Hotels, hospitals, schools and battlefields: Spooky Places (Sn. 18 Ep. 15)
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Start before you get there. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com slash with Amex. This episode is brought to you by United Airlines. When you want to make the most of your vacation, book with United. They're an airline that cares about your travels as much as you do. United is transforming the flying experience with Bluetooth connectivity, screens, power at every seat, and bigger overhead bins to help fit everyone's bag.

And with their app, you can skip the bag check line, get live updates, and more. Change the way you fly. Book your next trip today at United.com. Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I am your guide, Derek Hayes. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another thrilling installment of

As I just said, my name is Derek Hayes and I'm a paranormal researcher, a filmmaker, a collector of stories. And for nearly nine years now, I've been producing this little podcast. Now for those of you that have been here a while, welcome home. But for those newbies, you have no idea what you've just stumbled into. Now tonight's episode is going to be just a little bit different. Sarah, Delaney, and myself are taking a little time off this week.

And next week, to be frank, we desperately need a breather. And with the holidays coming up, this just made a lot of sense. So in short, the Tuesday shows are getting bumped to Thursday. And we're releasing some Patreon material for those Tuesday shows this week and next. If you didn't follow all that, it really doesn't matter. I'll be back on schedule right after Thanksgiving. For you non-Americans, that's two weeks from today.

And there will be brand new material on tonight's program as well. So I guess if I didn't say anything, you probably wouldn't have even noticed. Anyway, tonight's show is themed. And it was originally drafted as a Tuesday installment. And those releases are always one topic. But tonight's is kind of a little bit all over the place. We're trekking the world in search of spooky stories. And tantalizing tales. All about spooky places.

So grab some snacks, crank that volume knob, and buckle up, because we're hitting the road, beginning in the state of Pennsylvania, in a battlefield that might be the most well-known in all of America. Welcome to tonight's program, Amy.

Hi, Derek. My name is Amy. I am from southeastern Pennsylvania. I kind of tripped, stumbled and fell into your podcast through Let's Get Haunted and have been sort of hooked and going through the back catalog. So I have three small stories that are all linked to Gettysburg. When I was much younger, mid-90s, a teenager, I was a history geek. Still, I'm a history nerd. I'm a history geek.

I was a Civil War reenactor, living historian. I had the long skirts, the hoop skirts. I was a civilian. I did that while I was a teenager, and I lived about an hour and a half east of Gettysburg. So we were in Gettysburg all the time for living history events, but also just to be tourists and to hang out. I was about 18. My then-boyfriend was also a reenactor. We went to Gettysburg to play tourists for the day, non-reenacting, just dressed in normal clothes.

and ended up in an area called the Wheatfield. If you don't know Gettysburg history, the Wheatfield was a small patch of ground. It was a Wheatfield at the time that changed hands between the Union and Confederate lines many, many times. Lots and lots of lives lost in a very small area of ground. We walked out across this little patch to the monument at the end of the field.

Walked out through. It was fine. It was an April day. Chilly but dry. No recent rain or any kind of precipitation. Get out to the monument. See what we're there to see. I'm still feeling pretty good. Not a problem. Go to turn around and I start to have the feeling that something's not right. Hair on the back of my neck, standing on end, goosebumps on my arms and just feeling like I needed to get out of the field.

I'm not really saying anything at this point because I can't put my finger on what the feeling is. And we're walking through, walking to get to the car. The further we walked through the field, the closer we got to our vehicle, the more I felt like unease and that I was walking on body parts.

The only way I can put this is it wasn't sticks. It wasn't stones under my feet. The grass was pretty dry. Again, it was April, so not really green yet. And I had this distinct feeling of if you stepped on like an arm or a leg, kind of that feeling of flesh rolling over bone to the point that I didn't want to walk any further. I was really starting to freak out internally. But I definitely felt like I was walking over limbs.

and have not stepped foot into that area of the battlefield, even though I have been there many, many times to this day. I still won't step foot there. So that's story one. I had a lot of reenactor friends in the mid-90s who were extras for the movie Gettysburg, because how wonderful. You didn't have to pay people. Their pay was really just getting to hang out on the battlefield after hours and getting to camp on the battlefield, which was something that never really happened previous to that movie.

And everybody had their own stuff. You had hundreds and thousands of soldiers with their own uniforms and guns. So when they camped, they did little rows of A-frame tents that faced each other with a central aisle. He talked one night about 2 a.m., waking up, hearing the sounds of men marching and accoutrement jangling and kind of odd sounds to hear at 2 o'clock in the morning.

So he said he put his head back in the tent and had a very wide awake night after that.

And then the final story goes back to the wheat field. They had to bring water trucks to Gettysburg during that time frame to keep everybody hydrated. There just wasn't enough on the park itself. So a friend was talking about walking to get some water in the evening and it was getting dark, fireflies everywhere, but not in the wheat field.

He gets to that patch of ground, and it is a dark black postage stamp kind of void, as if those fireflies cannot kind of pierce the veil and get into that area, which is where I had walked and felt that very odd feeling of flesh over bone. So those are my stories. I have a ton more from my living history in Gettysburg and just life in general, living in a really old house maybe some other time. Thank you for all you do. Thank you for those of us who experience things

and bringing things to the forefront so we don't feel quite as crazy. Thanks a lot, Derek. And I appreciate your time. Bye. Thank you, Amy. Ah, yes. The girls of Let's Get Haunted. Good friends of the show. And we're happy you stumbled into us, Amy. And my dad and I have been discussing a trip out to Gettysburg sometime soon. Possibly even next summer. I've never been. I've driven through the area. But I never stopped. And I'm dying to do so.

