Episode Transcript
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1:00
follows may not be suitable for all
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audiences, listener discretion is advised. Hey,
1:27
Freaks, just a quick reminder before
1:29
we get into the show. Tickets
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we'll keep you posted on any updates with
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that, but we would love to see you.
1:46
So excited. You were having
1:48
a weird conversation with one of
1:51
your, one of the groups that you belong
1:53
to on Facebook. You had like a group chat.
1:56
What was it that you were
1:58
talking about? It sounded interesting. I
2:00
didn't want to pry, but... Well,
2:03
I learned something and I guess
2:05
I'd never thought about it before,
2:07
but I was in a Zoom
2:09
with some friends and they were
2:11
horrified to discover that you and
2:14
I share socks. To be clear,
2:16
we share socks that are clean.
2:18
We don't like... wear them one
2:20
day and you wear them the
2:22
next. No, of course. Who would
2:24
think that? I don't know. I
2:27
can't think of any other reason
2:29
why that would be weird. And
2:31
you have you specific socks, and
2:33
I have me specific socks, but
2:35
then we have shareable socks. Yeah,
2:38
they're like little footies, just to
2:40
keep your feet warm. little sport
2:42
socks. But like, I don't wear
2:44
your dress socks. No. And
2:47
you don't wear my pantyhose. I
2:49
don't it anymore. I'm
2:51
just really curious. Like, is this
2:53
a common thing? Like, because it
2:56
was pretty unanimous that I was
2:58
the outlier. So I'm really curious
3:00
to know, like, do
3:02
you share socks? Is it, is
3:05
it us that's Strange I've never
3:07
occurred to me the great odd
3:09
sock debate right now We're all
3:12
of these people in your group
3:14
chat of female persuasion. No Really?
3:16
Because I could understand you know
3:19
like you're married to a bunch
3:21
of gross guys You know don't
3:23
wash a lot or something, but
3:26
that's interesting to me. You were
3:28
the only one Yeah, it was
3:30
pretty across the board and the
3:33
looks The looks, the faces
3:35
they made. The sheer horror of
3:37
it all. That's funny.
3:39
I'm curious now. I got into
3:41
an argument with a friend one
3:44
time who insisted that using liquid
3:46
soap that comes out of like
3:48
one of those little pump dispensers,
3:50
it's inappropriate to use that in
3:52
the shower. Like body wash?
3:55
Just like regular hand soap. I wouldn't
3:57
say it's inappropriate. I would say it's
3:59
crime. Like, why are you using hand
4:01
soap on your body? Well, in a
4:03
pinch. If I ran it a bar
4:05
soap, I would bring it in and
4:07
use it. And yeah, okay, there's an
4:09
extra layer of having to dispense and
4:11
it could be a potential slipping hazard.
4:14
I don't know. But
4:16
we argued about that for off and on
4:19
for days. Anyway,
4:22
enough of this. Hooliganery. I
4:24
love that word. It's a good one. Do
4:26
you ever hear about the corpse roads in
4:28
England? The pathways for
4:30
the dead? No. Is that
4:33
a place where you only use pump
4:35
hand soap? I'm
4:37
not sure about their hand
4:39
washing methods. My guess is
4:42
at the time when these
4:44
roads were being used. Personal
4:46
hygiene wasn't top of mind.
4:49
If you ever find yourself wandering
4:51
through the quiet corners of the
4:53
English countryside, which I want to
4:55
do as soon as possible. You
4:58
might notice a strange old trail.
5:02
It passes through patches of heather. It
5:05
squeezes between crumbling stone
5:07
walls. It's perfectly straight.
5:11
It slips into the woods. It's
5:14
so quiet you can feel the
5:16
silence. If you happen
5:18
to stumble upon one of these paths,
5:20
because there are a few, don't
5:23
be surprised. If you
5:25
get a little bit of a
5:27
creepy feeling, because chances are, even
5:29
if you're walking alone, you're not
5:32
walking alone. Oh. These
5:34
are the corpse roads. These
5:36
are ancient roads laid down not
5:39
for the living, but
5:41
for the dead. I'm sorry,
5:43
they were constructed for
5:45
deceased people? In
5:47
a way, in a manner of speaking. Long
5:50
before GPS, in
5:52
hearses, Before local graveyards were
5:55
pretty much inked on every
5:57
village map, the
6:00
rural dead had to
6:02
travel. In life, they
6:05
may never have left their little hamlets. In
6:08
death, they were
6:10
carried over miles of lonely
6:13
terrain to reach the nearest
6:15
consecrated church. Oh, it's
6:18
kind of like a death tunnel. Often
6:22
these churches weren't even in the
6:24
same towns. And
6:26
this was no symbolic journey.
