Reference

Explore forgotten corners of local history

Mark Strecker has unearthed a hidden gem of local history for each of Northeast Ohio’s twenty-two counties.

Pry into the secrets of the stunning mountains of Virginia.

A nineteenth century cache of gold is buried in the hills. Nine-foot giants once walked the ridges of the Shenandoah, pre-Columbian explorers built homes on isolated mountaintops and a ghost town lies deep in the Jefferson National Forest. Virginia’s mountains conceal canines that walk upright, black panthers and a resurgent mountain lion population. The hide-and-seek champion of the world, Bigfoot, lurks in the dark hollows, phantom dogs pace the backroads and aggressive monkeys swing through the trees. UFOs crisscross the skies and ghosts haunt the caverns below.

Join Denver Michaels, local author and expert in the unexplained, as he explores these mysteries and many more.

Enigmatic mediums, murders, monsters, and more are all part of Michigan’s mysterious and sometimes supernatural history.

The will of Detroit’s first millionaire, Eber B. Ward, was hotly contested because he took the financial advice of spirits. Marian Spore Bush, Bay City’s first female dentist, moved to New York City, where she became a psychic wonder—and a secret philanthropist. Old witchcraft superstitions drove a Mount Morris family insane and caused another man to murder his godmother in Trenton.

Researcher Amberrose Hammond brings to light strange and unusual tales from Michigan’s colorful and exciting past.

Explore the eccentric side of yesterday’s Queen City

Cincinnatians today wrap themselves in a comforting blanket of serene conformity, soothed by the myth that the Queen City has always been a bland, somewhat Germanic, little backwater. History tells us otherwise. Old Cincinnati was a pretty strange place. UFOs? Witchcraft? Sea Monsters? Occult societies? Public executions? All very common in Old Cincinnati. Over its history, this burgeoning river metropolis pursued the unusual, the sensational and the controversial. Cincinnati was big – among the ten largest U.S. cities. And it was rude and crude, still shaking off the dust from its years as a frontier outpost. Much of the popular nightlife then would be illegal today.

Buckle up as author Greg Hand leads a rambunctious tour through the old, weird Cincinnati.

Haunted Hoaxes of the Hoosier State

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, newspapers were a major source of ghost stories. Paranormal experiences, no matter how mundane, were newsworthy and entertaining—even when they turned out not to be ghosts after all. A coffin holding a “talking corpse” on a train turned out to be a box of bullfrogs. An overturned automobile carrying white paint resulted in a paint-covered “ghost” wandering the streets, and a spiritualist tackled a phantom haunting a cemetery only to find that it was a fraternity pledge all along.

Revealing that the truth can sometimes be as amusing as the legend, author Ashley M. Watson gathers newspaper clippings about Indiana ghost stories that were not ghosts at all.

Hauntings and eerie tales abound in northern Ohio. Chillings legends, mysteries and hauntings.

Does Esther Hale, believed to have been executed for witchcraft, really haunt Columbiana County’s Bowman Cemetery? Is Lonesome Lock on the Ohio and Erie Canal as haunted as rumors say? Do restless spirits stalk the rooms at the Wolf Creek Tavern in Norton and the Rider’s Inn of Painesville? Do the ruins of Gore Orphanage echo with the ghastly wails of children said to have died in a fire long ago? Author William G. Krejci guides this supernatural journey through the most chilling legends of northern Ohio. Some stories are debunked. Some long-standing mysteries are solved. Some new mysteries come to light.

Monmouth County’s past encompasses more than just sandy beaches and rural farm life.

George Washington fought at the Battle of Monmouth as the region played a pivotal role in the birth of the republic. Henry Hudson anchored off Monmouth’s shores in 1609 and was the first European to meet with the Lenape Native Americans there. A gun barrel of the USS New Jersey, the most decorated battleship in American history, was painstakingly transported to Battery Lewis, a fortification built along the county’s highlands to protect New York Harbor during World War II. Bruce Springsteen elevated Asbury Park and the Stone Pony into a national music destination, and he remains the unofficial poet laureate of the Jersey Shore. Authors Rick Geffken and Muriel J. Smith highlight compelling stories of the seaside county’s four-hundred-year history.

