The Graveyard Of The Pacific
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Whether thou art a ghost that hath come from the earth, or a phantom of night that hath come, or one that lieth dead in the desert, or a ghost unburied, or a demon, or a ghoul, whatever thou be until thou art removed, thou shalt find here no water to drink. Thou shalt not stretch forth thy hand to our own. Into our house enter thou not. Through our fence break through thou not.

We are protected, though we may be frightened. Our life you may not steal, though we may be scared to death.

Welcome to Scared to Death, Creeps, Peepers, Robertson, Annabelles. I'm Dan. Hello, Dan. I'm Lulu. Hello, Lulu. Hello. How are you? I'm good. Feeling good. How about you? Feeling good in the neighborhood. Just one really quick thing before we get into the previews. Big thank you to Danielle and Cassie from the National Park After Dark podcast for having us on, letting us talk about Scared to Death recently. We had a blast. We had a blast.

We appeared on the November 24th episode, fittingly titled National Park After Dark is Scared to Death. Ha ha. Cute. Yeah, they have a great show. Nice laid-back host. Very easy to listen to. Good stories. Yeah, great interaction. Cool people. Yeah, it was so easy and comfortable. It just felt like...

Yeah, I mean, I joked like on their post that I'm like, did we just become best friends? Yeah, yeah. This doesn't always happen, you know, when your favorite shows collaborate. You don't always actually become friends afterwards. But we were like exchanging phone numbers. We're texting. I'm trying to convince them to come to summer camp. I just was like, okay, guys, clearly there's got to be some sort of national park that you can like do an episode on. Yeah, come on, we're outside. Yeah, just like come over to camp. Come on, Danielle Cassie. Come to camp.

So check it out, add it to your rotation. And now, how many stories do you have, gorgeous? Well, baby doll, I have two. My first story is about a very creepy lurker who...

Who's in the backyard? Ooh, I like that angle, the backyard. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah, listen, no matter where you live, no matter what your housing situation is, if you live in an apartment, there's still like a back area, you know? Reminds me of the two wet footprints. Oh my God. Our little back landing behind the slider. It's the second time that's happened, but it's the first in like four years or so. Just so weird. Just like completely dry, little like cement landing. Two...

It reminded me, because we have a little hot tub out there, of when you walk in from it, how your feet would look. But no one had been out there in like 10 hours, and they were fresh. It wasn't like they iced over and then held. It was just weird. And it's happened twice now. Yep. And the first time, people were like, oh, well, it's probably because...

like when they sealed the cement back there. Yeah, because it happened right after the ceiling. Uh-huh. And I was like, oh, okay, but why would they be angled like this, like pointed towards the backsliding door or whatever? And then I was so glad you were home for this set because I was like, wait, did you go outside? Did you walk in the grass? But because they looked like barefoot footprints. It didn't look like shoe prints. Which is how it looked before. So like the first time it happened. No, the first time it looked like. I saw those. I thought it was like barefoot too. Oh, oh.

You thought it was like shoes? No, I was by myself. You weren't there. No, you showed them to me lately. Yeah, I took a...

I have a memory of seeing them the first time. Well, yes, but you were not there because what was so scary about it is that I was home alone and I was losing my mind. I almost left with the dogs to go stay at a friend's house. I was so scared. So yeah, creepy, creepy, creepy story. And then my second tale, passenger unknown, road tripping with an imaginary friend or something else.

Well, you will not be shocked to hear that I also have two stories. What? You never have two. Both are a mix of history and haunted lore. Sounds like you. First, we will explore reports of a ghost ship spotted off the southwestern coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Places we'll never go.

We will go there someday. And the incredibly tragic sinking of the SS Valencia said to be the source of these sightings. And then next, I'll tell you all about Vicksburg, Mississippi's most haunted mansion, or at least the mansion advertised as being Vicksburg's most haunted, the McRaven House. That's a cool name. It is.

Yeah, good name for a place that's supposedly spooky. Or also the name of like a really delicious something at McDonald's during Halloween season. Like a McRib, but made with just random just bird meat, just raven meat. It would just be like, no, I was thinking for like a kid's meal, like the McRaven, and then they could get like a little bird toy. Okay, okay. Okay, so now I have a deal for you. You tell me what spoopy socks you're wearing this week, and then I'll tell you my first story. Oh my gosh. Wow, how original.

Just kidding. I love these socks because, you know, we're in the holidays. So it says, we wish you a Mothman Cryptmas. Oh, that's cute. We wish you a Mothman Cryptmas. Those are cool looking socks. I know. They're really cool. They're nice and thick and cozy. A little Mothman. He's wearing an ugly Christmas sweater, has on a Santa hat. And in his wings, he has two red and white traditional candy canes. All right. I had a candy cane today. It was delicious. All right.

Okay, so here we go. On January 22nd, 1906, the coastal passenger liner SS Valencia tragically ran aground on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, far from the first ship to do so. The water is just off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, stretching all the way south to Tillamook Bay off the coast of Oregon. That whole stretch of sea has a long history of almost 70 shipwrecks dating all the way back to 1786.

leading to the stretch of water being named the Graveyard of the Pacific. The wreck of the SS Valencia is considered one of the worst maritime disasters in the history of the Pacific Northwest, and it is brutal. And there have been multiple strange reports of a so-called ghost ship haunting the waters off the shore of Vancouver Island ever since it ran aground. Time now for the tale of Vancouver Island's ghost ship.

The SS Valencia was a 252-foot iron-holed passenger steamer built in 1882 by the William Cramp and Sons Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Valencia spent her first two decades carrying a mix of passengers, cargo, and soldiers, primarily between Venezuela and New York City. Then in 1902, the ship was sold as a second-class passenger steamer to the Pacific Coast Steamship Company.

The Valencia was soon licensed to carry 286 people, and to keep these people safe, at least theoretically, the ship had seven lifeboats that could hold a total of 181 passengers, or people, I guess, crew or passengers, plus three smaller life rafts that could hold an additional 54 people, and finally a total of 368 life preservers. Normally, the SS Valencia traveled routes between the coast of California and Alaska.

But in January of 1906, the ship was redirected to travel between San Francisco and Seattle, Washington, taking the place of another ship that was undergoing repairs. The Valencia should have never wrecked where it did. It was never supposed to be near the coast of Vancouver Island the night that it ran aground. At 11.20 a.m. on the morning of January 20, 1906, the Valencia left San Francisco for Victoria, British Columbia, and Seattle, Washington.

The weather was recorded as being fair at the time of departure, and the ship had just passed an inspection with flying colors a few weeks prior. The ship was captained by Oscar M. Johnson, an experienced ship captain who had been with the Pacific Coast Steamship Company for a dozen years. The ship carried 108 passengers and 65 crew members for the voyage. The Valencia reached Camp Mendocino, 190 miles north of San Francisco, early on the morning of January 21st, sailing through calm coastal waters.

But then a heavy rain and fog moved in, lasting through the next day with strong winds. Vision was so poor during the storm that the crew had to use a compass and approximate distances to determine their position and navigate. The storm knocked the ship badly off course, and navigators never recovered. They didn't realize they were soon over 20 miles further north than they thought. Still sailing through dark and stormy waters, the Valencia unknowingly passed the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca,

a body of water that marks the boundary between Canada and the U.S. at 11.50 p.m. on the night of the 22nd, and then the Valencia was soon passing through the Walla Walla Reef on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island. They had sailed right past the Salish Sea, opening into Seattle's Puget Sound. And now things go terribly wrong. The Valencia had a large underwater rocky crag just a few hundred yards offshore, hard enough for the impact to rupture the bottom of the hole, flooding the middle cargo hold.

A large wave then lifted the Valencia up and over the rocks, pushed her further towards the shore as the middle cargo hold continued to take on water. More large waves now rocked the boat, spinning the wounded Valencia around. Captain Johnson believed, rightfully, that she would soon sink, so he ordered the crew to beach the Valencia stern first. But that was just not possible. The big iron boat had run aground on the reef backwards with the bow facing the ocean, less than 100 yards from a rough and rugged shore.

The coast now behind them was nothing but 100-foot-high imposing rock cliffs. The ship was trapped between the reef and these cliffs, taking on water and being constantly battered by massive, violent breaking waves. On board stood that crew of 65 and then 108 passengers. The bad winter storm they'd been sailing through was far from over.

The top of the bluff above the cliffs was covered in trees, and within those trees was a telegraph line that connected the coast to the Carmana Light Station on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island and Bamfield, a small fishing community on Vancouver Island. But who could make it to that station to wire for help?

Further complicating things for the doomed vessel, the storm and rough terrain beneath the water meant it would be impossible for rescue ships to make it to them even if they could reach out for help, but they didn't know that. The captain, his crew, and passengers didn't yet understand how truly dire their situation was. Captain Johnson soon ordered the crew to lower six of the lifeboats from the top deck to the saloon deck, but worried that the water was currently too rough for the vessels, he gave no immediate orders to board them an abandoned ship.

