Ghost Hunters March On Haunted Sites

     To Publicize Spooky Speaker

Johnson: In a scene reminiscent of the Beer Hall Putsch, I led a crowd of nearly one hundred brave souls on a haunted tour of Iowa City on April 23rd. We started at the Mill Restaurant, where locals have raised spirits for years, and ended in Oakland Cemetery, home of the Black Angel (see: The Black Angel: Iowa City's Most Mysterious Monument, October, 1996: vol. 3, issue #10). The walk was held in conjunction with the University of Iowa Lecture Committee (one of our subscribers is affiliated with that body ---we are infiltrating the most respected areas of society!!) and the Riverfest Committee. The ULC wanted to publicize the scheduled lecture of noted paranormal investigator Peter Jordan, and contacted me via the magazine to set up a media event tie-in with Jordan's visit. I was delighted, and found Jordan very knowledgeable and pleasantly objective in his approach to the paranormal conversation at the private dinner held in his honor.

     Jordan is a field investigator for the Psychical Research Foundation near Duke University, and over four hundred interested people attended his two and a half hour lecture on April 24th in the main ballroom of the Iowa Memorial Union. He discussed and showed slides of phenomena including ghosts, time travel, electrical anomalies, spirit photos, satanic ritual, Catholicism, Hitler, and Spontaneous Human Combustion. After the lecture, many stayed to ask questions and there was a small reception where people could meet Jordan one on one.

     I have been told by our man in the ULC that the organizers considered the Third Eye Ghost Walk so successful, there is currently discussion of making it an annual Riverfest event. If any of you readers were there, write the ULC and let them know you agree with this idea!!

     Some of the spooky spots on the tour included the following;

The Hall Mall, home to a ghostly farmer named George. Late one night worker at Moon Mystique was dismayed by the torrential downpour which was keeping customers from coming in to obtain their occult needs. Movement caught his eye and he turned to see a farmer walk past the door dressed in bibs and a seed hat. The worker went back to his inventory, then it struck him that the farmer was bone dry and wasn't making a sound on the creaky floor outside the store! He got up to look again, and saw the apparition dissolve into thin air. The ghost has since been named George, and tales of his torturing young hoodlums with spectral farm implements are circulating through the community.

     The Old Capitol, a young woman who worked as a tour guide once spent the night in the structure because her roommate had an overnight male guest. The young tour guide reports that during the night she heard and saw the original legislature debating declaring war on Missouri over which state had the right to a grove of trees containing delicious honey located near the border.

     Currier Hall, for full information on this haunted site (see: The Haunting of Currier Hall, October, 1996: vol. 3, issue #10)

     EC Mabie Theatre; the ghost of EC Mabie himself still haunts the halls of this building, causing havoc if his picture is removed from the front lobby. Sometimes he can be seen during Playwrights Festival clicking his tongue in the audience and muttering, "They are still painting nudes." This is supposedly a reference to his comment to Tennessee Williams concerning The Glass Menagerie.

     319 East Bloomington; the AW Insurance Agency has a ghost in its bathroom named Maude.

     507 N. Linn Street; the table tapping antics of this crowd of students engaged in energizing their Ouija boards by fornicating on top of them will be the subject of a detailed report by Abigail de le Badie in the next issue of this magazine.

     228 Brown Street: The Alamo; this house, reportedly now clear of ghosts, was so haunted that the construction company doing renovations had to have it exorcised in order to complete the work.

     Gaslight Village; this housing complex was once a bohemian art colony. There are a variety of architectural styles seemingly tossed together, including one house with headstones for its exterior walls! There are a lot of ghost stories here, including one about an older man who is often seen by young women on waking up in bed---the man stands at the foot of the bed staring at them wildly and chattering his teeth.

     Hickory Hill Park; this is the site of Iowa City's pest houses, where small pox victims were placed to await death, quarantined from the rest of the community.

     Hancher Auditorium recently held a contest to name their ghost with local school children. The winning suggestion was to name the ghost after one of the three men that lost their lives during its construction. Oscar Tappen is remembered as Oscar the ghost of Hancher. (Thanks to Novice Ahrens for this info!)

     There are many, many haunted sites in Iowa City and Coralville, including a house on Edgewater Drive that I myself once lived in, the poltergeists in Married Student Housing, and a former hospital that is now an apartment building using the old operating theatre as a kitchen!

     Third Eye Over Iowa now sponsors a Ghost Hunters Club, affiliated with the International Ghost Hunters Society. Membership in TEOIGHC is automatic for subscribers to the magazine, and we welcome reports and tips from both members and nonmembers alike. If you know of a ghost or haunted site in the area, let us know!!