Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Welcome back. Hello, why you started while I was taking a sip of water.
I didn't realize that and I was like, how are so many beverages over there but two of them are mine. Well, yeah, and the fourth one is in my hand. I'm going to like ho coffee to keep me awake. Yeah, I'm finishing my coffee and then I'll switch to water but I go back and forth.
Yeah. How's it been? I got mistaken for an old lady. Yeah.
I'm an older lady. I'm going to say. Yeah, so it was sad. I was approached in the DG.
If you're not from the South, that's the Dollar General. That's correct. I decided I was going to buy my son a beach towel. He was going to a pool party and we needed a beach towel.
Excuse me. And I was at the DG looking for a good deal like you do. At the DG? I didn't want to buy it on Amazon because they were like 10 bucks and I was like a betcha I could get at the DG for five or five or under.
Exactly. So sure enough, $5 beach towel score as I'm perusing a woman comes up to be in says, hey, and I said hi. I didn't recognize her. But then it's one of those like, where do I know you from?
Crap, you know me, I don't remember you. I hate it. It's like I won't be rude. And you want to be like, hi, kiss Sarah.
Missy. Yeah, it was really weird. So she comes up and just says, oh my god, you're Caitlin's mom. And I was before I could say, who the hell's Caitlin?
She goes on with I've been needing to call you and invite you to dinner. Oh my gosh. I know we don't know each other that well, but you know, now that the kids are together and I'm like, kids, what, what kids? And so she's going on and on.
And she says, I just want you to know, the kids are taking precautions and they're taking relationships slow. And I was like, what? Caitlin's going to hear about this. No.
So she tells me all about how the kids are trying to take it slow and blah, blah, blah, blah. And then she says, but you know, what can you tell them? They're 27. And I went away from my like, in my reverie of who the hell's Caitlin?
And who are you? To you think I'm that old to have a 27 year old? And so what comes out of my mouth when she finally shuts the hell up is you think I have a 20? I'm old enough to have a 27 year old and she goes home.
And I think she thought it was like a rhetorical question. I don't know. But she goes, um, no, no, I know you had her young. You look really good for your age.
I know you had her at 18. So not only is she thinking that you're older than 27 year old, she's saying you had a teen pregnancy. She said I had a teen pregnancy and she said I'm 45. I'm 40, by the way.
So I'm like, uh, excuse me. I don't need five extra years and what the blank. So I went through many things in my head like poor Caitlin, you know, maybe she should reevaluate her relationship with this boy because the mother is baddy. And also, uh, why do you think I'm so old?
And so finally after this woman shuts up about our kids using protection. Yeah, which I was like, damn you Caitlin. What about it? That's a wild topic.
It was bold. It was bold for the DJ. I wasn't ready. I was just buying a towel.
You're in between the cat food aisle and the home goods and exactly. I'm here about Caitlin using protection. The whole time I was thinking, why did I just not buy it on Amazon? I know it's like, shut up.
Just the extra $10 this would have been. This would have been fine. I should have just bought it on Amazon, but nonetheless. So what came out of my mouth was, I'm sorry, but I think you're mistaken me for someone else.
Um, I'm not Caitlin's mom. I don't even have a daughter. I have a son and he's a preschooler. So sorry about and I'm 40, not 45, but thanks so much for thinking.
I look young. Um, yeah, it was an experience. I checked out and I decided, you know what? Never.
Probably not going back. Can't go back. It's nothing against the DJ. It's just the people who go right and it's tough.
It is tough. Yeah. A valuable lesson. Lessons were learned.
Well, we are glad to be back. I just, it's been a lot. It has been so much. Hailey has canceled on me repeatedly.
At least twice. Three times. Three times? Yeah.
Oh, yeah. So the first one I had, I'm pretty sure pneumonia, um, because I, I've conned my dad into listening to my lungs and he was like, mmm, those suckers are tight. You should probably do something about that. So couldn't breathe for like three days.
Um, just like wheezing, raspy, like, couldn't catch my breath. I was like, I thought I had COVID and I'm pretty sure I had COVID, but I, all the tests I took were negative, but I think it's, I still am convinced it was COVID. Um, so that happened. And then we were set for the next week and I was like, heck yeah, we're good.
