Spooky Appalachia

The following story and associated materials were sent to us from our friend from Kentucky Ghost Searchers. Be sure to check out his YouTube channel.

Thank you Kentucky Ghost Searchers for the story, photo and video. I really enjoyed talking to you about your experience. Remember if you’ve had a paranormal encounter like this and want to send it in you can email us at [email protected].

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We’re sure if you are into the paranormal you’ve at least heard of Point Pleasant West Virginia. We decided to do this video since we’ve had some many stories originate from this town, and a lot of our viewers saying they wish they could see it.

The Town of Point Pleasant was first settled in 1774 along the banks of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, but wasn’t officially chartered just yet. Not long after this on October 10, 1774 the Battle of Point Pleasant occurred between the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk and General Andew Lewis.

In 1777, Chief Cornstalk and his son traveled to Fort Randolph to discuss peace between their tribes and the settlers, but they were captured and killed. It is believed that Chief Cornstalk laid a curse upon the land as he was slain. Then, finally, in 1804 Mason County split off from Kanawha County, and the city officially became Point Pleasant.

A lot of people believe that the paranormal happenings centered around Point Pleasant happen due to the curse of Chief Cornstalk. If you’ve ever spent some time around Point Pleasant residents you’ll notice when something goes wrong they jokingly say “there’s that Chief Cornstalk Curse again” We’ll mention a few of the paranormal happenings but wont go into great detail on them since we’ve already done stories on a good number of them, or plan to in the future.

One of the earliest paranormal stories we’ve found are on The Mason County Ghost Lights. The Ghost Lights showed up around 1810. People report seeing what looks like a lantern bobbing up and down in a particular area.

Possibly the next paranormal happenings in town could be from the Lowe Hotel. It’s hard to say when the hauntings reported there started, but the hotel was opened in 1901. Guests have reported seeing apparitions, as well as seeing shadow and yearning strange sounds that can’t be explained.

After that would be the UFO stories that may have started in 1931 with the Phantom Blimp Crash. Then there were the Mothman sightings and a huge uptick in UFO sightings. Between 1966-1967 there were hundreds of UFO and Mothman sights in the area. For the most part this seemed to slow down when the Silver Bridge collapsed in 1967, but some folks say the UFOs and Mothman are still around.

That pretty much sums up the paranormal occurrences, that aside Point Pleasant West Virginia is a fun place to visit and is a town that fully embraces their paranormal culture. There are many great places to visit, including The World's Only Mothman Museum and their sister store The Point Pleasant Trading Company. The Mothman Museum is also working to complete The Mothman themed escape room, and also starting an indoor cryptid themed mini golf course! Some other places to check out are The Tu-Endie-Wei State park where the Battle of Point Pleasant Happened, The TNT Area where most of The Mothman sightings occurred, and many of the locally owned restaurants where you can get Mothman themed foods.

Source(s) vistpointpleasantwv https://visitpointpleasantwv.com/history/

Appalachian Oddity http://www.appalachianoddity.org/

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St. Albans Sanatorium has been many things over the years, a boys school, a mental hospital, an ill-considered daycare facility, and, today, a site for those seeking an experience with the paranormal. Built on a hill overlooking the New River outside of Radford, VA at the site of a bloody battle from the American Civil War, the location’s violent history has led to many locals viewing it as a nexus for paranormal activity.

The structure now known as St. Albans Sanatorium began life as St. Albans Lutheran Boys School in 1892. The school operated first under headmaster George W. Miles and then Winslow H. Randolph. It was a prestigious preparatory school in the area, however, bullying was reportedly rampant, and there were rumors that several students lost their lives. St. Albans closed in 1904, and the building sat vacant until 1916, when Dr. J.C. King converted the property into St. Albans Sanatorium.

Dr. King was a forward-thinking psychologist for the time, emphasizing a home-like environment and attempting to treat his patients rather than simply locking them up away from society. St. Albans featured such amenities as a roof-top garden, a bowling alley, and a farm where the patients could work. Unfortunately, the treatments were still, by today’s standards, barbaric. Electroshock therapy, lobotomies, and insulin-shock therapies routinely left patients either brain-dead or just simply dead. Hydrotherapy was also employed, where patients were covered in towels soaked in cold water, or left in bathtubs for days on end. Given the violent nature of the treatments at the hospital, it is unsurprising that the location is home to numerous unquiet dead.

The spirits of St. Albans are many. A young boy named Jacob, an orderly named Donald, a grieving mother Rebecca, and the spirits Smokey and Red Eyes.

A big thank you to Julie from St. Albans, who was our tour guide on our visit, was kind enough to sit down with us for a livestream, and who provided many of the stories we’ve related today. If you are looking for a book on St. Albans Sanatorium, we highly recommend The Ghosts of St. Albans Sanatorium by Pat Bussard O’Keefe. If you live close to Radford, VA, be sure to check out St. Albans annual haunted house, which takes place in September and October every year, or one of their historical tours or ghost tours throughout the year. Maybe you will have more luck meeting Red Eyes than we did.

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Today’s story was sent to me by a friend of mine that lives in Gallipolis, OH named Amy. For those unfamiliar with the area Gallipolis is right across the bridge from Point Pleasant. It is considered to be a sister town to Point Pleasant by many of the people that live there. 

