THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Marion Cemetery is famous for the legend of the Revolving Ball, a mysterious glowing sphere reportedly seen floating through the cemetery at night. Witnesses have described the light changing direction, vanishing suddenly, and reappearing among the graves. The phenomenon has become one of Ohio's enduring paranormal legends.
Marion Cemetery is a large one with an impressive World War II Memorial, and it’s also famous for its Revolving Ball. It’s a large stone sphere that’s part of the Merchant Family’s plot. In 1896, several small black granite spheres were arranged in a large circle, with a 5-foot-tall granite monument that holds a huge 5,200-lb. black polished-granite sphere. And the giant sphere moves. It’s gradual, so you can’t see it happening. But the unpolished portion at the bottom visibly shifts as the stone turns, and no one knows how or why. A crane was used to move it to its original spot, but it began to move again. Ripley’s Believe It or Not featured the site in 1929.