Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky listener Discretion is advised. When I was a kid, it was a pretty well known fact that my elementary school was haunted. And by a well known fact, I mean that every single one of us second graders was convinced there was a mean lady in the girl's bathroom who would appear in the mirror behind you. I'm not sure what she did beyond that, but that was enough. The teachers, of course, laughed us off. But nonetheless, that did not stop us giggling school kids from sneaking the lights off on each other, or gathering around the mirror and then claiming to see someone behind us before squealing and running out the door. It also meant when I had to use the restroom during class, I'd sneak to the one on the second floor, because you know full well I was not going in the scary lady bathroom alone. Until one day, when I was tiptoeing down the hall headed to my usual secret bathroom upstairs, I saw a teacher in the hallway. I had no excuse to be going upstairs, and I also actually really had to go to the bathroom, which meant I was forced to go to the bathroom of doom. I breathed heavily and went inside. I could feel my little, panicky self getting ready to run, but I put my head down and looked at my feet as I scurried into a stall. I held my breath and kept my eyes on the floor as I did my business. I'd be lying if I said I didn't briefly consider skipping the hand wash, but even then, germs were scarier to me than ghosts, so keeping my head down, I quickly ran the water and dispensed some of that weird, pink, powdery soap into my hands and rinsed. It was then that I let myself stop and slowly look up at the mirror. I saw myself. I could still see myself, then with bangs, something's never change and something else? Did I see something else? Not giving myself time him to answer, I ran out of that bathroom quicker than I've ever run from anything in my life. I got back to class, chest pounding, and tried to pretend nothing happened, because really I don't think anything did. But my little mind created a whole terrifying world in that moment out of a simple elementary school bathroom. Apparently, though, I got off lucky, because since then I've investigated a number of haunted elementary schools, some still very much in operation, but one that forever holds my interest because it defies all logic and reason and continues to exhibit some of the strangest and strongest paranormal activity I've seen on an ongoing basis is the seventeen thousand square foot for our school in Maxwell, Iowa, where it turns out that sometimes, yes, if you build it, they really do come. I'm Amy Bruney, and this is haunted road according to many sources. Unlike many of the locations we discuss, for our school doesn't have much of a sordid or traumatic history, definitely not anything that would warrant the level of haunting. The building is very much notorious for having, but the history is interesting nonetheless, and I discovered a few tidbits that happened nearby that may be contributing to the paranormal activity that goes on there today. It's fair to say that Ferrar, Iowa is almost a ghost town. How fitting, Today, the unincorporated community in Polk County comprises of the unused for our school building and one church, as well as thirteen houses. Notably, Ferrar's population numbered just forty two people in nineteen and today there's a whopping thirty residents. Ferrara owes its development to the railroad line that was developed through the area in nineteen o two. In nineteen o three, and was consequently named in honor of one of the railroad employees involved in the creation of that line. A post office was established in nineteen o four, and in nineteen nineteen CG. Gettis agreed to donate six acres of his farm to merge the area's one room country schoolhouses to offer the community a larger and more modern facility to the local children. The expensive project didn't please everyone in the surrounding community, but it won over the majority of folks with a say, and with that, the school boards voted and created the Washington Township Consolidated School District. On April first, nineteen twenty two, the school houses opening was marked by a celebration. There was an orchestra welcoming the community to celebrate their proud scholastic buildings opening. The school house filled with citizens from miles around the orchestra played on stage in the auditorium as a banquet served the hundreds in attendance. Not all citizens were behind the new building with its one hundred thousand dollar price tag. One disgruntled citizen refused to attend the celebration, calling it a monument to the arrogance and vanity of the school board with its boiler heating, electric lights and indoor bathroom facilities. How dare they? There's a cemetery across the street that's often mentioned in conjunction with the schoolhouse. It's also commonly joked that the cemetery population seems to be outpacing the living population in town. It's to the immediate west of the Turner Memorial MP Church established in nineteen The cemetery is often referred to as one hundred fifty years old. The oldest listed death date in Ferrara Cemetery is that of Ida Jane Longenecker born January eighteen seventy one and died April eleventh, eighteen seventy one. Interestingly, the cemetery is still currently active, according to haunting at ferrar dot com. On May three, two thousand two, once again a band played, a banquet served hundreds in attendants, and sadly the eighty year old schoolhouse closed its doors for the last time. Seems uneventful, right. I was able to discover a few bits of history that could maybe have something to do with Ferrar's haunting. So in August of nineteen six, fifth grader Nancy Pearson was killed after the bicycle she was writing collided with a vehicle on Highway sixty four in Ferrar. She had just received the bicycle at the beginning of summer and was racing her uncle down the street when the accident occurred. She was a student at Ferrar and she is buried in the cemetery across the street. If you look her up on finding grave dot com, you can actually leave virtual flowers for her, as I have done. She seems to be buried without any family nearby her. When Adam Burry and I were investigating Ferrar for an episode of our show Kindred spear It, we received snippets of information during a spirit box session. They included things like the words farm, knife, and April. Using that information, I scoured local news stories for anything that would correlate. That's when I found a news story about a young man named Terry. Terry's badly decomposed body had been found on a farm in close proximity of for our school. His body was found in April of nineteen and his throat had been slashed with a pocket knife. We proceeded to investigate the school while bringing up Terry's name, and after many communications using our spirit box and various e vps, we theorized that maybe his spirit had somehow ended up there. This isn't unusual for us. We found spirits tend to wander into heavily investigated buildings, especially those who need closure or help, and Terry certainly fits that bill. I didn't get to cover it on Kindred Spirits it. I was in contact with some who knew Terry in life, including a few close relatives. To this day, some are trying to solve his murder. Others told me everyone knows who did it, but they're afraid to say. Either way, it's clear the murder was drug related. Terry had already survived being shot multiple times on another occasion, and according to close friends, he was in a treatment center just before his murder and was afraid to leave