I was a student at Glenville State College from September 1999 through September 2003. Throughout my college career I heard more than my share of ghost stories about the campus that I lived on; many of which I dismissed as quickly as I heard them. But as a non-ghost believer I can personally account for more than a dozen unexplained and hair-raising experiences.

It must have been around October or November 2002 when my first real unexplained incident happened. It was about 3:00 p.m. on a Friday afternoon when both of my neighbors at Pickens Hall went home for the weekend. Both of whom lived more than an hour from the campus. I spent the rest of the evening playing PlayStation and watching movies until my girlfriend came over to my room to spend the night. We sat up late that night just talking and goofing off until we went to bed about 12:30 a.m. I remember how quiet the dorm was that night, the football team had an away game and most everybody else had taken off for the weekend. Suddenly about 12:45 a.m. or so, I heard a loud noise coming from my neighbor’s room, it sounded like someone was moving furniture around. This wasn’t just a sudden single noise because if it was I would have dismissed it as simply something that goes bump in the night. I mean come on that dorm is probably 90 years old, you’re going to hear noises. But this seemed to go on for about 30 seconds then the same noise started coming from my other neighbors room. I know what you’re thinking at this point… maybe my neighbors both came back the same night, because that’s what I would think if I was reading the story. But one of my neighbors lived in Ohio and the other lived in Bridgeport, trust me they were not in their rooms. My girlfriend and I both sat up in bed and just looked at each other, and I asked her “did you just hear that” and of course she replied, “yes I did”.

As quickly as the noises started they stopped in all was quiet again on the fourth floor of Pickens Hall. I remember laying in bed after that, both of us awake, when suddenly again another noise started in my room about 7 feet from my bed. It was a noise that sounded like someone or something was dropping marbles one at a time on the hard surface of my floor, and as they would hit with that tit-tit-tit noise they would make your rolling noise and slap to my wall. This happened about four times but we never seen anything in the room. This wasn’t as scary as you might think, for years I had often heard stories of a little boy falling down the steps in the old house that was there before Pickens Hall and breaking his neck some 90 years before. I had also heard rumors that many people living in the dorms have had the same experiences; some even claim to have seen a little boy in bibs with a sack full of marbles. I didn’t see anything like that but all the same I figured that if it was a ghost than it was probably just that little boy and I was almost certain that he was going to hurt us.

The following morning I went to my neighbors room and sure enough no one was there. My girlfriend and I never told too many people about what happened that night. I guess because we thought nobody would believe us, especially since it never happened again in the months that followed. I suppose that you could probably chalk this experience up to something that’s not paranormal, I’m sure if you tried hard enough, you could find a reasonable explanation for what happened. I’m not saying I believe in ghosts and I’m not saying that I don’t believe in ghosts. I believe oftentimes people see and hear what they want to believe, but for me this was something totally random and out of the blue. To be honest, I’m not sure what to think.

This happened recently at the new Wal-Mart Super Center in Fayetteville, West Virginia, just south of the New River Gorge Bridge.

Before I continue, it was said that there was a great deal of protest on building the new store at its current location from local residents. One of the reasons was because there was supposedly a very old cemetery on the land. Ultimately, Wal-Mart beat out the protest and the store was built and opened in July 2006.

Now, here comes my story and I realize this isn’t too big a story, but giving the “background”, I wouldn’t be surprised if more occurrences occur at the store. I was at the store a few weeks ago doing some late night shopping with my wife. We’ve shopped at the store a few times before and nothing ever happened, so we were going about our business, as usual. We stopped by the automotive department to check on tire prices when we noticed an older man leaning against a counter in the Tire & Lube Express. It was close to midnight, and the Tire & Lube Express was obviously closed and the lights off. I would guess this man was in his 70s. We went over to check on him and asked if he was alright. No answer at first. I asked him again and he only replied, “oh, thank you… I’m fine”. He then sat down against the counter on the floor. We reluctantly left him there and not even 10 seconds later, right around the corner, we ran into an employee and informed him. Together, we walked back to the Tire & Lube Express. No old man! Nothing at all. He had completely vanished.

