National Park After Dark · National Park After Dark

Trail Tales 82

December 4, 2025·58 min·4 clips

After crashing at 80 mph, Z followed a faceless Civil War soldier to a house that saved their life.

1. National Park After Dark releases Trail Tales 82, a listener story episode hosted by Danielle and Cassidy. 2. Danielle and Cassidy are the two co-hosts; neither is identified by last name in this episode, though Danielle's name appears in the third story via the letter-writer. 3. The episode's purpose is to share listener-submitted stories of paranormal, wilderness, and cemetery experiences connected to National Parks and outdoor settings. 4. The opening segment features Danielle's purchase of a circa-1830s Victorian memento mori mourning ring in black and gold with braided hair in the band, bought as a 35th birthday gift to herself. 5. Story one, from listener Z in North Carolina, describes a 2013 car crash at 80 mph on a National Park Service Civil War battlefield after falling asleep at the wheel. 6. Z's broken memory includes following a faceless Union soldier half a mile to a former Civil War hospital, where the floors were still stained with soldiers' blood and a door hadn't been opened since the owners purchased the house in 1974. 7. Z later learns their mother had driven out to check on them the same night after Z's deceased best friend's mother — a soldier killed in Afghanistan — woke up with a premonition something was wrong. 8. Story two, from listener Ashley, describes weeks of escalating paranormal activity in a rented double-wide, including a child's noisemaker activating alone, kitchen items being flung, and physical contact at night. 9. Ashley names the ghost Bob after reading that spirits are often lonely and seeking acknowledgment; she begins daily conversations with him, sets a boundary about physical contact, and the touching stops immediately. 10. On moving day, Bob knocks a box off a stacked pyramid to express his displeasure at being left behind. 11. Story three involves a Portsmouth ghost tour at the Point of Graves cemetery run by a medium who channels a spirit named Mary March; the medium's copper spirit rods point to a grave marked Sarah Sargent — matching the letter-writer Troy's family name. 12. Next to Sarah Sargent's grave lay her sister Mary March, the same spirit the medium channels; Troy spent two hours after the tour connecting with deceased family members whose identities he verified through Ancestry.com. 13. Story four is from Paige, who at 14 was being towed on a tube at Lake Powell during a sudden storm with four-to-five foot waves while adults in the boat ignored her repeated throat-slash stop signals. 14. That evening, helicopters circled a neighboring cove searching for a girl who drowned in the same storm — a direct parallel to Paige's experience on the water. 15. Story five is from Naomi, who conducted a college research project at Burr Oak Cemetery, a segregated African-American cemetery established in 1927 just south of Chicago in Alsip, Illinois. 16. Burr Oak is the resting place of Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till Mobley; Emmett Till's body was exhumed by the FBI in 2005 for an autopsy related to a reopened investigation into his 1955 murder. 17. In 2009 investigators found that more than 200 graves had been dug up by cemetery management, remains dumped in unmarked mass graves, children's graves in Baby Land desecrated, and the emptied plots resold; Emmett Till's original open-casket coffin was found in a storage shed with a possum family inside. 18. Cemetery manager Carolyn Towns pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in prison; Emmett Till's restored coffin is now on display at the National Museum of African History in Washington, D.C. 19. The episode's tone alternates between warm and playful banter between hosts and respectful, often somber engagement with the historical weight of the stories; hosts share personal digressions including Cassidy's near-drowsy driving incident in New Hampshire and tubing memories from Duxbury, Massachusetts. 20. Listeners with an interest in paranormal stories, cemetery history, or African-American historical sites will find the most relevant content here; those seeking wilderness trail content or national park adventure stories may find this episode lighter on that material than other episodes.

As heard by us

A dark, low-key detour through graveyards, family history, and one very elegant creepy ring.

This Trail Tales installment leans on a birthday month check-in, a Victorian mourning ring that is equal parts pretty and eerie, and a listener story that moves from a cemetery tour into medium territory. The mix works because the hosts let the odd details breathe.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a spooky, personal Trail Tales detour with cemeteries, ancestry, and one excellent Victorian mourning ring.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from National Park After Dark