West Virginia Penitentiary: A fearful and dark place

West Virginia Penitentiary is an immense building, with so much to explore.

Last month I got to check off one of my Paranormal bucket list locations when my wife Genna and I visited the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville WV. The place is immense, foreboding and fortress like. And would be intimidating to any prisoner or guest that stepped inside. Moundsville Pen is known as one of the bloodiest prisons in American history with nearly 1,000 documented deaths. 

Posing at the main entrance. Photo by Genna Cameron Photography.

We took the guided tour first to get a lay of the place and it was thankfully still daylight when we did so it was a little less creepy. Because honestly this place is very unsettling in the dark. After the tour we ventured off on our own and checked out some of the basement areas including the "sugar shack" area. Although creepy we didn't get much activity there. But when we reached the south cellblocks and began climbing the steps my wife felt something dark rush her from behind and she immediately insisted we leave because it was so disturbing to her. So we did. Most people don't think about it but if you are in a haunted prison who is gonna get messed with the most and probably first?  The ladies! After that Genna was very creeped out the rest of the visit. We then visited the medical and psychiatric wards where we were completely alone except there was ocasionally the sound of shuffling and movement all around us which was really weird because you could have swore there was someone there. But there wasn't. Then a cold breeze moved quickly between my wife and I startling her mostly I honestly though it was just her moving next to me but she was several feet away. 

The last place we went for the night was the max security cell block where they once housed the worst of the worst. This is where we had some real results and we both heard a muffled disembodied voice (and caught it on audio) and we also got a pretty clear EVP (electronic voice phenomena) that is a clear reply to a question that we didn't hear until I reviewed the audio later. I highly recommend a visit to West Virginia Penitentiary if you enjoy history with a side of some very real paranormal activity. I really hope to go back again and do a more extensive visit, but I might have
to drag Genna along next time cause she was so freaked out by this place. The following two clips sound best when used with headphones.