For those of you who didn't grow up in the Cincinnati area like me, Kings Island is a local amusement park in our area. Locals to the area all know the ghost stories of the park, but may not know where those stories originate. Let's get into some background:
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Kings Island International Street Fountain
Photo Credit: Spectrum News 1/Casey Weldon |
DOG STREET CEMETERY AND MISSOURI JANE
The area around King Island is known as Kings Mills, after the King family who founded the Kings Mills Powder Company. The King family settled the area and built schools, stores, and homes for their employees and families. The Peters Cartridge Factory was then built in the area and the settlement expanded. When the Taft Company bought the land in 1969, ownership of an old family cemetery that dates back to 1891 transferred to them along with the rest of the land. The old cemetery still sits on the property near the entrance gates.
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Dog Street Cemetery, Kings Island Entrance
Photo Credit: Unknown |
Legend holds that a grave was accidentally paved over to create the parking lot, disrupting the rest of the spirit of a little girl named "Missouri Jane." Cemetery records suggest that the accident was a possibility, a approximately 17 grave stones have gone missing since 1980. In addition, at some point, Missouri Jane's headstone was lying on the ground in the cemetery, then propped up against another stone, so there is no guarantee that its current placement back in the ground is accurate. I have no knowledge of any photos or drawings from 1846 showing the original location of the gravestones. I
n addition, in the 1970s, the cemetery was wildly overgrown and difficult to locate when the workers were ready to begin excavating for the parking lot. In the end, once the cemetery was located, it was cleaned up and the decision was made to build the parking lot around it.
Jane is also known as "the girl in the blue dress," and sightings have been reported in the International Restaurant, near Whitewater Canyon, and most famously, running around the parking lot chasing cars and running in front of drivers.
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Missouri Jane's Grave
Photo Credit: Unknown |
I've also heard the girl in the blue dress be called "Sarah," but I can't find any evidence as to where that name originated. Missouri Jane is most likely accurate, as her headstone indicates she certainly lived and died in the area.
Ghost Hunters did an episode dedicated to the ghosts of Kings Island (Season 8, Episode 1 if you're interested), and got EVP of a child, and they believe they have communicated with Missouri Jane.
Most of the stories of sightings come from park staff, as she is most frequently seen after the park is closed.
TOWER JOHNNY
The stories about what happened to Tower Johnny vary depending on who's telling them. The basics? John Wesley Harter of Delaware, Ohio was a senior in high school when he attended Grad Night at Kings Island with his friends on May 13, 1983. By all accounts he was a good young man with a bright future and plans to attend college in the fall.
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Where Johnny is Believed to Have Fallen From
Photo Credit: Warren County Sherriff's Office 05-14-1983 |
That evening Johnny was intoxicated and arguing with his girlfriend, and according to his friends, not having a very good time. Friends reported that after they all rode the Racer together, Johnny disappeared from the group and wasn't seen again.
Official reports claim that after he left his friends, they believe he entered a restricted area, climbed up the Eiffel Tower, was stuck by the elevator's counterweight, and fell about 200 feet, where he landed on top of the north elevator car and died instantly from the impact.
Click here for an excellent story with all the details and facts about the accident.
Personally, I do still have questions about what happened the night John Harter died. While yes, he was definitely intoxicated, and yes, people do make out-of-character choices when they have been drinking, the investigation left some unanswered questions.
First, how did his wallet end up in the lost and found? His social security card and one of his graduation photos, which were most certainly in his wallet, were both found at the site of the accident. Second, people he lived with and his own brother stated to officials investigating the incident very clearly that John was not the type of person to do something like climbing the tower without an audience.
This leads to my theory about the death: I believe that there could have been a witness to what happened to John Harter that night, and though it could very well have been an accident, it could also have been something more. However that person came into possession of the wallet, they didn't want to be implicated in what happened and turned the wallet in to lost and found before John's identity was discovered. Maybe at some point I'll delve into true crime and see if there's anything to this other than just the overactive imagination of a paranormal investigator.
Since John's death, he's become known around the park as "Tower Johnny." He's been reported to make moaning sounds as the elevator goes up and down the tower, randomly opens and closes the doors of the elevator cars, and has been known to mess around with the elevators after hours. He's also been said to have been spotted along the track and in the tunnel of The Beast, as well as messing with sensors and tipping over trash cans.
Why the Beast? Because the elevator cables that were in the Eiffel Tower at the time were stored in the woods back there. Why is Johnny sticking around? Maybe because the official story of his death is wrong, and he wants his true story to be told.
RACER BOY
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The Racer
Photo Credit: Kings Island Website |
Usually appearing just before sunset or after dark as the figure of a little boy walking along the Racer tracks dressed in white, Racer Boy is believed to be attached to some of the Racer cars that originally belonged to the Shooting Star at Coney Island. The story says that the little boy was found dead under the tracks after falling from the ride.
There is definitely record that a William Bomkamp died in 1966 on the Shooting Star ride. He left the ride station in the last car of the train, and when it returned he was not there and the lap bar was still closed. He was found under the tracks of the Shooting Star.
The problem? William Bomkamp was an 18 year old student at the University of Cincinnati, not a small boy. The likeliest possibility is that this story is simply folklore.
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The Eiffel Tower During Halloween Haunt
Photo Credit: Limitless Park |
So...is the park haunted? I've been there on many occasions over the years. I've personally never witnessed anything paranormal or unexplainable at the park.
The majority of the stories come from people who work at the park and often there is no one else around who witnessed what happened or can corroborate the story. I've never seen any photo documentation claiming to be showing anything supernatural happening at Kings Island.
However... I can't say anything about the experiences of others when I wasn't a witness either. I've never seen unexplained things at the park, but I have seen unexplained things.
Whether the park is haunted or not remains to be discovered for certain, but it's one of the more fun places to go looking for ghosts!
Do you have any information or personal experiences to share about this entry? Let us know in the comments, and your contribution could be included in a future update to this entry!
