Spooky Season Reads

But Speedway is more than a town that surrounds the most famous automobile racing track in the world. The city is proud of its quality schools, and residents have prospered from the businesses in the area. Civic pride runs strong through this community where generations of families have remained in the same neighborhoods, and sometimes in the same house.

Discover school spirits and downtown haunts of Bloomington, Indiana

For many, the most terrifying sight in Bloomington is the bathroom in a freshman dorm, but even more disturbing things lurk in the dark corners of this college town. Two haunted portraits hang in the Indiana Memorial Union Building, and the ghosts of suicides roam the stairwell in Ballantine Hall. At the end of every night, bartenders at a downtown pub pour a shot of whiskey for a not-so-dearly-departed spirit. At a nearby old manor, two ghost children stir up trouble. Farther out of town, in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest lies Stepp Cemetery, a remote and desolate graveyard that is one of the most haunted locations in Indiana.

Join Bloomington native Klara Lee Sweet on a spine-tingling tour of the city's spectral history.

Crawfordsville, Indiana, has a rich history of spiritualism and paranormal lore. /

In the late 1800s and early 1900s mediums were trained in the city, and spiritualism was preached from the street corners. Spirit photography was all the rage, and many flocked to town to have their photos taken with ghosts. The Crawfordsville Monster caused a nationwide stir after terrorizing the town for several days and being spotted by more than 100 people. Urban legends also abound in this small city, including legends like the cursed chair of Oak Hill cemetery, Spooky Hollow and the Old Hospital./

Authors Christopher and Christina Hunt share these tales and others devoted to the mysterious past and darkly thrilling secret life of the heart of Montgomery County.

Indiana's landscape is dotted with urban and rural cemeteries teeming with restless spirits. These are the stories of the Hoosiers who refuse to rest in peace.

Crown Hill Cemetery is the final resting place of many notable Indiana residents, as well as one rather infamous soul, but it may also serve as a playground for the spectral children of Community Hill. Tales of mournful spirits can be found at Stepp Cemetery and Highland Lawn, while other areas such as Forest Hill and the cemeteries of LaPorte have far darker stories to tell. Join tour guide and paranormal investigator Ashley Hood on a journey through Indiana's ghostly burial grounds--from the Hoosier National Forest to the banks of Lake Michigan.

Join local historian Tim Crumrin as he reveals the blackguards, rogues and swindlers of Terre Haute's rough and rowdy past.

For more than a century, Terre Haute earned its reputation as a sin city. One of the most notorious red-light districts in the Midwest, the West End, housed sixty brothels and nearly one thousand prostitutes at its height in the 1920s. Across this sordid scene strode the stylish and indomitable Edith Brown, the city's most famous madam. When Prohibition made the city bootlegger central, violence erupted as rival gangs vied for turf. Gamblers flooded in from all corners of the country, making Terre Haute's Wire Room second only to Las Vegas. Through it all, corrupt politicians like Mayor Donn Roberts profited handsomely from grift and deception.

Ghost stories from the Hoosier State have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery!/

em>Welcome to the spooky streets of Bloomington, Indiana!/em>

Stay Alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms.

Did you know that there are haunted paintings on the walls at Indiana University's Memorial Union? Or that a ghostly woman in black follows people around downtown? Can you believe that two children haunt one of the most beautiful houses in town?

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see Bloomington forever, and have you sleeping with the lights on!

Strange and unusual things lurk behind the calm façade of Dearborn County.

Several legends surround Hillforest Mansion, the home of one of Aurora's founding families. Many have seen the ghost of a farmer and his mule at Carnegie Hall in Moores Hill. The glowing grave at Riverview Cemetery may connect to the 1941 Agrue family massacre. St. Mary's Church rectory is said to be haunted by the former priest, and the spirits at Whisky's in Lawrenceburg are not just in the drinks. Several schools in the area echo with the sounds of former students and staff, and numerous local residences house the spirits of former owners who never left.

Join Mary Ellen Quigley and Rebecca Wilhelm on a chilling tour from Lawrenceburg to Lawrenceville and beyond.

Posey County is a place where neighbors are friendly, the BBQ is good, and the blue skies are plentiful above checkerboard fields. It's also a place where the dead roam freely.

Ghosts linger in the basement of the Sheriff's Department, ready to jump out at unsuspecting correctional officers. Misty apparitions wander around a town once devastated by a tornado and can even be found in the brand-new Dollar General. The public library in Poseyville also has several librarian ghosts still hard at work keeping the library orderly.

Follow paranormal investigator Joni Mayhan as she delves into the darker side of this vibrant community and unearths its peculiar hauntings.

From the jail cell that once held John Dillinger to quaint shops with dark beginnings, the restless spirits of Crown Point purportedly result from a century-old hex.

Legend had it that a caravan of gypsies found themselves unfairly exiled from town. Forced to leave their beloved dead behind in unmarked graves, they invoked a venomous curse on the townspeople and vowed that no ancestor would be allowed eternal peace. Paranormal researcher Judith Tometczak exposes evidence of this deceptively quiet town's dark side.

