Читать книгу Chicago Haunted Handbook - Jeff Morris - Страница 6

IMAGINE.

IMAGINE YOU HAD THE ABILITY to go to any place in the world at any time in history. To walk the streets of Jerusalem in Biblical times. To sit in the stands at the Roman Coliseum while gladiators dueled below. To watch any great battle of history from the sidelines. To experience any great disaster or event and to see it as it really happened.

Where would you go? When would it be?

If I had the ability to transport myself to any place at any time in history, I would go to Chicago in 1893. This was the year of the World’s Fair—probably the greatest World’s Fair in history—which occurred in Chicago in what is today Jackson Park, on the shores of Lake Michigan.

They called it the White City. The buildings, temporary, were meant to survive for only the duration of the event, and all were painted white. At night, electricity lit the fairgrounds. At the time, onlookers described it as magical. Few of these folks had electricity themselves. Some had never seen electric lights illuminate a building. The fairgrounds appeared as bright as if it were daytime. The future had arrived in Chicago; the warm glow of the lights symbolized brighter times to come, as a new age arrived in one fantastic event.

Incredible sights that would become staples of the approaching decades were first exhibited at the fair. The first Ferris wheel towered over the Midway. The first functioning zipper was showcased at this fair. So was Juicy Fruit gum, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and Cream of Wheat. During this extravaganza, a newspaper writer coined the term “Windy City” to describe Chicago, a name by which it is still known today. At the same time, pillars of the past were represented at the fair—most notably Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

Perhaps the most exciting battle taking place at the fair was that between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. Edison championed his direct current technology, while Tesla promoted his safer, alternating-current technology, which, due to a win in a bidding war, ended up powering the lights at the fair. Still, Edison and Tesla maintained their own exhibits at the fair, where they demonstrated their individual electric technologies as the awed masses watched in wonder.

If I were transported to this place, I would feel as if I were standing at the threshold of the future. Its people didn’t know it yet, but the world was about to change. At last, our planet was coming of age. Technology would begin to increase exponentially.

People who lived in the world before the fair wouldn’t have been able to fathom the world we live in today. Sure, they could anticipate what the future might bring, but they couldn’t predict such boundless change. Imagine walking among those very buildings that contained the technology that would build our world. Imagine watching the people who were tasting the foods that would become the staples of our modern diet, or seeing the technology that would one day govern our lives. As you can tell, history fascinates me. And I can’t imagine a more fascinating moment in history than Chicago in 1893.

This book presents a similar portal into the past. Upon reading this book, you will have the opportunity to delve into, and even experience, the past in a manner similar to traveling back in time. No one is sure what a ghost is, not even those who have seen and experienced them firsthand. Some argue that a ghost is just a form of energy that is left behind when a traumatic or important event occurs. Others say that a ghost is a person in a different form, living on after his or her mortal body has passed.

Whatever ghosts actually are, people tend to agree on one point about them: Ghosts tell stories about the past. This book collects the ghost stories of 100 different locations in the Chicagoland area. Events that have built not only the city of Chicago, but America as a whole, have happened numerous times throughout this city’s history. Great disasters, such as the wreck of the SS Eastland and the crash of American Airlines Flight 191, have occurred here. The ghosts that were left behind tell rich and captivating stories. Sometimes, when you are present at one of these sites, it can feel as though you are actually experiencing that very moment in history.

Is our fascination with ghosts a fascination with what happens to us after death, or is it simply a fascination with the past? Are ghosts nature’s way of preserving history? Are ghosts telling firsthand accounts of events that the public is beginning to forget? Are ghosts the present’s reminder of the past? These same questions, and many more, may spring to your mind as you are reading this book.

Often, when ghosts are telling the story, the event that occurred at the location they haunt is a sad one. Ghosts may be trying to remind us of past tragedies. They may be hoping to ensure that those who perished will not be forgotten. And just maybe, they are trying to prevent the mistakes of the past from being repeated.

When I first started working on this book, I drove up to Chicago to visit many of the haunted locations that Vince and I planned to write about. During this first trip, I did not have time to visit each and every location, but I made sure that we stopped at Jackson Park. I wanted to stand on the very ground where the 1893 World’s Fair took place.

It was after dark when we arrived. The park does not close until 11 p.m., so I had the opportunity to walk the grounds late at night. The site was completely empty and our car was the only one in the lot. Vince took some pictures and made some audio recordings on the Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge while I walked on alone into the park.

I stood there in the black of night. Dim light poles lit the narrow walkways that crisscrossed the park. I faced the Museum of Science and Industry, the only surviving building from the fair, and imagined that I was at the fair itself. I imagined the people walking past me. I imagined the electricity building and the bright lights of the White City shining all around me.

I was a visitor from another time. Perhaps, in a way, I was invading their space. I entered their fairgrounds knowing what the world was becoming and not allowing them the adventure of discovering this new world for themselves.

I jumped as I clearly heard a voice behind me say, “Get out.”

I turned.

There was no one there.

Happy ghosting!

—Jeff Morris