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With autumn whispering its arrival in the chilly air, only the truly daring venture into the realm of the headless things— Stumpy’s Hollow (Norwich, Muskingum County) Headless Horseman of Cherry Hill (Fayette County) Headless Horseman of Rogues Hollow (Wayne County) That said, my favorite this week is . . .There is Something Unnatural in…

The Unearthing of Miss Arnold: Miss Arnold, a modest young woman, died in the winter of 1823 and was buried under snow at Moxahala Cemetery in Zanesville. Weeks later, her body was discovered missing—stolen from her grave by medical students for dissection. Outrage swept the town, but with no law against body-snatching, the students…

Scotts Creek is a narrow, winding stream, bordered by ancient forests and fertile croplands outside the town of Logan, Ohio. Today, travelers trace its banks by car, winding their way into the mysterious Hocking Hills from Columbus or Charleston, where the landscape shifts from open fields to deep, ancient hollows and towering cliffs. Locals…

Murder Ridge in Vinton County Every one of us has our worst nightmares, the ones awakening us in the middle of the night in a cold, dripping sweat with heart hard-thumping like the frenzied, frantic beating of sticks to a marching band’s drums during halftime at a high school football game. Falling. Being Chased.…

When people join me on my night hikes and ghost hunts along the Moonville Rail Trail, I often don’t have the chance to share every spirit’s story as we pass by the places of their tragic ends and where they now wander eternally. Being the only passage of travel in an area with few…

In the autumn of 1850, John Gamble was a man building a life—he worked as a carpenter, a farmer, and a river trader—anchored across the Ohio River from Sardis. He had settled his family on a stretch of land rich in timber in what would eventually be called Wetzel County. His flatboat runs transported…

Casa Rosa was a stately mansion once majestically standing along the streets in the lower part of New Orleans’ Third District. Don Juan Luis Angula of Spain painstakingly built the home with the old money he brought with him when he moved there. As years passed and after his death, although kept within the…

In the mid-1800s, passenger packets and cargo boats traveled the waterway connecting the Ohio River and Lake Erie, called the Miami & Erie Canal, from Toledo to Cincinnati. A driver guided a mule that walked the towpath along the shore and pulled the boat. During the canal years, between Spencerville and St. Marys, two…

Long before Lancaster, Ohio spread its limbs into tidy roads and brick storefronts, a rugged path twisted beside a stream called Fetters Run. It cut through the old farms—Foglesong, Spangler, Fetters—and trailed behind the Poor House Farm, finally ending near what is now Rising Park. Its path now roughly follows Stringtown Road, but it…

What the Children Found at Lake Shawnee There are places in the world where joy leaves stains. Lake Shawnee Amusement Park in Rock, West Virginia, is one of them. The kind of place where laughter echoes wrong. Where swings creak in the wind when the air is still. Where every ride sits rusted like…