The Last Entry

Well Folks this is the Final post on this blog. I’m getting very busy with a lot of exciting New Things and projects so I have decided to just go ahead and pack it in .I just don't have time or motivation to keep updating.

As It Turns Out I want to completely devote my time to some other Ideas I have been throwing around for a while. Also it is currently summer outside as I type this and I really want to be out doing more worldly things and not be on the net. A wise person once said to me, life is all about ''letting go'' I find that is true, you have sixty, maybe eighty so years and you will be gone. Soon you will be old, soon you will be dead.

 

Now part of the original motivation for THE KENTUCKY FILES was to document some of the wild and unusual places and occurrences I had come to know living in KY. Also I had a long bucket list of places I had heard of but had not been to yet when I started and wanted to do an online journal. Accomplishing most of what I set out to do it is time for me to move on. Hopefully I have also inspired some of my readers. One thing that still puzzles me is why so many Rural Kentuckians never get out of the House and go hiking or travel anywhere [Except going to Florida, a state culturally similar but with beaches ]. They do not seem to even be aware of Historical and interesting locales in their own area. There are still plenty of hidden destinations out there, so what is keeping you? Why don’t you Go out there yourself and explore even if it is in your own back yard.

 
This blog will remain up on the net for as long as Google supports it, just no new entries. It will remain up for reference with its backlog whenever anyone needs it.I hope I have entertained you my dear readers and followers. Who knows maybe a new blog or Book form of my research and explorations will come to light one day. I am very excited about what the future holds.

 

 

The Vampire Hotel

Words can not express how badly I have wanted to find the abandoned Vampire Hotel over the years. I recently took off for western KY to the land between The Lakes area to Find the site. Authorities from nearby Murray tried to demolish this structure back in the 90's to stop curiosity seekers from wanting to go there,but the foundation which is somewhat bunker like still remains. Now why did they try to tear it down? If you don't know I am about to clue you in.

The Abandoned Vampire Hotel is located in the spot between Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake

I knew the Site was on the banks near the Bridge

  

The Vampire Clan Murders in 1996 Were committed by a deeply disturbed  teenager from Murray KY named Rod Ferrell who killed a man and wife in Florida mostly for the Thrill of it. It was considered unwanted publicity and I personally know Writers and Researchers that have been warned not to go to the Land between the lakes  area and try and do a piece on it in years following, which made me wonder .After I did some research And also a Satellite map scan I found out It was still partially intact. 

I  Found The Building by following a straight line but the kids most likely used this path closer to the bank

Now home to mostly lizards

The Structure was not a Hotel at all but a single-story home That was abandoned in the 1960's

 Rod and a small gang of Kids Were into Vampire role playing, cutting themselves and drinking blood. The Crimes took place in Florida but this Old Kentucky building became famous as the place in the woods where the Vampire clan Hung out .In The Mid 90's Goth and ''want to be'' -Vampire types were known to go there after school. Teens from the area could get together and party, use drugs ,play role playing games and not be bothered by adults, Cops or other students who did not understand The Goth subculture.There is a lot of Graffiti which I believe is mostly old Graffiti from that time period. Rod dressed in black and  was known to dabbled in the Occult and even stated he was a child of Satanic sexual abuse In a ''Black Mass''. In 1996 Rod turned 16 and  declared to friends and family he was actually possessed by the spirit of a 500-year old vampire  he called Vesago. He and some friends invented a Fantasy game similar to  Dungeons & Dragons  which they called DARK STRANGERS.They live action role played the game here in and around the site. Rod Would play the role of a Demi-god .The game centered around Two main Characters called Mephisto and Magus and Rod would play both roles.