6:28
It was physical. It was
6:30
literal. Bodies were carried on
6:33
foot by kin and neighbors,
6:35
sometimes at night,
6:37
often in silence,
6:39
over these paths.
6:42
And these paths are old, older
6:45
than maps, older in some places
6:47
than the churches themselves. And
6:50
with their age, comes
6:52
a haunting legacy, a
6:56
belief that they remain open not
6:58
just to human memory but to
7:00
something else. Now, bring
7:02
you up to speed here. Yes, please.
7:05
The dead must travel in
7:07
those days anyway. Corpse
7:09
roads were mainly used from the
7:12
medieval period up until about the
7:14
18th or early century.
7:17
They were started Well, they
7:19
started showing up around the
7:21
12th century when Christian churches
7:24
insisted that the dead be
7:26
buried in consecrated ground. But
7:28
the church didn't build its
7:30
graveyards everywhere, so
7:32
when somebody passed away,
7:35
especially in a remote village, the
7:37
community would gather and begin the
7:40
procession. The beer, which is a
7:42
wooden frame for carrying the body,
7:44
not a delicious hoppy beverage. How
7:46
is that spelled? B
7:48
-I -E -R. Thank you.
7:51
The beer was lifted with
7:53
the body on board and
7:55
the road was taken and
7:57
this was no ordinary walk.
8:00
Corpse roads were laid in
8:02
straight lines. They had to
8:04
be perfectly straight. This
8:07
was not a matter of efficiency, quite
8:10
the opposite in fact, but it was a
8:12
matter of fear. There was
8:14
a belief, a quiet
8:16
ancient unspoken belief that
8:19
spirits could only travel
8:21
straight for some reason.
8:24
Oh, okay. If the root
8:26
wavered, the soul might lose
8:28
its way, or worse yet,
8:31
linger and haunt those who
8:33
remain. I just think it's
8:35
really interesting that spirits kind
8:37
of like light, you know,
8:40
really only travel straight. unless
8:42
it's refracted. That's
8:45
a very interesting connection.
8:49
So these roads were known by several
8:51
different names. There was Beer Way, there
8:54
was Lick Way, that's spelled
8:56
L -Y -C -H. All
8:58
right, less gross. The Coffin
9:00
Path, the Spirit Track.
9:03
That sounds like a Disney
9:05
ride. Some of these roads...
9:08
We're up to 15 miles
9:10
long one way wow 24
9:12
kilometers and I you know
9:14
I'm picturing in my head
9:16
you're grieving over the death
9:18
of a loved one and
9:20
now you've got to carry
9:22
the body in a straight
9:24
line over rocky terrain Up
9:27
steep hills through forests through marshes
9:29
for up to 15 miles one
9:31
way. I think that sounds cathartic.
9:33
You think so maybe because they
9:35
were so exhausted they didn't have
9:37
time to feel the grief. Maybe.
9:40
Now there were so many rules
9:42
and rituals. All of
9:44
these dark corpse roads shared
9:47
a dark reputation. Villagers
9:49
avoided them after dusk. You know
9:51
they still do. Travelers
9:54
would hurry past them at twilight.
9:57
Dogs don't follow them.
10:00
And many have claimed that if you walk
10:02
them alone, especially in the darkness of night,
10:05
you would not be walking alone
10:08
for long. Now
10:10
along these trails, these corpse
10:12
roads, stand
10:14
slabs of stone, and
10:16
they've been worn by wind and
10:19
time. They're known as coffin rests.
10:22
Here, Throughout the journey,
10:24
pallbearers would lower the weight of
10:26
the dead to pause, catch a
10:28
breath, maybe say a prayer. But
10:31
legends say that these were
10:34
more than stones. Now
10:36
they are believed to be liminal spaces.
