Heaven's Din

Early in October of 2012 my sister Hilary was hanging out with a friend at his home in Mission, KS. Whenever she was there they’d spend most of their time in the back den, and this night was no exception. At some point Hilary stepped out and, upon trying to return, was stopped in her tracks by what she described as a sudden and mighty roar from Heaven itself. Now, it was rather later in the evening and all other members of the house had long gone to bed, but my sister decided to go and investigate the house anyway, as her friend's younger brother had a history of sneaking out and my sister was thinking of catching him in the act. But alas, no. As far as Hilary could tell everyone else was still sound asleep. Baffled, she again made her way to the den. As soon as she entered, her friend asked if she'd heard the strange noise as well, and just as Hilary was about to respond, wouldn't you know it - again came that almighty roar!

Could they have mistaken a rowdy occupant of a nearby house for something supernatural? Or perhaps someone in the house was sleep talking. Maybe. But mistaking a loud neighbor or a sleep talker for something as otherworldly as a "roar from Heaven" would take a great deal of stupidity on the part of my sister and her friend, and I know them well enough to know that they know the difference. Perhaps they heard a skyquake, which is by definition a loud booming sound of indeterminate cause coming from the sky. Theories surrounding skyquakes include the sound of meteors entering the atmosphere, shock waves generated by coronal mass ejections, shallow earthquakes or sonic booms from military craft (though reports of skyquakes predate aviation). I find anomalous sounds to be especially interesting, so if anyone has had a similar experience or has another theory about what these two heard, please share in the comments below.

Ghosts and Shadow Men

In winter of 2012 my sister's best friend had another one of her many encounters with the paranormal while at her home in northern Johnson County KS. From what I've gathered her home possesses some very strange energy and has played host to many odd events over the years. Phantom footsteps and other anomalous noises, electronics turning off and on by themselves, inexplicably misplaced objects and an all-around creepy vibe...you know, all the classic hallmarks of a haunted house. I'd blog more about her experiences but it's hard to snag an interview. The following is discerned from notes I had my sister take in my absence.

It was sometime after midnight and Katie (not her real name) was finally getting ready for bed, a routine that included placing a chair below her doorknob to keep her parents out while she slept. Without fail she would do this every night, same chair, same position. Well, one morning she woke up to find that her chair had been moved and pushed up against another wall. Physically speaking, the only one capable of moving that chair would have been Katie herself, and while it is possible she moved it during an episode of sleepwalking (although she's never been known to sleepwalk), when one considers the history of unexplained phenomena in that home, an act of the supernatural can not be ruled out.

Katie and my sister's notes about the chair.

Katie has also seen several shadow figures in her home. There was a night where she came face to face with one of these entities in the hall right outside her bedroom, a presence her cat also appeared to notice and began following around. Whatever it was dissipated when it reached the end of the hall, but soon after there came a knocking at the door and wouldn't you know it, no one was there.

On another occasion, Katie got up somewhere between the hours of two and three in the morning for a late-night snack. Her house, like many others, has certain lights that are kept on overnight and one of those lights was at the bottom of the basement stairs, the top of which you pass on your way to the kitchen. The cats often hang around here since their litter box is kept at the bottom of said staircase. Tonight was no exception. Seeing the kitties, Katie decided to stop and pet them before continuing on. However, when she looked up from the cats, instead of just seeing the staircase she saw something... more. Or should I say someone more. At the bottom of the stairs stood a man. A shadowy, flat figure of a man with long, stringy hair and wearing what appeared to be a trench coat. He was only visible for a moment, stepping into and then out of the light at the basement landing, just long enough for the friend to pick up a sense of consciousness from the being. Whatever it was, it seemed to be aware of its surroundings. Katie, also being aware of her surroundings, decided to skip the kitchen and just go back to bed.

I’ve always wanted to visit Katie’s house, but the timing has never worked out. Everyone I know who’s been inside though says the place radiates negative energy. According to Katie there has been one known death in the house, that of an old woman, but this doesn’t seem to match up with encounters of shadow people and more masculine entities like the one in the last story. Shadow people in particular have so many theories surrounding them, everything from interdimensional beings or demons to somehow being connected to the Men in Black (themselves extremely unknown). The only thing I can say for sure is that something strange is definitely up in that house.  Follow me on Facebook to know whenever I update!

