Okie Pinokie

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The Okie Pinokie Woods, according to local legend, are full of disembodied spirits. One of the many legends about the place centers on Joey Peoria, a young man who disappeared while camping in 1976. Brutally murdered men began showing up in the area, and folks say it was Joey who murdered them.

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Geographic Information

Address:
N 40° 44.172 W 085° 57.696
United States

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GPS:
40.72901061117148, -85.96512293763226
County:
Miami County, Indiana
Nearest Towns:
Peru, IN (5.7 mi.)
Somerset, IN (8.3 mi.)
Mount Vernon, IN (8.5 mi.)
Bunker Hill, IN (8.6 mi.)
Wabash, IN (8.9 mi.)
Amboy, IN (9.0 mi.)
Mexico, IN (10.2 mi.)
Grissom Air Force Base, IN (10.8 mi.)
Denver, IN (11.1 mi.)
Converse, IN (11.5 mi.)
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Comments (34)

  1. I am a paranormal investigator.My team and I have been to Okie.We have voices on digital voice recorders.We also had some sort of contact because our K2 meters went off. One voice we captured says “Some of us are here.”

    • I would like to hear that because I’ve been out there at least 100 times. Different times of night. Sometimes by myself and I never heard anything in the dead silence. No, I don’t have equipment. That’s why having actual proof would be nice. I’m not criticizing or trying to be rude. It probably seems that way, I just think people get spooked really bad up there and they exaggerate.

    • Guy McAlister  |  
      Reply ↓

      I don’t know anything of this Joey Peoria either.I believe it to be just a legend.Another legend about the place is that a brother and sister,who lived somewhere near Okie,walked back there one day.Legend says that the the boy had mental issues.He raped and murdered his sister back there.This may be where the “Stephanie” name comes from.However,the legnd never states what the girl’s name really is and no one can really substantiate any truth to the legend.It is truth that the area was once the Osandiah Reserve of the Miamis and many of them lived there.Was also a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the time of the Great Depression.

      • Hi my name is Sherry I was skeptical about this place also but I wanted to see for myself just moved to Indiana a year ago I live in Wabash I did go there not only did I catch a lot of voices but I talked to a little girl I don’t know who she was she just said that she was trapped and she was crying and scared some people call what I have a gift I call it a curse I’ve been able to see spirits since I was 5 however I did see a shadow black figure telling me to leave I asked his name he said it was Joey who he is I don’t know but I have not been back I did not have good vibes that is a place of sadness evilness don’t want to go back there

      • Jadyn Bovadilla  |  
        Reply ↓

        I’ve heard another legend with the same name Stephanie and I guess some people took her back there, I don’t remember if they were her friends or random people. They chained her to a tree close by the turn around (the tree supposedly has an X from the chains) they tortured her till they killed her. Like I said I don’t remember half the stuff it said but I’ve also heard there is a cemetery back somewhere in there

    • I was just there with a small group of friends and we heard a lot of different sounds. First weird sound was almost like a baby crying. The next was chains. We then decided to head back to our cars and ended up leaving the trail following our compass. On our way we all head a seriously weird sound. It sounded almost like a bullfrog at the beginning that dragged into almost an owl.

  2. Went out to Okie on April 1st 2015. We was there for maybe 5 mins when we first heard the first of 5 screams. I actually got one on video. We also took a tape recorder and got what sounds like a voice answering us yes when we asked if some one was there. On the way back from hiking up one of the trails one of the individuals with us stated he got shoved. Once back at the safe circle and in the car he removed his sweat shirt and on his arm was 4 red marks that looked like finger prints. I am a very skeptical person and been on several ghost hunts and have never experienced anything like what I did that night. I will be going back out again to try and gather more information.

  3. This place is DEFINITELY haunted no doubt about it except some nights there are more activity than other nights. I’ve heard the whistle in the woods to seeing shadow figures when walking down the lane to the circle you get this omnious uneasy feeling that you’re being watched and unwanted it’s beautiful during the day time and a great place to check out !

  4. My friends and I used to go to Okie Pinokie back in the day. We haven’t been there in about 8 years, but it’s really not that bad. The noises people usually hear are the tall trees swaying in the wind. It sounds like creaking boards or low moans. We got lost out there one night around 3a.m. and other than getting stuck in the mud and not being able to find our way back in the dark, nothing happened. We’ve heard cows moo-ing from in the distance and a lot of people come out there to camp. It’s become WAY too popular now so I won’t go there, but it used to be pretty cool and creepy.

  5. Also, it isn’t mentioned in the description of this place, but there is a sign when you are driving back there. There used to be anyway. It said ‘Mississinewa Battlegrounds” and there was a description of some important man who fought and died. I think it says something like that. I don’t know anything about a “Joey Peoria”. Or anyone being murdered, but it’d be a good place to kill someone (just being honest). The road back to it is scary enough at night. It is really easy to get lost too. So yea, I just think people get really scared out there and they make themselves see things or hear things. The mind can do that, and it is fun and exciting. But I wouldn’t say haunted.

  6. My friends and I have gotten lost in the woods from midnight to almost 3 am and we had a tape recorder and not once while being there did we hear or see anything. Although one of my friends that was behind the group had said she felt someone touch her back as if they were trying to grab her. And no one was behind her.