10:39
Points where the veil has thinned. Oh,
10:41
like that lake in fringe. That's
10:44
exactly what I was thinking. I knew you were going
10:46
to say that. Some say
10:48
the air at the coffin rests
10:50
is always cold, even in July.
10:53
Others say that if you
10:55
place your ear to the
10:57
stone, you'll hear footsteps approaching,
10:59
but not on the path
11:01
behind, but from
11:03
the path beneath the earth.
11:07
I mentioned traditions. Here
11:10
are some of them. Tradition
11:12
demanded some pretty peculiar rituals,
11:15
especially at crossroads. If
11:17
the corpse road crossed another
11:20
path, The procession would have
11:22
to stop. The
11:25
coffin had to be
11:27
spun three times counterclockwise.
11:30
That was to confuse the spirits
11:32
or the entities that sought to
11:34
follow. It was
11:36
believed that spirits haunted not just
11:39
places, but people. And
11:42
if a ghost felt wronged for some
11:44
reason, it might return home. So
11:47
the idea was to deceive the
11:49
dead, lie into the dying, the
11:53
spin at the crossroads would mislead the
11:55
dead, or the worse
11:58
than dead who stalked the
12:00
living. In some places, crossroads
12:03
were chosen to bury criminals
12:05
and suicides, anchoring restless souls
12:07
beneath intersecting lines where they
12:10
could no longer find their
12:12
way back. So I
12:14
would be interested to take some ground
12:17
penetrating radar and go to some of
12:19
these crossroads that are still just like
12:21
in the middle of fields and stuff
12:23
and see what's under there. In
12:26
Cumbria there's a path that winds
12:28
from the valley of Wasdale to
12:30
the church of Eskdale. The
12:33
terrain is steep, it's treacherous,
12:35
it's prone to fog and
12:37
yet villagers once carried bodies
12:39
along this trail, refusing to
12:41
veer even an inch. from
12:43
the course. It was
12:45
like the sound of thunder. Don't
12:47
step off the path. You might
12:50
squash your butterfly. They believed if
12:52
they varied even by an inch
12:54
or two from that corpse road
12:56
that things could go wrong in
12:58
a hurry. Now, these
13:01
roads are still out there.
13:03
Sometimes not that easy to
13:05
find, but they're there. Travelers
13:07
have reported hearing voices while
13:10
hiking. Low murmurs, sobs, prayers.
13:13
And not just prayers, but
13:15
prayers in long dead dialect.
13:26
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oddities. Hikers have felt hands
16:36
on their back when the
16:39
path grew narrow, almost urging
16:41
them forward. Some report walking
16:43
behind a figure in black
16:45
for hours only to discover
16:48
that there was no one
16:50
there and there were no
16:52
footprints ahead. In
16:54
Devon, the Lickway crosses
16:57
Dartmoor. That's one of those
16:59
crossroads. This was
17:01
once the funeral path from
17:03
the isolated farms to the
17:05
church at Lidford. Now today
17:08
hikers speak of shadowy figures
17:10
glimpsed just beyond their vision
17:12
and sudden cold sweeping like
17:14
breath on the back of
17:16
their neck some have turned
17:19
around unable to explain the
17:21
mounting pressure in the air
17:23
or the sense that they
17:25
were trespassing on ground not
17:27
meant for the living This
17:30
sounds like something right up our alley. I
17:33
would go for the ghosts. You'd go for
17:35
the nature hike. It's
17:37
true. Now, as
17:39
the years went on, buildings
17:42
began to arise along these
17:44
paths. Many were built
17:46
with an unusual feature, a second
17:49
door, not for owners, not
17:51
for servants, but for spirits. It
17:55
was believed that the road must
17:57
remain open, block it, and you
17:59
risk trapping the dead. Interesting. In
18:02
some homes, these ghost
18:05
doors still remain. Small,
18:08
crooked portals that open to nothing.
18:11
Reminds me of the Winchester House. Locals
18:14
will not seal them. They're
18:17
open on certain nights. They're left
18:19
wide for unseen traffic. Better
18:21
to let the dead pass through than to
18:24
have them linger, is the thought behind that.
