In early March of 2017, my friends and I decided we wanted to explore a historical place near our hometown of Hedgesville. Me being a history buff, I decided to look up historical places in our area that were abandoned. I stumbled across a few places, but one, in particular, peeked my interests. That place was Hilltop Mansion in Harpers Ferry. After that, I started to contact local historians and paranormal groups in the area, so I could find out more about the place. I should also mention that I intended to film an uncut documentary for my Youtube channel ZachBrowningOutdoors. I called up my friend who is also a Youtuber and told him about the mansion, and he along with a couple of other friends and my brother planned to meet at the location the following weekend.

We arrived at the location somewhere around 3 PM. It was a cold but sunny day, so in our minds, we couldn’t ask for better weather to explore in. Since the place was all boarded up due to structural damage, we crawled through a window that was broken on the hillside of the house.

Once I was in the mansion I was greeted by brilliant architecture from the earlier 1800’s. Even if you know the place was beautiful, I had a strange feeling about it that I just couldn’t shake.

In my group, there were seven of us including myself. We all decided to go upstairs and explore the upper levels of the mansion. We made it up to the 3rd floor and everyone was checking out the now destroyed rooms down this long narrow hallway. I started walking down the hallway all the way to the end and by the time I turned around, all of my friends had disappeared. I found out later that they went up to the attic without telling me, but this is the part of the story that it starts to get creepy.

I turned around noticing that I was all alone in a mansion that had formerly been a field hospital in the civil war. I started walking back down the hallway, but for some reason, I stopped at one of the rooms. The room had its floorboards ripped out and it had the infamous 666 written on the wall in graffiti. This is where my paranormal whirlwind event started.

I heard a board creak and a footstep coming from the room I was staring into. I then panicked and started fast walking down the hallway. As I got to the end of the hallway a door to one of the rooms started closing on its own. I panicked, even more, when this happened because it felt like it was telling me to leave. At this point, I start yelling for my friends, but no one answered. I got to the top of the stairs and yelled for my friends again. No one answered again and I start to go into a hardcore panic mode. I start running down the stairs, but something in me made me look over my shoulder. When I did I saw a dark shadowy figure standing at the top of the stairs. I about tripped going down the stairs, but I didn’t care since I just wanted to find my friends.

As I was making my way down the multiple flights of stairs, I felt like I was being chased. I heard bangs, footsteps, and cracks following me all the way down to the main level. It stopped when I got to the bottom of the stairs. I then stopped and collected myself, and without thinking I called my brother who was with the rest of the group. I told him I saw something and he called me a bunch of different names because he thought I was just being a baby and I was over exaggerating. I remind you, I got all of this on camera, so I did make him eat his words. As I was reviewing footage, I realized that I caught a shadow figure as I was panning the camera around the main floor.

Now it’s time for the scariest part of this story (for me at least). I finally found my friends and of course, they were making fun of me, but I really didn’t care. I lied to them saying all I heard was a bang, and they just told me it was one of them (liars). It’s hard for me to believe that since all of the stuff that was happening to me was at least 2 floors below them. Everyone was taking pictures and carrying on in the old ballroom of the house. I didn’t really care about that, so I decided to start looking at some the graffiti that was left by other people. After this, I still to this day can’t remember what happened. I blanked out and when I woke up I was at the end of a hallway that I had never been down. I was mortified to find out that I came right next to a hole in the floor with an air conditioning unit falling from the ceiling. I showed the footage to a psychic medium and she believes I was partially possessed because I lost my memory and the video clearly shows me wandering down a hallway. This wasn’t my first experience with the paranormal, but it for sure was a terrifying one.

This happened in December of 2007 in Belington, WV when I was seventeen.

My girlfriend and I at the time were sitting in the living room listening to music. It was night but I’m not too sure what time it was… probably around 8.

I happened to look down the hall and see a boot coming out of the doorway to my mom and stepdad’s room. In that split second, I thought my stepdad was home all along and that he was going to flip out on me for blasting music. That’s when it happened. This man stepped out and made eye contact with me while he was walking across the hallway. It was something I thought I would never see in my lifetime. A ghost.

Here’s a breakdown of how it happened… I’ll explain it the best way I can.