Rod at one point had a falling out with a fellow student called  ''Jaden'' the main leader of  Murray's Local Goth Vampire subculture .Ferrell was of the mind that there was not enough room in Kentucky for two Alpha Vampire leaders so he decided to dropout of school,taking  those  members he favored on a road trip down South. Many people would say later on that Rod started to have an almost Charles Manson like power over his followers.  His main purpose was to pick up a girl he knew in Florida who wanted to join his clan. He Told them all  they would eventually travel to New Orleans  to start recruiting a massive Vampire and werewolf Army. Things went way South For sure, as in reality all they were really doing was running away from home and when Money ran low Things Got bad. They ended up stealing a Vehicle for there little road trip and  a double Murder took place before they were finally caught In Baton Rouge. Rod did not actually suck the blood of his victims but beat them with a crow bar until nothing but a bloody mess. For a long time the official story was that the Vampire Hotel Building had been torn down By locals not wanting the stigma and to keep journalists away. Regardless the Vampire Hotel became a sensation briefly after the murderer and his accomplices made national News when they were caught .

This is basically just a patio

To Be Honest this Hole could be deep and filled with God knows what

This is The View from the ''Patio''

The Author Checks in To The Hotel

I don't get the impression many go up there to the old foundation much any more and certainly many may be afraid to as It is creepy even in the daytime. I did however enjoy my brief stay at the Vampire hotel and wanted to stay longer but there was  a lot of Bridge construction going on and no good place to park for very long. Oh by the way You may be wondering  when  Rod Ferrell is Getting out of Prison? Most likely never ........ 

Spaceship Structure

 

Strange Little Building I saw while driving through Paducah,KY

Strange Hovering Object :Video footage

Strange Hovering Object :Video footage

   

 

I have been witnessing hard to identify lights in the sky all year over Owingsville, KY. This Footage was shot using a Night vision Cam and 700x power zoom. I was informed by The Police this is a drone But if You look it appears to vanish at one point.When it reappears it rapidly Touches down on the Horizon .Whatever it is it is quite large, much larger than a Typical Civilian Drone.

 

                     CLICK BELOW TO START CLIP

 

 

Haunted Tunnels

      What would Be scarier than meeting a Ghost on the Road at Night ? Being in a Tunnel and meeting a Ghost. These two Kentucky Drive through Tunnels  Have creepy legends attached to them.


Nada Tunnel  : Red River Gorge

 : Haunting -Glowing green ghost said to be seen sometimes near the entrance.

Some speculate the ghost is of a fallen hiker and other sources say it is possibly haunted by one of the builders of the tunnel who died while working on it. Either way there is a lot of vehicle traffic going through it usually so do not attempt to walk through end to end as you might end up getting run over and becoming the next ghost to haunt the place.

 

 

 

Early 20th Century Photo Showing when it was a Railroad tunnel

 

 

CLICK BELOW TO START VIDEO 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quisenberry Tunnel :  Montgomery County

   : Legend -Demon seen inside at exactly Midnight.
                  

 

 

 

 

 For years I heard stories About this haunted underpass that goes under U.S I64 ,strange things were seen in and around the area. One night in the late 90's while going to another unrelated investigation of an abandoned church on Stepstone road I went through the Tunnel and saw a ''beater' 'car stopped in the middle with no lights on. I went past it and saw some teens were inside[nothing unusual since people stop and paint graffiti regularly ].As I drove on I saw the same car following me, when I got to the Abandoned church they pulled in behind and the driver  got out and proceeded to explain what they had been doing. According to the driver They were testing a local legend. If you turn off all lights and the engine and sit in the car inside the tunnel at Midnight a hideous Demon will come to the car to get you. When you turn the light switch back on you can catch a glimpse of it running away and passing through the side walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside at Night when you drive through

 

Weird Weather

  On Friday,April 22 around 3 PM a freakish Hail came out of the sky that pommeled downtown Owingsville, KY and surrounding areas. I believe I was smack in the middle of it while I was driving down main street. Traffic came to a standstill for a few minutes as there was zero visibility and heavy hitting hail and rain came down in sheets. At one point I thought the pellets would almost break my windshield since it came with force and numbers like billions of marbles being dropped from above . When traffic started moving again I soon pulled over to wait out the skyfall.

