Eerie Pub HJ: Blake Street Vault

Today I read an article by Kathleen St. John called "Ghost haunting Blake Street Vault helps give LoDo saloon that old-Denver feel." Ah, Denver...my old stomping grounds. Where I grew up. Where, when I visit these days, I barely recognize.

There was no LoDo when I was coming up in Denver. That's an invention of the last 15 years or so. A cool name given to a part of the downtown area few hardly ventured to after dark. Now it's all hip and cool and happening.

Maybe that's why Lydia, Blake Street Vault's ghost, doesn't want to leave?

BLAKE STREET VAULT, A SALOON

The bar sounds pretty cool. The decor hearkens to the era of saloons you might have found in Wild West Denver back before the turn of the century (the one before last): tin ceilings, wood floors and barrels for bar tables. Rustic.

I'm not quite sure if Lydia died in the bar or not. The article wasn't exactly clear on that. Supposedly some ghost hunters were brought in after many people reported having weird feelings or experiences in the place --especially down in the vault. They're the ones who identified the ghost as being Lydia, a saloon girl who worked in the building 150 years ago.

THE VAULT

The vault was discovered during renovations down in the basement. The article's author described the vault as "more historically interesting than paranormally scary, at least until you get to the vault."

I'm assuming what makes it both creepy and perhaps playing some part in Lydia's story is that the author mentioned scratch marks on the vault's ceiling. But it doesn't say if she was shut in down there and left to die or what.

However, the saloon's new owners have a tribute of sorts up to Lydia. There's a mannequin dressed as a saloon girl in the window above Blake Street Vault's entrance.

GHOST ACTIVITY

As far as activity...besides glasses being knocked over and people feeling uncomfortable at times, the best story was of the high-heeled footsteps clicking overhead when the bar's new owner and an inspector were down in the basement pre-saloon renovation. At the time, the floors were still covered in carpet, and when they went upstairs to investigate no one was there.

WHERE TO FIND BLAKE STREET VAULT

If you live in Denver or are planning to visit and want to make a Haunt Jaunt to an eerie pub, you might want to consider the Blake Street Vault. It's located at 1526 Blake Street.

HauntJaunts.net: Logo and Advertising

There are a lot of administrative things to take care of while I'm building HauntJaunts.net, including designing a logo and tackling advertising. (Both from the perspective of doing it for the site and getting others to advertise on the site.)

THE LOGO

Last year Randy Okane at 5MinuteMystery.com hooked me up with the graphic artist who did his logo after I contacted him about it. (I fell in love with it and just thought it was extremely snazzy. I wanted the person responsible for creating it to do Haunt Jaunts' logo too.)

He did get me something I loved, but then my mom fell ill and the rest of 2008, including all my set up plans for Haunt Jaunts, got put on hold. Then I got cancer...well, Life got in the way.

But all that's behind me now and I can focus on getting my site up and running. And part of that is coming up with a face to represent my vision.

I tried to get a hold of the guy (whose name I'm not revealing because he actually works for a graphic design company and could get in big trouble for doing work on the side), but his email is no longer valid. Drat.

But then I saw another logo I liked for a company called Cross Checking. I found out who designed theirs, contacted them, paid a small fee ($80), BUT...have not been pleased with the results.

Yes, I asked for a revision...which I got, but which just basically changed the color scheme and a few minor details of the original samples they sent. Which are okay, but not what I had in mind. And since I had to wait two months (when the policy is to have revisions back in 2-3 days), I'm just sort of done with them.

My friend Chris Verstraete had sent me a link to a free logo generator site, Cool Text , so I finally checked into it today. In less than two minutes I created a logo, admittedly a very basic one, that will totally work for me. (Yep, it's the one leading off the blog.)

Moral of the story: It's worth it to me to eat the fee I paid. In the end I came up with something I can live with...and I know going forward I'll check out the free stuff first before opening my pocketbook!

ADVERTISING

Speaking of pocketbooks...what a great lead in to the advertising segment of today's show. (Hey, who says administrative business stuff can't be entertaining?)

The reason I needed a logo is because I want to be one of the sponsors for HauntedCon. (Well, I wanted a logo for other reasons as well, but it makes it a little easier from an advertising perspective if you have a logo rather than just a link...)

Anyhoo...it also got me to thinking about how I'm a one-woman show at the moment. (I have visions of hiring help down the road, but I don't have the funds to pay anyone with yet.)

Between collecting and inputting Haunts (that's a job right there!), fiddling with the website (it's a template, I have no web design skills --again, another position I could fill), reading submissions (I see this being my main role at some point), and trying to procure advertising (I could never be a bum, I hate approaching people for money)...I've got my hands full!

But I need money coming in, so...how to do that if I hate asking for it?

LIGHT BULB MOMENT: I may not be able to pay a sales force, but I can accommodate commissions.

THE DEAL

Feel free to post this around to anyone you know who's interested in making a little extra money.

• I'll pay 40% to anyone who brings in advertising to my site. You can find rates (remember, "they're spookily affordable") on our Rates Page under the Advertising tab.


