MORGANTOWN – Did you know ghostly apparitions stroll the streets of Morgantown?
Or that the University City has its own monster in residence?
If not, you’ll get no spoilers here.
But should such otherworldly occurrences pique your curiosity, and you’re of sturdy constitution, professional storyteller Jason Burns will tell the tales of Morgantown’s haunted history Friday evening at the Monongalia Arts Center.
The topic is well known to Burns, who manages the Morgantown History Museum. Pre-COVID, he routinely offered ghost tours of the city and WVU’s downtown campus.
“They’re going to be varying different types of stories, but they’ll all be paranormal in nature. For example, we’ll hear the ghost story of Elizabeth Moore, who is a very popular character in Morgantown history. But there are other ghost stories. There are literally ghosts walking the streets in Morgantown,” Burns said. “We’ll also hear about our resident monster that we have … He’s an interesting creature.”
In addition to offering an evening of eerie entertainment, the event will serve as a fundraiser for the Friends of the Morgantown History Museum.
While the museum’s daily operations are funded by the city, fundraisers help support special events, the creation of exhibits and acquisition of local artifacts for public display.
“It’s very important now more than ever for people to support your local organizations – your local libraries, your local museums and educational institutions like us so that we can protect our culture and our history and enjoy it and really revel in our own identity,” Burns said, explaining some of the tales to be presented Friday evening are linked to artifacts housed in the museum.
“The stories that I’m going to be telling actually will be based in history. That’s the whole point of it being part of the museum’s fundraiser, basing the ghost story in history, but then continuing to tell the story and the things that happened after the event that caused these ghosts to be created.”
Tickets are available for $20 through 304tix.com or a link on the history museum Facebook page. Space is limited.
