Annie and John Olsen stand in front of the house that spurred John to get into paranormal activity on Monday Sept. 2, 2021. They organized ParaX to bring like minded people together to discuss paranormal activity.
HYRUM – John Olsen believes in ghosts. In fact, he has been interviewing and collecting different stories about ghosts for about 30 years. After getting a nudge from his wife Annie he created a gathering for people interested in the paranormal world. They decided to give it a whirl and created Bridgerland ParaX 2021.
On Saturday, Oct. 8, the first ever paranormal expo called Bridgerland ParaX 2021 will be held at the Cache County Events Center.
“I have people coming from all over, but I don’t have a count because we aren’t registering online,” he said. “I’ve had people contact me from as far away as Canada and Mexico about Bridgerland ParaX.”
They have advertised all along the Wasatch Front and on electronic media. Olsen’s scheduled seven speakers and are expecting over 40 booths manned with people selling products as well as displays.
Olsen said there were two similar events scheduled last year in Salt Lake, but they all were canceled due to COVID.
There are people out there with interest in the paranormal looking for gatherings like Olsen’s, he hopes. They have some of the best speakers of paranormal activities in the country.
“Our keynote speaker this year will be Shannon LeGro,” he said. “She is well known in the paranormal world.”
LeGro is the host and producer of Into the Fray and can also be heard as a guest host on the show, Midnight in the Desert.
“She is an author of several books and produces a podcast on anything ghosts, Big Foot or UFO’s,” Olsen said. “I think she will bring a fresh perspective to our ParaX.”
They have acquired a bigfoot cast owned by Roger Patterson for one of the displays at their event.
The life-long Cache Valley resident has been attending paranormal events for years and has spoken in many of them.
He believed the house he was living in was haunted.
His first encounter with paranormal activity came when his family moved into a Hyrum home built in 1883, he was a teenager at the time.
“I began to hear people talking and someone going up and down the stairs in this house at night,” he said. “There was no way to explain it.”
Olsen began to interview people with similar experiences then he wrote books about them. He has written five books about paranormal activity.
He hopes this event will bring a lot of people to the valley and grow to be as big as some of the valley’s other big draws.
Bridgerland ParaX will cost $8 for adults and free for children 12-years and under. Participants can dress up and wear costumes if they want.