Butler County has a long and storied history with some spooky twists. When European settlers arrived, they found not only Native settlements but also earthworks that remain a mystery--as are the strange lights still seen near them. The disturbed spirit of a frontier soldier roams the basement of the Soldiers, Sailors, and Pioneers Monument, and Busenbark is haunted by the Hatchet Man, who committed his crimes 175 years ago. At Miami University, the ghost of Helen Peabody wanders the building that bears her name. Just outside of town, many drive to see the Oxford Ghost Light, and a weekend visit to the Screaming Bridge of Maud-Hughes Road is a high school rite of passage. Hamilton native and owner of an actual haunted house Daniel D. Schneider explores the terrifying train tracks, creepy canals, scary streets, and bewitched bridges of Butler County.

At a casual glance, Hamilton is a typical midwestern town, but a closer look reveals strange and inexplicable events of possibly supernatural origin. A mischievous poltergeist plays its tricks in a High Street tavern. More than a century ago, a young boy narrowly escaped death in a fall that left him gravely ill, and some say his cries still echo in his family home. A vaporous woman appears on the stairs of a Hamilton home once owned by one of the county's richest men. Could this be his daughter who died from suicide? Hamilton native and contributor to the Dayton Lane Ghost Walk Shi O'Neill mines the history of the town's many spectral occurrences.

Butler County has a long and storied history with some spooky twists. When European settlers arrived, they found not only Native settlements but also earthworks that remain a mystery--as are the strange lights still seen near them. The disturbed spirit of a frontier soldier roams the basement of the Soldiers, Sailors, and Pioneers Monument, and Busenbark is haunted by the Hatchet Man, who committed his crimes 175 years ago. At Miami University, the ghost of Helen Peabody wanders the building that bears her name. Just outside of town, many drive to see the Oxford Ghost Light, and a weekend visit to the Screaming Bridge of Maud-Hughes Road is a high school rite of passage. Hamilton native and owner of an actual haunted house Daniel D. Schneider explores the terrifying train tracks, creepy canals, scary streets, and bewitched bridges of Butler County.

There is a dark history in southwest Ohio that some people would much rather forget. A riot tore through downtown Cincinnati in 1884, a fire burned relentlessly at the Salvation Army orphanage on Front Street, and one of the largest mass murders in history occurred in a small, unassuming home in Hamilton. Many of these tragedies have begun to fade away, forgotten in dusty books hidden on library shelves. The spirits of those involved in these tragedies, though, are not so easily forgotten. Many of the most popular historic sites and some of the lesser-known and forgotten corners of southwest Ohio are haunted by the spirits of those who lived and died there. Haunted Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio examines the ghostly history of more than 30 such locations. It tells ghost stories and reports historic events from area theaters, cemeteries, museums, parks, roads, railroad tracks, and even a castle through narrative and photographs. Perhaps the ghosts are history's way of remembering the past--even those dark corners of the past that few would like to relive.

A collection of Ohio ghost stories and ghostlore from Native American tales to contemporary haunted houses.

Traditional ghostlore collected from oral histories and family traditions around Ohio.

Series statement from publisher's website.