Facts On The Paranormal Historical Places

This haunting is related to a train disaster(Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad Company) Howe-truss bridge, near Ashtabula, Ohio dates back to December 29,1876, during a winter storm carrying passengers that collapsed into the creek below burying many passengers under the ice. Many passengers were burned to death while some bodies were cut in half.Those bodies that were found were buried in one grave together, no wonder they are haunting the Chestnut Gove Cemetery. The facts of the train wreck:

1. Charles Collins was a great engineer and architect of the time.
2. Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad Company made a joint venture with Charles Collins to build the bridge.
3. Collins was pressed into building the bridge by high officials who agreed with the railroad company to approve the plans (an experimental bridge made from iron).
4. Amasa Stone the president of the railroad company agreed to build the railroad even though he sided with Collins.
5. Plunged sixty feet down the ravine, lamps and stoves used to light and heat the train cars quickly caught the wreckage on fire.
6. Built on an arched viaduct over what was nicknamed the "Deep Gorge", two lofty pillars of stone seventy-six feet high were built from the bottom of the gorge.
   
7. Unusual, length of 150 feet across the Gulf but had wrought iron with long iron braces for support
8. At the beginning till the end of building the bridge, there was trouble such as the braces were smaller than intended.
9. Collins resigned because of difference between him and Amasa Stone.
10. Less than two hundred passengers and nineteen employees at the time of the crash. The fire that started was never put out because the fire chief was inexperienced and incapable.
11. Thieves robbed the ones hurt and the ones dead which left many victims unidentified.
12. Charles Collins committed suicide with a gun in his mouth because he never got over the train wreck.

The cemetery is haunted by those who perished that fateful cold winter night in December of 1876 one of the worst train wrecks.

Juan Manuel de Ayala (1745-97) was the first Spanish explorer 1775 to map the island christening it La Isla de Los Alcatraces, or Island of the Pelicans, because of the large population of sea birds. President Millard Fillmore (1800-74) reserving the island for military use when he signed the order in 1850 then a fortress was constructed on Alcatraz which housed a hundred cannons. This was to protect San Francisco Bay. The West Coast’s first operational lighthouse. The army had begun holding military prisoners in the late 1850's on the island.

• 1861-65 - Military prison inmates Confederate sympathizers and citizens accused of treason (American Civil War)
  
• American Indians unruly - 19 Hopis (Arizona Territory, 1895, land disagreement)
• Spanish-American War (1898) population is rising.
• 1912 prisoners built the 600 room addition-hospital, mess hall, other prison buildings, still standing.
• 1934 - 1963 Federal Prison (officially opened on July 1, 1934) following construction
• James A. Johnston (1874-1954) first warden, hired one guard for every three prisoners, each prisoner had own cell.
• 36 inmates were involved in some 14 known escape attempts.
• A total of 1,576 men during its time were prisoners.
• Mohawk activist Richard Oakes (1942-72) arrived on Alcatraz claiming the land on behalf of “Indians of All Tribes in 1969 with his followers. Mohawk left in 1970 following step daughters death.
• Richard M Nixon (1913-94) ordered the remaining members to leave in 1971.
• Alcatraz became the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1972 opened a year later.

Dr. Jack Forbes from UC Davis a Native American anthropologist/historian stated this:

In the 1870's Natchez Winnemucca, respected chief of the Pyramid Lake Paiutes, was arrested and sent as a prisoner to Alcatraz. His crime: Attempting to resist and expose the corruption of the government's agents on his reservation. Natchez did not stay on "The Rock" very long, but other Indians, guilty of the "crime" of resisting white conquest, were frequent visitors to the prison. Now in 1969 modern-day Native Americans are attempting to claim Alcatraz Island in order to both obtain facilities for educational programs and to publicize the desperate circumstances under which Indian people live..... There is little question but that the Muwekma Indian people of San Francisco and the Hulueko [Coast Miwok people] of Marin County were, in the old days, frequent visitors to all of the islands in the San Francisco Bay. … ...The Native Americans on Alcatraz are saying that they want to have a place where they can control programs which will benefit both Indians and non-Indians. Those who can see into the future will agree, I think that an Indian museum, memorial, and educational center on Alcatraz will be of great benefit and value to all California, regardless of race.

To all those who passed through Alcatraz it would be no wonder that many have seen the ghost of those who from so long ago lived there. The island itself is isolated, surrounded by water that is freezing cold and shark inhabited. Many times the island is surrounded by heavy, thick fog giving it even more eerie appearance. The Native Americans believed that evil spirits haunted the island so sometimes a tribe member would be sent to live on the island as a punishment sometimes lasting for long periods of time while some would remain there the rest of their life. There has been a lot of misery and suffering associated with Alcatraz Island from the very beginning.

Many haunting have occurred on the island since its beginning. Here is a list of some of the haunting. Visitors and staff have all been witness to the paranormal activities that still happens today. Today it is now a tourist site to visitor that holds a part a of history from so long ago.

• Close to the dungeon terrifying screams can be heard, men talking, banging, whistles, metal doors slamming,
• Warden Johnson, along with visitors reported a woman crying from inside the walls of the dungeon during a tour. When the crying stopped the visitors felt a cold wind blow past them.
• "The Thing" is what is known as an entity that has glowing eyes, which guards have reported seeing also phantom prisoners and soldiers appearing.
• !940 at the burned out shell of the Warden Johnson home ghost have been seen pretty much on a regular basis.
• The old lighthouse can appear suddenly on foggy nights, circles the island with a green light while making a whistling sound and disappears just as quickly, even guards and visitors to the island have reported this many times.
• Been reported by guards when the prison was open of hearing cannons and gunfire, while they could see nothing.
• An old laundry room no longer in use was reported to have thick black smoke only to disappear a few minutes by guards.
• The most haunted prison block was a D block and still is the most haunted today. Arthur "Doc" Barker was killed in 1939 from an escape attempt and known as the "Treatment Unit” comprised of 42 cells with varying degrees of restrictions with no contact with the general population. The air conditioning was regularly turned on in D Block to make the prisoners colder since it faced Golden Gate Bridge, from which fierce cold winds often blew.
• "A former guard who worked at the prison in the 1940’s
  (© Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated September, 2012) reported that guards often saw the ghostly presence of a man dressed in late 1800’s prison attire walking the hallway next to the Strip Cells. On one occasion, when an inmate was locked in "the Hole,’ he immediately began to scream that someone with glowing eyes was in there with him. The 19th century spectral prisoner had become so much of a practical joke among the guards, that the convict’s cries of being "attacked” were ignored. The inmate’s screams continued well into the night, when they were suddenly replaced by total silence. The following morning, when the guards inspected the cell, the convict was found dead with a terrible expression on his face and noticeable hand-prints around his throat. The autopsy revealed that the strangulation was not self-inflicted."

Many prisoners were tortured, chained to tables put in cell block D and the strip cells so it's no wonder that it is connected to being haunted.