Joshua Dowidat

Haunted Places: Buffalo State Asylum

Hello Everyone,

Well this is the last haunted hospital or asylum for a while. Got a different list of Haunted Places to cover plus some other stuff. Still, what a better way to wrap up the segment than with talking about Buffalo State Asylum. Yes, another one located in New York.

A Little History:

The construction for Buffalo State Asylum started in 1870. The asylum is also known as, and is the official name, is the Richardson Olmsted Complex and sometimes the Henry Hobson Richardson Olmsted Hospital. To me the “Buffalo State Asylum” sounds a little more eerie so I am going to stick with that name.

Now it is considered a historical landmark where it resides in Buffalo, New York. Although it stopped housing inmates in the 1970s it was used as an office until 1994. Nowadays the building is in need of restoration and talk of turning one Continue reading →

Eerie for Thoughts: The Spooklight

Hello Everyone,

Well out of all the eerie lights this is my last. Although, I will be discussing certain parts, or reasons why, I chose to do a segment about mysterious and eerie lights in another post. This last haunted light I saved because of a tale that is associated with it. Even though I will not dive much into detail on the tale or legend but it is eerie and sad. This light has a name that no one would suspect has anything to do with a haunted or ghostly light. Just kidding, it’s called the Spooklight.

The Spooklight:

This light was first reported all the way back to the terrible days that included the “Trail of Tears,” in the 1830s. However, the more common reported times was toward the end of the late 19th century and was first documented around 1881.

The first official report on Continue reading →

Haunted Places: Orpheum Theatre

Hello Everyone,

The theatre we will visit this week goes back to the roaring twenties, or at least the end of the period, as we continue our journey through haunted places in Arizona. The Orpheum Theatre resides in the small very traffic friendly city of Phoenix, Arizona. Anybody who has been there will understand that.

Orpheum Theatre:

The Orpheum Theatre was built in 1929, or I should say completed. Like many large structures it takes some time to build them, in this case about two years. The original style of the theatre was for Vaudeville acts and it was built with the common Spanish architectural style that much of Southern and Central Arizona are famous for.

The theatre was renamed several times as new owners took possession of it over the years. After some years the building was falling apart and in need of repair. It was purchased in 1984 Continue reading →

Haunted Places: Casey Moore’s Oyster House

Hello Everyone,

Thanks again for reading and staying up today on the interesting haunted places in Arizona that you should, no must, visit. Or at least try. This week we venture back around Phoenix to the city known as Tempe. Here resides Casey Moore’s Oyster House. And know I feel like visiting an Irish Pub.

Casey Moore’s Oyster House:

Established in 1910 the house was a residency to a couple who lived and died there. They had ties with the early developments of Tempe and connections through-out the city as it grew and prospered.

After their deaths the house was still used as a residency in some form. Rumors came about that it was in fact used for a boarding house for ASU students at the time or perhaps another form of boarding. Other rumors state that is was used for a bordello and perhaps that’s where some of the Continue reading →

Eerie for Thoughts: Paulding Light

Hello Everyone,

Out of the eerie lights I have discussed so far this one seems to have had an investigation that brought it closer to being explained. Maybe it’s because it wasn’t reported until later in the last century when cars, planes and other modern “lighted” objects were more relevant. But to me the Paulding Light still captures a little bit of eeriness.

Paulding Light:

The Paulding Light gets its name from the town nearby of Paulding, Michigan. The mysterious and often ghostly appearance has been reported since the 1960s. However, unlike many of the other eerie, unexplained lights we discuss, the Paulding Light was first observed when traffic in the area was heavy or in some cases already existed.

Yet, the light still captures the mysterious mindset that the other unexplained lights do. Many of the locals claim it can’t be the traffic. A series of investigations using telescopes Continue reading →

Eerie for Thoughts: St. Louis Light

Hello Everyone,

This one is probably going to be a little short compared to the other eerie lights we’ve been discussing. Surprisingly, I could find limited information on this phantom light. And being named the St. Louis Light or St. Louis Ghost Light I find that a bit odd.

St. Louis Light:

The St Louis Light is yet another phantom or ghostly light that can be seen alongside the railroad tracks. This one, in particular, has been witnessed along the railroad tracks near St. Louis, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Appearing in many different sizes and shades the light gives the locals a haunted feeling when it appears. And of course anyone else who might happen to be visiting the location.