• By "bring in" I mean they buy advertising and mention YOUR name. OR, you send me an email saying, "I contacted so and so who should be contacting you about advertising." If they do and if they buy, you'll get credit.


• Somehow I MUST KNOW YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEAL OR I CAN'T PAY YOU. I don't want to put up an ad and have people randomly claiming responsibility for it and demanding 40% from me. Ain't going to work that way, folks. If I don't know you brought it, you're not getting paid.


• You get paid when I get paid. The second the funds clear in my PayPal account, I'll zap you your 40% via PayPal. (Unless we've agreed beforehand upon other payment arrangements.)


• If your advertiser renews advertising, say upgrades from a one month deal to a six month deal down the road, you'll get 40% of that too. (Basically, if you bring in an advertiser who continues to be an advertiser for as long as HauntJaunts.net shall live, you'll receive the 40% credit every time they renew.)

Good luck and may the force be with you!

Charleston Haunt Jaunt: The Battery Carriage House Inn

A few weeks ago I added The Battery Carriage House Inn to Haunt Jaunts' Spooky Stays section. I don't remember how I came across it, but when I went to check out their website I saw they have a page dedicated to ghost stories and sightings at the inn.

Very cool.

It gives a brief history of the inn and the types of ghosts people have seen. The creepiest is the headless torso, which most assume is the spirit of a civil war soldier. The saddest is what they call the "gentleman ghost," which some think might be the spirit of a young man who jumped from the roof 100 years ago for reasons unknown.

Then the page goes on to list encounters people have had at the Battery Carriage House Inn. Quite a few are letters from guests detailing experiences they had while in their rooms. Rooms 3, 8 and 10 (in particular 8 and 10) have the most activity.

(They also comment on the elegance and atmosphere of the inn and praise everything from the comfy beds and friendly staff to the wine and cheese served in the afternoon and the delicious breakfasts. Ghosts or no, it sounds like a delightful place to stay!)

Getting a Ghost Fix from Radio and TV

My favorite ghost show is Ghost Hunters, but while they're in reruns this summer I can still get a ghost fix from other TV and radio shows.

GHOST ADVENTURES

In addition to Most Haunted, the Travel Channel also has another paranormal show featuring ghosts and ghost hunters: Ghost Adventures. Starting June 5 they'll be back with more ghost adventures, starting with an investigation of Preston Castle.

I didn't much care for the very first documentary-style show I watched featuring Zak and his crew, however...that was just the start of what turned into a series of shows. Which I do like.

If you've never watched the show, it's similar to Ghost Hunters, except they present evidence as they come upon it rather than doing a reveal to a client at the end. Or that's how they did it last season. Hopefully they'll continue that for this new season.

Also like Ghost Hunters, they don't always investigate places that could be potential Haunt Jaunts. (Meaning the public isn't always allowed in because some of the places are private establishments.)

But it's a good show and I'm looking forward to it starting back up again.

PARA X RADIO - ALL PARANORMAL...ALL THE TIME

A friend of mine turned me on to this site, because she grew up with one of the hosts of Ghostology, a show that comes on Saturday evenings at 8:00 p.m. EST. I haven't had a chance to tune in yet because she just told me about it this past Saturday, but I will.

And I might find some other neat shows, too. There are a bunch of them (like 35), all focusing on ghosts, hauntings, and other paranormal phenomenon --even witchcraft, UFOs and cryptozoology! They also have live chats and forums. It's looks like a pretty neat place to network with others interested in this field.

Oh, and the Ghostology show I mentioned? The hosts are involved in making a pilot for a TV show called "Ghost Tech" which will debut this fall. (I don't know which station, but I'll keep my eyes open for it.)

Camp Grounds as Potential Haunt Jaunts

I never considered camp grounds as potential Haunt Jaunts until I stumbled across an About.com: Paranormal Phenomenon post called "Camping Encounters with Monsters and Ghosts" by Stephen Wagner.

The only thing I normally think about when it comes to camping and ghosts is telling ghost stories around the camp fire. But Wagner's article related incidents of ghost and monster encounters around camp fires and campsites.

MONSTERS IN THEM THAR' WOODS

I used to camp all the time with my family when I was little. I loved it. I have a pretty active imagination, but I don't remember ever being afraid of the forests we camped near. The only time I ever got a little creeped out was when my cousin Mike started scratching on the roof of the camper shell covering the back of my dad's truck. It woke me up and I didn't know it was him at first, so...there was a wee bit of chaos until my dad told him to knock it off.

However, Wagner told some good monster camping stories. One about a family who encountered some kind of bear-like creature with yellow eyes in the White Mountains of Arizona. (Lucky them. I don't know which is worse: being scared out of your wits by some creature roaring and then suddenly charging into your camp, or camping near that same region and having your dog suddenly bolt out of the tent only to get sprayed by a skunk. Oh yeah, that made for a pleasant experience...)

Anyway, Wagner also told of other stories: a glowing beast that showed up in a field next to where some people had set up camp, and a green "humanoid like" creature that surprised campers near a lake in a nature reserve. (The last one creeped me out because apparently they fled the scene only to return later to pick up their gear but found their tent destroyed and all their gear in the lake.)