Along Indiana's northern border, Elkhart County is a rich mixture of industry and agriculture, tradition and innovation--and it has a reputation for paranormal activity.

The Winchester Mansion is haunted by the eccentric Nellie Knickerbocker, who, rumor says, slept in her own coffin. The spirits of three former workers roam the Old Bag Factory. A scowling spirit in a nurse's uniform once stalked the Clark Street Hospital while the Wilt House is home to a ghostly girl. A basketball player and mysterious organ music both play on at the Washington Township High School, and a former stagehand stalks the Bristol Opera House.

Join author Mark P. Doddington for a tour of all things spooky in Elkhart County.

Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, celebrated its centennial anniversary in 2018.

Begun in 1918 as the Eastern Division of the Indiana State Normal School, Ball State remained a branch campus of Indiana State until 1929 when it became Ball State Teachers College, Indiana's fourth public institution of higher education. In 1965 the teachers college became Ball State University. Throughout its history, Ball State's distinguishing characteristic has been the positive interactions between students, faculty, and members of the community. This book will show how these interactions have worked out at Ball State in the classroom, on the athletic field, and in social organizations such as student government, fraternities, sororities, and clubs throughout the region. The book will also show how the members of the Ball family have played a major role in the growth and development of the university.

The food scene in Hamilton County, Indiana sprang from humble roots and evolved into a dynamic culinary community.

Early restaurateurs made modest livings at mom-and-pop joints like Aunt Bea's Chicken in Noblesville and Brown's Drugstore in Carmel. Teen romances bloomed at the Blue Ribbon Dairy Drive-In and Burger Chef. Then Chef Dieter Puska's elegant eatery the Glass Chimney took dining to a whole new level. Local chefs carry on his legacy with new farm-to-table restaurants featuring ingredients from a multitude of growers and farmers' markets. The craft beer scene is booming, too, with exceptional breweries like Four Day Ray, Mashcraft, Books and Brews and Barley Island. Take a trip down memory lane and embark on a modern-day culinary adventure with local food writer Karen Kennedy as she presents the hardworking restaurant owners and culinary superstars who built and continue to grow Hamilton County's vibrant food culture.

Since the end of the American Revolution, Native Americans, pioneer farmers, industrialists and factory workers settled across the county in hamlets, villages and towns of all sizes.

Nearly one hundred distinct settlements existed in what we now call Delaware County. Some of these communities survived the ebb and flow of history to prosper, while others disappeared, becoming lost in the collective memory. Today, many residents would only recognize the city of Muncie and the towns of Albany, Daleville, Eaton, Gaston, Selma and Yorktown. A few might know of villages such as Desoto, New Burlington, Smithfield and Wheeling. Most have probably never heard of Dogtown, Gate's Corner, Granville and Soccum. Drawing on years of research, local historian Chris Flook uncovers the stories of these lost towns.

This book is a chilling collection of the ghostly legends and lore of historic Madison, Indiana.

Beautifully preserved mid-nineteenth-century buildings grace the streets of Madison, Indiana, providing a concrete connection to the past. But a more ethereal, ghostly link flits about these streets when night descends. Restive spirits linger here, like the extra that may join you mid-slumber at Whitehall Bed-and-Breakfast, a residual from the Civil War hospital that was once nearby. Feel the ghostly chill of a mob bootlegger who stops by the Broadway Tavern around last call and learn of the myriad ghosts that flutter here in search of something. Dive into the shadows of Madison on this chilling journey with Virginia Jorgensen.

Terre Haute might seem like a quiet river town, but the ghosts of the city's past ensure that things never grow too quiet!

From the ghost of a green-eyed bulldog to a mausoleum phone, the town's cemeteries are a playground for those who have passed on to the other side. The spirits of children haunt the site of the former Glenn Home, where they once lived. The restless spirit of a girl who passed before her time lingers in a local salon, and the apparition of a faceless nun still wanders the hallowed halls of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. The former Condit residence has a long history of premature deaths, while the Preston House held its own secrets within its now vanished walls. Join tour guide and paranormal investigator Ashley Hood on a tour of Terre Haute's spectral history.

North Central Indiana is rich in farmlands, wind turbines, and small towns. It is also thick with ghosts.

Ghastly apparitions roam the town of Battle Ground, where the infamous Battle of Tippecanoe occurred. A woman trying to put her life back together soon found herself disturbed by inexplicable events in a Fountain County apartment. Roads in Newton, Clinton, and Grant counties are but a few such roads where strange things suddenly appear--and often just as quickly disappear. The Rotary Jail Museum in Crawfordsville is said to have a pair of resident spirits. Purdue University and Indiana Beach harbor their own eerie tales.

Join authors and paranormal investigators W.C. Madden and Maria Salvo Benson on a spine-tingling journey of the haunts of North Central Indiana.