Ever since humanity learned we could sit around a fire telling stories, we’ve been talking about ghosts. From Homer’s “Odyssey” to the newest “Insidious” movie, ghosts can be found almost everywhere, and the Region is no exception. Haunted locations and tales from the Region have been featured in books, movies, and academic discussions, but why do these tales continue to sit in our minds?
Let’s explore three of the Region’s prominent haunts with Mike McDowell, founder of Chaos Haunted & Historical Tours and the Indiana Ghost Trackers, and examine what these specters might have to say about us.
Diana of the Dunes
In 1915, 34-year-old Chicago resident Alice Mabel Gray hopped on a South Shore train to the Dunes, renouncing her conventional life in Illinois for a life in the wild. Gray would live in the dune country for the next 10 years with constant public interest. Originally described as a nymph of the Dunes, newspapers would later liken her to the Roman Diana.
Diana of the Dunes most likely died of kidney failure in 1925 after refusing hospitalization. Even though her body was removed from the Dunes and buried at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Gary, some say that her spirit still lives freely in the land she loved.
“After her passing, it's thought that Alice loved the Dunes area so much that she came back,” said McDowell. “She was somebody that fought for the rights of the Dunes, a big proponent of saving the Dunes.”
Gray’s passion for the environment and the nature preserve that would eventually become the Indiana Dunes State Park may have been strong enough to hold a part of her in this world. While Gray was friendly with her neighbors in life, her ghost may not be happy with the development that’s happened in the area since her death.
“She has shown up on at least one of our ghost tours, and she wasn't very friendly with the ladies that were on the tour,” said McDowell. “One lady claimed that she was strangled by the ghost of Alice Mabel Gray. She had to be escorted back to the bus, unable to talk. Before that occurred, she saw this woman standing in the back of the group with her arms crossed, kind of a faint silhouette.”
Others on the tour corroborated the appearance of the apparition before the attack, but the attack itself doesn’t seem to fit the spirit of Gray, who is usually seen swimming in the waters of Lake Michigan or appearing around one of the cabins she inhabited during life.
“Do we know that this was Alice Mabel Gray though? That's a good question; there've been a lot of people who drowned in Lake Michigan or who died on the lakeshore over the years,” said McDowell. “A lot of people have seen a naked woman that runs down the beach late at night into the water and then vanishes before their eyes. In life, Diana used to run around the beach naked; she didn’t really think much of it.”
Gray’s eccentric lifestyle made her something of a fixture and celebrity in the area, so her death and subsequent sightings align with most ghost stories: an attraction or obsession that keeps the spirit on this plane well after their body is gone.
Is Diana really out there, or is her legend the only thing hanging around after her passing? Regardless, Gray’s life and advocacy have been a huge part of attracting visitors to the Dunes and encouraging respectful behaviors towards the beautiful ecological gem in the heart of the Region.
Those interested in learning more about Alice Mabel Gray should visit the National Parks Services’ website and maybe even venture into the Dunes to follow Gray’s trail.
The Ghosts of Reeder Road
Growing up in Gary and relatively close to Griffith, Reeder Road was the place where all the worst haunts lived. From people hanging in trees to ghoulies living in the swamp, Reeder Road wasn’t a place you went alone at night. Reeder Road has, for generations, been a place with scary emotions attached, but the reasons why have changed to suit the times.
For years, people talked about Elizabeth Wilson, a hitchhiker who would suddenly vanish from your backseat when you passed Ross Cemetery. The vanishing hitchhiker story has been around since the 17th century, and as hitchhiking falls out of practice in favor of ride-sharing, the stories have now evolved to Ubers and taxis picking up passengers that disappear before the ride ends.
Without hitchhikers, a new haunt had to give people a reason to be afraid of Reeder Road. The Satanic panic and the potential corruption of youth in the ‘80s offered a perfect solution.