Now, you might be thinking he just got up and left when we weren’t looking, but I’m doubting it. We walked directly around the corner and into the employee. While our backs was turned away from the Tire & Lube Express, the employee was looking directly at its only exit and he didn’t see anyone leave. So there wasn’t any where this old man could have gone.

I have since spoke to other people around town and they have told me they have heard of strange things happening when the store was being built. Rather or not it’s true the store was built on an old cemetery, I don’t know, but I’m starting to believe there’s something to that story.

My father lived in Wayne County most of his life, he was born and raised in Wayne, and after grandfather died he moved to an old house on Wolf Creek. He always told us how nice of a house it was, but he also told us how strange it was. My father used to love to go hunting, one night he and my uncle Bill went coon hunting, when they got back he said that the lights in the house were on, he thought someone had broken in. He snuck around the house to get in, the door was still locked when and he went in he found nothing.

He thought somebody was playing tricks on him, so the next night he snuck outside and waited to see if anyone was sneaking around the place. He stayed up all night and no one came around. About a week or two after that, my father went coon hunting by himself. This time when he got back the upstairs light was on, the dogs were barking, and all of the sudden the upstairs window shattered. A voice yelled “Shut up!” and a gunshot was heard. He waited from the hillside and watched the doors until morning to see if anyone came out, nobody ever did.

He went up to the house and the door was still locked, when he went in he found everything untouched, even the window was fine. My uncle Bill told me that you could see strange figures in the old house at night and sometimes hear an old organ playing

One day it came a big snow and a car pulled up and let an old man out. My father went outside to see who it was, but when he got outside there was nothing there. No car, no old man, not even a car track in the snow. My father stands to it to this day that the old house was haunted.

In the summer of 1986 a friend and I had found the perfect apartment. It was the second floor of a nice two story home on Maxwell Street in Charleston. We had recruited a neighbor to help us. He was young and strong so he got the heavy work. We had gotten everything moved in by 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. My neighbor Jay and I were in my room finishing up when we decided to set down for a few minutes rest. We were chatting about many different things when I saw something out the corner of my eye. I turned and looked and there she sat; a young girl about 19 or so, long wavy brown hair, very pretty, with a long white nightgown on. The gown had a high neck and long sleeves. It will styled around 1800s. I looked at Jay and asked him if he could see the girl sitting in the chair at the foot of the bed. He said he did not and asked me if I was crazy or just trying to scare him. I said no not crazy or trying to scare him, she is sitting in that chair. The girl looked at me and smiled, got up and walked out of the room. I got up to follow her into the hallway but she was gone. I went to my roommates bedroom and asked her if she had seen anything she said she had not. She also thought I was crazy or making it up.

Several nights later I had went to bed around 11 p.m. because I had to get up early the next morning and go to work. I was awakened later by the bed shaking. When I raised up, there the girl was standing at the foot of the bed shaking it. She was looking at me pleadingly. I was so scared. I yelled for my roommate and she came running. When my roommate Margie came into the room, the girl vanished. I told Margie why I had yelled for her and of course she said I was nuts.

I would see this girl in every room including the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, hallway, but never in the living room.

When we had friends over she would walk up the stairway into the hall and come to the living room door and stare at me. No one would ever see her. All my friends thought I was a liar.

A couple weeks later I was spending the night with my family in Jackson County, when Margie called me screaming frantically. She had seen the girl in her bedroom. The girl was standing just inside the doorway, when Margie saw her she turned and went down the hall to my room, went inside, and disappeared.

After Margie had saw the girl then everyone that came over saw her.

I had went to bed one night, I had not been asleep long when I woke up feeling paralyzed. I looked down at the foot of the bed and there she was leaning over the bed holding onto my ankles. I screamed as loud as I could for Margie. Margie never came. I kept screaming and finally she let go. I then could move. I jumped up and ran to Margie’s room and got her and the telephone and headed for the door. That was it. I could not take it any longer. The girl was driving me crazy. I called my mother and told her what had happened. The next day she found a lady in Kanawha City to help me.

