Moonlight on Water

­Last night I took Sherri Brake’s “Spirits and Spirits” tour, a ride on the St. Helena III, a canal boat on the Ohio Erie Canal. The evening ended at a small whisky distillery in Canal Fulton, housed in a very haunted building. Traditionally the canal boat is pulled by two horses, but because one of them became injured, the boat was pulled by a tractor. (I was secretly somewhat happy- I often have a hard time seeing animals used as beasts of burdens, but I suppose that may be another topic for another day.)

Sherri Brake is a history expert, tour guide, author, and just an all-around fun and interesting person with a great sense of humor. Her company is Haunted Heartland Tours. Sherri introduced herself as a former Boy Scout and Girl Scout leader who raised her children in the small town of Canal Fulton, and was known as the “crazy mom on the block”. (But all the kids wanted to come to her house for sleepovers, because she told the best ghost stories). She now lives in West Virginia, and gives tours and conducts ghost hunts in both Ohio and WV. Upcoming events include Mansfield Reformatory and WV State Penitentiary. I have already been to both, but I would love to join her at these events. She has also written several books on the history of both of these places. She even has a small extra role in Hulu’s “Castle Rock”, as the mother of one of the prisoners in Episode 4, which is coming up.

There was a full moon last night, and there are several reasons Sherri gives her tours on nights with a full moon; one of the most obvious reasons is that the horses see better in the bright moonlight. In this case, the tractor drivers could see better, although it was still dusk for a large portion of our tour. In northeast Ohio, our summer nights are long, and even though our tour started at 8 PM, we had a good bit of daylight. We started out with a toast and a shot of MacGregor Scotch Whisky. Slainte’! We were on our way.

In 1824 the Ohio-Erie Canal was dug by hand to link Lake Erie to the Ohio River. It took 7 years to build. This was a very tolling and strenuous job, and many of the workers died of dysentery and other diseases throughout the construction. Often when the workers died, the put simply put the bodies off to the side of the canal. They say that for every mile of canal, there lies a dead Irish man. The canal was originally 308 miles long, so that is a lot of bodies. No wonder this place is haunted.

Our boat reached it’s turn-around point at Lock 4, which is the area where the water level rises. There are 152 locks. Akron (Summit County) is the highest point of the canal. Lock 4 is known as one of the most haunted places in northeast Ohio. The canal felt so peaceful, and the little lock-keeper’s building looked so cheerful and unassuming, but historic accounts tell us otherwise. Legend says that a horrific incident occurred here in the 1880s with a container of acid, a man gone wild, and a crew of men on a canal boat. A man who worked on the canal had caught wind that the government was possibly going to shut down the canal, and so he went crazy and burned the workers with acid. It’s said that the ghosts of the deceased still roam the area near the lock tender’s building. The enraged crazy man’s evil spirit still lives here too, according to local lore.

While the government didn’t shut the canal down as the enraged man had been told, the canal was abandoned after a massive flooding incident in 1913, and at that point in time, railroads had really taken over as the primary mode of transportation.

So once our boat turned around and headed back, we disembarked and headed to Canal Spirits Craft Distillery, located in the lower level of the historic Brimstone Building, built in 1859. The space has been left to resemble its original state, including sandstone block walls and hand-hewn beams. And….you guessed it….the building is haunted. Strange sounds have been heard and strange figures have been seen.

Vinnie, the owner, extended a warm welcome and we were treated to some appetizers, as well as a taste of his Apparition Blueberry Moonshine and also an Apple Pie Moonshine. I found them both to be very smooth and they went down with ease. The whisky is pure corn whisky and everything is ground, mashed, and produced in-house. Vinnie makes an 100 proof clear moonshine and then several other lower proof moonshines. He was sold out of the pumpkin spice, but that sounds appealing to me, especially knowing it contains actual pumpkin, and not just some cinnamon and nutmeg. (It drives me crazy that places call things “pumpkin spice”, but they leave out the very ingredient I savor the most: the pumpkin…..Also, maybe another blog for another time…) At any rate, I will be returning to purchase some of the local moonshine from Canal Spirits.

This was a very creative and unique ghost tour. Sherri is one of the most knowledgeable guides in the industry, and I really loved visiting the little town of Canal Fulton, and hearing her rendition of its history. (Did I mention I lived in this little town for the first year of my life? No wonder I feel a connection.) I appreciated the fun evening, and I can’t wait to go to another event led by Sherri Brake.