Uintah Springs Press

Fiction and nonfiction from the Intermountain West

Just Released:  Strange— Unexplained Tales from Idaho

                         and Beyond 

by Cathy Wilson

 

 

Bloggers and online correspondents will recognize Cathy by her Web tag and now- pseudonym, Catmarie Wilson. In this book, Cathy has joined personal experience with family stories and accounts gathered from friends, neighbors, and informants in Idaho, Utah, and elsewhere. She says about her book:

 

I have dedicated this book to all the young people who show such interest in these subjects. Their questions and fascination with these topics encourage me to share all I have learned. I hope they will carry on and find some answers for us in this mysterious world we live in.

 

 

Cathy shows some of the prizes she won for her essay

 in the  Rookie Moment Contest.

Phone:  (360) 985-7180

e-mail:  uintahsp@tds.net

Contact Us:

For 30 years Cathy Wilson taught ballet and jazz in St. Joseph, Missouri and Idaho Falls.  Cathy is currently a substitute teacher for the Buhl School District, teaching grades 6-12.  She's queen of the Snake River Scarletts, the local chapter of the Red Hat Society.

 

 

 

 

 

Since childhood Cathy has been fascinated with with paranormal events.  Her interest piqued when she won her "dream job" through the Dreyer's Rookie Moment contest.  The grand prize included a trip to the Haunted America Conference in Alton, Illinois.  Her introduction to ghost hunting came when she accompanied the American Ghost Society on an investigation of the haunted Miner's Theater in Collinsville, Illinois.

 

Excerpts

 

 On a sunny, peaceful day, Ruth was playing outside with her brother Herbert. Suddenly their uncle’s dog started to howl. The children could find no reason for his pitiful howling.

         The children gave up trying to figure it out and went into the house. In the living room on the fireplace mantle sat two crystal vases several feet apart. As Ruth and Herbert watched, the vases came together, clinked, then returned to their rightful places.

         The next day Ruth and Herbert learned their uncle had died at the very time his beloved dog had commenced howling.

Chapter 2:  My Own Journey Toward the Paranormal

 

         The phone rang during a pleasant visit with my in-laws.

         “Is Charles there?” said the man in a slow, despondent manner. The tone of his voice was very sad.

         “May I ask who’s calling?” I said.

         “This is Karl,” he said even more sorrowfully.

         I called to my husband, who was in another room visiting with his mom and dad.

         “Charlie, the phone’s for you. It’s your Uncle Karl.” However, when my husband picked up the phone, no one was on the line.

         Later the news came that Karl had died at the exact time we received the call. While cutting grass, he had collapsed from a heart attack. This was in the 1970’s before cell phones were popular. He’d had no chance to get to the inside phone. I believe his spirit wanted to contact the family gathered at my house. I had talked to a dead man on the telephone!

Chapter 3:  The School of Metaphysics

 

Chapter 4:  Back to the Midwest Thanks to a Contest

 

Chapter 5:  Utah Strangeness

 

After work each night, the manager would turn off the lights [in the Twin Falls Historical Museum] and set out the closed sign. She had a special routine for this task and never varied it. One morning she returned to work and saw a row of lights on. She also found the closed sign was hanging crookedly from a rounded projection above its regular hook. Immediately she phoned the president of the historical society, the only other person with a key. He had not been in during her absence.

         Two other incidents led her to wonder if the museum wasn’t “haunted.” Two volunteers reported separately that, on going into the basement, they had heard a young man’s voice speaking from upstairs. However, no one was upstairs.

 

 

         My friend’s encounters with the paranormal began when she lived in Kimberly. There, in a hallway, a large sunburst clock hung belonging to her deceased grandfather. It was the type you wind by hand once a week. Many times over a period of eighteen years, between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m., she heard a sound from the clock like a spring letting loose. She felt it was her grandfather letting her know he was there. Now that her daughter has the clock, no one hears the noise.

Chapter 6:  Stories from Idaho

 

 

         My friend M had an acquaintance who was employed as night clerk at the Peery Hotel. He told stories about an unusual armoire at the end of a hallway. When his back was turned the doors would open. These were not doors that easily opened or closed. He would latch them firmly but minutes later find them open again. In the coffee room he felt a cold zone despite the air conditioning vents being shut. Another Peery employee had seen the figure of a woman in a long black gown typical of turn of the century dress. The figure disappeared when the employee followed her.

Chapter 7:    More Idaho Stories:  Jamie’s House

Chapter 8:    Stories from Elsewhere

Chapter 9:    My Canadian Pen Pal

Chapter 10:  Near-Death Experiences from All Over

Chapter 11:  Our Mysterious Skies

Chapter 12:  Deborah, the Energy Worker

Chapter 13:  Potpourri of the Paranormal

 

 

Chapter 1:  Family Stories