because he thought he would be killed. Despite this, he was released at the end of January and was murdered by the end of February. As I said before, his body was not found until April. I cite that bit of history because we never would have discovered it if not for paranormal activity that led us to it. So now let's explore some other ghostly reports on the site. After sitting abandoned for five years, Jim and Nancy Oliver purchased the building in two thousand six. It quickly became apparent they were not alone. Voices and shadows were witnessed almost immediately. Nancy reports she once became unsteady on the stairs when a hand on her shoulder helped her catch her balance. She turned to thank her husband for the help, only to find no one there. On another occasion, the outline of a small boy was sighted on the well lit stairway descending into the gymnasium. The boy appeared to be about three feet six inches tall, with one foot on each step and holding onto the handrail. The figure stayed motionless for almost two seconds before disappearing. In one of the classrooms, Nancy saw the figure of a young girl with a long frilly dress and curly hair, and heard the giggle of a child. Even employees on site while the school was in operation reported odd happenings. While working as the janitor, a gentleman named Bill Webb often discovered the gym lights on after hours, even though he was sure he had turned them off. He also heard noises that sounded like people were walking around on the lower floor. In October of a local metal band named ghost Hive recorded music inside a classroom. Recording engineer Griffin Landa looked away from his computer for just a second, and in the next moment, when he turned around and looked at his computer screen, it flickered off. Just ten seconds later, the screen flashed back on and the volume for his headphones skyrocketed. Some apparitions have been seen a multitude of times. In addition to the small phantom boy on the stairwell, another child has been captured on an image sitting on the edge of the auditorium stage. According to the Paranormal Investigators of Milwaukee, there are other occurrences that happened quite frequently. People have claimed to see a shadow figure coming down the steps out of the principal's office. A boy was seen exiting the closet in room two oh six, the sound of voices has been heard throughout the school. Slamming doors have also been heard while nobody else is in the building, something I can about for personally, having experienced it multiple times while investigating there. Unnatural figures have been seen walking the halls, including a nine foot tall shadow figure that roams the third floor. Balls have been seen rolling around on their own in a classroom on the third floor that has now labeled the Ballroom. There's another theory, at times complementary to others, of a large entity often called the Principle. Johnny Houser, who we talked to about the Veliska House, believes that the Principle has control of everything in the school and has a low tolerance for disorder and chaotic activity inside the building. In researching for this episode, we saw the name John Tenney come up multiple times. Seems he has been too fer our on many occasions and has even performed a wedding there. It just so happens. We know that guy, so I've asked him to weigh in on what he thinks is happening in that strange schoolhouse in the middle of Iowa, and that is coming up right after the break. All right, So I am sitting here now with my dear friend and friend of the show. I feel like at this point Mr John Tenny, a cult researcher, great, big weirdo, total softie. How's it going, John, Good? How are you doing today? I'm good, I'm good. I'm excited to talk to you about Ferrar, just because I feel like you have a pretty good history with it. You've investigated it a few times. You're close enough with Will Conkle, who was the gentleman who was on Kindred, that you actually didn't you perform his wedding ceremony for he and his wife? Yeah? They met she was in a ghost group and he was the caretaker, and they met on one of her ghost investigations. And then when they got married, they decided to get married there. And since I'm ordained, they asked if I would come and perform the wedding on Halloween. Oh how appropriate. I think that's what the plan was for the school initially when the most recent folks bought it, was to turn it into an event space, which makes sense. It's beautiful, it's in a very beautiful area. For me with Ferrar, the thing is that it's so strange because it's that schoolhouse that's almost set in the middle of nowhere. Oh it is. I think the most recent like population count of that town was thirty So there's a cemetery across the street that is more populous than the town itself. So what has I think a lot of people stumped about Ferrar is the fact that there's not a lot of dark history. They're not any reported deaths that I can find. Although I did find a number of obituaries that cited people who were former employees who still thought back very fondly on their time there. I couldn't find really anything that happened inside the school per se. So why do you think it's haunted. I've been going to Ferrar. I think the first time I investigated there was about nine years ago, and I've been there a few times since, and every time I go it seems to offer me different experiences. And as a person who had my parents and family who were teachers and worked in the school system and I did too, I feel like for our is continuing to be a school. It's a place where you go to learn how to investigate, learn how you handle situations that you might not be familiar with. It's very strange that the location, which is a school, teaches you yeah, I mean, I guess so. And it's strange because over time it's almost for lack of a better term, spawning different types of experiences, like it's ever changing. I think by the time we got there, there was this report of this huge shadow figure that would appear in one of the rooms, which is do you think about that? That's so scary to think about, and you're like, how did this become this? Where is this coming from? And it's haunted. I mean we walked in and within five minutes we were hearing doors slam upstairs. We were trying to film, just doing the normal tour just to get info. And so it's just taken on this life of its own. And but really people have only been investigating it, I want to say, since the like two thousand six, I think is when they bought it or when it closed somewhere in there. I went there, I had heard stories about this tall, foreboding figure that was there, and the first night that I investigated, I saw what I thought was a very tall figure, but to me, it seemed like it had was in silhouette form and it seemed to have two heads, one up on top where a head should be, and then one almost at stomach level. And it was the craziest thing that I saw, and I sketched it and drew it, and after I investigated, internalized it and tried to think it and figure it out. And maybe a year later I saw randomly on television. I was just watching a television program and I watched the principle of a school walk a student out in front of them, and they had their hands on the child's shoulders and the child's head was at stomach level. And I was like, oh, that's what I saw. I didn't see one thing with two heads. I saw two entities standing looking at me, and one was just standing behind the other. Okay, that kind of gives me some interesting theories or ideas. First of all, the principal like, there isn't a entity there. They have nicknamed the principle, So I wonder if that's who you