Then adding to the chaos of their situation, the crew and passengers alike were thrown into total darkness when the engines lost power. Passengers now began boarding the lifeboats, and they begged and pleaded with the crew to lower them into the water and let them try and escape. The crew was confused as to what to do. Some crew seemed to think, based on the passengers' demands, that perhaps the captain had ordered the lifeboats to be fully lowered.

In their confusion, unknowingly against the captain's wishes, they lowered six of the seven lifeboats within a half hour. One of them was loaded beyond capacity, which caused part of the davit, a crane-like lowering device, to break off, throwing 21 people immediately into the dark water to their deaths. They all quickly drowned in the rough, cold, choppy water. Another lifeboat then got hung up in the ropes, and another 25 people, thrown out, plunged into the cold and swirling water.

Every passenger and every crew member but one drowned. One man was able to climb back into the ship, only to die soon. Three of the lifeboats carrying around 50 people each were able to be safely lowered into the water surface now, or to the water surface, but that's where their safety ended. One lifeboat disappeared almost immediately, sinking into the ocean's depths and taking all of its passengers with it. The other two were soon capsized by large breaking waves.

Only 12 out of the roughly 150 people from these three boats ever made it to the shore. And once there, not all of those dozen would live for very long. One survivor climbed up onto a large rock, desperately hanging on as wave after wave battered him. He managed to stay on that rock for several hours. But then an especially large wave ripped over the top of him, pulled him out to sea, and he was never seen again.

Two of the other survivors who made it to shore first tried to shelter in a cave, but then a high tide came in. They had to scramble out of the cave before they drowned inside it. They then desperately tried to climb to the top of the cliff, but each fell to their deaths. The other nine people who reached the shore were able to ride out the storm on rocks throughout the night and started climbing the cliffs the next morning. This group will survive and become known as the Bunker Party after the man who led them, Frank Bunker.

Meanwhile, those still on the ship were not faring very well. Early in the morning of January 23, 1906, nearly eight hours after first hitting the rock that tore through the hull, after a long, cold night of being constantly battered by stormy waves, the big ship now started to literally break apart. One of the few survivors, Chief Freight Clerk Frank Lean, later recounted,

Screams of women and children mingled in an awful chorus with the shrieking of the wind, the dash of rain, and the roar of the breakers. As the passengers rushed on deck, they were carried away in bunches by the huge waves that seemed as high as the ship's mastheads.

At 8 a.m., Captain Johnson now has his volunteer crew launch his last lifeboat.

They planned to run out of ground on a nearby beach and then use something called a Lyle gun to fire a rope back to the ship. And then with a sort of zip line now established between the ship and the shore, the captain could use a breeches buoy, this rope rescue device found on ships. Think of like a little cradle attached to one person at a time to the zip line. And then these people would be able to slide along the rope to shore. But that line would never be established.

Six men boarded the lifeboat, and they steered northwest, looking for a place to land. At 9 a.m., the crew on board fired the line-throwing gun, but they missed. They then fired again, and now the rope got tangled up in some trees. The volunteer crew lifeboat finally landed at 12.30 p.m. on the western shore of Pachina Bay, which was eight miles northwest of the wreck, with one rope left. But they couldn't make it back to the ship, to the thick forest to send it to the boat.

They were able to find a trail on the beach with a sign that said three miles to Cape Beale. They abandoned the lifeline plan, decided to hike up to Cape Beale Light Station, arriving at 3 p.m. The station keeper then called the fishing village of Bamfield to inform them of the disaster. Meanwhile, the nine survivors from the previous day, the bunker party, now made it to the top of the cliffs and found the telegraph line. They arrived at a lineman's shack at 2 p.m., found a telephone, and were able to communicate with the Carmana Light Station and spread word of the disaster.

They then traveled to Cape Flattery to get help, which was in the opposite direction of the ship's lifeline still tangled in the trees. If they had found it and gone in the right direction, they might have been able to still save the remaining passengers and crew still alive on the Valencia. Those still on the ship would have to wait for hours now before the first rescue vessels arrived. Meanwhile, two crew members tried to swim ashore with the lifeline, but the water was far too rough. They had to be pulled back to the ship before they drowned.

As they made this attempt, down in Seattle, the Pacific Coast Steamship Company received a message at 3.30 p.m. on January 23rd about the wrecked Valencia. The general manager tried to dispatch tugboats, but none were available. Those on board the Valencia truly just could not catch a break. Then the SS Queen, located in the city of Victoria, British Columbia, was sent out on a rescue mission.

The ship arrived at Carmana Point at 10 p.m. A second rescue ship called the SS City of Topeka was in Seattle and was dispatched to Vancouver Island hours later with a doctor, nurses, supplies, and some members of the press on board. That ship left Seattle at 10 p.m., and both rescue ships encountered violent weather. Heavy rain and strong winds had started up again that evening.

By the time the two rescue ships drew near, most of the Valencia's upper works were completely destroyed and the rear cabins on the saloon deck were totally underwater. Remaining terrified passengers gathered together on the hurricane deck, i.e. the top deck, or desperately clung to the rigging as the Valencia was being torn further apart.

On the morning of January 24th, now over 30 hours after the ship first ran aground, the Carmana Light Station advised the SS Queen that the wreck was 18 miles away near Pacino Point. The Queen, a salvage teamer, and a tugboat all were able to spot the SS Valencia at 9.30 a.m. But the Queen couldn't get within a mile of the ship because the ocean bottom was uncharted and the water was still far too rough.

The tugboat and the steamer were able to get a bit closer, but were also forced to retreat due to weather. And then the storm worsens. And now the SS Queen loses sight of both the shore and the Valencia and has to retreat out to sea before it too is run aground. This is a nightmare. The two smaller rescue ships, the tugboat and the steamer, now head to the little fishing village of Bamfield to attempt an overland rescue. They're still hoping to shoot a rope to the Valencia, and ferry survivors wanted a time to land.

Later that afternoon, a small rescue party proceeds 18 miles overland to try and shoot a line to the ship, but they can't cross the Klanoa River and get close enough. Another rescue attempt fails. At 10 a.m. now, 34 hours after getting stuck, the remaining SS Valencia crew sends out their first small life raft with only 10 men on board. No one else was willing to brave the stormy waters below the wreckage. Most of the other remaining survivors refused to leave the ship because they still think they will be rescued soon.

The crew urges the remaining women and children to get on board a second life raft, but they continue to refuse. So a second raft leaves with all men on it, 18 of them. Their goal is to make it to the SS Queen rescue ship. The other big rescue ship, the city of Topeka, that had come from Seattle the night before, arrives at 11 a.m. to relieve the Queen. The Topeka will be able to get closer to the Valencia than any of the other large ships, but not close enough, and they save no one on board.

A half hour later, at 11:30 a.m., a rescue party from the Carmano Light Station manages to cross the river now and follows the telegraph line towards the wreck. Instead of being able to participate in the rescue, though, they instead helplessly watch in horror as a massive wave destroys the last of the Valencia's upper works. An estimated around 40 people, mostly women and children, are swept out to sea to their deaths. Some of them will drown, others will be smashed in front of the witnesses against the rocks at the base of the shore's cliffs.

At 1 p.m., some good news. The Topeka finds the second life raft and saves all 18 men on board. They then continue searching for the first life raft with an additional 10 men. The SS City of Topeka also stops to telegraph the news of the wreckage to another passing ship. Another ship that will be unable to help anyone still trapped on the Valencia. At this time, early in the afternoon of January 24th, around 37 hours after the Valencia ran aground...

the first of several supernatural events is reported. Those on board the Topeka claim that they saw the shape of the Valencia outlined in the black exhaust coming from the Topeka smokestack. And then shortly following this odd paranormal sighting, yet another ship approached the wreckage, and reportedly the passengers on board saw a ghost ship of the SS Valencia heading towards its final destination, full of skeleton passengers. The following day, on the morning of January 25th,

Over 55 hours after the Valencia first ran aground, the Topeka now makes it the closest any ship has yet made it to the shipwreck to look for survivors accompanied by a draft steam whaler. The captains of these ships see no signs of life, and by the afternoon they decide that any further rescue efforts will be futile. All of those who remained on board are now presumed dead. On January 26th, the Topeka heads back to Seattle with those 18 survivors from the second life raft.

Meanwhile, that first life raft that carried 10 men has now traveled 18 miles northwest into Barkley Sound. It landed on Turtle Island late on the night of January 24th. Two men fell overboard en route. Four others died of exposure, meaning there were only four survivors left once the raft reached the island. A party of indigenous people found those four and kept them alive with blankets, food, and water.