As soon as it stepped out of my mom and stepdad’s bedroom it made eye contact with me and walked into the bedroom across from my mom’s room. The room it walked into was my brother’s old room. He moved out probably in the fall or winter of ’06 and after he left we started using the room as a storage room.

The ghost had on what appeared to be coveralls. He looked about 6’0 in height… but he could have been a bit taller. The figure wasn’t solid either. He looked like a mist with some missing parts. For instance, his face was missing some parts along with the rest of his body… almost like he didn’t have enough energy to appear completely, just enough for me to see him.

It happened pretty quick, maybe a few seconds. I was in shock.

It was the first time I had seen a ghost. I didn’t want to be there in that house anymore. I put on my shoes, not saying a word, and started putting my coat on. My girlfriend was baffled by my actions. (she didn’t see the ghost she was looking in the other direction)

“What are you doing?” she asked me. Looking confused and worried.

“We have to go,” I told her.

“Why?!” she asked.

“We just do,” I said as she was putting on her coat and slipping her shoes on.

The whole walk down the street, I was silent. I didn’t want to talk about it. It felt like if I did it would appear again. I was that scared. I finally told her what I saw when we got to the gas station. I went there because I wanted to be around people and lights.

She believed me which I was worried that she would think I was nuts and a few minutes later we walked to her place where her mom gave me a rosary. I wasn’t religious back then but I was raised Pentecostal and usually didn’t dabble in anything like Catholicism but at this time I was willing to try anything so I accepted the rosary and kept it with me at all times until I woke up one morning to find it broken in my bed. (I may have tugged at it in my sleep and accidentally broke it.)

Things got better after I moved out of there in August of ’08.

Slowly I started to feel sane again.

I have many stories about that house, which I have nicknamed “Hell House”.

I still have nightmares to this day about that place.

I and my best friend Violet decided to stay at Cabwaylingo park for a week, to fish, hike and relax. We got cabin #3 that was across this dinky hill. The cabin was beautiful, it was my first time there but Violet had visited since she was little. We got settled in and went down to the creek to fish. We heard a screen door shut and a voice. We figured we had neighbors. Later we roasted hotdogs by the campfire.

“I don’t think any of these cabins were rented”, I said.

“Maybe we just heard the cleaning ladies”, Violet suggested.

We ate and talked. When it started getting dark we noticed somebody walking around outside of Cabin #2. I shouted, “Hi!” Silence.

The screen door slammed shut.

We went in for the night. I got up around 9 and made coffee. I sat out on the porch reading when I heard a voice. I looked up to see someone go around the side of the cabin. There wasn’t a car in the driveway. I went back to reading, I felt like I was being watched. I looked around and saw nobody. When Violet got up we went hiking. We stopped at the office. I asked Rose the secretary who was our neighbors in #2? She looked puzzled. “There’s nobody in that cabin.” She said sweetly. “Maybe it was the cleaning ladies than”, Violet said.

“No, the cleaning ladies won’t be back until tomorrow.” The secretary replied.

We just shook it off and went back to our cabin to eat lunch. The rest of the day there was no activity until that night when we heard shouting and crying. We never could see anything. Of course, we reported it the next day. They said it was probably locals. That next day we saw a lady in the yard as we were packing our car. I told the lady bye and she disappeared.

I am a paranormal investigator, I was expecting ghost encounters on this investigation, but not like this.

I was struggling with some things in my personal life and it was really hard to focus during the interviews, so I found a nearby park bench and sat down pulling my jacket over my face. Almost immediately after, an old man with a deep country accent, a blue button up shirt, and ragged jeans sat down next to me.

I removed the jacket from my face as he asked, “what seems to be the trouble miss?” I explain to him the things I hadn’t told anyone yet as he nods along showing concern. “Don’t you worry I’m sure everything will be alright”, he said.

I look down at my feet pondering on what he said before looking back up and saying “thank y–” but, he was gone… I looked away for no more than 5 seconds, there’s no way he could’ve got up let alone walked off completely out of sight.

