History Goes Bump: Ghost Tours For The Mind

It's our 200th episode! The History of Ghost Hunting and some announcements about the show and EP Program! Supernatural activity has been a part of the human experience since the dawn of mankind. Our fascination and for some, reverence of this activity has lasted into our modern era. The desire to understand where this phenomenon originates and to somehow prove its existence via scientific means h...

Philadelphia is the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania and is known as the "City of Brotherly Love." In 1871, construction on the beautiful and uniquely designed Philadelphia City Hall began. It took thirty years to complete and was topped with a statue of the man who founded Philadelphia and for whom Pennsylvania is named, William Penn. American history has its heart in Philly. This is whe...

There are those who believe that Shakespeare is not the author of the plays attributed to him. There is a Renaissance Conspiracy Theory that claims it was someone else. And there is not just one theory in regards to this. On today's episode, we are hosting a round table with listeners Angie Reynoso Akbarzad, Bob Sherfield, Ronda Borgen and Emily Ridener. They are going to present the different the...

Mackinac Island truly is a place lost in time. This is an island without vehicles and the hustle and bustle of our modern era. People flock to this popular Michigan tourist destination for relaxation in a place where lodgings are family owned and the fudge recipes date back to the 19th century. But beneath the exterior of beauty and sun and calm, lies an undercurrent. Legends, fables and mysticism...

Coe College is located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The college began in the 1850s in of all places, the parlor of a reverend. The school grew from religious studies to a liberal arts college that was a pioneer in the education of women. The college suffered growing pains through the years and nearly closed, but today it thrives. There are tales of hauntings on the campus, with the most well known being...

Summerwind Mansion is a ruined mansion in Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin. It dates back to the early 1900s and served as a fishing lodge originally. Later the Lamont family would turn the lodge into a mansion. It changed ownership several times until it finally burned to the ground in 1988. The mansion has a deep history of haunting activity to the point that it is considered one of the most haunted loc...

The Philippines is made up of thousands of islands. Together, they are an enchanting country of beautiful beaches and enchanting opportunities for outdoor adventure. The Philippines was under Spanish rule for 350 years and much of the country is Catholic because of that beginning. The influence is still seen today in the numerous historic churches and in the Spanish colonial architecture. The peop...

A belief in Faeries has existed for centuries and stretches all around the world. Early stories of faeries originate in medieval Western Europe and this is where we get the term "Fairy Tales." The roots of the oldest tale of fairy creatures comes from a folktale named "The Smith and the Devil." Some fairy tales are thought to be up to 6,000 years old. Stories of faeries traveled with the colonists...

Penn State University is a part of the Big Ten East and has 24 campuses across the state of Pennsylvania. Not bad for a school that had small beginnings and only 64 undergraduate students. Penn State was one of the first land grant universities in America and was founded as an agricultural school. The main campus is situated in the Nittany Valley between Nittany Mountain and Muncy Mountain. The un...

Psychic phenomenon and interaction with the spiritual world date back to the beginnings of humankind. Humans have used various means to facilitate this communication. During the Victorian era, the practice of Spiritualism began and grew in popularity. Many people are credited with growing the beliefs and interest in the afterlife. The Fox Sisters from New York are a couple of those people. The sis...

The town of Bodie in California is probably one of the best preserved ghost towns in America and the town describes itself as being in a state of arrested decay. There are over 100 structures still standing today with many of them dating back to the late 1800's. The town is a State Historic Park maintained by the California State Parks System. In its heyday, it played home to gamblers, miners, gun...

Hampton Court Palace located in the London suburb town of Hampton, dates back to medieval times. Throughout the centuries, the palace has been expanded to the point that it has become two palaces in one. The first is a Tudor Palace that was transformed by both Cardinal Wolsey and then King Henry VIII and a baroque castle that was built by William and Mary. The interior decor has changed to suit th...

