Hidden Marietta Paranormal Expo 2022

On Saturday, January 29th, Brian, Kaysee, Dan and myself made the trek to the haunted and historic Lafayette Hotel in Marietta, Ohio to represent Spectral Research and Investigation at the 2022 Hidden Marietta Paranormal Expo!

As one of dozens of vendors, we set up our SRI table in the ballroom of the beautiful old hotel and from 11am to 4pm, met with many, many awesome paranormal investigators, researchers, authors, pod casters, artists/crafters, and other fans of all things spooky. At times, it was overwhelmingly busy with over 500 visitors coming out to take part in the event this year!

In addition to mingling with vendors giving psychic readings, promoting their spooky locations/groups, and selling everything from jewelry to books, to artwork to ghost hunting supplies (and so, so much more!) a top-notch speaker line-up was included with admission. Patti Wigington, pagan priestess/blogger/author started the lecture series with a talk on protection from paranormal entities. Scott Sukel, former ghost hunt manager and historian for the Ohio State Reformatory followed up with a chat about his time at OSR and other how he got his start in the paranormal field. Jeff Ignatowski, creator of Killers-The Card Game, shared his knowledge on serial killer psychology, and Fortean researcher Ashley Hilt, ended the day with a discussion on Mothman. 

Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough time in the day to see all the great speakers, but I did catch Scott and Ashley’s presentations. Scott’s talk about his former mentor and how he came to be associated with the Ohio State Reformatory was at times hilarious, and at other times, moving. He spoke quite passionately about how letting a haunted location become the main focus of your life has its upside….but also has a very deep downside. I’m glad he was able to break away from the hold the old prison had on him and can now allow himself to take care of his health, explore new haunted locations, and travel the country educating others on the lessons he’s learned in his long career of paranormal investigation.

Ashley’s presentation was also really interesting. Kaysee, Dan, and I enjoyed her talk on her upcoming Mothman documentary and some of the weird examples of high strangeness surrounding West Virginia’s favorite cryptid. Ashley also co-hosts the podcast, On Wednesdays, We Talk Weird. I stopped by her table afterwards and had a nice lil’ chat about living in wild and weird West Virginia.

 And really, those chats were absolutely the highlight of the event for me. I LOVE talking about the paranormal with other paranormal enthusiasts, and there were plenty of people there to share my love of all things strange and spooky. We saw old friends, and made some new contacts. I’ve got a stack of business cards and have already gone and started following about a dozen new people/groups on social media. Lots of people stopped by our booth to chat, and we of course, made our rounds to each vendor and tried to introduce ourselves to as many people as possible. It was great seeing Les from WV Cryptids and Strange Encounters, Jordan Cline and Sarah from Fireside Paranormal Podcast (Brian and I were on the show awhile back), the crew from the Old Hospital on College Hill, author Jannette Quackenbush (who also runs the Haunted West Virginia Facebook page) and John from Haunted Hills Paranormal Society. 

Those who know me or follow this blog know I couldn’t leave such an event without a book or two…or three in this case. I picked up two of Jannette’s books, as well as a book from Sabrina at 2Realm Paranormal Research. I also bought a few stickers and a new ghost keychain at the Hidden Marietta table! 

In addition to these festivities, event goers could also opt to purchase tickets for a haunted history tour of the Lafayette Hotel, or partake in the after-hours dinner and investigation with Paranormal Quest. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to participate this year, but I did take the tour back at the 2019 Paranormal Expo and it was really, really interesting. There are lots of ghosts that are said to roam the historic hotel, and hopefully SRI will be back in sometime in the future to help document their presence.

Overall, it was a really fun and productive day. Hidden Marietta once again did a fabulous job putting on a convention for lovers of the paranormal. It was a great way to kick off 2022 and I’m looking forward to joining Hidden Marietta on one of their many tours and public hunts held throughout the year. A huge thanks to everyone involved in making this event a huge success, and a huge thanks to everyone who stopped by and chatted with the SRI team!