Treasures of our Town

The Most Haunted Webcam in America

• Craig (Seemyshell) and Joshua (Geocaching Vlogger) • Season 3 • Episode 21

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A grand staircase, carved wood, and a story that refuses to fade—Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana, has all the makings of a legend. We sat down with Erica Taylor, who manages adult and teen services and unexpectedly became the point person for all things paranormal, to explore why this Victorian Gothic landmark draws both researchers and ghost hunters. From the founding vision of Willard Carpenter to the community’s decades-long fascination with the Gray Lady, this conversation maps where history and haunting intersect.

Erica shares how a disputed inheritance evolved into local lore, why staff log credible sightings, and the one voicemail that still gives us chills: a 3 a.m. call of clicks and whispers traced to a locked staff-room extension. We dig into the library’s ghost cams—multiple live feeds drawing millions of views—and the specific hotspots where visitors feel cold spots, smell sudden perfume, or catch strange movement. If you’re planning a trip, get practical guidance for exploring the upstairs reading room, the bright children’s floor, and the infamous basement hallway, all while respecting the library’s first purpose: access, learning, and community.

Geocachers will love the inside scoop on GCA4C4, one of the rare indoor webcam caches. We talk favorite points, multi-cam strategies, and how the cache evolved from the dial-up era to smartphone screenshots. Beyond the building, we highlight Evansville must-dos—Bosse Field from A League of Their Own, local museums, and riverfront history—because place is part of the magic. Whether you lean skeptic or believer, you’ll hear how embracing myth can welcome new patrons, preserve architecture, and turn a library into a living story. Enjoy the ride, then tell us: what would you do first at Willard—hunt ghosts or log the webcam?

If this conversation sparked your curiosity, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a quick review. Your support helps more travelers find hidden gems—and maybe a gentle haunt or two.

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SPEAKER_01:

Should we start over? Should we just start over?

SPEAKER_02:

Start over.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's start over. Let's start over. So I will I will welcome her and then I'll have her introduce herself. Okay. This never happens, Erica. We're very professional.

SPEAKER_04:

I believe it's do you love to travel?

SPEAKER_03:

Do you love road trips?

SPEAKER_01:

Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all over the USA? Hi, I'm Joshua.

SPEAKER_03:

And I'm Craig. Welcome to Treasures of Our Town. It's a podcast that explores unique and charming towns scattered throughout the United States.

SPEAKER_01:

Guided by our love for location-based games like geocaching. Join us as we venture to some of the country's most intriguing destinations, uncovering hidden gems and local secrets along the way.

SPEAKER_03:

On today's episode, Josh, last week was last week was Halloween. We're a week late from Halloween. We're talking about a visit to a very haunted location that we have both visited together a few weeks ago. We managed to wrangle, wrangle the uh the person, one of the people in charge of the place, too.

SPEAKER_01:

That's who we're gonna talk to today. I'm really excited to talk to her. It's gonna be cool. Um, yes, so that's our little teaser. We're gonna talk about a haunted place in the good old USA. Um, but first, before we do that, we have to talk about our delays and upgrades.

SPEAKER_03:

Mm-hmm. Delays and upgrades. Do you want to start first, Josh?

SPEAKER_01:

Or would you like to talk to my upgrade? So um Halloween came and passed. Wait, came and yeah, it came and then it's done. And uh the Back to the Future is this is the year of the 40th anniversary, which is my favorite movie. And they released this week, they released the movie in IMAX. Oh my gosh, I've never seen Back to the Future in such beautiful like restoration, like it was awesome. So that was a real upgrade. I did that on actually Hollow on Halloween, but um I was noticing social media this like really cool thing, and I was like, oh, that's really cool. I uh maybe if I go to the theater, I might get this thing. So I get there, you know, I go to get my popcorn, and what do I see? I see a uh on the sign, I see a DeLorean, and it says DeLorean popcorn bucket. No, and Craig, it's a DeLorean, it lights up, it lights up. And based on the you know, the wings of the doors, you know how the wings go up.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You're like, how does a car become become like a popcorn bucket? The wings go up, and then in and when the wings go up, little trays like pull out, and that's where you put the popcorn.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, I can see it.

SPEAKER_01:

So I got one of them.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, so it's actually a popcorn tray rather than the bucket, because the popcorn doesn't go inside the DeLorean.

SPEAKER_01:

It's in it's in the passenger seat.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, after you spill it out of the bucket. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But you sit the way it was cool. So yeah, it's cool. It's really cool. So that's my upgraded back to the future on IBAX and a popcorn bucket.

SPEAKER_03:

Is that now located in your uh in your room, Josh, in your uh in your study?

SPEAKER_01:

It's actually in my kitchen right now, and I'm wondering how long before it gets moved into my into my office. Because whereabouts in the kitchen is it, Josh? It's on the counter. Oh, wow. Nicely, nicely displayed on a pet on a pedestal. I have put it up on a little pedestal, and it hasn't moved yet. So I'm just seeing how long how long before somebody in my house decides to move it in the basement.

