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  • The Lost Shoe at the Wash: Why the River Returned a Child's Step

    The Lost Shoe at the Wash: Why the River Returned a Child's Step
    2026/10/30
    The Lost Shoe at the Wash: Why the River Returned a Child's Step

    A child's canvas sneaker, boy's size four and unnaturally clean, sat wedged in a willow root on the eastern bank of Teller River after the river had not reached that root fork in twenty-two days - how did an unworn shoe, missing for twenty-three years, turn up where water could not have carried it? Who in the community kept a practice that could make the river "remember what it owes"?

    In this episode, we present a documented history of a small riverbend community, the discovery and official logging of the shoe, and the archival records that revealed an unexpected pattern about bodies recovered at the Wash - could a deliberate, human practice explain what legends claimed the river did?

    Person: Donna Patterson
    Date: June 4, 2011
    Location: eastern bank of Teller River (the Wash)
    Case: Marcus Webb drowning, body found June 9, 1988
    Period: 23 years between disappearance and shoe discovery

    - The shoe was a boy's size four canvas sneaker, red with white rubber toe, with plastic sheaths on the laces and a sole showing no wear.
    - Donna Patterson recorded the find with GPS coordinates and four photographs and called the sheriff before touching the shoe on June 4, 2011.
    - The river had not reached the willow root fork where the shoe was found for twenty-two days prior to discovery.
    - Marcus Webb was seven years old when he drowned in June 1988; his body was found at the Wash on June 9, 1988, wearing one shoe, the other recorded as lost in the water.
    - Fenwick County records show 14 bodies recovered at the Wash over seven decades: 11 at low or normal water, 3 at moderate rise, and 0 at flood peak.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    27 分
  • The 44 Packets: Why Kelwick's Circle Never Closes

    The 44 Packets: Why Kelwick's Circle Never Closes
    2026/10/29
    The 44 Packets: Why Kelwick's Circle Never Closes

    Fear tightens at the edges when a locked farmhouse, eleven months of silence, and forty-four seed packets arranged in a near-perfect ellipse are the only witnesses-each packet tamped into the soil, the north side deliberately left open. Why did generations maintain a spring ritual for at least 115 years with no one alive who can say what happens if the circle closes?

    In this episode, you will hear the sequence of discoveries that tied a 2011 morning in Kelwick Township to parish records from 1895, and how a retired schoolteacher pieced together a local custom kept longer than its origin. What could a penciled church register entry about a three-day-old infant and the words "well water, the north" mean for the Stroud Rows?

    Person: Rhonda Stroud
    Date: May 2011
    Location: Kelwick Township, Mossburn County, Indiana
    Event: Forty-four seed packets arranged in an ellipse around the old well
    Author: Gloria Jensen (researcher who assembled parish and local records)

    - The farmhouse had been locked and untouched for eleven months before Nancy Doyle found the packets.
    - Nancy Doyle found exactly forty-four seed packets tamped into the soil in a near-perfect ellipse with the north side open.
    - Rhonda Stroud died in May 2010 at age forty-six, and records show she placed the forty-four seed packets that spring.
    - Kelwick Township held fewer than 400 residents in 2011 and the ritual had been performed every spring for more than 115 years.
    - A church register from 1862-1914 contained an 1895 entry: a three-day-old infant, daughter of D. Marsh, cause of death "water fever," annotated "well water, the north."

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    27 分
  • When the Locked Bell Rang Eleven Times Over Brewer's Pond

    When the Locked Bell Rang Eleven Times Over Brewer's Pond
    2026/10/28
    When the Locked Bell Rang Eleven Times Over Brewer's Pond

    The bell over Brewer's Pond rang eleven slow, even times at 7:40 a.m. on April 14, 2019, though its chain was padlocked and the rope removed decades earlier - a sound that summoned a town memory stretching back to an 1886 disappearance. Who or what moved the two-hundred-and-thirty-pound cast iron bell, and why did the town react with the weary phrase, "It's happening again"?

    In this episode, we follow the morning Alice Tucker heard the bell, the archival traces that tie that sound to Nancy Holmes's vanishing in April 1886, and the later inspections that found the padlock intact and the belfry floor undisturbed. What connects a letter dated April 19, 1886, a carpenter's ledger entry, and a retired teacher's 2019 inspection?

