Phantoms and Monsters |  |
- Additional Ray-Shaped Cryptid Sightings in WV Ohio River Valley Revealed
- Recent UFO Sightings / Reports / Updates - 9/29/2010
- Fortean / Oddball News: The Baboon Boy, Stonehenge Bodies and Hotel Death Ray
- Welsh Lighthouse Receives Top Ghost Rating
| Additional Ray-Shaped Cryptid Sightings in WV Ohio River Valley Revealed Posted: 29 Sep 2010 11:50 AM PDT
This is a very interesting report. I've been researching ghost, monster and cryptid reports in West Virginia for a few years now. Wrote a wee slim book on the topic. We now have a growing body of reports and stories about an odd "ray-shaped" cryptid in the area. For my book, I collected a story (which at the time I thought was an excellent story but very unlikely--just too weird to credit much beyond its campfire value) about a man who encountered a huge ray-shaped thing straddling the road ahead of him. Initially it was visible only as two reddish-orange spots that he mistook for bicycle reflectors in the fog. When he honked his horn, the "reflectors" blinked at him, then the whole body lifted up off the road and sort of glided down over the hill to disappear into the fog-filled valley below. There is a sighting reported in Bob Tweet's excellent "West Virginia UFO's: Close Encounters in the Mountain State" in which a boy in a car spots a white "furry" shape gliding along beside the car. It was described as being four feet across with no discernible limbs or separate head. More recently, a woman and her daughter reported the "Horton Horror" near Horton WV. This was also a manta-shaped Something that glided along over or near their car. There's an old story about something in the fog at Foggy Bottom (I believe this particular "Foggy Bottom" is an area near Wheeling, WV--since developed) in which a dog is lifted up above the fog and is whisked off--sitting on the top of something that glides away. Dog is never seen again. That story is presented as a sort of UFO encounter, but I think it fits the pattern forming for these other stories. There are now at least three stories/sightings from near Point Pleasant and others up the Ohio Valley. Strange. I have no idea what is going on, what people may or may not be seeing, but I think there are enough reports now to say that this represents SOME kind of phenomenon. Folks, we have an emerging Monster tradition! All fresh and relatively new! Something that is most definitely not another manifestation of "Mothman", but a phenomenon in its own right! Hey! I'm excited! It's not everyday you get to watch a paranormal or cryptozoological pattern form almost right in front of your eyes! Kurt McCoy (author "White Things: West Virginia's Weird White Monsters" and self-confessed monster aficionado) ********** Winged Manta Ray Shaped Cryptid - Near Ashton, WV - 12/3/2004  I received the following email in reference to my post The Mothman Cometh: John Keel's Reports on August 13th. Much of this was included in a piece written by Chris Holly, but there have been a few changes. Note...click images for larger version: Hi Lon, thanks for responding so quickly. Here are my drawings and report. Chris Holly reported my story pretty much verbatim, so I will repeat it here for you in a slightly different form. Date: Dec. 3, 2004 Time:6:00 - 7:00pm Weather Conditions: clear and already dark. Moon hadn't risen yet Location: Traveling south on Rt.2 in WV from Point Pleasant to Huntington WV. Near Ashton WV (see map) A friend and I were traveling on Rt. 2 towards Huntington WV. I was on my way to set up my booth for an art show and my mind was occupied with the booth set up and show logistics. We had just gone over the railroad tracks outside of Ashton WV and were on a long straight stretch of road. There was distant oncoming traffic and the headlights were on. There were no cars behind us in sight. I was in the passenger seat and my friend was driving. I noticed a sudden movement in the sky over the Ohio River to my right in front of the car. It was a greyish, smooth, winged shape. the shape swooped in a figure 8 in front of the windshield and then was suddenly gone to the left of us. It didn't fly out of sight, it was just gone. This happened very quickly, but as I am a visual artist, it was impressed into my memory banks! Size: Bigger than the car. The wingspread was wider than the 2 lane road we were on. The wings seemed to stretch wider somehow as it did the figure 8 swoop. It was never more than 25 feet away from us as it flew towards the windshield. We thought it was going to crash into the windshield! At one point during the swoop it was only about 5 feet off of the pavement. Color: Grey, translucent like a jellyfish. As it banked and swooped I could see many angles of it and somehow it looked more transparent as it turned some parts to us. I immediately thought it was like a manta ray. The body was flattish like a manta ray or a bat. The wings were long and smooth and sort of pointed at the tip. I saw no texture or roughness on it, only smooth surface. Characteristics: Only body and wings- no head, eyes, tail, or feet. It did not look humanoid in any way. On the other hand, it wasn't a bird either. It moved more like something in the ocean would move - Did not flap the wings like a bird, or flutter them like a bat, but stretched them instead. My friend (who alas passed away a year ago) said to him the wings looked ragged like there were pieces coming off of them.  