In total, there were only 37 survivors, 18 on the second life raft, four from the first life raft, six men from the last life boat, and nine men, the bunker party, who climbed the cliffs after capsizing in a lifeboat. There were an estimated 136 deaths. All of the 17 women and all of the 11 children on board died. Only 33 of the estimated 136 dead bodies will ever be recovered.

One of the bodies that was never found was the body of Captain Johnson. No one witnessed what happened to him, but it is believed he was swept off his ship by one of the massive waves that kept ruthlessly pounding it. Investigations into why the ship wrecked concluded that a combination of Captain Johnson's navigational errors and bad weather caused the ship to run aground. Captain Johnson should have traveled further from shore and stayed out in open sea until inclement weather cleared up and the crew could determine their position.

Multiple investigations also found that no lifeboat drills had been taken during the voyage, which led to mass confusion and a loss of life during the botched life raft deployment. Besides one of the lowering devices breaking away and some potentially weak bulkheads, the deaths were not caused by any defect in the ship. The rescue vessels did everything reasonable to help, but the Federal Commission did remark, "...there was certainly no display of the heroic daring that has often marked other such emergencies in our Merchant Marine."

Over the first few years following the crash, there were several claims of more supernatural sightings. About a month after the tragedy, there were reports that a lifeboat full of skeletons was found floating in a cave near the wreckage. The veracity of that story is unknown. There were also rumors that indigenous fishermen saw a lifeboat manned by a skeleton crew within a few months of the shipwreck. In 1910, the Seattle Times and other notable papers reported that there were several claims of a phantom ship spotted on the rocks near the lighthouse at Pacino Pointe.

Several additional mariners whose accounts did not appear in those newspaper articles also claimed that they saw the ghost ship in 1909. And according to one report published in Northwest Magazine, they could, quote, vaguely see human forms clinging to her masts and rigging. They said that the ghost ship looked like the SS Valencia and that the human forms looked like the women and children who had died in the wreck.

Over a decade later, in 1933, the Valencia's lifeboat No. 5 was found in Berkeley Sound, in supposedly excellent condition, despite the fact that 27 years had passed. Many, of course, found this extremely odd. It didn't look as weathered as it should have. It looked like it had been frozen in time. In response to the tragedy, the telegraph route atop the hill above the cliffs was converted into a trail for shipwrecked mariners with wooden shelters at different intervals.

It is now called the West Coast Trail and has been improved and preserved for recreation as part of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.

The cliffs above the shipwreck are now called the Valencia Bluffs. And from the top of these cliffs, you can still see the last wreckage of the Valencia sitting below on the rocks. And to this day, every few years, someone, or multiple someones, continue to claim that on particularly stormy nights, they still see the Phantom Valencia with its skeleton crew futilely awaiting a rescue that will never come in the dark waters below.

That's like a double horror story. I know the true part, well, not true, but like the non-paranormal part, the documented part that way is so terrifying. Okay, like, listen. That's a nightmare for me. That's a nightmare. I already am not a huge fan of like being out in open water. Uh-huh. And then you...

Okay, when I was growing up, many people saw Titanic and I was like, well, I'm never getting on a cruise ship. And then the first time we were on a cruise ship, I just remember being so scared the whole time. I was like, oh, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. And then there's that phenomenon. I forget what it's called, but it's like if you stand at the edge of the ship and you can like...

you don't want to jump in. Totally. You feel like compelled to almost. Yeah. It's like a curiosity of like, yeah, what will happen? Right. Right. Cause there's no way to test that. It's a weird intrusive thought. Yeah. But there is like something, uh, beyond intrusive thought. Yeah. There is some term for that. I think it's like the same way that like, you want to like drive your car off a cliff or like, you don't want to even in your, you know, but the curiosity comes over you where you're like, I wonder what that, I wonder what happened.

I wonder what happened. What would that be like? I pulled a film on Louise. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so so many pieces there. And just what a horrific, tragic story. And then when you get to the paranormal pieces of it, ghost ships are just so peculiar anyways. It's such a strange, strange phenomenon. We don't get to cover all together that often. Yeah. And then that one detail, well, two details that really stood out to me was...

One of the ghost ships that they said had like what looked to be human forms on the mast that looked like the women and the children. And I was like, oh, God. You know, so you now ghost ship and ghost figures smashed onto ghost ship. And then that boat that shows up 27 years later. I know, so weird. In essentially mint condition. That's what one of the sources said. Yeah, so, so strange. Yeah.

How peculiar. I was just picturing this. Anybody who's been to the Oregon coast or any... Never been. Sorry. Yeah, many coasts all over the world, like in Dover and the UK, just all over. Iceland had a bunch of them that you saw, like where we saw the puffins, where it's like these big rocky cliffs going down into the water. Sure. And then lots of rocks in the water below. And then because the water is so shallow right below the cliffs coming in from the ocean, that's where the waves break.

And if you're in a particularly turbulent area, you've got these big breakers coming up over the rocks and there'll be warnings in places like that. Even when we went to Hawaii, there was warnings. We went on that one hike that one time, just you and I.

where that big tortoise was. Oh, yeah. And we walked out there and there were some places where there was warnings. There were some places that we were trying to sneak around. Uh-huh, yeah. We didn't get away with anything. We were thinking about it. We had deep thoughts. Uh-huh. But there was like this area where you could see like

The way that the rocks were slapping against the shore, like it would be really hard to climb up the rocks if you fell down there. And it would be really hard to get out away from the rocks because...

Even if you're a super strong swimmer, those waves smashing over and over again and trying to go up and over rocks as the waves are hitting you. I just felt, I remember looking at those and thinking like, oh, I would for sure be dead. There's no chance I would have to swim out of that. I would just die. I know when I see things like that, my brain does a similar like, you know, okay, what's my escape route if that happens to me if I'm in there? And, you know, they'll say like, well, swim away.

with the water. It's like swimming with the water lands me in the rocks. Right. You know, and then if you're trying to travel horizontally, if you will, it's like, it's, you don't know what's below you because it's so rocky. I mean, it's just pure danger. And I just imagine one wave picking me up, slamming me down and my brain exploding. Yeah. I mean, honestly, it's probably what you hope for. Well, I mean, in those situations, some of them, I think all you can hope for is to find a little spot on the rock to hang on.

And you hope that somebody nearby with cell phones and technology we have today can get rescuers in a helicopter or whatever to come there fast enough, drop a rope down, and pull you out. That's a big ask. And sometimes that will happen. Really? Yeah, sometimes that will happen, like these crazy rescues now. But I just think about back then. It's the early 20th century. It's stormy. It's the middle of winter. It is a little bit mild over there, but the water is so cold. And...

You are in this terrible position. How maddening where you can see the shore. It's right there, like a couple hundred yards from where you are. It's so close. But you can't make it there. And even if you did make it, you're surrounded by cliffs in this little craggy area where it's like, how could you get up to the top of the bluff there? Yeah. Oh, it would just be so just demoralizing. Yeah, like those people that...

took refuge in the cave but then the cave floods oh my god and then they tried to climb up the cliff then they just fell back into the water and died anyway oh and you're seeing all that if you're on the boat yeah like i understand why those women uh were scared to get in those last life rafts because they've watched person after person die trying to do that i know as you were telling that story i'm like what would i do i think i i think i would try and stay on the ship

As long as possible. Yeah, I think, I mean... Just because, like, it's size. Uh-huh. Right? Just thinking, and then thinking about, like, you know, when you put all these very scared people into a boat. It's the same reason, like, why when someone's, my thought process is, when someone is drowning, you do not swim to them. That is why you throw something to them. They are frantic. They're going to pull you down. They will drown you. Yep. So that same...

thought process is what I'm thinking if you're in an overcrowded lifeboat and something happens, everyone's going to protect their own and you may...

perish because of it so like stay on the big boat as long as you can i guess i don't know i don't really know i don't want to find out i have some pictures okay uh this first one that is the ss valencia taken just days before it sank in january of 1906 so this big iron vessel yeah it's not as big as i thought it would be i mean obviously this is a picture and i don't have anything else for scale but you can see people are quite small all those little people standing on the deck there

And, uh, and by the way, these pictures as always are on Instagram and Facebook at scared of this podcast. And then this next one photo of the cliffs, the Valencia bluffs near where the ship got stuck. Yep. So it's stuck in these like rocky craggy area. That sounds like there's a reef behind it. So it's gotta be maddening where it's like,

another ship just can't come up next to it and get them off. So they were just hoping that they could get one of those ropes shot like a harpoon gun type device. Yeah, that was a crazy thing. I watched some videos of people like shooting these things and they are pretty fascinating. You know, it's like they can shoot a few hundred yards and

And they just shoot this like harpoon looking or similar thing. Yeah. And you're supposed to just like, you know, tie it off on shore or you would tie it to another boat or whatever. And then, yeah, just kind of like zip line in this little like carriage type thing. It makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh, and then this is a photo of someone standing atop the Valencia bluffs, looking down near where the ship was torn apart. So you can see like at first from like below, it didn't look that high, but when you're up above, you're like, oh yeah, these are pretty high. And then finally, oh no, one more, two more. Uh, this is a photo of the 18 Valencia survivors who made it off the ship in that second life raft now boarding the SS city of Topeka.