GHOSTS IN THEM THAR WOODS, TOO

Well, the ghost stories in Wagner's post didn't really have much to do with woods. But people did spot ghosts while camping.

One was a silver lady a girl in Australia spotted while camping with her family. The other one recounted a tale of a guy who had been camping with his girlfriend and woke up to see a ghostly form hovering over her body.

WHERE CAN I LOOK FOR THESE MONSTERS AND GHOSTS?

That's what I didn't like about the article. It didn't tell specifics about the ghosts sightings, as in where they happened, except in a couple of cases.

Like the creature that surprised the family camping in the White Mountains of Arizona. It at least gave you that much, but where exactly did the family have the experience? I don't know.

The other two monster stories were vague. The settings were described, but states weren't even mentioned.

The ghost stories did give some indication of place. The "silver lady" was spotted at "a beachfront caravan park near Killala Beach, New South Wales, Australia." The hovering ghost encounter happened "along an unpaved forest road in the Manzano Mountains in northern New Mexico."

Wish I could give you more to go on if you wanted to set out this summer on a camping Haunt Jaunt of your own to investigate these places, but...that's all I got folks.

Potential Haunt Jaunt: The Sam Davis Home in Smyrna, TN

This afternoon my husband, Wayne, and I made an unexpected Haunt Jaunt to the Sam Davis Home in Smyrna, TN. It's not far from the hospital where I'm getting my radiation treatments, which Wayne accompanied me to today because he unexpectedly got the day off.

Anyway, I figured if nothing else it'd make a great getaway article for my gig over at Examiner.com, but...I couldn't resist asking, "Do you have ghosts?" when our tour guide kept commenting about doors being unlocked he swore he had locked himself, or vice versa.

Ghost Stories

Wayne gets very uncomfortable when I ask such questions. However, he's also surprised when, 9 times out of 10, instead of looking at me like I'm nuts, people say, "Now that you mention it..." and launch into ghost stories.

Today our guide said there are lots of unexplained things that happen there, but the best ghost story he knew of was one that happened to another volunteer.

The Crying Woman

I forget why he said the guide was in the house, but he was alone...except he heard a woman crying. He ran to see what was wrong, and sadly I don't remember if he was running into the parlor or another room, but when he got to where he heard the crying coming from it stopped.

He went to rejoin the other volunteers and said, "I just had the strangest experience." He went on to tell them and one of the women asked, "Don't you know what week this is? It's the anniversary of Sam's death."

Sam Davis: His Life and Death

I've seen signs for the Historic Sam Davis Home but didn't know who Sam Davis was. I thought he was an old man who was influential in Tennessee politics or something.

In a way he was, but he sure wasn't an old man. He was only 21 when he died and was serving as a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. He was hung after he was caught by Union troops and convicted of being a spy. When his mother saw the wagon pull up with his coffin inside, she fainted.

His body was brought back to his home for burial in late December 1863. It was around that time of year some 140 plus years later that the volunteer heard the woman crying...a woman the other volunteers immediately concluded must be Sam's mom, Jane.

The Sam Davis Home made for a fun jaunt I wasn't even expecting to have today. It was a neat history lesson...and a neat new place to add to the Haunt Jaunts files.

Haunted Landmarks

Today I stumbled across a pretty good article on Digg called "Someone Grab Scooby-Doo: The World's Most Haunted Landmarks."

What I liked most about the article: the pics and details of the ghosts supposedly haunting each haunted landmark.

What I didn't like about the article: I was surprised some places were left off. (Stanley Hotel, Myrtles Plantation, Waverly Sanatorium...)

So what were the haunted landmarks listed in the article?

1. Edinburgh Castle - Edinburgh, Scotland
2. The Whaley House - San Diego, CA
3. Bran Castle - Transylvania, Romania
4. Alcatraz - San Francisco, CA
5. Borley Rectory - Essex, England
6. Winchester Mystery House - San Jose, CA
7. Pollepel Island - Hudson River, NY
8. The Queen Mary - Long Beach, CA
9. The Bell House - Adams, TN
10. Rayham Hall - Norfolk, England
11. The Tower of London - London, England

I also learned of a few new places I wasn't previously familiar with (Borley Rectory, Pollepel Island, and Rayham Hall).

Speaking of learning things...I also learned Edinburgh Castle has a canine graveyard, which I didn't previously know, or that there are only two in Scotland.

Which made me wonder: How many canine graveyards does the U.S. have? How many do other countries have?

I like articles that make me think! (Duh. I suppose that's what everyone appreciates about a good article, right?)

But something else I want to know: why was it so slanted towards England and the USA? Besides Romania and Scotland, no other countries made the list. I know darn well there are other haunted landmarks out there.

Maybe the author is saving them for a follow-up article? If not, for any of you more worldly Haunt Jaunters out there, I'd sure appreciate an article on more international haunted landmarks. (Either for HauntJaunts.net's travel articles or to be referred to an already published one.)