SPEAKER_03:

Goliath can't reach that high. You've you put it out of the way. No, it won't be Goliath.

SPEAKER_01:

It won't be Goliath, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, wow, Josh. Um, all right. My upgrade, if we're gonna start with the upgrades. My upgrade, Josh, you would not believe this because I'm still in Alabama. I'm back in Alabama. I went to Texas for uh for Munzie work a couple of weeks ago there, and I'm back in Alabama again. Um I'm I'm now a proud father of some chickens and some ducks, Josh. Whoa. No, they're not they're not in my van with me. I don't race, I'm not racing fighting chickens in my van. Um they are at they are at a friend's uh garage and they're inside there in what they call brooders. And um and yeah, because uh they have a a really nice chicken house, etc., in the backyard. And so uh the chickens are getting their their own chickens get a bit old now. So I said, what are we f what if we get some new ones? And she's like, Yeah. So I said, okay, so we've got some chickens and two ducks. Oh, cool. They grow so quickly, choice. Oh, I bet. Insanely quick. I couldn't believe and the ducks, especially. Ducks are just huge already, only after a couple of weeks. So, yes, that's my uh raising chickens and ducks is my upgrade. Now, do you want to do you wanna know my delay? Yes, I do. The delay happened around the corner from where the chickens and ducks are in the garage because I was cleaning up the uh the area and making sure that it was all nice and free of debris and whatever else as well. And I was removing one area before a geocaching event, and uh what lo and behold, I felt a sting on my finger and it stung really badly. And next minute sting on my knee and a sting on my shoulder, a sting on my head. It was yellow jackets, Josh. They attacked me. I ran around the entire house screaming with my hair, like my hat flipping, trying to hit them. I I thought to myself, I've got to stop, I've got to slow down because I'm I'm panicking a little bit. So I stopped and I slowed down and I and I physically stopped and thought, no, they chased you because you're running away. So I stopped. And then one flew past my face, went to my shoulder, and went bam and hit me again. I was like, oh they were aggressive. In total, one was on my back, Josh, right? And he's stinging my back constantly like he's a sewing machine trying to sew my shirt to my back. Like is this a seventeen? I counted, Josh. 17 stings in the space of less than a minute.

SPEAKER_00:

That's terrifying. Yeah, I know. I'm glad you're not allergic. If you were allergic, you could be dead.

SPEAKER_03:

It's uh yeah, I I didn't think I maybe had some sort of reaction to it because to even today they are still now active on my body. Like I've still got actual I had like blisters come up from them. I uh oh yeah. You can see the you know the the lumps from it, and they were all red and they're so so itchy too. So anyway, I got myself some antihistamines and uh took them and and then uh scratched my way through the the the geocaching event that we hosted so for Halloween.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. That was my that's scary, literally. That's freaky. Yeah, yeah. 17 streets. Anyway, my delay is not that bad. Wow, I feel way better about my delay. What's your delay, mate? My delay is this my favorite month is October. I love Halloween. I that's my birthday, yeah. And it's just like October's over, and November is kind of like one of my least favorite months because up here everything just gets brown. And then we had daylight savings. So like I'm looking, we're recording this at 447. It's almost dark. Yeah. It's like the there's no light. Like the light is so I I really missing the light. And so that's we're kind of heading to our dark, the dark times.

SPEAKER_03:

The dark times of the year.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I don't I don't love that. Way less time to go geocaching, especially like I don't, you know, I don't like filming in the dark. So um, it's yeah, I don't love I don't love November. I like Thanksgiving, um, but I don't love November.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. So apart from Thanksgiving, that's yeah, you're November's not good. So I wonder if any time soon that they're gonna go do away with daylight saving, and that's all over uh uh the world. Australia's worse with daylight saving, Josh, because not all states do or do not do daylight saving. So normally there's three different time zones in Australia, right? Same as there is in the US. Well, there's four in the US, but still very similar. Three. During the daylight saving week, right? Because some do it, some don't do it, some do it later, some do it earlier, they get up to eight different time zones, including a half-hour difference at one point. So in the so Australians and uh commercial air flights and stuff too in Australia absolutely hate that one week around this time of the year whereby yeah, all the uh all the flights are in different time zones, and there's eight different time zones when there's normally three. So yeah, it's painful.

SPEAKER_01:

That's that's a lot. Yeah, I know they they've talked about it. They talked about getting rid of it. And I think honestly, maybe maybe this is the last year we're doing it, because I did hear something about it going away. So we'll see. I don't know. Anyway, we've talked about some terrifying things, but we are about to talk about something that's a really terrifying. It's it's I think it's real. Do you think it I don't know, Craig? Do you we were there? We witnessed it ourselves.

SPEAKER_03:

Honestly, honestly, Josh, I can say this from the bottom of my heart and and no word of a lie. I'm I'm a quite a uh believe it or not, I'm quite a spiritual person. I understand the paranormal activities. I I'm very uh uh very sensitive, we'll say that, to to the the unexplained. And when I was there, Josh, I felt the cold every now and then. I felt the shivers every now and then. I uh I smelt the perfume every now and then. I thought it was you, but no. Um as you'll hear with the uh with our interview, Josh.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, what was that? What was that perfume? We'll find out. Should we talk to her right now?