Clumps of what gathered on my porch 

 

 

No damage seemed to have occurred and while I have seen much larger hail in the past ,there was never so much at once and coming in clumps.It was hail that resembled the size and appearance of rock salt and interestingly enough it was dry hot weather right before it hit.

 

So Many hailstones it almost looks like snow 

 

 

 

Archaeological Strangeness

                                            Bizarre Rock Hauled out of the Ohio river

 

 

One Of the last Photos of the rock when it was still Visible above the waterline

    A Strange situation developed when Ohio Historian Steven Shaffer set out to locate the lost Indian Head Rock, an eight ton boulder that at one time jutted out of the Ohio River before it was damned in the 1920's .Shaffer had heard stories passed down from old timers about a Rock large enough for people to stand on .Supposedly The Rock received a lot of carvings and graffiti from those who swam out to it over time including what was thought to be a pictogram of an Indian head perhaps dating back to Native peoples.

  After the damning Of the river the rock was no longer visible and mostly forgotten. After finding Old Pictures of the rock Shaffer became obsessed. In 2000 he started researching the location and did numerous scuba dives until he located the submerged Rock and pulled together a recovery effort.

   It proved to be a difficult task but after two attempts the heavy rock was soon removed from the water and it was briefly put on display in Portsmouth, Ohio with the intention of making it a museum attraction. Ah ,but It was not the rocks destiny to be on Ohio soil. That section of the river is actually Kentucky territory up to the Water line of the Ohio bank. When word spread that the Boulder had been removed, Many Kentuckians were incensed ,even though the Rock had not been visible for generations and essentially forgotten. The Army corpse of engineers ruled that the rock belonged to KY and when it was pulled out and stashed , Ohio violated an 1899 Federal Rivers and Harborment Act .Also a Commonwealth attorney Cliff  Duvall stated the Rock was of Great Historical significance to KY and that Ohio had violated an Act that protects from the theft of antiquities including Natural and prehistoric structures, historic landmarks and native American Artifacts.

The strange face thought to be carved by Native Americans  

 

 

 

A three year legislative battle began and as it turned out the old rock was already registered by the UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY as an object of archaeological significance and protected as of  1986 .Ohio soon surmised that the right thing to do would be to returned it to its original location back in the water, but KY still wanted the rock .Why was the Item so important to The Kentucky Authorities? A settlement was finally reached and the rock was handed over to Kentucky on Thursday November 4, 2010 .Now here is one for you Cover up and Conspiracy theorists out there ,The Artifact was subsequently hauled away to a Greenup, KY Garage Where it supposedly still stays. Hidden and unseen by the public.

 

A Giant Tree

  Montgomery County's Giant sycamore Tree

                                 

                      It was once measured at 125 feet tall and  35.35 feet in circumference.
                      Hollowed out for so  long no one knows How old it could possibly be.


         These  pictures were taken in 1993 Courtesy of Tom Martin- Author and Naturalist .It Is not known if the tree is still There but Tom Martin and  I are planning an expedition to try and find the tree again when time permits .

                           A Still from a Video when Tom and His Father measured the tree at 43'.
                                              Even greater than the official measurement.

Strange Animal Running On Two Feet

 

        Strange report from a 1978 Newspaper called THE GRAPHIC 

 
  Usually As A Librarian and Archivist I sift through files for hours for a good report of the Strange and the unusual. Gratefully in this case My Uncle Dave Pribble sent me this clipping from a May 1978 Georgetown ,KY  Newspaper. The case here involves a sighting on Gaines Road outside A Scott County Town called STAMPING GROUND [Ironically the town was nearly leveled by a tornado in 1974].According to the report, A woman saw a four to five foot tall black animal running in ''leaps''. The incident took place around 10.30 am on a Thursday and the report goes on to say she saw it through her window and that it was being chased by dogs as it ran across her property. The local police investigated but could find no tracks or any trace other than farm animal tracks in the area.