And you can probably see why. Not only am I a big national park buff and history buff, but I love a good paranormal experience. And based on what we hear from Amy, Gettysburg has that in spades. Now if you don't believe me or Amy, I have another sample to share with you. So please welcome Anonymous to tonight's program. Hey.

Hey there, kids. February 19th. I guess you can call me anonymous, but I think I have a good one for you. A little skeptical, but I'm a big fan of the show. About a year ago, my girlfriend and I stayed in the Farnsworth Hotel. It's in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which is obviously a pretty spooky place. And we like spooky places.

So we thought we'd spend the night there. A lot of history there. It goes back to the Battle of Gettysburg. It's a beautiful, old, kind of colonial-looking hotel. It's pockmarked with bullets. It's just a real great historical place. And also supposed to be notoriously haunted, which...

You know, I don't know if I believe in, but certainly fun to participate in that. We stayed in what was called the Jeremy Room, which is named after an alleged spirit of a little boy that lives in there. It's got like child artifacts. People leave them notes. Very spooky. So we get our things set. We go out to a couple of ghost walks for the night, have dinner.

Come back to the room, all very uneventful. And then around, I think, 1030 that night, my girlfriend and I hear what sounds to be a group of women laughing, you know, women in their 20s running around laughing in the hallways, which we assume was guests, you know, maybe trying to enjoy the spookiness of the hotel. So we heard it so much that I even...

made a point to kind of scare them, since we thought they were in the hall outside the door, and I banged loudly on the wall to kind of give them a scare. And that was kind of it of that part. You know, the noises stopped, they stopped giggling and running around after I banged on the wall, and that was kind of it for the night.

Later, the next morning, we came down for breakfast and there was, you know, they have like a little dining hall for breakfast. So my girlfriend and I go down there and there's another couple and a waitress, an older couple and waitress, and they mentioned, you know, girls running around. Hearing that and being woken up by that kind of around the same time, I guess, that we heard them. So we, sitting

sitting not too far from them said hey yeah we also heard that we heard those girls running around and the waitress is kind of looking at both of us both our tables like we're nuts because she's also running the desk and uh told us that we were the only two guests that night there was the four of us there was two couples uh me and my girlfriend and the older couple and there was no one else in the entire hotel that all staff are gone at that hour so my girlfriend was probably the youngest woman in the entire hotel the other couple was older

So it certainly didn't sound like, you know, young girls running around the hallway, which we vividly heard. So that's kind of the spooky end of that. The Farnsworth Hotel in Gettysburg is really freaky. It's not mad. It's got good food. But it's also pretty spooky. So that's my little spooky for you. Thanks for the show. Talk to you later. Bye. Well, maybe we'll stay at the Farnsworth when we make our way out there. Sounds like it's the place to be, dead or alive.

Thank you again to both of tonight's Gettysburg callers. Now folks, we have to take a quick pause, but when we come back, more spooky places. Stay tuned. Now I try to limit my coffee as much as I can, which means I'm not a regular coffee drinker. I have coffee as more of a treat and less of a daily routine.

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You can also find a link in tonight's show notes. Now speaking of hotels, I have a trio of calls coming up that all take place in one. To kick us off, we venture to New York City by way of Ohio. Nikki, welcome to tonight's broadcast.

Hi, Derek. This is Nikki. I live in North Central Ohio, but my experience actually started in New York City. My best friend and I decided to go on a plane to New York City.

to lower Manhattan, and we stayed in a hotel. And this hotel sits right at the foot of the National September 11th Memorial. It's a really old building, and...

While my friend were there, we were there during COVID, so it wasn't busy. And we were there to pay our respects at the museums and the memorial. This happened on our second night there, so it was March 2021. It was 6.34 in the morning. I remember the time. I remember what I felt.

I slept on the bed closest to the window. And so I could see it was a really clear, beautiful night. And my friend slept in the twin bed closer to the door. They're very small New York City style hotel rooms. So we didn't have a lot of space. And our room was down the main hallway. And then you turned and it was down a corridor. And there was another door like across the corridor from ours.

So at 634, we heard someone jiggling our doorknob and pounding on our door. And it woke me up. I just laid there. I thought maybe it was the neighbors who we thought had checked out already because no one was coming in and out of that room. I thought it was them that they just mixed up the wrong door. But it continued for about 10 minutes.

So I kind of sat up in bed because I'm like, what is going on? My best friend sat up. We both realized that we both were just frozen in fear. We didn't know what was happening. So I went over, looked out the little peephole in the door and there was nobody there.

It continued to jiggle. I went back to my bed. I said, there's nobody out there. She didn't believe me. So she had to get up and go look. There wasn't anyone there. And it happened for about 10 minutes and then it stopped. And then it started happening around 730. And again, we went out into the hallway to see if maybe it was around the corner. There was nobody out there.