So like that was the biggest victory is that group fared pretty well. And that boat is, that rescue boat is not very large. It looks like an oversized canoe. Uh-huh. Yep. And then finally, one more photo taken by a hiker standing atop the Valencia Bluffs of a supposed ghost ship.

So it looks like something, you know, proof, strong definitive proof of the paranormal to me. Yeah, I buy it. That feels incredibly possible. Wow, that's scary. I know. I mean, I was kind of surprised he's like wearing pirate gear, but like, you know, things change. Yeah.

Yeah. He's been dead a while. Yeah, he's come back with like a lantern or something to really guide his way. Some will say, oh, it's AI. It's paint. It's not even a photo. But, you know, people always kind of shit on paranormal proof like this. Yeah, I mean, people aren't big fans of skeletons in general. So I think that would be the first indicator like, oh, I never heard of skeletons haunting anything. Well, here's some proof. Here's a photo.

I just start doing that. I just start presenting like paintings and obvious AI. It's just like, well, I mean, what more do you want? I don't know. Well, I can't, I can't, you know, I can't convince you. I can't force you to believe. If you look at this and you don't believe, then I don't possibly know what else I could do. You know, short of giving you a miracle. I know. Yeah. Are you ready to move away from a tale of a haunted ship and hear the tale of a haunted mansion? Yeah.

Yeah. Can I tell you one quick thing? Sure. Last night I could not fall asleep. My brain was doing some wacky, wacky nonsense. Yeah. And, uh, I, I had read, been reading an article earlier in the day about, um,

like some dams being removed and how salmon or kokanee are spawning. Yeah. Okay. So that was in my brain. Yeah. And then I started to drift off to sleep and then I woke myself up with a like, yeah, because I imagined myself swimming in Lake Coeur d'Alene. Huh?

With the salmon? Nope. Oh. Nope. And I like just like jumped in off of like some like vessel, a boat, a kayak. I don't know. Yeah. And my foot got tangled in something and I got pulled down and I died.

It was, I just. A terrible dream. Yeah, and it happened really fast. I don't know if you ever had, I guess I would call it like a micro dream. Yeah. And I sat up so fast and then I had really bad heartburn and indigestion. So I really think what happened is that I was like having indigestion and it sometimes makes you feel like you can't breathe. Yeah. I hate drowning dreams. Awful. So now off we go. Okay. Before we head south and move on to more scares, we need to take a quick in-between story sponsor break.

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Thanks for listening to our sponsored deals, creeps and peepers. Creeps and peepers. Just one peeper. There's a bunch of creeps listening and one lone peeper. Aw, one peep. Okay, the McRaven House is a haunted historic mansion in Vicksburg, Mississippi, named after its location on what was once McRaven Street. Cool name for a street, now Harrison Street. A little more boring. The home was built over 225 years ago, back in 1797.

and has had many owners, some of whom have reportedly remained on the property even after their deaths. The original structure, a kitchen with a single room above it, was built by Andrew Glass, a man said to be a highway robber in some sources. Glass allegedly built a house, according to these sources, as a way station for settlers heading to Nashville along the Natchez Trace, and then robbed them whenever the opportunity presented itself. Tour guides at McRaven House will tell visitors today that Glass died by his wife's hand, that she slit his throat with a razor,

and that this act is believed to be the origin of the home's haunted reputation. But maybe not. According to research by the U.S. Ghost Adventures team, Glass was actually a wealthy landowner who died long after selling the home and not by a razor. They found that in 1835, a different man, another so-called bandit, who actually seems to have been a really good dude with some serious integrity named John Murrell,

tried to incite a rebellion of enslaved people in the South. His noble plot led to a lot of worrying in numerous major Southern cities that an overthrow plot was brewing. And on July 6th, 1835, five men in Vicksburg, thought to be amongst the plotters, were lynched and shot. The sheriff at the time, Stephen Howard, was involved in those lynchings. And in 1836, Andrew Glass sold the McRaven house to Sheriff Stephen Howard, who made several additions.

It is thought that these two origin stories have become intertwined over the years, leading Glass to being painted as some sort of bandit. Whatever the real original history, McRaven House certainly became the location of a tragic death that established, or at least helped establish, the home's haunted reputation in 1836. In August of that year, Sheriff Stephen Howard's wife, young 15-year-old Mary Elizabeth McRaven,

died while giving birth in one of the bedrooms. Many of Mary's personal belongings were later returned to the home and actually can be seen inside the house today. Over a decade after her death, Stephen Howard sold the home in 1849 to a local brick manufacturer and sawmill owner named John Bob. Oh, I know what a name. Oh, John Bob. Oh, John Bob. Oh, Johnny Bob. And by the time the American Civil War broke out, the home had become known as Bob House. Not as cool as McRaven.

Then during the 1863 siege of Vicksburg, the mansion was used as a field hospital and campsite for Confederate soldiers. Because it was so close to the action, the house sustained several direct cannon blasts. It's not known if any of those blasts took any soldiers' lives, but another person did die on the property during the Civil War, and violently so. On May 18, 1864, old John Bob, the owner, threw a brick at a group of Union soldiers marching back to their regiment past his house, and that brick hit a sergeant in the head and fractured his skull.

In response, Bob was apprehended and fatally shot in both the head and the stomach, and he died just 100 yards from the house. Following the war, William Murray would purchase the McRaven house in 1882 from John Bob's family. He and his wife Ellen will raise four daughters and three sons there, and several of the Murray family will meet their demise inside the home. William died in 1911. A decade later, his wife Ellen passed away. Their daughter Ida then also died in McRaven house in 1946, followed by another son in 1950.

Murray's remaining daughters, Annie and Ella, who never married, lived alone in the house for several additional years with no modern conveniences such as running water or electricity.

All they had was a telephone, and the two hermits, they sound very eccentric, made almost no contact with the outside world except for the occasional doctor's visit. They were so isolated, so reluctant to ask anyone for assistance, and so weird, that towards the end of their time in the home, they resorted to doing things like using the antique furniture for firewood.

Ella Marie will die in the house in 1960 at the age of 81. After her death, her sister Annie, elderly and possibly mentally unwell, sold the house and moved into a nursing home. Then a man named O.E. Bradway purchased the house, restored it, opened it for tours in 1961. His quick restoration wasn't easy. The sisters had allowed the house to fall into such a state of overgrowth and disrepair that neighbors who were new to the area literally didn't realize there was a house on the property.

That's how covered by vines and surrounded by overgrown brush and trees it was. Bradway mostly restored the home to its original glory, returned its original name to it, and the McRaven house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Later that year, the house was sold to Charles and Sandra Harvey. The couple closed the house to tours, spent a year further restoring it,

The Harveys and their two kids never lived there full-time, but they did sleep in the house occasionally to protect the property from vandals. They then sold the McRaven house to a man named Leland French in 1984. French did even more restoration and was the first owner since 1960 to actually live full-time in the house. And French will claim he was nearly immediately tormented by spirits after moving in. Time now for the tale of the McRaven house.

First, French claimed to see the apparition of William Murray, recognizing him due to Murray's photos having been placed around the home. One day, French reported that a drawer closed against his fingers so forcefully it broke his thumbs. After numerous other incidents, French became too scared to continue to live in the home and moved out. We're not certain of exactly when. And the house once again fell into disrepair.

The current owners of the house are now Kendra and Steven Reed. They purchased the home in 2015, and once again it was restored. And the couple has sold tickets to tours of the home ever since. And they and others claim that the spirits of former residents still linger. Ghost hunters are told that underneath the courtyard at the back of the house, there was a mass grave filled with the bodies of unnamed Confederate soldiers, and that their spirits are sometimes spotted wandering around the property.

A few paranormal explorers have claimed to experience the paranormal activity involving William Murray and his two daughters. According to a tour guide, Murray's body was displayed in the parlor room for his funeral. His daughters, Annie and Ella, then either did not know somehow or seemingly didn't care that his body was not removed and it just laid in the parlor for over a week. His body was there so long it began to rot and it left a lingering stench, which some guests have claimed to smell when touring the house.

There are also some reports of the spirit of a former owner, John Bob, old Johnny Bob, being witnessed strolling along the balcony. Mary Elizabeth Howard, the teenager who died in childbirth, is alleged to be the most active spirit in the home. Perhaps because of her young age, Mary Elizabeth is reportedly a playful spirit who likes to trick visitors. She's said to have moved cabinet doors, swiped at people's ankles from underneath the bed, and to have touched the stomachs of pregnant women.

