"The Hartford Circus Fire" by Michael Skidgell

One of my favorite folk duos, John and Mary released a very sad song called "July 6th" back in 1991.  That was the first time I had ever heard about the Hartford Circus Fire (which happened on July 6th, 1944).

I was curious again about the fire, and found that author Michael Skidgell put out a book about it called, "The Hartford Circus Fire: Tragedy Under the Big Top".

This is a very non-traditional book in a lot of ways.  Skidgell gives a lot of time to the fire, and discussing how people got trapped (168 circus goers died that day).  Obviously things happened fast and the fire spread quickly.

Then the author spends a lot of time giving a bio of the victims.  Though sad, I appreciated the generous amount of the book that is devoted to those who died at the fire, and their stories.  It was nice that photos were included showing many smiling, and enjoying themselves at an earlier point in their lives.

The last section covers the aftermath of the fire.

"The Hartford Circus Fire" feels more like a nice little tribute to those who died in the fire than a usual book on a topic.  I did appreciate this one a lot!

Haunted New England books by Robert Cahill

Hey, I just thought I would give a brief mention to the wonderful series of books by the late Robert Cahill.  I know the first couple of times driving through Salem, it seemed like his books were everywhere!  I stocked up!

If you enjoy authentic ghost stories, tales of unsolved mysteries, and general New England strangeness, Cahill had a well put together, easy to read book for ya!

Plus, he had deep, real roots in Salem.  I wish I could have crossed paths with this author.  Luckily, he was a prolific writer, and we can read his stories.

"Passing Strange" by Joseph A. Citro

I have mentioned before how, sometimes you read a book, and a subject or author comes up.  Maybe something odd is mentioned, and I make a note of it... and it leads to researching another topic or place.

Well, the book, "Passing Strange" by Joseph A. Citro kept popping up as I read other books and material relating to New England.

So I picked up a copy.

The book actually covers some of the lesser known ghost stories, legends and hoaxes.  There were many in here I had never heard of.

Some (The Eddy Brothers) are given more credit than they deserve, but this is still a nice collection of strange tales.

Others are interesting and I need to look up more info on them (The Black Flash of Provincetown, and several mysterious "triangle" areas).  There is the legend of a house that burned to the ground, but still occasionally appears in photos!

New England is such an established area, and there are so many strange legends.  This book by Joseph A. Citro is a good starting point for reading about the strange in that region!

"Connecticut Witch Trials" by Cynthia Wolfe Boynton

Everyone knows about the Salem witch trials of 1692, but it seems that not a lot of people are aware that "witches" were put on trial and executed in other areas too.

Cynthia Wolfe Boynton's book, "Connecticut Witch Trials" covers the events that happened in Connecticut starting 45 years BEFORE the events in Salem.

Like the Salem events, records are scarce on the Connecticut Trials.  Alse Young is noted as being the first executed witch in Connecticut (and America).  The author acknowledges that there is barely any mention anywhere of this.  She also brings up the fact that it is very possible that earlier executions could have occurred, but the records no longer exist.

Considering the rareness of records, Boynton has done an amazing job of piecing together as much of the story as she can.  She includes an easy to use timeline of events and a chart of Connecticut residents accused (including their residence, and the result of the accusations).  Also, a lengthy bibliography is included.

Luckily, there were a few people who questioned the whole process of prosecuting witches, and the "evidence" used against the accused.  A governor does much to disrupt the hysteria, as do a few others.  Still, many are reluctant to question, as they do not want to also be singled out.

This book had a lot of good info in it that I will need to follow up on later.  Mentioned are sites related to the events (just like with Salem, the exact hanging locations are questioned), but at least one in Bridgeport CT. is pretty well known).  Also, Cynthia mentions several other books on the Connecticut Witch Trials, including some independently published works by descendants of those people involved in the trials (any help on tracking those down would be appreciated!)!

AND, like the Salem trials, some fiction based on the events has generated myths relating to the actual facts.  Boynton covers that topic too!

