You can visit Moonville-It is along the Vinton County Rail Trail which is tucked into Zaleski State Forest. It is only about a forty-minute drive from Old Man’s Cave. The main road is paved, but the last mile is a raggedy dirt and gravel and, in some places, only wide enough for one car. There are a couple areas that run along a high cliff edge along Raccoon Creek. And during the winter, at times, the icy or snow-covered road can be impassable for vehicles.
The Moonville Cemetery is on a hillside just past the iron bridge. There are at least 13 known graves remaining at the cemetery, although vandals and falling trees have left their mark on the old graveyard. Many more have been lost to time - only gentle indentations in the soil remain, if anything. This is an early cemetery. Some of the area residents were located between Hope and Moonville and were buried in the Keeton Cemetery near the town of Hope and the town of Hope Furnace. Others, like many of the Fergusons (also spelled Furgison in census records), were buried in a family plot near Uncle Buck's stables up the road. Those who were Catholic may have been buried in a Catholic cemetery in Zaleski. Keeton Cemetery is near the Lake Hope State Park campground just a few miles away.
Or come take a hike and ghost hunt with me along the old trails of Appalachia, like those in Moonville, with ghost stories and legends attached.
Jannette Quackenbush, author, naturalist, and folklorist has written over 40 books on ghosts and hauntings from Louisiana through the Appalachians and into Northern Ohio.
Take a walk with Lucy and Jannette and see Moonville through the eyes of the Lucy Cam!
A video I took many years ago that was on "My Ghost Story" when few people ventured because you had to hike through Forestry to get there or cross the risky waters of Raccoon Creek. And no, no other people were around. . .
The Moonville Rail Trail is maintained by Moonville Rail Trail Association, established in April of 2001 in order to build and maintain the muscle-powered Moonville Rail Trail system.
Zaleski State Forest
Moonville Rail Trail
Moonville Tunnel
Ghosts
Folklore
...and much more