Thank you Amy for sending me this story. I know if I were out in my yard with my kids and I saw something like that it would have freaked me out as well! Remember if you’ve had a paranormal encounter like this and want to send it in you can email us at [email protected].

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This cryptid is one that just kept coming up and I always forgot to cover it. I first heard of this one from our good buddy The Best Virginian. It’s also known as the Rivesville Monster or Hoult Monster. 

The Ogua is a freshwater cryptid that is said to look like a giant two headed alligator snapping turtle that weighs about 500lbs and is 20 feet long. It roams the West Virginia and Pennsylvania areas mostly dwelling in the Ohio, Allegheny, and Monongahela rivers. Though it is known to be an aquatic cryptid it is also said to come onto land to feed on deer, or unsuspecting humans. 

There have been several sightings of the Ogua in Marion County, West Virginia. It’s said that the first sighting of the creature was in 1745 where witnesses reported seeing a giant 2-headed turtle come up out of the Monongahela River, and pull a 12 year old boy who was fishing on the bank into the river where he was never seen again. 

Overall the Ogua sounds like a terrifying creature and not something many people would want to run into. Have you had an encounter with the Ouga creature? Or had another type of paranormal encounter? Email us and tell your story. We may end up featuring it. You can email us at [email protected].

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I’ve been wanting to cover The Black Sisters since I started Spooky Appalachia, but I’ve been waiting for the right time. With a movie coming out soon I thought now might be a good time. I grew up in Christiansburg, Virginia, and I’ve heard many stories about the Black Sisters. Today I will share with you some of the local legends and stories I’ve heard.

From what I can find, the three sisters were called The Black Sisters because they wore all black clothing. From the stories I heard, they wore black dresses, shoes, gloves, hats and veils, as though they were going to a funeral, or mourning. Their names were Mary Snead, Caroline Martin, and Virginia Wardlaw. Mary and Caroline came to Christiansburg around 1902 to help their sister Virginia run the Montgomery County Female Academy.

Around this time a few mysterious events began to happen. First there was the disappearance of a controversial illegitimate baby birthed by one of the students at the school. Shortly after, Mary’s son John was found burned to death in bed just a week after his mother and aunts had taken out a very large insurance policy on him. 

Sometime later, Caroline’s daughter Ocey came to town and married her first cousin (Mary’s son) Fletcher Snead. Sometime after, Ocey became pregnant and Fletcher left town, and so it was up to The Black Sister to take care of her.

It turns out they didn’t take very good care of Ocey and the baby at all. Shortly after the baby was born it died due to malnutrition. After that, Ocey was found drowned in the bathtub just days after a large insurance policy was taken out on her as well.

After all of these events occurred, the sisters left town for New Jersey. Soon after their arrival the authorities caught up with them. Caroline was convicted of Murder and sentenced to 7 years in a mental hospital where she later died. Mary pleaded guilty but got off on a technicality, and after that she fled to Colorado. Finally, Virginia starved herself to death before she ever saw the judge. 

So where does the paranormal aspect of this story come in? From what I’ve heard there are two locations that one or more of The Black Sisters are said to haunt. The first one is the old Christiansburg Middle School building. The former middle school, which is now the Montgomery County Public School’s technology center, was built on top of where the Montgomery County Female Academy stood. There have been reports of lights going on and out randomly, whispers, footsteps in the hallways when no one is around, and dark shadowy figures in some of the rooms and hallways.

The other location that I’ve heard the sister haunt is Sunset Cemetery, where Virginia Wardlaw is said to be buried. Supposedly, a taxi driver claimed to have driven them to the cemetery, where they conducted some type of ritual at a grave site. Was this ritual something that would allow them to later return as spirits to the cemetery? I’ve heard several people who have claimed to see their spirits at the cemetery. For the most part, people report seeing shadow figures darting around in the cemetery at night, but I’ve heard stories growing up that Viginia can be seen dancing around the cemetery at midnight.

This pretty much sums up what I’ve heard over the years. I hadn’t written a story on this topic yet because I’ve been so afraid that I would mess it up. Hopefully I did this story justice and my home town doesn’t hate me for it. If you’ve ever had an experience you think is related to The Black Sisters, or any kind of paranormal experience that you’d like to see featured on Spooky Appalachia, you can email us at [email protected].

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Today’s story was sent to us by a fan who asked that we just refer to her as “Sally” who sent us a UFO sighting from Moneta, Virginia. She said it occurred around 2014.

I lived in Moneta for 17 years on Diamond Hill Rd. There's a neighborhood behind it called Virginia Woods, very close to the lake. On a 4th of July weekend maybe 8 years ago I was sitting on my deck with my ex-husband. It was late. I could hear a family having a little party through the woods, kids laughing. We sat there just talking when I caught something out of the corner of my eye in the treetops. An orange kind of light hovering. I have to say, I was like what the hell. My first thought was a plane on fire but no noise and it wasn't moving. Then it slowly moved along again, no noise. I followed it out to the street. Once I made it to the road I grasped this ball of light was big. My hair on my arms felt like it was standing up. I had no idea what I was looking at. I moved to the shadows behind my car as it slowly moved away. Finally I go in the house and my husband said he had been looking for a camera. For many years he would say he didn't know what he saw really was. Guess he didn't want me to tell this out of fear it sounds unreal.

Thank you Sally for sending this in and allowing us to share your story. Remember if you’ve had a paranormal encounter like this and want to send it in you can email us at [email protected].

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