Mark Todd's Blog, page 5
June 19, 2015
Using ITC & EVP for paranormal investigation - ITC & EVP, Pt 1
Paranormal investigation has its share of esoteric alphabet soup, and skeptics have developed an equally bewildering array of specialized jargon to propose alternative explanations.
When we committed to serious paranormal inquiries for our book WILD WEST GHOSTS, we decided to employ an investigative approach called ITC -- Instrumental TransCommunication. In a nutshell, ITC is the investigative strategy of using electronic devices to elicit communication with the Other Side.
Seemed like the right approach for us since neither of us has much -- okay, let's be honest, *any* -- psychic ability.
We relied upon a number of specific devices, including electromagnetic field meters (add EMF to the soup). Most ghost hunters operate under the assumption that disincarnate entities draw upon electromagnetic energy to manifest or communicate in the physical realm. (Yes, that's a big assumption -- one we'll come back to later.) Establishing baseline readings first, investigators can then monitor fluctuations in EMF that might indicate the presence or interactive willingness of a spirit.
Our primary GB: an EchoVox,
which generates sounds
rather than words, but
also a reverberating
feedback loop of soundsWe also used more conventional electronic devices such as digital cameras, camcorders, and digital audio recorders, but we decided to use Ghost Boxes as well (often referred to as GB in the trade). A fairly new innovation, ghost (or spirit) boxes provide a flow of potential sounds or words that, again in theory, spirits can manipulate in order to communicate with investigators. Many such devices rely on rapidly and randomly scanned radio frequencies (RF) as a source of ready words. Others fall into a category that generates random phonetics or phonemes only, requiring spirit manipulators to splice together provided sounds in order to create words or phrases.
The words that come through either a ghost box or digital recorder are collectively called EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon).
Ghost box technology is new enough that many within the paranormal community itself are still skeptical of the phenomena; at the same time, the results of these devices have garnered many strong advocates.
As n00bs to the field, we were oblivious to this in-house controversy and jumped right in, using a ghost box during all our own investigations. We also got immediate -- sometimes startling -- results.
Just to be clear: we were operators, not sound engineers, and hadn't a clue how long the technology had existed or how it worked. Think of us as drivers rather than mechanics. But since we started offering our GB findings as evidence of the paranormal, we soon realized we needed to get a better handle on just what was going on.
We can't help but break into something of a wry smile at skeptical tirades that paranormal investigations employ "pseudoscience." Wry because of the Copenhagan Interpretation of quantum mechanics. (Let's add quantum mechanics to the alphabet soup as QM.) Quantum theory underpins much contemporary electronics -- from transistor radios to lasers to quantum computing. Even though no one can figure out how it works at the quantum level, QM works 100 percent of the time.
So scientists find themselves on the horns of a dilemma: either accept they can't explain it (yet) and use it anyway, or continue to wrestle with the inexplicable. It's like a black box no one can see into but which "spits out" correct answers every time. To accept that it works and let it go at that (QM whiz kid Richard Feynman's ultimate solution) seems metaphysical and unscientific. But that's where QM theory stands.
Ghost boxes are something a "black box" as well. The engineering and circuitry aren't that mysterious -- the devices either scan RF signals or else generate their own random phonemes -- but what results from GB-generated sounds in a paranormal investigation -- that's a whole other realm, literally. Results can seem spot on and undeniable in context.
But do they originate from the supernatural?
We've come full circle to the assumption EVP represent disincarnate voices of personalities surviving into another realm. But the assumption is huge. It's like a potentially faulty syllogism -- the logical construction of two premises and a conclusion in the form of "if A is true, and B is true, then C is true." For EVP, the syllogism might read this way:
A: Ghost boxes produce EVPB: EVP are voices of the deadC: Therefore, ghost boxes produce voices of the dead.To accept this syllogism, paranormal investigators have to build a convincing argument that premise B is true. That, or resort to a version of the Copenhagen Interpretation, allowing the sounds that come out of ghost boxes as a kind of black box we can't explain.
Is there enough collaborative evidence to accept premise B? That's the important question, and the focus of the next article.
* * *
Click here to read the next article in this series, which delves into the history of the GB as well as the nature of EVP, plus share some resources for those who, like us, want more answers.
