All posts by Mindie Burgoyne

About Mindie Burgoyne

Mindie Burgoyne is a travel writer, tour guide and tour operator living on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She is the author of Haunted Eastern Shore: Ghostly Tales from East of the Chesapeake and operates Chesapeake Ghost Walks and Thin Places Mystical Tours.

The Henry Colored Hotel – Still Rocking!

blog posts, ghosts, Ocean City, Worcester County,

Henry Hotel has Happy Spirits

The Henry Colored Hotel - Ocean City MD

The old Henry Hotel still sits vacant at the corner of Baltimore and South Division Street in Ocean City, Maryland.  Most people would never notice this three story, 20-roomed hotel, covered with brown shingles across from Trimper’s Rides.  The entire hotel is about the size of most single family homes found in upscale Western Shore neighborhoods.  The Henry has been out of commission since its most recent owner, Pearl Bonner died in 2003.  Pearl was a legend in her own right, when as a single, African American woman raising three daughters she purchased the property in 1964.  For forty summers she ran the hotel, putting her daughters to work when they needed money for their college educations.  All of them are college graduates.

Pearl ran the hotel more as a rooming house for African American men who worked in Ocean City, rather than a vacation destination for black patrons looking to relax. Continue reading The Henry Colored Hotel – Still Rocking! →

Haunted Minute – Cambridge and Bloody Henny

blog posts, Cambridge, Dorchester County, Haunted Minute, , ,

Bloody Henny was hanged next to the Cambridge Courthouse

Spring Valley was the name for the area that is now a nice park with a fountain adjacent to the Cambridge Courthouse.

Human emotion certainly impacts the energy field around a site, so when there’s a traumatic occurrence, the energy field picks up those emotions. When the trauma is repeated and repeated – as in a place of corporal punishment – the energy gets stronger and stronger, and the sense of place takes on those emotions.

Hangings, whippings, slave auctioning and public judgements all happened in this spot. Today, it is linked with legends of spirits that still prowl around this park at night.

Join one of the Cambridge Ghost Walks to experience this place up close and personal, and hear the full story of Bloody Henny, plus 13 other haunted properties on High Street.

SEE ALL AVAILABLE CAMBRIDGE GHOST WALKS

 

 

Get Touched in the Haunted Pocomoke Forest

blog posts, ghosts, Pocomoke, Worcester County, ,
Guests walk into the Pocomoke Forest under a full moon
Guests walk into the Pocomoke Forest under a full moon – orbs above.

I am a ghost-story teller. I live in a haunted house, but I am not afraid of anything from the spirit world anymore – except the spirits in the Pocomoke Forest. Out of the 130+ stories I’ve integrated into our ten ghost walks, there are only a handful where I’ve had a personal experience …. The Snow Hil Inn, the Trimper’s Carousel, the Robert Morris Inn, The Atlantic Hotel (Berlin), the Marva Theater  AND – The Pocomoke Forest… and that one scared me so bad, that I couldn’t get out of that forest fast enough — but I had to act like I wasn’t afraid so as not to startle the 24 people following behind me (who were already scared by what had happened). Continue reading Get Touched in the Haunted Pocomoke Forest →

Haunted Minute – The Pocomoke River

blog posts, ghosts, Haunted Minute, Pocomoke, Worcester County, , ,

Pocomoke River – Black Water

In this video, Ghost Walk guide, Mindie Burgoyne tells about Maryland’s most haunted River – The Pocomoke.

The Pocomoke River is the deepest water for its width in the United States and the second deepest in the world – 2nd only to the Nile River. Its name means “black water” and just four to six feet below the surface there is no ambient light. The water is black.

There are many stories of hauntings along the river – phantom ships, spirits who walk on the water, baby cries coming from nowhere.. and more. In this video, Mindie Burgoyne tells the story of Job Emmons and spirits seen walking on the water just east of the Pocomoke River drawbridge.

Join the Pocomoke Ghost Walk to hear the full story.

VIEW ALL THE UPCOMING POCOMOKE GHOST WALKS

Corbin Library in Crisfield is also a Mausoleum

blog posts, Crisfield, Somerset County, , ,
Llilyan Corbin
Lilyan Stratten Corbin

The Corbin Library in Crisfield is the only library in America that also serves as a mausoleum. It is named for Lilly Ann Corbin, born in Crisfield in 1882 who was farmed out to relatives as a teenager because her parents couldn’t support her. And at age fifteen Lilly had saved enough money from cleaning houses to buy a one-way train ticket to New York City. She dreamed of being an actress. Today, her remains are in an urn that is housed in this small community library in rural Somerset County, MD.

When you check out a book at the Lilyan Stratton Corbin Library, look up to the right and you’ll see the large urn set into a niche carved that has been carved into the wall. Below that niche is a plaque honoring Lilyan Stratton Corbin. And across the room a portrait of a woman with brown hair and soft brown eyes hangs on the wall. The woman in the portrait is believed to be Lilyan Corbin. Continue reading Corbin Library in Crisfield is also a Mausoleum →

My Time in the Denton Jail

blog posts, Caroline County, Denton, ghosts, ,

denton-jail

The Denton Jail in Caroline County, MD is one of the five most haunted sites on the Eastern Shore – in my opinion. I gauge this by considering the number of haunted stories from unrelated sources spread over many years, and that the site is still active today.