SPEAKER_03:

We should.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, Craig, let's bring our very special guest all the way from the great state of Indiana. We have with us Erica Taylor from the Willard Library. Welcome, Erica, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_04:

Hi, guys. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01:

Erica, you work in a very special place that both Craig and I have visited, and that is the Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana. Could you just quickly introduce yourself? Who are you? What is your involvement at the Willard Library, and just tell us your role there?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, absolutely. So um I am the manager of the adult and teen services um department at Willard Library, located in Evansville, Indiana, right on the southern tip of the state. Um and yeah, I mean, I've been I've been at Willard for I'm almost almost 10 years now. Oh, wow. Um yeah, I'm coming up on a big anniversary. So I love it.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm really I'm really curious because I I just sent an email to the library. And so I'm sure maybe I don't know, your staff had a conversation of like, okay, who's going to talk about the library and talked about the paranormal activity there? How are you chosen, or did you raise your hand and say, I want to talk to this podcast about the library?

SPEAKER_04:

So we have a library director and he just forwarded your email right to me. So that's how it, that's how it all worked out. I was the lucky one. But yeah, usually anything uh involving paranormal is my department. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh wow. That's a really cool flex. Like that's a great, that's a great two truths and a lie. You know what I mean? Like I'm in charge of the paranormal activity of my workplace.

SPEAKER_04:

I didn't volunteer for that job. It just happened.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my gosh. Erica, let's let's start from the very beginning. Let's start from the very, very basics. And that is, can you share with us the uh the founding story of Willard Library itself and what makes it unique amongst the other libraries in the area?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, absolutely. So uh Willard is the, we like to brag a little bit that we are the oldest consecutively running public library in the whole state of Indiana. Um we were founded by a man named Willard Carpenter um in 1885. Um Willard uh was a very like polarizing personality. So a lot of people loved him, a lot of people did not. Um, but he uh he was involved in a lot of different jobs. Um uh he was a teacher for a while, he had a dry goods business for a while, um, he helped bring the railroad uh system here to Evansville. Um, and towards the end of his life, he wanted to open a women's college. That was kind of his dream. Um, and some of his friends said, Well, why don't you make it a public library instead? Because Evansville did not have one. Um he wanted to do something educational. He liked that idea. Um so yeah, he was in his 80s when uh Willard was being built. Um, and his his um mission was to open it to everyone, all walks of life, regardless of their um gender, age, um, religion, that sort of thing. Um, and so that's what he did.

SPEAKER_01:

So another thing that's really special about it, by the way, the Willard Library, it is a beautiful building. Like a beautiful, it is a very large building. And but the one of the reasons we want to talk to you, now we're a little late because Halloween has already happened.

SPEAKER_03:

We're an episode late, Mike. I know it's all year round for me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I'm sure. We're gonna talk a little spooky time. So it's it's has a reputation of being a haunted place. Yes. And I did a little bit of research. There's something about the legend of the grey gray lady. And just tell us a little bit about like how did this all start? How did it become get that reputation for being a haunted place?

SPEAKER_04:

Yes. Well, like you said, Willard has a very um striking appearance. It's a Victorian Gothic building, um, very tall, very ornate. Um, there's all kinds of carving in the woodwork and tiles and all sorts of things. So it's it's a kind of an intimate intimidating looking building to start with. Um but yeah, over the years it's it's kind of gotten this, uh, I guess you would call it lore about our gray lady ghost that the community has just embraced. Um people love talking about her. Um But yeah, the gray lady, the story goes, and this is this is this is the story, but we don't know who our gray lady is, so I want to make that very clear. Um but when Willard Carpenter, our founder, passed away, he left a majority of his wealth to the library. Um, and his family members did not feel that they got their fair share of his inheritance. Yeah, so um one of his daughters, his youngest daughter, Louise, she actually sued the library board, um, saying that he was not of his, not of sound mind when he passed away or made his will, um, and she lost that lawsuit. So um a lot of people believe that Louise is our Great Lady Ghost, and she's kind of just hanging out, keeping an eye on on the goings on around here. Um I will say no one's ever felt threatened by her. We think she's a friendly spirit, um, but she does keep, you know, make herself known around here often.

SPEAKER_03:

Absolutely. And and Josh, you and I have both uh visited this together itself. You do have we do have a video. Well, actually, you do have a video. I filmed it for you and edited. And you edited it, yes. Yeah, yeah. We we we have a video on your channel itself. Links are in the description in regards to that as well. But we're there, and Erica, we're there because of these they're called ghost cams. You've got you've got several actual live webcams inside the library at different locations, etc., as well. And hence the reason why geocaching, it's a uh what they call it, webcam geocache. It's quite rare uh nowadays to actually have a webcam geocache. They are sort of phasing out, unfortunately. But um, tell us though, how did that program start in regards to the ghost cams themselves and then how does it operate on a day-to-day basis? Like, are they are they actually they kept in terms of the uh uh the footage is kept somewhere and you go over the footage to see if there's any going on?

