New River Paranormal

01/01/2026

01/01/2026

🖤👻 LOVE BITES… 👻🖤

This is the FIRST drop of our 2026 holiday shirts, and we’re kicking things off with a Valentine’s Day twist, New River Paranormal style.

Dark.
Spooky.
Perfect for those who like their romance a little haunted.

💀❤️ Be the first to grab one before they disappear.
Valentine’s Day is coming, and these won’t last.

🖤 Limited drop.
👻 Paranormal vibes.
❤️ Holiday exclusive.

https://mbcreativeworks.com/new-river-paranormal/

08/01/2025

The Spirits of Smithfield – Echoes from Virginia’s Frontier Past
Blacksburg, Virginia

Nestled at the edge of Virginia Tech’s campus stands a grand house with whitewashed siding and deep colonial roots. Built in 1774, Smithfield Plantation was home to Colonel William Preston, a Revolutionary War hero and signer of the Fincastle Resolutions. Today, the house is a museum, a well-preserved tribute to early American life. But beneath its patriotic veneer lies something older… something unsettled.

Smithfield is one of Virginia’s oldest plantation homes west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. And according to witnesses, it’s also one of its most haunted.

Layers of History, Layers of Death

Smithfield was more than a home; it was a political headquarters, a farm, and a place of enslavement. The Preston family owned dozens of enslaved individuals whose lives and names have mostly been lost to time. Disease and hardship were common. In the 1833 cholera outbreak, several people, enslaved and free, died within days. Family letters, archived in the Virginia Historical Society, reference the illness spreading from the kitchen to the slave quarters.

But some believe those deaths were not the end.

Unexplained Phenomena

Volunteers and docents have reported strange occurrences for decades:
• Cold spots near the original hearth and upstairs hallway
• Disembodied voices, often female, are heard when no tours are being conducted
• Shadow figures moving through the dining room, sometimes crossing into walls
• Doors that open and shut on their own, even when latched
• The faint sound of a child crying, though no children are present

One former guide refused to work alone in the house after hearing humming behind her when she was locked inside, prepping for a school tour. No music was playing.

Another staff member described hearing someone say, “Let them sleep,” during a late evening closing shift. She had been alone in the building.

The Enslaved Quarters

Behind the house, the location of the original slave quarters is marked by grass and silence. Paranormal investigators report a different energy there, heavy, mournful, and unwelcoming. One EVP captured by a visiting group in 2021 included the phrase, “We’re still here.”

Historians note that few names of the enslaved people have survived, though records indicate over 200 individuals were held on the estate across two generations. Their stories were buried, but perhaps not their presence.

Why It Still Haunts

Smithfield represents the paradox of early American liberty for some, chains for others. Its walls heard both revolution and suffering. The echoes of that history seem reluctant to fade. Whether you’re drawn to its patriotic past or darker corners, one thing is sure: at Smithfield, history refuses to rest quietly.

The museum welcomes visitors during daylight hours. But no overnight stays are allowed.

Maybe for good reason.

07/31/2025

Whispers Among the Graves – The Haunting of Sunset Cemetery
Christiansburg, Virginia

Tucked along South Franklin Street is Sunset Cemetery, one of the oldest and most storied burial grounds in Montgomery County. Established in the mid-1800s, it is still active today. At first glance, it’s peaceful. Rows of headstones stretch toward the horizon beneath rolling hills and crooked pines.

But once the sun sets, the cemetery lives up to its name in more ways than one.

Locals speak of a Confederate officer in full gray uniform who walks the grounds at dusk. Visitors claim to see him standing by the older graves, hands clasped behind his back, head bowed. When approached, he disappears, sometimes leaving only footprints in the dewy grass. Others report the sound of muffled weeping and soft footsteps on gravel paths… even when they’re alone.

Historical Roots

Sunset Cemetery is the final resting place for generations of Christiansburg families. But the oldest sections contain the graves of dozens of Civil War veterans, most of them Confederate soldiers, many of whom died not on the battlefield, but in military hospitals scattered across the region.

One particular grave draws attention: that of Captain Silas Compton, a Montgomery County native who served with the 54th Virginia Infantry. Wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863, Compton was brought home but died of infection weeks later. His grave is often the site of reported activity, flickering lights, strange temperature drops, and what some believe is his presence during the twilight hour.

Church records and obituaries from the time describe a town overwhelmed by death. Disease, injury, and displacement were common. In the years following the war, grief and unrest blanketed the region an energy some believe still lingers.

Paranormal Activity

Investigators from nearby Radford and Blacksburg have noted the following during overnight surveys:
• EMF (electromagnetic field) spikes near the Civil War section
• Unexplained orbs of light seen both visually and in camera footage
• Disembodied whispers captured on audio, often unintelligible but always emotional
• A reported “cold zone” near a cluster of children’s graves from the 1870s

One group claimed to hear a man reciting what sounded like a military prayer, but the audio revealed nothing but static.

Another visitor, walking alone after dark, reported hearing someone softly say, “You’re not supposed to be here.” She left immediately.

Cemeteries hold more than bodies; they hold stories: regret, grief, unfinished conversations, and the need to be remembered. Sunset Cemetery is more than a resting place. For some, it’s a place they’ve never truly left.

Sunset closes to the public at dark. But if you’ve ever driven past after nightfall, you may have noticed a light that shouldn’t be there. Or a figure standing just inside the gate, watching. Waiting.