Investigation Report

Investigation Date and Duration:
September 6th, 2008 Arrive 6:00pm / Depart 11:00pm

Location Status:
Seasonal Public Museum and State Historical Site currently active on weekends.

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.

Investigators Present:
Mark          Lauren
Tim            Ken
Jenn          Chris

Location Weather:
Tropical storm Hanna made an appearance, with rain tapering off around 8:00pm. Light wind, warm and damp.

- 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 taken from the gift shop, where movement was captured by one of our

   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.

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.

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.