With October around the corner this week ECHG wants to share some haunted tours worth checking out.

by Adam Holtzapfel

I became fascinated with the paranormal while spending a Friday the 13th at my grandparents as a child and reading an article in the paper on superstition. As I got older the curiosity was still there. I’m not saying I believe or don’t believe as the below tours highlighted also focus on the history of specific areas and not just the possibility of ghosts or a haunting.

The first of such tours I did was The Ridges in Athens, OH. The former asylum and tuberculosis ward is now part of Ohio University’s campus. The tour focused mostly on mental health and how it has changed. Our guide was up front about not speaking about hauntings and “ghosts”. He did mention the incident involving Margaret Schilling. She had gone missing in December 1979 and was found 42 days later deceased. It is also noted that The Ridges was a facility the had performed the most lobotomies. 

There are also still cemeteries located on the property where 1930 people are buried. Maybe the hauntings here are real or maybe the real horror is how mental health was treated before modern medicine.

If you’re interested in the guided tour information can be found at http://athenshistory.org/asylum-walking-tour/

Up next and not far from The Ridges, we have the Moonville Tunnel. This is a self guided tour, so go at your own risk as there are wild animals in the area.

Moonville is an abandoned railroad town, little remains except for the tunnel, cemetery, and some foundations of homes. The rumor regarding the tunnel is a brakeman was killed by a train and some nights you can see his lantern. 

While I didn’t see anything at Moonvile, I definitely had an uneasy feeling like being watched. Was it spirits, animals, or just my mind playing tricks on me? Who knows, but if you want more information and a map you can find it at https://www.moonvilletunnel.net/

Up next we head to Mansfield, OH for a tour of the old Mansfield Reformatory. While this isn’t a haunted tour, there was a lot of great history in addition to filming locations for Shawshank Redemption and Air Force One.

I had the opportunity to take the tour guided by a former inmate who was exonerated. He discussed his time there and occurrences like the inmate four floors up who had doused himself in lighter fluid and lit himself on fire. They do offer ghost hunts and a variety of tours. You can usually find the self guided tour on Groupon and pay $5 more a ticket at the door for a guided tour. For more information visit https://www.mrps.org/

Next we head to Cincinnati, OH for the Queen City is Haunted tour. Covering parts of the Over The Rhine area in Cincinnati this tour is one of the best I’ve been on. We started outside of an apartment that tour guides said could not stay rented. As the discussion continued it revolves around James Hoskins. He had murdered his girlfriend in the apartment and went on to take the WCPO newsroom hostage. While this is a sad story, it was a good history lesson of the area.

At the Symphony Hotel the guide had someone hold an EMF reader and it spiked some, I forget the actual story of the haunting there, but I did get a cold feeling and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Was it a chilly night or was there actually something there? You can usually find this tour on Groupon and more information at https://www.americanlegacytours.com/queen-city-is-haunted

Next we head across the river to Newport, KY for the Newport is Haunted tour (also offered by American Legacy tours). This tour focuses a lot on Newport’s gangster past which made looking up information on the stories hard. This tour visited the World Peace Bell which unfortunately was built on a graveyard where only the tombstones were relocated.

In addition to the Bell the tour visited Otto Printing, The Mustang Club (where a fire occured as well as a few different murders), the alley beside the club is crawling with spirits of those who saw stuff and didn’t speak according to a psychic.

From there we go to the most notable place on the tour, the courthouse. The story associated with this haunting is that of Pearl Bryan. It’s rumored on certain nights her murderers Alonzo Wailing and Scott Jackson can be seen looking down on the public there for their hanging. The trio is also rumored to haunt Bobby Mackey’s Music World which isn’t far up the road. If you’re interested in this tour you can find more info at https://www.americanlegacytours.com/newport-is-haunted

Up next we trek to Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, KY. A former tuberculosis ward and elderly care facility that is rumored to be one of the most haunted places around.

Our tour started off in a building connected to the main building known as the body chute. This building was originally built to bring building supplies to the area, once that was finished there was a pulley system installed where orderlies would take deceased bodies to the bottom and the pulley would bring the empty gurney back.

From there we enter the main building and hear a little history of it along with some stories of sightings. As we climb 5 flights of floors stopping on each one we see the solarium that was used to treat patients with fresh air and heard the story of the Audrey & Lois sisters outside of their former room.

While the first floor is currently preparing for the annual haunted house, attendees also noticed a lot of renovation on the first and second floors as they are working to convert those to a hotel. The change is due to the city wanting to tear down the sanatorium to build condos and feeling the tours aren’t doing enough to serve the community.

Our stop on the fourth floor involved trying to see the “shadow people”, no photos or lights were allowed in this area. While I didn’t see anything or feel anything, my better half swore she saw a black outline looking over her shoulder, she kept a death grip on me until this floor was over.

While the tour was good and the stories were good, I would have liked a little more history which would probably give me a reason to attend the historical tour versus the ghost tour. Some things to keep in mind, the entrance is by a golf course and not where GPS guides you, you cannot use flash photography or flash lights unless noted by the tour guide, also no food or drinks are allowed on the tour. For more information visit https://www.therealwaverlyhills.com/

Below are links to other tours in the Ohio area or not far from it that I haven’t done, but look promising. Also keep in mind some of these sites do haunted houses during the fall and are not open for tours during that time.

http://www.columbusghosttours.com/

https://www.hauntedparkersburgtours.com/

https://www.hiddenmarietta.com/

http://www.hauntedpittsburghtours.com/p/downtown-ghost-tour.html

http://trans-alleghenylunaticasylum.com/