Bit to Do

Is Kentucky more haunted than other states? Would we win the gold in the Spook Olympics?

 I mean, if you watch shows like “Ghosthunters”,” Ghost Adventures” or any of the other seemingly endless programming about the paranormal, we have two of the creepier and more “active” sites in the U.S.: Waverly Hills in Louisville and Bobby Mackey’s Wilder, right outside of Cincinnati.

For the uninitiated, Waverly Hills is a former tuberculosis sanitorium and it is reputed to be the most haunted site that the guys from “Ghosthunters” have ever visited. There are stories of a nurse who hanged herself, a little boy who wants to play ball with you and -- the story that personally creeps me out the most - the assertion that Waverly contains “shadow people.” (Shadow people are little black figures that can do things like run up walls and across the ceiling. It has been suggested that they are evil and/or demonic. Um, you think?)

Bobby Mackey’s World is a honky tonk in northern Kentucky that apparently has a mournful female ghost as well as a demonic presence and possibly a portal to hell.

So, there are two places in the Commonwealth that apparently have not only human hauntings but also have mischief being caused by beings of non-human origin. Um, what?

Another scary spot in the Bluegrass that doesn’t seem to make the radar of the paranormal shows? Old Louisville.

Why is that, as Old Louisville, the largest collection of Victorian homes in the U.S., is supposedly the most haunted neighborhood in America? I read David Domine’s books detailing the hauntings in that neighborhood and that, combined with the few tours of historical homes I have been on…well, I have to say, I tend to believe him.

Another place never profiled on these shows? Frankfort, which, according to my semi-thorough internet research, is the most haunted state capitol in the U.S.

If you search the internet about haunted Kentucky, you will see that there are pages and pages and pages (and on and on) about just how haunted the state is. I found on the website of American hauntings (www.prairieghosts.com ) a claim that ours is the most haunted state in the Union. So, I contacted them through e-mail and asked if they still stood by this claim. I still await their response.

Anyway.

That’s a lot of creepy, though, right?

As part of my research on just how haunted Kentucky might be, I also searched for a possible reason why there was so much activity.

One possibility?  Limestone.  There is a lot of limestone in the soil in the Louisville area and limestone, apparently, can cause high EMF readings in the area. High EMF readings can be a sign of spirit activity.

Another option is the higher than normal levels of radon. It has been suggested that the higher levels of radon makes people hallucinate or that even the higher than normal levels of radon gas denote increased paranormal activity/energy.

Another thing I noticed online? There are quite a number of ghost-hunting groups in Kentucky making themselves available for paranormal investigations as well as groups located in other states that are willing to travel here to investigate. Yes, there is even someone offering paranormal investigation services in the Louisville area on Craigslist.

Side note: I noticed a lot of groups offered to investigate but not a one offered up any ghost BUSTING services. Perhaps they fear their inability to NOT cross the streams? (Dr. Venkman shout out!)

So, do I think Kentucky is more haunted than other states? I don’t know. I do know that there a quite a few people in Louisville who tell stories about the times they or a family member saw a ghost and they don’t seem to blink an eye. It’s almost as if the paranormal is completely normal.

Or maybe, at the end of the day, it’s just a mass hallucination shared by all of us who spend most of the year hopped up on a cornucopia of allergy meds, just trying to breathe like normal human beings.

Regardless, I leave you with my personal motto when it comes to things of the paranormal: if a Catholic priest or a Native American medicine man tells you to leave it alone? You leave it alone.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock/nikoniano