Rispin Mansion is located in Capitola, California in the beautiful and supernaturally infused Santa Cruz area. The history of the mansion is intriguing and just part of that, is the fact that a rich real estate baron built it and then went on to be buried in a pauper's grave. Everyone from nuns to hippies have called this place home and the once grand estate has become an abandoned eyesore. But it...

Chicago's Congress Plaza Hotel is said to be the city's most haunted hotel. Chicago hosted the World's Fair in 1893 and the hotel was built to help provide more accommodations, so it has been around for more than a century. World leaders, US Presidents and the rich and famous have all stayed here. There are rumors that the hotel was used during Prohibition by Al Capone. And similar to the inspirat...

Patsy Cline grew to become one of country music's biggest stars and although she died young at the age of thirty, her influence has continued to our present day. She had a cowgirl image, but she was one of the first country stars to cross over to the pop charts. She also paved the way for women to be headliners at shows and she became the first female solo performer inducted into the Country Music...

Bobby Mackey's Music World is northern Kentucky's longest running live music nightclub. For nearly forty years, this honky-tonk has hosted singing, dancing and drinking. But before the bar was opened up on this spot, a slaughterhouse was run here. A pit in the basement leads to the nearby Licking River and the blood and other waste from the slaughterhouse was dumped down this pit into the river. T...

The castle-like Delta Bessborough Hotel is a four star, ten-story hotel located in downtown Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Today it is owned by Marriott, but this historic hotel dates back to 1928 when it was built by the Canadian National Railway. Railway hotels were built all across Canada with many of them sharing the same architecture. Many locals refer to the Bessborough as "The Bess" and m...

Point Lookout is a peninsula formed by the confluence of the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River. Maryland's first governor claimed the point as his plot and he built his manor there in 1634. In the early 1800s, the government chose the point as a place to install a lighthouse. During the Civil War, Point Lookout became a prison for Confederate soldiers. Today, the lighthouse has been decommissio...

Denton, Texas is home to two universities that date back for decades. Both universities have undergone several name changes over the years. Today, they are known as the University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University. The former had its start as a private teacher's college and the latter as a girls industrial school. Over the years, suicides and tragic circumstances have led to hauntings in...

County Wexford has a long history in Ireland and is home to the Loftus Hall Township. The area is a rugged and beautiful land and the Hook peninsula is home to a place famously known as Ireland's most haunted house: Loftus Hall. Last year, 2016, marked the homes 666th year in existence. Legends about the Devil and reports of hauntings are a part of the history of this mansion that has also served...

There are a variety of Pagan holidays, many of which, other religions have borrowed from to establish their own holidays. Christmas and Easter being good examples of this meshing of customs. One Pagan holiday that is not as well known in Imbolc. This is a holiday with a variety of names, depending on culture and location. The customs associated with it, date back centuries. It falls on February 2n...

The University of California, Berkeley is a research university at its heart. Many discoveries and innovations have their origins at this university. From earthquake detection devices to nutrition to deep sea diving chemicals to prevent the bends to the Atomic Bomb to biotech and biofuels, all of these inventions were developed at UC Berkeley. The university was founded back in the 1800s and has p...

The original Coco Palms Resort on the island of Kauai stands no more. It was demolished in 2016 and Hyatt is rebuilding a new resort in the footprint. For decades, the Coco Palms was a tropical island getaway for celebrities and people seeking a tropical location for their wedding. It also served as the setting for Elvis Presley's movie, Blue Hawaii. But long before a resort was built here, a coco...

The Virginia City National Landmark is one of the nation's largest historic districts and includes over five hundred buildings dating to the time of the great bonanzas, from 1859 to 1880. John Mackay was an industrialist who formed a partnership with three other Irishmen and operated silver mines on the Comstock Lode. They hit it big in 1873 when they discovered the "Big Bonanza." That find built...

Western Michigan was once an area of vast dunes along the shores of Lake Michigan. Mature forests attracted the timber industry in the early 1800s and during the Victorian era, the beauty attracted people to come live. One of those people was a German immigrant and he brought his love and inspiration of German castles to an area outside of Holland, Michigan, along Lake Michigan. He built a small r...