Wild, Wonderful, and downright Wicked West Virginia
Not-so-secret confession: I have a sick fascination and obsession with West Virginia. It’s no wonder, really…..my family on my maternal grandma’s side was born here. Some of them are buried here. I never met any of them before they migrated to Ohio, but I feel a strong connection to this beautiful state. This picture below is the historic Harper’s Ferry, which also has its paranormal stories, but that was from when I had passed through in May, not this most recent visit to West Virginia.
Recently I took a massive road trip zig-zagging throughout the state to hit the “big three” most interesting paranormal spots in the state: WV Penitentiary, Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, and the Mothman Museum. I also made some non-haunted stops, that are unique to West Virginia, like “Tudor’s Biscuit World”, which is West Virginia’s answer to North Carolina’s “Biscuitville”, except even better.(Shhhh….no one tell my former home state that I said that…). And I couldn’t leave without eating a West Virginia-style hot dog (slaw and chili all day) and of course a pepperoni roll. (What do you think the miners eat when they go into the coal mines? Pepperoni, cheese, and a roll all wrapped into one delightful package.) Aside from beautiful topography, the food (!!!), and most of all: the warm and friendly people, there is so much to appreciate in this state. And by the way, don’t get the wrong idea from watching “Deliverance” and pretending like you know how they are here. I promise: you don’t. (Cue “Dueling Banjos”….) Sadly, West Virginia was simply born poor. But the West Virginians were ahead of their time, really…..they stood up for what they believed (they believed in abolishing slavery), so they made the decision to secede from Virginia. That cost an enormous amount of money, so poor West Virginia was in debt from the get-go. But that didn’t stop them from doing the right thing. I love these people already…..
This blog is gonna be long and not for the faint of heart. So pour yourself some moonshine, take a deep breath, and get comfortable.
West Virginia Penitentiary
Moundsville, WV
The photo I took makes it look almost like a movie set, doesn’t it? This structure has indeed been featured on several television series, most recently on Hulu’s “Castle Rock”, based on a Stephen King novel. Sounds appropriate to me. This was by far one of my favorite places I’ve ever toured. Hands-down. And what made the tour so special was our tour guide, Chuck. A former prison guard here, he described how working here changed him. I suppose working at a prison hardens your spirit, diminishes your joie de vivre, and interrupts your fun. I am guessing you might always be on-guard, never quite at ease, and not quite as soft as you might have once been. He didn’t go into detail about many of his own personal experiences, but I imagine he witnessed violent rapes, suicides, and bloody battles of death. He has likely had his fair share of excrement and vomit and other bodily fluids flung at him. I am just speculating the severity of employment here, but I don’t think I am very far off. However hardened one may become from this career, giving tours has brought joy and laughter back to Chuck’s life. Chuck is a maven of knowledge and a warm, gentle-hearted soul, not emotionally dead inside, as one might expect after years of working in this grim and rough venue. But I suspect it probably took him some time to get back to his natural demeanor. The grim environment pictured below is the high-security wing. That little box in the top of the photo is the “Crow’s Nest” where an armed guard stood watch with a .357 magnum. I am imagining how hard it must have been to get a good shot through the metal caging and onto the target, who is likely rolling around on the floor with another prisoner. The cart on the right side is the meal cart. (Not too far off from how our bar carts look on the plane.)
I had visited the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, OH just about one year ago, and I thought it would be fun to compare the two. They are similar in some ways, but very different in other ways. Ohio was ornate. West Virginia was more raw.
Make no mistake, the structure is simply beautiful. It is situated right across the street from an ancient Indian burial ground. The chief was buried in…..what else…..a mound. How do you think Moundsville got its name?
Sadly, the burial ground extended to the exterior of the prison; a potter’s field. Bodies are buried there and no one knows who they are. It was a potter’s field, which is an area with many unmarked bodies. And it is illegal to dig them up to try to find out more They weren’t prisoners. They were there long before. No *wonder* this place is haunted. Who can blame these spirits for being angry? How would anyone feel about a prison being erected on top of the spot you were laid to rest?
So the facility was built with the intent to house about 700 inmates, but at one point had triple that. 5 by 7 (read: TINY) cells were situated with 2 bunks and one inmate sleeping on the floor. Surprisingly the floor was the most “senior” spot, as it was the coolest spot to be in the summer heat. Your head was dangerously close to the toilet, but that didn’t seem to deter anyone from considering that spot to be a commodity.
As over-crowded as it was, it even attracted some famous serial killers. Charles Manson wrote a letter begging to be transferred here so that he could be closer to home; apparently his mother had once done time here. The powers that be said “no”. Hatfields and McCoys have stood behind bars here. A running joke is that they would kill each other if prison life didn’t kill them first, but that only applies to McCoys, because West Virginia doesn’t kill, nor hang “their own”. (Hatfields are from WV and McCoys are from KY).