And then Thursday night, I died because I was coming from a weekend and then I died and sent me a text that said, call me when you can. Because I couldn't even like, pross, like get across just how ill I was in a text message, better on a phone call. It was both ends. Um, like every 12, every 30 minutes for about 12 hours, I was in the bathroom.
And it was, oh my God, it's the sickest I've been in so long. So it did recover from that. And I was like, okay, great, we can do the next weekend. Well, I work in a school system.
And my students graduated. So had to be a graduation and then there was my brother's birthday and all the things. But now I'm here. She is here.
We try, you know, and that's another piece of it is us trying to figure out in our schedules where it works because like things get crazy. Yeah. You know, it's like a lot of birthday party. I mean, even us like, we got so many birthday parties.
I know, I have one tomorrow. Yeah. That after you just had one on Sunday. Like, I mean, it feels like we come to your mom and grandma's birthday.
You know, like the next week and like we are just party mode all the time. Yeah. And if we're not party and we're dying. Yeah.
I mean, it's been a party and do it does it to you. And I can't be certain that this wasn't Haley was having a like a crazy time and was like, just, you know, well, and I'm pretty, I think it was a bug, but there's also a part of me that thinks it could have been like some crazy, somebody put some in your dream. Well, honestly, that crossed my mind because I do work with teenagers, but my kids are good. I don't think they would ever do anything like that.
Or maybe you go into like a trivia night and somebody was like, I was on my way, like I was going to trivia. Okay. An hour before and I was out on the front porch. As you are with a weird to call him boyfriend.
Significant other significant other boyfriend sounds better. Boyfriend sounds like you're nice. I know it sounds very GV. Oh, GV.
Oh my god. No, my significant other. Oh god. I'm shocked.
He still hurts me after the retching. I am too. I was very mean to him. You told me how nasty you were to him and you are so lucky.
I know. Well, I was like, man, I'm not stomach hurts. And we're just sitting on the front porch and I go, I'm going to go bathroom and then died like both ends and got crawled in my bed and he comes in. I'm like, I'm really like puts his hand on me like, you know, okay.
I'm like, don't touch me. Like the devil came out because when I'm sick, don't look at me. Don't talk to me. Don't speak to me.
Yeah. Like I don't need you to be anywhere in my vicinity. Like I need you to toss like crackers in. Maybe check that I'm breathing periodically.
Look at that man. Just keep on butt. You just got to roll out. So we that we cross that threshold in our relationship.
So I think that's important. I think that's important to do at the dating stage. So then once you are married or even patrolled that you already know how this is going to play out. Well, and she knows just to back up.
Bless his soul and he'll not mind that I'm telling you know, the internet this. He is such a hypochondriac. Like, and he was like, I feel slightly clammy. I think I'm getting it.
But I think that's like, I mean, we're both we both have anxiety and like deal with that in our own ways. And his is very much related to like, like medical. Like if he feels ill, he's like, I'm dying. Like he's one of the man's blue.
The immediate like, oh my god, I like a brain tumor or something. And I'm like, you're probably like, you're fine. Like you're gonna be fine. And I'm so the complete opposite.
Like I'm laying on the in the bathtub dying. And I'm like, maybe this is a pen to say. It's like I crossed my mind. You're the same person whose gallbladder was like bursting at work in the boss to tell you to go home.
Yeah, this is true. So yeah, we're polar opposites. But now we know that about each other. So it's a good balance.
It is because I can kind of calm him down. And then he kind of is like, I think we should probably your arm is hanging on by a thread. We should probably do something about that. And even you still is like, I mean, it's still got the thread.
So I'll just go ahead and go into work. It'll be all right. Well, and I've told, I was like, I think it may be my appendix. And he's like, you should go to the hospital because he's at his out.
You should go to the hospital. I'm like, I'm not convinced that it is though. So if it gets worse, then I'll go. And I like get a fever, I pass out or something.
At that point, I'll have to go. But until we get to that. See, I'm the same way because I have a hyper-pondry-ac mother who's like, I stub my toe. I need to go to the ER.
Like that's how my mom is. And I am so not that way at all. I mean, back in 2009, I was a teacher and I went to work every day with a swine flu. Oh, I don't think it was a good idea.
