Theresa and Bree Take on the Grave City Haunted Relic Expo!

I make it a New Year's Resolution every year to keep improving my knowledge and experience of the paranormal. To make that work, I try to read as much as I can, take classes--both online and in person, watch interesting documentaries, and my favorite: attend lectures, conferences, and other public events!  January has started off great, with a wonderful opportunity to network with other people in this field, get my website's name out there a little more, and to hear some wonderful speakers share their expertise. 

That opportunity came in the form of the Grave City Haunted Relic Expo!

The first annual Grave City Haunted Relic Expo was a three-hour event held on Saturday, January 20th, 2018 at the Sanford Center in Moundsville, WV. The expo was put on by Steve Hummel. Steve is a paranormal investigator, a member of Paranormal Quest, and the owner/curator of the Archive of the Afterlife Museum. You might remember that this past summer, Luke, Aaron, and I took a mini-vacation to Moundsville and visited the museum (located on the 2nd floor of the Sanford Center) for the first time. It was a really cool place, filled to the brim with haunted/possessed/cursed objects, funerary antiques, and much more. Read about our experience HERE. 

Anyway, I decided that it would be a great start to 2018 to attend this expo. I then took it a step further and signed up as a vendor! My main goal was simply to promote Theresa's Haunted History, but I made a few stationary sets, coasters, and other goodies to sell in hopes of breaking even on my table fee.

Dave Spinks

Luckily, my friend Bree was able to make the 3+ hour drive up to Moundsville with me, and was even nice enough to craft some beautiful hand-made dowsing rods to sell at our table. We left around lunchtime on Saturday and made the long trek up north. Once we got past Parkersburg, we had to leave the interstate and travel the rest of the way on two-lane roads. However, it was a beautiful drive, and we passed through a ton of quaint little historic towns.

Since we arrived before set-up time, we wanted to explore the city a little. We knew that the prison was closed for the season, so unfortunately we couldn't take a guided tour, but we did drive around it a few times. I love visiting the penitentiary and I love investigating the penitentiary even more. We have plans on returning in the near future for another investigation of this wonderful location. But, since we couldn't actually get in, we decided to drive out to the prison cemetery.

Doug Waller

The cemetery was surprisingly easy to find, but we were disappointed that we couldn't actually get to it! Last week, West Virginia got hit hard with winter weather and despite this weekend warming up considerably, the parking area for the cemetery was completely covered in a thick layer of snow, and the path to it across the stream was fully washed out. I just have a little Nissan Sentra, so there was no way I was going to attempt to park and wade across the ice cold water, lol.  But, at least when we come back next time, we'll know exactly where to go. 

But back to the expo itself!  The weather had thwarted our plans of exploration, so we got to the Sanford Center a little earlier than expected and went ahead in. We first went upstairs to take a peek around the Archive of the Afterlife Museum, which had undergone a few display changes since I had been there last. We then got the go-ahead to start setting up downstairs in the gym for the event. There were plenty of other paranormal teams/investigators and even lots of tables selling non-paranormal related merchandise to browse through. After getting set up and waiting for the speakers to start, we got in a few excellent minutes to talk with some of the other vendors/presenters/guests. 

The guest speaker line-up started right on time, at 6pm, kicking off with a talk by investigator Dave Spinks. Dave was followed by Doug Waller, a Bigfoot researcher with the Southeastern Ohio Society for Bigfoot Investigation. Following Doug was Bill Baker of Mountain State Paranormal. A young man known only as The Mothman Historian then gave a talk on the history of Mothman and recent sightings before we broke for a brief intermission.

Bill Baker

During intermission, we had another chance to talk with so many wonderful people who were able to share their stories and experiences with us, learn a little about Theresa's Haunted History, and luckily, buy a little of our merch! Since this was a Haunted Relic expo, I brought two of my own haunted items for display, a Bible from 1816 and a locket of hair, sold to me as a memento mori. My mom is convinced the locket is haunted, and shortly after purchasing the Bible, we had a rash of unexplained occurrences in my home. No one picked up anything from the Bible, but several people who examined the locket were a little unnerved about its energy. 

The evening wrapped up with one last presentation. Steve and another member of his team gave a talk about their paranormal investigation experiences...but then also gave a really fascinating presentation on some of the museum's recent haunted acquisitions. By the time their talk had ended, it was 9pm and time to start packing up!

Overall, this was a great experience for me and a great way to start off a new year of paranormal fun. I enjoyed the speakers and their wide range of topics. I appreciated the fact that everything was right there in the same room---the vendors were set up around the perimeter of the gym, with chairs for guests in the middle, and a small stage upfront for speakers. One of the things I dislike about the Mothman Festival, is that if I'm there at my table, I cannot easily go down and watch the presentations. With this set-up, I could watch my booth AND watch the presentations. 