Local Legends: Stull KS

 

The gateway to Hell. A place so foul that the pope himself refuses to fly over it. Such is the reputation of the infamous Stull, KS. The legends surrounding this tiny, unincorporated town are many but the basic premise goes that a church built in the cemetery was either constructed over or beside one of the seven entrances to Hell, and that anyone who ventured over the threshold of this entrance was never heard from again. Another popular story would have it that Satan himself visits the cemetery every Halloween (or Spring Equinox, in some versions) to visit the grave of his witch wife. 

But that’s not all. Back when the church (which was razed in 2002) was still standing, rumors persisted that no rain would fall inside the crumbling remains (despite a collapsed roof), and furthermore that any glass bottles thrown against the walls of the church would not break. Allegedly there was also an old pine (which had grown through and split a gravestone) that was the site of witch hangings, and that all of this trouble can be traced back to the time when a stable hand stabbed the town's mayor to death (in a barn that eventually became the location of the church). 

And for good measure there are whisperings of Satanic and other dubious occult practices transpiring in the cemetery.

But is any of it true?

For being the powerhouse legend that it is, the true history of Stull is actually quite unremarkable. Settled in 1856 by a handful of families and named for the town’s first and only postmaster (Sylvester Stull), the only glitch in its otherwise mundane history are two slightly peculiar deaths. In one, a boy was burned to death by his father in an accident, and in the other a man went missing only to turn up later hanging from a tree. There is, however, no known incident involving a stable boy and the mayor. 

So how did these tales of Satanic intrigue spring forth? One source claims that back in the 1950s a professor at the nearby University of Kansas started rumors of a hellish gateway in Stull as a social experiment, but his story never really gained much traction until it was picked up by the student newspaper sometime in the 1970s. I can't find any more information about this alleged social experiment, but the student paper (The University Daily Kansan) does seem to be the generally agreed upon source of the legend via an article from the 1970s. After the Daily Kansan article Stull suddenly became an attraction, and kids would make a Friday night of going out to the cemetery to try and encounter the otherworldly, which in turn led to a lot of vandalism, which eventually led to the incredibly tight security the cemetery experiences today. And it is tight. If you go there you are pretty much guaranteed a run in with law enforcement (and I speak from experience). It's understandable though. After all, many of Stull's residents have relatives buried in that cemetery and they're tired of people constantly lumbering through, messing the place up and disrespecting the dead.

I have been to Stull on three occasions. First time around, the cemetery was locked so all we could do was stand outside the fence, but on my second visit I was surprised to see the gates open and my friends and I were actually able to drive in. However, we didn't get to see much as a cop drove up almost as soon as we made it in. Lucky for us we had decided against getting out of the car and were thus able to simply leave without having to actually deal with the police, but still...like I said, the place is very secure. Third time, which was in 2021, I was trying to get a picture of the cemetery for Instagram but there were absolutely no lights on in the cemetery, making it pointless to try even try and photograph the place. As for the otherworldly, none of us encountered anything even the slightest bit paranormal on any of these trips. However, with all that being said, I will concede that since we were never given the opportunity to spend any real time in Stull, it would be a bit unfair of me to fully dismiss the place.

For those who are still interested, Stull is located 10 miles west of Lawrence and 13 miles east of Topeka. We took Highway 40, which turns into N 1600 Rd/Stull Rd. Take that until you get to E 250 Rd and make a left. Stull should be around there somewhere (directions only valid if coming from the KC metropolitan area).  Oh, and while rumors of the Pope refusing to fly over the area or The Cure canceling a show in nearby Lawrence KS because of its proximity to Stull are both false, it is true that Ariana Grande claimed in an interview with "Complex Magazine" that she was attacked by demons after attempting to visit the cemetery.

Photo of Stull taken before security ran us off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stull,_Kansas

Unfortunately my other source for this article no longer exists, but here are some other interesting sources for those invested in the legend:

https://www.theculturecrush.com/stull
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2488962/Ariana-Grande-encounters-demons-visit-infamous-cemetery.html (Ariana Grande's experience with Stull)

And feel free to leave any of your own experiences with Stull in the comments.