Nashville Ghost Tour

Saturday I went on a ghost tour in Nashville. It was very interesting, covering some stories I knew about (like the State Capitol building and St. Mary's Catholic Church) and some I was not familar with (a haunted former club near Printers Alley and a haunted parking garage). Our tour guide did a wonderful job, and I heartily recommend taking this tour if you are in the Nashville area.

I don't want to go into too much detail because I don't want to ruin the tour for anyone. But I would like to share the following photos I took on the tour. Plenty of orbs! (Click on an image to view it full size)

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Spooks in the News

As we near Halloween, newspapers across the state are carrying articles about ghost stories.

In today's Knoxville News-Sentinel there is an article about the haunting of the Bakers-Peters-Rogers House, and an investigation of it by Alternate Realities Center (Appalachian Ghost Tours). Also, Ina Hughes has some information on a new book by Alan Brown.

In Memphis, the Commercial-Appeal covers the debate on ghost hunters, and a story on Mary , the ghost of a little girl who supposedly haunts the Orpheum Theater.

The Nashville City Paper has the scoop on filmmaker Zac Adams, who is working on a PBS documentary on hauntings that features some Tennessee tales.

Know of any other ghost stories in the news? Shoot me an e-mail!

UPDATE: The Daily Beacon also has a story on the Bakers-Peters House.

Chattanooga Sighting

Reader Blake writes:

My dad never swears on anything, ever, but he will swear on this story. Back when he was in high school, there was a house in North Chattanooga that was run down and abandoned. It was abandoned by all but the devil worshippers. If you looked through the cracks of the boarded up windows, you could see the red pentagram that was on the floor, as well as candles. My dad and a friend got back in their car to leave and as they were driving forward, a man appeared in front of their car. The back alley they parked in was well lit but you could not see any features about this man. As quickly as he appeared, he disappeared. The two looked at each other simultaneously and his friend sped out of the alley behind the house. My dad has never been back since.

Oklanona Exit - Johnson City

On Exit 28 off Interstate 26 (exit from the east) in Johnson City, bizarre things are said to happen. According to reader Brittany:

There are two stories. The first story is that a man and a woman were at the end of the exit and got robbed my a hobo. The hobo stabbed the girl in the chest and the girl was about to die so the man started pushing the car up the exit to get help but they never made it. The other story is that a man and his wife was at the end of the exit and their car broke down, so he started pushing it back up the exit and a car struck them and killed them. When you go to the exit if you go to the bottom and put your car in neutral and take your foot of the brake your car rolls back up the exit to the interstate. It's said that its the mans ghost pushing you back up the exit. Some people say that if you do it long enough that the windows get fogged up and you can see the mans hand prints where he is pushing you.

Brittany has tried this before, and says that it actually works!

Wampus Cat Sighting in Knoxville

Reader Jimmy sends me this account of the infamous Wampus Cat:

I was looking around the internet for any ghost sightings in the Clinton/Oak Ridge area and came across your site. I read about the Wampus cat of East Tennessee and it reminded me about something my girlfriend told me, which I'd like to relay to you.

During the school year, she lives in Strong Hall on the UT campus. One night while we were at her place, I was talking about how I was walking back to my dorm (Greve Hall) with a friend of mine. I was beside him, but very slightly ahead. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw what appeared to be a man in ablack cloak walk up to my friend and sort of lean into him, almost like he was going to put his hand on my friend's shoulder. Only when his hand fell on my friend's shoulder, he simply disappeared. I will admit that during this time I was a bit tired from studying for an exam, and my friend says he felt nothing, but that's neither here nor there.

After telling my girlfriend this story, she told me that during the first week of school she looked out her ground-floor window toward the corner of 16th and Cumberland, and saw what appeared to be a human-sized cat walking on its hind legs, with glowing eyes. I don't remember the details she gave me, as far ashow long it was there or how long she saw it. She's asleep right now else I'd ask her for more details, but I wanted to let you know about that before I went to sleep and forgot all about it.

It should be noted that my girlfriend came down from Minnesota for school, and I have no reason to believe she would try to trick me by reading about the Wampus cat and then trying to pretend she saw it. We're very close and I have no reason to believe she would lie to me.

Call for Volunteers

As you've probably noticed, my contributions to this blog have been minimal over the past couple of months. The reason for this is that I am now in Boone, NC, attending graduate school, and thus am not able to visit Tennessee and do ghost hunts as frequently. I still do them whenever I can, but that is sadly not as often as I'd like.

When I first started this blog, I issued a call for volunteers to contribute to this blog. I received a few responses, and was able to sign up a few people. I'd love to add more, however. So here's the deal: if you live in Tennessee (or visit frequently), have an interest in the paranormal, are literate, and visit haunted sites frequently (or simply know a lot of interesting ghost stories you'd like to share), you are cordially invited to become a contributor to this blog. No experience, or even a digital camera necessary (though photos are always good!).

Over the past few months, this blog has grown considerably. Now, it is averaging around 75 hits a day - a pretty good showing for a blog dedicated to ghost stories in only one state and that is updated only a couple times a month. With more entries and info, I am certain we can build on that number substantially.

I'd particularly like to get some contributors from West Tennessee, an area that has been neglected here, though anywhere in the state is good. If you're interested, simply shoot me an e-mail at john@johnnorrisbrown.com, and I will be more than happy to sign you on as a contributor!

Knoxville Ghost Hunting

I, along with the usual gang, returned to Seven Islands Church last night. This was the first time we had been since February. Our experience this time was very much like our previous visit; nothing really notable, but lots of orbs in our photographs (click on a picture to see it full size):

After visiting Seven Islands, we headed to Old Gray Cemetery, one of Knoxville's oldest graveyards. I had been here several times before (including this time. Again, we did not see or experience much, but did get some orb infested photos: