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Opened in 1870 on Lake Erie, Cedar Point is the second-oldest amusement park in America and was home to the 1921 Dentzel Carousel, which traveled from park to park until landing there in 1971.

Artist Shelly was unaware of the stories whispered by employees about the ghostly lady who rode the carousel at night. She was simply fascinated by historic carousels – so fascinated that she made them the main subject of her work. Her life-sized renderings in pastels and oils depict carved animals from famous carousels. As drawn as she was to some of those marvelous menageries, she cannot explain why one plain old brownish horse captivated her two decades ago.

“I spent several days in a row, one summer, going back and photographing it,” she confided. She had no idea that the one horse by which she was so inexplicably mesmerized was haunted.

During its time at Cedar Point, the carousel charmed children during the day and frightened employees at night. For it was then, when the park was closed, lights off and the workers sweeping up, that the carousel would come to life. It would start up – light, music and all – and a ghostly woman in a long white dress would mount the carousel horse. She always chose the same brown horse that Shelley had, carved in 1924 by Daniel C. Muller. As the specter rode around, witnesses swore that the carousel glowed.

Legend has it that Mrs. Muller fell in love with the horse that her husband had carved. So much so, that after she left this world, her spirit would return to Cedar Point for a ride on the carousel.

Adapted from the book Ghosts Among Us by Leslie Rule.

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Alice’s family was very prominent in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina. When she had her coming-out party, her brother, who was studying to be a doctor, brought a friend who was working his way through school. When he and Alice met, they fell in love.

They got engaged, but because his social standing was so far below that of her family, she was forbidden to see the young man again. She hid her engagement ring on a chain around her neck.

A few months later, Alice caught malaria. Because her family was in Europe at the time, her brother came from Charleston to take care of her. During the course of her delirium, her brother was sponging her down in an attempt to lower her fever when he came across the ring around her neck. He ripped it off her neck and threw it down the stairwell.

Alice went up and down the stairwell looking for her ring, all the while reducing her strength. Within weeks she died from the disease. As she had disgraced her family, her grave was marked with only her first name.

Since her death, a misty figure with a long white dress and long blond hair has been seen around the house where Alice died. They say if you wear a ring and walk the well-worn path around her tombstone backward, you’ll see her ghost rise up, turning the ring on your finger to see if it’s her missing ring.

Adapted from the book Haunted Houses by Corinne May Botz.

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