ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - The structure in which Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum is located in the Nation's Oldest City has not always been a Ripley's Believe It or Not!...believe it or not. The building, known as Castle Warden, was built in the 1800s and is long believed to be one of the most haunted structures in the southeastern United States.



'There's definitely something in there,' said the lead investigator of a Port Charlotte, Fla. group known as the Peace River Ghost Trackers. 'And it's not very nice.' Known simply as Sprout, the investigator readily admits her group is excited, but that their 'knees are knocking' as they anticipate their big adventure at Castle Warden.



That adventure takes place on Saturday night, November 22, when members bring their nerves and their hi-tech equipment for an overnight investigation of Castle Warden.



Although the castle was abandoned for much of the Great Depression, it was renovated and turned into an exclusive hotel during the 1940s by Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ('The Yearling' and 'Cross Creek') and her hotelier husband Norton Baskin.



In 1944, two women died in a mysterious fire at the hotel and have reportedly appeared to hotel guests and Ripley employees on a regular basis during the years since.



As a frequent visitor to St. Augustine, Robert Ripley was enamored with the castle and stayed at the hotel on several occasions, but it wasn't until a year after his death that his heirs purchased the property in 1950 and it became the first permanent collection of Ripley's oddities.



While the investigation is closed to the general public, the results will be posted on www.peaceriverghosttracker.com





Contact

Ralf Ingwersen

Ripley's Believe It or Not!

(904) 824-1606

ingwersen@ripleys.com