We kind of just laughed it off and went about our day. When we came back to our hotel room, we noticed that our little cups that we had, they were full of water when we left, and they had been knocked over. Well, it was during COVID, so they weren't coming in to clean the room, so we don't know why these cups of water got knocked over. And some other things, like in the bathroom, had...

been moved from the shower to the sink and neither of us did it and it was a very interesting experience for both of us we're very skeptical people we tried to figure out what was happening but we couldn't figure out what was happening but I just listened to all the haunted hotels and I wanted to share my experience at a haunted hotel we love your show my brother got us on it and we love to listen to it so thank you for what you do bye

Thank you, Nikki. Now you'd be hard-pressed to find a hotel, especially an older one, that doesn't display some sort of paranormal activity. And it's not hard to imagine why. So many people coming and going. Some are there on vacation. Or because they're traveling. Others are there because they have to be. They're getting medical care out of town. Maybe they're there for a funeral. Or just staying there until the divorce goes through.

But the point is, there are all sorts of emotions going on in these rooms, day in and day out, and I can't imagine that some of that energy doesn't imprint itself in the very walls of the hotel. Not to mention the fact that most of these places have a tragic story in their past, a newlywed that tumbled down the grand staircase, or a lady of the night found dismembered in room such and such.

Or perhaps a down-and-out businessman that took the easy way out. The point is, legends abound in hotels. Like this next location. But before I push play on that entry, a brief history lesson on the legend of Eureka Springs, Arkansas' Crescent Hotel. Courtesy of comedian Zane Lamprey.

Built in 1886, there are said to be dozens of spirits that haunt this hotel. In 1937, this hotel was bought by Norman Baker, a charlatan who turned it into a cancer-curable hospital. His phony medicines drew people in, and everyone who used them died.

The basement of the hotel is still referred to as the Morgue, where the cooler remains intact. Up on the second floor is room 218, where guests have woken up to see Michael, who died in this room, sitting on their bed. Now if you're a fan of the drink and travel, and you've never seen or even heard of the series Three Sheets, do yourself a favor and find it. Zane is the host. He travels the world sampling and learning about different spirits.

from all over the globe. Spirits of the liquid variety, that is. It's an oldie, but a goldie. Go check it out. And go check out the Crescent Hotel, if you dare. Because Brent did. And here's what happened to him when he visited from South Dakota.

Hi, my name is Brent. I live in South Dakota, but this story is about Eureka, Arkansas. I was in Eureka with me and my wife at the Crescent Hotel, which supposedly is one of the 10 best haunted places in the United States. We walked in with a camera.

Walked into the third floor. My wife pulled the camera out of her purse to pull up to take some pictures. Maybe we could see some orbs or something. The camera was knocked out of her hand, knocked three foot up and six foot over, down three flights and smashed.

We didn't know what was really going on. So we went back, went back to town, bought a new camera, came back to the Crescent, walked in, was trying to take a picture of the fireplace that was downstairs to get it.

The camera was smacked out of her hand and busted the lens off of the camera. We went back and got a third camera, a shockproof camera this time. I went up. We did get a few photos. We did see orbs and stuff, but we had two cameras completely destroyed. There's something going on there. It was quite chilly. Hey, thanks for your podcast. We love it. Listen to it every night.

We'll see you. Bye. Thank you, Brent. They say that's the most haunted hotel in all of the United States. And with 42 confirmed deaths on the premises, it's not hard to see why. And to have a spirit destroy not one, but two cameras, I suppose that's to be expected from an establishment with that reputation. So thank you again, Brent, for investigating and for sharing the account with us.

Is anybody he gonna bring in a...

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Now, as promised, I have one more spooky hotel story to share with you here this evening. And for this one, we venture back to the Big Apple. Aaliyah, welcome to the show.

Hi Derek, this is Aaliyah calling from Spain. This experience that I'm about to tell you happened between 2004 and 2009 in Manhattan, New York City. I moved there in 2004 because of a boy. He lived in a building called the Endicott, which was a co-op building.

Anyway, so I moved in in 2004. Prior to that, I had not lived in New York City. I had only been there as a tourist and visitor. So after I moved in, my then boyfriend had told me about how the apartment co-op was once a hotel and it was built in the 1800s. And I thought, oh, that's really interesting. You know, it makes sense the way the apartments are laid out, that it would have been something like that.

Anyway, the building has a lot of charm. So when it was built in the 1800s, it was called the Endicott Hotel.

And this building is located between West 81st Street and Columbus Avenue. And it's a seven-story high apartment building, or in its time, hotel. It is directly in front of Roosevelt Park, which is adjacent to the Museum of Natural History. So it's a very nice area.

Very quaint and charming. And so, anyway, a little bit after I moved in, well, there was a ceiling fan in the living room. And I had noticed that the ceiling fan would turn on by itself or turn off by itself. And sometimes the light of the ceiling fan would turn off by itself.

So one day I had mentioned that I, you know, mentioned that the ceiling fan was a little bit wonky. And he said to me, oh, there's a story about that. So I asked him about the story.

And he proceeded to tell me that he had had the ceiling fan installed. And shortly after it was installed, it had started doing exactly what it was doing now. Lights off and on, fan off and on. And he was pretty sure something was faulty, either the wiring or the fan.

So he called the electrician, the one who had installed it, and he told the electrician what was going on. And the electrician said, well, you know, I mean, the wiring is new. I personally installed it, so I know the wiring's new. I can't attest for the ceiling fan, but I can come and look at it. So he went, he looked, he, you know, checked all the wiring. He said, no, the wiring's good. You know, you might probably just need to get a new ceiling fan, so.

