The Hocking Hills region that draws tourists to explore its caves, trails and bike path also draws ghost hunters and those seeking a thrill to its haunted spots.
Pat and Jannette Quackenbush have been exploring haunted areas in Hocking for about 15 years and have written three books documenting stories they have collected throughout that time. They also founded the Haunted Hocking Investigation Team to facilitate their explorations.
The Haunted Hocking Investigation Team is a group of biologists and scientists who conduct investigations of supposedly haunted places, said Jannette, researcher for the team.
“A lot of what we look at is outdoors,” she said. “People on the team know the outdoors, so they can decipher between what might be an animal and what might be paranormal.”
Their investigations of the paranormal started as a general interest while researching Ohio’s natural environment, said Pat, a naturalist for the state of Ohio.
“It’s a rather fascinating thing to research,” Pat said. “After some unique experiences, it just kind of snowballs into something bigger.”
The husband-and-wife duo will be sharing stories and showing ghosthunting equipment during the first annual Historic Haunted Bike Ride on Wednesday.
The bike ride will follow the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway for a 12-mile round-trip ride and will start at the Rocky Boots parking lot. There will be stops at the Athens B&O Train Depot, Robbins Crossing and Glen Ebon before ending at Nelsonville’s Public Square.
The train depot, Robbins Crossing and Glen Ebon will be three different story points, said Lizzy Sullivan, health educator at the Athens City-County Health Department and a ComCorps service member for AmeriCorps.
Pat will be speaking at Robbins Crossing and will be joined by his wife to tell stories about buildings in Nelsonville’s Public Square.
“I will be presenting in first person at Robbins Crossing, so I’ll be representing someone from that era,” Pat said. “As for the public square, a lot of the buildings have stories behind them, and we will be pointing some of those out.”
One of the places of interest is the Nelsonville Public Library, Jannette said.
“It used to be part of a garage; people have said that the elevator will go up on its own,” she said. “Some have also heard an engine start and a horn beep, but we are still doing some research to figure out what happened.”
When researching haunted places, one wants to base everything on the truth, Jannette said.
“You want to substantiate as much as you can,” she said. “Wherever you have people activity, you have ghost activity, so that’s what we check out.”
Gary Bergstrand, an instructor at Hocking College, will be telling the stories at the train depot and Glen Ebon.
The Athens County Public Library, Hocking College, Athens Healthy Communities Coalition, Hockhocking Adena Bikeway and the Athens City County Health Department partnered for the event.
People without bikes are also invited to attend if they want to walk the path instead; an adult must accompany kids under 16, Sullivan said.
“We wanted a fun way to get people active and to get them to utilize the bike path in the fall and winter, so we decided to use Halloween as a theme,” she said. “Rain or shine, we are going to have this.”
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