I wouldn't recommend. I wouldn't recommend. But nonetheless, I didn't. Everybody's like, you look really bad.
I was like, yeah, I came in the Monday after I was so sick and because I had to run a report for school, which really I didn't have to do. But I felt like I had to. So I went in and I did it and then left and my coworkers were like, yeah, we were really good. Like, you looked really bad.
Thanks so much. Yeah. But anywho, we're back. We're back.
I feel any better. I am better. I feel great, knock on wood. I feel like now I've gotten all the sickness out of the way so I can have a great summer.
Hopefully, not music. Yes. Yes. So.
And I'm excited about this story today because this is a fresh one that we haven't had in three weeks. I know. And it's funny because I wrote it three weeks ago. So I'm unsure of what it's about.
Well, I mean, I did want to say I did enjoy the rewinds. I did too. Those are fun. Because they're fun episodes and also didn't it sound y'all like we were inside of a well?
Yeah. I was like the troll in the well. Why are you always a troll? That's my inner personality to troll.
Like, well, troll. I think. Bridge troll. Just troll.
I think you say that, but deep down inside, you just want love. You just want love. I don't want love. I mean, like a mountain troll.
A mountain troll. Like a rock around him a bare feet, like squawking at people. You see me after I mow the yard, I really look like a mountain troll. Are you squawking at people?
I'm doing this. Yeah. No one's walking on the sidewalk. Oh my gosh.
It's so rough. I think, I think you come off harsh, but deep down, you're marshmallow. And I'm the opposite. I come off really sweet in a real bitch.
Cheers. I am. And actually, I think that your outward person and my inner person are very similar. I come off as a bitch, but Holly just is.
I don't believe that either, but well, thank you. That's my sweetie. Yeah. All right.
Okay. What the story is about that is about the trolls. It's not trolls. It's neither.
We're going to go to Virginia to rap for Virginia. All right. And we're going to talk about St. Albans sanatorium.
I have not been there. I haven't either. I mean, I've been to Radford, but I've never been to Sanatorium or Sanitarium. Yeah.
I have either. I'd like to. That would be delightful. Yeah.
A weekend stay. Yeah. Be great. 40 an hour hold.
Maybe you know, 72. Let's do it. Next. That's next day.
Next week. Aw, this is like our date night. Isn't it special? Next time we can be on a middle hold.
That would be wonderful. I feel like I need it sometimes. Yeah, me too. Okay.
So this sanatorium is up high on a ridge and it looks over the new river. Okay. Very like Georgian architecture, 18th century vibes. Okay.
That's kind of what we're looking at. So located in Radford, Virginia, during the 1700s, the city's close proximity to the new river watershed attracted Native Americans and early European settlers to the area. There was some competition over that piece of land that resulted in some hostilities between the two groups. In my opinion, it was probably Native people were living there and then Europeans said, there's like, now we want to live here.
That's likely. That's kind of where I'm landed. That's where I'm landed. No, no, no.
In July of 75, a group of Shawnee Indians brought, you know, this tension kind of came to a head. Where'd the Shawnees in Oklahoma? I think there was another group here in Virginia. I guess maybe before they were probably before.
Yeah. Yeah. This is pre, you know, Exodus. Yeah.
Yeah. This is pre that. So according to this history, the Shawnee people attacked and looted the colonists of Draper's meadow. They killed at least five people and took their sausage.
They left behind some grizzly reminders. The library couple, for instance, was presented with a bag containing the decapitated head of a man named Philip Barker. Oh, Philip. They really get out of here and just took out.
Oh my God. Yeah. It was bad. Mary Draper Ingalls was one of those held for ransom at the Shawnee town of Sausonon, T.O.
Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good. So before she was taking prisoner, Mary had to witness the gruesome deaths of her fellow colonists, including her own mother and her sisters-in-laws baby.
Oh, not cool. Yeah. Though there are some, you know, variations of what, like accounts of what she actually witnessed, they were all pretty, you know, gruesome, fearsome. So here is some description of what they said she saw.
So they said the mother-in-law was Tomahawked and scalped. And then the infant child was pretty much legend to death. Yeah. Mary eventually managed to flee from that town that I butchered the name of, but her journey back home was not very easy.