18:26
So they believe that the dead are out
18:28
there still walking. Why? Well,
18:32
imagine a steady wave
18:34
of funerals moving across
18:36
the landscape for 600
18:39
plus years. It's
18:41
estimated that not just hundreds
18:44
of bodies were carried over
18:46
England's corpse roads in over
18:49
the centuries, but hundreds of
18:51
thousands of bodies. Every
18:54
tiny village without a graveyard
18:56
had to use these paths.
18:59
And again, this was a time when
19:01
death was common. You had plagues, you
19:04
had famines, and just
19:07
shorter life expectancies. Some
19:10
scholars suggest that areas
19:12
like Cumbria and Devon
19:14
alone, there were tens
19:16
of thousands of funeral possessions that would
19:19
have taken place over time. Wow. So,
19:22
Why are they walking? Why do
19:24
people believe that they're still walking?
19:27
Why do they feel these things?
19:29
Maybe it's a memory imprinted. Maybe
19:32
the land where so many
19:34
dead once passed has become
19:36
saturated with grief and struggle
19:38
not just of the living
19:40
but of the dead. Stone
19:42
tape. Stone tape. Something born
19:44
from centuries of footsteps worn
19:46
into the earth until the
19:48
boundary between this world and
19:50
the next became thin. Whatever
19:54
the reason, the roads
19:56
remain, and so,
19:58
say those who still
20:00
walk them, do
20:03
the travelers. In 1997, a
20:05
hiker named Daniel W. sat out
20:07
alone to walk the old lick
20:09
way, which sounds like
20:11
a euphemism, across to Dartmoor.
20:14
By mid -afternoon, a thick fog
20:16
rolled in, and he said
20:18
it was An unusual fog, not
20:20
that fog on the moor is
20:22
unusual, but this one was heavy
20:24
enough to swallow the path ahead.
20:28
As Daniel picked his way
20:30
carefully across the trail, he
20:32
started hearing footsteps behind him.
20:35
Soft, steady, and
20:37
just out of sight. Thinking
20:39
there was another hiker on the trail, was trying
20:41
to catch up, he called out a greeting. There
20:44
was no answer. but the
20:47
footsteps stopped. He
20:49
said he shrugged it off and he
20:51
continued, but a few minutes later he
20:53
felt a hand press gently against the
20:55
center of his back. Not a shove,
20:58
just firm enough to make him
21:00
stumble forward a step. He spun
21:02
around, he said his heart was
21:05
pounding. He found
21:07
nothing, but fog.
21:11
So he told the locals this story. I'm
21:13
picturing at a pub somewhere. There's a fire
21:15
in the fireplace, and you
21:17
know, he's got a pint, and
21:19
he's having a good old -fashioned
21:21
knees up. And he's telling the
21:23
locals about this experience. And
21:26
they said, this isn't the first time
21:29
somebody has felt that type of push
21:31
on Lick Way. Some believe
21:33
it's the spirits of the
21:35
pallbearers still helping one another
21:38
along the way. Along that
21:40
mournful road making sure nobody
21:42
steps off the path Of
21:44
course in our modern world
21:47
death is sanitized It's hidden
21:49
behind hospital curtains and funeral
21:51
parlors, but the corpse roads
21:53
They give us a glimpse
21:56
into an older truth that
21:58
death was once a journey
22:00
that to die was not
22:03
the end but the beginning
22:05
of a passage and that
22:07
sometimes that passage didn't close.
22:11
These paths are not marked on
22:13
most maps, but they do exist,
22:15
and you can find them by
22:17
talking with locals. You may
22:19
find one by accident. It'll be narrow,
22:22
it'll be a sunken trail, it'll
22:24
be beneath branches and weeds,
22:27
with stones beneath your feet,
22:29
too smooth, too worn
22:31
to have been just caused by nature.