SPEAKER_01:

What's what goes on? Yeah, is that your is that your job?

SPEAKER_03:

My job you want your footage.

SPEAKER_04:

Don't don't come after me for footage. I don't have it.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, we've we've got all the footage since we were there. We okay. We may have made a couple of things up. We may have if threw you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we might have edited. Yeah, we might have enhanced some of the uh paranormal activity in the Willard Library.

SPEAKER_04:

We wouldn't be the first.

SPEAKER_02:

No.

SPEAKER_04:

Um but yeah, so so our ghost camps, they they came about in the 1990s, 1995-ish. Um and uh at that time our director decided to start doing um ghost tours around Halloween. So he invited um the people in our community to come in um and tour the building and we'd tell some ghost stories. It was just kind of an idea. Um and the very first night they did it, there was a line that wrapped around the building. Like it was ridiculous. It was so uh popular because everybody had been talking about you know the great lady, but they wanted to be there and hear the hear the stories from the source, I guess. Um so the ghost cams were kind of an afterthought of that. Um and they gave people an opportunity to uh tune in on our website um 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Um and there are currently six cams. Um so we've got them on every floor, um, especially in the areas where the gray lady is seen most often. Um and yeah, we get 40 million hits on those things a year. Yeah, it's wild. It's wild.

SPEAKER_01:

Are you running YouTube YouTube ads on those?

SPEAKER_04:

Uh you beat me to it. You beat me to it, Josh.

SPEAKER_03:

Run it, run it logs with YouTube and get the ads in. We need to take advantage.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you sort of you sort of brought that up. You said, you know, the areas of the library that have the most active, um, I don't know, sightings or sense of the gray lady, the hauntings. I are there certain hot spots in the library now. I I remember I'm I'm recalling my memory there there's the like the children's area, which was I think a little lower, and then upstairs was like all the the green lights that uh were up there, and that's kind of like the reference area. Is there certain areas where where people feel like, oh, there's there's a little bit more activity happening here?

SPEAKER_04:

I think so. Um so the the library, the layout is it's three levels. Um so when you walk up the main steps, you're on the middle level. Um, and then there's an upstairs, like you said, with the green lights, and that's that's our local history department. It's friendly and sunny and happy. And then you go downstairs and into the basement basically. Um, and our children's department is down there, but it's painted yellow, like everything is yellow, um, and it's bright and happy too. You keep walking down the hallway, and that's where it gets a little creepy. Um, you there's some exposed brick down there, and our our maintenance spoiler rooms down there. So um that hallway um is the spot where the great lady was first seen, and that's been a very act active area too. But I would say, as far as activity goes, upstairs in our um, we call it our reading room, and then downstairs in the children's department and the hallways are the most active places, but she's been seen all over.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, great. You remember I do. I was about to say, you remember when we were there?

SPEAKER_01:

We we felt that in the hallway. We really did. It did feel the creepy, and there was like a little case filled with like clown things, I think. Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, there is too. Yeah, and we heard the clowns sort of sounds like a little bit of a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01:

We were like, we thought we heard something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

It's just our minds, but it could it could have been post-uh post-production. But um, and also but there's also that water fountain too, Josh. Remember the water fountain turned on when we walked past it as well.

SPEAKER_01:

That was the one thing that happened that we were we were curious if that was something that was interesting. That's strange, yeah. That's weird. Never you've never heard that? Oh, okay. Great lady was performing for us. Yeah, she knew we had a camera, so that's great.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean, that as we record this as well, uh Erica, we obviously the three of us we're talking, uh, we're seeing each other. I did see something sort of go past you slightly in your background then, but you know, it may have been just you know a shadow of some sort. But on a personal level though, uh, have you or any other staff member had actually directed encounters like visual or heard it or I'm really curious about this. Something you can't explain. You know, the books coming out. I mean, Josh, just to uh say this as well. Remember upstairs in the in the library part two? Remember the books were sliding out? Do you remember the books started sliding out too? So it's very much like uh Ghostbusters, the original. Yes, the opening scene. The opening scene of Ghostbusters.

SPEAKER_01:

That was really wait, wait, did you get into uh media uh media because of the Ghostbusters? And like you then you're like, oh, this is the ultimate, this is the ultimate job.

SPEAKER_04:

My favorite movie of all time.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like like books and ghosts, boom, ghostbusters. You should have one of those machines.

SPEAKER_03:

You should have one of those ghost catching machines, sort of as you as your your what do you call it, your door kicker, you know, to hold the doors open. You can have that as the door stop. Yeah, exactly. That's good.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, we need to let her answer the question.

SPEAKER_03:

Honestly, honestly, Eric, anything personal that you or anyone have actually encountered?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, so um I I'll be the first to tell you I'm a skeptic, and the reason for that is because if I if I allowed myself to hear a train.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and there's no train station near there. Well, there's there's no it's nowhere near a train station. Let's just say that.