My boyfriend said, no, no, no, no, no. You need to change the wiring. Redo the wiring. So he redid the wire, reinstalled the wire, took it all out, reinstalled it. Same thing kept happening. So he bought a new ceiling fan and he called the electrician. He said, okay, I bought a new ceiling fan. Replace it. Replace the ceiling fan. Same thing kept happening. So he gave up. He was like, well, I don't know what it is. Give up. Okay. I didn't think much of it. You know, all these things happen. You know, lights can turn off and on.

And ceiling fan, who knows, you know, and just to note that this was not the type of ceiling fan that had a remote control because at first I thought, well, maybe it's the remote control, you know, so I asked him, I was like, do you have remote? He said, no, no, it's not remote control. It's all, it's wired.

Oh, okay. I thought maybe there might have been a remote control because that could probably explain it, but it didn't. So we just lived with it, didn't think anything of it, really. So in its day, the Endicott Hotel was a very luxurious hotel.

It was built in between 1889 and was completed in, I believe, 1890. In its history, it has had murders, suicides, two fires. For a while there, it was a venue for weddings.

In the early 1900s. And then as the city started to change, it was a venue for organized crime, drugs, prostitution. It went through a really, really, really bad period. At one point in the 60s, it was considered one of the worst welfare hotels in the city. And I believe it was in the 1970s, four women were murdered.

and an elderly person was murdered there. But thank goodness, gentrification started in the early 80s, I believe, and it was turned into co-ops. And that's it. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you, my neighbor thought that I had rung her bell. One day after that incident, I had gone down the elevator, and when the doors opened in the

In the lobby, she was standing in front waiting to get on the elevator and I was exiting. So she looked at me, right? We looked at each other and I said, oh, I said, hi. I said, excuse me. I said, you know, do you remember when you thought that I rang your doorbell?

And she stopped, she stood there, and she looked at me, she said, yeah. I said, well, I don't want you to think that I rang your doorbell and lied about it. And her eyes got really wide. She took a deep breath, and she looked at me. And she said, I believe you. It wasn't the first time it's happened. And we just kind of stared at each other, and I said, do you think some children are ringing your doorbell?

And she, like eye contact, like severe eye contact. She said, no, I don't know what it is. Oh, okay. I said, okay. Well, bye. Okay, bye. She got on the elevator and I exited the building. And that was that. So that's my experience at the Endicott Hotel in New York City. But I had a good time living there. It was a very, very beautiful neighborhood and a very interesting building. Thanks a lot. Bye.

Thank you, Aaliyah. Now I feel sorry for anyone that happens to be listening from their very own hotel room. Is that a coat rack in the corner? Or the ghost of a traveling serial killer? Maybe it's best to fall back to sleep and worry about all that in the morning. And you know there's another group that I feel sorry for. Those that might be staying in a hospital.

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Now just like hotels, hospitals can be a creepy place to spend the night as well. Whether you're there for your own health or helping to care for a loved one, these sterile, liminal spaces tend to bring out the terrifying in pretty much everything. Just let Daisy tell you from here in SoCal.

Hi, Derek. This is Daisy from California. I was just listening to your medical workers episode and I remembered a story a co-worker of mine told me a while back. This takes place in San Bernardino, California at St. Bernardine's Hospital.

And from what I know, there's a convent right next to it. There's nobody living in there anymore. But basically the story is that my coworker, she was going into labor and she had had complications throughout her whole pregnancy. And she said going in, you know, she was scared that something was going to happen to her baby.

And basically she said that she had to stay overnight and she was in a lot of pain. You know, she was going into labor. And she said that in the middle of the night, she felt like somebody touched her hand. And when she opened her eyes, mind you, she was in a lot of pain. And she opened her eyes and she saw a nun sitting at the chair right next to her. And basically the nun told her, don't worry, everything's going to be okay. And she

my co-worker said she closed her eyes and she opened them again she was gone she did tell me that she wasn't scared that she felt comfort from her and I actually did deliver one of my babies at this hospital as well and I will say you do get a feeling of a presence but it's not a bad presence almost like a comfort sometimes so yeah that's my story thank you so much for the podcast about

Bye-bye. Thank you, Daisy. I know where that hospital is. Maybe a dozen or so miles from where I sit tonight. Down the mountain, of course. And it's old for this area as well. It's pushing 95 years now. The cornerstone was laid all the way back in 1931. I've never been there and I had no idea it was haunted, although that'd probably be a safe assumption. But now that I know of the stories, I'll be sure to pay closer attention.

Thank you again, Daisy, for sharing your story. Now, if you think an active hospital can be creepy, you should experience an abandoned one. Nathan from Ohio. Let them know what they should expect.

Hi, Derek. This is Nathan from Ohio. I was calling in regards to an experience we had at Randolph County Asylum in Indiana. We went over there for a ghost hunt, and we were sitting down in the basement of the asylum, and we was discussing going to another area because nothing was really happening.

in the basement. And as we're discussing that, I felt... I carried my brother's ashes in a necklace. And I had that around my neck. And I felt like a slight...

movement on my necklace so I went to lean forward when I did I felt tension like something pulling back on the necklace so when I felt that obviously you know it was a big rush of uh fear of course but I also thought maybe you know because I'm kind of skeptical to a point so when I felt that that resistance on the necklace I jumped up and spun around almost expecting to see one of

my other fellow investigators to be behind me, kind of aggravating me. But when I spun around, you can see all the way down the hallway, there was nobody there. So instantly, my film partner was there with me. I told him what was going on and he told me, you know, don't touch it. Don't do nothing around there. Don't, don't mess with it at all. And so

He pulled my shirt down, and of course he's standing behind me discussing what's happening with another investigator. There's three of us down there. They're discussing how they couldn't believe what they were seeing, and they didn't really believe it. And as they're doing that, I'm starting to feel the burn going on back there. And finally...

