Secret Cincinnati: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Is it safe to photograph bobolinks at a once-contaminated nuclear weapons plant? Is it possible to channel a medium from whatever realm she inhabits in the afterlife? Is that really a bathtub hanging from the ceiling? Did you know you can watch an unscripted star show with an audience of only eighteen? Find pieces of an exquisite old castle-like building all over the city? Hear a free concert outdoors in the dead of winter? Conduct your own paranormal investigation at a honky-tonk? See the world’s largest steam engines? Browse and buy animal skulls?


Told with wonder, humor, and a big dose of sentimentality, here is a travel guide that lauds those little (and little-known) treasures all over town. From a tower missing its church and a maze you can meditate your way through to a book relating to a real-life beheading and a memorial to the last passenger pigeon, Secret Cincinnati is an exuberant shout-out to all that makes Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky the sometimes weird and always wonderful place it is.

Kathryn Witt is the author of several books, including the historical novel, The Secret of the Belles; Atlanta Georgia: A Photographic Portrait; Contemporary American Doll Artists and their Dolls; and Doll Directory. She has also written three children’s storybook series for Malaysian publisher Penerbitan Pelangi.


A member of the Authors Guild and Midwest Travel Journalists Association, Kathryn is a travel and lifestyle writer whose work appears regularly in Kentucky Living, Georgia, Tribune New Service and Travel Goods Showcase, among other publications. Kathryn is the recipient of numerous awards for her writing, including two Lily scholarships and multiple Mark Twain Travel Writing Awards. She lives in Northern Kentucky.