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| Theresa Racer and Brian Clary of Spectral Research and Investigation Photo by April Morgan |
A couple of weeks ago, I was honored to take part in the first annual West Virginia Paranormal Tourism Convention, hosted by Charleston Ghost Tour Company and Haunted Beckley. The two-day event was held in Beckley, WV at the Raleigh Theater and Playhouse, and brought together a unique blend of representatives from all aspects of West Virginia's paranormal community. Brian and I spoke together on Saturday (and taught a ghost hunting class) but on Friday, we both spoke separately; him speaking about how Spectral Research and Investigation can be an asset to the paranormal tourism field, and me focusing on my blog, Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State.
I will eventually be posting a blog dedicated to convention as a whole, but for today, I just wanted to share the written article version of the presentation I made on Friday about the role Theresa's Haunted History plays in paranormal tourism. Before this convention, I had written a couple of blogs specifically about paranormal tourism, in addition to my Theresa's Travels features and spotlights on various 'touristy destinations.' However, I never really stopped to think about it. I knew I loved sharing my own experiences, and I loved sharing any updates I found about events/locations, but it never really clicked that yeah...this blog and it's accompanying social media platforms ARE excellent sources of information for the paranormal tourist. I'm so glad I was given this opportunity to really think about how I can personally expand my role in helping to bring people from all over to West Virginia's many, many paranormal hot spots! Anyway....here's what I discussed:
As the name suggests, the topic of the first annual West Virginia Paranormal Tourism Convention was obviously paranormal tourism in the Mountain State. Paranormal tourism is a quickly growing, and rather lucrative field...and West Virginia is in a unique position to be able to take advantage of such. West Virginia is known for having some of the most haunted locations in the country, if not the world. Locations such as the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, the former WV State Penitentiary at Moundsville, and even Lake Shawnee Amusement Park, are consistently featured on television, and in books, podcasts, and articles. We also have some of the weirdest UFO and cryptozoological case files to grace the annals of Fortean research---Mothman, the Flatwoods Monster, and the Indrid Cold case are just a few that come to mind. In addition, we've got plenty of Bigfoot sightings to keep even the most casual monster hunter satisfied!
As more and more paranormal-themed museums are created around the state, and as more and more locations begin offering haunted history tours, and as more and more 'haunted' buildings open up for investigations...West Virginia is surely becoming a premier destination location for lovers of all things spooky. And, a great tool for learning about all these haunted locations, spooky stories, and places where YOU can go to experience them for yourself is this blog, Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State!
This January marked the 11th anniversary of Theresa's Haunted History blog, but the idea behind it goes back a little further, all the way to 2006...
That's when I found myself the newly appointed Historic Research Manager for Huntington Paranormal Investigations and Research (HPIR). As a newly formed group, we were constantly on the hunt for new and exciting haunted locations to investigate, and it was part of my job to find and vet possible places. And, at the time, it was a little...frustrating...because back in 2006, there weren't a whole lot of places you could go online for really good information. Two resources come to mind, however: WVGhosts.com and the Shadowlands.net.
Both these sites still exist today, and for the most part are excellent resources, but they were problematic to the researcher trying to find locations to investigate. At best, they were incomplete. The stories were great, but they often didn't contain the needed details to distinguish where exactly the haunting took place, or even if it was a consistent thing, and not just a once-only encounter. At worst, the stories were downright inaccurate, with wildly erroneous details (such as calling a building a former Civil War hospital that was built in 1932). The problem was that the curated lists of haunted locations found on these sites was user-submitted; anyone with an internet connection could pretty much post whatever the heck they wanted and no one had the time to actually fact-check. So, I thought I could do better.
But, it took awhile to get there. I won't bore you with the details of how Theresa's Haunted History came to be, since I did that back in a January blog about my 11th Anniversary. No, today's blog topic is just how exactly this little blog has grown into a tool to help push that paranormal tourism industry into our great state.
As of this writing, Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State features about 1300 posts. Nearly 300 of those feature haunted locations, right here in West Virginia, many of which you can go visit yourself. But what do the other 1000 posts cover? Well, if you've followed Theresa's Haunted History for any time, you'd know that I love to cover just about anything and everything spooky related to West Virginia and beyond. I love to share those ghost stories from folklore that don't necessarily have a location that can be visited today. I love to share West Virginia's rich UFO history, and it's history of various monster sightings throughout the years. I cover book reviews, tips for ghost hunters, and advice for those experiencing paranormal activity in their home or business. Most importantly (to this article, at least!) I have made a commitment to keep sharing all the fun and spooky things there are to see and do in West Virginia.
Every time there is a paranormal convention in West Virginia, I write about it! Every time I visit one of West Virginia's paranormal museums or works of public art, I write about it! Every ghost tour, story-telling event, or similar attraction I can find and attend, that's right...I write about it. And, of course, whenever my current investigation team, Spectral Research and Investigation (SRI) is invited to investigate a public location, I write about it! I love sharing my own paranormal travel and experiences, but I also love helping to spread the word about events, locations, and stories that I'm not directly a part of...which I use social media for.
Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State blog is (and always will be) my main forum for spreading information. With an average rate of 1500 unique visitors a day, jumping to an average of 5000 a day near Halloween, it reaches quite a few people throughout the world. My work has been referenced in over 20 professionally published books, is part of the lesson plan for Ruth Ann Music's Trunk of Tales project, and was recently named #16 in Feedspot's 90 Best Paranormal Blogs of 2022. But, I'm no stranger to social media!
The FaceBook page for Theresa's Haunted History has over 7000 followers, and has given me a way to not only share MY work, but to keep those followers informed of what's going on throughout West Virginia's paranormal community---which locations are holding public events, where other teams are investigating, and new reports and stories, just to give a few examples. I'm also on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, and hope to grow those platforms even further in the coming months and years. I've also been very lucky to have been asked to speak on multiple podcasts, and at several different conventions and other events, all in an effort to not just promote MY work within the field, but to promote West Virginia as a whole as being one helluva spooky and awesome place to come visit!
West Virginia's paranormal community is a wonderfully supportive group of people, all working together to preserve West Virginia's rich, cultural history as it pertains to the strange and unusual. I am honored to play a small role within that community, and I invite everyone reading this to take advantage of all the ghostly goodness West Virginia has to offer. Whether it be taking one of our state's popular haunted history tours, visiting a creepy museum, or even taking part in an actual paranormal investigation, there is so much to see and do in every corner of the state. Come see why West Virginia truly is becoming (but really, always was) a premier destination for paranormal tourism!
*Interested in what there is to see and do for the UFO enthusiast? Check out my blog, UFO TOURISM IN WEST VIRGINIA!*
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