22:33
You might feel watched, you may hear
22:35
your name, if you do, It's
22:38
recommended that you walk with respect
22:40
and do not stray. And
22:43
if you see a figure ahead
22:45
dressed and garbed from another time
22:47
moving with solemn purpose along the
22:49
trail, don't call out. Don't
22:52
follow. Do not let
22:54
them turn. Some roads are
22:56
just not meant for the living. I
22:59
still want to go though. My
23:02
information came from
23:04
death from 1700
23:06
to the present
23:08
day Deborah Harrison
23:11
a guide to
23:13
legendary Britain by
23:15
Jennifer Westwood and
23:17
Corpse Rhodes ancient
23:19
trackways of the
23:21
dead from historic
23:24
UK calm Crazy
23:26
old Maurice What's
23:28
your favorite dinosaur
23:31
You know, I feel like people
23:33
don't ask questions like that enough
23:35
anymore. Well, I ask it because
23:37
last night I was watching one
23:40
of those old 1950s movies about
23:42
people who found a prehistoric world
23:44
like on Venus. And they had
23:47
the big phony pterodactyls that didn't
23:49
look very real. And I said,
23:51
you're doing an injustice to my
23:53
favorite dinosaur. Mine's a pterodactyl. That's
23:56
really technically not a dinosaur, right?
23:58
Let me look it Technically,
24:02
you're correct. But I lump
24:04
that into dinosaurism. Pterodactyl
24:07
is a type of flying
24:09
reptile. It's known as a
24:12
pterosaur. So you're right. Technically,
24:14
it's not a dinosaur. I
24:16
don't think I could choose
24:18
just one. I have so
24:20
many favorites. And for different
24:22
reasons, like, I really love
24:24
a giant oversized herbivore.
24:27
Well, you're married to
24:29
one. Like...
24:36
Titanosaurus is amazing.
24:39
But I also recently have
24:42
discovered Protoceratops and Druzee. And
24:44
they kind of look like
24:47
bird -faced, but with
24:49
these big, horny... Ear things that
24:51
kind of make my ears make
24:53
you honey. I don't know I
24:55
don't even know but if you
24:57
can I'll post a picture He's
24:59
the cutest thing I've ever seen
25:02
I think and he's got like
25:04
a stumpy little tail. He's so
25:06
cute Anyway, what were we talking
25:08
about? We were talking about dinosaurs
25:10
and I started wondering do states
25:12
have like a state dinosaur like
25:14
a state bird or a state
25:16
tree and the answer is yes
25:18
some Well, Maine wouldn't, because Maine
25:21
really doesn't have a lot of
25:23
dinosaur fossils. Right. But here's a
25:25
list of states with official dinosaurs.
25:28
Number five, Colorado. There's
25:31
is the Stegosaurus. Good
25:33
choice, Colorado. Wyoming's
25:36
state dinosaur, triceratops. That's another one
25:38
of my favorites. Good one. In
25:41
Maryland, the Astridone Johnstonie. Googling
25:43
it. Oh, look. Isn't
25:45
he cute? He's a sauropod. Oh,
25:48
he's my favorite. A little face
25:50
and a little neck. Texas
25:52
has a state dinosaur.
25:55
Palixasaurus Johnisi. New
25:58
Jersey, Hydrosaurus falchilis. Oh
26:00
my gosh, he's so
26:02
cute too. He's got
26:04
those little fronties. Little
26:07
sticky legs. I'm
26:11
Washington, DC has A dinosaur? No,
26:13
it's not a state, though. It's
26:15
not a state, but still. Capital
26:17
-saurus. Well, that makes sense. That's
26:20
so cute. Want
26:22
to learn about Pick 4 from the Ohio Lottery? Okay,
26:25
Pick 4 is a daily draw game where
26:27
you pick four individual numbers between zero and
26:29
nine that can be played straight, where each
26:31
number must be drawn in an exact order
26:33
or box with it can be drawn in
26:35
any order. You can win
26:37
up to $2 ,500 on a 50
26:40
-cent bet. Learn more at OhioLottery.com or
26:42
the Ohio Lottery app. Lottery players are
26:44
subject to Ohio laws and commission regulations.
26:47
Play responsibly. Want to go
26:49
back to the radio? Spring
26:53
Savings are in the air and at
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Ross, where they have savings on all
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the brands you love. From the latest
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fashion to outdoor decor and even pet
27:01
supplies, savings are in every aisle. Go to
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Ross and save 20 to 60% off other
27:06
retailers' prices on your favorite spring fines. If you're at the
27:08
gym right now, scream at the
27:10
top of your lungs, I'm listening
27:12
to the box of oddities. We'll
27:15
pay you a dollar. Maybe
27:18
someday. This
27:21
is the box of oddities. Hey, I
27:23
don't know about you, but I feel
27:25
like maybe we should take more dinosaur
27:27
breaks. I'm just saying. Didn't
27:31
you just learn a lot?
