Ghost Town rises for old-time fun

Ghost Town — a replica of an 1880s western town located south of Findlay — is returning to its roots. In its heyday, the tourist attraction drew as many as 30,000 visitors a season. Summer afternoons could be spent there exploring the old buildings filled with antiques and tools, reading grave markers in Boot Hill Cemetery, watching live-action gun fights along Main Street, and purchasing penny candy in the general store. Unfortunately, Ghost Town fell into disrepair over the years, closing to the public in 2008. Owner Ed Galitza later sold the property to John and Cheryl Larbus, who provided the resources needed to restore the attraction. Haunted Ghost Town, packed with thrills and chills meant to terrify visitors, returned in fall 2015 for Halloween. Craft shows followed the next year. Season opener Operations manager Sarah Nofziger said the goal this season is to bring back some of the more traditional activities from the past, starting with Saturday's Old-Fashioned Fun Season Opener. "What Ghost Town has typically done in the years before I came on board is, they just focused more on craft shows. This show is not a craft show. This is more of a community event show," she explained. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission for the day is $5 for adults and $3 for children. Ghost Town is located at 10630 County Road 40. "There were four craft shows last season. The first two were just craft shows and the last two were more like event shows with crafters. So we started to make that transition where there were more things to do other than just go to a craft show," Nofziger said. Old-fashioned games like croquet and sack races will be held, she said, and a barrel train will give rides around the park. Members of Maranatha Bible Church, of Van Buren, will host a cake walk fundraiser at the stage area. Over 100 different desserts will be offered as prizes. One of the main attractions is Patterson's baby animal petting zoo, she said. Operators Ralph and Riley Patterson will be bringing baby animals like rabbits, goats and llamas, said Nofziger. "History of Ghost Town" tours will be offered. There will also be living history educators talking about the area's fur and trapping trade in the 1800s. "We're really trying to incorporate Native American history in with Ghost Town because if Ghost Town is supposed to be the Wild West, those things went hand in hand," Nofziger said. "I think we lose part of the history and the culture if we're leaving the native side out." Visitors will get a chance to show off their shooting prowess at the BB gun target range. An instructor will be present. Wolf Creek Rising Band will provide live music from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Barbecue will be sold in the saloon, and there will be vendors selling kettle corn, lemon shake-ups and taffy. Nofziger said Warriors Way, a nonprofit organization that provides a unique form of therapy and rehabilitative services to veterans, will be on-site demonstrating forging while making knives and talking about the organization. Rock Pocket Gems will make its Ghost Town debut, sharing knowledge and education about gems, crystals and minerals. They will offer geode cracking and other unique hands-on projects and mini classes. There will also be an area where visitors can make a leather bracelet. "So it's not going to be a town just full of vendors," said Nofziger. "It will be more focused on community and the events of the day." Unearthing pieces of history The history of Ghost Town dates back to the late 1950s, when Galitza bought an old log cabin in Marseilles for $50. His father, Louis, helped reconstruct the cabin on an acre off County Road 40. This was the beginning of what would become Ghost Town Museum Park. By 1994 when he was interviewed for an article in The Courier, Galitza said the family was "still putting the west in the Midwest." One cabin on an acre of land grew to include 28 buildings scattered over 13 acres. Mannequins presided over some of the displays. Old miners' songs played over the park's sound system to add flavor, and a few body-distorting carnival mirrors and stocks were set around for fun. Many of the buildings at Ghost Town are old and original. The dentist and post office building once stood in the 600 block of South Main Street before the Civil War and was a voting precinct. Another cabin that was originally from the Vanlue area belonged to Major Bright, one of Hancock County's early settlers. A jail cell, circa 1850, came from Bairdstown; and the Little General steam locomotive, built in 1880, used to carry sightseers over a half-mile track through the park. Once a building was in place, Galitza would fill it with antiques and memorabilia. During the 1980s, the country store held thousands of pieces of old-time merchandise, while the buggy barn contained more than 40 vehicles from the 1880s, including a collection of old funeral carriages. Author James Willis included a two-page spread on Ghost Town in a book he co-authored called "Weird Ohio, Your Travel Guide to Ohio's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets." "Boot Hill Cemetery, I was struck by how real it looked," he said in an interview with the newspaper in 2007. In talking to the Galitza family, Willis learned that the grave markers were real, although there were no bodies buried beneath them. "I found out they were donated by farmers who found them while they were out plowing their fields. But it does make you wonder, what happened to the bodies," he said. For more information, visit the Ghost Town Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ghosttownfindlay Wolf: 419-427-8419