Tag: Ghost Stories

Spooky Tales And Sci-Fi, Inside Appalachia

This week on Inside Appalachia, submitted for your approval, we have a selection of spooky tales for Halloween and beyond. We have scary stories read by acclaimed sci-fi and horror authors, tales of the supernatural, and we might know someone who says they’ve seen a ghost.

Submitted for your approval, we have a selection of spooky tales for Halloween and beyond.

We have scary stories read by acclaimed sci-fi and horror authors, tales of the supernatural, and we might know someone who says they’ve seen a ghost. 

All this and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

In This Episode:

Mike Allen And The Button Bin

Mike Allen is an award-winning science fiction, fantasy and horror writer based in Roanoke, Virginia. Besides writing, Mike also runs Mythic Delirium, a micropress that “specializes in speculative fiction and poetry, with a penchant for writing that’s challenging to classify.”

Mason Adams visited Mike to talk about fantasy and horror and to hear excerpts from one of his stories.

Molly Born And The Spooky Old Tunnel

Spooky stories can be about people, but sometimes they’re just about a place. In Mingo County, West Virginia there’s an old single-lane railroad tunnel that’s become a local legend. 

Back in 2018, reporter Molly Born ventured inside the Dingess tunnel to find out what makes it so unsettling.

Ghost Story

Some people are afraid of ghosts. Others want to figure out ways to communicate with them – like Anita Allen, a writer and paranormal investigator in Roanoke. 

Mason Adams talked to her about a couple of her ghost encounters.

Another Ghost Story

Haunted places dot Appalachia – moonlit hollers, mist-shrouded cemeteries, and dusty buildings that hold unspoken secrets. Playwright and theater director Dan Kehde knows just such a place in Charleston, West Virginia. 

Return Of the Headless Man And The Murdered Girl

James Froemel, an actor and storyteller in Morgantown, West Virginia brought us two stories from Ruth Anne Musick.

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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by The Animals, Amy Lavere, Jason Isbell, Gerry Milnes, Sierra Ferrel, Southern Culture on the Skids and Red Sovine.

Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens.

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Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Dan Kehde: A Tale of Haunting

Dan Kehde, Charleston author and playwright, offers this excellent tale of a childhood haunting.

Every Halloween season, I out roll classic films such as Night of the Living Dead, The Fog, Halloween III: Season of the Witch and others.

The newest tradition is now the third annual collection of ghostly tales from my fellow West Virginians.

Dan Kehde
/
The Contemporary Youth Arts Company
Author, playwright and director of CYAC, Dan Kehde.

Dan Kehde, Charleston author and playwright, submits his third ghostly tale of his childhood haunting. His work is superb.

Note: this is the original submitted story. It is slightly longer than what aired in West Virginia Morning.

September 17, 1897: Folklorist Ruth Ann Musick Born in Missouri

Folklorist Ruth Ann Musick was born in Missouri on September 17, 1897. She earned a Ph.D. in English from the State University of Iowa, where she developed a lifelong interest in folklore. She first came to West Virginia in 1946 to teach mathematics and English at Fairmont State College, which is now Fairmont State University. Musick quickly made a big impact on the Mountain State by starting a folk literature class at Fairmont State and helping to revive the West Virginia Folklore Society. And in 1951, she founded the West Virginia Folklore Journal. She retired from both the journal and Fairmont State in 1967.

Musick was West Virginia’s folklore ambassador through education, public speaking, radio, and television. She published four major collections of folklore, including The Telltale Lilac Bush and Coffin Hollow, and wrote two popular folklore columns for West Virginia newspapers, ‘‘The Old Folks Say’’ and ‘‘Sassafras Tea.’’

Ruth Ann Musick died in Fairmont in 1974 at age 76. Her papers are now archived in the West Virginia Folklife Center at Fairmont State. In 1980, the university library was renamed in her honor.

W.Va. Ghost Story Archive Calls For Submissions

WVGhosts.com is an archive of WV ghost stories, and they’re looking for more submissions.

Jonathan Moore of Pax, W.Va. started collecting WV ghost stories nearly 15 years ago because, well, he kept hearing them.

“Neighbors would just be telling me about their stories, and stories within Pax and I decided to take those stories and gather more from other people around WV in order to develop an archive for WV, for other people to read and share their experiences,” said Moore.

So that’s what he did. His mission? To provide unedited, untampered with proof of the paranormal. WVGosts.com has amassed over 450 stories and now, in addition to submitting stories through Facebook and Twitter, Moore is announcing a new way to share spooky experiences: a ghost call-in line, 304-896-9874.

“So people can call in and they can tell their stories on the recording and then have it transcribed into text,” Moore said. “Which, with this hotline, they can also text their story to us, or even send pictures.”

Moore says while the website continues to be popular, he’s seen decreases in submissions over the years. He wants to reach more people because, he says, about one in five people he bumps into has a great story to tell. He’s hoping the new call-in line will boost submissions.

Excerpt from one of the top 15 recent stories, "The House in the Field," posted on February 10, 2014 by Nicole Lee: "About a week into living there I was standing in the kitchen making lunch when the knife I was using spun around and then flew of the counter around the room. I laughed it off and went on with the rest of my day. Shortly after that my eyes kept getting drawn to the doorway between my kitchen and living room. There was always a sense that someone was just standing in the doorway. Next to that doorway were my basement steps and I could always here a creaking on them as if someone was just hiding there. Sometimes it would sound like someone walking up and down the steps. It was unsettling so I would normally keep the basement door shut and locked."

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