Some sources claim that she was forced to abandon her own baby that she'd given birth to during her captivity. Others claimed that her fellow escapee, who was a woman from Germany, attempted to eat her twice. They were so hungry during their 43 day 1000 miles trek. It's not funny.
It's not funny. We were badgered. We've been trapped together. And she was like, the bitch of me is hungry.
We're like walking back and we're like, man, we escaped together. We did that thing. We kept halfway back. And you're like, oh man, I got eat her.
I could not have shown some hailing. So not only, but then you attempt this one time. And we say, no, like I stopped you from doing it. And I'm the one who is actually eating this.
I guess because I'm hungry. That's called German. And then I was like, I mean, she just probably splants. Like you look more German than I do.
So I stopped you from eating me. Okay. That's not the end though. I'm like, that's cool.
I can continue this journey together after you tried to cannibalize me. You do it again. Well, you know, like after the first time, that should have been it. Well, the first time I was a stern talking to, and clearly that didn't work for me.
So what happened the second time? I don't know. I guess it was another like, hey, please don't be my joke. Hey, listen, I know you're hungry, but please don't.
I like to keep my ear. Yeah, like to be great. Maybe not. Yeah.
Can you stop not on the arm, please? I mean, we're there. We're there like berries or something along the road. You know, I could be eating grass before I would try on the hately.
Right. I mean, I don't think I'm very tasty. It would be very tasty. And it's nothing against you.
No, but I want to say here right now, I would not consume any human being. I mean, what if you were in like a plane crash, like that, whatever lacrosse team or whatever they were that crash inside the mountain? Yeah. And they had like, in their friends.
Yeah. I think they were already dead though. What's the people that I cannibalized? Yeah.
And like the donor party. Yeah. Here's the thing. Or go straight into the ocean.
It's true. And your rat may dies. I give it some time. I mean, when I say hungry, I mean, deliriously hungry, like, you know, if I don't eat hally, I'll die.
And so you will help me live. You will. I give permission. If I die, if we're in a situation and I die first, I give you permission to cannibalize me.
I will. Okay. And the troll will live on and troll will live on. Oh my god.
Okay. So I'm telling you all this, just to kind of set you up for the settings. This is the this is the backstory of the land of the Sanatorium. So the horrors that poor Mary face during the Draper's Meadow Massacre, which is what it's called, are the first to contribute to the Sanatorium's very scary past.
Next are what soldiers and you're during one of the Civil War's most violent battles, the Battle of Coloids Mountain. So according to the history of Saint Albin's, Union artillery bombarded the settlement of Central Depot from the Ridge where Saint Albin stands today. And this explains why many people who have visited the building report hearing rifle shots, smelling gun smoke, and seeing spectral mists rising from the hospitals surrounding grounds. So a lot of people killed there.
Okay. So the Sanatorium itself was constructed in 1892. Its first function was a Lutheran boys school. Unfortunately for George W.
Miles, who was the man behind the school's inception, students were a far cry from the quote, future Southern gentlemen that he had envisioned as headmaster Miles demanded boys to perform well in the classroom and on sports fields. And to meet those expectations, many would turn to extreme methods. So Saint Albin's very quickly developed the reputation for being rough and the competitive school where bullying was not only condoned, but encouraged. Like that would not be cool nowadays.
He did athletic rivalries allowed Saint Albin's to secure numerous football championships. But they also made homicides and suicides pretty frequently occurrences on campus. Manny, miss that field goal. Well, literally not just cut from the team you work out from life.
Oh my gosh, it's bad. Yeah, I think you can just eat me. Yeah, I mean, there's no way I'm making the field goal. So I'm being just just I'm done here.
It's maybe. Oh gosh. Leave the nail polish. Okay, we'll do.
The school closed its doors in 1911. And sat vacant until 1916 when Dr. J C King reopened the facility as a home for the mentally disabled. Of course, the newly formed sanatorium was considered advanced at a time when the treatment of the mentally ill was often very barbaric and humane.
However, even this new advanced care included some experimental procedures and questionable treatments like insulin co-motherapy, electroconvulsive therapy, and hydroshock therapy. These practices resulted in pretty significant fatalities alongside multiple suicides. Yeah, which is in common theme for that time in mental health care. Plorable barbaric hindsight.
