James Dean

My family and I love to go on our family trips (investigations) whenever we can but when the weather doesn't cooperate we stay close to home. Thankfully, we live in Indiana (whoops! Cat's out of the bag on that one!) which is exactly in the middle of everywhere and not without some great haunted places of it's own to check out. On a recent outing, we decided we would see what was going on at the grave site of '50's icon, James Dean.

It was a pretty chilly night a couple of weeks ago but we geared up all ready to go. Our research was done, and boy was there a lot out there from supposedly smelling cigarette smoke and seeing the lit end of one as if someone were smoking, to hearing the revving of an engine and even seeing old James himself leaning on his own stone. It was a perfect night for investigating...chilly but not too cold to slow you down, and very, very clear.

Fairmount Indiana is a very small town (VERY). We drove through it a couple of times and there was a gas station or two, a dollar store but mostly farmhouses. NOW to be fair, we were only driving on the side of town that our GPS system referred us to. For all I know it could be a huge metropolis on the other side of nowhere, but anyway, it was a small town.

The cemetery was good size for small town, situated right next to a corn field full of dead and trampled corn stalks which gave everything a nice ambiance.

We didn't find the grave right away, although there were some small markers pointing to it. Surprisingly there was no monument, no large gravestone, nothing special at all. Just a regular old gravestone. One thing is for certain. Jimmy's still got plenty of fans. There were some dried flowers laid for him and quite a few items that must have been made by his fans. There were rings, key rings, crocheted roses, dog tags, curled ribbons pinned into the ground and so much more. It was nice to see that no one had looted them out.

At any rate, we stayed for sometime. We did not hear any car engine. We did not hear nor see anyone other than ourselves in the graveyard, but as we watched and waited in the cold, dark night, the faintest smell of cigarette smoke passed by us on the wind. Only once, and only faintly. We all looked at each other at the same time, knowing we were surrounded by corn field and the wind wasn't blowing toward us. We all had the same feelings. We'll mark this one down as a positive investigation.

If any of you have visited the site, we'd love to read about your experiences.

A Haunting in Oklahome

I guess that Oklahoma is famous for more than just the musical of the same name. Apparently there are some decent hauntings an adventurous ghost hunter might want to check out. This one involves the Labadie Mansion in Barlesville.

The Labadie Mansion is a1 9Th century Victorian mansion that has caused more than a few people to do an extra load of laundry if you get my meaning! The mansion is set back away from the road, so I hear it's for those hunters who are in pretty good shape because there's some hiking through quite a bit of woods which obscure the mansion from anyone travelling along the road.

According to legend there are four people who have died at Labadie Mansion and the house has had two damaging fires. The only parts remaining are a fireplace, some burnt out walls and some parts of the foundation but apparently that's enough to keep the paranormal activity at peak levels.

So, let's get to the good stuff. Most likely is that what ever light source you used to guide you through the woods to get you through the woods will stop working. You will hear disembodied voices shouting at year, smell noxious odors, and see animals that weren't there moments ago, now only a few yards in front of you.

When you've had enough of those and decide to take your leave, you may notice the one fireplace that is left suddenly blaze to life on its own.

So, these are the alleged happenings. Some sound possible, some sounds impossible. If any of you live in Oklahoma, we'd appreciate some light shed on this subject.

These photos show the ruins of the mansions. It must have been beautiful in its day.


The Labadie Mansion

Witchcraft Memorial

Witchcraft Victim's Memorial
176 Hobart Street
Danvers, Massachusetts

On May 9, 1992, the Salem Village Witchcraft Victims' Memorial of Danvers was dedicated before an audience of over 3,000 people. On the front of the memorial, it reads "In Memory of Those Innocents Who Died During the Salem Village Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692". This site is located right across the street from the original Salem Village Meeting House, where many of the witch examinations took place. Near the memorial is a plaque in honor of the former meeting house.

This information was taken from "hauntedillinois.com". Check out their site for more information. Here is the link.



Salem Witchcraft Memorial