He also said he got a good look at the underneath and it looked grey and smooth. This absolutely was not a machine! It was articulated like a living creature and seemed like something organic. As I look back on this sighting, I wonder if it was something playing with us - It happened so quickly that the only scary part was when we thought it was going to crash into the windshield. It was so beautiful and strange! It reminded me of a sea creature more than anything else, maybe our air is like water to them. The only other time in my life I have ever seen anything remotely similar was in 2000 in Clay Co. WV, driving along a one lane road along the Elk River (a river was present in both instance -I just realized) In that case, I was alone and for about a mile as I drove, I kept noticing a shimmer in front of the car about 15 feet ahead of the car. This was late morning in the summer. It preceeded the car at the same distance for several minutes, then I noticed a shadow on the road too, large and shaped sort of like a bird. I looked up out of the windshield and there was a large crow flying above me. But what I first saw in front of the car was not a shadow, it was a disturbance in the air in front of my car that looked like a heat mirage sort of but was very close. This was a curvy country road right by the river. I had never seen heat mirages on that road before or since. At the time I thought that it was just sort of weird, then very close to that time I had a very lucid dream that I was in my car flying over the river right near the place where I saw the shadow.  As an artist, my mind is open to many possibilities and explanations - I think the unseen world is just a small vibrational frequency away. As a child I was fascinated by fairies and nature spirits and spent a lot of time alone outdoors. NOTE: though there have been several variations in describing the 'Mothman', this particular description is unique and most likely represents another cryptid or non-terrestrial entity. As well as the Mothman sightings, the area along the Ohio River (southern Ohio and southwest West Virginia) has had a large number of other paranormal events including UFOs, large apparitions and hauntings, native and folklore based creatures, etc...Lon Additional Ray-Shaped Cryptid Sightings in WV Ohio River Valley Revealed          | ||
| Recent UFO Sightings / Reports / Updates - 9/29/2010 Posted: 29 Sep 2010 10:58 AM PDT    Camera: Nikon D300 Lens: Nikon DX 18-135mm Exposure: 1/160 sec @ f16 ISO 200 ********** MUFON CMS - St.Clair Shores, MI - 1978 or 1979 - (unedited): I saw a streak of light in the sky while turning south onto Little Mack Ave. in St. Clair Shores, MI 48081 in 1978 or 1979 (I never could remember the year). I was traveling from east to west as I turned onto Little Mack Ave. It was a Friday. I thought that it was a reflection off the wing of a plain or something, and remember it was just dusk at the time and there was still a sunset to the west. Just ahead, at Martin Rd., I saw it coming closer, so I turned west onto Martin Rd. at the intersection (I could never remember if I had to stop at the traffic light there at all, but I know there is one at that intersection), and then I turned directly left into a church parking lot. The disk like craft came down directly over the church/rectory and hovered about 20 ft. above it. I just couldn't believe it. It was silently rotating with bright lights coming off the bottom to it. It was disk-like with a very wide band of windows around the middle of the thing. Thinking back now, the wide band of windows must not have been rotating with the rest of the craft. It was very early spring time, and I had some young children in the back set of the car. I sat parked and looking up at it right straight out of my front windshield. There were people/beings (?) looking down at me. It looked like some sort of open spaced mess hall inside with them sitting around squarish tables. Two of them then were standing up and came up to the windows, and they just started down at me and the car. Others at the tables then turned their heads as if to notice my car. They had shoulder length light hair. Their hair styles reminded me of the old page-boy style from years ago. They seemed to have on some sort of jump-suit. I remember thinking that one of them must have been female. I knew they could see me, and it felt really weird to me that they could see me and knew I was there. I can't remember if I'd turned my car engine off or if my car was still running (I've always wondered about that). I could see right into their craft. It was very brightly lit up inside. I don't remember seeing/hearing any other traffic lights/car noises or anything. It just seemed totally dark out, and there was no noise at all. I remember I had my hands on the steering wheel. Then all of a sudden the craft went right up about approx. 