The Mothman Historian

Unfortunately, that did have a downside as well....you couldn't really hear the speakers if the vendors were trying to talk. And, with only 3 hours of expo time, most of which was filled with back-to-back speakers, we vendors really didn't get a lot of free time to interact with visitors to the expo. For the next event, I would love to see a little more downtime between presentations, or even a little more time before or after the event, but other than that, it went surprisingly well, especially for a first-year event. Everyone was very nice and professional. I love talking to other paranormal enthusiasts about my favorite topic, and was thrilled that some people there were familiar already with my work. I was even more thrilled that we sold enough to pay for our table fee AND gas money to the event!

I would definitely recommend checking out any further events hosted by Steve, and hopefully, I'll be able to attend additional events as well. To keep up-to-date on future events, or if you want more information on the museum, which is open year round, you can follow the Archive of the Afterlife on Facebook.   

Stay Spooky, ya'll...and I'll catch ya again real soon.

Paranormal Quest

Scarefest 2017

Well, it's Sunday night and I'm still completely exhausted from yesterday's festivities! On Saturday, September 30th, my boyfriend and I drove down to Lexington, KY to attend the area's biggest Paranormal/Horror/Sci-Fi convention...The Scarefest!  While this was our fourth...or maybe fifth...time attending, 2017 actually marked the convention's 10th anniversary, and trust me; things have changed A LOT since we first attended back in 2008.

Once again, the convention was held at Lexington's Rupp Arena. We arrived about 15 minutes prior to the doors opening, which was a bit of a cluster fu...uh, you know. There was a HUGE line to get in that stretched back into the food court area of the arena, yet before you even got into that line, you had to go get in another line to purchase your tickets and receive your arm band. And once again, there was absolutely no one around pointing you in the right direction. Luckily, we noticed that the long line was NOT where we needed to be, at least not yet, so we didn't waste too much time standing around like idiots, lol.

When the doors finally did open, out of the several entryway doors available, people were only being herded into ONE set. Still, people were fairly polite and made it in pretty quickly. We needed to be quick this year, because the first speaker we wanted to see was scheduled for 11am. We went directly to the room where the speaker was to be but the doors were locked. We walked way onto the other side where there was another entry to the lecture rooms, and found that way blocked off. Upon asking how to get where we needed to be, we found that the volunteers had no idea. Since most of the other lectures were to start at 11:30, it was surmised that they just weren't ready yet. At this point, my back was already starting to hurt and I was ready to just leave, lol. We finally walked back to where we went first, yanked the door open, and barged in on a lecture already in progress.

The lecture I had chosen for our first of the day was Ken Boggle's Paranormal Hangover. At this point, I have to make a confession---I had no idea who Ken Boggle was. However, I was intrigued at the title of his lecture, as the phenomenon of the investigation "hangover" is one I've been studying for awhile. As it turns out, the lecture had absolutely nothing to do with the energy drain and sickness that tends to plague paranormal investigators after an investigation. Instead, the lecture was more of a gossip session with Ken, who not only was at the convention as a speaker and tarot reader, but who had been a sponsor for several years.

Because of his work with Scarefest, he has had the opportunity to meet and hang out with a LOT of the paranormal and horror celebrities that come each year. And he was HILARIOUS! I swear, I have never laughed as hard in my life as he told tales of Corey Feldman's weird behavior and demands, getting into fights with festival organizer, Patti Starr, and Zak Bagans' legendary demeanor. I'm pretty sure I had met the male version of me and was quite disappointed that I didn't get to go back and get my cards read by him. Please go check out his website, Tarot by Ken, and give him some love!

I was in a much better mood after seeing Ken, and since we had a few minutes before our next lecture, we took a short stroll around the front section of the vendor's floor. Aaron immediately made a beeline to the table for the Kentucky Browncoats, a group that apparently does all sorts of really cool activities devoted to Firefly. Again, a confession: I have never watched that show and have no idea about anything pertaining to it...but everyone at the table was really, really nice and Aaron seemed to be in absolute Heaven, lol.

Soon, I reached my own state of ecstasy when I stumbled upon the booth selling tons and tons of paranormal non-fiction books...at $2 a piece! There were lots of other great deals on ghost hunting equipment, home decor, DVDs and shirts, but I'm a book nerd, so I walked away with $20 worth. Apparently, Patti Starr is closing her physical shop or something, and was liquidating. She was stopping by to check on the booth while I was dragging my huge bag of books out, and was very kind. She thanked me several times for the purchase.

By that time, it was getting close to our next stop of the day...the Mystery Science Theater 3K panel!  Unfortunately, Joel had to cancel, but Bill and Mary Jo put on a really great question and answer session. I absolutely love MST3K AND Rifftrax, but since I was kind of young when the show was in its heyday, I never really knew a whole lot about its early years. So, the panel discussion was hilarious AND pretty informative for me. Bill was especially hilarious, especially when discussing the learning curve for controlling the Crow puppet.

Next up was a lecture by Adam Bonnett, otherwise known as Glider. Adam Bonnett is a former employee of Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, and has really made a name for himself by being one of very few paranormal investigators in a wheel chair. His talk, The Paralytic Paranormal Affect, focused on not letting physical limitations stop you from doing what you want to do. He also talked about how being in a wheelchair made him somewhat of a 'rolling trigger object,' and that his mere presence seemed to draw out activity at times. It was an interesting talk, especially since I've been to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum enough times to be able to relate to his experiences there.

