Haunted places close to home

Iowa may be stranger than most people would guess.

With Halloween right around the corner, Chad Lewis - co-author of “The Iowa Road Guide to Haunted Locations” - says everyone, regardless of age, has the chance for their own thrill without going far from home.

“It is fun to hear about these places when they're in California or New York, but it's a lot different when they're in your backyard,” Lewis says.

As a native of Eau Claire, Wis., Lewis has been on the road speaking about his scientific research of paranormal activity eerie enough to spook any crowd.

Lewis talks of places said to be haunted with ghosts, spirits and apparitions - like Pleasant Ridge Cemetery in Palo, with a mysterious thirteenth step where eerie human shapes appear only at night.

Want More? Find more description on haunted locations in Linn and Johnson County.

Or, the Cedar Rapids Public Library before it was flooded in 2008, employees claimed the spirit of an elderly lady roamed between the aisles of books.

Helen Stein was a woman who was a frequent visitor of the library. Then one day the library staff heard of Stein's death just shortly after they had claimed to have seen her. There are also many stories of items inexplicably falling off library shelves.

Other locations - Oak Hill Cemetery in Cedar Rapids, The Black Angel of Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City - have recorded accounts of odd events occurring.

At Oak Hill Cemetery, the ghost of a young Czech woman will grant wishes, but disrespectful visitors to her grave encounter bad luck.

It's said that anyone who touches The Black Angel of Oakland Cemetery at precisely midnight will die.

Lewis says Iowans embrace their haunted places.

“Not only do you not get rid of these eerie places when strange things happen, you actually turn them into a tourist destination,” he says.

Lewis uses special cameras, audio recorders, night vision and thermal scanners when he visits a site.

He does not rank which places are most haunted in his book, because he thinks people should decide on their own.

Despite many skeptics, and the fact that Lewis says he has yet to encounter any paranormal activity, he says he has dug up many accounts of people saying they have had their own experiences.

In fact, Janet Powell of Marion, who saw Lewis speak recently in Coralville, says she had many experiences - such as hearing deep voices, and feeling the touch of spirits - that all scared her.

A fairly new ghost seeker, 14-year-old Jerred Albaugh of Iowa City, says he wants to plan a ghostly adventure.

“I actually like haunted places,” he says.

And those adventures might be closer than you think, Lewis says.

“How much do you know about the history of your house?” he says. “Is it possible you're living in a haunted house right now?”