SPEAKER_04:

Anyway. No, but I'm a skeptic because um if I allow myself to read into every little noise or thing, weird thing that happens, I would I would be too creeped out to work here. So um there are a lot of things that we try to explain away um around here. Do you want me to wait for that? No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_03:

That's that's great. That's the gray lady. That's that's the gray lady. That's her that's her telling you that you know you're talking about me, and I know you are. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, you're right. You're exactly right.

SPEAKER_03:

Absolutely. What about what about anyone else though, Eric? Any other uh workmates or colleagues that uh have experienced?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, so well, I do have one story um that was me personally. So um I've never seen an apparition or anything like that, but the gray lady um makes her presence known in different ways. Um, so we call her a poltergeist because she likes to move things around. Um, some people have reported like a cold feeling come over them um or a strong smell of perfume and there's no source for it, that sort of thing. Um, but so part of my job is in the mornings I come in, um, we have a phone system that we put on voicemail when we leave at night. Um, and in the mornings we listen to the voicemails. And usually it's just people calling us asking to like renew their books or that sort of thing. Um, and so one morning I came in and we had a message um and I listened to it, and it was just like clicking sounds and like a weird, like whispery, like we couldn't really understand what they were saying, and it sounded like you know, somebody pocket dialed us maybe. Um and so I listened to the whole thing, then it reads off what time it came in. It came in at three in the morning the previous night. Um, and then it says it came from the extension to our staff room, which is um downstairs, and it's a locked room. Um, so it was just really creepy because like the call was coming from inside the house kind of thing. Like we still don't know why that happened, how that happened, or what, but it was it was cool.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm serious. I've got I've got goosebumps. I love that. I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_04:

No, it was creepy.

SPEAKER_03:

That is a great story. But then a quick question though, with the with the with the this is a geocacher in me now, you see. With the with the clicks and the dots, etc. Have you ever heard of Morse code? And could you actually decipher it from Morse code?

SPEAKER_04:

Maybe it's a gray lady doing Morse code. Could have been, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

See, that's the puzzle cacher in me, Josh. And normally I'm not a puzzle cacher, that's what it is.

SPEAKER_04:

That's my I like it.

SPEAKER_01:

So you have your Erica, you have your story. Yeah. Is there any way, is there any patron or a person in the community that is like collecting these stories and and places for people to find or read, read about it, or other than obviously the internet. But is there a is there a patron that uh somebody in Evansville that like owns this information and like kind of holds it?

SPEAKER_04:

So we do, we have a shared document as a staff. Um so at the every time a ghost encounter happens um or a you know a patron reports an encounter that's seems very legit, we will um write it into our kind of like our log of of um incidents, I guess. I don't want to call them incidents, but you know, sightings, occurrences, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_03:

I like it coercency.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Yeah. So um we do keep a running list of those. Um that's mostly just for staff, but we do have um some stories posted. If you go to our Willard website, um, there is a whole tab that says ghost. Um, and you can click there, that leads you to our our um ghost cams. And then we also have a pamphlet that you can read online or print out that has a bunch of stories and background about um who we believe she might be and and that sort of thing. So there's that. Um one other thing I do want to mention is um some of our patrons made a Facebook group. Um it's called the Willard Ghost Chatters. Um, and they uh just kind of hang out, watch the cams and and post things. Um they'll take screenshots and post them, um, and they'll comment and and talk about you know the stuff that they see. And it's kind of fun to come to work and see, okay, what did they see the previous night, you know, in the same room that I'm sitting in. So um that's that's a really neat thing. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01:

I I just love how much I love how much your library has chosen to like embrace this and not push, you know, push it away and be like, oh no, we're just we're just about books and we're about, you know, we're a library, but you're like, oh no, we're gonna we're gonna embrace this, we're gonna allow people to talk about, we're gonna allow ghost cams. I I just think that's really I think that's really cool. I do too.

SPEAKER_04:

And honestly, it's like um it's brought so many people to us that wouldn't have come otherwise, I don't think. I mean, we've got visits from people from all over the country and beyond, um, just because they want to check it out and and you know do their own little paranormal investigations, um, which is which is really fun. Um, and one kind of uh side story to that, um, a couple of years ago, uh, we had a field trip come in, little kids. Um, the person that was leading the group mentioned our Great Lady Ghost, and these kids were like kindergarten first graders. Um, one kid went home and told his mom about it, and she got real angry. Um she marched down and talked to our director and said, You can't be telling, you know, young children about this ghost. Um, he had heard that so many times and he had you know had enough. And so he told the whole staff, like, we're not allowed to, you know, we're just gonna tell, yeah tell people the gray ladies moved on. Um so a couple days later, one of the librarians um tells the patron, yeah, we don't we haven't seen the gray lady lately, we don't think she's here anymore. And as soon as she said that, a book flew across the room. Oh, wow. So it's kind of like you can't really deny it at this point.

SPEAKER_01:

And don't even try.

