Author Denver Michaels

The story of “McChesney’s Ghost” is one of the best ghost stories in all the Shenandoah Valley. It began in Augusta County’s unincorporated community of Newport in 1825 in the home of Dr. John McChesney—a man of unquestioned honesty and integrity in his day. McChesney, his wife and four children were gathered for their evening dinner when one of his slaves, an eight-year-old girl named Maria, burst in from the kitchen. Maria was frightened to the core and said an old woman “with her head tied up chased her.” Unsurprisingly, McChesney ignored the girl’s story, attributing the tale to childhood imagination. For days after the event, Maria complained of being frightened, and shortly thereafter, “vollies of stones began to fall on the dwelling house, and continued to fall at intervals, in daytime and also at night.” Most of the rocks were fist-sized, but some were “too large to be thrown by a person of ordinary strength.” Even weirder, some of the stones were so hot they burned the grass

When I arrived in Moodus, Connecticut in early-May 2022, I was surprised when a friend texted me an article from the New England Historical Society. The piece was titled “The Mysterious Moodus Noises of Connecticut,” and recounted the history of strange, unexplained noises that occur around the village of Moodus. The Moodus Noises I read the article at once. I couldn't believe that I had stumbled upon a place renowned for strange activity. According to the article: The Wangunk Indians had told the colonists of the fearful noises that they tried to appease. In fact, the Indians called the land around Mt. Tom “Machemoodus,” meaning place of bad noises. The settlers shortened the name to Moodus, now a village in East Haddam. Once Puritans moved to the area in the early-1700s, they heard the noises, too. And they, too, attributed the sounds to a supernatural source. The superstitious Puritans believed God was angry with them for their sins. Meanwhile, the local Indians believed the

Surely over the years, you have read tons of stupid " Florida Man " headlines. The tales of Florida Man's exploits are colorful to say the least. For me, when I think of dumb Florida Man stunts and stories, my mind goes straight to the tale of "Old Three Toes." Strange Tracks The story of Old Three Toes goes back to 1948, when Clearwater residents began spotting large three-toed tracks on the beaches. As time went on, the tracks showed up in neighboring communities. It did not take long for the fourteen-inch-long, eleven-inch-wide tracks to attract national attention. One of my favorite Fortean authors and investigators, Ivan T. Sanderson , traveled to Florida to investigate the mysterious tracks for the New York Herald Tribune. Sanderson spent two weeks interviewing witnesses and examining plaster casts of the tracks. Around this time, more three-toed tracks appeared about 100 miles to the north along the Suwanee River. While flying over the Suwanee, Sanderson