{"id":111,"date":"2013-10-03T13:28:06","date_gmt":"2013-10-03T18:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/?p=111"},"modified":"2013-10-03T13:28:06","modified_gmt":"2013-10-03T18:28:06","slug":"haunted-peoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2013\/10\/03\/haunted-peoria\/","title":{"rendered":"Haunted Peoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to stories, rumors and alleged accounts of supernatural encounters, Peoria is quite the ghost town. Because of this, the Peoria Historic Society has taken it upon themselves to inform the public about it.<\/p>\n

A Haunted Peoria<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A brisk chill runs down the back. Hair begins to stand. As it grows colder, the breath can be seen. As goose bumps rise on either arm, it\u2019s obvious there\u2019s another presence in the room; a supernatural presence.<\/p>\n

This may not be how actual supernatural accounts occur. Who could really know for sure? According to a recent poll by the Huffington Post and YouGov, 45% of Americans believe in ghosts. Although this may be a surprisingly large amount, with over half the population denying the existence of the supernatural, how can you determine what the encounter would actually be like?<\/p>\n

Despite the disbelievers, there are several Peoria residents who not only believe, but also have allegedly had some sort of supernatural encounter in the city. In fact, there have been enough accounts that the Peoria Historical Society has created two tours about them.<\/p>\n

The two tours are very similar. Both were created by Stephanie McCarthy, local author of the book Peoria\u2019s Haunted Memories.<\/i> There is a tour that can be taken by trolley any Saturday at 1:00 p.m. through the end of October. The tour leaves from Kelleher\u2019s Irish Pub at 619 SW Water St. Tickets cost 11 dollars and one dollar must be paid toward the trolley driver. This tour takes approximately and hour and a half.<\/p>\n

“Tours need to fit in an hour and a half, because the limit of how long people can sit. Tailor a route and script to that, mainly looking for an interesting story,\u201d said Peoria Historical Society volunteer and past president, Marilyn Leyland.<\/p>\n

The second tour shares some of the same stops as the first, but is much shorter. This is because it is meant to be walked, rather than taken by trolley. This tour is obviously free. You can find the map and directions for this tour online at www.peoria.org<\/a>. On the website, you can also find a podcast that will talk you through the tour.<\/p>\n

Both tours begin at the Peoria Area Riverfront Visitors Center and then continue on to what is now Martini\u2019s bar. However, the building that now holds Martini\u2019s was built in 1900 and used to be the Rock Island Depot. This was the location where first class trains used to travel through Peoria. However, according to the tour, there was an unfortunate event that occurred there. There was a train of over 700 passengers heading towards Niagara Falls from Peoria one day when it headed into a ditch and caught fire. Some passengers died instantly while some burned in the flames. Total, 80 passengers died and 120 were injured.<\/p>\n

That day, the Rock Island Depot served as not only a hospital, but also a morgue for the passengers of the train.<\/p>\n

Workers at Martini\u2019s have reported hearing conversations in the bar after close and the feel of cold air for no apparent reason.<\/p>\n

This is only the first stop of the tour. Each individual location carries it\u2019s own haunting stories. Whether ghosts are real or not, the events that occurred in these locations are an interesting Peoria history lesson. Maybe this is why the Peoria Historical Society plan to have a similar tour next year.<\/p>\n

The route for next year has yet to be finished but the research is.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Focus is on unsolved murders, unpunished murders” said Leyland.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Walk the Haunted Peoria<\/p>\n

Direct Link<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.timetoast.com\/timelines\/haunted-peoria-walking-tour<\/p>\n

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According to stories, rumors and alleged accounts of supernatural encounters, Peoria is quite the ghost town. Because of this, the Peoria Historic Society has taken it upon themselves to inform the public about it. A Haunted Peoria \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A brisk chill runs down the back. Hair begins to stand. As it grows colder, the breath can be seen. As goose bumps rise on either arm, it\u2019s obvious there\u2019s another presence in the room; a supernatural presence. This may not be how actual supernatural accounts occur. Who could really know for sure? According to a recent poll by the Huffington Post and YouGov, 45% of Americans believe in ghosts. Although this may be a surprisingly large amount, with over half the population denying the existence of the supernatural, how can you determine what the encounter would actually be like? Despite the disbelievers, there are several Peoria residents who not only believe, but also have allegedly had some sort of supernatural encounter in the city. In fact, there have been enough accounts that the Peoria Historical Society has created two tours about them. The two tours are very similar. Both were created by Stephanie McCarthy, local author of the book Peoria\u2019s Haunted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}