SPEAKER_03:

No. Erica, here I was thinking that the that they're they're talking about the the gray lady to the kids, and one of the kids turned around and said, You know, are you talking about that lady over there? And pointed to the corner that's empty. That's what I was waiting for. Because you know, children are very susceptible to uh paranormal activity. They probably are. But um you were saying before about investigators, etc., coming through. Is there been any like television people come through there or is there any other um because there's lots of uh paranormal activity TV shows out there out and about, whether it be on YouTube, etc. as well. Anyone on cover uh see anything or do anything in regards to that?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, so um in the I want to say nineties, I wrote it down, hold on. Uh 1985, Lorraine Warren. Um, Ed and Lorraine Warren came to uh visit us there. Um if you're familiar, they're um like very famous paranormal investigators, psychics. Um and uh they did a a tour through Lorraine, I believe, said she she thought that the grounds that the library was built on was haunted, um not so much the building itself, which is a good thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Like underneath like underneath, like underneath the ground, like like in the movie Poltergeist, where they built the house on a cemetery, which is creepy.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay. Yeah. Um so yeah, we had her, and then um about 10 years later we had uh Ghost Hunters Taps come in. Um and they did an episode, it was tw uh 2006 that it aired. Um and it wasn't the most exciting episode, unfortunately, and then they they couldn't uh confirm or deny that the gray lady was here, but they did report seeing a mist appear. Um, and at that point we'd had thousands of reports of you know, grey lady sightings and uh and things, encounters. So um it's kind of hard to deny that many people.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I was gonna say, Josh, I would think though, in this day and age, because as you understand, from 1985 until now, there's been a lot of technology that's happened too. So I wonder if that technology has enhanced the possibility of capturing something like this as opposed to well but back in 1985 where literally all they had was human eyes. Um and maybe one of those things goes like the Ghostbusters, the arms go up and down. Um but yeah, now nowadays they've got like these uh these infrared things, they've got heat-seeking things, they've got cameras that do heat signals. And I wonder if there could be anything like that around. That'd be cool.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, they do have all kinds of technology, like people come in with these machines that I've never seen before. Um, so it's kind of fun just to see you know what what the newest trends are in that.

SPEAKER_03:

That's cool. Like Amazon.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's talk about if somebody were to visit uh the Willard Library, like what we Craig and I have experienced it ourselves. What what would they expect? What should they do? Who should they talk to? Like, tell us a little bit about what it's what it's like to experience and visit the Willard Library.

SPEAKER_04:

Sure. Um, so it's we like to say it's a library first and foremost. So um treat it like one. Come on in, it's open to everybody. Um, you don't necessarily have to have a card to to hang out and use our materials, that sort of thing. Um when you first walk in the building. Building, you enter into this big grand foyer, but you'll see like a staircase that goes upstairs, and then the main desk is to your left. And I would just recommend that people wander. I mean, um, you can really go practically anywhere you want all through the building. Like upstairs is our local history and genealogy department that we're really proud of. Um, we've got a lot of great resources there. Um, and then our my floor is our adult services and and teen services um floor. So we've got a lot of popular materials. Um and then downstairs we've got our children's department and an archives department, that is awesome. Um a lot of people come in. Sorry, can you hear my email? Sorry. No, no, you're on the email. Um but yeah, a lot of people come in, they want to you know find old photos of Evansville or maybe uh research their historic home, that sort of thing. Um so yeah, there's just all kinds of fun resources. Um and then you have people that just want to, you know, catch themselves on the cameras, and that's cool too. Like we do whatever you want. Um but yeah, we're go ahead.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I was just gonna say so generous. Your staff is Joe Generous. We were messing around. I mean, we were we were moving books and we were making books fall, and we weren't doing that, Josh.

SPEAKER_03:

She was doing that. She was not us. We can't blame us for that.

SPEAKER_01:

Very tolerant of our of our video creation for sure. Yeah. Well, when we're creating the video.

SPEAKER_04:

Sorry. Sorry, Eric. No, it's my fault. It's okay.

SPEAKER_03:

When we're creating the video though, uh, we were trying to be mindful that it is actually still a library, but it's hard to keep Josh quiet, I'll just say that. But uh you know, we were very mindful. But I will say that even if you're a full skeptic of uh of this ghosting and how everything else as well, and you don't believe in it, whatever, um, even if you don't go to a library in general, you don't read books, whatever, that's fine. I would still go there for the architecture of that building. Like inside the building is so grand and and beautiful. I mean, Josh, Iris still remember the uh the big picture up on the wall, like the uh self, the portrait up on the wall up top, up the the top of the stairs. Do you remember that one, Josh?

SPEAKER_01:

Was it was it George Washington? Is George Washington in the stairway?

SPEAKER_04:

That is, or it was, he's moved since, but it always moved.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, did the lady move it?

SPEAKER_04:

Actually, yes. Believe it or not, he he fell off the wall in the middle of the night.