Arizona has stories as peculiar as its stunning landscapes, full of colorful characters, peculiar places and eccentric events.

The Lost Dutchman's rumored cache of gold sparked a legendary feud. Kidnapping victim Larcena Pennington Page survived two weeks alone in the wilderness, and her first request upon rescue was for a chaw of tobacco. Discover how the town of Why got its name, how the government built a lake that needed mowing and how wild camels ended up in North America. Author Marshall Trimble unearths these and other amusing anomalies, outstanding obscurities and compelling curiosities in the state's history.

Milwaukee is full of weird borders, streets that do not line up right, creepy cemeteries and other curious things.

Many locals have heard about the crooked bridges downtown, the sewer Socialists and the attempt on Teddy Roosevelt’s life. Not as many know about the time Josette Juneau saved Milwaukee, the city’s link to The Exorcist or its ghost towns like Oakwood, Saint Martin’s and Root Creek. And yes, a lion really lived inside the library. Employees used bowling balls to play fetch with it.

Milwaukee-based historian James Nelsen shares joyous and amazing stories of the Cream City’s strange history.

Utahisms: Unique Expressions, Inventions, Place Names and more ranges from the characteristic to the bizarre

The Beehive State’s iconic vistas are singular and distinctive. So too are its colloquialisms, peculiar place names and landmark firsts. Confusion from local dialect ultimately thwarted a would be robber in Salt Lake City. The proper pronunciation of Tooele might surprise visitors, while residents still debate its origins. And, phrases once thought to be solely Utahn often prove otherwise. The world’s first department store was born out of xenophobia and religious persecution in 1869. Martha Hughes Cannon followed through on Brigham Young’s encouraging women to become physicians. She later became the first female state senator in the United States, defeating her own husband.

Examining everything from phonetics to history, BYU Linguistics Professor David Eddington reveals the roots of what is truly, uniquely Utah.

Kansas has tales as extraordinary as its plains, although the stories behind the legends are sometimes lost to time.

Discover the history of the state’s world-class violinist, homemade airplane and alleged volcano. Iola’s Mad Bomber blew up the town’s saloons after a hangover. The bulletproof and most “extinctest” creature lurked in sinkholes outside Inman. Hunters in Stafford County learned to leave out enormous quantities of food for local hermit Pelican Pete. Join author Roger Ringer as he delves into these and other facts behind the myths of the Sunflower State.

The author of Lost Rochester explores more Med City history beyond the medicine.

Stories surrounding the establishment of Rochester as a medical mecca are well documented and often showcased, but countless other tales haven’t received as much attention. William Costley, son of the first slave freed by Abraham Lincoln, lived his last few months at Rochester State Hospital. Beloved citizen Reinhold Bach sailed aboard the doomed ocean liner the Empress of Ireland. The life of Minnie Bowron, hired as the city’s first policewoman in 1917, offers an intriguing story, and teenager Lottie Schermerhorn awed crowds during the Roaring Twenties with daredevil aerial stunts.

Join historian Amy Jo Hahn on an engaging narrative journey, a revelation of fascinating characters who made their mark on Rochester.

Mysterious creatures, strange happenings and ghost stories. Alabama has them all and more - despite its glorious depictions.

Alabama claims an abundance of fascinating mysteries and legends despite being known for its antebellum mansions and sunny beaches, . The White Thang is a Sasquatch-like creature that has terrorized Alabamians for generations. For a brief period in the 1980s, Needham gained national attention because of its “crying pecan tree.” In 1854, a farmer named Orion Williamson simply vanished in a field in Selma. From the aquatic beast known as the Coosa River Monster to the story of the Leprechaun of Mobile, these stories have evolved over generations. Author and ghost-story guru Alan Brown presents some of the strangest stories from this collective tradition.