    Person: Alice Tucker
    Date: April 14, 2019 at 7:40 a.m.
    Location: Brewer's Pond, Hollow Pines, Vermont
    Object: 230-pound cast iron bell, foundry-stamped 1863
    Document: Letter dated April 19, 1886 from Nancy Holmes (unfinished)

    - The bell rang eleven times, counted by Alice Tucker at 7:40 a.m, on April 14, 2019.
    - The bell is padlocked to its yoke with a galvanized chain since 1983 and has no rope since 1958.
    - The bell is cast iron, weighs 230 pounds, and is foundry-stamped 1863.
    - Nancy Holmes's unsent letter is dated April 19, 1886 and mentions "what I saw at the church on the night of the fifteenth."
    - A carpenter's ledger records a payment of $4.20 on May 1886 for replacement of two belfry boards, south corner.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    30 分
  • The Five Cold Mornings: Who Hid Aldermoor's Missing Deaths?

    The Five Cold Mornings: Who Hid Aldermoor's Missing Deaths?
    2026/10/27
    The Five Cold Mornings: Who Hid Aldermoor's Missing Deaths?

    Cold and quiet, a paper girl's routine at 6:45 a.m. uncovered a death register that had been missing for 128 years - open to five names from March 1891 written in a different ink than the rest. Why were five adult deaths and an unnamed infant recorded after the fact, and who moved a county archive's book back into a boarded building?

    In this episode, we trace the register's discovery, the township records that go missing, and the few surviving facts about the people and disputes tied to that March. What did the absent seven pages of board minutes hide, and why would a faithful township recorder write deaths into a book only later?

    Person: Jennifer Dalton
    Location: Aldermoor Township
    Date: March 1891
    Event: Five deaths recorded in one month
    Document specialist: Owen Marsh

    - The register was found on March 4, 2019 at 6:45 a.m. inside a building boarded shut for eight years.
    - Aldermoor Township had 212 residents by 1890 and contained a Lutheran chapel and a township building.
    - William Oser, age 61, died on or around March 5, 1891 and was buried in the Lutheran churchyard.
    - Peter Vann, age 38, sided with Oser in a land dispute and died in the third week of March 1891 but is not in the Lutheran burial log.
    - Seven pages of the township board minutes for March 1891 are absent from the sequence between pages 67 and 74.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    29 分
  • The House That Maps Refused to Remember

    The House That Maps Refused to Remember
    2026/10/26
    The House That Maps Refused to Remember

    Cold curiosity: a grader operator shoves fourteen inches of snow and reveals a two-story house that every official Braden County map says never existed, yet a probate from 1959 calls it "improved with dwelling" - how can a house be both present and erased at once?

    In this episode, we follow the discovery and the archival trail that Melissa Edwards assembles after seeing Lisa Wells's photograph, tracing county maps, probate records, and volunteer ledgers to ask whether paperwork can systematically unmake a place and the people tied to it.

    Person: Lisa Wells
    Person: Melissa Edwards
    Person: Roy Petersen
    Date: February 11, 2019
    Location: Alder Creek Road, Colver's Mill, Braden County

    - Lisa Wells discovered the house by clearing fourteen inches of fresh snow with a county road grader.
    - Melissa Edwards had oral history interviews spanning 2007 through 2018 and three filing cabinets organized by decade.
    - Roy Petersen was born in 1933 and committed to the state psychiatric facility on February 7, 1954, at age 20.
    - The Thursday meals ledger shows forty-six consecutive entries initialed R.P., the last dated February 4, 1954.
    - Melissa Edwards checked five official maps and records that showed the parcel as empty despite probate records from 1959 and 1992 describing the property as "improved with dwelling."

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    31 分
  • The Notebook on Coldwater Span: Who Keeps the Toll?

    The Notebook on Coldwater Span: Who Keeps the Toll?
    2026/10/25
    The Notebook on Coldwater Span: Who Keeps the Toll?

    Cold air, moving water, low visibility - for more than a century those four conditions appear again and again in a dry black-and-white notebook left on a frozen covered bridge; how did 112 recorded names survive three days of ice on an open span with no author, no return address, and no explanation? Who carried that record, and why does the answer point to someone alive who kept his dying private?