I mean, ECT is still used today. It is very rarely, but studies show that it is it's a last resort, but it can basically even out your brain waves. It's like getting electrocuted. Well, it's it's like getting hit by a bolt of lightning, you know, that it's supposed to help cure depression and that kind of thing.
But again, only used on very rare occasions with like significant mental issues. Yeah. Yeah. So in spite of, you know, all of these things, the facility thrived for many years and it grew to become a fully recognized hospital by the 1960s.
In the 1990s, the services at St. Albin's were transferred to another location and the hospital was permanently closed. As more modern facilities were constructed, you know, the facility was closed. They moved everybody.
In 2004, the building was abandoned and scheduled for demolition. But faith had it up since. Was it Mary? It was not.
Okay. Citizens desiring to preserve the building's history. Coupled with paranormal groups interested in the tales of, you know, our ghosty friends, inspired the current owners to halt their demolition plans in 2010. Saint Albin's sanatorium.
Say that to them. I won't reopen, offering historical and paranormal tours throughout the year, along with an annual Halloween haunted house. Let's do this. I think it sounds really cool.
Yeah. So today operates as a historical site, offering tours that recount the building's history and significance as one of the area's oldest structures. Wow. Which is pretty cool.
However, there are reminders throughout Saint Albin's about its past. From the rooftop garden with mesh that prevented patients from jumping to the electroshock therapy room where patients were treated, often to their death. So what draws people there though are the hauntings. Obviously.
People want to go and like experience it. Yeah. So they haven't fixed this up internally. They kind of just kept it.
Yeah. They've done a little bit because when they yeah, when they vacated the property in 2003, he doesn't forish, it did sit abandoned and it was really a site of theft vandalism and satellite night parties. That's what you were doing. Yeah.
And the new owner that decided to preserve it was actually a former patient from the hospital, 10 Gregory. Yep. So he, you know, re-envisioned this, you know, wanted to like make sure the building stayed well, like kept up. And his original idea for the building was to transform it into a research and enlightenment center.
But I don't think that really never came to all fruition. That's what I think like enlightenment center. Yeah. So it did, I mean, yes, there is, it's not like a full, there is part of this like research and laymen center like there, but it's not like the whole thing.
Okay. So some of that didn't come in different ways. Some of it came to fruition and to fund those efforts, he hosts like some of these haunted houses and things like that. Actually, because people would pay a lot of money to go and do that.
I mean, Haley would pay for us a lot of money to go and do that. Maybe for both of us. Yeah. Or I'll eat her.
So both, they're a private and public ghost hunts held at St. Albans. They're conducted and led by teams of paranormal experts. During a visit in 2011, a paranormal group recorded a ghost whispering what sounded like Deborah in the electroshock therapy room.
So call it out for Deborah. Another group, black, wave in the paranormal. So I say that Albin's in 2013 in the small bathroom, located in the women's ward. One team member was, says that they were touched by something.
And there were apparently from the history of four people that committed suicide in that like laboratory area where that bathroom was. Maryland ghost trackers experienced some other weird things. They got some pretty good auto anomalies and captured a strange shadow fleeing down the stairs. So some of the most active rooms in the place are where the hydrotherapies were conducted.
So hydrotherapies didn't really involve a brief relaxing soak in the tub. Patients who weren't mummified in icy cold towels were strapped into steaming water vats where they lay immobile and confined for up to like days at a time. Others were blasted with water from a fire hose. And this room is pretty much considered like they call it the suicide bathroom.
There are many other rooms in the sanatorium that are pretty hot like hot spots. The bowling alley in the basement is known to be haunted by two female spirits, Ali and Gina Rimey. Ali is rumored to be the young daughter of one of the hospital patients and Gina was a woman who was murdered on June 28th of 1980. Some were close to St.
Albem sanatorium along Hazel Hollow Road. So she wasn't killed at the sanatorium but her... Well I mean if all your dead friends are over there and you want to join the party... I mean I'm not going to haunt her by myself.
