after hours? Are Union and Confederate spirits still on duty here? Photo #3 shows the northeast bastion from the inside of the fort where joe saw the soldier. This is also the direction the patron videotaped the drummer in the previous paragraph.
There are several other paranormal claims at the fort. There have been apparitions of poorly treated Confederate POW’s who died here during imprisonment of poor living conditions, a puny starvation diet, scurvy, and crippling dysentery. Some prisoners survived by eating rats, cats, and kittens. A total of 13 out of 550 prisoners died during the winter of 1864.
Also, there have been reports of guards of both the Union and Confederate troops who have been seen just standing here and just staring out over the grounds until they disappear.
Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller, Holly Eller, Carin Bell, Valerie Bell
Date: October 18, 2023
Since Josh is one of my six favorite adventurers listed on my web site, I got the opportunity to buy five tickets and attend his presentation at Victoria Theater. His show was called “An Evening of Ghosts, Monsters, and Tales of Adventure” and he talked about his early life, his interest in travel and adventure and how he came about hosting “Destination Truth” and “Expedition Unknown”. And best of all, we got to meet him before the show. When he was talking about “Destination Truth”, he showed video of the show about the island of possessed dolls located on a small island along a canal in Mexico City. This was one of our favorite shows and one of the scariest paranormal segments he has ever investigated. Jacque was disappointed that she could not attend as she gave birth to baby John the day before and Matt was going to attend but he had a mandatory training day at work, so the Bell family subbed for them. I added a photo of a Yeti/Bigfoot footprint that Josh’s team found in Nepal. The cast was donated to an exhibit at Disney World.
This famous tunnel, an icon of the Red River Gorge Geological Area, has a haunted claim although it smells more like an urban legend. Built in the early 1900’s by the Dana Lumber Company to carry logs from the gorge, it was a small tunnel barely big enough to fit the narrow-gauge steam locomotive. Two different crews worked on each side of the large ridge carving through the solid sandstone by blasting with dynamite.
One day during construction, a worker named Charlie McNabb was thawing frozen dynamite next to a fire. Both Charlie and his dog Spike were blown to bits. Many claim the spirit of Charlie is in a state of unrest and haunts the 900-foot-long tunnel. Locals have reported on some summer nights blue orbs are seen floating through the tunnel and a growling sound (perhaps the ghost of Spike) can be heard. Standing in the long, tight, dark tunnel is unnerving since you never know when a vehicle might approach. As for a ghostly blue presence there is a possible explanation. Park rangers claim that the tunnel ceiling is home to a bioluminescent phenomenon that is a larva similar to fungus gnats. In late spring/early summer the larvae give off a blueish light. This type of bioluminescence appearance occurs in only a handful of places in the world. This reminds me of seeing similar luminance on a night scuba dive trip when I turn the night light off and the ocean lights up. I hope to return to the tunnel some night in the early summer to see this fantastic nature light show or instead, see a ghost that smells like dynamite.
