The research for this field report began on October 30th, at 7 pm. I took part in the Folklore Department's Ghost Walk and took notes as I was told one chilling tale after another, all of which supposedly took place on the campus that now haunts me, as I walk to classes every day. By the end of this field report, you will have heard some of the freakish tales and horror stories, as well as an analysis and a research reflection.

Researching for this field report was fun! I went to the Ghost walk on October 30th, and took extensive notes, which was hard, considering the waning sunlight. Luckily, however, the moon was a day short of full, so I barely had enough light. Writing as quick as I could, I captured every one of the "true" stories that were told, and was finished by 9:30. I then proceeded to tell some of my floor mates of the horror stories and made note of their reactions in my notebook. I then went to the Main Library and found two books, Jan Harold Brunvand's Too Good To Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends, and N. E. Genge's book, Urban Legends : The As-Complete-As-One-Could-Be Guide To Modern Myths. I took time, perusing through both of them, looking to find similarities between the legends that I heard on the Ghost Walk and those printed in the books.

During this infamous Ghost Walk, I heard 20 stories, some simple, single-sentence stories, and some long, involved legends about different places on campus. I would like to highlight some of each, the short and the long, for you now. Let. s begin with the short ones: I heard stories about a light post that used to be in the middle of the lawn in front of the Folklore and Ethnomusicology Department, on 9th & Fess. This story was of a light post, in 1981, which used to turn on and off randomly, even though it was not hooked up to any electrical wires or power or anything. Another is of the Poplars building, which was built in 1967 as a women's dormitory. The story there was that the hangers in the women's rooms would just fall out of the closets, and that there were "creepy" noises coming from the closets as well. They then turned it into a hotel, which no one wanted to stay at, due to the rumors. The only solution, the decided, was to turn it into offices, so they could pay people to go there, even if they were uncomfortable. Now onto the longer, more in detail stories. I will share two of these, one of McNutt, one of the Latino Cultural Center (La Casa), and the other of the Career Development Center. Let us being with the Career Development Center.

Unbeknownst to many of the campus, what is now the career development center (CDC) used to be an abortion clinic, back in the day when abortion was still illegal. Supposedly, many of the women who had abortions there had died, due to illegal, uncleanly, irresponsible methods used by the one doctor. The doctor, feeling the responsibility and guilt of causing the death so many women, decided to hang himself in the circular staircase. Many years later, it was turned in to a Fraternity House at what had become IU. Linda Deth spoke at the Ghost Walk of an interview she had conducted with one of the boys who lived in the Fraternity. She tells his stories of doors slamming for no apparent reason, showers starting and stopping randomly, and the scariest story: babies heard crying in the basement. (The Doctor used to put the aborted fetuses in the basement instead of taking proper care for their disposal.) One more . fact. she told us was that of the Fraternity's mascot, a dog, who refused to go down into the basement.

The second story is of the Latino Cultural Center, nicknamed la Casa. There are plenty of stories from la Casa, and they always include one particular woman, who is seen by men and heard by women, but never the other way around. Men have seen her walking up/down the stairs and peeking through the curtains as they lock up to leave, and women have heard her calling their names or typing on a typewriter. One graduate student heard her own name whispered in her ear and felt the breath on her neck. Another strange, regular occurrence at la Casa is that of the furniture being rearranged.

One more story occurred at McNutt, a dormitory at IU, in 1969. Two friends decided to stay together over Thanksgiving break, and get some work done. They went to the library together, and one came back early to work at home. After working for two hours back at McNutt, she started to get worried about her roommate, but decided to shrug it off. She then went to sleep, thinking that her roommate would come back any minute. She was woken up by a noise in the hallway, sounding like a body slamming into the door again and again and again. The noises became faster and louder, and the girl could hear muffled cries in between the banging noises. She then heard scratches at the door, which continued for quite a while. The girl in the room became so frightened that she could not even leave her room to see what was wrong. She decided to sleep it off, and to hope it was just a dream. She wakes up the next morning and is still too afraid to step outside of her door. She hails a janitor out of her window, who then comes up to see what is wrong. He tells her not to look down when she comes out of her door, so obviously, she does, and sees her roommate, laying in a pool of blood, with a hatchet buried in the back of her head. Yikes.

Those stories are just pieces of the IU Urban Legends puzzle. These are the most comprehensive, complete stories told during the Ghost Walk. And the last story I told is especially scary, and the reason for that is the story's believability. I didn. t understand why that story shocked me more than the others, so I did some research to find out. I read two collections of Urban Legends to see if any of these were documented "legends," and lo and behold! The name given by Brunvand is "The Roommate's Death," and it is an actual documented legend, that supposedly has occurred on other campuses (yes, even with the hatchet). I understood, after I found out that it is a documented legend, how other campuses believed it, too. With its localization and play upon many fears, such as the fears of being alone, of death, of indirect responsibility for another's death, etc, it is a very believable story. Not necessarily believed, but believable. It is easy to play upon the fears of young, naïve, college women.

In my research, I do believe that I could have conducted an interview to make a better field report. However, since I didn't, I think I did a pretty good job finding research on my own, by visiting the 7th floor of the library, in the Folklore Department, for a couple days in a row to find some good information on the topic. Next time I will definitely use an interview, since I believe that is more conducive to a well-written field report. I did enjoy the Ghost Walk, even though it was a little on the scary side, and next time I would have made my boyfriend go with me, or another close friend, to get another's opinion on the stories before I wrote about them. Basically, I wish I had done an interview, but I didn't. I know I will do better next time, since this was my first field report. And the last self-critique is that since I didn't set up a deadline for myself right away, it didn't get done until now. Next time, the criteria for a better field report would be definitely do an interview, and give myself a deadline. Thanks!

REFERENCES
1. Mikkelson, Barbara and David P. Mikkelson. 2001. Urban Legends Reference Pages. Retrieved November 10th, 2001, from the World Wide Web. Available online: http://www.snopes2.com/

2. Brunvand, Jan Harold. 1999. Too Good to be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends. W. W. Norton & Company.

3. Genge, Ngiare E. 2000. Urban Legends: The As-Complete-As-One-Could-Be Guide to Modern Myths. Three Rivers Printing.

4. Ghost Walk, hosted by the Folklore and Ethnomusicology Department, Indiana University. October 30th, 2001. Arranged and planned by John McDowell, Ruth Aten, Linda Degh, and John Johnson.

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