One tour group claimed to see an indentation in the mattress in Mary's room that quickly disappeared, as if she stood up, rising from the bed once she was spotted. McRaven House employee Daniel Roach told the Vicksburg Post that he once tried to open Mary Elizabeth's diary, and then he heard the distinct sounds of someone getting off the bed and walking towards him.

Another employee, Sean Lindsay Wright, added, One evening I was in the house by myself, and I was in Mary Elizabeth's room closing down. This cabinet closed, and when I'm walking out, I see this white fog going to the window. It really did freak me out. I got the chills. Owner Kendra Reed told the Vicksburg Post, I think that's probably the scariest thing. McRaven has intelligent ghosts. They're ghosts that interact with you.

She said she would be willing to try to spend the night in the home alone, but she did not believe the spirits would allow her to sleep through the night. Finally, in 2020, the Travel Channel declared McRaven to be the, quote, creepiest place in Mississippi. If you want to find out if that title is deserved, you can visit McRavenTourHome.com and set up a ghost tour.

Lots of turnover there. I know. I mean, old house, though, too. Yeah. Lots of owners. I'm surprised people keep buying it. I mean, the latest owners fully have leaned into the history of the house. I don't think you have any other choice, right? It seems like they bought it for that purpose. They have a nice website set up. And you have the benefit in a house like this because of its age. And it's still in its…

It looks original. Uh-huh. And they have a lot of the original pieces from 1797. Anything that wasn't used for kindling. Right. Exactly. Like the furniture. So weird. Oh, yeah. They seem very unwell, those two sisters. Oh. And kind of like characters that are like a stereotype almost. Like characters out of a movie. Like the weird two eccentric spinsters. Yeah. Just going nuts in this creepy looking house. That's so funny because I literally wrote down the word spinster sisters. Right. Right. Right.

But so they give tours, two different kinds, ghost tours and then tours like historic tours. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of haunted houses that have changed hands a lot of times, I recently read, quickly skimmed rather, an article about a new owner of

the Madame LaLaurie mansion in New Orleans. Yeah, and I don't think that he's giving tours. Like, I think Bro is living there. And didn't you say he also owned like the Lizzie Borden house in Massachusetts? I think so. Again, I skimmed the article really quickly, but I am fairly certain that that is what it said.

Can we talk about John Bob for a second? Oh, Johnny Bobby. I don't know that I could take somebody seriously if their name was John Bob. Like it's just a name, but like... Hey, I'm John. Nice to meet you. Hey, I'm Dan Cummins. What was your name again? Oh, John Bob. John Bob. That's it. I'd fall over laughing. Uh-huh. I'd be like, John Bob what? No, it's just John Bob. First name John, last name Bob. I would need him to say something like...

Yes, I know. Really, it's Jonathan. But, you know, when I was a kid, John Bob and it just stuck. Or like, I need more than that. No, last name B-O-B-B.

John Bob. Oh, B-O-B-B. I think, okay, if you have the last name of Bob, which is like typically, obviously, an abbreviated first name for like Robert, and it doesn't ring as being like sophisticated. It's just like Dan, whatever. It's like a plain name. If you have like that, like same thing. If your name was like, last name was Dan or Steve. Yeah.

Smith. Yeah, Smith at least sounds like a last name. But if it's like a typical first name, then I think you got to like doll up the first name. You got to be like Nathaniel Bob or something. That's still terrible. I know. Well, there's not a lot to work with.

I mean, ideally, you just change your last name. No, you get, I think you get like real creative, like Hawthorne. Right. Hawthorne Bob. Yeah, Hawthorne. Yeah, give like a last name for a first name. Uh-huh. Yeah, like a cool sounding last. But like if I was, it's so silly. Phoebe Bob. Phoebe Bob. Oh my God. I knew a comic, she's still around, Phoebe Bottoms.

Oh yeah, Phoebe Bottoms. I forgot about her. It's kind of a funny name. But like, yeah, but John Bob, like, like it shouldn't matter. Like the person should matter. But if I was going to see a surgeon, I'm Dr. Bob. Nah, I can't. Fuck you are. I'm sorry. I can't do it.

Can't take you seriously. Also, I was just like giggling in my head because when you were talking about the Spencer sisters having the body in the living room for a while. I'm like, of course they did. Of course they did. And then immediately my brain jumped to the regime. Oh, yeah. That Kate Winslet show. Yeah. If y'all want a non-spooky, satirical...

Just quirky, weird, and maybe Kate Winslet's most interesting role in a variety of ways. The character choices that she makes and that she takes on this lisp. It is a fantastic show. It is strange. Probably not to be watched with young children. It's just kind of weird. It would take a lot of explaining and then kind of ruin the show. But it was really good. Lastly, on the paranormal side...

Something reaching out from underneath the bed. No, thanks. Get out of here. And I like how they describe it in this one source. It's like, oh, she likes to play tricks. No, that's not cool. I wouldn't consider that like, oh, what a playful ghost. No, to me, I'm like, you brat. You fucking demon. Yeah. Yeah, you terrifying demon. That is awful. Why would you do that? That's not playing a trick. That's like, that is, I want to scare the living daylights out of you. Yeah, I want to give you a heart attack. I want you to have a heart attack and die from fright. That is a massive GTFO moment for me. If we're doing any sort of paranormal tour...

Even in broad daylight. Like, I'm not even talking about, like, a scary nighttime tour. I just broke out in chills. And anything reaches out from underneath a table, a bed, anything that I cannot immediately see underneath clear vision, I'm fucking out. So hard and fast. Things in the closet and things under the bed take me back to being a scared little kid. Totally. Like, immediately. I insist. We have, like...

we have a shitty closet situation in our primary bedroom of these like very, when we moved into that house, there was no closet. Yeah. And there were these two like nooks and so we put doors on them and to this day, and they have frosted glass on them because I was like, oh, that would look nice. Now I regret that choice. Yeah, because you see shapes. Every night, I regret that choice. Shapes behind the glass. And I like that we have very little room beneath the floor and our bed. Ideally, I would like none. Oh,

Oh, I never thought about that. Because then you don't have to worry about like anything being down there. That is so true. How did I never think of that? Like the dogs, you know, like they lose their little toys and stuff sometimes under the bed. Yeah. And still, even the day in my coming, well, I guess, yeah, my late 40s now. Yeah. Getting down on the floor and looking under there, I still have a moment of like, there better not be fucking be anything in there. Like I will lose my mind. One time there was like a dead bug and that was, I mean, like a small, and I just was like, ah! I mean, just, yeah.

Yeah, and not even any kind of spider that should ever make anyone scream. And I lost it. I wouldn't lose my mind if there was a mouse under there. I wouldn't lose my mind if there was like a little living critter of any kind or dead.

I, what I get scared of is just this completely illogical, like I go down and look under there and there is a creepy entity with its eyes just directly on me. Just somehow hiding, just laying under our bed. Okay. I'm going to need to stop the under the bed talk because it's late. We're recording. And after this, we're going to go home and go to sleep. And my brain is going to be scrambled. Okay. Do you have pictures? I do. Here's a recent photo of the McRaven house at night. Okay. Okay.

It is, you know, like a pretty creepy looking house. What do you call that style? Is that French colonial? I don't know. Like some type of antebellum mansion with the... It looks very like New Orleans. Yeah. With the...

porch i wouldn't even call that a veranda that's just a porch i forget how do you say in french like a pita i don't know i'm terrible with architectural terms pita something 1797 uh photo yeah and then here's the the home in the daylight it's a really cool house it is i i can see why they give like architectural tours and historical tours i didn't say architectural earlier i think that's part of it it's just like it's a good example of whatever the hell this is yeah they've

Despite having various owners and all the overgrowth and issues that they've had with the property over the years in terms of keeping it, updating it rather, it appears that they have done an excellent job of restoring it. Yeah. And then this is a photo of the room where 15-year-old Mary Elizabeth died in childbirth and where her spirit supposedly still makes appearances. Because that's a creepy-ass room. Yeah. A little reaching out from underneath that old bed. Right.

