Ghost stories big attraction in area
By RACHEL LANE, Staff Writer

PARKERSBURG — People have been showing a greater interest in things
that go bump in the night in the Parkersburg area.
The Haunted Parkersburg Ghost Tours, the former West Virginia
Penitentiary in Moundsville and the Castle in Marietta have all noticed
an increase in people visiting for the ghost stories. Some of the people
are local. Others live outside the area.

"Every year has gotten better," said Pat Kleinedler, tour coordinator at
the former penitentiary. She has been working at the former penitentiary
for about five years. Several years ago, night tours and ghost hunting
were started. This year, flashlight tours and ghost hunting classes are
being offered.

"I think our day tours have picked up too," Kleinedler said. Many people
are on waiting lists to have night tours. Every weekend is filled from
this past April to the closing of the season.
"I think the entertainment is fantastic. You get your own entertainment
just by walking through and letting your imagination go," Kleinedler
said. "It's creepy in the daytime. Most people feel something."

Parts of the penitentiary housed convicted murderers.
Kleinedler said one of the men returned recently to see where he once
lived.
"He'd murdered someone. It was an act of passion, but he still murdered
someone," she said. He visited the cell he had lived in for much of his
life, then donated some of his paintings to the former penitentiary.

"We have some of his paintings hanging up" she said. Prints of some of
the man's work can be purchased in the gift shop.
"I think there's just an increase in interest" in the paranormal, said
Susan Sheppard, organizer of the Haunted Parkersburg Ghost Tour and
author of "Gallows Tree: A Mothman's Tale."
She spoke recently with a group from Ironton, Ohio, about the mothman
tale. "They came specifically to hear the story of the mothman,"
Sheppard said.

While on the tour, she tells stories about the Banshee of Marrtown, the
Ghost of Silver Run and stories about Blennerhassett Island and
Blennerhassett Hotel.
"Those are among the favorites," Sheppard said. "The mothman is one of
the favorites."
The haunted walking tour is popular at a national level.
"I do know the haunted Parkersburg tour is in the top 20 in the nation,"
Sheppard said. This is the smallest city to make the list.

"I think it takes people's minds off the true horrors of life," she
said. "That may explain why it's so popular now."
Lynne Shuman, executive director of the Castle in Marietta, said much of
the traffic she has seen at the Castle has been people from the region.

"I think people are staying closer to home," she said. Fewer buses of
people have stopped this summer, but the overall number of people who
stop is still high because of all the families that go.
"People love ghost tours," she said.

The haunting of the Castle is talked about only around Halloween, when
ghost tours are given.

"We have a story for every room," she said.

"We don't try to mislead anyone. We don't say it's haunted. We say this
is what happened, and let them decide."

There are many strange stories, like misting appearing between one photo
and the next.

"How do we explain it? We don't, but it happened," Shuman said.