Haunted Athens, Ohio (Part 1)

Hello all. With Halloween around the corner, I would like to present some stories, legends and some of my personal experiences about Ohio University located in Athens, Ohio. I am an alumnus of OU and lived off and on campus for four years. I had always heard that Athens was a really haunted area when I was younger, but it was when I was a student there that I learned about all sorts of rumors and legends. Whether you believe the stories or not, there is something special about this area and, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful campuses in the country. Much of the stories I’m going to share have come from numerous sites dedicated to haunted Athens and Ohio. If there are any other ATS members who have attended OU or visited with their own stories, please post them here!



MT. NEBO
Ohio is well known for its ghost towns. Most of them were situated around the railroad or mining industry. After the company built the houses for its employees, they suddenly let the mines run dry and the railroad was not necessary anymore. Sometimes the company left the little towns with nothing behind. This is the reason some little towns from Ohio turned into ghost towns. Some of them have a special history, such as Mt. Nebo.
The town of Mt. Nebo was mainly known for the Spiritualists who used to live in the area. The area that surrounded Ohio was full of wild animals and lightly populated by humans. Even if in the early 1800s the region was not highly inhabited, some people interested in mysticism lived there. Spiritualism was a mainstream and raising in popularity during this period of the American History.
The most known man in Mt. Nebo was Jonathon Koons, a devout atheist. He moved in the district in order to draw attention to the fake spiritualists that were living in the area but he soon found out that he believed in the words of a young girl that claimed to be connected to the other world. She pretended that she would ask questions and that she received some answers by tapping on the table. History has demonstrated since then that all these claims of numerous persons were definitely works of charlatans.
Jonathon Koons remained a believer and soon he began to claim that spirits were appearing in his home as well and he ordered the members of his family to strictly follow his actions. The alleged spirits asked him and his family to build a table in order to use it in communication with them through ghostly writing. Koons soon discovered that his oldest son and wife poses the same powers he had. The man pretended that he was holding a pen in his hand and the spirits would work through his hand to write their own words.
The spirits also convinced the family to build the Spirit Room, a cabin for their own private use. Koons had said that all the details of the room were inspired by the words dictated by the spirits. They would remain there after the family went to sleep and continued their ghostly work through the night.
Soon enough, the Koons family was famous all over the country. People were coming in pilgrimage and the locals become upset by the flocks of persons that were wandering into the town. The Koons family farm was burnt down and their children were attacked eventually by others in the area tired of the supernatural occurrences. After a period of prosecution, they decided to leave Mt. Nebo and went away to spread the word about the spirits in other places.
The legend of this family is still remembered these days. When the cabin was still standing visitors would come from all over the world in order to experience their talents. When in Mt. Nebo, many people claimed that they felt ghostly hands on their skin, whispers in their ears and some instruments floating over their heads that were being played by the spirits. Some of them reported translucent hands that were writing messages at an extreme fast speed as well.
It’s on private property and the spirit room is no longer there. It’s simply just a wooded area now. However if you search for it on Google maps you can get a good idea of the location. maps.google.com...



All that's left of Mt. Nebo

Sources:
www.forgottenohio.com
www.hauntedathensohio.com
www.forgettenoh.com
www.moonvilletunnel.net

I'm appreciating this very much. I just got back from Athens, and I had visited there before as a houseguest. For some strange reason, I can't stand Athens. All of my in laws graduated OU, but that's not why I can't stand it, that's the reason I'm trying to understand why I can't stand it.
All of my in law family are very nice people.

Nice! I live off of Richland Ave

reply to post by TheCounselor


Maybe the spirits of Mt. Nebo are putting some bad joo-joo on you.

reply to post by jtrenthacker


You live here in town?

reply to post by ApolloBloodline


Nope. I graduated in 2000. I'm originally from Columbus. My family and I moved up to Mt. Pleasant, Michigan last year. During my years there, I lived in James Hall on West Green and at the Theta Chi house on 117 E. State St.

reply to post by jtrenthacker


Have you been here recently?

reply to post by ApolloBloodline


I haven't been down there in about 5 years. My wife (also a Bobcat) and I talked about making it down for homecoming next year. Miss that place. Nothing like it.

reply to post by jtrenthacker


Don't know much about the haunted places, but Athens throws a WICKED Halloween Party. At least they used to, years ago. Been to two or three of them, when I was a youngin.

That's for sharing! I read all three parts, and flagged em all.

reply to post by jtrenthacker


Off topic kind of but I suggest you talk to a moderator about getting all 3 (or more) threads compiled into one instead of doing a new thread for each post. You will get more exposure to your topic over all and I think you are risking getting a couple or all of them probably closed as it is.

reply to post by sputniksteve


Will do. Thanks for the heads up!