  7. Me and somes friends jst got back we saw a black like figure walking in the woods def not human and as were leaving the lil round about area it was chasing us bouncing from going in and out of the woods till we got out of the woods and then we saw it just standing there like it couldn’t leave and as we were leaving we saw a pair of black and white converse shoes that looked to b kid shoes that had fresh blood on them

  8. I was there fishing a few years ago with my brother. The only thing that I can say that was weird about the place was the feeling of death and silence. It was completely, silent, no birds or trees moving and nothing moving in the woods. Also, there were hundreds of dead fish washed up on the bank of the river (multiple species). There were two dead dogs in garbage bags, and a dead deer was lying in the middle of the circle.. Made me feel uneasy. Also, I tried yelling down to my brother, who was was down river, and he couldn’t hear me. The water was calm, no wind, and no other noises. He was only about 40 yards away. Weird

  9. We weren’t able to capture anything on our trip because 3 minutes after walking into the woods our fully charged camera batteries were drained. When we got out there were teens waiting and asking all kinds of questions and then they drove away, we passed them later just sitting on the side of a road.

    • Bring a compass. It’s easy to get lost even though the woods is pretty small. Walking a long the corn fields and up that looking drive to your car sucks. I’ve done it many occasion. Bring water and an open mind.

  12. Some friends and I visited several years ago. I had a digital camera at the time, and just started walking around taking random pics. One of the pics contains what I believe to be exhaust from one of our vehicles, however, there seems to be some kind of demonic face in the exhaust. It looks like 1/2 a demon face looking straight at the camera. I’ve attached the picture. It’s in no way photoshopped or altered. Some people see the face, some don’t. Pretty creepy…

  15. Some years ago. My fiance and I made a trip to check the place out. Which, for those thinking about it, is VERY remote despite its locale amd being part of a park system.
    From our experience theres more than human spirits. She’s sensitive and the “locals” were very curious about us as we weren’t the usual sort to visit. We did see all manner figures moving around. Its very hard to explain. It looked kinda like the camoflage effect in Predator, only far far less defined. And it was directly in front of us, not peripheral. No shadows, not an effect of overlapping branches or plants.
    On the way back to the car, we did see a large shadow move up a tree. Luckily it was a perfect day in spring. No clouds, and no foliage to obscure our view. Nothing in the sky to cast the shadow.
    It was an interesting trip.

  16. Pretty trashy place. Not kept up or monitored like a typical state forest. My 7 year old said it best, “this place is haunted, haunted by grossness.”

  19. Is it bad that I have grown up around that place and this is the first I’ve heard of this? This scares me a bit, how many times have I seen something around that place and thought it was my imagination…

  20. me and 2 other friends went out to this place about 8 or 9 years ago. we arrived at between 11 or 12 midnight on a perfect summer night. we got to the roundabout and parked leaving the car on and had our windows down and my friend sitting in the back passenger seat was shining his flashlight out the window. we were about to get out to go on the trail when something hit the back passenger door very hard as if someone threw a good sized rock at it. we left in right away. when we got back to town we stopped at a local bank parking lot that had good lighting so I could check if there was any damage done. when we checked the door there was a large dent left by whatever hit. what we noticed about the car that was even more evidence that something is out there is this: when driving on the gravel road the car collected a lot of dust and was covered. when checking the door at the bank parking lot, we noticed many small hand prints all over the car that were not there before which was very creepy. I am skeptical about these supernatural things but after this strange experience, i am a bit more open minded. if anyone here has had a similar experience please let me know. my email address is purdueeegrad2011@gmail.com.

  21. Well I just recently came across this and I found it really interesting so I wanted to look up what really happened…however there’s nothing…No record what so ever of a joey peoria, no record that he was born here, lived here, and if the “legend” is true that he is missing. If he were in fact missing he would be on the list of missing persons. I can find no records of his “friends” surely there would have been reports but nothing. Also I can find no information of a little girl found there either, seems another bogus story everyone spreads but noone checks the facts on.

    • I too noticed no reports of anything. Your right “Joey” would be on the missing persons database they have cases much older than this supposedly is. Also suspicious not a single one of his murdered friends names are ever mentioned. There would’ve been articles about them. The legend isn’t even that old in reality, many of the “victims” family members would still be alive and there would be more evidence had this been true. There is also a legend of the old JC Knight High School in Jonesboro IN, from the 70’s. Problem with that one is my mom went to that high school in the 70’s and knows that the events never took place. People just like to make things up to scare others.

  22. Does anyone know if Joey is hiding in the woods or have a picture of him? It really makes me sad how nobody has tried to find him or bring him back into society.

  23. My wife and I visited several years ago. It was a day trip. Walking the “main” trail it wasnt long before we started to catch glimpses of figures moving about in the forest.

    The figures were quite close actually, sometimes within just a few feet. And in our direct line of sight. What we “saw” was, for lack of better description, much like the Predator in the movies only less defined. But you could definitely tell. It wasnt until reddit, of all places, Ive found people using the same or similar description.

    Apart from the figures that seemed as curious about us. Whe did see a very distinct shadow in a tree. It was a perfect day in early spring. Leaves just starting and not a cloud in the sky. Even in the forest, nothing really obsured our view of any potential bird or aircraft.

    Also there was a curious instance that brought us both to a pause to see if the other had noticed what we had. We had each noticed, as we went back to our car, the distinct sound of a leave skipping down the trail behind us. Against the wind! It was loud and distinctly coming up behind us.
    It was an very interesting day. Theres definitely more than ghosts out there, IF there are ghosts.
    For the curious. Id suggest caution(especially on the mundane level its VERY remote), rather than fear, and simply be respectful of the forest and whomever it is that calls it home.

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