On this West Virginia Week, we wrap up another Halloween season in the Mountain State. We’ll revisit spooky stories, haunted attractions and yearly traditions that made this year’s holiday one to remember.
Plus, the Nov. 5 general election is fast approaching. Our newsroom has talked to candidates for state office, attended a major debate and spoke with early voters. We’ll look back on a week’s worth of election coverage in the countdown to Election Day.
Jack Walker is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.
West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Caelan Bailey, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick, Maria Young and Randy Yohe.
This spooky season West Virginians and Mountain State visitors can take part in the Paranormal Trail, organized by the Department of Tourism. The trail has 18 different haunted or scary locations, including everything from an old lunatic asylum to a haunted amusement park.
West Virginia was rated by Forbes as one of the most haunted states in the union. Lauren Bodnar from the Department of Tourism said having a variety of spooky spots in the state helped them come up with the Paranormal Trail.
“So we’ve seen a lot of research about scream tourism, which is basically people traveling to spooky sites, like the ones that are featured on the trail,” Bodnar said. “West Virginia has a haunted history in different sections of the state.”
Last year the tourism department launched the waterfall trail, where travelers and hikers could visit certain waterfalls in the state, check in, and win prizes like tee shirts and water bottles. Bodnar says this was so successful that they decided to create other “trails” in the state, like the Culinary Trail that launched earlier this year, and now the paranormal trail.
“We kind of paired those things together, like the fact that people are traveling to be scared,” Bodnar said.
She said that the digital passport system that the tourism department has used, powered by Bandwango, has been very popular.
A Old Ferris wheel, which was notably not part of the original amusement park but brought in after that park closed. Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“We really just kind of paired those together and came up with the Paranormal Trail,” Bodnar said.
Visitors will receive a branded sticker for checking into three locations, a branded beanie for ten locations, and paranormal trail art print created by a local artist if they check into all 18 locations.
One of those locations is the Lake Shawnee Abandoned Amusement park just outside of Princeton.
The attraction is small, a little pond surrounded by a couple of old structures, the rusty remains of what were once amusement rides. Nature has already started reclaiming the old rides, now engulfed in vines. They are decorated in dirty stuffed animals, windchimes, and other tokens that visitors have left behind.
Chris White owns the property and gives haunted tours.
He travels around the grounds in a beat up old van. At each stop he pulls out pictures from his trunk. The pictures depict old skeletons, or artifacts he said were found on the property. Photography is strictly prohibited.
Guest bring offerings to the spirits that some believe haunt the park. Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
White said the property has an extremely haunted history. It was once a Native American burial ground. He showed the visitors where Marshall university held a dig.
“So whenever we started finding (Native American artifacts), that’s when my father said, ‘stop doing the bulldozing. Let’s call Marsh University. Get those guys down here’. They dug a little deeper. They started uncovering bodies.” White said.
He said they uncovered hundreds of skeletons.
Hundreds of years later an amusement park was opened on the grounds. White said a little girl who died tragically while on the swing ride now haunts the park.
“According to the paranormal investigator, she hangs out where the swing used to be, over here,” he said, while pointing to the old swing ride. “She can move back and forth to the park. She’s not bound to a certain area. She’s not bound to this park.”
This is the swing ride where White says the little girl perished. Visitors have left offerings for the little girl who allegedly haunts the grounds. Briana Heaney/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
This is just one of the many locations here in the Mountain State that are considered to be haunted. The Paranormal Trail stretches from both panhandles to the southern coalfields.
Other spooky destinations along the trail that are ADA accessible are the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Moth man Museum, Flatwoods Monster Museum (NOTE: there’s one step to get into the building, but the website mentions it is ADA accessible), Glen Ferris Inn, Blennerhassett Hotel, Hotel Morgan, and Cryptid Mountain Mini Golf.
Every Halloween, children across the United States don costumes and knock on doors as part of a beloved Halloween tradition. But trick-or-treating can come with challenges for some children with accessibility needs.