saw. They there is someone there that they give they've given that name to. But it also reminds me of as a child I wasn't I wasn't really a troublemaker until I was in high school, but before that there were a couple of times as a child where I did get in trouble, and I do remember getting caught once doing something I can't it's so silly. I was wadding up toilet paper and getting it wet and throwing it on the ceiling of the bathroom, and I thought that was great fun. And I remember getting caught, and I remember the extreme stress that went with that, like I felt awful, and I do remember being walked down the hallway. I do remember. And to make matters worse, my grandmother worked there at the time, and so for some reason, my grandfather showed up and he was going to see my grandma at lunch, and so he saw me. They had put me in the hallway, like standing in the corner, because that's what they did when we were kids. And that I wonder if there's something to the idea that that moment, that energy, that like feeling of just such dread, if that alone could still be there, not necessarily the spirits of someone, but that kind of imprint for sure. I mean, when I was trying to figure out my experience, I thought, oh, maybe it is the kind of combined dread and fear that kids feel in school when they've done something wrong, and maybe that somehow has permeated the building. But then I also felt too, if there was something that people call the principle in there, if it gave the air of a principle, then most kids do feel a kind of dread and terror and nervousness and excitement when that figure is around. And if that figure is still in there giving off that sense impression, maybe that's what we're picking up. And since we can only relate it to being young and not understanding and the fear of being young and the fear of being punished, we sense it as something bad, but it's really just something doing its job. I mean, that's something to think about. There's another report of a teacher in one of the rooms they even still I think they've called it her room, and spence along, I can't remember what her name is, And it's along those same lines, like there's a teacher in there doing their job, and so is there actually a teacher and they're doing their job or is it our conception of a teacher and they're doing their job that it is an interesting theory. When I was there, I thought it one of the experiences that I had that is actually recorded. I have the entire thing on video is I was doing an e VP session and my recorder wouldn't work, and I tested my recorder. I went outside and checked the batteries and tested it and it worked. I went back inside and it wouldn't work. And I literally stood in right behind the doors and inside the school, and the recorder wouldn't work. And if I leaned out and pressed record, it would work. And it was almost as if something in the school was saying, like, you can't do that in here, like it was turning my recorder off. Mm hmm. Yeah, there's rules. There are rules in a school. You can't play with a recorder while you're in class. What are you doing anything. We were doing a lot of research when we investigated, They're just trying to find something associated with the building. We did get some really interesting facts come from a spirit box. And then later I found a story nearby that correlated with these facts. We got the month of April and it said farm and then it said hutch or knife something along those lines. I could be misremembering, But then I found the story of this young man named Terry who was found murdered in a field very nearby a school, and obviously you can that's such a small town that shook things up, and so it led me to believe somehow he found his way into the school. I don't know if you even knew about this, but did you have any experiences with something that might fit that bill or might be terry. When I investigated there, I think the second or third time there seemed to be an individual or an entity in the school that wasn't associated with the school, and I could never figure that out. I've often thought about for our that I still think about it because it is such a strange place, and I did learn some weird ideas there. I really do feel like because it's in that location, because it's so far away from everything else, and because for so long people have not only gone to school there, they had parties and dances and the entire all the surrounding population would go there and celebrate because it was the big building that you could do things in. And I almost feel like if that gentleman died nearby, he would be like, oh, the school is a safe place for me to go. Yeah. And so when I found out later this was when I was researching there, I started reaching out to people who I knew this person, including his brother, and so basically what happened was he spent time in a treatment center and he didn't A woman wrote me on Facebook who knew him because her brother in law was in this treatment center at the same time. And apparently this kid was very scared to leave because he thought he was going to be killed that he and so he was within days of them making him leave, and his body wasn't found for months later. So if there was anyone who would be looking for a safe place, I feel like he would fit the bill. Yeah, for sure. Again, as someone who grew up with family that worked in the school, then working in the school myself. Let's I can't tell you how many times we had kids that and even not even kids, some adults when if someone was in a strange car or if there was a stranger in the neighborhood, kids would come to the school because they knew it was safe in the school. Yeah. Yeah, and he was only nineteen or twenty, so there was a very good chance he even went to Ferrar at some point, so who knows. But yeah, it's interesting because it is such a small town and there's really nothing around. I can't stress this enough. You are in the middle of nowhere. It does kind of stand out because there aren't really many big buildings like that, And even when it was built there was there was some commotion about like how ostentatious it was, as they said, um for you know, what they needed, because I think at the time it was like a hundred thousand dollars, which was very expensive. They struggled to find students at one point too, they were literally busting them in from other districts to kind of fill this big space. And so I don't know what I'm quite getting at from that. I'm just saying, I guess I just it stands out. It does stand as a bit of a beacon in the in the middle of all this kind of corn all these cornfields, for sure. And you know, the first time I went in, we go to so many places as investigators that don't look the way that they looked when they were in operation. And for Art still looks like a school inside and out. It smells like a school. You walk inside, and it's got that that very distinct smell that you're like, I'm not sure if this is comforting or if this is bringing back memories that I don't want to think about. There's literally like art projects still up on the walls, there are books still on the shelves, like you could just walk in and conduct a class tomorrow if you wanted to. Yeah, And I think that familiarity really does draw entities sometimes that it might be confused or looking for something that seems like something they might remember. Now, what about the investigations. Do you think that is affecting things? I have felt that, at least in my investigations, Farrar has always seemed more active during the day when school would have been in session. I feel like at night you might encounter a stray