Rambling Man: August 2026

Monday, August 31, 2026

PEWEE FALLS 082625

Pewee Falls in Northeastern Washington near the border of British Columbia at Boundary Lake/Pend Oreille River in Colville National Forest.

MEDICINE BOW WY

The near ghost town of Medicine Bow Wyoming - Summer 2021

Villisca Iowa Ax Murder House - Summer 2024. Site of a famous unsolved murder in 1912. An entire family of 6, along with 2 girls from another family who were visiting, were bludgeoned by an axe in the early morning hours. No one was ever convicted. In my opinion, there is about a 75% probability that it was the schizophrenic Reverend Kelly, the man who confessed to the crime but then changed his story and was not convicted at trial because his confession was considered unreliable. If not him, then about a 25% chance it was a serial killer traveling by train. I don't think it was the local state senator who was also a suspect.

Axe mark on one of the bedroom ceilings. I was surprised at how short the ceilings were. This strengthens the likelihood that Reverend Kelly could have been the killer. One of the arguments against him being the killer was that he was a small, short man, however, the ceilings in the room were so short that if he was swinging wildly in a frenzy the axe could have still hit the ceiling, even from his shorter height. Although he wouldn't have ordinarily appeared strong enough to carry out such physical brutality, a person in the midst of psychosis can exhibit great strength due to a rush of adrenaline.

Another axe mark on the ceiling in one of the bedrooms. The killer used the blunt end of the axe to smash in his victims and, several times, the sharp end struck the ceilings on the back swing and left indentations.

Evidence was found that the killer hid in this attic. I spent several minutes alone in this spot, it was smaller than I expected, more like a crawlspace. At one point, while I was photographing this space, for several seconds I noticed small bright green balls in my camera view, shooting out like a stream. Unfortunately, none of them were captured in any of my photos. Were they orbs? Or maybe just dust particles in sunlight from the other side playing tricks with the camera?