SPEAKER_01:

We heard about that when we were there. Yeah, but they told us that when we were there. Yes, that's right. Wow, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_04:

But yeah, he's he's secure now, so it's all good.

SPEAKER_03:

But if uh someone was coming to Evansville though, uh Erica for the very first time and they went to Lou Willard's library, uh, what else can they do in in uh in the area in Evansville itself? What is it a C? What other local haunts can they actually go to? Haunts, ha haunts or just fun things to do in Evansville.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh yeah. I mean, Evansville's hopping. It's fun. Um we've got we've got well, I'm kind of a history nerd, so my brain goes straight to history stuff. Um we've got Bossey Field, which is a baseball field. Um, it's where they filmed a league of their own, the movie.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, and they still have like minor league games there in the summer. So it's just fun to go sit and see the kind of the history there. Um, we've got great museums. We have the Evansville Museum, Children's Museum of Evansville, African American Museum. Um, we've got an awesome zoo, Meseker Park Zoo, um, several parks, um, great restaurants. So it's it's a really fun place to live.

SPEAKER_01:

And just so everybody knows geographically, Evansville is in southern Indiana, correct? That's right. Southern Indiana. And it's uh I think it was we were in Owensboro when we were visiting. So it's about an hour, hour north, about an hour northwest of Owensboro. Is that roughly where it is?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, we're we're right on the on the edge of the state. So right right on the Ohio River. Um, so yeah, you can get to Kentucky and and less and no, depending on where you are very quickly.

SPEAKER_03:

We were there for Geo Woodstock, Josh, if you recall, and uh we did the GeoWalkstone stuff, and then we went up uh because you you you heard of this too, and the fact that it's a webcam was uh and the and it was intriguing. And I think you did it, Josh, for your uh video for Halloween, like a couple of years.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I see it was so funny because we recorded it in May and I held the video till till um October Halloween, Halloween, which is a lot that's a lot of discipline for a YouTuber to hold on to.

SPEAKER_02:

Good for you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, thank you. Um so uh lastly, uh, why does the Willard Library keep this gray lady gray lady story alive? You kind of alluded to it before, but what value does it bring to the mission of your library and the community of Evansville?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I think I mean over the years, people have just embraced her. Um, I think it's something that intrigues people. It's interesting, it's a little spooky, a little mysterious. Um, and if, you know, if it gets somebody in the door and then they find out, you know, there are resources here that I can use, there are computers here that I can use, um, that sort of thing. I love the architecture of the building. Um, you know, there's something for everybody. And and I mean, there's no reason to to deny her, I guess.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, and we know what happens when you deny her. That's right. Gray lady. Gray lady, if you're listening. If you're listening, Gray Lady. And then that is really interesting because if it is true, it's it's interesting that I feel like based on the story, is that like she wants to be known. She wants people to know that this is her space, this is her library, and do not say that she's not there. Absolutely. Which is really interesting. Really interesting. Um if anybody's curious, if you're a geocacher listening and you're like, wow, this sounds really interesting. I'd love to visit the geocaching code, Erica. Oh, this is nerdy, but geocache, there's a code for every geocache. It is G C A as an apple for C is in cat four. G C A four C four. Um, Erica, thank you so much for taking some time out of your day. You're actually uh uh hopefully this was a good part of your day as you're still working, I assume. Yeah, yeah, this was a blast. So thanks so much for taking some time. And we uh next time we're in the area, we will visit and we will send you our video. I would love for you to see our visit to the library. I'm sure you have a lot of people. Well, but it might be fun for you to see some of the things that we experienced. Absolutely that maybe be partially real and partially not.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't know who had those crazy ideas, Josh, but anyway, that were and you know what?

SPEAKER_01:

You know what, Craig? You know what, Craig? Erica's here, and you know why she's here is because she's proud of her library and she's proud of her town because it's a rare thing these days.

SPEAKER_03:

And Erica has no clue what what where that comes from, what you just did, so you'll have to explain.

SPEAKER_01:

She maybe knows what it comes from. So uh have you ever seen Erica the movie Trains, Planes, and Automobiles with John Candy?

SPEAKER_04:

A million years ago, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Okay, so there's a line in it where they're in a in a taxi cab, and John Candy says, He's proud of his town. That's a rare thing these days. So I have to get that phrase into every single podcast at some point.

SPEAKER_03:

I almost forgot. I almost forgot. Yeah, because sometimes he does, sometimes he does. Thank you so much for joining us, Erica. And and uh listeners out there, if you actually go to Willard uh Willard Library and uh because you've listened to this show as well, let them know. Just say, like, I heard you on Treasures of Our Town, and that's why I'm here. Plus, then you can grab the geocache as well. So Josh, we'll let Erica go. And then do you want to talk a little bit more about the the webcam before we finish up? What do you think?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, we can talk a little bit more about the webcam. But yes, Erica, thanks so much. Thanks. Thank you guys. Have a great afternoon.