27:33
I did. It was fun.
27:35
Okay, anyway, hi! Hi, what
27:37
you got for me? Originally
27:39
opened in 1907. The
27:42
Mizpa Hotel was one of the
27:44
first true luxury hotels in Nevada.
27:46
It served as the beating heart
27:48
of Tinopa, which was a booming
27:50
mining town known as the Jewel
27:52
of the Desert. How do you
27:54
spell the hotel's name? M
27:57
-I -Z -P -A -H. Mizpa,
27:59
okay. Mizpa. Between 1901,
28:03
why do we say 01? 1901,
28:06
that just sounds funky, doesn't it?
28:09
Between the first year after the
28:11
turn of the, that sounds dumb
28:13
too. How about
28:16
19OT1? Yes.
28:19
Between 1901 and
28:21
1921, Tanopa's mining
28:23
heyday, thousands of people
28:26
streamed in to extract
28:28
nearly $121 million worth
28:31
of mostly silver from
28:33
the surrounding mines. The
28:36
MISPA quickly became the social
28:38
hub of the town, offering
28:40
unprecedented luxuries for the time.
28:42
all electric lighting, steam
28:45
heat, ceiling mounted
28:47
fans, a finely
28:49
stocked bar, opulent rooms, and
28:52
the West's first electric elevator.
28:54
That's amazingly early for those
28:57
types of technologies, especially that
28:59
far West. Though the Mizpa's
29:02
hotel was among the area's
29:04
oldest structures, it was technically
29:07
predated by the Mizpa Saloon,
29:09
which also opened in nineteen,
29:12
ought seven. Now
29:14
the MISPA and its neighbor, the
29:16
Belvada building, shared the
29:18
title of the tallest
29:20
structures in Nevada until
29:23
1927, standing a towering
29:25
five stories tall. The
29:28
hotel itself took its name
29:30
from the prosperous MISPA mine
29:32
and quickly earned a reputation
29:34
for grandeur. According to local
29:36
legend, Wyatt Earp kept the
29:38
MISPA saloon. Jack Dempsey worked
29:40
as a bouncer and Howard
29:42
Hughes married actress Jean Peters
29:44
within the hotel. How would
29:46
you like to have to
29:48
confront Jack Dempsey in a
29:50
drunken state as he's throwing
29:52
you out of the MISPA?
29:54
I know I wouldn't. If
29:56
I ever travel back in
29:58
time and find myself in
30:00
that particular circumstance, I will
30:03
go quietly. I'm sure
30:05
he would appreciate that. It
30:07
wasn't long after the MISPA
30:10
opened that guests and staff
30:12
began speaking in hushed tones
30:15
about its strange atmosphere. Early
30:18
accounts weren't outright ghost stories,
30:20
but quite murmurings of an
30:23
uneasy or heavy feeling in
30:25
certain parts of the hotel.
30:28
Now given the town's rough -and -tumble reputation,
30:31
deaths were unfortunately common.
30:33
fights, accidents, and people
30:35
taking their own lives,
30:37
which unfortunately was a
30:39
big part of the
30:41
mining boom, dotted the
30:43
history of the building. Still,
30:46
newspapers of the time were
30:48
careful not to report anything
30:50
that might damage the hotel's
30:52
glamorous image. One of the
30:54
MISPA's most enduring legends centers
30:56
around a mysterious woman who
30:58
lived and worked in a
31:00
palatial fifth floor suite. She
31:03
was, in her way, a work
31:05
from home, girly, before it was
31:08
cool, entertaining visitors in privacy and
31:10
luxury. Oh, okay. As
31:12
the story goes, an ex
31:15
-lover, possibly a former patron,
31:17
grew jealous. He got emotional,
31:20
as you might call it.
31:22
Ha -ha. Hymsterical? Hymsterical.
31:24
In a fit of passion, he
31:27
ended her life inside her lavish
31:29
suite. Now, of course, there are
31:31
no records of this event. But
31:34
again, local papers were
31:36
quiet about these types of things,
31:38
wanting to keep the reputation of
31:40
the hotel because it was a
31:43
big moneymaker. Now, by the 1930s,
31:45
the legend of the Mizpah's ghostly
31:47
woman had begun to spread. While
31:50
she wasn't yet named,
31:53
descriptions painted a picture of
31:55
a tragic figure, often tied
31:57
either to a jealous lover
31:59
or, in some stories, gambling
32:02
debts gone wrong. Uh -oh.