teacher or a janitor, or perhaps some rampunctious kids. And I'm speaking entity wise, but I always feel like it was a lot like at night when I investigated. To get some type of activity, I would have to do something that was almost like being a naughty child. I would have to run through the hallways and slam the lockers and go into the principal's office and do things that would get some attention from a person being in a school at night. But when I investigated there during the day, it seemed like it was very active because it seemed like school was in session. M hmm. Don't think I ever investigated there during the day, but I had activity there during the day, So that's interesting that you say that. And the activity I got did sound like doors slamming and thin like it did sound like something in session. And I feel like maybe at night when people are investigating, the activity is more maybe imposing, because maybe whoever whatever is there is like it's nighttime, you're not supposed to be here. Yeah, it's the night shift custodian or like I said, a straight teacher, that's they're finishing up work. Yeah, the I know. Like that gym area, it's so funny because like they they have it has a very large gym. That area was the kind of although I didn't have a lot of activity there, that was the area that I had to go to buy myself a lot because the bathrooms were down there, and I do remember not really enjoying that, just that Jim felt very um. I don't know, there's something odd about the gym. I don't know what it was. I don't know if you had any experiences there. And then the bathroom itself, and no one wants to feel like they're being watched in the bath room, but I definitely felt like I was being watched in the bathroom there. The gym area is was strange for me because there's a door that leads off into the furnace area where like janitors would probably go, and whenever I was in the gym, I always got a weird sensation that there was someone in that kind of janitorial furnace room. The upstairs that has the auditorium. When I was there during the day doing investigations, standing up on stage and doing parts of plays and singing, the activity that was in the auditorium was very positive, as if someone was responding to me doing what I was supposed to be doing in the auditorium. But when I did that at night, it really was unhappy that I was doing it. That is, I would really like to see what your performance was like in the auditorium, like what were you doing? Were you reciting Shakespeare like I was doing some I brought a book of poetry and read poetry, and I did a little Frank Sinatra song and I had a recorder. I investigated it. Chad Lindbergh investigated with me there and he sang songs and did parts from play. He went full on actor on the auditorium and got responses. That is clever. Now that makes me want to go back and try again during the day because I just I think I did a lot of research in there during the day, and that's when I want to hear things happening around me. But I guess I was being studious. I was behaving. Yeah, you weren't being bad for once. For once, I was behaving. That is. I feel like it actually went up for sale recently, and now it's not anymore, because like I, I checked it right before I got on this call with you, and I was like, can we buy Ferrar? Is this a possibility? But it looks like it's been taken off the market. So yeah, I knew it had gone up for sale. I didn't know if it was still up for sale or not, but I was thinking about it to be because there is something really strange about that place that draws you to it and randomly throughout my days and I will just have straight thoughts about Ferrar. And I was a bad student all through school, and it's I find it strange that I still think about that school, probably more than my own. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, you'd have been drawn back there a number of times, so there's got to be some reason to it. There are no accidents. As they say, is there anything else about Ferrara? You think our listeners might want to hear about any other crazy experiences or thoughts. I will tell you this is a slightly funny story. But when I was investigating for the show Ghost Stalkers, at the end of every location that we investigated, as we drove away, I would jokingly and the whole crew knew this. They would get to the point where they would say, do it tenny, And as I was driving away, I would very almost ungraciously say goodbye to the location, and it was very humorous and very funny. And when I investigated ferrar during that time, on the last night, the last investigation, the last e VP session, the response that I got on my recorder was a voice not mine, giving me the exact same, not appropriate language, telling me goodbye. Interesting. Well, I have always since there was something a little sassy there, so well, good well, maybe sometime we'll get to go back and investigate it together. That would be really fun. Tell me, now, what are you up to? Where can people find you? What's going on in the world of Tenny? I do a weekly podcast called What's Up Weirdo, where I talked to my friend Jessica. It's just a conversation between two friends. My website is weird Lectures dot com and all of my social media is John E. L. Tenney Fantastic. I love the podcast. I love listening to you guys. It makes me feel happy because you two are such good friends, and I'm like, feel like I'm hanging out with you because I miss you, guys. That's what it was. That's what it was meant for. Yes, so well, thank you so much for taking the time. I appreciate it, and hopefully I will be seeing you very soon. You know, if a place has firmly planted itself in the research brain of John Tenny, something weird is going on there. For our school defies logic, but really doesn't the idea of ghosts in general defy all logic. I'd need to investigate a lot more at the school to get any sort of handle of what's drawing the activity to it. But I wonder if being one of the loan substantial buildings in the middle of acres of corn fields and houses that are sometimes miles apart. Could the school be some sort of beacon to wandering souls? The school at self never seemed to fit there, being such a large structure in a town of forty people. It was so big that students had to be bussed there from other districts just to keep it in operation. It closed not because it was falling apart, but because the community just didn't need it. They were tired of bussing over two kids from another district every day, so they built a bigger, newer facility and moved them all there. So for our school, defying all the odds, a school that some never wanted but that the community grew to love and rally around, now stands quiet and vacant, say for the occasional event or paranormal team passing through the building patiently awaits its next incarnation. I'm Amy Brunei and this was Haunted Road. If you want to join us on a spooky vacation, please check out my company, Strange Escapes at Strange dash escapes dot com. Also, new episodes of Kindred Spirits are currently airing on Travel Channel on Saturday nights at ten ninth Central or streaming on Discovery Plus. You can also catch our investigation of for Our School on Kindred in season four, episode one. Haunted Road is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The podcast is written and hosted by Amy Bruney. Executive producers include Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The show is produced by rima Ill Kali and Trevor Young. Research by Taylor Haggerdorn, Amy Bruney, and Robin Miniter. For more podcasts from I Heeart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky listener Discretion is advised. When I was a kid, it was a pretty well known fact that my elementary school was haunted. And by a well known fact, I mean that every single one of us second graders was convinced there was a mean lady in the girl's bathroom who would appear in the mirror behind you. I'm not sure what she did beyond that, but that was enough. The teachers, of course, laughed us off. But nonetheless, that did not stop us giggling school kids from sneaking the lights off on each other, or gathering around the mirror and then claiming to see someone behind us before squealing and running out the door. It also meant when I had to use the restroom during class, I'd sneak to the one on the second floor, because you know full well I was not going in the scary lady bathroom alone. Until one day, when I was tiptoeing down the hall headed to my usual secret bathroom upstairs, I saw a teacher in the hallway. I had no excuse to be going upstairs, and I also actually really had to go to the bathroom, which meant I was forced to go to the bathroom of doom. I breathed heavily and went inside. I could feel my little, panicky self getting ready to run, but I put my head down and looked at my feet as I scurried into a stall. I held my breath and kept my eyes on the floor as I did my business. I'd be lying if I said I didn't briefly consider skipping the hand wash, but even then, germs were scarier to me than ghosts, so keeping my head down, I quickly ran the water and dispensed some of that weird, pink, powdery soap into my hands and rinsed. It was then that I let myself stop and slowly look up at the mirror. I saw myself. I could still see myself, then with bangs, something's never change and something else? Did I see something else? Not giving myself time him to answer, I ran out of that bathroom quicker than I've ever run from anything in my life. I got back to class, chest pounding, and tried to pretend nothing happened, because really I don't think anything did. But my little mind created a whole terrifying world in that moment out of a simple elementary school bathroom. Apparently, though, I got off lucky, because since then I've investigated a number of haunted elementary schools, some still very much in operation, but one that forever holds my interest because it defies all logic and reason and continues to exhibit some of the strangest and strongest paranormal activity I've seen on an ongoing basis is the seventeen thousand square foot for our school in Maxwell, Iowa, where it turns out that sometimes, yes, if you build it, they really do come. I'm Amy Bruney, and this is haunted road according to many sources. Unlike many of the locations we discuss, for our school doesn't have much of a sordid or traumatic history, definitely not anything that would warrant the level of haunting. The building is very much notorious for having, but the history is interesting nonetheless, and I discovered a few tidbits that happened nearby that may be contributing to the paranormal activity that goes on there today. It's fair to say that Ferrar, Iowa is almost a ghost town. How fitting, Today, the unincorporated community in Polk County comprises of the unused for our school building and one church, as well as thirteen houses. Notably, Ferrar's population numbered just forty two people in nineteen and today there's a whopping thirty residents. Ferrara owes its development to the railroad line that was developed through the area in nineteen o two. In nineteen o three, and was consequently named in honor of one of the railroad employees involved in the creation of that line. A post office was established in nineteen o four, and in nineteen nineteen CG. Gettis agreed to donate six acres of his farm to merge the area's one room country schoolhouses to offer the community a larger and more modern facility to the local children. The expensive project didn't please everyone in the surrounding community, but it won over the majority of folks with a say, and with that, the school boards voted and created the Washington Township Consolidated School District. On April first, nineteen twenty two, the school houses opening was marked by a celebration. There was an orchestra welcoming the community to celebrate their proud scholastic buildings opening. The school house filled with citizens from miles around the orchestra played on stage in the auditorium as a banquet served the hundreds in attendance. Not all citizens were behind the new building with its one hundred thousand dollar price tag. One disgruntled citizen refused to attend the celebration, calling it a monument to the arrogance and vanity of the school board with its boiler heating, electric lights and indoor bathroom facilities. How dare they? There's a cemetery across the street that's often mentioned in conjunction with the schoolhouse. It's also commonly joked that the cemetery population seems to be outpacing the living population in town. It's to the immediate west of the Turner Memorial MP Church established in nineteen The cemetery is often referred to as one hundred fifty years old. The oldest listed death date in Ferrara Cemetery is that of Ida Jane Longenecker born January eighteen seventy one and died April eleventh, eighteen seventy one. Interestingly, the cemetery is still currently active, according to haunting at ferrar dot com. On May three, two thousand two, once again a band played, a banquet served hundreds in attendants, and sadly the eighty year old schoolhouse closed its doors for the last time. Seems uneventful, right. I was able to discover a few bits of history that could maybe have something to do with Ferrar's haunting. So in August of nineteen six, fifth grader Nancy Pearson was killed after the bicycle she was writing collided with a vehicle on Highway sixty four in Ferrar. She had just received the bicycle at the beginning of summer and was racing her uncle down the street when the accident occurred. She was a student at Ferrar and she is buried in the cemetery across the street. If you look her up on finding grave dot com, you can actually leave virtual flowers for her, as I have done. She seems to be buried without any family nearby her. When Adam Burry and I were investigating Ferrar for an episode of our show Kindred spear It, we received snippets of information during a spirit box session. They included things like the words farm, knife, and April. Using that information, I scoured local news stories for anything that would correlate. That's when I found a news story about a young man named Terry. Terry's badly decomposed body had been found on a farm in close proximity of for our school. His body was found in April of nineteen and his throat had been slashed with a pocket knife. We proceeded to investigate the school while bringing up Terry's name, and after many communications using our spirit box and various e vps, we theorized that maybe his spirit had somehow ended up there. This isn't unusual for us. We found spirits tend to wander into heavily investigated buildings, especially those who need closure or help, and Terry certainly fits that bill. I didn't get to cover it on Kindred Spirits it. I was in contact with some who knew Terry in life, including a few close relatives. To this day, some are trying to solve his murder. Others told me everyone knows who did it, but they're afraid to say. Either way, it's clear the murder was drug related. Terry had already survived being shot multiple times on another occasion, and according to close friends, he was in a treatment center just before his murder and was afraid to leave because he thought he would be