InvestigationDate
and Duration: September
6th, 2008 Arrive 6:00pm / Depart
11:00pm
Location
Status:
Seasonal Public Museum and State
Historical Site currently active on
weekends.
Reported
Activity:
Activity
has been reported over many years at this location, such as the
sighting of an
apparition of a little girl in the field between the school house and
the gallery, a man in beige coveralls witnessed in several areas on the
grounds, a woman with a candle seen in the window of the old gift shop,
a woman seen in the window of the school house and a man in the
doctor's
area of the main museum building. Other claims include visitors being
touched inside the school house, technical problems with battery
powered devices, such as cameras with fresh batteries going dead,
cameras shutting off when someone is trying to take a picture and
anomalies showing up on film. During the yearly ghost walk tours in
October of last year (2007) , tour guides reported leaving the school
house with an inside book cabinet secured, only to return a while later
with another group to find the cabinet door open and books pulled out.
Equipment: DVR
System with four IR cameras
Digital
Cameras (3)
Digital
Voice Recorders (7)
EMF
gauge (3)
PC
Computer
Laser
(1)
Camcorders
w/ night shot (4)
IR
Boosters (4)
Flashlights
Investigators
Present: Mark
Lauren
Tim
Ken
Jenn
Chris
Guest
Investigators:
Christina Button – Historian
Location
Weather: Tropical
storm Hanna made an appearance, with rain tapering off around 8:00pm.
Light wind, warm and damp.
Technical
Notes:
-
During
a short video interview with the clients at 7:45PM, about 45
seconds of footage was recorded on a Mini DV camcorder. The
record icon was active and the counter was advancing, but when
played back
at a later time, no footage was recorded on the Mini DV cassette. The
correct amount of time had passed with no recorded data showing. The
camera was activated once again a few minutes later and used for the
duration of the investigation with all footage recorded.
-
At 8:34PM Ken had reported his fully charged walkie-talkie battery
being
almost completely drained after a half hour of use in the old gift
shop. A fully charged battery should have had many hours of time left.
- Shortly after 9:30PM, while Jenn and Lauren were present in the gift
shop, Jenn began taking digital pictures. After three or more pictures
were taken with no problems, the digital camera began to shut off by
itself when additional pictures were being taken. This happened several
times within the next 20 minutes and the
battery was fully charged at
the time.
These
occurrences coincide with reports from the Village of rapid battery
loss on equipment, such as on digital cameras and other interference
with electrical devices.
EVP
(Electronic Voice Phenomenon) Audio: Recorder #1 “School
house” – No physical evidence
captured on this device at the
time of the investigation. Recorder was stationary in front of room.
Recorder #2 "Main
Gallery" –
No physical evidence captured on this device at the
time of the investigation. Recorder was stationary in
doctor’s area.
Recorder
#3 "Mobile" – No
physical evidence captured on this device at the
time of the investigation.
Recorder #4 “Old
Gift Shop” - No physical evidence captured on
this device at the time of the investigation. Recorder was stationary
in the middle of the room.
Recorder
#5 “Mobile”
- No physical evidence captured on this
device at the
time of the investigation.
Recorder
#6 “Mobile”
- No physical evidence captured on this
device at the
time of the investigation.
Recorder
#7 “Mobile”
- No physical evidence captured on this
device at the
time of the investigation.
Video: DVR
Cam1 - (Gallery
– focused on spin wheel area) No physical evidence
captured on this device at the time of the investigation.
DVR Cam2
- (Gallery
– focused
on long hallway and doctor's area) No physical evidence captured on
this
device at the time of the investigation.
DVR Cam3
- (Gallery – focused
on doctor's area) No physical evidence captured on this device at the
time of the investigation.
DVR Cam4
- (Gallery – focused
on hearse area) No physical evidence captured on this device at the
time of the investigation.
Camcorder
#4
- At 9:20PM,
Camcorder #4,
which was placed stationary in the
old gift shop, facing the front left window where an apparition of a
woman was reported, began to move on its own. The camera jumps to the
right and slowly pans back to the left. For the next minute or so, the
camera shot moves again in various manners. No one was in the building
at this time. The camera was checked for malfunctions, however this
could
not be duplicated. It could not be determined if the camcorder itself
was actually moved because the movement was so small and the view
remained
facing the same direction in the end. The anomaly
has not occurred since.
Here's
a clip of the video takenfrom
the gift shop, where
movement
was captured by one of our
camcorders.
What do you think, camera movement or malfunction?
The below clip is
from the
school house, where three investigators are present but out of
view.
Although what was captured is not paranormal, the
investigators do not
see, hear or react to this event in any way. You can hear
one
of the investigators calmly say
flash before you see the camera flash.
Photographs:
No photos of evidential value were discovered.
EMF
(Electro Magnetic Field): Standard
baseline readings were taken throughout the buildings and outlying
areas. No abnormal readings were present during the investigation.
Investigator
Feelings / Experiences
Jenn
– During the investigation in the Gift Shop
with Lauren, Jenn started to get tightness in her
chest. She had opened the door
for some relief, with no change. After moving to her next destination
(the gallery), Jenn was fine.
Here is the old gift shop
where Jenn
had a feeling of tightness in
her chest, cameras malfunctioned and
one of our camcorders captured movement.
Chris–
During the investigation in the main gallery with Kenny,
near the doctor’s area, Chris witnessed what looked like a
shadow of a person walk from right to left
between the gallery and the white post office building next door
through the window. Chris
and Ken immediately called for everyone’s location and
ascertained that no one was walking in this area. Lauren and Jenn were
in a position at the time away from the gallery, but close enough to
observe that no one was walking in that area. There was no light source
that could have cast a shadow in this area and Ken and Chris could not
reproduce the event, despite several attempts to produce a shadow there.
In
the background is the post office where Chris witnessed a shadow walk
from right to left between the two buildings. Chris was in the main
gallery, which can be seen in the foreground, when something moving
outside the window caught his eye.
Mark
–
During the investigation in the main gallery near the old hearse, Mark
heard what he believed was music playing very faintly for several
seconds. When mentioning that to Tim and Christina, Christina stated
that she heard the same thing. No audio recorders present picked up the
sound.
Lauren - No
experiences reported.
Ken -No experiences
reported.
Tim
- No experiences reported.
Conclusion: Based
on
staff and visitor claims of activity in certain areas, the
investigation at this location focused on four buildings including the
main gallery, the old gift shop, the school house and the carriage
barn.
Within
the first half hour of investigating, investigators began to have
trouble with some equipment, including one of our walkie-talkie
batteries going dead from a fully charged state and the failure of one
of our camcorders to record a segment of footage with no logical reason.
As the investigation progressed through the night, other equipment
malfunctions and anomalies were noted and investigators reported a few
personal experiences, including seeing a shadow of a
person and hearing music in the gallery.
Much of
the staff and many visitors have reported the same type of experiences
over the years and, although no undeniable proof of a haunting was
discovered, we do believe that there is some paranormal activity
occurring at this location.