They show me the footage where there was, it appeared to me, and I'd love to hear your input on this. It appeared to me there was kind of two main welts coming down to one. It wasn't your stereotypical, you know, three lines. More like two coming into one. And like I said, I'm skeptical to a point. I grew up in a household where, you know, I had brown people calling up the spirits and things of that nature. But that there, it really...

I didn't really believe a lot of what you see on TV on the scratch has happened. So it kind of put me in that head space of, you know, what the world's going on there, but it was interesting nonetheless. And it's a 1000% happened. I know I hated, you know, even putting that in because it never happened to me. Nothing like that, but we caught that on camera and I look forward to seeing your input and, uh, and what you would think about what's going on there. So thank you, Derek, and keep doing what you do. Thanks Nathan.

Well Nathan, it's hard to say what I think about ghostly scratches. Because I too have seen them depicted in all sorts of paranormal programs. And they're almost always the same. A slight scratch or welt in the shape of a line, two lines, three lines. It varies. And they all seem to occur under the shirt and on the lower back area. Almost exclusively in the lower back area, I would say. Now here's where my hesitation comes in. It's that these are so easy to fake.

Just reach back while no one is looking and rake your fingernails across the soft skin on your lower back. In a few minutes, blood will raise to the skin and scratches will appear. And I also think it's possible to scratch yourself and not even realize it. Especially when you're crawling around a dusty, abandoned hospital. Brushing away cobwebs and whatever you thought you felt crawling over you. None of that is far-fetched, I don't think.

But if you say that's what happened, Nathan, I have to take you for your word. And well, your word is downright terrifying. So I'm sorry I don't have any answers for you, but I do thank you again for sharing your entry with us.

Now folks, the holidays are right around the corner, and I know the Monsters Among Us lover in your life would get a kick out of anything in our shop. Head on over to MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the shop tab to pick up a piece of Monsters Among Us merchandise today. Now this next location isn't a hospital, nor a hotel, but it's another location that experiences these big energy swings. Sierra from Arizona says,

Tell us about your haunted school.

Hi Derek, this is Sierra from Mesa, Arizona again. I just listened to season 16, episode 18. I was scared I was going to mess that up. But you had mentioned that Chandler High School is haunted. And I looked on the list that you had posted and I was reminded that my junior high was haunted. I attended Highland Junior High in Mesa, Arizona.

for eighth grade and there is the story of how a little girl who lived on the farm on the land that the school is now on she passed away in a horrible accident due to farming equipment and it was said that the girl's locker room was haunted

And because I had PE and dance, I spent a lot of time in there. And there were some of the things like the hand dryers going off and the toilets flushing on their own, even though they were manual, not automatic, that were kind of spooky, but, you know, could be explained away. But I think the scariest thing that we dealt with on a regular basis was lockers full on slamming.

If you had to go back into the locker room, which sometimes the PE coach would ask us to grab some equipment or go back in for some paperwork or a hair tie or whatever, you went in a buddy system generally and it would be two girls and we'd go back in and...

I usually got picked because I'd offer up any chance to get out of doing an activity and you'd go in there and you'd be alone and it would be dead silent. And then one of the lockers literally just feet away from you would slam closed with the force of like a grown man.

And it was extra alarming because I feel like most of the girls did close their lockers when they were done. They wouldn't just leave them open. So the locker would have to generally be opened all the way and then slammed all the way shut for that to occur, which was very alarming. But other than that, the rest of the schools felt fine. It was really only the girls' locker room that had any sort of energy to it. So.

So thank you for letting me tell my story. Thank you, Sierra. Perhaps you're curious about the same thing that I was. I wonder what a list of the nation's top haunted places of learning would look like. And according to lovetoknow.com, this is a quick rundown of the candidates. Pocatello High School in Idaho. Tennessee High School in Bristol, Tennessee. Lincoln High in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

El Paso High, down in Texas, Roy High School in Utah, Urbana High School in Illinois, The Elizabeth V. Edwards School in Barnegat, New Jersey, The Matthew Whaley Elementary School in Williamsburg, Virginia, Old Milton Elementary in Alton, Illinois, and finally Fallsville Elementary in Forest Falls, California. That last one is only about 15 miles from here.

And if any of these are near you or piqued your interest, visit our show notes. Lovetoknow.com has also included descriptions of the activity at each of these locations. Go to MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the show notes tab to check that out. And thank you again, Sierra, for the entry. I'm sorry your school didn't make the cut. So this next call takes us to an infamously haunted house for a UFO sighting. Joseph from Wisconsin says,

Welcome to the show. Hi Derek, this is Joseph calling from the Madison, Wisconsin area. I called in a while ago about some owls and I mentioned in there I would call again about a UFO encounter I had up in northern Wisconsin. I'm not going to give the exact location where this occurred, but I will say it's very close to a famous mansion known as Summerwind. I'm not going to go into too much detail about it, but if you look it up, you'll find all sorts of stories on it if you haven't heard about it already.