100 ft. (maybe less), and it veered off to the south-west slowly at first, then it went at lighting speed till it was just a pin prick of light in the sky. I thought that someone else must have seen the thing (no other cars were around at all, no traffic nothing), and I wanted to see where it went. So, I left the parking lot by it's exit onto a side street, which I took till I got to 11 Mile Rd. But, by then it wasn't visible at all. I turned left (east) onto 11 Mile Rd., and I considered going to the police station there at Jefferson Ave., but thought they'd think I was crazy. I noticed some traffic then. So, I didn't stop at the station, but just turned and continued on. I don't know why I just went home, and I didn't think/talk about it at all that night, nor all weekend. Also, I didn't phone or tell anyone about it that night either. The children in the back seat were to young to remember what happened. It's possible it may have taken place early in the spring of 1978. I could never remember the date/year at all, but have tried to often. For some reason I can't, but my best guess is that it was in 1979. I know (I'm positive) it was a Friday near dusk when I saw this. I didn't feel afraid, but there was some mild fear when the two figures were at the window of their craft looking down at my car. I think I felt this way because I had young children in the back seat of my car with me. I was also in awe that this thing was hovering so close by me over a church/rectory. I didn't have to stretch my neck up or back to see it out of my front car windshield at all. It was just like watching something on screen right out of my car windshield. I remember it was totally black out as I watched this thing from the driver's seat of my car. I've wondered about it being totally dark out then, since I could see the sunset when I was turning south onto Little Mack Ave. just a little bit before. I also never took noticed of the time when I got home. The next Tuesday, on the car radio I heard that there were sightings of UFO's over northern MI. I've never talked about this with anyone. I'm an educated person with advanced degrees, and I want to remain totally anonymous and not be contacted by anyone. I felt I had to tell MUFON about what I saw and I hope that it may be of some help to you and also others. The above phone # and email address are not mine, but bogus I'm sorry to say. I had to put somethng in those areas so I could submit this to you. **********    MUFON CMS - Great Britain (no specific location) - 9/16/2010 - (unedited): I AM 49 YEARS OLD AND ON THE 16/09/2010I WAS WOKE UP BY THE SOUND OF A HELICOPTER ABOVE MY HOUSE WHEN MY PARTNER WENT TO LOOK HE SAID THERE WAS A LIGHT ABOVE IT BY THE TIME I GOT OUT OF BED THE HELICOPTER HAD GONE BUT THE LIGHT REMAINED IN THE SKY I MANAGED TO TAKE SEVERAL PHOTOS AND A FEW VIDEOS IT WASN'T UNTIL I WOKE UP AND LOOKED AT THE PICS THAT I REALISED HOW CLEAR THE PHOTO'S ARE THE PHOTOS ARE IN MY CAMERA MEMORY SO MY FATHER PUT THEM ON THE COMPUTER FOR ME EACH PHOTO IS DIFFERENT AND THEY HAVE MADE ME FEEL REALLY SCARED TO LOOK AT THEM THERE IS CLEAR IMAGES OF SOMETHING LIFELIKE A FEW OF THEM REALLY DO LOOK LIKE ALIENS BUT I JUST THINK PEOPLE WILL LAUGH AT ME .MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS HAVE ALL SAID I NEED THEM TO BE LOOKED AT.I HAVE TRIED TO GET SOMEONE TO TAKE A LOOK BUT DON'T KNOW WHERE TO GO FROM HERE.CANNOT EXPLAIN WHAT I THOUGHT IT WAS I ALSO NOTICED SOME VERY SMALL LIGHT COMING OF IT THEY WHERE RED AND BLUE AT ONE POINT I SAW IT CHANGE INTO A BLUE CIRCLE WITH TINY RED AND BLUE LIGHTS INSIDE THE CIRCLE WHICH RESEMBLED A BICYCLE WHEEL IT CHANGED BACK AFTER A SHORT TIME I ACTUALLY WAS LOOKING AT IT AT THE TIME.THIS WAS WHEN I GOT REALLY SCARED AND WAS SO SHOCKED I SCREAMED FOR MY PARTNER TO COME. I CONTINUED TO WATCH IT UNTIL 4/45AM WHEN I NOTICED IT GOING AWAY FROM MY VIEW. ********** ATTENTION: I am very pleased at the attention the blog receives and I realize that many of the readers also have blogs and websites. I just asked one favor...if you're going to use any of the material from 'Phantoms and Monsters' blog and/or wiki, please link back to the post. Thanks for reading...Lon Recent UFO Sightings / Reports / Updates - 9/29/2010      | ||