I'm going to roll on up the hill. So St. Albem very quickly earned reputation for being a very big hot spot for paranormal activity. There's a lot of evidence of paranormal activity there.
Full body apparitions have been photographed in the old alcoholics ward. That's where I'd be hanging out. I'll leave a drink. Yeah, we're going to even stop even in death.
Tourists have experienced hearing disembodied conversations, screams and footsteps. People have seen objects move on their own. They've been pushed by invisible forces. The hospital is not laid out in any way that makes any sense.
It's very maze-like so it makes it easier for very easy for visitors to get lost. Making solo explorations very scary and slightly dangerous. Like you turn around there. But St.
Albem is a great place to shoot some pretty spooky footage. I'm sure. Did you peruse some of these images on the internet? I did not.
What the hell are you supposed to do your research? No, but I didn't. Oh my gosh, I don't have one. I may have three weeks ago when I looked at it.
Well, yeah. But a lot of my information came from St. Albem's historical website and then there's several other sites that I pulled some things from. Gotcha, I know.
It's not a Torium. It's a Torium. It's a tricky. I'll look at that and see what I can find here.
But yeah, so a lot of people think that the... Why it's such a hot spot for the paranormal is because of all of the massacres. That happens. Yeah, it doesn't have a good history.
That's for sure. The land doesn't have a great history. It's an area in general. It seems like it's been through some things.
Definitely. Yeah. Well, and some of the pictures that you see online, especially the bowling alley, there's a lot of graffiti. It just looks real creepy.
Yeah. Anytime a building like that kind of falls into disrepair. Yeah. It's a little spooky.
Very. But I love to go there. Yeah. I've just looked at some of the pictures.
You know what to take a visit. That would be. So again, you'll have to hold my hand. I won't eat it.
I won't eat it. Okay. I'll have to keep it. I'll eat it.
But yeah, we could do that. Oh, you're fine. Yeah. That's what's in open.
Oh, what a story. Cannibalism. Ghost. Ghost.
I mean, when the story starts out with cannibalism, I mean, you know that you know from where you even go from now. So thanks for that. You're so welcome. Yeah.
Well, you want to barbeque? I don't know. I'm going to fire up the old grill. I'm going to switch to vegetarianism.
Yeah. That's a good idea. I was for many years. Yeah.
Me, tell me. Yeah. But part of me thinks I need to go back because I saw a note. I made some, I ground turkey.
I don't really like beef very much. So I make a lot of ground turkey. But me tastes weird to me. It just like, it tastes like a dead animal.
And I know a lot of people are like, oh, so good. I just don't really like the taste of it very much. And so I don't know. Maybe I'll join back.
Back into the, I'll see. Yeah. I was much thinner as a vegetarian than I am. This is the best I ever felt.
Yeah. Healthwise. Yeah. Like be an vegetarian.
Yeah. Well, let's learn, huh? All right. Advice to all of you out there.
Please don't eat your friends. Don't eat your friends. Even if you're hungry. Maybe don't.
For berries on the road. Do something. Yeah. Maybe do.
All right. If you want to reach out to us, you can do so by finding us via email at mountain mysteries dot Appalachian at gmail.com. You can find us on Facebook at mountain mysteries tales from Appalachia. Find us on Instagram at mountain mysteries dot Appalachia and patreon patreon.com slash mountain mysteries.
I'm gonna leave it up to my dinner over here to find a shout out this week. I'm also trying to log back in. Yummy yummy yummy hai. Hey, I did feed me.
I did. I made big Z she did an almost weird. You know, I actually used Italian sausage in that. Yeah.
It was good. I thought it was good. You needed to be warmer. I like my food pretty hot.
Yeah. Just like all my men. Do you eat them? You said you like some hot.
I like attractive. Oh, okay. Where are you? Hey, now, I won't know.
I mean, I don't invite them over and then, you know, those dog my basement. Exactly. No, no, no, I'm not. I wasn't gonna say bones.
That's not good. What if he's going on in your basement? Well, it's this cat cemetery. Nope.
Let's go hurricane West Virginia. Please let's do. Yeah. I like that.
Yeah. Hurricane. That's great. Hurricane.
Good changes subject. All right. Well, that's it. I was gonna say sucked.
Welcome. I'll see you next week. Bye.