Interesting Places
Here are some pictures of interesting places near my hometown and other places I have lived.
Evans City Cemetery - location of the opening scenes in George Romero's Night of the Living Dead in 1968.
One of the most influential horror movies was Romero's Night of the Living Dead. In 1968, this was a truly terrifying movie, and it is still creepy today. The movie was filmed in black and white to keep production costs down, and most people have only seen grainy, blurred versions of the movie. Elite Entertainment did an amazing restoration for their DVDs that makes it look like it was filmed yesterday. While some flaws still exist in the image, there is very little dirt in the image, and few scratches.
If you watch the movie closely, you can find most of the locations used in the movie. The picture shown to the left is one I took in the spring of 2003. In the 35 years since the movie was filmed, a tornado damaged some stones, and the tree that was between these two stones has been removed. The small stone to the right is where Barbara and Johnny visited their father's grave.
Here's my Neon parked where Johnny left his GTO in the beginning of the movie. The cemetery seems much larger in the movie than it does in real life, due to the way the footage was edited.
George Romero filmed Dawn of the Dead in the Monroeville Mall in 1978, and Day of the Dead in the Wampum Mines in 1985.
Ohio State Reformatory - the prison used in The Shawshank Redemption, Airforce One, etc.
All outer - and some inner - shots of Shawshank were filmed at the Reformatory. The cellblocks were filmed in a nearby warehouse, and the road Brooks walks down after being released is in downtown Mansfield. The large tree Andy hid the money near is located in Malabar Farms.
I attended a ghost hunt at the Reformatory on June 14, 2003. This picture of the OSR sign was taken the previous night, when I drove out to see where the prison was. I have also walked through the prison during a haunted house that is set up each year around Halloween.
We arrived at the Reformatory by 8PM, and we were able to stay inside as long as we wanted, with the experience ending at 6AM the next morning. Corey and I stayed until about 2AM. Unfortunately, I later learned that most paranormal activity is reported after that time.
Here's a picture from inside the chapel at the Reformatory. I carried two cameras that night - a digital camera with plenty of memory cards and an Advantix camera with a zoom lens. The Advantix camera also allowed me to use black & white film for some of my shots. (The B&W picture used in the above section was done in Photoshop; the one to the left is with B&W film.)
We were allowed to walk almost anywhere in the Reformatory, as long as there wasn't yellow tape or some other warning. Here, I'm following Corey through the cell block. Some people have reported cell doors opening or closing during other ghost hunts, though we didn't notice anything like that during our time there. The atmosphere alone is certainly creepy though. If I went to the prison again, I would certainly try to take a video camera and some other electronic equipment (night vision would be a good thing to have, if you can afford it - maybe someday...).
Um, I must have taken a picture of my finger with my digital camera while trying to get a picture of the tower. Either that, or it is the only picture of paranormal activity that I captured that night. I'm guessing it's my finger, however, as the lens on my camera is very close to the left side of the camera.
Wayne Blockhouse, Erie, PA
Major General "Mad" Anthony Wayne died at Fort Presque Isle, Erie, on December 15, 1796. His remains were buried in Erie until 1809, when his son took his bones back to Radnor, PA. Since then, Wayne's ghost is supposed to rise on January 1st (his birthday) to follow the route his bones traveled across the state. In addition, Major General "Mad" Anthony Wayne is my first cousin, 7 times removed. The blockhouse shown below is a reconstruction of the blockhouse where Wayne died.
High Knob, Wise, VA
This image was created in Photoshop using photos taken from High Knob lookout during June 2005. You can see 4 states from here when the weather is clear. (This panorama is quite a bit larger than it looks on here, download it for a bigger picture)
Nashville, TN
I stopped in Nashville on a drive between job interviews in Tennessee. I was initially looking for the Grand Ole Opry, but found Cooter's first. On the day I stopped, a photographer from The Tennessean was there, and I got my picture taken while looking at the collection of memorabilia. I'm not sure if my picture made it into the paper or not, as I headed back to VA and then PA soon after. Great store though. On my way out of Nashville, I finally found the signs for the Opry and the Opry Mills mall. Since I'm only an hour south of Nashville, it's a nice place to go on the weekends.
Nashville also has a full-sized replica of the Parthenon. Inside is a replica of the statue of Athena that stood in the original Parthenon. The Parthenon houses Nashville's art museum.
Ruby Falls, Chattanooga, TN
Ruby Falls is an underground waterfall underneath Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga. The cave is very cool, though if you're over 5'10" or so, you'll need to watch your head.