Cheyann McQuain is a program director at the Disability Action Center, a nonprofit based in Fairmont that focuses on supporting people with disabilities. She said there are simple ways parents and candy-givers can ensure folks with disabilities enjoy the holiday, too.
Listen to an extended version of this conversation below:
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Halloween brings impressive decorations and costumes to town streets nationwide. This can be fun for some children, but overstimulating for others, McQuain said.
For parents, McQuain said it is good to consider how a child responds to overstimulation, and be prepared to step away if things become overwhelming. Parents can also provide noise canceling headphones for their children to wear while visiting houses, she said.
Some Halloween decorations can also include flashing lights, which could trigger seizures in children with epilepsy. McQuain said parents should be on the lookout for decorations that could pose a danger.
Many organizations throughout the state offer sensory friendly trick-or-treating events specially curated to provide a calmer environment to children with disabilities. McQuain said families can seek events like these in their own communities if traditional trick-or-treating feels difficult.
But some kids might just not like the experience of trick-or-treating. That is perfectly valid, too, McQuain said.
“It’s one of those experiences that we as a society look forward to, and we think, ‘Oh, our kids need to go and do this,’” she said. “Just remember that if your kid doesn’t like to do that, then that’s okay.”
Avoid Assumptions
On Halloween, some candy-givers may be surprised to see teenagers or adults come to their doorstep and request candy.
McQuain said these individuals might have disabilities. Avoiding assumptions or comments about their age can make them feel more welcomed during the holiday, she said.
“Sometimes, it might be clear that they have a disability, and other times it’s not as clear,” McQuain said. “If somebody’s coming up trick-or-treating, maybe [do] not give them a hard time.”
Other children might have difficulty communicating verbally. So McQuain said it can be good for candy-givers to be open minded and understand that not all children say thank you in the same way, even if they appreciate the free treats.
Consider Physical Obstacles
Children with mobility issues or wheelchairs may struggle to move through a neighborhood during Halloween, especially if its sidewalks and roadways are unpaved or uneven.
For residents passing out sweets, McQuain said it can be helpful to consider the best place on their property to operate.
“If it’s difficult for you to walk up the stairs, then it’s probably going to be almost impossible for a child with a disability to be able to do that as well,” she said. “Uneven sidewalks, cobblestone sidewalks, stairs, all of those things [can be harder] for somebody with a physical disability, especially at night time.”
Individuals with stairs or difficult pathways can consider sitting at the edge of their lawn or sidewalk, passing out candy from a more approachable location, McQuain said.
Offer An Alternative
Even beyond disabilities, some children have allergies, dietary restrictions or medical conditions that make them unable to eat certain types of candy.
To make sure everyone gets something they can enjoy while trick-or-treating, McQuain said residents can consider providing non-food alternatives to candy as well.
“You can’t accommodate everybody,” McQuain said, but “having that option” and “being mindful” can make a big difference in someone’s holiday.
“Overall, for any of these topics, think of if it was your kid, or somebody you cared about,” she added. “What would you do to accommodate them?”
On this West Virginia Morning, West Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates took the debate stage at Fairmont State University on Tuesday evening.
On this West Virginia Morning, West Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates took the debate stage at Fairmont State University on Tuesday evening. Caelan Bailey was in attendance, and tells us what Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the Republican candidate, and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams, the Democratic candidate, had to say.
Plus, Halloween is fast approaching. To celebrate, West Virginia residents and visitors alike can take part in the state’s Paranormal Trail, organized by the West Virginia Department of Tourism.
The trail includes 18 haunted or spooky locations around the state. Briana Heaney stopped by some of the sites and tells us what they have to offer.
Also in this episode, Election Day is Nov. 5, and early voting is ongoing. Briana Heaney went down to Mercer County to talk to voters about the state and local issues important to them.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University and Marshall University School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Maria Young produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
On this West Virginia Week, we’ll hear about diabetes management and prevention. We’ll also hear about a mental health resource for first responders. We’ll hear from an author with roots in the southern coalfields. And because Halloween was this week, we’ll hear a story about a haunted boat.