My teammate came and asked who I was looking at and I told him no one, trying to convince myself the encounter never happened. Later that night, still bothered by the whole thing, I scrolled through the newspaper. I stop as I look in the obituaries and see a face I couldn’t mistake, the face of the man in blue who I saw only hours ago. He died three days before I talked to him from a sudden heart failure. Whether or not you believe, make Weston your next destination and tell me if you encounter this man.

My family of eight and my sister’s family of three took off to camp in Cabwaylingo in Wayne County. We chose the last two campsites up Spruce Creek. My husband Rick and my sister’s husband John set up our tents while our seven kids went hunting for sticks so I could start a fire. My sister Sasha walked down to check out the bathhouse. Our kids came back claiming to have heard a lady singing Amazing Grace. I told them that nobody was around and maybe they heard Sasha.

When Sasha walked back she said she heard a woman singing as well. Later on that night we were making s’mores by the fire when we heard singing. Rick and John scoped out the area. They saw nothing but deer. We all went to bed and sometime around midnight we heard a woman screaming.

“No please!” She screamed. Once again Rick and John investigated to only discover nothing. Four days passed and the same stuff went on. A few campers moved in. Sasha and I went for a walk. Two guys were building a fire at two and three campsites.

“I was about to get the last two campsites.” One man said.

“Why?” The other man asked.

“Last year we had ghostly experience. See, in 1980 a young girl was violated and tossed into the creek. Her ghost haunts the creek and around it.”

“We heard her.” I blurted out.

“We’re at the last two campsites,” Sasha explained.

“She has a beautiful voice.” The man said.

We stayed three more nights, but as the campground filled up the ghost seemed to fade away. I felt a little connected to her for some reason. My kids will never forget that Summer in 2009.

My Family went and stayed at Cabwaylingo state forest in 2015 for the first time ever. First off we were from Ohio and didn’t know what to expect. When we arrived we were staying in cabin #7, but there was a plumbing problem. Six hours later we were moved to cabin 13 on the hill, the name of it was Somer’s cabin. I loved that it was upon a hill, and the scenery and the quietness. This cabin had a loft so me and my sister Fayth climbed up and slept.

Sometime around 3 am there was a loud banging on the door. I peeked down, my dad entered the living room. “Who’s there?” My dad shouted. Silence. He shouted again and peeked out the window. He said nobody was there and to go back to sleep. Close to 6 am we were awakened by crying. Once again I peeked down from the loft. My dad opened the door this time but nobody was there. So we all went back to sleep, 30 minutes later there was a banging on the door again. My dad ran in and screamed, “Go away!”

Later that day the security guard came around to bring us wood. We told him about it and he said it might be locals fooling around. Everything went well that day till we went to bed. Around 3 am it started all over again. We were beyond frightened. We just huddled in my parents’ bed till morning. We left there never to return. I do not know the story behind this but, I know it’s true.

About 10 years ago, I started building a new house a few miles outside of Farmington. This house sits off the beaten path in the woods by itself. During the construction of the house, I witnessed some events that happened that at the time I didn’t want to believe were happening! The first event happened one night when I was working to the wee hours of the night. I was putting laminate flooring down in the living room and finished up about 5:00 AM in the morning. I thought before I left I would take a seat, grab a cold drink and admire the job that I did. As I was sitting there I noticed a box of Corn Pops sitting on a painter’s scaffold in an adjacent room. Early that box of cereal was sitting on a work table located beside the scaffold, I know this because it was close to the edge of the table and I was concerned that it might fall off, so I moved it towards the center of the table.

At that point, I got the feeling that I wasn’t alone and probably had a ghost in my new house. Now hang with me for a minute and I want to give you a little background about myself and the experiences growing up with a ghost in an old Victorian style house. This house was built around the turn of the 19th century in Mannington and we moved into it around 1965. I believe my first experience with this ghost occurred in 1965 and I didn’t realize it for several years, it was only after I got older and had other experience with this ghost that I believe this ghost was my hero! My ghost encounters started in 1965 when I was 5 years old. One day my mother had taken me to this house before we had moved into it. As I remember I was upstairs playing by myself in one of the bedrooms. This bedroom had 2 closets that flanked either side of a fireplace. Now I have no idea why; but, I was checking out the doorknob on the inside of one of those closets. It was the size of one of those cheap plastic water bottles caps, the real small ones. For some dumb reason, I got inside of that closet and closed the door to see if I could get out. I’m sure that the reason the architect designed that door with a bottle cap doorknob on the inside was to challenge little fellows like me! Well let me tell you, it got real dark real fast after I closed that door. I searched around for that knob and when I found it I put a death grip on it and turned with everything that I had. Tried a few times both directions and to no avail I was stuck. Who knows where my mom was at, I sure didn’t! I started to panic a little bit then all of a sudden that door popped open.