| Fortean / Oddball News: The Baboon Boy, Stonehenge Bodies and Hotel Death Ray Posted: 29 Sep 2010 09:47 AM PDT Lucas the 'Baboon Boy'  "It is fascinating for those of us that knew Lucas the Baboon Boy to still hear people writing him off as bulls**t," 81-year-old retired farmer Gordon Arnold said. As a child, Arnold would grab his catapult and hunt birds with "Luke" – who he claims "would wring their necks, pull out a few feathers and eat them raw" – in the Trappes Valley area 70 years ago. "I was always convinced the story of Lucas the baboon boy was true." Arnold said Lucas had scars all over his body, including a massive one across his face, apparently from when he tried to steal ostrich eggs with the baboon troop. "He also said he broke his leg when he fell off a krantz stealing honey with the baboons." South Africa's own Tarzan boy made headlines in the Dispatch and all over the world between 1928 and 1938, and there was even talk of making a Hollywood movie . But it all fell apart when the esteemed American Journal of Psychology (AJP) labelled the story a hoax in 1940. According to a Dispatch story on a paper by internationally renowned Wits University anatomy professor Raymond Dart to a science congress in East London in 1939, the story of Lucas was "the most strongly certified case" of a feral child .  In the 1953 book Assegai over the Hills, by Grahamstown author FC Metrowich, news of Lucas' death in Settler's Hospital in 1948 "created only a faint stir of excitement in the South African press". "Yet there was a time this primitive, uneducated K****r achieved worldwide notoriety," he wrote. In the book, a copy of which is at the Cory Library at Rhodes University, a young Xhosa baby was "kidnapped" by baboons when his mother left him under a bush while she tilled a field. Legend has it that several years later, in 1900, a young boy was captured by police after he was spotted running with a troop of baboons near Bathurst and taken to the Grahamstown Mental Hospital. But no records of the feral boy existed at the hospital. Subsequent interviews with officials revealed although a young boy called Lucas was found and admitted to the hospital at the time, he came from "Burghersdorp" – miles away from where the baboon boy was allegedly found near the Fish River. It was only after he was taken in by Bathurst blacksmith George H Smith in 1903 that the baboon boy story took root. He lived with the Smiths for more than 40 years. A treasure trove of photographs and press clippings detailing the controversial "baboon boy" are housed at Grahamstown's Albany Museum and Cory Library, which both allowed the Dispatch access to the archives. Norman Clayton, who went to school with Smith's son Eric 80 years ago, told how he used to see Lucas every day on his way to school at nearby Thornhill Farm. The retired farmer, 89, said Lucas "did not talk much" and was "a bit backward". "Lucas used to act like a baboon … he would run on all fours." Although academics scoff at claims that Lucas was raised by baboons, Clayton said locals always believed it. "We never questioned it … he ran around like a baboon." Eric Smith died earlier this year. His widow, "Aunt Aggie", never met the "baboon boy", but she heard all about him during their 59 years of marriage. "Some people say it is hooey, but I don't think so. Eric always said it was true." Another retired farmer recalled Lucas riding a horse with no tack. "Boet, he used to ride around bareback … he would use his feet to steer the horse." But US historian Professor Roger Levine, who teaches modern South African and African history at Sewanee: University of the South, Tennessee, is not convinced Lucas ever lived with baboons. Levine did a "bunch of work on Lucas" when he was in Cape Town 10 years ago that featured on National Geographic's Is it Real TV series for an episode on "wild" children. " I argue that the way he was presented to the world reveals a lot about white racial attitudes." Levine, born in Johannesburg and educated at Boston and Yale universities, is certain the story was a hoax designed to cash in on a person who was "slow or mentally retarded". "My take on it is that he exhibited a certain set of behaviour that Smith saw and said 'I can say he grew up that way' – and then perhaps he coached Lucas on how to answer certain questions." Calling the "white settlers gullible", Levine said: "I think it's to do with how whites at the time hoped to view Africans … almost like wish fulfilment." ********** Las Vegas Hotel 'Death Ray' Burning Guests myfoxla - A new hotel on the Las Vegas strip is so hot that it is burning guests. