How dose an Urban Legend get started?

      In the case of Circustown U.S.A. in Butler, Pa it started when the Keffalas Brothers started a small circus in their large pasture. Pete Keffalas a contractor and mechanical engineer designed and built an 80-building complex on a swamp, which he had drained and reclaimed. Pete had acquired a small zoo in West Virginia bringing the animals to his land in Pa. Their small circus was a stop for other circus performers traveling the country as well. But the main attraction was always the animals he could have saved himself a lot of trouble by just calling it a zoo. But Mr. Keffalas loved the circus and was a member of the Circus Fans of America till his death. While the circus was a fun roadside attraction it never had popularity of the big circuses of the day, and sadly the cost to feed and house the animal was about 500 dollars a month in 1971 or about 2000 if it was today. It was a labor of love for the family and friends who ran the circus and took great care of the animals and safety of the public. There were events that could have lead to parts of the legend but nothing having to do with any deaths. Like the summer a bull elk escaped from its enclosure and ran loose for a week. Being in the middle of the mating season this could have been a great danger to the public. Mr. Keffalas found out that the elk was making regular visits back to a favored member of his harem, he was meeting her a crossed the fence. Pete used the old trail of food trick to lure the elk back into the enclosure. In the end the power of love or at least sex, saved the beast and the general public from impending danger but it may have also started part of the legend at the same time. Some time in 1971 the laws regarding the keeping of wild animals changed. While the Keffalas’s kept great care of the animals; the new laws would have made it very costly to keep the circus going. So in 1971 Mr. Keffalas donated most of the animals to the Pittsburgh Zoo keeping only the burros and a few other farm animals and geese. Circustown closed it’s gates in 1971 but for years the Keffalas family still sent the calliope he built for parades out with his and other children in costumes, keeping the dream alive if only a day at a time.

     With the circus closed and the animals in the Pittsburgh Zoo the paint on the old steel buildings started to fade and soon rust appeared and the high grass soon over ran the fields and the once great location quickly fell into disrepair. All that was left was the building and the old road signs that pointed to the location. Soon local kids not knowing the real story of why it closed found out about it. The kids saw the location as a kind of mystery, myself included. As teenagers it was just a scary looking place no one really knew anything about and yes I was one of the people who trespassed when I was a kid, for that I ’m sorry, we were young and it was very exciting. When you went inside there were still bones left in the cages. There were all the old side show games that people would play, there were old stuffed animals lying around. It was for the best of terms a ghost town that time had just forgotten. But like any strange place after dark it took on a life of its own, there was the sense of danger that the owners or the state police might catch you and there was the sound of the steel buildings cooling in the night air. Any time you’re in a place like that your mind can start to play tricks on you. You start to see shadows and things that are just not there. So when the story that one of the wild animals got loose and went crazy and killed a bunch of people. Everyone believed it and the urban legend was born and the fact that the family didn’t want to talk about it only fed into the story. That was over twenty years ago and the legend still lives on to this day because very little is really known about the truth other than a news paper story only a few have read. There are a lot of people who know of the urban legend in fact the name and story found its way into a song and on the cd cover of a mainstream band.

        As for Circustown today most of the old buildings are far too dangerous for anyone to go into and the main gate is in such a state of disrepair you can only just make out that it once said Welcome to Circustown U.S.A.. Sadly history as forgotten most of the names of the people and things once kept behind a gate now closed for forty years. All that is left is the stories both the real one and the urban legend that has been told, retold and changed over the years. Maybe because of the fact that the real story was so uneventful, no one remembers it or that the urban legend is just such a good story that it lives on.

       I think it falls under the fact that everyone loves a good ghost story and please don’t get me wrong I love a good ghost story, but in the field of paranormal investigation we have to deal in fact not fiction. We have to protect our creditability because it is very important not only to groups and individuals but the paranormal community as a whole. That is why when you do an investigation wither it’s an urban legend or someone’s house or business you have to spend time doing background research. Remember about 60% or more of any investigation needs to be done in the light of day. Now days there are so many places we can check out a story, We have the Internet, (keep in mind you will most likely find the urban legend there too) The Local Historical Society, (even most small towns have one these days) The Public Library, (most have old newspapers on microfilm and some have a genealogy section) and at the Local Court House you can find out who owned the property in the past and present. I still think one of the best is still interviewing the people who own the land itself. Most land owners know a least some of the history of the land and it should give you a place to start looking for other history. Ask them if you can visit the location yourself and tell them what you are doing and why, they might have stories you have never herd, but never trespass. We as adults in the paranormal community should know better and it’s breaking the law to trespass so just don’t do it.

Please remember Circustown is still private property and is posted

 No Trespassing

     The background for this story came from the Butler County Historical Society, an article in the Pittsburgh Press from 1975 that used information from The Keffalas Family itself

There are two main things to remember about urban legends

Just because someone says there is ghost there dose not mean there is one

And

Just because it’s an urban legend dose not mean there is not paranormal activity.

More importantly always remember what we know about the paranormal is paramount to

“A drop of water in a bucket thrown into the ocean”

 Best of Luck and Good Research            

George Richardson of G&K Paranormal