Missouri

Hartville

Ward Farm

A well-documented poltergeist case took place on the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Clinton Ward in 1958. Most of the events centered on their nine-
year-old daughter, Betty Ruth Ward. The strange events started at Betty Ruth's' grandmother's house one afternoon, while they were shelling
walnuts in the living room. Suddenly walnuts started floating all around the room, crawling up the curtains, and bouncing down from the ceiling.
The two ran out of the house and went directly to the Ward residence to tell them what was happening, but as soon as they opened the front
door, bowls, knickknacks, and other objects began floating in midair. Mrs. Ward's bed later rose off of the floor three times while she was lying
in it. The astonishing activity persisted for nearly two weeks and was witnessed by researchers from the Duke University, William Cox, and Jin
Bethel, both from Duke's Parapsychology Laboratories, saw the levitation of a can of shoe polish, a bar of soap, and even a pot of hot stew.
They were pelted with pieces of bark, a rock, and a walnut that seemed come from nowhere. Five witnesses saw a heavy tub of wet laundry fly
of the front porch and spill clothes into the yard. Once, when the Wards went shopping in nearby Lebanon, a pair of shoes flew off a store rack
and land right at the feet of Betty Ruth. Her mother, two brothers, and a store clerk all witnesses the unexplainable event.

Joplin

Devil's Promenade

Almost every night since 1866, a strange orange ball of light bounces along this road in an easterly direction. As the light moves through the air
it leaves behind luminous traces of dancing sparks. The light has been known to enter cars and buses, but paradoxically, dodges people
chasing it. Loud noises also make it disappear. it has been called the Hornet Ghost Light, the Neosho Spook Light, and the Devil's Jack-O'
Lantern, and scientist who have studied the phenomenon cannot agree on a cause. In 1946, a study by the Army Corps of Engineers concluded
the phenomenon was "a mysterious light of unknown origin." A 1983 report by the Ghost Research Society described the light as diamond
shaped, with a hollow center. Some locals believe the light is the ghost of a pair of Quapaw Indian lovers who committed suicide together.
Others hold that it is the lantern of a ghostly minder searching for his wife and children, who were abducted by Indians.

Devil's Promenade is in the village of hornet, eleven miles southwest of Joplin. The area is near the borders of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
This tri-state region is known as the Spooksville Triangle. Follow I-44 west from Joplin. Just before the last exit at the Oklahoma border, turn
south onto State Line Road. Devil's Promenade Road crosses State Line Road after about four miles. There is an abandoned spook light
museum at the site. From Neosho, follow highway 86 until it dead-ends before highway 43. Turn right and go two miles to the second road on
the left. Turn left and go a quarter miles to Devil's Promenade. The light is visible from any point along this two-mile stretch of the road here.

Maryville

Northwest Missouri State University

Students living in Roberta Hall dormitory make a burn mark on their doors with a hot iron to discourage nocturnal visits from the dorm's resident
ghost. Roberta Steel was critically injured on April 28, 1951, after a gas tank east of the building exploded. Flames were seen seventy miles
away, and the force of the explosion hurled the tank into the dormitory. After a heroic struggle to live, Roberta finally succumbed from her
injuries in November 1952. But her passion to live kept her spirit alive, too, and the dorm has been considered haunted since her death. Doors
and windows unlock and open themselves, lights go off after being left on too late at night, and the volume on loud radios is turned down. People
can hear Roberta playing a piano in a deserted basement room. At lease once, her ghost materialized in a room and tried to get in bed with
startled coeds. When one them pushed her away, Roberta's phantom started dancing in circles in the middle of the room.

Hauck, Dennis. Haunted Places: Ghost abodes, sacred sites, UFO landings, and other supernatural locations. New York: Penguin Book, 1994.