The Minnesota Road Guide to Haunted Locations

by Chad Lewis, Terry Fisk

Where to go to possibly sleep in a haunted bed & breakfast, hear ghostly wails in a theatre, going roller skating with ghosts, encounter a haunted doll, hike a haunted trail, hear spirits playing music, have a drink in a haunted pub, and see gravestones move on their own.

Genres: Nonfiction, Ghosts, Paranormal

300 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

For nearly two decades Chad Lewis has traveled the back roads of the world in search of the strange and unusual. From tracking vampires in Transylvania and searching for the elusive monster of Loch Ness to trailing the dangerous Tata Duende through remote villages of Belize and searching for ghosts in Ireland’s haunted castles, Chad has scoured the earth in search of the paranormal.

With a Masters Degree in Psychology, Chad has authored over 15 books on the supernatural, and extensively lectures on his fascinating findings.

The more bizarre the legend, the more likely you’ll find Chad there.

Reviews

[Harris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although I’m a skeptic, I find the idea of hauntings fascinating, especially as the fall season begins to turn towards Halloween, so I was curious to see what local destinations The Minnesota Road Guide to Haunted Locations would discuss. Unfortunately, this badly written guide offers neither a useful reference work nor a compelling collection of spine tingling local stories. Entirely mapless and organized haphazardly by state region, ghost hunters Chad Lewis and Terry Fisk compile a list of small town hotels, B&Bs, bars, or trails claimed to be haunted, but all in all it represents the most boring sort of “paranormal” investigation.

Even as they include statements of “ghost lore,” “history,” and “investigation” for each location, they lack references for even the historical research portions of the book making everything feel entirely apocryphal and the ghostly events discussed are of the most banal, common sort (“eerie” feelings, misplaced objects), with none inspiring me to make a trip. In the end, I’m almost more dubious about the author's claim that Minnesota has more haunted locations than any other place than any of the ghosts themselves (and really, it doesn’t take a skeptic to poke holes in any of the stories provided). All in all, it’s a remarkably bland book for such a rich topic.

[Sydney’s Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book had some interesting stories. I have been to some of the places that were in it and I never experienced anything or even knew they were “hunted”. It was a fun short read though.

[Trilby · Rating 1 out of 5]

This so-called "road guide" tries to be too many things, and does them all badly. It presents the "ghostlore," telling what people have experienced, plus the story of who allegedly is doing the haunting, then it offers the authors' paranormal investigations into the stories. In other words, the authors present themselves as a cross between academic folklorist Alan Dundes, Washington Irving, and Jason Hawes of "Ghost Hunters".

I admit I didn't read the whole book. As a ghost story collector, I know a few Minnesota ghost stories (OK, more than a few). So I paged through, looking for the oft-told tales that usually appear in this kind of book. Some were there (like the usher in the now-wrecked old Guthrie Theater), and some weren't (like the hanged man in Minneapolis City Hall).

The scary thing about this book is not the stories, but the slipshod way it's put together. The photographs are grainy, some of the stories are out of date, and the pages have lots of filler white space. But what bothered me most is that even in this cursory run-through, I found frequent tense shifts, often within the same paragraph, some related to incorrect usage (like "forbid" instead of "forbade"). The cover was designed by one of the authors--Hey, if you've screwed up the content, photographs, and text, you may as well go whole-hog and screw up the graphic design.

Next time these authors want to put together a guide, they should use a ghostwriter.

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Momma bought me this book during my stay at the Palmer House Hotel this past July. Some interesting stories that I want to know more about, but also a need for some editing.

[Amber Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has amazing and adventurous places in its pages that you can visit here and now!

[August · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intriguing, but not very well organized or written.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty much what it is a guide to use when visiting the locations. I prefer a more smooth reading of the subjects so it was okay but I couldn't get into it too much because of it just being a reference book.

[Aleina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is kind of cool in a very unique way. It tells you where you can find these so-called haunted locations all over Minnesota. There are others for other states and places, but this provides a bit of history/background info, directions and the haunting story!

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the set up of this guide. For each site it gives folklore of the place, the history of the building or area, and then results of research they have done. It's set up in an orderly manner, and the index is easy to use. There are photos of most of the sites, and road directions included.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a fun book. interesting to learn about all the different stories. many grammar and spelling errors.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book makes me want to get out and have a ghostly adventure of my own! Well written and interesting documentation, at first I was skeptical of the format, but it definitely grew on me as I read.

[Kim Hanson nagorski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book. Zac wanted it when he stopped at Palmer house. The Gibbs Farm ( mom and I worked there), is in the book and is accurate in the strange accounts.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly awesome...but wasn't expecting much really.

[Shannon Telles lisowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not written well. It mentions places and states the investigation did not conclude that it was haunted, but does not state what the investigation detailed. very sparse info

[Barbijo · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting reading