When I spoke with the woman on the phone she told me to ask the girl to come with me when I left the house to come see her. I did this. When I got to the ladies house, we went to her dining room and sat at the table. No weird stuff, just a couple of white candles and a beautiful white cloth on the table. We sat across from each other and I told her everything that happened with the girl at the apartment. She asked me to put my hands in hers, I did. She told me to tell the girl to go to her and stay with her and that she would help her. I did. When I did that the girl was sitting across the table from me. I was holding her hands. You would think they would be cold but surprisingly they were warm and soft. She smiled and was gone.

After she was gone, the lady told me that the girls name was Brenda, she was from Clay County. Brenda had been a nanny in the house that had once stood on the property. The man of the house whose children Brenda cared for had been very mean to Brenda and did terrible things to her. He had hurt her on many occasions. He had hurt her so bad that she died from the last attack.

All of these years that house and the one I lived in had stood on the property, Brenda waited until someone could see her and could help her go to the other side. I never saw Brenda again. The apartment was quite. Brenda had finally gotten the peace she so longed for.

This is a story of an old house, a haunted house with a murderous past. I’ve heard stories by the people who have lived in it. My mother was one. She said that there was an old room that they used for a junk room, and at night it sounded like the old furniture was being slung around in the junk room. You could hear screams and shouting, but every time someone would check it out they would find a room untouched.

A coin would roll down the stairs, and every time you would try to catch it, it would disappear. One night, my aunt woke up to see an old man standing at the head of her bed. There was a door in mom’s room that they always kept locked, well one night mom was brushing her hair, and the locked door unlocked itself and slowly creaked open.

My second cousin tried to live in the old Web house, and she said the dishes would rattle at night. She was sitting in a recliner watching TV, when all the sudden the recliner reclined back by itself. Sometimes you could see a pair of eyes in the window. You could smell lilac perfume.

She would turn the upstairs light off, go to the store, and when she got back the light would be on. Her husband would lay in bed at night and hear the sound of barrels rolling down the stairs.

There has been other people who have tried to live there, and everyone that I know of said it was haunted. Every time somebody moved in, it was not long before they moved out. Even the people who live there now says it’s a spooky place to live. If ever there was a haunted house, the old Web house would be it.

The story that I am about to tell is different stories rolled in one, simply because they happened around the same place, but at different times. My cousin who happens to be my best friend has encountered and heard of different sightings on and around this old home place. I have seen some things myself.

There was one time that I remember his brother-in-law bought an old Blazer, and that night around one o’clock the horn would go off by itself. We were on the phone and he said, “Joe, do you hear that?” And I said, “hear what?” He said, “that horn, every night around one o’clock it goes off”. At first I thought he was just playing around until he took the phone to the window and let me hear it. His brother-in-law unhooked the horn, and it would still go off. Rumor has it that an old man died in the Blazer, and when his brother-in-law found that out he got rid of it.

Here’s a story about his uncle’s house. People said that one night a pale white woman was seen going around his uncle’s house. The woman was someone buried in a graveyard. People said that the upstairs light would come on by itself, the stairs would squeak, and you could hear noises around the house.

His brother moved a trailer in where the big yard used to be. One night his brother and sister were moving stuff in when all of a sudden something started pushing them outside. There was no one there but him and her and what ever it was pushed them out the door. A candle came off the refrigerator and hit the floor. It got so bad that his brother wouldn’t stay there, and stayed with his mom and dad. He said that place was strange.

His sister has seen dead people, headless people, snakes, and I don’t know what all else. One night she was taking a shower and heard someone walking in the hallway. She thought it was her husband coming home from work. When she stepped out of the bathroom, she saw an old man walking into their daughter’s bedroom. When she went into the room she couldn’t find anybody.

Even he himself has seen some strange things. His TV would come on by itself and start channel surfing. One day he started out of the bedroom and was going to close the door when the door shut itself. He tried to open it but it was like it was locked, then it finally opened. One night him and I was on the couch watching some TV when all at once something loud was running on the porch, it couldn’t have been anybody because everyone was in bed asleep. I stayed up all night one night and saw something in the window. I know it could not have been a human because the window is at least 9 feet off the ground from the outside.

He moved a trailer in where the garden use to be and some strange stuff happened there to. One night him and his wife went to bed, he checked the trailer and made sure the stove was turned off, which it was. The next morning when they got up the stove was on. Sometimes you could see what looked like an old woman standing in the living room window. My cousin, his sister, dad, brother, and uncle all lived in the same place. They are all right beside each other. The land that they live on has got to be haunted.

