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Looking
for something different for your next vacation? Consider visiting
a haunted house or haunted site. Professor Hans Holzer has
compiled an informative and entertaining travel guide to 101
different haunted places in the United States and abroad.
"Hans Holzer’s Travel Guide To Haunted Houses"
contains the history of these spooky locales and explains how they
came to be haunted.
Each
entry contains travel information on the site’s location, the
best way to get there and where to stay while visiting. The guide
is arranged alphabetically by state (sorry, there are no sites
from Illinois). The accommodations guide provides the closest
available lodging to the site and is ranked in price from least
expensive to most expensive. A handy key identifies the site as a
museum/tourist attraction, public place, outdoor area or private
place. Seasonal operating hours are also included.
Most
important of all, the entries contain the essential ingredient
found in a haunted site: the presence of a ghost. Holzer defines a
ghost as "a surviving emotional memory of someone who died
traumatically or tragically but is unaware of his or her death…those
human personalities stay on the spot where their tragedy or
emotional attachment existed prior to their physical death."
The
Ship Chandler’s House in Cohasset, Mass., is haunted by the
unhappy ghost of its original owner, Samuel Bates. Bates, who died
after the house was built in 1760, roams the house today because
of its move inland in 1957 from his beloved seashore.
The
ghostly presence of Thomas Henderson continues in the spectacular
Magnolia Hall in Natchez, Miss. Henderson’s love of the great
home was so deep that, even in death, he is reluctant to leave.
Holzer
considers Ringwood Manor in Ringwood, N.J., to be one of the most
interesting haunted houses he has visited. Built in 1740, the
mansion’s haunting is complete with ghostly footsteps, opening
and closing doors, and the feeling of "presences."
As
an additional treat the book contains descriptions of
non-traditional haunted sites. The Restless Monks of Aetna Springs
in Calistoga, Calif., haunt the local golf course. The golf course
was the site of a terrible tragedy when the Spanish Crown through
a deadly act of arson eliminated the monks.
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The
Abraham Lincoln connection is illustrated through two sites: the
Mary Surratt Tavern in Clinton, Md., and the Ghosts at Gettysburg in
Gettysburg, Penn. The restless spirit of owner Mary Surratt haunts
the tavern; it is best known as a meeting place for John Wilkes
Booth and his co-conspirators. After Lincoln’s assassination,
Booth made his way back to the tavern before proceeding to his
rendezvous with death at the Garrett farm. Phantom soldiers have
been spotted over the years at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg.
The author notes that the hauntings are made even more peculiar by
the prophetic line in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, "these
dead shall not have died in vain."
For
the international traveler, Holzer concludes the travel guide with a
listing of haunted sites from 11 foreign countries. Culzean Castle
in Ayr, Scotland, is one of the most interesting sites. Built in
1792, it lays claim to a modern interaction between a British
visitor and the ghost of a beautiful dark-haired girl. It seems that
when the visitor made room for the ghost to pass by in a narrow
hallway, the ghost stated, "I do not require any room
nowadays" and proceeded to walk through the visitor.
"Hans
Holzer’s Travel Guide To Haunted Houses" is a very
entertaining collection of some of the world’s most famous haunted
sites. The book is a useful travel guide that can help liven any
American or foreign vacation. As easy to read as it is to use, the
book is a fascinating glimpse into the eerie world of haunted
houses, ghostly apparitions and unexplained happenings. Holzer’s
book is recommended as a travel guide or as light reading on haunted
houses.
For
more information, visit the Public Library at 725 Pekin St. or call
217-732-8878.
[Richard
Sumrall,
Lincoln Public Library District]
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