The History Channel even did a show on it, I believe. I'll even admit, a number of years ago, being young and stupid, I actually snuck onto the property and explored the ruins. It's a private property, and thinking back, I feel bad about it, and I certainly don't encourage that type of activity these days. Again, I only bring this up because this UFO encounter happened only a few miles away from the Summer One Mansion.

So here's my story. My parents have a trailer at a campground up there. A friend and I did a quick weekend getaway, hiking, kayaking, and whatnot. Another thing we loved doing was just walking around the forest at night, just for thrill and excitement. It was about 11 at night, and we were walking around a really small lake near the campground. The forest itself was pretty dark, but the sky was full of stars, and I can't remember if the moon was out or not, but I know the sky was very bright with stars. We still had to walk around the forest, and we had to walk around the forest, and we had to walk around the forest, and we had to walk around the forest,

We stopped at a little beach in there and we were just talking about life in general. While we were talking, my friend kept talking about a light he saw on the other side of the lake through the trees.

It was a really narrow lake, so it wasn't all that far from us. I looked up and I saw it, and to me it looked like just a barn light through the trees. It had kind of a greenish tint to it. I didn't really take too much interest in it, and we kept talking. And then I said, "Look, the light's moving again." And I looked over, and there I saw it actually moving through the trees.

Something about it immediately sent shivers down my spine. We watched it for a while, moved through the trees, and then it stopped again. Like at this point, we're still trying to figure out what it was. Maybe someone with a flashlight or something. This was also way before drones were as popular as they are today. And then all of a sudden, the light shot straight up and just hovered right above the tree line. It was super fast, like instantaneous. We were immediately on edge about it. Couldn't take our eyes off of it. Couldn't even believe what I was looking at. And then after

After a few seconds or minutes, it shot straight up into the stars. Craziest thing I've ever seen. I have no idea what I saw, but that was pretty much the moment where I became obsessed with the paranormal. Just made me aware that there's so much more to this world than most people realize. Anyways, I hope you find this interesting. I love your podcast, and I think you do amazing things. Take care. Bye. Thanks, Joseph.

Now it occurred to me that many of you might not be familiar with the Summerwind Mansion and its legendary ghost stories. But Lucky for Us, Strange and Sinister on YouTube has an informative little video on it. Here are the highlights. On the shores of West Bay Lake lies the crumbling ruins of Summerwind, a secluded mansion that's gained a reputation as being one of the most haunted locations in Wisconsin.

Although the mansion was destroyed by a fire over 30 years ago, the ghostly legends persist, with stories of the supernatural spanning decades. The mysterious haunting of the Summerwind Mansion involved various families who fled the property after witnessing an unexplained series of events while living within its walls. Sightings of full-body apparitions, strange sounds, and disembodied voices were some of the unsettling experiences reported by former residents and people who explored the abandoned house. Now imagine...

Being near that infamously haunted location and seeing a UFO. Some wires got crossed on the paranormal patch board, I think. Either way, it's incredible stuff, Joseph. And we can't thank you enough for calling in.

Now folks, if you have a story you would like to share here on the program, give us a call at 888-608-NIGHT. That's 888-608-N-I-G-H-T. Or shoot us an email with a voice memo to MonstersAmongUsPodcast at gmail.com. Now this next entry also occurred outdoors, but in a very specific patch of the outdoors. Lydia from Kentucky, welcome back to the program.

Hello, everyone. My name is Lydia. Yesterday, I was walking my dog. It is the end of January. I live in Kentucky.

And I went to a nature preserve close to my house. I was trying to beat the rain and fight the snow. It had been super, super, like, frigid. We're talking, like, negative numbers and stuff at night. It was really bad. We were hit with two waves of snow and ice and stuff. So, like, my poor dogs hadn't been walked in.

And like going on, I think it was like nine days or something. It was freaking awful. So yesterday I drove real fast and got out to the nature preserve by my house. It's called Dupree Nature Preserve. And I was just walking. I wasn't on the preserve itself. I was like in the parking lot area because that's a good place to just walk in circles kind of.

There's some standing stones. I sent video and picture, by the way. And I see what can only be described as Sasquatch footprints. I don't know what to say about that, to be honest with you. I believe in a lot of stuff, but I never believed in Sasquatch footprints.

But, I mean, there's nothing else that it could be. I even put something there for, like, size reference and stuff, and it's 17 to 18 inches long with toes and what looks like claws on the end. I mean...

It is massive. It's super wide. And the way that the indention was left and everything, it wasn't a slipper. And it was, you know, like gill to ball walking. Just the way that it was embedded in the snow and the ice and the gravel was even, you know, like the arch was more full where the arch of the foot was and stuff. I really got down in it.

check it out and stuff myself because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. And the footprints kind of like didn't really originate from anywhere interesting and they didn't really go anywhere interesting. It was kind of just crossing from grass land to grass land across this little driveway. And that's very out of the way nature preserved. It's like out in the middle of nowhere. I live at, you know, pretty far from any city. So yeah,

It's a trip. Yeah, so check out the video and the... Sorry about my cussing. I can't help myself sometimes. Keep it spooky, y'all. Thank you, Lydia. Now, unlike most of my callers, Lydia actually sent in the videos that she said she would. I kid, but that's a real issue. If you reference a video, a photo, or a piece of audio in your call, please send it along as well. Our email is posted everywhere.

