By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
“The best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry.”
Those words, from Scottish poet Robert Burns by way of American writer John Steinbeck (what Burns actually wrote was, “the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft a-gley”) describe my plans for the last week.
As we’ve worked to put this issue together, and plan for coverage and delivery over our upcoming break – we won’t be printing on October 18 and will return to mailboxes and newsstands October 25 – nothing I’ve tried to do has worked out as I intended.
My first thought was to celebrate the spooky season that officially kicks off on October 1 for fans of the Halloween holiday.
I wanted to highlight some of the ghost stories and local legends; maybe even focus on a particular haunted location I had the opportunity to investigate. Unfortunately, while that investigation was a lot of fun, it wasn’t as controlled as I’d have liked. I talked with the property owner about visiting again, but opportunities to follow up without a group of ghost hunters in tow couldn’t be organized before press time.
I also haven’t yet had time to visit the property with someone who says she has more information about the location and the activity there, but who wishes to stay anonymous. What I did learn from talking to her via instant message is that she and others have had experiences that they believe are related to spirits who lived in the Clifty Creek area before the lake was created.
It would have made a great story for this issue, but… Mice and men and whatnot.
If you are looking for content like that, you should absolutely check out the Haunted Hollers podcast – available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, or wherever you download your podcasts from. They’ve done episodes on legends related to the Lawton Mushroom Mines, the Callihan Poltergeists of Olive Hill, and Carter Caves, as well as the Ashland Paramount Theater’s resident ghost, Paramount Joe and many more. They’re at 27 episodes so far, all based in Kentucky or areas close by like West Virginia. So, if you’re itching for those kinds of stories this fall, give them a listen.
If you prefer to read your spooky stories and local legends, we’ll have some more of that content for you before the month is out. But you can also check out latetothegames.com for an archive of a few of the spooky stories I’ve researched and written. There are stories over there about everything from UFOs to Bigfoot, with some river monsters, lost treasure, and old timey ghosts thrown in for good measure.
If you like that sort of thing, drop a note here, or through my link there, and I’ll post more from my archives.
Of course, a lot of those are based outside of Carter County. I’d love to have more of your stories too.
If you have a spooky story you’d like to scare – no matter what it is – drop me a note.
It doesn’t have to be a ghost or UFO either. I want to hear about the black panther you saw, or the snapping turtle that was bigger than it had any right to be.
If you saw a big bird where a bird that big shouldn’t be, I want to hear it. Strange hoots from the woods that aren’t an owl? Record it and send it to me! Weird slime on your lawn? You can keep that, but send me a photo!
We might not have gotten everything we wanted in time for this issue, but that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate the spooky season, and all your scary stories, anyway. We still have another issue before Halloween, after all.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