killed. Despite this, he was released at the end of January and was murdered by the end of February. As I said before, his body was not found until April. I cite that bit of history because we never would have discovered it if not for paranormal activity that led us to it. So now let's explore some other ghostly reports on the site. After sitting abandoned for five years, Jim and Nancy Oliver purchased the building in two thousand six. It quickly became apparent they were not alone. Voices and shadows were witnessed almost immediately. Nancy reports she once became unsteady on the stairs when a hand on her shoulder helped her catch her balance. She turned to thank her husband for the help, only to find no one there. On another occasion, the outline of a small boy was sighted on the well lit stairway descending into the gymnasium. The boy appeared to be about three feet six inches tall, with one foot on each step and holding onto the handrail. The figure stayed motionless for almost two seconds before disappearing. In one of the classrooms, Nancy saw the figure of a young girl with a long frilly dress and curly hair, and heard the giggle of a child. Even employees on site while the school was in operation reported odd happenings. While working as the janitor, a gentleman named Bill Webb often discovered the gym lights on after hours, even though he was sure he had turned them off. He also heard noises that sounded like people were walking around on the lower floor. In October of a local metal band named ghost Hive recorded music inside a classroom. Recording engineer Griffin Landa looked away from his computer for just a second, and in the next moment, when he turned around and looked at his computer screen, it flickered off. Just ten seconds later, the screen flashed back on and the volume for his headphones skyrocketed. Some apparitions have been seen a multitude of times. In addition to the small phantom boy on the stairwell, another child has been captured on an image sitting on the edge of the auditorium stage. According to the Paranormal Investigators of Milwaukee, there are other occurrences that happened quite frequently. People have claimed to see a shadow figure coming down the steps out of the principal's office. A boy was seen exiting the closet in room two oh six, the sound of voices has been heard throughout the school. Slamming doors have also been heard while nobody else is in the building, something I can about for personally, having experienced it multiple times while investigating there. Unnatural figures have been seen walking the halls, including a nine foot tall shadow figure that roams the third floor. Balls have been seen rolling around on their own in a classroom on the third floor that has now labeled the Ballroom. There's another theory, at times complementary to others, of a large entity often called the Principle. Johnny Houser, who we talked to about the Veliska House, believes that the Principle has control of everything in the school and has a low tolerance for disorder and chaotic activity inside the building. In researching for this episode, we saw the name John Tenney come up multiple times. Seems he has been too fer our on many occasions and has even performed a wedding there. It just so happens. We know that guy, so I've asked him to weigh in on what he thinks is happening in that strange schoolhouse in the middle of Iowa, and that is coming up right after the break. All right, So I am sitting here now with my dear friend and friend of the show. I feel like at this point Mr John Tenny, a cult researcher, great, big weirdo, total softie. How's it going, John, Good? How are you doing today? I'm good, I'm good. I'm excited to talk to you about Ferrar, just because I feel like you have a pretty good history with it. You've investigated it a few times. You're close enough with Will Conkle, who was the gentleman who was on Kindred, that you actually didn't you perform his wedding ceremony for he and his wife? Yeah? They met she was in a ghost group and he was the caretaker, and they met on one of her ghost investigations. And then when they got married, they decided to get married there. And since I'm ordained, they asked if I would come and perform the wedding on Halloween. Oh how appropriate. I think that's what the plan was for the school initially when the most recent folks bought it, was to turn it into an event space, which makes sense. It's beautiful, it's in a very beautiful area. For me with Ferrar, the thing is that it's so strange because it's that schoolhouse that's almost set in the middle of nowhere. Oh it is. I think the most recent like population count of that town was thirty So there's a cemetery across the street that is more populous than the town itself. So what has I think a lot of people stumped about Ferrar is the fact that there's not a lot of dark history. They're not any reported deaths that I can find. Although I did find a number of obituaries that cited people who were former employees who still thought back very fondly on their time there. I couldn't find really anything that happened inside the school per se. So why do you think it's haunted. I've been going to Ferrar. I think the first time I investigated there was about nine years ago, and I've been there a few times since, and every time I go it seems to offer me different experiences. And as a person who had my parents and family who were teachers and worked in the school system and I did too, I feel like for our is continuing to be a school. It's a place where you go to learn how to investigate, learn how you handle situations that you might not be familiar with. It's very strange that the location, which is a school, teaches you yeah, I mean, I guess so. And it's strange because over time it's almost for lack of a better term, spawning different types of experiences, like it's ever changing. I think by the time we got there, there was this report of this huge shadow figure that would appear in one of the rooms, which is do you think about that? That's so scary to think about, and you're like, how did this become this? Where is this coming from? And it's haunted. I mean we walked in and within five minutes we were hearing doors slam upstairs. We were trying to film, just doing the normal tour just to get info. And so it's just taken on this life of its own. And but really people have only been investigating it, I want to say, since the like two thousand six, I think is when they bought it or when it closed somewhere in there. I went there, I had heard stories about this tall, foreboding figure that was there, and the first night that I investigated, I saw what I thought was a very tall figure, but to me, it seemed like it had was in silhouette form and it seemed to have two heads, one up on top where a head should be, and then one almost at stomach level. And it was the craziest thing that I saw, and I sketched it and drew it, and after I investigated, internalized it and tried to think it and figure it out. And maybe a year later I saw randomly on television. I was just watching a television program and I watched the principle of a school walk a student out in front of them, and they had their hands on the child's shoulders and the child's head was at stomach level. And I was like, oh, that's what I saw. I didn't see one thing with two heads. I saw two entities standing looking at me, and one was just standing behind the other. Okay, that kind of gives me some interesting theories or ideas. First of all, the principal like, there isn't a entity there. They have nicknamed the principle, So I wonder if that's who you saw. They there is someone