Uh, uh, no, thank you. And then one more. Uh, this is a photo of William Harry McRaven has nothing to do with the story other than his name is McRaven retired four-star us Navy admiral who served as the ninth commander of the U S special operations command from August of 2011 to August of 2014 member of seal team six guy that planned the operation that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, uh,

I just included him, again, because his name is McRaven. And if you look into this guy, like, living hero. Like, his story is wild. I don't know all the military terms, but I... He is a badass. Yes. I don't know all the military terms, but above his, what would be his left breast pocket, where it's like, I don't know if you call those, like, bars, but, like, all the different little...

color. He looks like he's maxed out on all the bars. Yeah. Is that, is it called bars? I don't know what it's called, but it's like, you guys know what we're saying. Not metals. It's like, no, it's just like little, it would appear like little strips of like fabric, but I know it's more than that. And this thing is like, it looks like the size of a iPhone mini. Like he has so many accolades, awards, awards,

You know, probably a four star, whatever the terms are. It's like two iPhone minis. Yeah, it's just crazy. This big square. Good for him. Yeah. Thank you for your service. Yes. Yeah. He does a lot of work regarding mental health with veterans. Yes. Has raised a bunch of money to pay for the education of children of deceased veterans. That's an incredible, very noble thing to take on. Oh, I could go on for hours about this incredible human being. And it's a dope photo. I like the little horns.

Yeah, well, maybe he's your year-end time suck. Yeah, I don't know. I got a different one planned for this year, but maybe a future year. What do I know? Didn't check in with the production team on that one. Okay, well, Dan, thanks so much for those great stories. Yes, yes.

Okay. Are you ready for some creepiness on the side? I am so ready. Okay. Do you have a Layla picked out? I do. I'm going traditional. You're going traditional? OG. OG Layla. Okay. Well, let's get into it, Dan.

I grew up in a challenging environment. My mother left my father when I was very young, and we were left in a difficult situation. My father had to work two jobs to make enough money to pay our monthly rent, which meant he was rarely home. As a result, from the age of about eight, I was often left on my own, practically raising myself until I eventually left home for college. Luckily, I was granted a scholarship which allowed me to go to college. I

I spent my college years studying wildlife biology, a lifelong interest of mine. I was always fascinated by the way animals survived and thrived with each other. After years of hard work, I had finally earned my master's degree in wildlife. I started looking for available jobs in my area, but couldn't find anything within 30 miles of my hometown.

Eventually, I did find a position opening in the town of Dallas, Texas. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I possibly would not have to move out of state if I landed this job. I sent in an application and the next day I was asked to have an interview. A few days later, I drove up to Dallas, interviewed with the company, and they told me that they would be glad to employ me and I gratefully accepted the offer.

I took the time up in Dallas to look around for homes in the area, and I eventually settled on an apartment complex in downtown Dallas. The apartment was small, but just enough for a man and his bed. I lived my life happily in that apartment for three years before I proposed to my girlfriend, Sarah. She said yes, and we got married a few months later. We moved out of the tiny apartment and into our small first home.

Fast forward a few years and we have two beautiful baby girls and we're both stressed out. The traffic in the area was too much to be driving in every day with screaming kids and the house was getting cramped. We made the executive decision to move somewhere more peaceful. I wanted to keep my job, so we only moved a couple miles away from the town of Mansfield, making it about a 20 or 30 minute drive from my office and provided a much more laid back experience for raising our family.

We bought a beautiful home in a gated community with the help of my wife's parents. The neighborhood was small, consisting of maybe 30 homes. However, all of them were lovely, large houses with large, pretty trees in their yards. Perfect for me, the nature enthusiast. And our kids loved it. Our neighbors were an elderly couple who never had had children. They eventually became our adopted grandparents to our kids, and we thought of them as family.

The house was a four-bedroom with a large living room, a kitchen, a pool, and a hot tub in the backyard. Our yard overlooked Hogpen Branch, a creek that ran throughout town and emptied into Walnut Creek. It was small and only about four feet deep behind our house. Every once in a while, we'd watch the turtles swim around, which my daughters loved.

A few years passed and our daughters were old enough to be left alone, which meant I finally had time to learn how to golf. Just across the creek was a really nice golf course. After a few weeks of playing, we invested money in a golf cart. It wasn't fancy, but it was just enough to get you around the course.

One night during the summer, my wife took our daughters out on a girls' night. I was excited to have the house to myself for an evening. Around 6 p.m., I decided to go golfing before the sun set as I still had plenty of time to play. I drove down the street and through a little alley nestled between two houses in my golf cart. It was a short drive before you got to the cart path, which had a little bridge running over Hog Pen Branch. This was where I had my first strange occurrence.

As I was going over the bridge, I heard a splash. Being the nature lover I am, I jumped out of my cart and leaned over the edge trying to see what was there. To my surprise, there was nothing there. Unlike the creek further upstream, it was fairly clear here. There were absolutely no fish, no turtles, no nothing though. All I could focus on was golf, so I dismissed it as someone skipping stones upstream.

I golfed for about two hours before it got too dark to see the ball. I packed up my clubs and began the drive back home. The pathway was long and took me a good five minutes to drive down. I was starving and planned on cooking burgers for myself when I got home. As I was driving along the trail, I noticed a few balls someone had forgotten to get out of the sand trap. I needed some, so I went in and retrieved them. As I bent over to pick up the golf balls, I heard a loud shriek.

I glanced in the direction of the noise and saw nothing except for trees and the bridge in the distance. I initially thought it could have been a fox cry due to the distinct sound, but eventually a thought clicked in my head. I had thought that there was a possible animal struggling that could have fallen in the water. Maybe that was what I heard when I heard that splash earlier.

Though it had been a while since I heard the noise, foxes are known for being fairly strong swimmers. I jumped in my cart and sped over the bridge, which was maybe 100 yards away, hoping to be able to save an animal's life. However, when I arrived at the bridge, there was nothing there. I searched under the bridge and all around the area, but just nothing. I thought it was odd, but dismissed it and headed for home.

By the time I had showered and gotten ready to grill a few patties, it was already dark. I cleaned off the grill, threw the patties on it, put on some music, and sat back to watch the flames turn the red meat brown. Just as I was about to flip the patties, I heard a screech. The sound made me jump. I walked over to the creek to find nothing.

I was getting creeped out at this point. I took my finished patties off the grill and headed indoors. I made my burgers just how I liked them and sat down at the dining room table. The table faced the window and I stared out at the dark yard, only illuminated by porch lights and the blue hue of the pool's lights. I saw nothing the entire time I ate my burgers and I sat in silence.

My silence was only broken by the arrival of my family. They came in exhausted from their night out. The kids gave me a big hug and then went upstairs to get ready for bed. I sat at the table thinking, I probably look so creepy right now, as I intensely glared out the window. My thoughts were only confirmed when my wife asked, I answered her,

I'm not sure. I've been hearing things. I thought it might have been an animal, like a fox or something, but now I'm not so sure. She replied, well, what did it sound like? Well, it sounded like a fox, which sort of sounds like a human scream, but when I looked for whatever made it, I couldn't find anything. She just replied with, huh, weird. We sat there for a moment before we heard one of our daughters say, dad, why is Mimi in the backyard?

Mimi was our neighbor, who the girls thought of as their grandma. "'What?' my wife said quietly. We looked and saw an elderly woman standing by the creek bed. The lights hardly illuminated her, but from what we could see, it was Mimi. I stood up. "'Why is she out there?' Sarah, my wife said. "'I don't know, but I'm going to go find out.' I threw on my sandals and went out the back door. "'Hello? Mary? Are you okay?'

Do you need anything? None of my questions were answered. The woman just stood there, back towards me, staring into the water. As I got closer, I noticed the awful smell of the woman. She smelled like stagnant water, like rotten eggs in decay. Mary, do you need something?

My question was never answered. I then turned and walked towards the house. I met my wife in the kitchen, and she was still looking out at the woman.

Maybe you should go let Bob know she's out there, she said. Yeah, good idea. I'll run over there. You tuck the kids in and just tell them she was looking for something, I said. I rang the doorbell once, and Bob answered the door. He seemed excited I was over, even though it was rather late at night. He told me to come in and asked me if I wanted anything. Do you want a drink or a beer, anything? Mary can get it for you, he said. Mary then peeked her face around the corner from the kitchen.

Hey, Mary, what were you looking for outside? I asked. Excuse me? She said. Yeah, you were in our backyard just a couple minutes ago. I was just wondering if you needed something or needed help finding something back there, I said. The couple fell silent. Then they looked at each other. Then at me. So you saw her, Bob said. Yeah, no, I'm not mad. I just need to know if you like drop something in the creek so I can help you get it. I said, oh, no, honey, that wasn't me.

but we know exactly who you're talking about. We call her Margaret, and we see her every now and then, Mary said. Wait, what? Who is she? I asked. We've tried to find out ourselves with no luck, but all we do know is that she is not kind. One time, Bob went out to ask her who she was, and she screamed in his face. He fell over, and she was gone. Mary explained to me. Where are the kids right now? Bob asked.

They're in the house, I replied. Oh, you need to get home now, Mary told me. I didn't even question why. I just bolted out the door. I ran to our house and when I burst in the front door, it was eerily quiet. One horrifying detail I noticed is that the back door was now wide open. I had forgotten to lock the door. I mean, you kind of grow out of that habit of locking doors at night when you live in a gated community you trust so much. Sarah! I screamed. Sarah!

