Maps claiming to be able to show you which state likes/hates/eats what have long been a staple on Facebook. To be honest, I find them annoying, second only to those sponsored links that try to entice me to click on them because “what happens next will blow your mind! Number 7 on the list freaked me out!”
Anyway, this map sounded different. It claimed to “map out” all the “iconic ghosts” in the United States, listing the one that “most defines” each state. Interesting, right? And it was put out by People.com, so it had to be cool, right?
Yeah, not so much.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s a cool-looking map. But once I started looking at each state and what People.com was calling “the most iconic” there, most left me scratching my head. For example, they picked the Philadelphia Zoo to represent Pennsylvania as opposed to Gettysburg. Oh yeah, and there’s not even a ghost story associated with the location listed for Oklahoma, “just a lot of creepy feelings.” Still, when I got to Ohio, I just had to blurt out, to no one in particular: “Akron Civic Theatre? Where did they pull that from?”
OK, to be fair, I know where they pulled Akron Civic Theatre from since they included a link. Turns out it came from some book, Weird Ohio. You might have heard of it. So I’m honored they used my book. And the Akron Civic Theatre does have some spooky stories associated with it, including some ghosts that are said to wander around outside the building itself. But with all due respect to the Akron Civic Theatre, there’s no way it’s the ghost story that defines Ohio.
I should also point out that whoever put the list/map over at People.com together did give themselves an out when it comes to what they considered iconic. In fact, they sort of willingly admit the map isn’t really iconic at all. Here’s how they describe what ended up as each state’s ghostly representative:
“in some cases, it’s the “most famous” ghost in each state, in others, it’s the one we found the most interesting.”
So clearly, People.com phoned it in on this one. But it got me thinking: if someone really was going to put together a list of the most iconic haunting for each state, which location would I think should represent Ohio?
Since I moved to Ohio in 1999, I have been chronicling and cataloguing all reported hauntings in the state. I’ve even compiled a database of all said hauntings. Currently, my database has over 3500 entries, although roughly 60% of those are nothing more than vague teenage “some scary s**t went down in those woods” urban legend-type tales. I also field, on average, 5 to 10 requests a week for more information about a reported haunting in Ohio. The one location that I am asked about most often, and the one that gets the most hits on my web site is Hell Town. The numbers aren’t even close: Hell Town beats all the other pages on my site by an almost 3-1 margin.
So you could certainly make the case that the legend of Hell Town is iconic. It’s not really a ghost story, though. It’s more of an amalgam of urban legends, the vast majority of which I debunked years ago. Plus, other than my photo (above) of the long-since removed Road Closed sign (you know the one: it’s probably the most “borrowed” photo I’ve ever placed on the Internet), there isn’t a lot of stuff to see in the area known as Hell Town anymore, even in person. So I don’t think Hell Town can make the cut because, for me, to be truly iconic, a location needs to have something that literally takes your breath away as soon as you set eyes upon it.
That’s why, in my book, there’s a tie for the most iconic Ohio haunting in Ohio. A tie between Franklin Castle and Mansfield Reformatory.
Franklin Castle is one of the longest-standing haunted houses in the state of Ohio. Even before I moved to Ohio, it was on my radar and was the place I most wanted to visit when I got here. The ghost stories associated with the building go back decades and involve everything from murder victims to Nazi sympathizers. Oh yeah, and throw in a couple of secret passageways throughout the house while you’re at it. Even though it has been abandoned and in a state of disrepair for years now, ghost hunters from all across the US still stop by the house just to take pictures and stare up at the boarded-up windows.
The ghosts at Mansfield Reformatory haven’t been known as long as those at Franklin Castle, at least not to the general public. But the place is said to be lousy with ghosts. Once the Preservation Society stepped in, saved the building from the wrecking ball, and opened it up for tours, people started whispering about the ghosts in the building. Then came the overnight ghost hunts and reality TV shows and the whole thing just exploded. The Reformatory’s overnight ghost hunts almost always sell out and the building usually sits atop many a ghost hunter’s Bucket List.
So what about you guys? What location would get your vote for Ohio’s Most Iconic Ghost Story? While you’re pondering that, feel free to check out the full version of the People.com map, along with descriptions of each state’s haunting. You can do that by clicking here.
Agreed! Mansfield wins for me, hands down. I can’t think of anywhere else in the State that beats it. Maybe if O.U. hadn’t converted the Athens Asylum into the Art Dept. of the University, that might have got my vote (but they did, so it doesn’t), and having grown up around Brandywine Falls and Stanford Rd. (the area people keep trying to call “Helltown” (it is to laugh!), I KNOW that doesn’t qualify at all.