there that they give they've given that name to. But it also reminds me of as a child I wasn't I wasn't really a troublemaker until I was in high school, but before that there were a couple of times as a child where I did get in trouble, and I do remember getting caught once doing something I can't it's so silly. I was wadding up toilet paper and getting it wet and throwing it on the ceiling of the bathroom, and I thought that was great fun. And I remember getting caught, and I remember the extreme stress that went with that, like I felt awful, and I do remember being walked down the hallway. I do remember. And to make matters worse, my grandmother worked there at the time, and so for some reason, my grandfather showed up and he was going to see my grandma at lunch, and so he saw me. They had put me in the hallway, like standing in the corner, because that's what they did when we were kids. And that I wonder if there's something to the idea that that moment, that energy, that like feeling of just such dread, if that alone could still be there, not necessarily the spirits of someone, but that kind of imprint for sure. I mean, when I was trying to figure out my experience, I thought, oh, maybe it is the kind of combined dread and fear that kids feel in school when they've done something wrong, and maybe that somehow has permeated the building. But then I also felt too, if there was something that people call the principle in there, if it gave the air of a principle, then most kids do feel a kind of dread and terror and nervousness and excitement when that figure is around. And if that figure is still in there giving off that sense impression, maybe that's what we're picking up. And since we can only relate it to being young and not understanding and the fear of being young and the fear of being punished, we sense it as something bad, but it's really just something doing its job. I mean, that's something to think about. There's another report of a teacher in one of the rooms they even still I think they've called it her room, and spence along, I can't remember what her name is, And it's along those same lines, like there's a teacher in there doing their job, and so is there actually a teacher and they're doing their job or is it our conception of a teacher and they're doing their job that it is an interesting theory. When I was there, I thought it one of the experiences that I had that is actually recorded. I have the entire thing on video is I was doing an e VP session and my recorder wouldn't work, and I tested my recorder. I went outside and checked the batteries and tested it and it worked. I went back inside and it wouldn't work. And I literally stood in right behind the doors and inside the school, and the recorder wouldn't work. And if I leaned out and pressed record, it would work. And it was almost as if something in the school was saying, like, you can't do that in here, like it was turning my recorder off. Mm hmm. Yeah, there's rules. There are rules in a school. You can't play with a recorder while you're in class. What are you doing anything. We were doing a lot of research when we investigated, They're just trying to find something associated with the building. We did get some really interesting facts come from a spirit box. And then later I found a story nearby that correlated with these facts. We got the month of April and it said farm and then it said hutch or knife something along those lines. I could be misremembering, But then I found the story of this young man named Terry who was found murdered in a field very nearby a school, and obviously you can that's such a small town that shook things up, and so it led me to believe somehow he found his way into the school. I don't know if you even knew about this, but did you have any experiences with something that might fit that bill or might be terry. When I investigated there, I think the second or third time there seemed to be an individual or an entity in the school that wasn't associated with the school, and I could never figure that out. I've often thought about for our that I still think about it because it is such a strange place, and I did learn some weird ideas there. I really do feel like because it's in that location, because it's so far away from everything else, and because for so long people have not only gone to school there, they had parties and dances and the entire all the surrounding population would go there and celebrate because it was the big building that you could do things in. And I almost feel like if that gentleman died nearby, he would be like, oh, the school is a safe place for me to go. Yeah. And so when I found out later this was when I was researching there, I started reaching out to people who I knew this person, including his brother, and so basically what happened was he spent time in a treatment center and he didn't A woman wrote me on Facebook who knew him because her brother in law was in this treatment center at the same time. And apparently this kid was very scared to leave because he thought he was going to be killed that he and so he was within days of them making him leave, and his body wasn't found for months later. So if there was anyone who would be looking for a safe place, I feel like he would fit the bill. Yeah, for sure. Again, as someone who grew up with family that worked in the school, then working in the school myself. Let's I can't tell you how many times we had kids that and even not even kids, some adults when if someone was in a strange car or if there was a stranger in the neighborhood, kids would come to the school because they knew it was safe in the school. Yeah. Yeah, and he was only nineteen or twenty, so there was a very good chance he even went to Ferrar at some point, so who knows. But yeah, it's interesting because it is such a small town and there's really nothing around. I can't stress this enough. You are in the middle of nowhere. It does kind of stand out because there aren't really many big buildings like that, And even when it was built there was there was some commotion about like how ostentatious it was, as they said, um for you know, what they needed, because I think at the time it was like a hundred thousand dollars, which was very expensive. They struggled to find students at one point too, they were literally busting them in from other districts to kind of fill this big space. And so I don't know what I'm quite getting at from that. I'm just saying, I guess I just it stands out. It does stand as a bit of a beacon in the in the middle of all this kind of corn all these cornfields, for sure. And you know, the first time I went in, we go to so many places as investigators that don't look the way that they looked when they were in operation. And for Art still looks like a school inside and out. It smells like a school. You walk inside, and it's got that that very distinct smell that you're like, I'm not sure if this is comforting or if this is bringing back memories that I don't want to think about. There's literally like art projects still up on the walls, there are books still on the shelves, like you could just walk in and conduct a class tomorrow if you wanted to. Yeah, And I think that familiarity really does draw entities sometimes that it might be confused or looking for something that seems like something they might remember. Now, what about the investigations. Do you think that is affecting things? I have felt that, at least in my investigations, Farrar has always seemed more active during the day when school would have been in session. I feel like at night you might encounter a stray teacher or a janitor, or