They called it the burned-over district. It's a nod to a statement by revivalist preacher

Charles Grandison Finney, who felt that the Heidesville, New York area had been consumed by a forest

fire of holy fervor. It was a condition that left residents hardened to religious authority. When those flames

die down and the ashes cooled, the ground became fertile for new religious beliefs. During the harsh

winter of 1847 into 1848, for example, the Fox family, John, Margaret, and their daughters

Kate and Maggie, moved to an unassuming house there,

hoping to find a place to live out their days in peace. But peace would prove to be elusive.

In March of 1848, rapping sounds seemed to come from the girl's bedroom. A search of the

home turned up nothing. On March 31st, Kate imitated the sound by snapping her fingers and clapping.

Through a series of questions requiring the spirit to tap twice for yes and once for no,

the family learned that this ghost was that of a 31-year-old man. He had been murdered in their

house and buried in the cellar. It seemed that Hidesville had a haunted house,

and through them, America had found a new obsession. When Kate and Maggie eventually moved away,

the spirit went with them, helping them blaze a career that lasted decades. Only later did

the pair admit that all of it had been a hoax. Surprisingly, though, their confession did little to stem the popularity of spiritualism.

That's probably because people weren't really looking for a new religious experience.

What they'd actually been searching for were answers.

And knowing the history of the American West, that's easy to understand why.

I'm Aaron Manky, and welcome to the Wild West.

From its very beginnings, the ideas of the New World and America's westward expansion

were closely intertwined with religious conviction.

The belief that Western expansion represented the fulfillment of a divine mission, however,

...