    In this episode, we follow how a utility worker found the notebook, how Patricia Ford traced a ledger of eleven deaths tied to the bridge, and how one local man’s habits overlap with the entries - could a seemingly ordinary resident be the link between the legend and the living?

    Person: Laura Snyder
    Person: Patricia Ford
    Location: Coldwater Span, Pardee
    Date: January 9, 2019
    Case: Notebook accession number 2019-14

    - The notebook contained 112 entries, each naming a dead person and listing cold air, moving water, low visibility, and a person alone.
    - The Coldwater Span was built in 1871 by carpenter Stephen Murl and measures 140 feet of covered timber.
    - Patricia Ford compiled a ledger of eleven deaths from 1891 to 1967, all recorded as drowning or exposure.
    - The word "toll" first appeared in print in a Pardee Clarion letter dated March 2, 1922, signed "W.B." after Robert Teague's death.
    - The notebook was kept in a municipal evidence bag for eight months before being archived as accession number 2019-14.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    31 分
  • The Sign for a Road That Never Existed: Vellum Lane Revealed

    The Sign for a Road That Never Existed: Vellum Lane Revealed
    2026/10/24
    The Sign for a Road That Never Existed: Vellum Lane Revealed

    Cold, quiet, and ordinary: a wooden street sign for "Vellum Lane" appears against a church wall in Dolton, Idaho, though no map, plat book, road commission ledger, utility easement survey, or fire district grid ever recorded that name - except a single 1947 census entry. How did twelve people get counted at an address that official records otherwise erase, and why did almost all of them vanish from every subsequent ledger?

    In this episode, we follow the morning discovery, the librarian who dug through archive boxes, and the tangled municipal records that refuse to agree. We trace one woman's paper trail from a Carver Street water account to a death recorded as "exposure" with Vellum Lane scrawled in the margin - and ask what it means that twelve names were counted in a place the town never acknowledged.

    Person: Randy Hall
    Person: Rachel Fleming
    Person: Ruth Hunt
    Date: December 4, 2023
    Location: Dolton, Idaho

    - At 6:15 AM on December 4, 2023 the temperature in Dolton was 22 degrees when Randy Hall found the sign.
    - Randy Hall had walked the same four-mile route every morning for eleven years before finding the Vellum Lane sign.
    - The 1947 census entry lists twelve names at the address "Vellum Lane, east spur," including Ruth Hunt.
    - Ruth Hunt's Carver Street water account was closed in January 1942 with the ledger notation "transferred, east spur service."
    - Ruth Hunt's death was recorded in December 1948 with cause "exposure" and the margin note "Vellum Lane, east."

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    27 分
  • The Jar in the Gap: What Calder's Well Tried to Hide

    The Jar in the Gap: What Calder's Well Tried to Hide
    2026/10/23
    The Jar in the Gap: What Calder's Well Tried to Hide

    Wet November rain soaked everything on Sutter Lane except the inside of a Mason jar wedged into a two-inch gap that no adult hand could reach-inside: a dried sprig of yarrow and a cabinet card photo dated circa 1910-1920. Who sealed a century-old image and a single plant into a modern jar and left no footprints, and why does the documentary record keep trying to bury what happened at Calder's Well?

    In this episode, we follow a folklore researcher, township records, and local memory as they collide around a sealed well and a crossed-out eleven-word sentence in an 1892 ledger, asking whether community silence and repeated official sealing hide a different story about Marcia Harris and Calder's Well.

    Person: Marcia Harris
    Date: November 3, 1902
    Location: Calder's Well, Sutter Lane, Harwick, Varrow County
    Researcher: Amanda Brown, Dunmore College folklore archive, age 53 in 2017
    Township actions: Well sealed by vote five separate times, most recent concrete cap poured autumn 2016

    - The jar was wedged into a two-inch gap between the fence's lowest rail and the ground with no footprints around it.
    - The cabinet card photograph inside dated to circa 1910-1920 and showed a smiling girl about eight or nine years old.
    - An eleven-word sentence-"and on account of what was done there to Marcia Harris."-was heavily crossed out in an 1892 ledger found in the county clerk's archive.
    - Marcia Harris was twenty-four years old in November 1902 and had been living with the Calder family as a domestic worker.
    - The hand-dug well is thirty-two feet deep and has been sealed by township vote five times, including a concrete pour in 2016.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    30 分