Ohio

Many things go bump in the night in Licking County, and not all of them are rowdy undergraduates. Some are the restless spirits of the dead.

With specters plaguing the chapel, the library, and a dorm room, Granville's Denison University is one of the most haunted campuses in the country. Nearby at the historic Buxton Inn, previous owners look after the property in death as they did in life. The grave of a Johnstown witch is said to emit an eerie green mist every Halloween night. A young boy's ghost floats on the water of Hell Lake, and a mysterious woman in white haunts the bridge on Swamp Road.

Author and paranormal investigator with the Tri-C Ghost Hunters Nova Stiles leads a bone-chilling tour through the haunted history of Licking County.

Listen to the unrestful dead of the Buckeye State's many graveyards

Throughout Ohio, chilling tales abound of places where the dead do not rest in their peaceful earthen beds. In a field east of Cleveland, the ghost of a missing farmhand returned to expose his murder. The violin music of a Cincinnati-area abolitionist continues to linger at a small burial ground in the hills west of the city, and a grave in Central Ohio is haunted by the spirit of a young girl with an ancestral connection to a dark chapter of America's past.

E.R. Cutright, founder of Columbus Ghost Tours in Columbus, explores the sundry Ohio cemeteries and graveyards where the dead demand their stories be told.

Northeast Ohio high school football has always been known for its drama, intensity and rivalries. For more than a century, McKinley and Massillon have met on the gridiron every fall in one of the state's most evenly matched contests. Since 1971, the St. Ignatius Wildcats yearly clash with the St. Edwards Eagles in the Cleveland Holy War. More recently, Avon and Avon Lake have kicked off a border war for bragging rights and hardware in the Silver Rail Rivalry, and Olmsted Falls and Berea-Midpark face each other in the heated Battle of Bagley Road.

Join author and founder of McKee on Sports Vince McKee for a thrilling look under the Friday night lights in the Buckeye State.

Ghost stories from Put-in-Bay have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery!

The haunted history of Pudding Bay comes to life--even when the main players are dead. Visit Perry's Cave to catch a glimpse of its mysterious, otherworldly glow. Or look for ghosts amongst the hallways of Cooke's Castle on Gibraltar Island. Dive into this spooky chapter book for suspenseful tales of bumps in the night, paranormal investigations, and the unexplained; just be sure to keep the light on.

Over the years, Bobby Mackey's Music World has played host to countless real-life horror stories and a string of criminal activity. Illegal gambling and liquor abounded when it later served as the Bluegrass Inn.

The site has been the location of death and destruction since the nineteenth century, including illegal lynchings and a bridge collapse killing forty-one men. In more recent years, mafia bosses turned it into a mafia-controlled nightclub known as the Latin Quarter. Beginning with the caretaker who fell under a demonic possession to more recent encounters between patrons and the paranormal, author Dan Smith revives the chilling stories that make it the most haunted nightclub in America.

Rediscover Cleveland's Forgotten Hauntings

Hiding in obscure corners and in plain sight, chilling tales from Cleveland's paranormal past await reawakening. A tale from 1840 places the city's first haunted house on the windswept commons south of town. Hanged murderers were said to roam the corridors of the Old County Jail, and t he 1885 disinterment of the old Cleveland Medical College graveyard led to reports of nocturnal phantoms throughout the excavation. With the construction of Bulkley Boulevard in 1912, many West Side homes were demolished. Also destroyed was the entrance to what neighbors menacingly called The Cave of Apparitions.

Take a step back in time with author and investigative historian William G. Krejci on this journey through Cleveland's long lost ghostly past.

Explore the origins of Wood County lore.

Ghostly tales abound from fallen war heroes of Bowling Green State University to the darkened woods of Holcomb Road. The spirit of Frank Simonds, a venerated World War I veteran who nearly got away with murder, may linger around Main Street in Bowling Green. A soldier who died in a desperate attempt to save hundreds still guards Fort Meigs. Though nothing stands there now, the spot of the infamous Woodbury House remains a terror--just as it was for the earliest settlers in the area.

Wonder-seeker and amateur folklorist Melissa Davies reveals the stranger side of local history.

Every city has its odd and scary side, and Dayton is no exception.

The ghost of Paul Sorg still sits in his favorite seat in the Sorg Opera House more than a hundred years after his death. The so-called phantom terrorized truck drivers crossing the Englewood Dam before disappearing for good. The famed Butter Street Monster roams Germantown. Magee Park is home to numerous bigfoot and ghost sightings--and even a unicorn sighting. A building of many names, the tower on Patterson Boulevard in Kettering near Hills and Dales Park has been the source of many stories for generations, but only now is its true story finally told.