And not only would our listeners like to see what you're talking about, but I would as well. So anyway, Lydia sent hers in and it's certainly a large footprint with what appears to be five toes. I suggest you check this video out. But a little bit of a warning. Lydia's right. She uses language that I think would make George Carlin blush. So if you got Rugrats listening, you might want to mute it first. But it's hard to blame Lydia.

If these tracks are what they look like they are, it's a big deal. But, I will point out that they sort of look manufactured to me. Like someone made a large boot track, then used their fingers or the tip of their boot to make indentations for the toes. Although it is melted out a bit so that could be a result of that. Either way, we quickly looked up sightings in that area of Kentucky on the BFRO website. The best collection of Bigfoot sighting reports that I know of.

And not only did we not find many, we didn't find any at all. And that's not to say that they're not there. They just haven't been seen yet. But if what Lydia found is legit, maybe the first bit of evidence has finally trickled in. Now, if you want to see these videos, hit up the show notes or our social media pages at Facebook and Instagram. I'll make sure that we get them posted up there as well. And thank you again, Lydia, for the diligent reporting.

Now folks, we're not going to do any secret calls tonight. This will be our final ad break. But when we return, I have a wild story out of Europe. It goes to time slip. I have no idea what this is, but I promise it'll leave you scratching your head. But first, we have to pay a couple of bills. I'll be right back.

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Alright, now for that crazy entry I promised you. Now it comes to us from Canada but takes place in the UK. Or perhaps another dimension altogether. Elijah, welcome to tonight's program.

Hey Derek, my name is Elijah and I'm calling in from Vancouver, Canada. I just started listening to your show about two weeks ago and I love it. I've been binging it while driving and doing mundane tasks at work and it's been really helpful for me. I just love listening to other people's stories that are similar to mine and um yeah so I just wanted to call in and share some that I've had. I've had quite a lot of experiences over the years. I think I'll start with my experience at Warwick Castle in England.

I was around 18 years old and I was backpacking alone in Europe. Nearing the end of my trip, I was on my way from Dover to London in England so I could fly home, but I stopped at a few places along the way and Warwick Castle was one of those places that I stopped at. I thought it was fun since they have actors around to demonstrate life back in the medieval times so that you can kind of get an idea of what life was like back then.

So I thought it was a really really cool little tour destination and not too expensive to try. While I was there, I just explored the castle grounds enjoying it the same way any other tourist would. I bought a little sandwich from the cafe for my lunch and I took it out to the Rose Gardens which is more of a secluded area on the castle grounds. And being an introvert, I felt like that was the best place to kind of recharge my batteries while I ate my lunch. The Rose Garden itself is circular in shape.

It's enclosed with hedges around the edges and kind of not quite like a maze but it was kind of like that where there are sections to the garden and you can walk around through it in a very structured kind of pathway. Near the center there are several benches spaced out in a circle around a smaller circle in the very center of the garden. So I found a bench and I sat there stuck in my headphones and I began to eat my sandwich.

I hadn't really paid much attention to whether there was other people in the garden at the time, so I can't really recall. But it turns out I was basically alone in there. It wasn't until I noticed three young boys walking into the garden and stop at another bench a few distances away from me on the right hand side of where I was sitting in the garden.

I tried not to pay too much attention to them because I was just trying to mind my own business. But I couldn't help but notice that they didn't have any parents with them. So I found that kind of odd because they have been maybe around like seven to nine years old. So being alone was a little bit strange. But again, it wasn't really any of my business. So I just like tried to mind my own business. But I couldn't help but peek up at them every few seconds, like mindlessly, you know, when you're sitting there and you just mindlessly look up at people while you're eating or

Just enjoying time to yourself, that's kind of what it was like. And this is when I noticed that they were wearing really old English-style clothing. They were like stable boys or kitchen workers or something. Again, I didn't think too much of it since it was at Warwick Castle and there were so many actors wearing costumes and such anyway, so I figured maybe they could be taking a break or something like that, even though they were quite young to be working. Still, again, I didn't really think too much about it.

There was three boys total. Two of the boys looked taller and a bit older than the third boy. And I saw them kind of fussing over the smaller boy. And after a few minutes, I realized that the fussing that they were doing over him was actually teasing and bullying him a little bit. But because I had my headphones on, I couldn't really hear what they were saying. But I could see the older boys kind of laughing and poking at the younger one. It wasn't until they started chasing the younger boy around that I got up and took my headphones off.

They were chasing him in a circle around the rose garden and laughing at him. And at that moment I could see that the younger boy was crying and this made me really upset so I put down all of my things and I got up to go and tell them to leave this little boy alone. And I was making my way over, they had chased him into the very center of the garden. So where the center of the garden is, it's another smaller circle right in the middle where there's like an elevated garden bed and there's roses sitting on top of it and then there was like a little

kind of small entryway on one side only and there's a very small stairway to the bottom. So I believe this was the spot where they would have kept things cold during the medieval times, like an ice room.