On this West Virginia Week, we’ll hear about diabetes management and prevention. We’ll also hear about a mental health resource for first responders. We’ll hear from an author with roots in the southern coalfields. And because Halloween was this week, we’ll hear a story about a haunted boat.
Curtis Tate is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.
West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Caroline MacGregor, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.
Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams visited author Mike Allen’s Roanoke home to speak with him about his writing and publishing through Mythic Delirium.
This conversation originally aired in the Oct. 29, 2023 episode of Inside Appalachia.
Mike Allen is an award-winning science fiction, fantasy and horror writer based in Roanoke, Virginia.
Besides writing, Allen also runs Mythic Delirium. It started as a fanzine that published sci-fi poetry. Now it’s a publishing imprint that puts out books.
Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams visited Allen’s Roanoke home to speak with him about his writing and publishing. Adams started by asking how Allen first got into fantasy and horror as a child in Wise, Virginia.
The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.
Allen: In third grade, my teacher read to us “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe for Halloween. Most of the kids in the class reacted in one way that was kind of like, “Haha, that was cool.” Whereas I, being kind of a sheltered child who had no real way at that time to process the darkness that was in those stories, they really, really deeply freaked me out. In a way that reverberated for years. I had night terror after night terror. So that was one thing.
Another thing would have been that around that same time, the animated adaptation of “The Hobbit” came out on television. I watched it and thought it was really, really cool. My father, who was a really hardcore fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, watched it with me. When he heard me talking about how much I liked it, he said, “Ah, that was terrible. It’s nowhere near as good as the book!” And [he] made me read “The Hobbit.” That started me reading “The Lord of the Rings” and books that were kind of connected, like the “Chronicles of Narnia” by Tolkien’s buddy, C.S. Lewis, and from there expanding to many more works of fantasy.
In Wise, there was, I believe still is, a small public library. That to me became a sort of castle of adventure. I recall walking to it up this very steep hill, and going exploring, looking for all these different fantasy and science fiction and eventually even horror books that I essentially learned about through my own research.
From left, authors Rod Belcher, Mike Allen and Amanda McGee during an event at Book No Further in Roanoke, Virginia.
Photo courtesy of Mike Allen
Adams: When did you actually start writing?
Allen: My final year of college — this would have been in ‘92 — I sold, and I suppose I could put “sold” in quotes, a kind of cyberpunk-ish, short story to a zine called “Gateways.” This was a pay-in-copies zine, which means that you were paid with a copy of the zine. That gave me just enough encouragement that I began to pursue it with pretty ferocious dedication.
Adams: So can you tell me a little bit about how you got from that point, as an undergraduate at Virginia Tech, to where we are today, sitting on your couch here in Roanoke?
Allen: The publications I was able to land after I graduated from Virginia Tech ended up laying enough groundwork that I was able to apply to and get accepted into the Hollins University creative writing program. The final thing I wrote at Hollins became the kernel of what was my first professionally published story, a science fiction story called “Stolen Souls.”
Fast forward to a year after I graduated from Hollins, I took on my first editing project. That project was an anthology called “New Dominions: Fantasy Stories by Virginia Writers” — and it’s one where I paid in-copy to the people who participated because that was still a somewhat acceptable thing then for a zine. To skip ahead again, my experience with “New Dominions” is what laid the groundwork for me to start the zine “Mythic Delirium.”
That zine created a platform where I ended up actually working with the likes of Ursula K. Le Guin, Neil Gaiman, Joe Haldeman, Ian Watson, Jane Yolen, and a number of writers who were just kind of starting out as I was starting out who have gone on to become huge in the field like Catherynne M. Valente or Ken Liu. They had pieces appear in “Mythic Delirium.” I also began publishing books by some of the authors that I worked with. And that is what I still do now.