998 documented deaths occurred at the prison and many more undocumented. And apparently they weren’t very good at security. Over 700 escaped from when it was built in 1866 to when it closed in 1995.
This prison seemed to be somewhat lax about a number of different rules. At least for those who hadn’t done anything too bad. Their indoor recreation area was known as the “Sugar Shack” (take your guesses why they called it that). This is where the real horror happened and is still happening. When they have overnight ghost hunts here, everyone is in a big hurry to explore the Sugar Shack. Shadowy figures are spotted. The temperature drops. Hair gets pulled. Words are uttered. Limits are pushed. Some of the ghosts are particularly frisky with the women who visit that area. It is the most active part of the prison. Additionally, numerous visitors have captured the “shadow man” on camera, an ominous figure who lurks in the dark, around corners throughout the building.
A famous prisoner, William Snyder, also known as “Red”, got into a duel with rival, Rusty Lassiter. These two were somewhat respected prisoners, and two people you didn’t want to mess with. One day they messed with each other though, during the limited recreation time to which they both were entitled. Lassiter had taken a piece of metal from his bed and managed to sharpen it. Red was stabbed over 30 times by Lassiter, and died in prison. His cell (pictured) is very haunted and people have heard him call their names out in the dark. One, in particular, Maggie, a former guard-turned-guide, stopped taking her tours past his cell when she clearly heard him say “Hi Maggie” one day, well after his death.
Another very haunted part of the prison is the boiler room. Chuck told us mobile phones mysteriously power off and some go crazy, taking photos on their own. Other mobile phones have been known to reset to 1986, the date of riots that took place in that boiler room. How do you explain that one to Verizon?
The good news about this place is that the Masons cast a spell that no evil souls will ever leave the prison grounds- they are trapped here. So fortunately for anyone who visits: you will not be taking a prisoner home with you. I am itching to go back to visit though and do an overnight ghost hunt in the darkened facility. (Just to visit. Not to stay. And who knows- I may not make it there for very long in the dark….)
Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
Weston, WV
She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you? – Norman Bates, Psycho
I would like to believe my trip here was very timely. There has always been a stigma on mental health. And all these sad and untimely suicides are downright heart-wrenching. Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, much like its home state, was ahead of its time in 1858, when it was built. A beautiful facility in the sprawling green hills of the state was a place that attempted to treat patients who suffered from mental illness. Thomas Story Kirkbride, the architect, designed the campus with sunlight and access to fresh air, especially the Women’s facility, with its sprawling staircases and open spaces. (That particular building is now over-run by bats, and not open to the public.) During my visit to the large main building, it was quite sunny and bright inside. Although, sadly, sometimes when you are in your darkest hour, even sunshine burns your soul. But they did their best here. Sure, some of the practices were brutal and ridiculously macabre (frontal lobotomies anyone?) and I am not dismissing any of the brutalities and deaths that occurred here, but I whole-heartedly believe many of the nurses, the doctors, and even the architects of the building were champions of mental health…. Even in the 1800s, when what we currently know as DSM-V diagnoses were still considered taboo. That said, there were some exceptions, like Dr. Walter Freeman, who traveled in a Zoot suit, from facility to facility across the state, performing lobotomies, and gaining pure pleasure from the act of doing so, and the favorable response from the crowd observing this practice. He believed he could “pluck the crazy from one’s brian.” People even dubbed it as the “Ice Pick Tour of WV”. Talk about crazy…..
The Asylum was only designed to house 250 patients. At its peak, there were 2600 patients! Overcrowding leads to horrible conditions, violence, and deaths. A local Weston lady, now just shy of 100 years old remembers caskets being lined up outside one day, when a flu epidemic hit the facility. I’m sure it spread like wildfire, since cots were set up in hallways outside the rooms to host the overflow, and infectious disease was beyond contagious in close living quarters.
Speaking of fires, there was a fire that destroyed a large part of the men’s ward in 1935. How did the charge nurse get the patients to evacuate? She rang the dinner bell! Brilliant. 600 men in the affected wards were saved by her clever ploy.
My tour guide was Valerie, the Ghost Hunt Manager here at the Asylum. I loved everything about her. Some of the guides were dressed in old-fashioned nurses uniforms, but Valerie kept it real in jeans and t-shirt. Her tour was not “scripted”, but she was a wealth of knowledge and has done years of independent research on the hospital. While the nurses uniforms were fun, and effective for the other tours going on that day (there were LOTS of them), I think the paranormal tour is best portrayed without the pageantry and theatrics. I believe paranormal exploration attracts a certain type of person. We appreciate keeping things “real” and focusing on what our senses instinctively tell us, without distractions. In all fairness, I consider myself a “ghost agnostic”. I don’t know what is out there, but I believe there could be something. I’ve seen, heard, felt (eeks), and even smelled some unexplained things before. Agnostic implies “No one knows for sure”, but I do know what my senses tell me.
