The Fatal Jump of Sam Patch

179 years ago today, daredevil Sam Patch succesfully leaped from the High Falls in Rochester, NY. His stunt drew a less spectacular crowd than he had hoped for. So, he planned to do the stunt all over again on the following Friday...Friday the 13th. Only a month earlier, Sam had become the first daredevil to jump off of the Niagara Falls and live. His second jump in Rochester was advertised as his last. This was because Patch intended it to be his final jump in the US before moving on to perform in Europe. However, the sign would prove prophetic and become more final than the loophole Sam had planned.

In order to make his next jump more spectacular, Patch had a platform built to raise him 25 feet higher in the air, increasing the jump off of the 96 foot falls to 121 feet. As was apparently his usual custom, Sam drank liqour prior to jumping. It may have played a role in his death. Patch was witnessed to go limp as he plummeted toward the water at the base of the falls. He hit the water in an awkward position and failed to resurface. His body wouldn't be discovered for months.

The daredevil's demise led to stories of haunting at the falls. It also inspired mutliple famous authors of the era, including Hawthorne and Melville. It is also said to have furthered both prohibition efforts and religious conversion in the area.

There is a lot to the story of Sam Patch and especially the High Falls. Visit the article at our site to find out which American President named his favorite horse after Sam, as well as other facts such as the odd things Sam Patch did with his pet bear cub (Hint: This guy would be on PETA's poop list were he still alive).

Pay a visit to the High Falls gorge.

-Tom G

Forks Community Hospital

56 years ago today, the Olympic Clinic opened in Forks, Washington in order to serve the medical needs of the local populace. In 1959, the clinic became what is now Forks Community Hospital. Over the past few years, the hospital has become a recognizable name to the legions of Twilight Saga fans. In the Twilight books by Stephenie Meyer, the hospital is the workplace of Carlisle Cullen, a doctor and 300+ year old vampire, who doesn't look a day over 23.

Even more recently, the hospital has become a stopping point for the Fork's Chamber of Commerce Twilight Tour. The tour allows fans to see firsthand real locations that are featured in the book series. Later this month a movie based on the first book will be opening in theaters. It is likely that this will drive the fan base even higher and Forks Community Hospital may be getting a larger number of tourists in 2009.

Check in at Forks Community Hospital.

The Top 25 for the Month of October 2008

In the past we've posted the overall Top 25 for Dark Destinations in our blog. Casey and I thought we'd do something different and provide a list of the 25 most popular locations on Dark Destinations during the course of last month.


1. The Sylvia Likens House


2. Frontier Field / Fear at Frontier


3. Fear at Southtown


4. The Haunted World


6. The Saint Louis Exorcist House


7. Waverly Hills Sanatorium


8. The Simpson/Goldman House


9. Amityville Horror House


10. West Virginia Penitentiary


11. The Dent School House


12. Hammond Castle


13. Eastern State Penitentiary


14. Sleepy Hollow, New York


15. Old Tennessee State Prison


16. The Body Farm, Knoxville, TN


17. Headless Horseman Hayrides & Haunted Houses


18. Sloss Fright Furnace


19. Old Alexian Brothers Hospital


20. The Sharon Tate House


21. Twilight Saga: The Cullen House


22. The Bates Motel and Haunted Hayride


23. The Oregon Vortex


24. Sylvia Likens Memorial


25. Lake Compounce Amusement Park

-Tom G

Happy Birthday to the Master of Splatter!

No, it's not Jackson Pollock's birthday. Whose blog do you think you're reading?

Today Tom Savini turns 62 years old. While there are many talented FX artists with a large body of work that includes a number of classic films, Savini's name is up there with Dick Smith for recognition among the fans. It is perhaps because Savini made himself a more visible face by taking on stuntwork and acting roles in films as well as providing makeup and gore. It made him into a sort of Rennaisance Man of horror movies in the fans' eyes. His name is practically a brand, and is enough of a part of pop culture that he even once appeared as an animated character on The Simpsons.

The film that first really caused the horror fans to stand up and take specific notice of Savini was George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Romero's epic follow-up to Night of the Living Dead was notably dripping with blood and gore, and when the guy most responsible for that gore was also running around with a leather jacket and a machete in the film, the gore fans fell in love. Then, Fangoria Magazine came along and poured gasoline on the fire, covering Tom Savini like the teen magazines followed Leif Garrett or Corey Haim. If you were a young horror movie fan in the 1980s, you wanted to be Tom Savini.

Only 10 days from now marks 31 years since the original Dawn of the Dead began filming at Monroeville Mall. So it makes sense to celebrate Tom Savini's life and career as well as one of his most cherished contributions to the horror genre. Today's Dark Destination is Monroeville Mall. The mall is getting a lot of press recently. A week ago it played host to Zombie Fest and this past weekend the new Kevin Smith film Zack and Miri Make a Porno opened in theaters. The mall is used as a setting in the film and Tom Savini has a cameo in it as well. Simpsons...now Smith...Savini's name shows no danger of fading from pop culture anytime soon.

Pay a visit to the mall where the dead walk and Zack and Miri make dirty movies.

-Tom G

PS: A special thanks goes out to photographer Astrida Merritt (pictured above with her fellow zombies in 2007) for her donation of Monroeville Mall photographs for our entry at the web site. We love it when people share their photos of Dark Destinations with us!

The Spirits of Mansfield Reformatory

The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio has become well known in paranormal circles for the countless stories of ghosts and strange experiences. Aside from the countless paranormal-themed shows that have covered the tales, the Mansfield Reformatory (as it is more commonly known) has also become something of a training ground for those interested in getting into paranormal investigations. Interestingly, one of the stories of ghosts found in the walls of the former penitentiary got its start on this date 82 years ago.

The story involves former-inmate Philip Orleck who had been earlier paroled and came up with a plan to free a fellow inmate. On November 2, 1926, he put that plan into action. However, it was immediately thwarted when he encountered 72-year-old guard Urban Wilford outside of the West Gate. A struggle broke out and Orleck gunned down Wilford and fled the scene of the crime, abandoning the escape attempt. Authorities later tracked him down two months later and he would be tried and convicted for the murder of the guard. Orleck would later be executed in the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus a year later.

There are several tales of witnesses reporting the scene being replayed out to this day. The usual report involves seeing what appears to be an inmate struggling with a guard near the West Gate of the prison. Interestingly enough, the sighting typically concludes before the fatal shot was fired and the two apparitions simply vanish into thin air before the witnesses's eyes.

November 2 is hardly the only day of the month with ties to the Mansfield Reformatory. The first cornerstone of the structure was laid on November 4, 1886 in a large celebration that would turn out to be short-lived. Due to countless setbacks, it would take another ten years before inmates ever arrived. Another ghost story also has its roots in November. On November 5, 1950, the prison supervisor's wife, Helen Glattke, would dislodge a loaded gun from the top of her closet as she was readying for Sunday morning mass and the gun would hit the ground and fire, hitting her. She would die on November 7 in a nearby hospital. Today, her spirit is said to haunt the superintendent's quarters inside the administration building.

These are only a few of the creepy tales associated with the Ohio State Reformatory. In addition, the facility has also appeared in countless movies (as seen above in a production still of the prison in the upcoming horror movie The Dead Matter - photo courtesy of Midnight Syndicate Films) over the years and is transformed into an annual Halloween haunted attraction in the fall.

Discover more of the dark history of the Mansfield Reformatory.

-Casey H.