Iowa Legends And Ghost Stories: 13 Steps

Before I get into the story, and lore of this Iowa Legend I just want to say I have a real connection to this one. Out of every site I'll be visiting this month this is the one I've had the largest paranormal experience with.

Most of these sites I've been to before with my team of friends a few years back in high school. We would pay to go to these places at night, and this one still haunts me. Let's get into the lore first.

Pleasant Ridge Cemetery better known as 13 Stairs Cemetery, or 13 steps, is located a few miles north of Palo, Iowa.

A few stories and legends that fill this area is that of EVP ghostly voices. Sightings of a red-eye growling dog. A witch that haunts the area, and floating orbs of light. Many of the headstones date back to the 1800s which just adds to the legends.

The "witch" legend comes from an infamous cracked tombstone,

The headstone headstone is that of Thankful Blackburn. It states,

Remember friends as you pass by
What you are now so once was I
What I am now so you must be
Prepare in life to follow me.

My friends and I visited this location some years back, and read an article out loud about this "Witch" and while reading we felt a strong gust of wind that felt as though it went right through us. It was October, but it wasn't windy and this wind almost hurt.

After that we all laughed. We talked about why we thought it may be cracked and that's when we all heard a deep bark from the woods to our left. We were aware of the red eyed ghost dog legend, and since there was four of us we felt brave enough to go into the woods.

I almost tear up talking about this, but in those woods is a body of water, most likely a creek. In the middle of it we saw a figure. We called out but it didn't move. We started to joke again and then heard another bark from behind us. We shined a light and saw nothing, when we looked back to the creek, the figure was gone.

At this point we had reached our limits. We started to go back to the grave yard, but we were scared at this point and went back to our cars only to see the same figure clear as day standing on the other side of my friends car. It was a female. We had no idea how to respond. We just stood there not moving. After about 10 seconds it just walked away into some bushes without making a sound.

It was truly an incredible experience.

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