Boldly Go Solo

They say that if you walk late at night, up Hog Alley, a short, steep street in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., you might see a tall black man, dressed like a gentleman from the 1800s, pacing up and down. If you get close enough, he slowly lifts his head to show piercing blue eyes. But when he lifts his head a little farther, you see blood dripping from a scar that goes from ear to ear. . . .

Agghhhhhhh!

This story is continued in Friday's Weekend section of The Washington Post. The headline is, "An eerie twist on 'living history.' "

I went on the O' Be Joyfull ghost tour in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and visited The Haunted Cottage there as well.

The Harpers Ferry Ghost Tour

Rick Garland, the guide of the ghost tour in the historic area of Harpers Ferry related stories about the ghosts of people who actually died in the area, many during the Civil War era. Some Confederate soldiers, some abolitionists, some young boys sent to help the soldiers.

The Harpers Ferry Haunted Cottage

The haunted cottage was something completely different. It was all about the paranormal and scary performances of things like "psychic surgeries," (pretend to pull the "guts" from a guest's abdomen) and seances.

Not my thing, but hey, go online and look for zombie walks if you would find that amusing! It seems like quite the Halloween thing to do. While I was touring the place, a black cat scooted across the hall in front of me. Yikes! The owner of the cottage, Vince, said it was born under the house. 

I took both tours on my own. Stayed at the Harpers Ferry hostel, as I wrote about in an earlier post, keeping the weekend mighty inexpensive and very social. 

Hauntings are not limited to West Virginia. Apparently, there are loads of haunted houses and ghostly appearances around the country and the world. While I can't present a collection of them at the moment, I did learn of Haunted Atchison, "the Midwest's (Kansas) spookiest location."

According to Atchison's web site, "paranormal investigators still hold Atchison as sort of a Holy Grail of ghostly happenings." Yours to investigate, should you choose.

Photos: Ellen Perlman. 1. Stairs connecting the main drag of Harpers Ferry with some haunted dwellings near the railroad tracks. 2. The Haunted Cottage for paranormal researchers and people who enjoy being spooked.