Twin Cities Haunted Handbook: 100 Ghostly Places You Can Visit in and Around Minneapolis and St. Paul - Paperback

by Jeff Morris (Author), Garett Merk (Author), Dain Charbonneau (Author)

Twin Cities Haunted Handbook is the newest book in the Haunted Handbook line within the popular America's Haunted Road Trip series. The Haunted Handbooks are city-specific travel guides to nearly one hundred places within a major city.

Twin Cities Haunted Handbook is written with the ghost enthusiast in mind. All 100 chapters contain information on the history as well as the haunting surrounding each location, as well as detailed directions on how to locate each site. Many of the chapters also contain insider information that only a local would know, making it easier for ghost hunters to investigate. Ghost hunters Jeff Morris, Garett Merk, and Dain Charbonneau explore all the best haunted locales Minneapolis has to offer, including Dead Man's Pond, Memorial Pet Cemetery, Padelford Packet Boat Company, the Old Jail Bed and Breakfast, and St. Thomas College and the Legend of the 13 Graves.

Each two page entry includes directions from downtown, an historical overview of the haunted place, the story of ghostly doings in that place, and advice on visiting the place yourself--if you dare.

Front Jacket

EXCERPTS
Hamline University Drew Hall
1539 Hewitt Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota 55104
Directions:
From Downtown St. Paul, take I-94 West for about 3 miles to exit 238 toward Snelling Avenue. At the end of the exit ramp, turn right onto Snelling Avenue. Follow Snelling Avenue for one mile until you see Hewitt Avenue. Turn right onto Hewitt Avenue. About halfway onto the university s campus, you ll see Drew Hall on your left. There will be a sign in front.
History:
While Hamline University itself is the oldest university in the State of Minnesota, Drew Hall is relatively new in comparison. The hall itself was built in the mid-1900s and has existed since that time as a residence hall, classroom building, and administrative office building. Today, the building houses all of these things as well as student lounges and an auditorium. It was named after a benefactor of the university, a lawyer named Charles Drew.
The ghost story stems from an accident that occurred in the school during the 1960s. Soon after the elevator was installed in the hall, a young freshman student felt it wise to show off in front of his friends. He would put his hand in the closing doors of the elevator seconds before it slammed closed, counting on the sensors in the door to cause the doors to spring back open. This worked several times, but then he cut it too close. He put his hand into the elevator without giving the sensors enough time to pick up his hand. His hand was severed.
The student survived but his hand was never found.
Ghost Story:
Believe it or not, Drew Hall is haunted by a hand. Most of the stories about this ghostly hand involve people actually seeing it crawling throughout dark corridors and stairwells of the building. According to the legends about this phantom hand, the hand has somehow developed a mind of its own and is crawling around the building, looking for the body from which it was detached.
While stories of a hand walking around the hall may seem unfeasible and somehow blown out of proportion, there are other stories about how the phantom hand haunts the hall. Residents at Drew Hall, especially females, will sometimes feel icy cold fingers touching their feet at night. When they awake suddenly and in terror, they look and find that there is no one else in the room.
Visiting:
It is possible for a visitor from outside of the campus to enter Drew Hall. Since the building houses administrative offices and classrooms, the doors from the outside are open and you can enter parts of the building. That being said though, this is a place of learning and a professional establishment. You should not enter Drew Hall with the sole intention of looking for ghosts. As a student or employee, you can enter, but besides that, entering the building would be frowned upon by the university.
In order to have any chance of experiencing the icy cold fingers on your feet at night, you would both have to be female and a resident of the hall."

Author Biography

Jeff Morris achieved his degree in English from the haunted Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and spent the early part of his career as an English instructor at a college in Cincinnati. While teaching, Jeff became interested in the ghost stories in the Cincinnati area. In 2005, he started working with his brother, Michael Morris, on their first book, "Haunted Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio," which was published in June of 2009 by Arcadia Publishing. Beyond the book, Jeff has become very involved in the paranormal field in the Midwest. In 2006 he and his brother founded Miamitown Ghost Tours, which continues to run year round. In 2009, they joined a paranormal investigation group called CAPER (Cincinnati Area Paranormal Existence Research), and they started an online radio show called Miamitown Ghost Talk. In the fall of 2010, both Jeff and Michael published "Cincinnati Haunted Handbook." He lives in Cincinnati.
Garett Merk attended college at the University of Dayton and earned a degree in Computer Engineering. He joined the US Navy in late 2004. While in the Navy he had the opportunity to investigate several places in the Southern/Central California area. Garett is the founder of the Tri-State Paranormal and Oddities Observation Practitioners (TriPOOP). He enjoys research and investigations of haunted locations in an effort to capture indisputable evidence of the paranormal. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dain Charbonneau currently resides in Minnesota where he grew up enjoying camping and fishing. He is the founder of the Twin Cities Paranormal Research Group with the purpose of investigating claims of paranormal activity and researching the history that the tales of activity stem from.
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