After Adam's talk, we made a difficult decision---instead of going to another lecture right away, we had to take a lunch break. The Rupp arena has a few places in its food court, but in years past, we never had a great meal there, lol. This year was better, but still not great. We both got subs at Subway, and while we were waiting, ran into our friend Matt and his son, Ryan. We talked a bit as we ate, then made plans to meet up later that evening for dinner....because Aaron and I had to run back over to the lecture section for our next speaker!

Last year, we had seen Kyl Cobb give a talk about the real facts behind the case used as the basis of The Exorcist. We were both really impressed by the amount of research and fact that was presented, so we were thrilled to see Kyl back this year. Kyl was scheduled to give several talks this year, and we chose the one entitled The Exorcism of David Glatzel and The Devil Made Me Do It Murders. Holy cow! I wasn't super familiar with this case...another of the Warrens' fraudulent debacles...and I really learned a ton of really interesting information. Kyl Cobb is one of the best researchers I've ever come across and I cannot recommend him enough. If you never get a chance to see him in person, definitely pick up one of his books. As a disclaimer...if you're a huge fan of the Warrens and their work, you MIGHT not necessarily agree with Kyl's views, no matter how much evidence he provides, lol.

Speaking of great researchers, our final speaker we saw Saturday was Shannon Byers, the Paranormal Genealogist. She gave an excellent presentation on the real facts concerning Waverly Hills Sanitorium. As you probably know, there has been a lot of misinformation passed around as fact about this favorite spot for ghost hunters. Shannon did a great job breaking down her research and showing how things like the estimated 63,000 deaths just couldn't be true. She also shared some fascinating facts, such as why the 'death tunnel' stopped being used as such prior to 1945, an air show disaster that took place on the grounds, and the story of a murdered orderly that many people tend to overlook in favor of the less than truthful tales.


As a weird side note, during the talk, the lights in the room kept going off or dimming. Within seconds of a volunteer turning them back on, they'd lower, flicker, or completely turn off again. It was comical and kind of spooky...but was nothing more than the people in the adjoining room turning the lights off to show a film. Since the rooms were actually one big room, divided by a dividing wall, the lights were on the same system, lol.

We rounded out the evening by hitting the vendor floor one more time, making the full rounds this go-around. I'm really proud of myself---I kept my spending under control, buying only books. It wasn't because there wasn't anything I wanted to buy, though! This year, the vendors seemed to really outdo themselves. There were tons of great artisan pieces, as well as vintage toys, apparel, books, etc. I could have easily spent a thousand dollars. I think one of the things holding me back was just sheer exhaustion. We crammed in as much as we could this year, seeing lectures almost straight between 11am and 7pm. The day flew by and we capped it off with a fun dinner at Red Robin with our buddies.

I was left completely exhausted, but I wouldn't change it for anything. We got an opportunity to see some great speakers, visit with out-of-town friends, and get an excellent kick-off for the Halloween season! If you were at this year's event, check me out on Facebook, and let me know what your favorite part was!

What is the Paranormal Lecture Series?

Hey, everyone! I hope your first few days of 2016 have been good ones! I've been having a great time thinking about and planning some new, fun activities for the blog and for my Facebook page. One of those things is the Paranormal Lecture Series.

If you follow Theresa's Haunted History on Facebook, you've probably already seen the first three days' worth of postings...and may have wondered what the heck was up with that.  So, what IS the Paranormal Lecture Series?

Each day at 2 pm, I will post a video of a different lecture, talk, or conference panel to Facebook. These videos will feature speakers from a variety of paranormal disciplines and from a variety of viewpoints. Some speakers will be well known, while others might be a little more obscure. Topics will range from ghosts and hauntings, to cryptozoology, to ufology, to demonology...and everything in between. Following the lectures, I'll post a few links, facts, or other tidbits relating to the topic of the lecture or the speaker himself.

The inspiration for the daily Lecture Series actually came from a question posed by my favorite group, Ghosts Magnets with a Twist.  Awhile back, they asked readers to comment on who in the paranormal community they would actually like to go see give a talk. I found this question especially interesting because each year, I make it part of my paranormal New Year's Resolutions to increase my knowledge and understanding of the field by attending as many lectures and educational events as possible.

But, for me and many others, going to a ton of events really isn't feasible. It often takes time and money, especially when you live in an area where there aren't too many events within a day's drive. Also, there are so many great speakers out there, that it's just impossible to really get out and see them all. It is especially frustrating that some of those speakers just simply no longer tour or give lectures.

And that's where the idea for the lecture series began. I wanted to share with everyone out there the opportunity to be exposed to some great speakers and some great lectures without ever having to leave home. Nothing is better than attending a live event and getting to interact with the speaker and fellow attendees, but these free videos are the next best thing! I hope you enjoy this month's special feature...please check out my Facebook page for a new lecture EVERY DAY for the rest of January.

Happy Haunting!