Dayton native, author, and host of the Dayton Unknown blog Sara Kaushal leads a chilling tour of Gem City's strange and unusual history.

Explore the history of Ohio's one-bite wonder!

From humble origins, the buckeye has become Ohio's namesake candy. Though a classic combination of chocolate and peanut butter, each producer's offering is as bespoke as the buckeye is beloved. Taste tradition in Amish country at Coblentz Chocolate Company or sample capital city Columbus' original stuffed offering from The Buckeye Lady. Visit legendary family businesses like fifth-generation Anthony Thomas, Wittich's, the nation's oldest candy shop and Winans, a carriage house chocolatier turned coffee roaster, serving up deliciousness at the seat of the state's Buckeye Candy Trail. Traverse towns to try long-standing favorites from Esther Price, Marie's Candies and Marsha's Homemade Buckeyes alongside artistic interpretations from newcomers The Buckeye Co, Tana's Tasty Treats and Lohcally Artisan Chocolates.

Join Renee Casteel Cook, author of Ohio Ice Cream and coauthor of The Columbus Food Truck Cookbook, as she unfolds how this bite-sized confection has become Ohio's sweetest symbol.

By World War I, Toledo's prosperity paralleled the popularity of the automobile, which transported citizens to homes along the Maumee River, Ottawa Hills, and Westmoreland.

After World War II, stores, theaters, and businesses migrated out of 19th-century city boundaries as well. Toledo in the 1920s and 1930s boasted elegant department stores, the Commodore Perry Hotel, the towering new Ohio Building, and the legendary Paramount Theater. Great expressions of faith, Rosary Cathedral and Doc Hettinger's ""Garden of Eden,"" were built. Depression years saw the Zoo, the University of Toledo, and the Peristyle at the Art Museum built. Toledo innovations, glass block and vitrolite, were used to great effect at the new Main Library building.

Lancaster, Ohio, with a population of around 35,000, sits snuggled among the rolling hills at the base of a sandstone bluff that the Wyandot Indians called ""Standing Stone.""

Just east of the Hock-Hocking River in Fairfield County and a few miles southeast of Columbus, Lancaster was founded on November 10, 1800, by Col. Ebenezer Zane (1747-1811). The city's rich history is celebrated today in one of the most significant historic districts in the Midwest, known as Square 13. The city offers a walking tour of the area, originally designed in 1800. In a 24-block area, 89 buildings have been designated on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Sherman House Museum is listed as a National Historical Landmark.

Shaker Heights achieved international renown in the early 20th century as an enclave for wealthy residents - a city of stunning homes, substantial green space, an excellent school system, and attentive municipal services.

Cleveland entrepreneurs O. P. and M. J. Van Sweringen established Shaker Heights as a haven from the stresses of city life and claimed a connection with previous residents of this land, the North Union settlement of Shakers. Shaker communities sought to create paradise on earth by living communally and focusing on the life of the spirit. Buyers in Shaker Heights were assured that their paradise would last forever because of restrictions on what could be built and who could live there. Nevertheless, Shaker Heights has changed from a protected environment for the wealthy to a stable, integrated city that intentionally promotes diversity in its population. This is a remarkable story of dramatic change but also continuity as residents pursue the goal of creating an ideal community.

Go inside Madisonville, a Cincinnati neighborhood that boasts a long and colorful history.

Madisonville was founded in 1809 as Madison, Ohio, in honor of James Madison, who had recently been inaugurated as the fourth president of the United States. The first permanent settlers, the Joseph Ward family, built three log cabins in 1797 along a Native American trail near the area that is now Whetsel Avenue, Erie Avenue and Red Bank Road. The famous archeological excavations of the ""Madisonville Site"" by Dr. Charles Metz and his crew discovered artifacts that are housed in museums across the world. State and federal legislators, as well as secretaries of commerce and defense, grew up in Madisonville. The city is home to public, private, and parochial schools, plus over 25 churches. Incorporation into the city of Cincinnati in 1911 brought about numerous renovations of the business district, and a renaissance is currently underway.

Cincinnati loves goetta.

Since its arrival with nineteenth-century Germanic immigrants, this humble dish has evolved from peasant staple to ubiquitous delicacy. Once upon a time, Cincinnatians found goetta mostly in neighborhood butcher shops, in Over-the-Rhine's so-called Goetta Alley and through Sander Packing, its first commercial producer. Now hungry locals scarf it down at diners and white-linen establishments alike and in everything from egg rolls to Reuben sandwiches. Tracing goetta from its Germanic origins and its first stop in Greater Cincinnati to its largest commercial producers, Queen City Sausage and Gliers, food etymologist and "Goettevangelist" Dann Woellert explores goetta's history in the city that made it regionally famous.