Wicked's Halloween Hoots & Howls! 2020

When I was a reporter for the Tennessean newspaper back in 1992, I wrote a series of spooky stories around Halloween, featuring ghosts in rural Cheatham County, just outside Nashville, TN/Davidson County. Cheatham County was my news beat, as well as other counties in Middle Tennessee. I covered everything from human interest, crime, politics, with several of my stories going Associated Press.

One such story was of the ghost of Montgomery Bell, a manufacturing entrepreneur who greatly contributed to the economic development of early Middle Tennessee. He was known as the "Iron Master of the Harpeth" and "Iron Master of Middle Tennessee". There is a state park named after him, and he founded Montgomery Bell Academy, one of the largest private all-boys high schools in the United States...which, by the way, is located across the street from an all-girls Catholic high school, which I attended.

Montgomery Bell Academy features

The Legend of Purgatory Chasm
According to legend, an Algonquin Indian woman found herself in a tight spot (pun intended) shortly after she killed a white colonial settler. As she walked away from the scene of the crime, she encountered another settler who asked for her company on a short walk. Naturally, having just murdered one of his people, she was apprehensive and tried to run away. He lunged and grabbed her by the wrist. When she called out to the Native American god Hobomoko to save her, the second settler revealed himself as none other than Hobomoko in the flesh. Morphing into a devil-like guise, Hobomoko grabbed his captive by the waist and flew to Purgatory Chasm.

Colonists said that the devil’s actions on that day formed the chasm. The deep depressions were allegedly the places he stomped and threw his victim. The large, deep cuts in the rocks were the results of a swinging tomahawk.

Preston Castle is only about an hour from me right now. I will have to check them out. I do see their Halloween tours are canceled due to covid unfortunately. They have a Christmas tours so maybe then if they are able to open.

Actually they have cancelled the Christmas as the Castle too for this year. I am making plans to go to the Halloween Haunt though for next year. That looks amazing!

Thanks for contributing, Smokes!!! That is an interesting story. You know most people say they don't believe in ghosts, but there is a spiritual world, if you believe in God. But there is misinformation out there about Halloween that if you celebrate the holiday, you are participating in something satanic. That is not true!

I am very much a conservative Christian woman, baptized Catholic. October 31 in our church is All Souls Day, followed by All Saints Day on Nov. 1. These are holy days whereby we honor those who have died, all souls, and the death of the canonized saints. My confirmed saint is St. Theresa, the Little Flower.

Here is a good article to read about Halloween.

https://theconversation.com/hell-no-halloween-is-not-satanic-its-an-important-way-to-think-about-death-118391

@Zentrino Yesssssssssssss, you must go. That place looks spooky at night! ha ha ha When I was younger, we used to go out on Friday and Saturday nights going to abandoned old houses and churches, ghost hunting. Course we were throwing back some beers too! ha ha ha ha Cheap, fun entertainment! ha ha ha

The Vampires of Rhode Island: Bright, Like An Angel. Nancy Young, 19, Foster. 1827
Levi Young and his wife Anna’s farm was bountiful. The native corn, potatoes, and onions provided steady income for the family. Anna Young’s preserves , made from wild blackberries, was renowned locally, and were even fetching a good price in nearby Providence. Their oldest daughter, Nancy, was known as a smart young woman with a quick wit and even temperament. At nineteen, Nancy was the managing the accounting of the family farm. Sadly, in 1827, calamity struck. Nancy soon became gravely ill with the consumption. As she lay ill, her sister, Almira, took over the bookkeeping of the farm. On the sixth of April 1827, Nancy succumbed to her illness. A few month after Nancy’s death, Almira became ill with a similar condition, albeit one acting slower. Levi called on the best doctors in the region to help treat his ailing daughter, but n

What a creepy story, Smokes!!! Sounds spooky. You'll have to tell me if you get "skeerd", as we say here in Tennessee. he he he

Cemeteries at night have always been creepy places. I don't know what it is about the dead, that is scary... probably because we don't really understand death, and that it is really a beautiful thing, passing from this life into the next. I admit, I was scared about ghosts growing up, but I always remember what my grandfather would tell me as a little girl, "It isn't the dead you have to fear, but the living!" lol

Now here is another creepy story in Cheatham County in a town called Pegram, TN, named after the Pegram Family that lived there and owned a lot of the land. Apparently, the Pegram Family Cemetery was bulldozed in 1970 for a housing development in the area, but apparently some of the bodies of the deceased were not moved. The developers reportedly sold off the soil, r

Boo! An old photograph of the Pegram Family Cemetery.

