The Ozark Spooklights by Margie Kay (with art by Curtis Copeland) StateoftheOzarks Writers Artists Night 2020 The state of Missouri has its share of anomalies – but the so-called Spooklights, which remain unexplained to this day, are perhaps the strangest phenomena of all. The Marley Woods is the name given to an undisclosed location in…
“Raw Head” or “Demon-Hog” by Lance Estep, 1988, charcoal Tales of Hogscald Holler by Lance Estep Adjoining Hogscald Holler is Durham Mill Hollow. This hollow has a large cave with walls — according to multiple sources — covered by petroglyphs carved by the Ancient Ones: the Ozark Bluff Dwellers who came before the Osage, Quapaw…
Entrance sign to Board Camp Crystal Mine near Mena, Arkansas. Mysteries at the Board Camp Crystal Mine by Margie Kay My experience at the Board Camp Crystal Mine in Board Camp, Arkansas, began long before I set foot on the property. I’d heard about this mysterious place where people said they’ve seen not only Unidentified…
Castle Ghosts: Pythian Castle by Joshua Heston with Stephen Meek There was a knock on the heavy oak door, a door sheltered beneath massive Carthage limestone. “So, have you met the ghosts?” The question came from a covey of OACAC non-profit agency employees, former daytime residents of the Pythian Castle — a monolithic structure of…
House of a Hundred Rooms: stories the ghost tour guides do not tell by Keith Scales If anything in these legends should shock the faith of the over-scrupulous reader, he must remember the nature of the place, and make due allowance; he must remember that he treads the halls of an enchanted palace, and that…
Peace Church Ghosts by Joshua Heston The road winds north of Joplin, across the creek and up the hill. To the right, Peace Church Cemetery spreads into the little valley, shaded here and there by imposing oaks. Always-green spider grass is bright in the afternoon sun. Yucca abounds and, despite the hard work of preservation…
The Haunted Hotels Crescent & Basin Park in Eureka Springs The north entrance of the Crescent Hotel, high atop West Mountain overlooking Eureka Springs, is ablaze with lights on an unseasonably warm spring evening. Called the “most haunted hotel in America,” the beautiful structure was built in 1886. Stories of strange happenings abound, some of…