Anyway, they had chased him down there and I couldn't see them anymore. And that's when I heard a really loud bang sound. Like they had slammed the door shut, but because they were at the bottom of the stairs I couldn't see where they had gone. So I just kept walking over in that direction. As I got to the top of the stairs, just a few seconds later, that's when I looked down and the two older boys were gone. There's nowhere for them to have gone, but they weren't there anymore.

So at this point I was starting to feel really uneasy. The two boys were gone and the door at the base of the stairs was shut and locked closed. I could hear the smaller boy's sobs from the other side of the door, like he started to bang on it for help. He was just screaming and threw his sobs and saying like "someone help me, I can't get out, it's locked, help help help!" I really wasn't sure what to do but I reluctantly walked down the steps and reached to open the door. But the moment I touched the handle everything changed.

Like the metal door that had been there suddenly looked really really old and it was completely bolted shut like all around the edges. It looked so different from just a second ago. So when I was at the top of the stairs looking down it looked like just a normal door that could be opened and shut no problem. But this time, now after I had touched the door, it was literally bolted shut around all the edges and it looked like it had been so for a very very long time. There was also a plaque right on the door where the window had been.

This plaque now explained that it was an old ice room and that it wasn't safe to go in there anymore, so they prohibited visitors from going inside. I was so scared. I ran out, grabbed all my things, and I took off to the other side of the grounds. I felt really shaken for the rest of my visit at the castle, but I didn't dare go off on my own again.

Yeah, so that's my story from when I was at Warwick Castle in England. Thanks again so much for hearing me out. I hope you can use this. And yeah, I've got lots more experiences like this one to share too, so I may call back again in the future. But until then, thanks for everything that you do and make sure you take care of yourself. Thanks. Bye-bye. Good stuff, Elijah. Thank you for calling in. Well, folks, what did he encounter that day? Just some sneaky, cheeky children.

Some actors that are paid to mill about the grounds. Ghosts from a bygone era. Or was he momentarily jolted back to another time or place? Now I did some digging to see if I could find any other reports of ghostly children on the Warwick Castle grounds. And all I found was that some say a little girl can be seen in the undercroft, or the cellar area of the castle. But little detail was given there.

And interestingly enough, I also learned that there is a spectral hound that is said to prowl outside the castle walls. Now it's said to be a huge black canine with coal red eyes and a foaming mouth. The beast was believed to be a manifestation of a curse placed on the castle by a servant called Mole Bloxam. Now when it was discovered that Bloxam stole from the Earl, she was brutally tortured and publicly shamed.

Shortly after her imprisonment, the mysterious dog began to appear, terrifying anything and anyone within the castle's shadow. Now, the curse was seemingly broken when Bloxham leapt from Caesar's Tower, the highest part of the castle, and dove into the water below. Now, it's said that her body still lies at the bottom, where a small weir sets today. Now, I've linked to a video of the area if you'd like to check it out.

Again, just visit the show notes at MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com. Now despite Bloxham's death, the ghostly hound has still appeared from time to time, red eyes blazing as it darts across the darkened countryside. But no ghost children, even similar to what you spoke of, Elijah. And again, that's not to say that it didn't happen or that it isn't true. There were literally dozens of different reports of ghostly activity that I came across in my research.

If it's possible anywhere, it's a place like Warwick Castle. Now whatever it was you saw that day, Elijah, it made for an amazing story. We can't thank you enough for sharing it here with us. And folks, that's going to do it for this episode. A big thanks to everyone that called in this evening and to everyone out there tuning in. It would be an even bigger thank you if you shared the program with friends, family, or strangers you think might enjoy it.

Pick your favorite story and maybe start from there. I don't know. Either way, we appreciate it. Now Monsters Among Us podcast is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright Red Crow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes and Delaney Bowers. All media used in this production is done so under the protection of fair use. Please give us a follow on our social media pages, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,

And give us a like and follow on YouTube while you're at it. We sure do appreciate that help. Don't forget you can catch the show every Saturday at 11 p.m. Eastern on the Unexed Network. Just visit unexednetwork.com to learn more. And finally, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu Apocalypse, Co.ag Music, and Carl Casey at White Pet Audio. Now folks, don't forget to check out Monsters Among Us Junior every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts.

It's a kid's version of the show. It's shorter, a little more lighthearted, and more to the point. Great for road trips with the family. Now Delaney and I drop a new episode each and every Wednesday, and we'd love for you to check it out. Now I'd normally do a secret story here, but not this week. This week we dive directly into the beyond. And to join us, just go back to our website at monstersamonguspodcast.com and click the Patreon tab.

Or if you're on Apple, scroll down and click that subscribe button to join in. It's in the beyond that we explore calls like this one from Travis. Hey, Derek. I've called in twice before as Jay, but my name is Travis. This story takes place in Bel Air, Maryland. This was back in 1997. I was six at the time. Me and my family were living in a three-level townhome.

A little background, I was deathly afraid of the dark for some reason as a baby and small child. I experienced a lot of nightmares that slowly evolved into night terrors, which is a much more intense version of that.

A lot of this would be recurring nightmares where you think you're awake, but you're not. You're still trapped in a nightmare. I had a lot of issues with, I would try to squeeze my eyes shut and escape the nightmare originally. That would slowly change when vampires would hold my eyes open.

Had a lot of issues with wolves in my dreams as well. And other times where the end of the nightmare would be imprinted into my vision when I woke up. So the last thing I would see is the last part in the nightmare that jolted me awake.

Ryan Seacrest here.

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