“I love this story from high school way back in the ‘80s,” said McDowell. “People used to say that bikers would frequent the road and put piano wire across it. If you'd ride your snowmobile out there, you’d get your head cut off.”
When the Satanic panic began to pass, replaced by a fear of increasing violent crime and gang activity, Reeder Road became a place associated with dirty dealings.
“There's supposed to be some mafia involvement out there,” said McDowell. “This was a desolate road, and dirty dealings tended to happen where there wasn't a lot of traffic. There were a lot of rumors of the mafia back in the 1930s having hidden bodies out there somewhere along that road.”
During McDowell’s own investigations of Reeder Road and the surrounding area, he’s picked up voices using a Spirit Box (a ghost-hunting tool that rapidly switches between radio frequencies, generating a field that ghosts can use to communicate) using mob lingo to answer questions.
Other frequent hauntings on Reeder Road include will-o’-the-wisps over the swamp, misty apparitions, disembodied voices, and a phantom train.
“There's supposedly a phantom train that runs down the tracks along the park over there,” said McDowell. “That was an old story from Richard Crowe, the famous Chicago ghost hunter.”
Nowadays, Reeder Road connects to Oak Ridge Prairie’s Oak Savannah Trail, so curious thrillseekers can walk the haunted road and surrounding area any time they’d like.
The Demon House of Gary
The most recent and well-documented of the trio of hauntings presented in this case, the Ammons family haunting differs in several ways from both Diana of the Dunes and Reeder Road. The most significant difference is the presence of demons as opposed to ghosts.
“I, as a ghost hunter, don't go looking for the demons. When the opportunity arose and a lot of ghost hunters and people were going out there, I didn't go to the house,” said McDowell. “I do believe, because of all the years I've been doing this and what I've seen, that there are demons out there, but they're not the same as ghosts. If you mess with the demon, you could be in for a lot of trouble and they're not just going to stay in one location. You could end up with something following you into your house, tormenting you and your family.”
In 2011, the Ammons family moved into a house in Gary and witnessed strange activity within days. Black flies would swarm the porch in winter, footsteps would be heard in the house, and a muddy boot print not belonging to any in the family was even found in the living room.
Activity continued to escalate as the family lived there, with growling threats from the youngest son and a levitating daughter leading the family to seek help. Health professionals believed the family was seeking attention and contacted police and the Department of Child Services, but it is reported that entities from both professional parties also witnessed paranormal activity in the house.
“The police officers and the child care worker who went out to that location all had bad things happen to them when they went back home,” said McDowell.
The Ammons family eventually had three exorcisms performed by Father Michael Maginot. In 2012, the family moved out, and they reported no further activity.
The house itself, however, allegedly continued to show signs of activity, such as apparitions appearing in the windows. This led to Zak Bagans, a paranormal investigator and TV personality, purchasing the house and conducting a thorough investigation in 2014, where he captured evidence of something happening in the house.
“I watched the ‘Demon House’ movie, with Zak Bagans buying the house and turning this into a movie, and there's a lot of things that happened to him and his crew while they were there,” McDowell said. “There's a whole list of bad things that happen as you watch the video.”
Bagans had the house demolished in 2016, taking the basement stairs with him to place in his Las Vegas museum. Were the demons tormenting the Ammons family buried beneath the rubble when the house was demolished, or were they released into the Region with the vessel containing them destroyed? Either way, this is the one haunting on this list that our readers shouldn’t and can’t investigate for themselves.
An ending?
Our ghost stories, like every story we tell, reflect the things we hold important as people. From Diana of the Dunes’ intense passions, Reeder Road’s evolving ghouls, and the Ammons haunting’s impact on popular culture, all help us better understand the Region and its residents.
While approaching the paranormal with a skeptical eye isn’t something to be criticized, it’s important to remember that even hauntings with a mundane cause impact the people involved. Treat every case with respect for the humans within the story.
Have any ghost stories of your own? We’d love to hear them! Leave a comment on our Facebook pages letting us know what specters you’ve seen.