Adams: I’m curious as to what you see when you look at Appalachia. What’s it look like from your perspective in the sci-fi/fantasy/horror world?
Allen: So here’s an interesting thing for me: Roanoke is unique. Some of it, I think, actually goes back to Nelson Bond having been based here, who was extremely active in the 1930s and ‘40s and ‘50s in the magazine scene that existed at that time. Writers like Sharyn McCrumb were making Roanoke, or at least the Roanoke region, their home base. Roanoke has this very robust culture for celebrating its writers, regardless of what they write. Those of us who are based here like myself, like Rod Belcher, who writes under the name R.S. Belcher, or Amanda McGee, who’s an up-and-coming writer whose work is definitely Appalachian and has a bit of witchery involved, we’ve experienced the benefit of that.
There’s no way for me to kind of sweepingly talk about everybody with an Appalachian connection. But there are some I do want to mention. Nathan Ballingrud, who lives in Asheville, is a horror writer who’s had some really high profile things happen lately. His first short story collection, “North American Lake Monsters,” was adapted into the Hulu series, “Monsterland.” The title story in that book, he considers to be an Appalachian story. I mentioned Rod Belcher whose novels have events in West Virginia and the Carolinas. Manly Wade Wellman might be the classic Golden Age writer who’s most associated with the Appalachians. He has a series of stories about John the Balladeer, or Silver John, who is a gentleman who has a guitar strung with silver strings. He wanders through this magical realist version of the Appalachian Mountains and has encounters that are very much based on Appalachian folklore.
Other writers I wanted to mention: Barbara Hancock, who writes under Willa Reece, lives in Ferrum, Virginia. And Cherie Priest, who lives out on the west coast, but whose debut “Four and Twenty Blackbirds” was based in Chattanooga, when she lived there. She wrote a whole trilogy based in the folklore of that region. She may be best known for the novel “Boneshaker,” which combines zombies with steampunk. It kind of hit like at the perfect time to do that, and it was a pretty big hit.
Adams: For people who are interested, what’s the entry point into your work that you’d recommend for them?
Allen: I don’t know that I would call myself a straight up horror writer. But whenever I write, whether it’s science fiction, or fantasy, or mystery, or what have you, it always ends up with a really strong horror element. I have two collections of short stories. One is called “Unseaming” and one is called “Aftermath of an Industrial Accident,” and they both contain a lot of stories that are very explicitly set in Appalachia in southwest Virginia.
Mike Allen is a writer, editor and publisher of Mythic Delirium Books.
Anita Allen, A Paranormal Investigator
Mason Adams also interviewed Mike Allen’s wife Anita Allen, a paranormal investigator who is working on nonfiction books to be published under an imprint of Mythic Delirium Books.
Anita Allen: We moved here in ‘71. And then when I was in first grade, something moved into my parents house. To this day, I still don’t know what it is. It’s not human. We know that. And it’s not aggressive. So it was just something we learn to live with. My sister and I named him “Larry.” Trying to figure out what Larry was, is what got me into research.
My mom’s response to pretty much any question of “why?” was, “There’s a book, look it up.” We had the Encyclopedia Britannica in the same room that the ghost lived in. So if you wanted to figure out what the ghost was, you had to sit in the basement with the encyclopedia and try to figure it out.
It took me a little bit to realize that science didn’t know and didn’t have the answer for what that was.
Adams: Can you describe another case?
Allen: When we moved in, the gentleman that lived here was actually killed by hit-and-run right out front here by the mailbox. His cat came with the house. And from growing up dealing with my ghosts, I’m very comfortable communicating with ghosts. I don’t have a problem with it. It’s kind of second nature.
So I knew there was a ghost here. And I was a little concerned about that. I was hoping he would leave as soon as we moved in. But he made it very clear: We were welcome. I did all the things you do to let them know you’re moving in. Basically, the reason he was staying was his cat. He wanted to make sure that she was okay. And so he stayed on for about 10 years until she passed.