Flagstaff's history is a real smorgasbord of quirky characters and events.

Flagstaff, Arizona, was originally settled in the 1870s as a railroad and lumber town on the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau, amid the ponderosa pines. Now most noted for its proximity to the Grand Canyon, the city offers a tantalizing combination of history and progress. Theodore Roosevelt, the Apollo astronauts, Walt Disney filmmakers, Navajo code talkers and Pluto-discoverer Clyde Tombaugh all feature in the area’s fascinating past. Join authors Kevin Schindler and Michael Kitt as they relate the trials and triumphs that have given this town its charm, from the tumultuous days of the Wild West to the fast-paced twentieth century.

Recovering the past of Furniture City

More than two centuries of overlooked history flow through Grand Rapids like the river for which it is named. The first city surveyor dabbled in seances while platting out neighborhoods and streets. When a river dredging project left a mountain of stone tormenting residents, the ordeal pitted them against city leaders. Humane society agents uncovered horrendous conditions at the city pound and successfully brought about reform and much better conditions for the animals.

Grand Rapids native and city archivist Matthew A. Ellis delves into the layout of streets, the manufacture of materials used to build the city, local food trends, and more.

Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study and the passionate possession of all Texans. —John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Although occasionally long and roughly paved, roads less traveled reveal cultural gems in every region of the state. From the peaks of the Guadalupe Mountains to the valleys of the Rio Grande, find the best food you’ve ever indulged in, the kindest people you’ve ever met and stories that’ll last a lifetime. Make time for Texas’s wineries and historic churches. Explore true crime and paleontology specific excursions, and relish natural wonders and landmarks of human ingenuity. Author Raegan Scharfetter leads a tour through some of the most rewarding destinations in the Lone Star State.

In addition to its well-known associations with doctors and diagnoses, the city of Rochester offers a string of curiosities to those willing to look closely .

How did a secret bomber mission to Moscow during World War II lead to thousands of fighter planes flying through Rochester and the subsequent construction of a giant IBM manufacturing plant here? What was Rochester's contribution to the 1980 Olympic Hockey Miracle on Ice? Who was dubbed the “Greatest Doctor in the World”, and why? Who were the regular folks without whom the great Mayo Clinic might never have become a medical mecca?

Rochester Stories: A Med City History Paul Scanlon answers these and other questions in this enlightening and sometimes humorous study of Rochester's past.

Lovers of Grand Rapids history and the paranormal will thrill to this spine-tingling tour of homes.

You’ve walked by them. You’ve driven past them. Behind the innocent façades of houses dotting the streets of Grand Rapids are secrets...and ghosts.

In Heritage Hill, a Victorian woman wanders hallways at night, and a house-proud handyman hides the tools of anyone trying to alter his home. On the northwest side, a child’s shadow runs the halls, mocking the family who lives there. Across the river, a red-eyed entity follows homeowners, and some unknown force tears a decorative sign from its hooks and hurls it across the room. Civil War soldiers give a child a coin from 1889. A homeowner is dragged by her ankles, and faces are seen in the television.

Follow Julie Bonner Williams through the doorways and down the halls of Grand Rapids' most haunted houses.

Step back in time to experience mountain Maryland in all its strange and vibrant glory.

From its fascinating caves, dangerous mines, and mysterious mountains to the hex magic practitioners and spooky tales that haunt its towns, folklore infuses every hill and hollow of Western Maryland. Prepare to meet the colorful characters who kept life exciting in Maryland’s westernmost counties, like the locals who never met a poisonous snake they didn’t love and a well-read twentieth-century cave dweller. Travel historic highways and byways straight into frontier Maryland’s darkest history, where an axe murderer cleaved the peaceful mountain night in 1830 and a little-known monster lurks in a place ominously called Spook Hollow.

Join local historian Susan Fair on a tour through obscure and spooky places in the beautiful mountain regions of the Old Line State.