Ohio Penitentiary - A Virtual Ghostly Site
Fires, executions, stabbings, shootings, and the quiet desperate suicides that snuffed out thousands of lives behind prison walls were not the only horrors to be imprinted on this desolate location. After 150 years the Ohio Pen closed in the early 1980s to sit dormant.
Many started to believe the spirits of many of these angry and sinister men remain behind. Stories began to spread about the old prison site. Those who wandered too close to the old buildings or who dared to go inside began to believe that the otherwise empty cell blocks were haunted by the spirits of the men who died in the prison. There were those who even claimed to experience the phantoms connected to the horrendous fire of 1930 that claimed over 300 lives. It was said that by standing out in the prison yard, you could hear the roar of ghostly flames from inside and the horrible screams of the men who burned alive in their cells.
These stories continued for several years until finally, the prison was torn down in 1997 and the site where it stood was cleared away. A sports arena was built adjacent to where the prison once stood and in the fall of 2000, the arena became the home of the Columbus NHL hockey team. All traces of the old prison were finally destroyed. Or were they? According to reports, witnesses have spotted apparitions and have heard disembodied screams echoing across the arena’s parking lot at night. This has led many to believe that the site continues to be haunted today.
Years ago, when it was first proposed that a tourist attraction or development would take the place of the prison, one of the former guards spoke up, “I wouldn’t care if they dynamited the place. It’s the entrance to Hell itself... I can’t tell you what is there, what is seen and unseen....”
Could the destruction of the prison have erased the ghostly memories and restless souls that once lingered here? Or do they remain, still hoping for some sort of redemption to appease their troubled past?
To claim this virtually ghostly find the historical marker and message me the years the Ohio Penitentiary was built and operated through.
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.