Haunted Kansas

A collection of ghost stories and narration unique to the state of Kansas. The stories are a blend of mystery and menace. The ghosts are shown are to notoriously linked to a specific structure or landscape, whether it be an 18th century mansion or a bottomless pool.

Who's that? Is someone there? A whisper of air brushes your cheek. Then all is still. Maybe it was just the wind. Or maybe it wasn't. . . . Maybe you've just been visited by the late Ida Day lurking in the basement of Hutchinson's public library or the widow Tarot staring forlornly from an upstairs window at Fort Scott, or the phantom Earl floating behind the scenes in Concordia's Brown Grand Theater. And maybe the horrific Albino Woman truly does haunt Topeka, turning romantic nights into nightmares. . . . maybe. Pursuing the stories behind these and other spectral manifestations, Lisa Hefner Heitz has traveled the state in search of its ghostly folklore. What she has unearthed is a fascinating blend of oral histories, contemporary eye-witness accounts, and local legends. Creepy and chilling, sometimes humorous, and always engaging, her book features tales about ghosts, poltergeists, spook lights, and a host of other restless spirits that haunt Kansas. Heitz's spine-tingling collection of stories raps and taps and moans and groans through a wealth of descriptions of infamous Kansas phantoms, as well as disconcerting personal experiences related by former skeptics. Many of these ghosts, she shows, are notoriously linked to specific structures or locations, whether it is an eighteenth-century mansion in Atchison or a deep--some have claimed bottomless--pool near Ashland. The evanescent apparitions of these tales have frightened and at times amused Kansans throughout the state's long history. Yet this is the first book to capture for posterity the lively antics of the state's ghostly denizens. Besides preserving a colorful and imaginative, if intangible, side of the state's popular heritage, Heitz supplies ghost-storytellers with ample hair-raising material for, well, eternity. Maybe that person breathing softly behind you has another such story to share. Oh, no one's there? Perhaps it really was just the breeze off the prairie.

Describes over 2,000 sites of supernatural occurances in the United States, including places visited by ghosts, UFOs, and unusual creatures.

Explore the history-the haunted history-of many towns and cities in southeast Kansas. These stories mix folklore, eyewitness testimony, and historical fact into gently woven tales which show current paranormal activity, speculate about who might be haunting, and even suggest why the activity occurs. This collection includes friendly ghosts like Charley, who has saved the lives of his Independence family more than once, and more haunted figures like the Lady in Black, who wandered the streets of Caney more than a century ago, looking for her baby's grave. They tell of well-known haunted places, such as Coffeyville's Tavern on the Plaza, William Inge's childhood home, and The Old Haunted House of Fredonia, but they also reveal secret places that even witnesses themselves are reluctant to discuss. These tales, from funny to frightening, are perfect for reading alone, or aloud-except on dark nights, when the Kansas wind is howling. About the Author Cheryl Carvajal has been writing since she learned how, beginning her first play at the age of six. She lived in Kansas and Oklahoma for several years, and she recently moved from southeast Kansas to Bothell, Washington, with her husband Richard, her two young children, and her black tabby. She earned her bachelor's degree in English at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma; her master's in Literature at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; and her doctorate in English at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. She spent two years researching this book, and one more writing and publishing it. Dr. Carvajal is a playwright, and several of her plays have been performed at the William Inge Center for the Arts. She also writes fiction and poetry, sings, draws, paints, juggles, teaches English and theatre, and works actively to inspire others to enrich their lives through involvement in the arts.

Founded in 1854 as an abolitionist outpost, Lawrence is a seemingly unassuming college town with a long history of hauntings. A ghostly guest never checked out of the Eldridge Hotel's mysterious room 506. Sigma Nu's fraternity house, the former home of Kansas's eighteenth governor, is still haunted by the specter of a young woman. Learn the tragic stories of Pete Vinegar, George Albach and Lizzie Madden and uncover the devilish truth behind the "legend" of Stull Cemetery. Author Paul Thomas reveals the ghoulish history behind these stories and many more.

(FAQ Pop Culture). Take a fast-paced survey of the ghosties, ghouls, and associated denizens of the country's haunted history with Haunted America FAQ . Tracing local ghost stories back to Native American legends and then forward through horror tales both ancient and modern, the book revisits some of the best known haunted locales, as well as some of the most obscure creepy places, in America. Delving deep into the cultural history of American hauntings, Haunted America FAQ includes chapters on ghostly books, movies, and television. Also included is an A-Z of reality-TV ghost hunts and a state-by-state gazetteer of haunted spots.

If you believe in ghosts, you're in good company. Haunted Histories brings America's most ghostly locales to life, illuminating their role in shaping U.S. history and detailing how they became the nation's most feared places. Haunted Histories takes readers on a state-by-state journey across the United States, exploring the nation's most feared places. Along the way, the text introduces readers to new ghostly tales and takes a fresh look at familiar stories and locations, with an eye to history. From well-known spooky spots like Salem, Massachusetts, to such lesser-known ones as the Shanghai Tunnels of Portland, Oregon, where spirits are supposedly trapped, readers will discover not only where America's most haunted places are but also why they are said to be haunted. The ghosts of the doomed Donner Party allow readers to experience the arduous and often deadly journey of America's westward wagon trains, while different kinds of "spirits" haunting old distilleries allow readers to discover how whiskey almost derailed the new American nation before it was born. This book can be studied for academic purposes as a historical reference, used as a source for classroom assignments, or simply read for the pleasure of a great story.

Heralded across the country in newspapers ranging from The New York Times Book Review and The Baltimore Sun to The Minneapolis Star Tribune and The Denver Post, and in magazines as diverse as Chicago and Library Journal, the Haunted America series has attracted widespread acclaim as a virtual spectral travelogue through the byways and highways of North America. Haunted Heritage: A Definitive Collection of American Ghost Stories, the latest volume in the series. Continues its recounting of supernatural explorations, collecting a comprehensive compendium of ghostly tales, not penned by fictioneers such as Poe and King, but passed on by word of mouth and preserved by memory as actual windows on our nation's haunted past. The authors have compiled an astounding collection of American ghost stories. Based on interviews with eyewitnesses, unearthed ancient archives, overheard tales, and actual paranormal visitations and explorations. From the "Haunts of Ivy," a survey of university ghosts, to an overview of spectral lights, from revolutionary spirits in New England to beyond the grave occurrences in the Badlands, Haunted Heritage is the ghost story collection for all of North America. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.