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the south-facing tower of the curving Vdara Hotel at CityCenter is reflecting the sun's rays and directing them at the pool area, melting plastic and causing hot areas. Hotel pool employees are calling it the "Vdara death ray." A spokesman for Vdara owner MGM Resorts International is using the term "hot spot" or "solar convergence" and said designers are working with staff to find solutions. Solar convergence is when the sun's heat is amplified off a curved building and creates areas of increased heat. The heat at the hotel pool was strong enough that the metal parts of some chairs were too hot to touch, AOL News found on a visit Monday. Chicago attorney Bill Pintas, who owns a condo in the $8.5 billion, six-skyscraper development, which opened in December, told the news site that he experienced the intense heat after returning to his chair after a swim. "Within 30 seconds, the back of my legs and back were burning, he said. My first thought was, 'They destroyed the ozone layer!" ABC News reported that the heat has also melted plastic. The Review-Journal said designers had worried about such an issue and tried to solve it by using a high-tech film on the south-facing glass panes. MGM spokesman Gordon Absher said more than 70 percent of the sun's reflected rays are scattered but acknowledged that is not enough. Pintas, a personal injury attorney, told AOL News that he believes there is a liability issue. "It's just a matter of time before someone's going to be very badly hurt," he said. Absher said other Las Vegas resorts with glass facades have had similar problems. ********** Another Chef Ramsay 'Goner'  Joseph Cerniglia, the 39-year-old owner of Campania in Fair Lawn, is the second chef to commit suicide after appearing on one of Ramsay's high-heat, reality-cooking series. Cerniglia -- once the executive chef at Manhattan's famed Gallagher's Steak House -- had been deeply in debt when his Italian eatery was featured in the first season of "Kitchen Nightmares" in 2007. During the series, foul-mouthed celebrity foodie Ramsay would verbally bash down-on-their-luck restaurateurs in hopes of getting them back on track. "Your business is about to f - - king swim down the Hudson," the brash Brit berated Cerniglia, a married dad of three who lived in Pompton Lakes. Ramsay fumed about the eatery's huge portions, lousy food quality, poor service and the sophomoric antics of the kitchen staff. "Why did you become a chef-owner if you haven't a clue how to run a business?" Ramsay railed at Cerniglia. Cerniglia conceded that "Campania definitely has its share of problems, big problems." He noted that the once-popular restaurant had fallen into desperate straits. "I'm financially in trouble -- the debt of the restaurant alone is overwhelming. My personal debt -- wife, kids mortgage -- that's a lot of debt," he moaned on the show. "I owe my purveyors about $80,000 right now in cold, hard cash . . . I can't see us going on another year." Cerniglia's wife, Melissa, sobbed during the show, "People like us put everything on the line for a dream, and I just want to see him have the time to succeed. "If this business fails, we will lose everything." Cerniglia's business managed to survive after Ramsay made a series of changes and held a grand reopening. In fact, patrons yesterday said the eatery had been thriving. "The place is really doing well -- the parking lot is packed on weekends," said a woman who works at the tanning salon next door. Another salon worker, Evelina Grzymala, 22, said Cerniglia was grateful to Ramsey for helping him turn his business around. "[Cerniglia] said Ramsey was intense but that he turned out to be a nice guy, that in the end, he helped him out," Grzymala recalled. "I don't believe Joe's gone," she said sadly. "I saw him here last week, and he was on his cellphone, waving and walking by, like he always did." Cerniglia killed himself Friday afternoon. Authorities said a motorist called 911 after seeing a man standing on the George Washington Bridge just before 1 p.m. His body was later recovered from the river. Cerniglia's family posted a message on his Facebook page saying they wanted "to thank all of the friends that have sent their condolences" -- and asked that financial donations be sent in lieu of flowers to support his widow and their three sons, Evan, Michael and Nicholas. In a statement issued this morning, Ramsay said, "I was fortunate to spend time with Joe during the first season of 'Kitchen Nightmares.' Joe was a brilliant chef, and our thoughts go out to his family, friends and staff." The first person to star in a Ramsay show and then kill herself was chef Rachel Brown. Brown, 41, competed on Ramsay's "Hell's Kitchen" -- a series pitting aspiring chefs against each other -- in 2006. She had been eliminated on the fifth episode, but returned to the series for the finale to help chef Heather West nab the top prize. Brown shot herself to death in her family's Dallas home a year later. **********  Another Genius metro - One man has proved people will do almost anything for money, after a leaked mugshot has shown him with the name of a radio station tattooed on his forehead. David Jonathan Winkelman was listening