Ghost Towns in Ohio: Mt. Nebo

The majority of Ohio ghost towns were centered around the mining or railroad industry. The company arrived, built houses for its employees and abruptly left after the mines ran dry or the railroad was no longer needed. Sometimes the company gathered as much as possible, leaving little behind in the town, while sometimes the town still survived after the company moved on. This caused many small towns in Ohio to become ghost towns, but some have a different history, such as Mt. Nebo, Ohio.

Mt. Nebo was most known for the Spiritualists who inhabited the area. The area surrounding Athens, Ohio was sparsely populated by human life, but had an abundance of wild animals, and rolling hills. While there weren't a lot of settlers in the area during the 1800s, there was a large population of people interested in mysticism who believed in Spiritualism. During this time in American history, Spiritualism was rising in popularity and accepted in the mainstream. In Mt. Nebo, the family most known was the Koons family.

Jonathon Koons was a devout atheist who called Mt. Nebo home. He moved to the town hoping to draw attention to some fake spiritualists who practiced in the Athens area, but discovered that he believed in a young girl in the area, who claimed to connect to the spirt world. She would ask questions, and receive her answers through tapping on the table. This was one of the most popular ways spiritualists in the 19^th century claimed to connect to the spirt world, and history has since shown that most of those accounts can be explained as the work of charlatans.