Nobody answered. I sprinted upstairs to my daughter's room where I found all three of my girls huddled in the closet crying. What happened? Are y'all okay? I exclaimed. She's in the house. The lady. She's in the house. And it's not Mary, Josh. It's not Mary. My wife cried to me. I know. I know. I said, it's okay. I'm here now.

And just then, I heard a thump from the stairs. Josh! My wife cried. My daughters were sobbing. Daddy, is she going to hurt us? My daughter cried. No, sweetie, I'm not going to let that happen, I said confidently. I might have appeared brave to my family, but I too was on the verge of tears. I heard another thump.

I wanted to stay in that closet with my family, but as the man of the house, I had to do something. I grabbed my daughter's softball bat, which was leaned against the corner of the closet, and I gripped it hard. I slowly walked out of the room prepared to knock the crap out of whoever was threatening my family.

I rounded the corner and looked down the stairs. There, on the third step, was the woman staring at me. Her dress was a dark, dirty gray color, and her hair was jet black, dripping wet, her eyes black, and her mouth was still. I just stood there. I couldn't do anything. After what seemed like hours of staring, the woman slowly backed down the stairs and walked out of view.

Then, after a few moments, I heard the back door shut. What the hell? I said out loud. My mind was racing. Who was that? Why did she come in my house? I'd never believed in the paranormal before, but had I just seen a ghost? I then remembered my family was waiting for me to return. I ran back to the closet and embraced my family.

"'It's okay. It's okay. It was just Mimi,' I told my daughters. I gave my wife a look, and she went along with the white lie. We sat there for a moment before everyone's adrenaline went down, and then the girls began to grow sleepy again. We asked them if they wanted to go sleep at Mimi's and Bob's that night, and they excitedly said yes. We all packed small bags and began the quick walk to their house."

Before we left, though, I double-checked every single lock in the house, and I also made sure the lady was actually gone. She was, but the water droplets she left were not. We ran over to our grandparents' house quickly, terrified of what we might see on the way. "'What were you doing at our house?' my daughter asked Mary."

Mary glanced at Sarah and I as we gave her the look to let her know she needed to lie. "'Oh, I was just looking for some sugar. I made cookies. They're in the kitchen,' she said sweetly, and the girls ran to the kitchen. "'Thank you,' I said. "'Of course. So is everyone all right? Tell us what happened,' Mary stated. We told Bob and Mary the story, and they were shook. They had seen the woman several times before, but never thought the woman would go inside anyone's house.'

That night, the girls fell asleep quickly in the living room on the floor. The four adults, however, did not sleep a wink. We talked about our experiences, about what I saw at the bottom of the stairs, and about my experiences from earlier that day. We tried finding information about Margaret online, but there was nothing.

The next day, we took a trip to the public library. We spent all day going through files of papers. Eventually, Sarah found a paper from 1907. The article, she pointed out, reported that a woman was found dead in a creek in town. The article offered very little detail and did not specify who the woman was or which creek it was, but we allowed ourselves to believe that this was the woman who we had come into contact with.

After that night, we lived in constant fear. My job eventually caused us to move to Georgia, where my wife and I now live. Our daughters are both now in college and still have no idea what actually happened that night. As for Bob and Mary, they lived in that house until about a year ago. Now they live in a much newer house in a different city. I, however, still have questions. Why did the woman need to open the door if she was a spirit?

How did she leave physical water droplets on the floor if she was just a spirit? Or maybe this wasn't a ghost at all and it was just some jerk teenagers pulling a prank on us? If you have any feedback on what you think it was, please let us know. Thank you and God bless.

That was a really good story. It was a great story. I did think about the footsteps outside of our slider again. I know, the timing of this is not great for me. I'm like, do we have Margaret swinging by, coming up and just peeking through the slider? Fuck off. And then...

Yeah, I was worried when the story took the place, when he came back from Bob and Mary's house, Mary slash Mimi, when he came back to his house and couldn't find his family and the door was open. Oh, my God. I expected his daughters to be down there in the creek. Oh, shit. And I expected this thing to be like some entity that like drowns people. Ugh. Like lures kids to their death. Oh, it could have been like a, oh, my God, what's her name? Yalorona. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's like a figure that is-

Yeah, the spirit, that Mexican spirit or piece of folklore where she's like, she drowned her kids in real life. Uh-huh. And she's constantly looking for. Yeah, she's always found by bodies of water roaming up and down. Wearing a white dress. Creeks and streams looking for. Her deceased children, yeah. Oh, God, I did not think about that until right now. That just gave me full body chills.

So glad we don't have any water in our backyard. Oh, yeah. I would love to have a backyard with a creek or something. Well, not anymore. It's over now. Nope, nope. That dream is dead. No. You can get a pool somewhere or something. No, I'm not doing it. We're living by body water. No.

But yeah, no, that's just, and then like looking into the history and yeah. Finding, uh, that 1907 that somebody had, some lady had died in a Creek. Sounds, sounds good to me. Could be like a ghost from that. And then who knows that thing when he, when he's asking about, uh,

You know, why did it leave like water droplets? Yeah. Like, why did it need to? I thought my favorite question. Yeah. It's like if you're a spirit and you can pass through walls and things like, why did you have to open the door? But spirits, I mean, in theory, do that all the time. True. Doors open, drawers open, cupboards open. Why are they doing any of that? Like, why are they interfering with the physical world?

And that whole like, you know, water droplets, that's actually super common with certain like sightings of spirits. Makes me think about that doll in Maggie's house. I was thinking that. Uh-huh. Where there would be a little body like a puddle of water beneath it and stuff. Sometimes when she'd get up in the, you know, late night. Middle of the night or, yeah. Early morning.

Um, yeah. So like, who knows what the answer is, but I do know that those are common occurrences along with supposed ghost sightings. Yeah. I appreciate that Josh like doesn't lead with like, I'm so skeptical. Like he just kind of throws it in there like halfway through that, like, or more than halfway through. He just says like, you know,

I never believed in the paranormal, but did I just see a ghost? And you can kind of feel that vibe throughout the whole story where he's like brushing it off, brushing it off. And even like when Josh says that like Sarah found that article and they all just kind of agree like we're going with this. Like this is a good enough answer. I think I would very much be the same way. I wouldn't want to keep digging and digging and digging. I would want something to latch onto that I'm like, okay, okay.

I feel satisfied. And what are you really going to find? That's the thing too with these stories. You can dig all you want.

there's never going to be this definitive, oh my God, 100%, that explains it all and I'm totally satisfied and now I know how to avoid this in the future. Yeah. That's just not how the paranormal works. No, no. But you would if you found out that like someone died, if you lived at 123 Main Street and you were looking for information and you found out that a woman died at 123 Main Street. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You would latch onto that. You'd be like, okay, in all likelihood. Yeah.

Sorry, I just frightened a little breath stuff there. But, God, now I'm trying to remember what I was going to say. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, that's okay. No, it was... I was going to speak and then I like... All of a sudden I had like... Not like even a burp, but like a weird like hiccup-y thing. And I'm like, gosh dang it. Like when like air sort of is blocked in your diaphragm. Yeah. Oh, I know what I was going to say. Early in the story when he talked about being a... Like having a wildlife biology bachelor's and it sounds like a master's in wildlife. Yeah. And then when he...

hearing that talking about the fox and being on the golf course little trail and hearing the screeching noise I thought the story was going in such a different direction I was like oh this is a cryptid story for sure that he's going to see some animal and the thing that's going to be crazy about the story is that he's an expert in wildlife and even he doesn't know what the hell this thing is oh that would have been an interesting take yeah so I was like I was completely thrown by the where the story went and

And then just randomly, he references Josh hearing a fox scream. I didn't know foxes screamed. That was news to me. And then it sounds kind of like a human scream. So now after we record this, I'm probably going to hop on YouTube just to get it out of my system. It's like I have to pull up a video of a fox screaming and be like, what the hell does that sound like? Deet, deet, deet, deet, deet, deet, deet.

Oh my God. What does the fox say? Is that dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee? Oh my God. I haven't thought of that in forever. You are so welcome for that year. Our kids, they were so into that. Let's bring that back at Christmas because I bet that your cousin's three littles don't know that. I think we should torture her and her husband with that. Done. Boom. Merry Christmas. All right, Dan. I have one more short story. I'm excited to hear it.

Good day to the king and queen of the scaring us to death. Thank you. I have a short story about something that just happened to me. And I know I'm a peeper because even though I was terrified, after I calmed down, I was like, ooh, let me send that to Lindsay and Dan. Okay, that makes you a creeper, my friend. You've got your terms mixed up. Okay, ready? Yeah.

Yeah.