to the hard rock station KORB with his stepbrother Richard Goddard back in the year 2000, when the presenter announced anyone willing to permanently etch the logo of the station on their forehead would be in for a six-figure sum. The gullible pair, who hail from Iowa in the US, upon hearing the offer, paid a visit to the local tattoo parlour and emerged a short while later with Quad City Rocker and 93 Rock etched on their faces. They then went on to hear the most disappointing news of their lives, when staff at the radio station informed the brothers that the competition had in fact been a practical joke – and their six-figure payout would never materialise. Winkelman has now found that his mistake has been plastered all over the internet, after a mugshot taken when he was arrested on a misdemeanour charge found its way online. Following the incident, both Winkelman and Goddard tried to sue the station, claiming that it had intended to permanently mark its listeners so they 'could be publicly scorned and ridiculed for their greed and lack of common good sense'. Both cases were eventually dismissed. With tattoo removal often costing thousands of pounds and taking several months, it looks like the pair will have to put up with the funny looks for a bit longer. ********** New Stonehenge Mystery cbsnews - A wealthy young teenager buried near Britain's mysterious Stonehenge monument came from the Mediterranean hundreds of miles away, scientists said Wednesday, proof of the site's importance as a travel destination in prehistoric times. The teen - dubbed "The Boy with the Amber Necklace" because he was unearthed with a cluster of amber beads around his neck - is one of several sets of foreign remains found around the ancient ring of imposing stones, whose exact purpose remains unknown. The British Geological Survey's Jane Evans said that the find, radiocarbon dated to 1,550 B.C., "highlights the diversity of people who came to Stonehenge from across Europe," a statement backed by Bournemouth University's Timothy Darvill, a Stonehenge scholar uninvolved with the discovery. "The find adds considerable weight to the idea that people traveled long distances to visit Stonehenge, which must therefore have had a big reputation as a cult center," Darvill said in an e-mail Wednesday. "Long distance travel was certainly more common at this time than we generally think." The skeleton, thought to be that of a 14- or 15-year-old, was unearthed about two miles (3 kilometers) southeast of Stonehenge, in southern England. Clues to the adolescent's foreign origins could be found in the necklace, which isn't a recognized British type. But he was traced to the area around the Mediterranean Sea by a technique known as isotope analysis, which in this case measured the ratio of strontium and oxygen isotopes in his tooth enamel. Different regions have different mixes of elements in their drinking water, for example, and some of those are absorbed into a person's tooth enamel as he or she grows up. Analysis of the isotopes of oxygen and strontium carried in the enamel can give scientists a good but rather general idea of where a person was raised. The teen, whose necklace suggests he came from a rich family, is one of several long-distance travelers found near Stonehenge. The "Amesbury Archer," so-called because of the stone arrowheads he was found with, was buried three miles (5 kilometers) from Stonehenge but is thought to have come from the Alpine foothills of central Europe. The "Boscombe Bowmen," also found nearby, are thought to have come from Wales or possibly Brittany. It isn't clear precisely what drew these people to Stonehenge, a site which has existed in various forms for some 5,000 years. It clearly had an important ceremonial function, and the area around it is dotted with the remains of prehistoric monuments and tombs. Some say it was at the center of a sun-worshipping culture or that it served as a kind of astronomical calendar. Others, like Darvill, also say it might have been an important healing site, drawing pilgrims from across Europe like a prehistoric version of Lourdes. Fortean / Oddball News: The Baboon Boy, Stonehenge Bodies and Hotel Death Ray      | ||
