Miamisburg Mound:

    “You have to see the Miamisburg Mound!” my good friend Amy told me with an intriguing smile on her face. “It’s a very spiritual place and not far away. Plus, I’ve heard it may be haunted!”

    So, of course, I had to go see for myself! As you drive up to the mound it extends far and wide. The mound sits atop a huge 100-foot-high hill above our famous Miami River. The mound is one of two largest conical (cone-shaped) points in the United States – an impressive 65 feet tall and 800 feet wide.

    Excavations conducted in 1869 proved the Adena culture that lived from 800 B.C. to A.D. 100 built the mound in several overlapping stages – like the shingles on the roof of your house. The overlapping is 24 feet deep.

    The large mound’s history is interesting! For example, monuments like Miamisburg Mound served as cemeteries and may have been markers or possible boundary lines for tribal territories a long time ago. Researchers also believe that artifacts are buried along with the dead inside the mounds.   

    Researchers estimate there once were 10,000 mounds in our Ohio Valley, however due to land and property exchanges throughout the years and construction of homes, villages and cities, there are now only a whopping 1,000 left! The surviving mounds are thought to have been created between 2800 and 2000 B.C.  According to research, the Adena culture gradually transformed into what we know today at the Hopewell people around A.D. 400. 

    When visiting the mound, you can clearly see why its massive size makes it such a popular public attraction. You can’t help but have a good time while watching children climb to the top and then roll down its side as they laugh with their friends. Nearly everyone has a smile on his or her face!

    As soon as you step onto the grounds, you can feel an earthly energy and lightness, as well as a peaceful presence when walking toward the Miamisburg Mound. As you get closer to the mound, its energy is strong and fluent!

    Amy and I walked to the right side of the mound that was relatively empty of visitors and began to ask questions using my EMF reader as well as my voice recorder. We asked questions like, What Tribe are you from? How old are you? Who is buried in this mound? and so forth.  The EMF reader did spike after each question, but we did not identify any disembodied, voiced answers from a spirit.

    Was I bummed out? Yes, but we still had spikes on the EMF reader so I took that as a good sign!  During our visit-investigation, we both walked around the mound and could clearly see there was absolutely NO electricity that could have caused the EMF spikes. We looked for boxes, breakers and so forth around the area of the mound and found nothing. So we concluded the spikes we received must have come from a spirit or the mound itself.

    Would I recommend visiting the Miamisburg Mound? Definitely!  It is an impressive sight and if you are close to Dayton or just happen to be traveling through southwest Ohio, it’s only minutes from Interstate 75!

    Go and see it! Try your own investigation and decided for yourself! You can even bring your kids and have a picnic or play at the wonderful little park and playground near the mound. You will love this place!  

©Rosella C. Rowe

Visiting Information for the Miamisburg Mound: https://www.ohiohistory.org/visit/museum-and-site-locator/miamisburg-mound

The Golden Lamb: Clement L. Vallandigham

Tell someone you are planning a visit to the Golden Lamb in Lebanon, Ohio and they will probably say, “You know it’s haunted, right?!” Just like my neighbor, said to me this morning at my children’s bus stop.

As a person who grew up in a haunted home, where I had experiences that changed my life forever, I love to investigate old historic places with lots of history surrounding them and write about my paranormal experiences thrilling readers.  So I decided to visit the Golden Lamb for myself!

I never expected I would be so lucky to have such a long and intense back and forth conversation with an actual spirit at the Golden Lamb! Normally during investigations, you will ask lots of questions over a long period of time and you don’t receive many answers. But that was not what happened on this trip!

My conversation was with the spirit of a man named, Clement L. Vallandigham who accidentally killed himself in his hotel room on July 17, 1871. As soon as we entered the hotel room Vallandingham spoke right up, answering every single question I asked for a half- hour. I actually ran out of questions to ask!

He was a lawyer trying to prove that his client, Thomas McGehan was innocent and did not kill Tom Myers during a saloon brawl, but that Myers had accidentally killed himself with his own pistol instead!  While Clement was demonstrating how he believed Myers killed himself, Clement mistook HIS OWN loaded pistol for an unload pistol and accidentally shot himself.

Clement’s viewing colleagues describe the event as such: “There, that’s the way Myers held it,” Clement had said, as a loud sound and bright flash of light fired through the air. Then Clement cried out, “My God, I’ve shot myself!”

Doctors and his friends tried for 12 hours to save Vallandigham, but to no avail. Sadly, Clement died in the room where he had shot himself. Before his death, his client, McGehan was brought from his jail cell and was described as crying over his poor lawyer who had fought to defend him. His client, McGehan was acquitted shortly after Vallandigham’s death but soon was involved in another saloon shooting similar to his altercation with Myers, and was killed.

My conversation with Clement was remarkable and life changing, yet very sad. Clement told me that he did represent McGehan and that he knew, and still believed to this day, that he was innocent! He also replied when I asked him, “If he accidently killed himself in this room,” a whopping yes!! That he had killed himself by accident while trying to prove McGehan’s innocence to his fellow colleagues.

In addition, he told us that he felt he was trapped where he died. When I asked him if he wanted to leave, he stated, “Yes, that he did want to leave.”  Then we asked if he wanted us to pray to help him, to which he replied, “yes!” We all put away our devices and equipment and bowed our heads and I lead us in prayer for Clement to find his way home.

So would I recommend exploring this hotel? That would be a BIG FAT, YES and if you happened to speak to Clement L.Vallandigham during your visit please tell him I said, “Hi, and he has not been forgotten!”

The hotel’s historic beauty alone as well as its long history that still seems to LIVE within the walls and its long winding corridors are worth the trip!  I loved the Golden Lamb and my experience that I had! To be able to speak with Vallandingham himself where his accidental death took place was crazy awesome!

Walking the halls you will see all the rooms have been named after the famous celebrities and past presidents of the United States that have stayed there. Also the room where Clement died is now named after him and is used as a dining area.

My favorite room is the Charles Dickens room; of course I favor that room probably because I am a writer! Coincidence, I think not! Maybe he is still there haunting the long empty hallways at night or the room he stayed in just like Vallandigham. Go ahead and explore the Golden Lamb and maybe you will see for yourself!

©Rosella C. Rowe

Golden Lamb Website: https://www.goldenlamb.com/