West Virginia Penitentiary

Road trip!

When we first started dating, I told M that I wanted her to take me on a hot vacation AND a cold vacation. For example, she took me to Stowe in January and Orlando in October. So, she said she wanted to go on a scary vacation every year and for 2008, she picked the West Virginia Penitentiary. It's supposed to be one of the most haunted places in the country due to the decades of violence that took place there.

So, we were off on our 5 hour journey through 4 states (MD, VA, WV, PA) and M got to see the other counties in Maryland that she's never seen. She can now proudly say that she has been to every county in Maryland. It was a crazy, we hit rain, sleet, snow and sunshine, and our ears popped from going up and down the mountains - we went up to 2880 feet above sea level! There is a mountain called "Negro Mountain" - awful. There were very few music stations so poor M had to hear me sing along to the bad music on my iPod. And we could not get away from commercials about the opening of "Plush" at the Morgantown Mall! Get your Ed Hardy scarves that you can wear 11-12 different ways and hoodies and stop by for the after party! Now you don't have to go to Pittsburgh or DC to get your clothes! Woohoo! Seriously, that was the hottest thing happening.
We got to the hotel - it was so nice, built only 6 months ago so everything was brand new. We layered up and headed to dinner at this family owned Italian place - one of two places the hotel sends its patrons to. They had the BIGGEST beer battered onion rings - yum!

It was a dark and snowy night. We got to the penitentiary at around 7:45 and there were around 60 people there. There were 9 states represented, they put M down as NJ, hahaha! There were these two older women whom I swore were lesbians and were very cute and nice to us. A couple from Florida who had gone on a big scary trip - haunted hotel where a pen moved and their covers were pulled onto them by ghosts, Eastern penitentiary and Mansfield penitentiary. There were also 2 groups of ghost hunters: (1) P.A.T.'s - some kind of knock off of T.A.P.s and (2) Ohio Spirit Seekers. They had EMF and EVP devices - some home-made!
I liked the historical aspect and taking funny jail scene photos. The penitentiary is completely dark - see hot photo of us with our headlamps. They split us up into 2 groups and the first group goes with the historical guide. I went on a haunted ghost tour of the French Quarter once and that was so scary because of the real horrors that happened. We waited to go with the second guide who was a paranormal specialist. I have to find his name because I think he was on a few of the TV shows. Real life is scarier than the paranormal so I'm glad we went on the paranormal tour which amounted to him saying that each room of the penetentiary was active and you will get off the charts EMF readings and crazy talk on your EVP recorders. After the group tour, we were on our own to explore the place.

It was like going through somebody's basement. The place is in bad shape with paint peeling and stuff in disarray. In addition to actually seeing what a prison was like, the art that the prisoners left were really interesting. Some of it was really good - scenes of nature, flying eagles. There were also football teams, lots of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, some Aryan Brotherhood stuff and one cell that had GunsNRoses and Bon Jovi lyrics! While we did get some pictures of orbs which turned out to be reflections of snow and a window rattled when we walked past it, the scariest part of the tour was the people. Most of them were waiting in the lobby eating pizza until the 2-4 AM time when "activity" was at its highest. But, we'd run into them in the Sugar Shack and Psych Ward with their devices, sitting in the dark and saying outloud, "Talk to us. Do you want us to leave you alone?"
Yes, please leave the ghosts alone. M doesn't believe in ghosts and wanted to go to the penitentiary to be proven wrong. Me, I don't want to talk to the ghosts and I don't want them to talk to me. I am a big fan of leaving them alone. Who are these crazy people who want to provoke the ghosts? Did they ever think about what might happen if the ghosts did say or do something? And yes, the penitentiary was cold. It's because it was cold. And the windows were open.

I have to say, aside from being freaked out by the people, I was very brave. I even suggested we go up some random dark stairs and I was surprised that we got to know the penitentiary so quickly because I was sure we'd get lost. We even got to see the 2nd attraction in the area - the Mound. The very thing Moundsville was named after. It's about a 3 story burial mound built by Native Americans. I thought it would be bigger.

I'm even thinking about our next scary trip. I want to take M to Eastern Penitentiary in Philadelphia for a ghost hunt. We could go to the Mutter Museum and eat at Morimoto!
So, a few things learned. Bring: baseball cap and attach baseball cap light (headlamps are tight and hurt after awhile), hiking boots (UGGs did not provide enough arch support for hours of walking), dust mask (I'm sure we breathed in some asbestos), extra batteries and memory cards for cameras, snowboarding pants, pack lightly (my backpack was so heavy).