32:04
Location alone lends. to these
32:06
ghostly tales. Nevada is often
32:08
cited by paranormal investigators as
32:11
one of the most spectrally
32:13
active states in the US,
32:15
given its violent boomtown history
32:17
and abandoned settlements. And also,
32:20
it's rocky terrain. Stone tape.
32:22
Stone tape again. Now,
32:25
by the 1940s, locals
32:27
were openly calling the
32:29
fifth floor bad luck
32:32
or haunted, though
32:34
it remained an unofficial rumor
32:36
passed along by bartenders, bell
32:38
hops, and adventurous guests. In
32:40
spite of her brutal end, many
32:43
male visitors did report hearing a
32:45
disembodied but flirtatious whisper in their
32:48
ears. I thought you were going
32:50
to say a disembodied butt. That'd
32:54
be cool. Now, these
32:56
whispers happened especially in the
32:58
ornate elevator that the mysterious
33:00
specter had once used to
33:02
escort her guests from the
33:05
lobby to her fifth floor
33:07
quarters. Now,
33:09
as Tinopa, is that how
33:11
I pronounced it? Tinopa? Yeah,
33:14
I think so. As Tinopa's
33:16
fortunes declined, the Mizpa Hotel
33:18
closed for long stretches, sitting
33:21
largely abandoned through the 1970s.
33:23
And it was during these
33:25
quiet, crumbling years that ghost
33:28
stories truly flourished. Intruders
33:30
reported hearing whispers and
33:32
footsteps in empty hallways.
33:34
Fifth floor windows would
33:37
glow mysteriously without explanation
33:39
and apparitions of Women
33:41
in old -fashioned dress
33:43
were spotted wandering the
33:45
corridors. By the
33:47
1980s, with the rise of
33:50
ghost tourism and paranormal enthusiasm,
33:53
the MISPA's reputation as a truly
33:55
haunted hotel took off. And the
33:57
lady in red, as she was
33:59
now called, became the centerpiece of
34:02
the lore. The MISPA was revamped,
34:04
brought back to life, and eventually
34:06
her once grand suite was divided
34:08
into three separate rooms. 502,
34:12
503, and 504, with
34:15
the most paranormal activity
34:17
reported in room 502,
34:19
including guests feeling an
34:21
unseen presence sitting on
34:23
their beds, jewelry
34:25
going missing only to reappear
34:27
later, and disembodied whispers once
34:29
again in the dead of
34:32
night. But the lady in
34:34
red is not the MISPA's
34:36
only lingering spirit. Staff
34:38
and paranormal investigators have also
34:40
reported two male spirits
34:42
haunting the basement, which is
34:44
actually off limits to guests.
34:46
That's an interesting pattern that
34:48
I have seen with ghost
34:51
investigations, paranormal investigations of these
34:53
old Western hotels and brothels,
34:55
is that a lot of
34:57
dirty deeds were done in
34:59
the basements. Well, this hotel
35:01
sits above a network of
35:03
old mining tunnels. Well, there
35:05
you go. And it's believed
35:07
that the spirits might have
35:10
belonged to victims of a
35:12
cave -in or an explosion,
35:14
or, as you brought up, perhaps,
35:17
foul play. Workers report cold
35:20
spots, flickering lights,
35:22
and a pressuring sense of
35:24
dread when they venture below
35:26
ground. I get that anyway.
35:29
Guests a little higher up on the
35:32
third floor often complain about the sound
35:34
of children laughing and running through the
35:36
halls late at night. But
35:39
when they check the hallway, it's empty. And
35:42
it has happened that they've called the
35:45
front desk to report the disturbance and
35:47
there are actually no children staying in
35:49
the hotel at all. That's unnerving. It's
35:51
bad enough when children that are alive
35:53
are making a lot of noise. Oh,
35:56
I know. You can ask him to,
35:58
hey, pipe down, as my dad would
36:00
say. But when they're dead, what
36:02
are you going to do? Right? They're
36:04
not going to listen. They're going
36:06
to give you the spectral middle finger.
