Appalachia is steeped in the history of ghosts, weird creatures, and restless spirits. Native Americans steered clear of what is now West Virginia, because they viewed it as a troublesome place, plagued by angry ghosts and menacing monsters.

The earliest European settlers, the Scotch-Irish, the English, and the Germans, brought their own views about ghosts and other incredible beings. Later, other ideas came through tri-racial isolates.

The Celtic/Pictish peoples brought to Appalachia a belief in banshees, witches, haints, and Will O’ the Wisps. In fact, the word "Pict" (a diminutive early people of the British Isles) became the word "pixie." Through the early German/Pennsylvania Dutch came the poltergeists, doppelgangers, hexing and hexens (witches). Africans added devils, boogers, and spooks, while the Black Dutch included the concept of the Crossroads as a place of spiritual danger.

In the mid 20th century, Appalachian "haints" assumed a modern persona through a surprising number of UFO and creature sightings in West Virginia and the Ohio River Valley. The most famous were the West Virginia Mothman, the Flatwoods monster, and the UFO contactee tale of Woodrow Derenberger and the alien Indrid Cold that occurred near Mineral Wells, West Virginia in November of 1966.

Ghosts don’t belong to the past alone. They also belong to the here and now where hauntings—such as those at the Blennerhassett Hotel in downtown Parkersburg, West Virginia are ongoing and ever evolving.

Reports of ghosts are now being studied with tools of the 21st Century, such as digital cameras, electronic voice phenomena, electromagnetic detectors, camcorders, infra-red photography, heat monitors and numerous other kinds of equipment. It is becoming more difficult for skeptics to disprove that "something isn’t out there," things that we do not understand.

In "Cry of the Banshee," Susan Sheppard looks at the various related phenomena considered to be our haints, ghosts, apparitions, contactees, mothmen, banshees and other unexplained occurrences that can only fall under the category of the paranormal. Her book focuses on West Virginia and Ohio River Valley and it’s the best, most analytical ghost-story book that I have ever read.

"Cry of the Banshee" is a new, just-published, comprehensive guide to the hauntings and weird tales of the rugged lands along the Ohio River. These unique stories of the unknown delve into the history and hauntings of West Virginia and also reveal how to recognize ghosts, how to know if your house is haunted, and even the 13 most likely places to find phantoms.

In this chilling volume, the reader will meet the West Virginia Banshees and another more famous portent of doom, the Mothman. Here, for the first time, discover accounts of the infamous Men in Black, encounters with Ingrid Cold, and more unexplained happenings that have never appeared in print before! Also included are tales of haunted houses, spirit-infested cemeteries, Civil War ghosts, grieving women in white, the haunting tales of Blennerhassett Island, ghostly railroads, eerie tunnels, and even a haunted beer joint.

"Cry of the Banshee" is part of a large section of our store that deals with ghosts, mysteries, and treasures. These books and thousands of other books that focus on Kentucky and Appalachia are available at the Jesse Stuart Foundation Bookstore, 1645 Winchester Avenue in downtown Ashland.

For more information, call (606) 326-1667 or visit our website: JSFBOOKS.COM.