Remember that our new book WILD WEST GHOSTS is out, exploring 14 haunted hotels in southwest Colorado -- including a lot of ITC and EVP evidence. It's available now as a trade paperback from Amazon and Barnes&Noble. Also available as a Kindle e-book.
Check out our FB page for book talks and readings we're offering in the weeks ahead.
Happy hunting!
When we committed to serious paranormal inquiries for our book WILD WEST GHOSTS, we decided to employ an investigative approach called ITC -- Instrumental TransCommunication. In a nutshell, ITC is the investigative strategy of using electronic devices to elicit communication with the Other Side.Seemed like the right approach for us since neither of us has much -- okay, let's be honest, *any* -- psychic ability.
We relied upon a number of specific devices, including electromagnetic field meters (add EMF to the soup). Most ghost hunters operate under the assumption that disincarnate entities draw upon electromagnetic energy to manifest or communicate in the physical realm. (Yes, that's a big assumption -- one we'll come back to later.) Establishing baseline readings first, investigators can then monitor fluctuations in EMF that might indicate the presence or interactive willingness of a spirit.
Our primary GB: an EchoVox,which generates sounds
rather than words, but
also a reverberating
feedback loop of soundsWe also used more conventional electronic devices such as digital cameras, camcorders, and digital audio recorders, but we decided to use Ghost Boxes as well (often referred to as GB in the trade). A fairly new innovation, ghost (or spirit) boxes provide a flow of potential sounds or words that, again in theory, spirits can manipulate in order to communicate with investigators. Many such devices rely on rapidly and randomly scanned radio frequencies (RF) as a source of ready words. Others fall into a category that generates random phonetics or phonemes only, requiring spirit manipulators to splice together provided sounds in order to create words or phrases.
The words that come through either a ghost box or digital recorder are collectively called EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon).
Ghost box technology is new enough that many within the paranormal community itself are still skeptical of the phenomena; at the same time, the results of these devices have garnered many strong advocates.
As n00bs to the field, we were oblivious to this in-house controversy and jumped right in, using a ghost box during all our own investigations. We also got immediate -- sometimes startling -- results.
Just to be clear: we were operators, not sound engineers, and hadn't a clue how long the technology had existed or how it worked. Think of us as drivers rather than mechanics. But since we started offering our GB findings as evidence of the paranormal, we soon realized we needed to get a better handle on just what was going on.
We can't help but break into something of a wry smile at skeptical tirades that paranormal investigations employ "pseudoscience." Wry because of the Copenhagan Interpretation of quantum mechanics. (Let's add quantum mechanics to the alphabet soup as QM.) Quantum theory underpins much contemporary electronics -- from transistor radios to lasers to quantum computing. Even though no one can figure out how it works at the quantum level, QM works 100 percent of the time.
So scientists find themselves on the horns of a dilemma: either accept they can't explain it (yet) and use it anyway, or continue to wrestle with the inexplicable. It's like a black box no one can see into but which "spits out" correct answers every time. To accept that it works and let it go at that (QM whiz kid Richard Feynman's ultimate solution) seems metaphysical and unscientific. But that's where QM theory stands.
Ghost boxes are something a "black box" as well. The engineering and circuitry aren't that mysterious -- the devices either scan RF signals or else generate their own random phonemes -- but what results from GB-generated sounds in a paranormal investigation -- that's a whole other realm, literally. Results can seem spot on and undeniable in context.
But do they originate from the supernatural?
We've come full circle to the assumption EVP represent disincarnate voices of personalities surviving into another realm. But the assumption is huge. It's like a potentially faulty syllogism -- the logical construction of two premises and a conclusion in the form of "if A is true, and B is true, then C is true." For EVP, the syllogism might read this way:
A: Ghost boxes produce EVPB: EVP are voices of the deadC: Therefore, ghost boxes produce voices of the dead.To accept this syllogism, paranormal investigators have to build a convincing argument that premise B is true. That, or resort to a version of the Copenhagen Interpretation, allowing the sounds that come out of ghost boxes as a kind of black box we can't explain.
Is there enough collaborative evidence to accept premise B? That's the important question, and the focus of the next article.