  The Article refers to it as an ''Ape'' but I am skeptical of that seeing that Apes don't usually run on two legs or in leaps. This type of report reminds me of what some investigators refer to as LITTLEFOOT.I have personally interviewed witness who described seeing a five foot tall black furry thing with a short face. Sometimes it is down on all fours and other times it stands upright and can leap fences on two legs.

Clack Mountain

  

My Dear Readers and Followers I will say to be perfectly honest I went into this investigation with the intention of a sober expose' on a local legend and did not feel I would find anything unusual. Something rather unexpected did happen up there and my visit to Clack Mountain was certainly bizarre .

 

 

 

 

 From About the mid 70's to mid 1990's There persisted this notion that a place in Rowan County KY called Clack Mountain  was often the ritual site for witches or Satanic cults. I can remember this rumor coming up more than once over time when I was a high school student .Around Halloween  especially groups of Kids would go up there in car loads hoping to see something sinister. I was invited a few times to go ''HUNTIN DIVL WURSHPERS'' But of course never did. I Have always  been a voracious reader and knew the difference between The Diabolical and the more common Earthy Neo pagan groups such as Wiccans ,Druids et al. I assumed that was what was most likely going on up there.Finding out from reliable sources that once located on the Mountain was a Commune of Naturalists/Nudists  many years ago. It is near Morehead KY and being a College Town possibly has had a few Visitors who have gone up there hiking skyclad. Such things may have had the casual Bible belt observer thinking they had seen a ritual or sacrifice about to take place.

  

   

 1925 LEE CLAY PRODUCTS manufactured clay bricks and Pipe and its source of clay was 
 Clack Mountain via the Morehead & North Fork Railroad

 

  Clack Is not very far from another rocky cliff area called Lockegee Rock,which I have been going to for years but I never ended up at Clack mountain until this recent trip as seen in the pics.I never did buy the whole ''Satan thing'' either but I must point out these story's evolved out of Americas Satanic panic era. All one had to do back then was to turn on the TV and see shows Like 20/20 ,Geraldo, or a Current Affair and weekly they would do a piece on how some teenager somewhere was practicing Satanism and murdering people or sacrificing family pets .Such things were taken very seriously back in the day.

   I don't hear those kinds of stories anymore about Clack Mountain but I thought it would be an interesting place to go take pictures and look into it anyway . When I arrived I could see some residences up there and from what I read on the internet people have lived on the mountain for years and have never seen anything untoward. With that in my mind I did not expect the sudden ''creeped out'' feeling I got when I reached the summit.

   The Tall rocks and the view are very nice to see and I usually get energized and get good vibes when I go to such places. In this case I got that feeling you get when you think you are being watched. Strangely when I turned my back I kept hearing the sound of car coming down the nearby road but no such vehicle ever materialized.
  When I got back Home I started to feel drained and ended up going to bed early .The next day I felt weak and unable to do much as If sick. It was not until the following day after sleeping almost 12 hours did I feel normal again. Maybe I was just coming down with something or maybe the place is like one of those sites with heavy electromagnetic fields .Kentucky has a lot of Iron deposits and also quartz crystals, magnetic minerals underground can alter the perception of direction and orientation. I have noticed over the years when I go to Mysterious and unusual places I will often get  an unexplained  rush of positive energy but in this case it was the opposite. I have always been fascinated by the idea of what the late and great Biologist and fortean investigator Ivan T. Sanderson called ''Vile Vortices''. One example being the Bermuda Triangle, however they can be on land also and are said to  produce some interesting effects such as deflecting compass needles.

I found examples of the usual Graffiti and this Devil head was
looking sinister out in the middle of nowhere 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 All In all Many of the rocks are still spectacular and if there ever was anything going on as far as Rituals it may have just been A pagan Group and a few self styled Want to be Satanists here and there wanting to be part of a good legend. When I look at these rocks they remind me of a Naturally occurring version of Stonehenge and would be the perfect place for those who worship nature and the earth and not the Devil.