The Athens Post articles I was interviewed for, about the "haunted Athens" legends, ran on October 26 and October 27. I'm still in the process of posting some of the many late-October local-spook stories from newspapers across Ohio in the News Watch section, something I expect to finish soon. I was able to post two new stories related to the recent weirdness at Franklin Castle. Check out the bottom of the page for an up-to-date description of the fake renovations, mock website, and amateur lesbian pornography going on there. (I told you it was weird.)

A couple of days ago, on October 30, I was invited to speak at the Upper Arlington Public Library's Lane Road branch on the Halloween-friendly topic of Ohio hauntings and the facts behind them. My thanks to everyone at the Lane Road library for inviting me and introducing me so generously, and to the people who showed up to hear me speak.

We have a new haunting today, from Jackson County: Wellston's historic mansion and one-time nursing home Wells House, brought to my attention by the extremely well-informed Robin Snyder. It's an interesting story that involves the suicide of the founding father of Wellston.

The Name That Building entry hasn't changed with this update, because I haven't had any suggestions about what it was called or used for.

NAME THAT BUILDING


Abandoned Brick Complex; Coke Factory?
State Route 147 or 149 - Bellaire, Ohio

This time around our Name That Building candidate is a real tricky one. Not only is it very old and very ruined, hard to see from the road, and located in a rural area outside a very small city--but I can't even remember which highway it's on.


It's a tough one. I took these pictures at this exact time of year in 2004, so you can imagine how difficult it must be to get a good look at the ruins in high summer. For the most part the place is small buildings constructed from tan bricks, each in at its own point in the falling-to-pieces process.


Some are nearly gone, with metal frames and roof struts denuded of all cover, as you can see below.


The main building is long with a two-layer vented roof, styled like a steel mill. Inside it's refreshingly free of weeds. An upstairs level that used to cover about a quarter of the interior area is half-fallen down, while enormous holes gape in the ceiling.


I have many more pictures of the place, but before I can put up a section I need to know just what it was so I can do the proper research. The guide on my visit, my friend Greg Gossett, is a lifetime resident of Belmont County with vast knowledge of the area, but his only memory of what the place had been was that it had something to do with manufacturing coke--a clean-burning, high-energy fuel made from bituminous coal and used in iron smelting, among other things. Anyone who can confirm this or give an alternative, along with providing a name for the company which built and used these wasted buildings, will really impress the hell out of me.

My mom's health is not good as of late and I might be in Lancaster keeping an eye on her and helping out for the next couple of weeks. I intend to find a way to keep up with the website, though, and will update sometime in the next week or two. In the meantime, enjoy the late fall and the burgeoning holiday season, and write me an e-mail if you feel up to it. I'm probably going to be pretty bored for a while.

AND...most important of all, DON'T FORGET TO VOTE ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7. And when you go to the polls, don't forget to BRING SOME ID. It can be anything from a driver's license to a piece of official mail linking you to your address. This is true even if you've voted from the same address for fifty years. Make sure your vote counts; I don't think anyone would deny that this is a pivotal year.

I am reading:
FICTION - Best New Horror, edited by Stephen Jones
NONFICTION - Rescue: Stories of Survival from Land and Sea, edited by Dorcas Miller
The Powers of Hypnosis, by Jean Dauven
Birth of the Motion Picture, by Emmanuelle Toulet

I am listening to:
Halloween Music

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