Ok, let’s cut to the chase and talk about the weird stuff now. Somewhere between 50,000-100,000 people died here. If that’s not enough to rattle your bones, I don’t know what is. Valerie and her colleagues and the guests have had all kinds of strange things happen here. See that “cage” in the photo above? That was a locked area where patients who didn’t cooperate were sent until they did cooperate. Valerie reported that at one point a tour guide got trapped into that cage, demonstrating how it worked, and an unseen force trapped her in there for a short while. This facility was closed for business in 1994. The cleaning crew refused to stay, because they were so creeped out by objects being moved, voices being spoken, and such. The place sat vacant until 2007 when the current owner refurbished it for tours and such. Sadly, during its vacancy there were looters and homeless people sneaking in. They had a guard dog named Boo to come in and work the night shift. Poor thing was left whimpering and frightened on more than one occasion. The cameras couldn’t detect anything that might have sparked his reactions. The most activity occurs in Ward T on the 4th floor, which was originally used as staff housing, but transitioned to other uses over the years to the alcohol rehab floor and other things. It was darker than the other floors and the floors were wooden. Valerie described all sorts of communications that occurred either via EVP (electric voice phenomenon, if you are unfamiliar with the playback of recordings. It is when you record something and hear voices/answers to your direct questions that cannot be heard with the “naked” ear), or a variety of other ways like wheelchairs moving on their own and doors opening and closing.
This building housed men, women, and children and I found it really interesting how many of the halls were painted pink. Valerie told us that studies have shown that pink is a soothing color for awhile, but after some time it starts to become annoying.
This place operated for 30 years without electricity. Can you imagine? It was hot the day I was there and while it was brightly lit during the day in most of the corridors, navigating this massive structure alone at night, must have been absolutely brutal. There were also “hot beds” at one point. We, in the airline industry, know what a hot bed is. It is when you have a “crash pad” at your airport base (usually a designated hotel suite or small apartment), and you share the bed with other people, rotating nights you sleep there, changing the sheets when it’s your turn. They did this at Trans Allegheny too. Patients slept in “shifts”. No wonder disease spread so easily.
Now my appetite has been whet and I am ready to come back and do an overnight ghost hunt. My tour was A++, but I am thirsty for more of an interactive experience. Recently I watched the very first episode of “Paranormal Lockdown” when they explored the asylum, and what they experienced for 72 hours was downright frightening. I am not an advanced ghost-hunter; I do this more for fun, but I am curious to see what might happen in the darkness here. See you again soon, spooks!
Mothman Museum
Point Pleasant, WV
Have you ever thought you might have been forewarned about a tragic event that hasn’t yet happened? The people of Mount Pleasant did. Every time the Mothman was spotted, something bad was about to happen. The proverbial canary in the coal mine. (Appropriate metaphor for West Virginia, I think.) The most disastrous and famous of these incidents was the collapse of the Silver Bridge, killing 46 people on December 15, 1967. Many of these people were Christmas shopping and crossing the bridge on the absolute coldest day of the year. Observers described presents floating through the water, among the debris. How incredibly sad and unexpected that must have been to lose a loved one that day. That bridge simply wasn’t built to hold as much traffic as it did. Did the mothman predict this disaster 13 months earlier, back in November 1966? Many believe so. Two couples traveling together at night reported the most famous mothman encounter. The four of them all saw a 6′ tall black creature with glaring red eyes and a full 10′ wingspan, swooping over their car, when they were driving near a former WW II Munitions Plant. Others had reported seeing something similar in surrounding areas. Scientists have tried to explain it as a large crane or an owl, but no breed has really fit the description of this sighting, and forthcoming sightings of the Mothman.
So does he exist? Is it true? I don’t know for sure, but I appreciate the entertaining culture that surrounds this iconic figure. At the museum, the guy working there was busy preparing a package to ship. He explained to me that tshirt sales have increased exponentially lately, because a popular video game features one of the characters wearing a mothman tshirt, which gave the museum some free and unexpected publicity.
Do I believe in the Mothman prophecies? I’m not sure if I do or not, but I liked the movie, and I adore the sleepy little Ohio River town that embraces his folklore. The museum is small, but interesting. There were videos playing in the back room, discussing the history of this phenomenon. I enjoyed the museum and the statue right across the street, lit up brightly by the sun on a hot June day.
________________________________
So that’s my whirlwind tour of West Virginia. If you made it to the end, congratulations. That was some heavy reading and I appreciate you for sticking it out. I do promise most of my blog entries will not be so long, but it’s not every day that I get to visit three places all at once. More tours will be forthcoming this summer. Standby.