36:08
Ghost jeezers. That's
36:10
a northern main expression. And
36:13
I think our next T -shirt.
36:15
Yeah. Ghost jeezers. You
36:19
little jeezers, get out of my yard. Now
36:22
the lady in red has become
36:25
the MISFA hotel's most famous ghost,
36:27
but was she ever a real
36:29
person? Historical records
36:31
don't mention a murder matching
36:33
her story, and newspapers of
36:35
the early 1900s were notoriously
36:37
careful to avoid scandal, especially
36:39
when it came to prestigious
36:42
businesses. They were also notorious
36:44
for printing bullshit. That's true.
36:47
Now, it's entirely possible that if a
36:49
high -profile crime did occur, it was
36:52
hushed up to protect the hotel's reputation,
36:54
but it's also entirely possible that this
36:56
did not happen. Some
36:59
historians suggest that the Lady in
37:02
Red might actually be an amalgamation
37:04
of many women who lived and
37:06
worked during Tanopa's rougher years, saloon
37:09
girls, entertainers, and even high society
37:11
women who fell in hard times.
37:14
Regardless of whether or not she was real,
37:17
the Lady in Red's presence is
37:19
very real to the countless guests
37:21
who have reported encounters with her,
37:24
making her less of a, was
37:27
she and more of a
37:29
matter of, is she still?
37:31
Following extensive renovations and a
37:33
grand reopening in 2011, the
37:36
Mizpa Hotel embraced its haunted
37:38
reputation. Today, visitors come as
37:40
much for the luxury and history as they
37:43
do, a chance to encounter
37:45
the paranormal. The Lady in Red
37:47
remains the hotel's most famous ghost,
37:49
but for those willing to look
37:51
or listen, there are others who
37:53
call the Mizpa their eternal home.
37:55
And as I mentioned, the hotel
37:57
welcomes their reputation with open arms.
38:00
Even some staff shirts reference the
38:02
Lady in Red, and
38:04
the fact that they are known
38:06
to be Nevada's most haunted hotel.
38:09
But beyond the haunted suites, the
38:12
Mizpa offers the Jack Dempsey room,
38:14
a historic bar and restaurant with
38:16
menus inspired by early 20th century
38:19
fare. Wow. A small
38:21
gaming area with vintage charm
38:23
and tours and history talks.
38:25
The MISFA also hosts special
38:28
ghost tours and paranormal investigation
38:30
events throughout the year, especially
38:32
in the fall. Guests
38:34
can join local historians and ghost
38:37
hunters for guided explorations of
38:39
the hotel's most haunted hotspots, including
38:41
the famously off -limits basement. So
38:43
it's off limits, except for this
38:46
time of year. when they do
38:48
tours and such. Not
38:50
for you to just go down in their
38:52
basement, obviously. Gotta wander around and bang on
38:55
their water heater, make sure it works. Either
38:58
way, check out their website, the
39:00
list of events and all the
39:02
details will be there. I think
39:04
that this sounds amazing just because
39:06
of the history of it. I
39:08
would love to go. Yeah, I
39:10
think I would actually rather go
39:12
there first before the Corpse Roads.
39:15
That's how interesting that is to
39:17
me. You can
39:19
get more information at
39:22
themispahotel.com. I got my
39:25
information there and
39:27
from TravelNevada.com and USGhostAdventures.com.
39:30
And you can get more
39:32
information about our live shows.
39:34
Ooh, spooky. Spooky,
39:37
segue. Vboxofodities.com.
39:42
There's a link there to
39:44
buy tickets to the shows
39:47
in Seattle. Portland, Oregon,
39:49
two in Atlanta, Georgia, one
39:51
in Philadelphia. And we
39:53
would just love to see you guys.
39:56
And I think there's still some RIP
39:58
passes left in some of the
40:00
venues. But by the time this drops,
40:02
I'm not sure. But we will put
40:05
the link also in the show description.
40:07
And hopefully we'll see you at one
40:09
of those shows. That'd be so much
40:12
fun, you guys. Until then.
40:14
keep flying that freak flag
40:16
and fly it proudly a
40:18
beautiful freak and so let
40:21
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40:23
box of oddities belongs to
40:25
you and its fate is
40:27
in your hands we wish
40:29
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