Until more journals or other records are found, I think this is a pretty complete book covering the Connecticut With Trials!

The New England Grimpendium by JW Ocker

I picked this one up right after Halloween, otherwise I would have mentioned this book in October.  AND, I am on a New England kick right now.

I wanted to read this book because, outside of Kentucky, New England is one of my favorite areas.  My love of Salem in general is well documented on this site, along with several other areas up north.

Also, I love "macabre and ghastly sites".

Maybe "love" is too strong of a word.  "Enjoy a whole heck of a lot" might be more accurate.  At the end of the day, I must admit that I have an appreciation of weirdness in general, especially when I travel.

JW Ocker's "The New England Grimpendium" is a great travel guide noting some of the darker sites one might visit in New England.

I have actually visited a couple of sites listed, but there were MANY more listed that I had no knowledge of before. 

In fact, as far as odd travel type books go, this is one of the more original volumes out there.  I also feel comfortable saying that this is the best dark tourism book I have read in some time.

Ocker's writing style is detailed but fun.  He gives you the facts, some history, and most importantly, details about how to get to the places he mentions.  BUT, he keeps a humorous style going throughout the Grimpendium.  Concerning his entries on Nathaniel Hawthorne he mentions, "it's not stalking if you trace a man's life after he's dead." 

Comments like that are common.

Something else I like about this book is that Ocker generally avoids the dime-a-dozen "haunted" locations that fill the pages of many other travel books with skulls on the cover.  In fact, he only really brings such sites up if there is something else a bit more substantial going on at the location.

JW Ocker's attention to sites with something truly interesting to offer was one of the main reasons that I enjoyed this book so much.  There is a reason he mentions each memorial, museum or other site of interest in his book and thankfully those reasons do not involve the siting of orbs.  JW has done actual legitimate research on this book and the sites mentioned.

Also, there is a great section on filming locations (involving mostly horror films) in New England.

Check out JW Ocker's blog and pick this book up before your next New England road trip!

http://www.oddthingsiveseen.com/

Mark Twain House, Hartford, CT.

We had a great time at the Mark Twain House in Hartford CT. This is an amazing and big house that Clemens lived in for about 20 years. He wrote the Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn stuff here, which I thought was pretty cool.

In a nut shell, he and his family were having financial problems in 1891 so they left the country. He did eventually move back to the area, but he lived in a smaller house.

Our tour was great, we had a fun, knowledgeable tour guide too, which is a plus. The staff was very friendly and they all seemed excited about contributing to the Mark Twain legacy (the staff at the House of the Seven Gables should come here and take notes).

We took the servants entrance tour, which was a shorter tour of the working areas of the servants.

We then toured the entire house. Check out my pictures.

I do know that the house has had some financial concerns, which is sad. I think they will pull through, the Mark Twain House seems to really be a part of the area.

New England

I originally wanted to write mostly about the great state of Kentucky and other areas close by. I still want to keep the theme here pretty much related to Kentucky or areas outside of Kentucky that can easily be visited in a day or weekend trip. For the moment, I hope my reader(s) won't mind my writing about my travels through New England and the states between there and Kentucky.

I know, this is a pretty big stretch for a Kentucky Travel blog, but, for what it is worth, I did the entire trip, there and back, in my car within about 1 week. We left Friday evening around 5 and got back the following Saturday pretty late. We made it a little north of Portland Maine. We made notable stops in several cities.

I will write over the next few weeks about some of our favorite stops. This was our 4th time making this specific trip, so a few areas are becoming pretty familiar to me as a traveller. We did visit 10 minor league baseball parks, seeing games at 5 of them. Feel free to check out my mentions of them on my other blog, kentuckybaseball.blogspot.com.

I love Kentucky and I love the entire country. Getting in my car and just going somewhere is such a treat and a privilege. Not many decades ago, it was an event for someone to travel just a few miles. A trip for my grandfather in to town was somewhat of an event. Now, it is no big deal for me to make a 2500 mile trip in a week just for the fun of it!