Sometimes my cat will be my company. Other times I'm by myself. I came to enjoy my own company. If you're from Wisconsin like I am, July is the month of cherry picking in Door County. I live in Milwaukee, so it's about three and a half hours to Door County, but this was nothing for me. I love Door County enough to make this day trip just for me. Since it was only a day trip, my cat did not need to go with me.

So there I was, leaving in the early morning, three and a half hours to Door County, picking tart and sweet cherries in the hot sun, kayaking on the bays of Michigan, driving around Peninsula State Park, enjoying dinner at the Fish Boil, and finally getting gas before hitting the road back home. When I was getting gas, it was already 7.30 p.m., which meant I would get home right before midnight.

A third of the way home, the sun had set and it was getting dark. My best friend called, and whenever he called, our conversations could be anywhere from a half an hour to, well, endless. About an hour into our phone call, from the corner of my eye, a light flickered. I noticed that my passenger airbag light had switched from off to on.

to now on. I was so confused. My friend kept talking about his journey to 7-Eleven on July 11th, while I looked at my passenger seat, which was full of snacks and drinks. I just started chucking snacks to the back seat, thinking that the snacks and the soda must have triggered the sensor. If you have a newer car, the passenger airbag only turns on when the pressure mats are triggered by someone's weight.

By now, the seat was completely empty, but the passenger airbag was still on. The empty seat next to me suddenly felt very eerie in the dark. I reached up to turn on the light. I kept looking from the road to the empty seat. Still on.

Nervously, I mentioned to my best friend, uh, my car is kind of freaking me out right now. The passenger airbag just turned on. Ooh, sounds like a ghost, he teased. Stop! Don't joke about that right now. I'm freaking out. Talk to me about anything else. And he did. I don't remember what he talked about, though, because a fog started rolling in and suddenly my car was the only car on the road.

I could not see lights in front of or behind my car, and the passenger airbag was still on despite the seat being empty. Another car came out of nowhere and passed me on my left, and in an instant, the fog completely lifted and the airbag was now off. The eerie feeling I had felt was gone, and traffic as normal resumed.

I made it home and everything seemed normal. It was like what had happened didn't happen. I suppose it could have been any number of things that triggered that light, a malfunction even, but it still scared me. I will be taking my cat with me from now on on all road trips, even if just for a day. Thank you for reading and happy traveling. Also, don't let a broken heart or a ghost hitchhiker stop you. Yer. Oh, thanks, Yer.

Um, God, I had never thought about that. Like the, the passenger airbag light turning on when, you know, suddenly when there's nothing new added to the passenger seat. And then that whole feeling of like, I've, I used to do that so often, uh, when I was doing standup, especially early in my standup career, like going on, you know, doing tours, uh,

driving by myself late at night. Yeah. You know, like that was a frequent thing. And I've been in that situation where you're driving through like a foggy area by yourself at night. And that just inherently is so creepy. Yeah. And then if I suddenly felt like that there was like a presence in the passenger seat next to me, for some reason, my brain went to how creepy it would be to like watch the seatbelt. Oh, God, stop it. Buckle itself. Yeah.

But next to that, yeah, just that passenger airbag light all of a sudden being like, you know, popping on like there's somebody sitting there. That is, yeah, made my hair stand up. I have to go back to the beginning. You are correct. You are a peeper. I couldn't like, my brain...

short-circuited for a second. And I was like, no, creeper. And then I was like, oh, Lindsay, you idiot, peeper. Like, you're scared, but you keep coming back for more. So, you were correct. You're... Good correction. I just like... And whenever I do stuff like that, it's all I could think about. I wanted to stop mid-story and be like, hold on. Like, my...

anxious brain cannot let it go. I know. And I was thinking, I was like, is she right? But then I didn't, I was afraid that like, I didn't want to stop your story to ask and then have me be wrong and have you be like, why did you stop my story? Like, yeah, I know. Just in the moment I was like, no, you're a peeper. And then I was like, wait, yeah, that's what they said. They're a peeper. Like the terms are so close to one another that sometimes my brain just scrambles them.

But yeah, another good story. That weird coincidence of the fog rolling in right after the airbag light comes on, and then when the fog dissipates, the airbag light goes off. Yeah, we get— Like somebody just went for a little ride in the fog. Oh, God. Yeah. I don't— It's been a long time since we've had like a foggy drive story. I feel like for a while we were getting quite a few stories from like long-haul truck drivers seeing things. I think you had some stuff. Well, we had that like hilarious—

Some people didn't think it was hilarious. Like, get well soon, roadkill shirts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, because that was all kind of, I don't know, I guess we go through little phases of types of stories. Totally. I remember early on, it might have been the first weird thing at night when somebody's driving by themselves in the car, but it was in Hawaii, and that lady with the dark hair was just standing in the middle of the road. I mean, a version of that shows up a lot. It does. It showed up, yeah, more since, but I think the first one was...

Yeah, somebody just driving around like some neighborhood in Hawaii late at night. But yeah. Good memory. Aye, aye, aye. Aye, aye, aye. Do you want to thank some Annabelles? I would love to, Dan. Thank you so much. Okay. And we'll have an update in coming episodes about your contributions this month for The Giving Tree. But thank you, Roberts and Annabelles, for continuing to make that possible. Mm-hmm. We'd like to thank the following. Hayden.

Mandy Taylor. I love this one. A feral housewife. Let me tell you how much I get that. That's awesome. The year that I didn't work, I... Feral housewife. Oh, man, did I feel that. Cynthia Legault. Bryce Hagen. And Batty Baby 23. Batty Baby 23. I love it. I'd like to thank the following Annabelles. John Bob. Johnny Bobby. Jonathan Robert. Do you have...

Robert John. Robert John. Robbie Johnny. No. Bobby John. Bobby Willie. Bobby Willie. Emily Walton. Then John Foster. Your ex-girlfriend. Heidi. Anna Holland. Not everything is a skinwalker, Lindsay. Love you, though.

And Veronica. Do I claim that a lot of things are skinwalkers? Maybe for a little while you were talking about, like, I think that's a skinwalker when it was like an outdoor thing. I'm not sure, but apparently this person thinks so. I thought that was pretty funny, though, to name their Patreon handle. Not everything is a skinwalker. Lindsay, love you, though.

Get some spoopy shout-outs? Yes, and before I do, we should be all caught up on Annabelle's for 2024. So if you are listening and at any point you have been in Annabelle and you never heard your name, please shoot us an email at info at scaredtodeathpodcast.com and we will be sure to get it sorted. It is, I know we've explained it a few times, but it's like, you know, we just log into Patreon and we just like hit filter buttons like Annabelle...

and then it produces a spreadsheet. And I can tell you because I do it week after week, I have to like look at the, okay, what was the last name from last week? So I can figure out where we start this week. And sometimes I'm like, where did that name go? So it is not an infallible system. So please reach out. We want you to get what you paid for. Yeah. And thank you so much for supporting the show, by the way. Yes. We love you. Yes. Okay. Okay.

To Jen Jen from your BFF and mom, Kim, happy birthday. I love you from the bottom of my green beans. To Mic Mac from Em, thank you for introducing me to Scare to Death and reading all of my play-by-plays as I listen. I love you to Pluto and back. To my little pocket bat from your stinky squatch,

Thank you for sharing the spookies with me and being my forever home. I love and appreciate your care and concern. You're tenacious and talented, and I'm in awe of you. Every day you shine. Every day your laugh is all things good. I love you more every day. That's awesome. I know. And that's our show. Thanks you. Thanks you? Thanks you. We thanks you. Thanks you. Dan thanks you. I thanks you. What's up?

Thanks to you to National Park After Dark for having us on. We thank you. We thank you, John-Bob. Thank you for continuing to send your personal tales of terror to mystoryatscaredtodeathpodcast.com. You can email us for everything else, info at scaredtodeathpodcast.com.

Thank you to Logan Keith for scoring today's show. Thanks to Heather Rylander organizing the My Story emails. Thanks to book editor Drew Atana for polishing and preparing the listener stories for book number six. Thank you to Olivia Lee finding both stories I shared this week. We are on Facebook and Instagram where we post pics that accompany episodes and more at Scared2DeathPodcast. We also have a private Facebook group, Creeps and Peepers, full of fellow horror lovers.

Big thanks to the All Seen Eyes, the Creeps and Peepers moderators. Thanks for making our online community such a fun and welcoming place for so many. Enjoy your nightmares, Creeps and Peepers. Hope you were scared to death. Bye. Bye.

If spirits threaten me in this place, fight water by water and fire by fire. Banish their souls into nothingness and remove their powers until the last trace. Let these evil beings bleed through time and space. Evil may pass through but have no home here within. Scared to death. Mad Magic Productions. I want to give you a heart attack. I want you to have a heart attack and die from fright.