SPEAKER_03:

You too. So, Josh, there you go. Erica itself. Now, GCA4C4 is what you said uh before on the uh that's the geocaching for the webcam. Let's talk about the webcam just for a little bit, Josh, because I'm telling you, I favored this webcam, right? This webcam itself has eight hundred and sixty-two favorite points. Wow. And it's been favored 53% of the time. So it's got over 1,600 fines in total. It was my Dutch boy in uh in in November of 2002. November 2002.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's old too. It's old.

SPEAKER_03:

It's old, it's old. And it's funny you say that it's old because in the hints it says the research room has computers for public use. And so what that means is that you could actually do back in the day, because we didn't have the smartphones, but you could do the webcam and have someone in the research room on the computer there while you go up and take your webcam photo. So they did it that way.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, that's convenient.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't remember back in the day, Josh, and neither do I, but I've seen it often whereby to do a webcam, you literally had to be on the phone to a friend who was on a computer at home attached to the dial-up, brr-ding, k-ding, attached to the dial-up and uh and get your photo from there rather than just screenshot your mobile phone nowadays.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's really cool. Craig, you're talking about an old time geocaching. I mean, I've been doing geocaching longer than you. I actually, my very first webcam was in Memphis, Tennessee. And I did have to call somebody. I was on vacation. I did. They call I had to call them at work and they found me and they took a screenshot. So so I did have to, and that was back before cell phone geocaching. So that was that was what I had to do.

SPEAKER_03:

Back in the GPS days and you had to print it, print it out the code out on the piece of paper or take the piece of paper out. Um but yeah, no, all the links, by the way, Josh, are uh are in the description uh for your video for the cache page itself and the Willard library as well.

SPEAKER_01:

So can I say another thing about the webcam that I think is really unique about it is that it's indoors. Yes. I think there's not very many indoor webcam geocaches. I can only think of one other one that I've done. I think we've did it, I think we did it together. Remember? Yes, we did. Did we go to that inside of the police station and sit there?

SPEAKER_03:

It was a DMV.

SPEAKER_01:

DMV, yes. Where were we?

SPEAKER_03:

Where was that?

SPEAKER_01:

Where were we in a DM? Oh no, it was I think it was our Orlando. Was it Orlando? We were I don't remember.

SPEAKER_03:

No, it wasn't Orlando. No, it was more, it was more central. It might have been when we were in the in in Indiana.

SPEAKER_01:

It was Louis, it was Louisville.

SPEAKER_03:

Louisville. Louisville, I think it was there. But one more thing, Josh, as well, about that's very unique about this, is that there's eight different cameras that you can actually take your photo from too. Not just the one. I think six. I think it's six. Six different cameras. So but either way, there's more than one actual camera you can get your photo from too. So I mean, I think you and I when we did it, we had to do all six because just as that's just the way we are. But I mean, we not only got video.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, sorry, we not only got photos, but we got video from every single camera. It's a really guys, you gotta check it out. It's a really good video. Like people when they saw it, they were like, that's good enough to be in a GIF. That's what that was. I remember that. People are like, that's really good. Uh it's it's fun.

SPEAKER_03:

And speaking of GIF, Josh, I heard you've got uh you've got a GIF um event coming up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I got a GIF event. It's already happened as they're listening to this. So it's actually in a theater. So we're um a theater. So that's exciting. I'm excited to see our film, if you hide it, on the big screen. And actually, we can talk about it a little bit because it's already come out now. Actually, we're not because when this is released, gift season will still be happening. So we don't want to spoil it. Spoil it yet. Not for everyone, not for everyone. No, so anyway, um that's great. And you know what? You know what? Our patrons, our patrons, they get they get special stuff. And you know what? I think once the gift film is out, maybe they're gonna get something on the something special, special. You know, you support a podcast that has both of the gift, the the actor and the editor and producer and director.

SPEAKER_03:

I was thinking, Josh, it could go, it could coincide with my uh my my upgrade with my chickens because it could be a a golden nugget.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh yeah, it could be, it could be, and you know how you get those golden nuggets is if you're a patron supporter of us. So um please consider if you're if you're a listener, consider supporting us because this is completely listener supported. We don't obviously do not have any ads, zero, nada, none. Um, so you help us keep this going. Uh and um, and so if you would like to join our Patreon, get some golden nuggets from time to time, that extra bonus footage, you can join us on patreon.com backslash treasures of our town.

SPEAKER_03:

And Josh, how can other people contact us if they wish to contact us? So with the if they've got an idea for a podcast, Josh, if they've got thought they thought to themselves, you know, I've been to this place. You know, I think Craig and Josh need to visit here, or they need to talk about this. How can they how can they reach out and talk to us from there?

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, they can reach out to us at treasures of our town podcast at gmail.com. Or you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or our Buzz Sprout site. Just search Treasures of Our Town and Google and you will find us there.

SPEAKER_03:

So that's it for our show today. Please subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite podcasting app. And as always, Josh.

SPEAKER_01:

And may your travels always lead you to the most unexpected spooky haunted gray lady around the world.

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Craig - The Aussie Geocacher Seemyshell

Host
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Joshua - The Geocaching Vlogger

Host

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