* * *
Click here to read the next article in this series, which delves into the history of the GB as well as the nature of EVP, plus share some resources for those who, like us, want more answers. Remember that our new book WILD WEST GHOSTS is out, exploring 14 haunted hotels in southwest Colorado -- including a lot of ITC and EVP evidence. It's available now as a trade paperback from Amazon and Barnes&Noble. Also available as a Kindle e-book.
Check out our FB page for book talks and readings we're offering in the weeks ahead.
Happy hunting!
Using ITC & EVP for paranormal investigation
Paranormal investigation has its share of esoteric alphabet soup, and skeptics have developed an equally bewildering array of specialized jargon to propose alternative explanations.
When we committed to serious paranormal inquiries for our book WILD WEST GHOSTS, we decided to employ an investigative approach called ITC -- Instrumental TransCommunication. In a nutshell, ITC is the investigative strategy of using electronic devices to elicit communication with the Other Side.
Seemed like the right approach for us since neither of us has much -- okay, let's be honest, *any* -- psychic ability.
We relied upon a number of specific devices, including electromagnetic field meters (add EMF to the soup). Most ghost hunters operate under the assumption that disincarnate entities draw upon electromagnetic energy to manifest or communicate in the physical realm. (Yes, that's a big assumption -- one we'll come back to later.) Establishing baseline readings first, investigators can then monitor fluctuations in EMF that might indicate the presence or interactive willingness of a spirit.
Our primary GB: an EchoVox,
which generates sounds
rather than words, but
also a reverberating
feedback loop of soundsWe also used more conventional electronic devices such as digital cameras, camcorders, and digital audio recorders, but we decided to use Ghost Boxes as well (often referred to as GB in the trade). A fairly new innovation, ghost (or spirit) boxes provide a flow of potential sounds or words that, again in theory, spirits can manipulate in order to communicate with investigators. Many such devices rely on rapidly and randomly scanned radio frequencies (RF) as a source of ready words. Others fall into a category that generates random phonetics or phonemes only, requiring spirit manipulators to splice together provided sounds in order to create words or phrases.
The words that come through either a ghost box or digital recorder are collectively called EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon).
Ghost box technology is new enough that many within the paranormal community itself are still skeptical of the phenomena; at the same time, the results of these devices have garnered many strong advocates.
As n00bs to the field, we were oblivious to this in-house controversy and jumped right in, using a ghost box during all our own investigations. We also got immediate -- sometimes startling -- results.
Just to be clear: we were operators, not sound engineers, and hadn't a clue how long the technology had existed or how it worked. Think of us as drivers rather than mechanics. But since we started offering our GB findings as evidence of the paranormal, we soon realized we needed to get a better handle on just what was going on.
We can't help but break into something of a wry smile at skeptical tirades that paranormal investigations employ "pseudoscience." Wry because of the Copenhagan Interpretation of quantum mechanics. (Let's add quantum mechanics to the alphabet soup as QM.) Quantum theory underpins much contemporary electronics -- from transistor radios to lasers to quantum computing. Even though no one can figure out how it works at the quantum level, QM works 100 percent of the time.
So scientists find themselves on the horns of a dilemma: either accept they can't explain it (yet) and use it anyway, or continue to wrestle with the inexplicable. It's like a black box no one can see into but which "spits out" correct answers every time. To accept that it works and let it go at that (QM whiz kid Richard Feynman's ultimate solution) seems metaphysical and unscientific. But that's where QM theory stands.
Ghost boxes are something a "black box" as well. The engineering and circuitry aren't that mysterious -- the devices either scan RF signals or else generate their own random phonemes -- but what results from GB-generated sounds in a paranormal investigation -- that's a whole other realm, literally. Results can seem spot on and undeniable in context. But why?
* * *How's that for a cliffhanger?
Next week we'll delve into the history of the GB as well as the nature of EVP, plus share some resources for those who, like us, want more answers.
Remember that our new book WILD WEST GHOSTS is now out, exploring 14 haunted hotels in southwest Colorado -- including a lot of ITC and EVP evidence. It's available in trade paperback right now, but the e-book version will be available in a few short days! Check out our FB page for book talks and readings we're offering in the weeks ahead.
In the meantime, happy hunting!
