Colorado Woman’s Connections to the Dead Named the Ouija Board

Over the years, the Ouija Board has been the subject of countless scary movies, sleepovers, and even some frightening real-life paranormal experiences.

While it would be easy to assume that the Ouija Board has been around for hundreds of years, it's not as old as you may think and has a wild and spooky connection with Colorado.

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Colorado Woman Was Asked to Help Name Ouija Board

Helen Peters Nosworthy was a spiritual medium with strong connections with the dead which we'll explain further later, who was living in Colorado with her husband when she received an odd request back in 1890.

At the time, Elijah Bond and Charles Kennard were working on mass-producing what was known as a spirit board, a tool used by psychic mediums to contact the dead. After approaching Nosworthy, she agreed to conduct a seance with the pair and the board allegedly spelled out the word "Ouija" which, according to the spirit, meant "good luck."

Colorado Woman Helps Ouija Board Receive Patent

The next step for the pair was to obtain a patent for the newly-named board which proved to be a difficult task. However, after several failed attempts to win over employees at the United States Patent Office, the director of the office asked to participate in a seance in which the spirit allegedly spelled out his name which was unbeknownst to the other participants at the time and the patent was granted.

Colorado Woman Rejects the Ouija Board

As mentioned above, Nosworthy's sensitivity to the spiritual world began early in her life as while living in the south during the Civil War, she and her siblings would collect buttons from the clothes of war casualties near their home.

Years later after naming the board, the collection of buttons mysteriously disappeared and to remain on good terms with her siblings who wanted nothing to do with the spiritual realm or the Ouija Board, Nosworthy herself denounced it until she died in 1940.

Check out the full story on the Strange Colorado Podcast.