I was looking out the door late one evening at my parent’s home in Terra Alta when I saw this green glowing ball of light floating through the neighbor’s yard directly across from the house. It floated around their yard really slow for about 5 or 10 minutes and then it went down and slowly sank into the ground and disappeared. The next day I was talking to my best friend, she lived farther out of town, she said that about the same time she was on the phone with her boyfriend and she saw a green glowing ball of light floating around and slowly disappear in the ground behind the barn.

I had hunted all my life and I have never heard of anyone say anything about my buddy’s farm until one deer season in 1981. We started out one morning, going to Little Bull Run in Gilmer County to go hunting. I had a pretty good day until that night. My buddy and I were going to share a bed that night because of limited room so we all decided to go to bed. I lay in bed with my eyes open not being able to sleep. My buddy had no problem he was snoring like crazy when I heard something. I don’t know what it was but I sat straight up in bed and looked at the closet and seen two of the biggest red eyes I had ever seen! I was so scared because they were moving! I did not know what to do so I started elbowing my buddy and he would not wake up! So I laid back down terrified until finally they were gone.

I didn’t say anything the next day or since until my buddy told me years later he said “You know there are things in that hollow that don’t belong there.” So I said, “Like what” he said, “I don’t know, but whatever it is, it don’t belong there.”

I have heard stories of train wrecks in Terra Alta that have killed railroad workers. Well one evening I and my friends were driving across the tracks near Washington Ave, when we were in the middle of the tracks we saw this bright train light within feet of our vehicle, the lights on the crossing were not flashing and the crossing arms were still up. We screamed and hurried across the tracks into an empty parking lot and looked at the tracks and there was nothing there. We call this out “ghost train”. Our families and the rest of our friends think we are crazy, but we know what we saw.

I have lived in this small former mining community for all of my life. At one time, this was actually a very large and very busy little town. There were numerous businesses, a large school, a company store where you could get anything you could imagine, even a movie theater. It is hard to believe that they even found room for all of this in such a small place, but ask anyone who has been here for a while; they did it! Once the mines shut down, many of the residents left to find work elsewhere. With them, went the businesses, heritage, and many of the stories that could possibly explain some of the strange things that have happened here.

One story in particular that thoroughly freaks me out happens to be one that happened to me. When I was around 3 years old, I can clearly remember this little girl who lived just down the road from me. Her name was Beth. She was very petite with long sandy blond hair and freckles, and close to the same age as me. I remember playing on the swing set in my yard with her and playing with my dolls, but she would never come in my house with me. I don’t remember playing with her a lot, but I very clearly remember everything about the last day she came up just as though it happened yesterday.

We were playing in my yard, on the swings just like always. I had just had a birthday, so I had a lot of new toys to play with and I wanted to show them to my friend. I asked her to come inside to see them since I wasn’t allowed to bring any of them outside. She didn’t want to. I begged, but to no avail.

Her mother came walking up the road soon after. She was a small built woman, with her long red hair piled up neatly on her head. She was wearing a mid-calf yellow dress. When she got to the driveway, she started to call to Beth, telling her “We have to leave, come on now! It’s time to go, now tell your friend goodbye and get down the road!” That was the last I ever heard of Beth or any of her family. I have asked my Great-Grandmother and my Grandfather many times if they remember her, but neither of them even heard of the little girl or her mom. I finally asked my mother who lives in another state and has for most of my life if she remembers me talking about Beth when I was a little girl. Her face went pale. She asked “are you talking about the little girl with really long hair and freckles” I was so happy to hear that I wasn’t crazy, that I really did have a friend named Beth…boy was I wrong…

Mom told me that she remembers her because she knew her too and has the same story that I do. Only, she played with Beth when she was a little girl too. She did some research though to find out just who this elusive little girl was.

Apparently Beth lived here long ago with her parents. Her dad was a miner here. Long before my family moved to the community, they all got very sick with some kind of virus that eventually took the lives of the whole family. Perhaps Beth was too young and innocent to realize what happened, she just wanted a friend to play on the swings with her and found two generations of us.