Years later I had many experiences with a ghost; which, I believe to be my Guardian Angel. I use to lay in bed and sometimes I would hear the sound of someone walking up the stairs. Each one of those stairs had its own signature squeaky sound. I would hear each step until it hit the landing than I would hear the footsteps across the landing than on up the last 5 stairs to the top, then it would stop outside my bedroom door. Other experiences that I had were, banging on the walls and ceiling around my bed, the sound of doors opening and closing, plus I even saw this ghost twice over the years.

The first time that I saw it I was downstairs in one of the living rooms. When you come into this home you are in a foyer that is flanked by huge double french doors that open to a living room on the right and a family room on the left. Anyway one Friday night I choose to stay home and watch the new color TV instead of going out with the gang to the local watering hole. As I remember it, I was watching TV and wasn’t tired; but, the next thing I know the sound of the big heavy oak front door awoke me to a dark house. I thought one of the gang had come home from the watering hole. I could see a silhouette of a body standing in the opening of the french door that was open. They were looking into the living room. I started calling out, is that you Joe? No answer! Is that you Brenda? How about you John? No answer! I turned my back and reached around to turn on the lamp so I could see who was there. After I turned the lamp on and turned back around they were gone. No big deal, I figured whomever probably headed for the kitchen for some chow. I got up and headed for the kitchen and when I stepped into that foyer I experienced cold chills like I have never had. After I passed through the foyer into the family room the chills were gone. I went from the family room into the dining room turning on lights and finally made it into the kitchen. Nobody was in the kitchen so I worked my way back through the house. When I got in the foyer those cold chills had come back. I checked the deadbolt on that big oak door and it was locked, it was at that moment that I realized what had happened! I saw that ghost for the first time.

I’ll save the second sighting for another day, let’s get back to that box of Corn Pops setting on the painter’s scaffold. I didn’t want to believe I had a ghost in my new house. Heck, it’s a new house, no history there, no way this is happening. I thought I must have moved that box of cereal and just forgot about it. Finished my drink and I left. Later on, I had a towel ring in one of the bathrooms that were sticking out 90 degrees from the wall instead of hanging straight down like it should be. Again I’m not going to let my mind play tricks on me I must have moved it to that position! It wasn’t until one morning when my son was coming to visit that I realized that it wasn’t my mind playing tricks on me. It was around 10:30 AM and me and my German Shepherd, Angel, were laying on the bed in the back bedroom watching TV. All of a sudden it sounded like the back door opened and someone walked into the house. I figured it was my son, Angel figured it was an intruder and sprung up in attack mode. She raced through the house towards that door caring on like she was going to eat somebody. This went on for a little while, I thought it was my son messing with the dog. I got up and walked into that part of the house. Much to my surprise, I got those old familiar cold chills and nobody was there plus the deadbolt was still locked. Since then I have had a lot of experiences with this ghost. I heard banging on the walls and ceiling, it scratched along the wall beside the bed one night. It messes with my electronics. Turns the ceiling fan off and on. Turns the fan lights off and on. Turns the TV off and on, and changes the channel. It has touched me twice.

The dog always alerts to it before I know it’s there and she always goes after it to try and attack it. I have gotten her to settle down and quit going after it. Myself I’m not as good as the dog sensing it, but I don’t do too bad. When I get a feeling like something isn’t right, or I get cold chills, I learned to trust these first impressions! And Yes I still live in the house with Angel and the ghost or ghosts!

It was after 9:00 pm as I drove home from my sisters. I made it to the first bridge in Cabwaylingo State Forest, in front of cabin 8. I noticed someone standing beside the bridge. I slowed down and the person disappeared. I looked back in my mirror and it was gone. It was there and gone within seconds… I was spooked.