Strange Shoals: Local hauntings, UFOs listed on StrangeUSA site

by Bernie Delinski,
Staff Writer

Mary McBrayer gets the question a lot.

"People come in, looking around, and finally get the courage up to ask, 'Is this the place where Molly is?' " said McBrayer, who works at the Off-Campus Bookstore across from the University of North Alabama in downtown Florence. "They want to know if they can go upstairs and see her room.

"Strangers drop by all the time asking about her."

"Molly" is the name of a ghost that supposedly haunts the bookstore, which was Molly's home when she was a child years ago. The story goes that she died at the house from rabies after her infected dog bit her.

Her story has been told many times, and many people claim to have encountered Molly. There's an online place for that and many other ghost stories from the Shoals and the rest of the country, as well as stories of UFO sightings.

It's a Web site called StrangeUSA (strangeusa.com), which allows you to log on and read, as well as post reports of strange sightings and stories from your community. It even gives you the opportunity to tell about paid haunted attractions such as those that open during Halloween season.

The site was the brainchild of an Adelanto, Calif., couple, Matt and Nichole Montana, paranormal junkies who often visit locations where strange sightings supposedly occur.

"Both of our parents used to tell us ghost stories," Matt Montana said. "We love horror flicks.

"When we were younger, we just took everything at face value, but now that we're older, we can explore it ourselves."

Of course, there is only so much traveling they can do, since they have demanding full-time jobs.

So, they decided to create the Web site, complete with maps to the locations that are listed, Matt Montana said.

The site includes a free membership system that allows users to submit extra information, he said. Some members of the site actually help moderate it, he said.

The Montanas created StrangeUSA in June 2006, and it became an immediate success, accumulating more than 7 million hits since that time. It now gets about 20,000 hits each day, but that escalates to as many as 250,000 whenever Halloween approaches, Matt Montana said.

They also receive dozens of comments daily. "Usually they are, 'Hey, I worked there! It is so true!' and they typically provide an address and some history on the location," Matt Montana said. They also receive a fair share of people saying the stories are nonsense, he said.

The home page of Strange-USA has a map of the United States. You simply click on a state, and the names of dozens of cities, towns and counties from that state come up.

Click on a location that interests you, and it reveals stories of hauntings and UFO sightings - many from the people who claim to have witnessed the event, although everything is anonymous.

There's even a place where you can comment on each story.

The ghost stories vary from just a sentence to a long discussion.

The UFO sightings generally are just a sentence or two. If you copy the link above each UFO tale and paste it on the address bar, it will take you to a more detailed description via a site called the National UFO Reporting Center.

StrangeUSA includes sightings that date back decades, as well as recent ones.

One describes a 1973 sighting in Colbert Heights. A "hovering object with circulating yellow and green lights slowly began to move before attaining hyper speed from (a) virtual dead stop," it reads.

Local historian John McWilliams talks about ghost stories and UFO sightings in part of his book "Life on My Side of the River."

He found the Colbert Heights report interesting.

"I actually mentioned in the book a UFO that was said to have regularly landed behind the (Colbert County) Co-op on U.S. 72," McWilliams said.

He said there's something intriguing about ghost and UFO tales. "I think it's the unknown that draws people to it. And also, I think it's the question of what is life after death."

McWilliams said the thrill of the sense of fear, such as the notion of an invisible ghost entering a room where you are, also produces good tales.

"I mean, could you imagine if people couldn't see me coming, what I can do?" he jokes.

There are swarms of intriguing local ghost stories on Strange-USA. Several are from UNA.

Tuscumbia, Muscle Shoals, Moulton, Cherokee, St. Florian and Russellville also have local stories on the site.

"Wesleyan (Hall) is haunted by a Civil War general's son who drowned when he jumped headfirst into Cypress Creek from the old one-lane bridge on Waterloo Road a couple minutes from campus," one reads. "His wet footsteps can be seen at night."

Those kinds of stories - and the people who tell them - are exactly what the Montanas had in mind when they created the site.

"The types of people you meet on this site are amazing," Matt Montana said. "We have had people that own or owned buildings on our site and offer a sincere thanks, saying stuff like, 'Wow, I always thought I was crazy for what I saw and heard, but now that I see others have gone through it as well, I feel sane again!' "