perhaps some rampunctious kids. And I'm speaking entity wise, but I always feel like it was a lot like at night when I investigated. To get some type of activity, I would have to do something that was almost like being a naughty child. I would have to run through the hallways and slam the lockers and go into the principal's office and do things that would get some attention from a person being in a school at night. But when I investigated there during the day, it seemed like it was very active because it seemed like school was in session. M hmm. Don't think I ever investigated there during the day, but I had activity there during the day, So that's interesting that you say that. And the activity I got did sound like doors slamming and thin like it did sound like something in session. And I feel like maybe at night when people are investigating, the activity is more maybe imposing, because maybe whoever whatever is there is like it's nighttime, you're not supposed to be here. Yeah, it's the night shift custodian or like I said, a straight teacher, that's they're finishing up work. Yeah, the I know. Like that gym area, it's so funny because like they they have it has a very large gym. That area was the kind of although I didn't have a lot of activity there, that was the area that I had to go to buy myself a lot because the bathrooms were down there, and I do remember not really enjoying that, just that Jim felt very um. I don't know, there's something odd about the gym. I don't know what it was. I don't know if you had any experiences there. And then the bathroom itself, and no one wants to feel like they're being watched in the bath room, but I definitely felt like I was being watched in the bathroom there. The gym area is was strange for me because there's a door that leads off into the furnace area where like janitors would probably go, and whenever I was in the gym, I always got a weird sensation that there was someone in that kind of janitorial furnace room. The upstairs that has the auditorium. When I was there during the day doing investigations, standing up on stage and doing parts of plays and singing, the activity that was in the auditorium was very positive, as if someone was responding to me doing what I was supposed to be doing in the auditorium. But when I did that at night, it really was unhappy that I was doing it. That is, I would really like to see what your performance was like in the auditorium, like what were you doing? Were you reciting Shakespeare like I was doing some I brought a book of poetry and read poetry, and I did a little Frank Sinatra song and I had a recorder. I investigated it. Chad Lindbergh investigated with me there and he sang songs and did parts from play. He went full on actor on the auditorium and got responses. That is clever. Now that makes me want to go back and try again during the day because I just I think I did a lot of research in there during the day, and that's when I want to hear things happening around me. But I guess I was being studious. I was behaving. Yeah, you weren't being bad for once. For once, I was behaving. That is. I feel like it actually went up for sale recently, and now it's not anymore, because like I, I checked it right before I got on this call with you, and I was like, can we buy Ferrar? Is this a possibility? But it looks like it's been taken off the market. So yeah, I knew it had gone up for sale. I didn't know if it was still up for sale or not, but I was thinking about it to be because there is something really strange about that place that draws you to it and randomly throughout my days and I will just have straight thoughts about Ferrar. And I was a bad student all through school, and it's I find it strange that I still think about that school, probably more than my own. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, you'd have been drawn back there a number of times, so there's got to be some reason to it. There are no accidents. As they say, is there anything else about Ferrara? You think our listeners might want to hear about any other crazy experiences or thoughts. I will tell you this is a slightly funny story. But when I was investigating for the show Ghost Stalkers, at the end of every location that we investigated, as we drove away, I would jokingly and the whole crew knew this. They would get to the point where they would say, do it tenny, And as I was driving away, I would very almost ungraciously say goodbye to the location, and it was very humorous and very funny. And when I investigated ferrar during that time, on the last night, the last investigation, the last e VP session, the response that I got on my recorder was a voice not mine, giving me the exact same, not appropriate language, telling me goodbye. Interesting. Well, I have always since there was something a little sassy there, so well, good well, maybe sometime we'll get to go back and investigate it together. That would be really fun. Tell me, now, what are you up to? Where can people find you? What's going on in the world of Tenny? I do a weekly podcast called What's Up Weirdo, where I talked to my friend Jessica. It's just a conversation between two friends. My website is weird Lectures dot com and all of my social media is John E. L. Tenney Fantastic. I love the podcast. I love listening to you guys. It makes me feel happy because you two are such good friends, and I'm like, feel like I'm hanging out with you because I miss you, guys. That's what it was. That's what it was meant for. Yes, so well, thank you so much for taking the time. I appreciate it, and hopefully I will be seeing you very soon. You know, if a place has firmly planted itself in the research brain of John Tenny, something weird is going on there. For our school defies logic, but really doesn't the idea of ghosts in general defy all logic. I'd need to investigate a lot more at the school to get any sort of handle of what's drawing the activity to it. But I wonder if being one of the loan substantial buildings in the middle of acres of corn fields and houses that are sometimes miles apart. Could the school be some sort of beacon to wandering souls? The school at self never seemed to fit there, being such a large structure in a town of forty people. It was so big that students had to be bussed there from other districts just to keep it in operation. It closed not because it was falling apart, but because the community just didn't need it. They were tired of bussing over two kids from another district every day, so they built a bigger, newer facility and moved them all there. So for our school, defying all the odds, a school that some never wanted but that the community grew to love and rally around, now stands quiet and vacant, say for the occasional event or paranormal team passing through the building patiently awaits its next incarnation. I'm Amy Brunei and this was Haunted Road. If you want to join us on a spooky vacation, please check out my company, Strange Escapes at Strange dash escapes dot com. Also, new episodes of Kindred Spirits are currently airing on Travel Channel on Saturday nights at ten ninth Central or streaming on Discovery Plus. You can also catch our investigation of for Our School on Kindred in season four, episode one. Haunted Road is a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The podcast is written and hosted by Amy Bruney. Executive producers include Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. The show is produced by rima Ill Kali and Trevor Young. Research by Taylor Haggerdorn, Amy Bruney, and Robin Miniter. For more podcasts from I Heeart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.