The Tale:

Similar to some of the other lights this one is believed to be a lantern shining from a drunken brakeman who lost his head from an oncoming train. The lantern swings around eerily in the dark as the body of the deceased brakeman attempts to find his missing head. Of course it isn’t there anymore, so the lantern will swing around aimlessly in the dark forever.

Another story is that it is a ghost train in its entirety. That’s right, a whole train. This is interesting because I wonder what other effects of an entire phantom ghost train might bring upon you in a place like this. I keep thinking about the scene from Ghost Busters when the subway passes through them in the abandoned subway tunnels.

Either way, there is something about a mysterious light in the middle of nowhere at night that gives me the chills.

Conclusions:

Of course, like many of the other lights, it has been studied, debunked, de-mystified, and what-not. There was even a class of grade-schoolers who did a science experiment showing that the St. Louis Light was coming from vehicle lights in the distance. They won an award for this. Unfortunately with my limited time I was not able to look further into this and see when the lights were in fact, first reported. Did they appear before or after vehicles, is my question.

Still, the St. Louis Light remains a mystery to this day and is still an eerie sight to see if you happen to be walking along the cold chilly railroad tracks. Just watching the moonlight reflect of the glistening rails. Then you see a light ahead that begins to move, you shiver but this time it’s not from the cold. There’s something else there. Are you about to be hit by an oncoming train and join the brakeman on his quest or is it a harmless apparition, a phantom ghost train that will pass right through. Perhaps it’s only the brakeman wanting some help. Will you answer his call or run away.

Thanks for Reading,

Joshua Crane Dowidat

Continue reading →

Haunted Places: Highgate Cemetery

Hello Everyone,

As many of you know, I recently just finished a segment on Haunted Hospitals/Asylums. I didn’t even put a dent on it. However, currently I am still working on the haunted cemeteries. This haunted cemetery is Highgate Cemetery in London.

The reason I mentioned the Hospitals/Asylums is because I always mentioned, or at least a lot of the time, that the harsh conditions were from overcrowding. Well, cemeteries can be pretty crowded also.

Think about the possibilities of a haunting with so many people buried together in one location. What if that number is around 170,000, like in Highgate?

Highgate Cemetery:

As I mentioned it is located in England. North England to be more precise. The cemetery is divided into two sections as well, east and west. To help navigate but also because of the dividing on Swain’s Lane that splits the cemetery’s entirety.

The cemetery was officially Continue reading →

Eerie for Thoughts: Eerie Lights

Hello Everyone,

So we’ve all come to another end of a segment of blogs about scary, spooky and otherwise Eerie Lights. I wanted to do a form of wrap-up to this segment, not only to explain why I choose the haunted lights but also to touch on a few other areas that were not covered in the previous blogs.

First off: What Makes Them Eerie Lights

Well, first off all it is usually a light in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of…..okay kidding, but you get the idea. It is something that is not natural or if it is, it is unexplained. At least not explained to some level.

As we know many of the Eerie Lights have been “debunked” in their haunted origins. Yet many of them can also not explain how the lights existed before cars, which seems to be Continue reading →

Haunted Places: Tatakanoruma Greenland

Hello Everyone,

So this next segment is once again about haunted places. However, much like Tatakanoruma Greenland, this segment is on haunted or allegedly haunted and abandoned amusement parks.

Tatakanoruma Greenland:

The park was originally opened in 1973. It is located in Japan near Horbara but it is not listed on any maps in Japan. In fact after looking through for a location and seeing what others have discovered is that the coordinates for the park in Google Earth take you to the city nearby.

The park is located in the mountainous regions of Japan and used these natural landscapes to help design the layout of the park. Tatakanoruma Greenland was not the original park in the area either. In the 1960s a smaller park opened up overlooking the site that Tatakonuma Greenland was built on. This park also closed mysteriously after only being opened for a short time.

The Continue reading →

Haunted Places: Joyland

Hello Everyone,

Well once again this is just an eerie place. Although it has had its misfortunes and share of accidents, they can easily be seen as human caused. Joyland Amusement Park in Wichita, Kansas stayed afloat for some 70 plus years before the park became an eerie site.

Joyland:

The park was established in the 1940s to secure a place, or a home, for the owner’s miniatures locomotive that he would tour around with from carnival to carnival. Upon his death his three sons took over Joyland and began to run it as a family business up until they sold it in the 1970s.

Joyland first closed in 2004 and was a site of off-and-on restoration and attempts to re-open until 2015. In 2016 the current owners decided to start tearing it down.

Joyland had some amusement rides that dawned the ages of amusement parks. This included an original Continue reading →