The Iowa Road Guide to Haunted Locations

by Chad Lewis, Terry Fisk, Mike Whye (Foreword)

Your road guide for finding haunted airports, bridges, cemeteries, historic homes, libraries, lover's leaps, museums, parks, police stations, restaurants, roads, theatres, and much, much more.

Genres: Paranormal, Nonfiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

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

[Erin Henze · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bought directly from Chad at an event and he seemed super nice. However, while there are some actually interesting historical and spooky stories in there, much of it is seemingly random locations with a one or two local rumors that sound like the stories we made up for fun in elementary school- not actually creepy and super random. Book could also use some more editing.

[Lisa Browning · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t believe this stuff, but I know lots of people do. Required reading for book club. Lots of errors that a proofreader should have found.

[Shan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of inaccurate details

[Iowa City Public Library]

My husband and I like to take little roadtrips on the weekends, and recently we’ve been picking locations from The Iowa Road Guide to Haunted Locations. It’s a nice book that compiles ghostly tales and creepy goings-on from all over the state, plus a little research on the authors’ part, and directions on how to get to the specific spooky spots. Most of the reports deal with stories or incidents from the past, although there are a few more modern (and a little less interesting) tales…the ghost from the Carlos O’Kelly’s in Marion, for instance, leaves a little to be desired, unless you’re hungry.

The authors have a keen interest in the paranormal, and do a fair amount of fact-checking. They’ve visited all the places in the book, speaking with people from the area who remember the events or the stories about them, and even check for old newspaper articles when possible to verify the tales. They aren’t gullible in the least, and will often debunk a story if they turn up contradictory evidence. Ultimately, this book is great for learning some very interesting stories about many areas in the state, regardless of whether you believe in them or not. --Candice

From ICPL Staff Picks Blog

[Joelle Laughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good bok not exactly what i was expecting but none the less interesting.Gave good direction to all the places that were mention in the book but the spooky stories were lacking but if they were going for only facts than thats whats in here.It would still be worth going to the places to see the items discussed.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

only one haunted site per county! wtf? and the only one for Iowa City was the stupid black angel which isn't haunted at all (and I'm pretty sure that it was painted black, despite the rumor that it's bronze mysteriously turned black).
lame.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well now that I'm sufficiently freaked out, yet simultaneously ready for a haunted Iowa road trip!! Haha

[Zane]

It was good sgood

[Julie Suzanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

A waste of time. Going on a road trip to Iowa and thought I might stop at some places assumed to be haunted. Thought it might be a fun thing, but this book was so bad. It would give some ridiculous stories for each location and some ridiculous claims like “anyone who kisses this statue will die instantly“ which is the easiest thing in the world to prove or disprove, but there is no attempt to prove or disprove anything. Why would anybody even write such a thing when it is so obviously ridiculous? Also there were some interesting stories behind the supposed ghosts, but then under the “investigation“ part, the author says things like, “ we couldn’t find any evidence that any of this is true however most people think that it is.” I couldn’t even get an interesting ghost story out of this book.