The jail was built in 1906 . The old part of the building looks  a little like a house with a front door and porch. It was a house of sorts because the Sheriff lived there with his family when the jail was built. They lived on the first floor and inmates were housed in other parts of the building. The Sheriff’s wife attended to the inmates’ needs for food, laundry, etc. The jail is an active county correctional facility and has gone  major renovations in the last 109 years. It’s gone from one Sheriff with no deputies and a handful of inmates to a correctional facility with room for 150 inmates.

My Tour of the Denton Jail

Continue reading My Time in the Denton Jail →

The Spirit of Zippy Lewis Still Seen Combing the Beaches

Berlin, blog posts, ghosts, Ocean City, , ,
Zippy Lewis
Zipporah “Zippy” Lewis by artist, David O. Bunting

The Eternal Beachcomber

This painting of Zipporah – “Zippy” Lewis was painted  by  artist, David O. Bunting and it hangs in the Dunes Manor Hotel in Ocean City. It’s created from his imagination as there were never any pictures of the famous beachcomber. She was born around 1812 in Delaware – probably near Fenwick Island. She married Jonathan Lewis when she was sixteen and they lived in a shack on the beach. Jonathan was a sailor.

In1847 Jonathan and Zippy had five children. Jonathan went out to sea, but never returned. Zippy walked the beach for years looking out for his ship on the horizon … hoping he would find his way home. As a widow left with 5 children, she struggled financially.  Continue reading The Spirit of Zippy Lewis Still Seen Combing the Beaches →

Is Miss Thelma Still in Charge at the Dunes Manor?

blog posts, ghosts, Ocean City, Worcester County, , , ,
Dunes Manor Hotel in Ocean City MD
Dunes Manor Hotel in Ocean City MD

Miss Thelma Conner a Legend and a Spirit

Some people think that Miss Thelma Conner is still in charge at the Dunes Manor Hotel on 28th Street  in Ocean City, Maryland. This is particularly strange because Miss Thelma passed away in 1999. But she’s been seen by staff and guests and even mentioned on TripAdvisor in the last fifteen years.  Of course, people who never knew Miss Thelma in life would be able to recognize her  because of the larger-than-life portrait (aside a matching portrait of her husband Milton) of her that dominates the hotel’s grand entrance.

Considering what Miss Thelma had to endure in order to fulfill her life-long dream of building a grand hotel on the ocean, it’s no wonder she’s still hanging around. She and her husband, Milton rans the Dunes Motel for years and they always dreamed of building a big Victorian hotel on the ocean, and they had the land to do it, but time got away from them and before they could achieve their dream, Milton passed away. But Miss Thelma persevered and finally got it done. Continue reading Is Miss Thelma Still in Charge at the Dunes Manor? →

What is Haunting Crapo?

blog posts, Dorchester County, , ,

crapo-house

Two People Vanish Without a Trace in tiny Eastern Shore Village

On August 7, 1953 a sixty-six year old woman named Florence Wingate who lived in the  village of Crapo (pronounce cray-po), made breakfast for her brother Miles who was a waterman. That was the last time anyone saw Florence alive … except maybe by her killer.

Understand that Crapo is tiny tiny tiny.  It’s barely a crossroads in the rural marshy Lake District of Lower Dorchester County – 24 miles from Cambridge. Probably no more than 50-100 people lived in and around Crapo back then. So everybody knew everybody.

Crapo and the story of the missing are stops on the Tubman Trail Ghost and Graveyard Bus Tour. Get tickets now.  Continue reading What is Haunting Crapo? →

The Hanged Man in Princess Anne

blog posts, ghosts, Princess Anne, Somerset County, , ,
The Hanged man
Photo taken by guest – Bridget Perry, on the first Princess Anne Ghost Walk.

The Ghost Walk in Princess Anne, Maryland is the only walk where children are not permitted to attend. This is due not only to the harsh content shared on the walk, but also to the strange things that occur on the ghost walk. The picture above was one of the first “strange” occurrences that happened on the Princess Anne Ghost Walk.

Getting the image of what appears to be a man hanging from a tree is rare indeed, but it is particularly rare when you get it in a town famous for two lynchings that took place there. The image was taken in St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church graveyard with an Android cellphone by Bridge Perry who was a guest on the tour. Just as the tour was ending, Bridget asked me to look at something (I was the tour guide). When I first so the phone screen it looked black, then when she expanded the image, it was startling. The blurry figure looking remarkably like a man hanging from a tree was so disturbing that I ended the tour early. Since then, we’ve had guests get more images in photos taken in or near that same location. It’s a thin place. Continue reading The Hanged Man in Princess Anne →