Sumter County's serene beauty is cloaked by mystery--a Seminole sage's timeless spell, a lurking swamp monster, a family's spirited legacy and the ghostly cries of brokenhearted souls. Floridian bad boys, mobsters and bank robbers line the pages of Sumter County's criminal past. Murder, mayhem and mystery are embedded in our cultural timeline, from the indigenous eradication to the present-day retirement utopia. Step into the paranormal possibilities swirling inside the historic Baker House in Wildwood. Sense the residual energy that sways from Sumter County's courthouse front steps. Feel the county's macabre history come alive as Deborah Carr Hollingsworth churns up chilling tales from our mysterious past.

In a land occupied for thousands of years, mystery and unrest linger. Anguished soldierly figures dot the landscape of Pasco County, from the doomed march of Major Dade and his haunted hill to the ghost of Captain Jeffries standing watch over his homestead in Zephyrhills. A pair of spirits drifts about near a Dade City pond, perhaps the brother and sister cut down during the infamous Bradley Massacre. Echoes of the once rugged frontier rebound from the Ellis-Gillett feud, vigilantism and Sheriff Bart's justice. Obliterating the mounds of indigenous people cast an ever-present and ominous tone over sacred grounds throughout the county. Author Madonna Wise shares ethereal accounts of the Meighan Theatre, the treacherous Road to Nowhere, the Edwinola Hotel and more.

Jimmy Carter re-creates his boyhood on a Georgia farm.

(FAQ Pop Culture). Take a fast-paced survey of the ghosties, ghouls, and associated denizens of the country's haunted history with Haunted America FAQ . Tracing local ghost stories back to Native American legends and then forward through horror tales both ancient and modern, the book revisits some of the best known haunted locales, as well as some of the most obscure creepy places, in America. Delving deep into the cultural history of American hauntings, Haunted America FAQ includes chapters on ghostly books, movies, and television. Also included is an A-Z of reality-TV ghost hunts and a state-by-state gazetteer of haunted spots.

Ghost stories from the American South have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery! The haunted history of cities across the southeast come to life--even when the main players are dead. Have you heard about the ghosts at the Mayberry Inn in Hot Springs, Arkansas? Their connection to the Inn is so strong--and grisly--they may never check out! Did you know the Springer Opera House in Columbus, Georgia, is haunted by the brother of one of the most infamous men in American history? Do you know the history of the majestic--and haunted--tombs of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans, Louisiana? Dive into this spooky chapter book for suspenseful tales of bumps in the night, paranormal investigations, and the unexplained; just be sure to keep the light on.

Gear up for a frightful journey into the mysterious Ocala National Forest. Central Florida is known as the happiest place on Earth. But an hour's drive from the amusement parks lies a forest swirling with mystery. For generations, locals have whispered about a dark energy coming from the Ocala National Forest and drifting into nearby towns. Supernatural beasts and apparitions. Ghost lights galore. From cults to monsters to the spirts of those who ventured in yet never reemerged, the woods have long been a source of rumor and tragedy. The vengeful Coyote Woman who dispatches those with evil natures. The soldier of Fort King who vanishes when addressed. The spectral monk of Astor, on the hunt for his killer. Author and folklorist Christopher Balzano takes readers among the trees and beyond to offer a glimpse into the true stories, urban legends and haunted folklore whispered among the residents of these deep woods..

During the Civil War, approximately 56,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died in enemy military prison camps. Even in the midst of the war's shocking violence, the intensity of the prisoners' suffering and the brutal manner of their deaths provoked outrage, and both the Lincoln and Davis administrations manipulated the prison controversy to serve the exigencies of war. As both sides distributed propaganda designed to convince citizens of each section of the relative virtue of their own prison system -- in contrast to the cruel inhumanity of the opponent -- they etched hardened and divisive memories of the prison controversy into the American psyche, memories that would prove difficult to uproot. In Haunted by Atrocity, Benjamin G. Cloyd deftly analyzes how Americans have remembered the military prisons of the Civil War from the war itself to the present, making a strong case for the continued importance of the great conflict in contemporary America. Throughout Reconstruction and well into the twentieth century, Cloyd shows, competing sectional memories of the prisons prolonged the process of national reconciliation. Events such as the trial and execution of CSA Captain Henry Wirz -- commander of the notorious Andersonville prison -- along with political campaigns, the publication of prison memoirs, and even the construction of monuments to the prison dead all revived the painful accusations of deliberate cruelty. As northerners, white southerners, and African Americans contested the meaning of the war, these divisive memories tore at the scars of the conflict and ensured that the subject of Civil War prisons remained controversial. By the 1920s, the death of the Civil War generation removed much of the emotional connection to the war, and the devastation of the first two world wars provided new contexts in which to reassess the meaning of atrocity. As a result, Cloyd explains, a more objective opinion of Civil War prisons emerged -- one that condemned both the Union and the Confederacy for their callous handling of captives while it deemed the mistreatment of prisoners an inevitable consequence of modern war. But, Cloyd argues, these seductive arguments also deflected a closer examination of the precise responsibility for the tragedy of Civil War prisons and allowed Americans to believe in a comforting but ahistorical memory of the controversy. Both the recasting of the town of Andersonville as a Civil War village in the 1970s and the 1998 opening of the National Prisoner of War Museum at Andersonville National Historic Site reveal the continued American preference for myth over history -- a preference, Cloyd asserts, that inhibits a candid assessment of the evils committed during the Civil War. The first study of Civil War memory to focus exclusively on the military prison camps, Haunted by Atrocity offers a cautionary tale of how Americans, for generations, have unconsciously constructed their recollections of painful events in ways that protect cherished ideals of myth, meaning, identity, and, ultimately, a deeply rooted faith in American exceptionalism.