While driving up to a friend’s wedding in Morgantown, West Virgnia, we decided to stop in a small town I’d done some back-seat research on for some barbecue. The Hickory House was amazing, and its ribs delicious, but what really intrigued us on the five-mile detour from I-79 was the looming structure of t\Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.

The next day, we drove back down the highway to come check out the place. It was early, and we had gotten there right in time for one of the early morning tours. The light was gray, the feelings ominous, and the tour fantastic. Especially because the week before, we’d rented Grave Encounters, a horror movie that riffs on the sort of Ghosthunters-type phenomenon that occupies such abandoned, spooky old places.

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