Are you ready to get weird?
Let's talk about ghosts.
I don't like November. It gets dark way too early, and with that darkness comes seasonal depression that hits me like a freight train. On top of SD, the last few Novembers since the death of a friend and mentor have been challenging. I now dread November every year. Something about the cold and darkness makes me find November haunting, even since I was a kid. It's worse back in Iowa, where days are even shorter and cloudier.
Growing up in small town Iowa, there was little for rural kids to do. What else do you do during spooky times but go visit haunted locations? My sister, two friends, and I would go ghost hunting, and we've been to some weird places. Check out Iowa City's Black Angel, Parkers Grove Cemetery, and Pleasant Grove Cemetery. But these aren't the only haunted places I've been to. Even as an adult, I'm drawn to the strange and occult.
So that leads me to this week's question: have you ever visited a place that feels haunted? There are four places I've toured that vividly remind me that we might not be alone.
Antietam
As a former US history teacher, I've always been attracted to locations integral to who we are as a country and that I've taught about but haven't been to. That's why, in March 2017, my sister Amber and I traveled to Antietam, Maryland. If you don't know about the Battle of Antietam, it was THE bloodiest day in American history, with over 23,000 casualties. One of the most intense clashes during the battle occurred along a sunken road, now known as "Bloody Lane." Confederate forces entrenched themselves in the sunken road, repelling repeated Union assaults. The fighting was fierce and unrelenting until 5 pm, when the battle ended.
On the day my sister and I visited, it was rainy and chilly. Even though it was the weekend, the weather kept most visitors away. During our visit, we saw maybe a handful of other people. If you happen to believe in ghosts, like my sister and I, spirits can feed off of the energy of the people around them. Because my sister and I were mostly by ourselves, our visceral reactions to the area were very strong. Amber had visions, I had goosebumps despite not feeling cold, and we both felt really uncomfortable for the few hours we explored.
You could just sense that we were not alone. We never felt like anyone was trying to reach us, but the location was sad and depressing. We knew something tragic (an understatement) had happened there, and we couldn't shake it off.
Gettysburg
In October 2016, my sister, parents, Adam, and I visited Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg is famously considered the turning point of the American Civil War. It was also the bloodiest single battle of the war, with over 50,000 casualties. On the second day of the battle, Confederate forces launched a massive assault on the Union left flank at Little Round Top. This small hill commanded a strategic position on the battlefield. Little Round Top became a symbol of Union determination and resilience, and its defense was crucial in turning the tide of the battle in favor of the Union.
The weather was beautiful on the day we were there. We had sunny skies, and the fall leaves were gorgeous. We drove through and walked around the military park, looking at the state monuments and walking around Little Round Top. While standing at Little Round Top, Amber told me that she saw shadows out of the corner of her eye, which disturbed me.
We decided to end our tour around sunset by visiting the National Cemetery.
Standing where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address felt very momentous, and it was chilling to walk through the 6000 gravestones in the cemetery. While walking among the graves, Amber kept looking around, frantic, and tells us she's not feeling right. A moment later, I say, "Um, I just walked through a cold spot." Then a gust of wind blew through the trees, among the gravestones, and what feels like through us. And then it stops. There had been no wind all day. All five of us, including Adam who "doesn't believe," stop and look at each other. I tell everyone else that I'm out, and we take off.
Pearl Harbor
In January 2006, I was lucky to spend a month in Hawaii for my college's J–term. We were there to study the disparity between Hawaii's public and private schools, as Hawaii only has one public school district for the entire state. This is unique as Hawaii is the only state in the Union with one public school district.
While on the island of Oahu, we visited the Pearl Harbor National Memorial. "December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." The attack, which lasted for two hours, resulted in the deaths of 2,403 Americans. The battleship USS Arizona bore the brunt of the attack. It was struck and exploded, killing over 1,100 sailors and sinking the ship. The wreckage of the Arizona remains submerged in Pearl Harbor.
One of the sailors who died on the USS Arizona was named John Lincoln, and he lived in the house that I grew up in. John was a known prankster, infamously putting skunk glands in milk and leaving it in the local school's air ducts to rot over the weekend. The smell was so horrific that the school was closed until they could air it out. The last place John lived before the war was in our house. Enough strange things have happened in our house that Amber is convinced John still haunts it.
I was weirdly excited to visit Pear Harbor because I knew John's body was still there. At the park, you take a boat out to the memorial on top of the sunken Arizona. The monument has a wall that lists the names of the fallen. I spot John's name, take a picture, and burst into tears. I was a sobbing, inconsolable mess. To this day, I'm not sure I can tell you why I was so upset at seeing the name of a person I do not know, but I can say that I felt anguished and expressed the feeling.
Tikal
When I taught the history of American Indians, I included information about the Aztecs, Inca, and Maya. Even though they did not settle in the United States, they were significant native settlements with influence that reached far and wide. When I taught about the Maya, I used a great video about Tikal, a major Mayan settlement. I always wanted to visit Tikal, and when we vacationed in Belize, I knew it was my chance!
Visiting Guatemala was an experience, from crossing the Belize/Guatemala border and having a driver who spoke no English to drinking the best cup of coffee I've ever had at a random roadside stand. We stayed at an inn close to the ruins to visit the park at sunset and sunrise.
For the sunrise tour, it was incredibly foggy, which isn't a surprise since it's the jungle! We woke up around 4 am to walk through the park to get to the "spot" for sunrise. We're walking through pure darkness in the jungle when our guide tells us to stop and turn off our headlamps. Once our eyes adjusted to the dark, we looked up and saw that we were at the base of one of the temples. Our guide says, "This is what the Maya saw 1200 years ago standing at this exact spot." And then he just moved on and kept walking. I was frozen in that moment with chills up and down my spine. Even today, Adam says that was one of the most incredible moments of his life. We were both haunted by the history of that place at that exact moment.
Share with me your haunted travels, whether your ghost stories or just some cool, spooky locations. I'm always on the lookout for a new place to visit!
Cheers.
If you're looking for ghost travels, check out Charleston, SC or Savannah, GA! You can do walking ghost tours there, where they tell you local legends and history, going back to colonial and pirate times. It's a lot of fun!