| Welsh Lighthouse Receives Top Ghost Rating Posted: 29 Sep 2010 08:16 AM PDT  Haunted Britain, published by the AA, gives South Stack lighthouse the maximum five ghost rating for its resident spectral keeper who's forever locked out in a storm. Meanwhile Plas yn Rhiw, near Aberdaron, gets a rating of three for its two resident ghosts. South Stack first opened in 1809 and, according to Ian Jones who's written a book about its history, it was quite a happy place until 25 October, 1853. This was the night when one of the greatest storms hit the Anglesey coast, wrecking 200 ships, including the famous Royal Charter. "The story is that keeper Jack Jones was on his way down to the lighthouse that night," said Ian. "When he reached the bottom of the 400 steps, before crossing the bridge over to the island, a gust of wind broke a rock off the cliffs above and struck him on the head. "He managed to drag himself over the bridge, but was found outside the door the next day, very badly hurt. He died a fortnight later from his injuries." They say it's Jack's ghost that can be heard pounding on the lighthouse door at night, or tapping on its windows, still in search of refuge. "I've been there when it's dark and the wind does roar through the building," said Ian. "You do hear all sorts of sounds. "And the light is still in use, so you do see it going round, lighting up the cliffs and the sea. It's quite dramatic." The building had such a reputation that TV programme Most Haunted paid it a visit a few years ago. "I'm sceptical about these things, to put it mildly," said Dave Stack at the lighthouse ticket office. "But some of the things they encountered were fairly convincing. "They went to an outbuilding and something like a small horseshoe, which the keepers probably fitted to their shoes, was thrown out at Yvette Fielding, the presenter." Dave and Ian had come across this item some months before, but had mislaid it. "She didn't know anything about that, and there was no-one in the room at the time," he said. "Then they claimed to see someone looking through the window. They gave chase, but the figure jumped over the cliff into the sea." Plas yn Rhiw's ghosts include an alcoholic old servant, whose heavy footsteps can be heard on the creaky floorboards at night. There's also the forlorn figure of the white lady. According to Richard Jones, author of Haunted Britain, she's the daughter of the Williams family, who lived at the manor in the mid-19th century. It's said she fell in love with a tinker and defied her father by running away with him. "Eventually, so the story goes, the tinker abandoned her, leaving her destitute," Richard. "Although in life she never returned to the family home, in death her spirit returns to wander Plas yn Rhiw as a forlorn white lady whose ghostly sobs have been heard emanating from dark corners of the house in the dark of night." Both South Stack Lighthouse and Plas yn Rhiw are open to visitors from spring to autumn and on some bank holidays. Also included in the guide is Bodelwyddan Castle in Denbighshire, which gets a five ghost rating. **********  THE SOUTH STACK LIGHTHOUSE South Stack Lighthouse was first envisaged in 1665 when a petition for a patent to erect the lighthouse was presented to Charles II. The patent was not granted and it was not until 9th February 1809 that the first light appeared to mark the rock. The lighthouse, erected at a cost of £12,000, was designed by Daniel Alexander and originally fitted with Argand oil lamps and reflectors. Around 1840 a railway was installed by means of which a lantern with a subsidiary light could be lowered down the cliff to sea level, when fog obscured the main light. On Tuesday 25th October 1859 it is said that the most severe storm of the century occurred. It became known as the 'Royal Charter' gale, and on that and the following day over 200 vessels were either driven ashore or totally wrecked with the loss of 800 lives. The steamship ROYAL CHARTER was among these, and she sunk within yards of help with the loss of almost 500 passengers and crew. On that evening Assistant Keeper Jack Jones had been making his way across the iron bridge on to South Stack so that he could join the Principal Keeper Henry Bowen, already on duty. A rock was swept from the cliff by the strong wind, fell and struck Jones on the head. Covered in blood, almost senseless with concussion, he dragged himself up the gale lashed path. Feebly he cried out for help, then, head in hands, he lay unable to move any further. Henry Bowen found him in the same place on the Wednesday morning, groaning and unable to move, his hair matted with blood. Jack Jones died three weeks later of a compound fracture of the skull. In the mid 1870's the lantern and lighting apparatus was replaced by a new lantern. No records are available of the light source at this time but it was probably a pressurised multiwick oil lamp. In 1909 an early form of incandescent light was installed and in 1927 this was replaced by a more modern form of incandescent mantle burner. The station was electrified in 1938. On 12th September, 1984, the lighthouse was automated and the keepers withdrawn. The light and fog signal are now remotely controlled and monitored from the Trinity House Operational Control Centre in Harwich, Essex. You can find additional information at this link - South Stack Lighthouse Send us an email   New Items - Strickler's Celebrity Autographs  ANOMALIST BOOKS Works on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries. 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