Murder, Mayhem and a Couple of Ghosts

   Barely five miles wide and eight miles long – not two miles northeast of Plymouth – lies Shenandoah Valley. An area rich in agriculture and history. Currently, a wine lovers haven with over forty wineries boasting world class wines from the unique Appalachia that harbors some of the best soil in all the world.    Shenandoah Valley’s rich terrain is picturesque. It’s rolling foothills are green after winter’s rain and glisten golden in the summer sun. Granite outcroppings dot the landscape. Worn into some of those gray-green boulders are mortar holes left by the area’s original inhabitants – the Miwok.    Once upon a time, the Shenandoah Valley was inhabited by a large population of Central Sierra Miwok. Evidence abounds of their rich life. For decades, settlers have been foraging the rich earth for the artistic beads and other artifacts. As late as the 1970s people were packing them out by the bucketful, along with loose rock pestle and mo...

      Click here for walking directions to the haunting referenced on this page:  Head past  9450 Pacific Street  - look across the street in the direction of the highway. The House to the east of the house with the crow's nest.     On March 3, 1888, it was posted that “a one-legged man was seen running through the town of Plymouth burglarizing houses on Main Street.” The newspaper reported the man was drunk with no place to sleep. The only reason he was not shot, was because the moon was full, and the man looked “harmless” – a fateful mistake the bustling mining town would soon discover.     The night was stormy.     The air thick. The full moon ducked in and out of thunder clouds as rain periodically pummeled the streets.    Across town on Pacific Street was the Plymouth Empire Mine. Overlooking the gold extraction process sat a regal mine superintendent’s house – complete with crow’s nest granting a 360-d...

 Click here for walking directions to the haunting referenced on this page:  click this link  .     On February 26, 1986, a seventeen-year-old named Donna was jogging on Highway 16 near where Pokerville Market now stands. It was about noon and the day was drizzly. Something in the street caught her eye. It was a flash, followed by what sounded like screams.     No cars were around, no people in sight, so Donna crossed the highway and followed the noise over a loose barbed wire fence to a clearing behind some trees.  Under the trees the ground was wet, except for a light amber spot of dirt that resembled the outline of a body.    Instinctively, Donna bent down and touched the ground. The screams returned and Donna was pulled forward by something she could not see. Frightened, Donna fought against the force.    “Help me!” the invisible force cried.    Donna struggled – her screams...

  Click here for walking directions to the haunting referenced on this page -  9359 Main Street Built in 1879 as the Caucasian Club, the bottom floors housed a mortuary, a tailor and a clothier and a “Caucasian Society Hall” filled the top floor.  Now imagine a hard-working Austrian immigrant – that man was A. Vegia. The well-respected man who ran the clothier and tailor shop on the main floor for over four years was about to experience just how wild the west really was. One day, customer Peter Shapral who ordered a suit not to his liking – angrily approached Vegia right on this street. The men argued. Shapral shot the tailor dead. Shapral was tried by never convicted. Before the shooting the tailor accused Shapral of being godless and someone whose spirit would walk in alone for all eternity, but what came to pass was the opposite - for now it is the spirit of Vegia that roams ...

      Click here for walking directions to the haunting referenced on this page:    Click here for directions.     Robert Waddell was born on June 5, 1834, in Belmont, Ohio, to Rebecca Goodman and A. Waddell. Somewhere in the early 1870s, Robert moved to Plymouth. He tried his hand at mining but resumed his first career – that of a policeman. Sometime in the 1870s, Robert moved in as a boarder of dwelling 336 in Plymouth. The home belonged to Samuel and Mary Coleman.       Four years younger than the matron of the house, Robert developed a crush that turned obsession on the woman who cooked and cleaned for he and seven other men. On the 1880 Census, Samuel is listed as “hotel keeper” ­and his wife: “keeping house.” Most of the boarders are listed as some sort of mine worker or laborer. Robert was the sole professional.     Robert never presented as a wealthy man. He spent much of her free time in the parlor ...

    Click here for walking directions to the haunting referenced on this page:  Follow these directions to the  Plymouth Consolidated Landmark .   On the morning of August 14, 1884 - E.L. Montgomery, Superintendent of the Plymouth Consolidated Mine, was informed that rock, laden with rich ore, was being secretly extracted from the Empire Mine by a group of miners. The Empire was one of the Plymouth mines merged to form the Consolidated. It was particularly profitable - with veins of rich placer running the whole length of Plymouth and beyond.    The informant, Mitchel Magud, volunteered to prove the truth of the statement by accompanying Superintendent Montgomery to the place where the rock was being crushed.    Mr. Montgomery, busy at the time, authorized W.T. Jones, the foreman, to investigate. Jones and Magud went to the gate of Nick Barinovich’s house. Magud told Jones that he could find the culprits in the cellar, but the cella...