Ghostly Giggles & Screams of Laughter!
~ Courtesy of the Internet

Where does a ghost go on vacation? Mali-boo.

Why did the ghost go into the bar? For the Boos.

What is in a ghost's nose? Boo-gers.

Why did the policeman ticket the ghost on Halloween? It didn't have a haunting license.

Why do demons and ghouls hang out together? Because demons are a ghoul's best friend!

What does a panda ghost eat? Bam-BOO!

What's a ghost's favorite dessert? I-Scream!

From your Sim Witch to You:

More witchy humor...

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I'm not the biggest Halloween fan, but I have a very fond memory of one thing my Dad and I did when I was growing up. My family's house had a large porch/overhang thing. At night, you couldn't really see anything easily above the door.

I made a large paper mache spider in school with pipe cleaners for legs etc, and my Dad's IMMEDIATE reaction when he saw it was "great, let's get this thing hooked up to some fishing line. We can thread the line through the hinges of our front door, and dangle the spider way above the door."

When trick or treaters would come to the door, one of us could lower the 2 foot wide spider down behind them from inside without them realizing. All night long, kids would get candy at the door from one of us, only to turn around and hit their face on this enormous spider. They'd run screaming from the house. Many years, I honestly had more fun with the spider than I did getting candy.

lol EO. I can see you and your Dad doing that! ha ha ha It is fun to put in a good natured scare.

At my office about three years ago, I rigged this standing coat tree with a mask of a deranged man, and draped a coat around it....It stood about five foot five and looked real ha ha ha. I placed it inside the doorway of my boss's office. ha ha ha So when she opened her office door she came face to face with this human form. ha ha ha ha She screamed. Naturally, I laughed and laughed and laughed. Wonders why I didn't get a raise that year? lol

From the history books of Tennessee comes the story of The Bell Witch. As a little girl, I can remember hearing stories about the witch. My Mom was loved by all the neighborhood children, because she told the spookiest stories, and the Bell Witch was one she passed along! I'm sure you've heard of going into the bathroom, lighting a candle and saying something so many times to the mirror and something would appear. Ours was to say 10 times "I do not believe in the Bell Witch" and she would appear and scratch your face. lol I don't think any of us kids tried that!

Anyways, there was a movie telling the story of the witch, An American Haunting, with Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek, which discloses one of the many theories behind the haunting. It is even reported in the Tennessee history books that President Andrew Jackson had an "experience" with the witch on his way to the home in Adams, TN, to investigate.

Picture of the cave:

Secrets of the Nahanni: The Valley of Headless Men
A team of river guides and storytellers venture into the "Valley of Headless Men" to uncover secrets of the past.

WRITTEN BY Brooke Hess

In 1908, brothers Willie and Frank McLeod embarked on a mission into the Nahanni Valley in search of gold. They never returned.
Two years later, the bodies of the McLeod brothers were found on the banks of the Nahanni River. Their heads though, were nowhere to be found. The two men were murdered, decapitated, and left on the side of the river for the next party of explorers to find.

The Dyatlov Pass incident (Russian: Гибель тургруппы Д�тлова) was an event in which nine Russian hikers died in the northern Ural Mountains between the 1st and 2nd of February 1959, in uncertain circumstances. The experienced trekking group, who were all from the Ural Polytechnical Institute, had established a camp on the slopes of Kholat Syakhl, in an area now named in honour of the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov. During the night, something caused them to tear their way out of their tents and flee the campsite while inadequately dressed for the heavy snowfall and subzero temperatures.

@Smokes, those are interesting stories. Creepy huh? There is so much unexplained stuff in the world.