When we committed to serious paranormal inquiries for our book WILD WEST GHOSTS, we decided to employ an investigative approach called ITC -- Instrumental TransCommunication. In a nutshell, ITC is the investigative strategy of using electronic devices to elicit communication with the Other Side.Seemed like the right approach for us since neither of us has much -- okay, let's be honest, *any* -- psychic ability.
We relied upon a number of specific devices, including electromagnetic field meters (add EMF to the soup). Most ghost hunters operate under the assumption that disincarnate entities draw upon electromagnetic energy to manifest or communicate in the physical realm. (Yes, that's a big assumption -- one we'll come back to later.) Establishing baseline readings first, investigators can then monitor fluctuations in EMF that might indicate the presence or interactive willingness of a spirit.
Our primary GB: an EchoVox,which generates sounds
rather than words, but
also a reverberating
feedback loop of soundsWe also used more conventional electronic devices such as digital cameras, camcorders, and digital audio recorders, but we decided to use Ghost Boxes as well (often referred to as GB in the trade). A fairly new innovation, ghost (or spirit) boxes provide a flow of potential sounds or words that, again in theory, spirits can manipulate in order to communicate with investigators. Many such devices rely on rapidly and randomly scanned radio frequencies (RF) as a source of ready words. Others fall into a category that generates random phonetics or phonemes only, requiring spirit manipulators to splice together provided sounds in order to create words or phrases.
The words that come through either a ghost box or digital recorder are collectively called EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon).
Ghost box technology is new enough that many within the paranormal community itself are still skeptical of the phenomena; at the same time, the results of these devices have garnered many strong advocates.
As n00bs to the field, we were oblivious to this in-house controversy and jumped right in, using a ghost box during all our own investigations. We also got immediate -- sometimes startling -- results.
Just to be clear: we were operators, not sound engineers, and hadn't a clue how long the technology had existed or how it worked. Think of us as drivers rather than mechanics. But since we started offering our GB findings as evidence of the paranormal, we soon realized we needed to get a better handle on just what was going on.
We can't help but break into something of a wry smile at skeptical tirades that paranormal investigations employ "pseudoscience." Wry because of the Copenhagan Interpretation of quantum mechanics. (Let's add quantum mechanics to the alphabet soup as QM.) Quantum theory underpins much contemporary electronics -- from transistor radios to lasers to quantum computing. Even though no one can figure out how it works at the quantum level, QM works 100 percent of the time.
So scientists find themselves on the horns of a dilemma: either accept they can't explain it (yet) and use it anyway, or continue to wrestle with the inexplicable. It's like a black box no one can see into but which "spits out" correct answers every time. To accept that it works and let it go at that (QM whiz kid Richard Feynman's ultimate solution) seems metaphysical and unscientific. But that's where QM theory stands.
Ghost boxes are something a "black box" as well. The engineering and circuitry aren't that mysterious -- the devices either scan RF signals or else generate their own random phonemes -- but what results from GB-generated sounds in a paranormal investigation -- that's a whole other realm, literally. Results can seem spot on and undeniable in context. But why?
* * *How's that for a cliffhanger?
Next week we'll delve into the history of the GB as well as the nature of EVP, plus share some resources for those who, like us, want more answers.Remember that our new book WILD WEST GHOSTS is now out, exploring 14 haunted hotels in southwest Colorado -- including a lot of ITC and EVP evidence. It's available in trade paperback right now, but the e-book version will be available in a few short days! Check out our FB page for book talks and readings we're offering in the weeks ahead.
In the meantime, happy hunting!
June 12, 2015
WILD WEST GHOSTS ... is out!
We are delighted to announce that the publisher has released our new book on Colorado haunted hotels.Wild West Ghosts is available from a variety of sources, including Raspberry Creek Books and both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It will also appear in a expanding number of independent book stores and tourist shops in Colorado and the western region.
Here are some online links to order your copy:
Raspberry Creek Books at info@raspberrycreekbooks.com
Use their email while they're still updating the store front product page. The book costs $17.95, and only $2 for shipping (or less per copy on shipping for multiple copies).Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Wild-West-Ghosts-Mark-Todd/dp/0985135263Barnes & Noble at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wild-west-ghosts-mark-todd/1122054910The e-book will become available from Amazon next week.
Please check out (and like!) our Facebook page for the book to see the latest updates as well as upcoming book talk events we've scheduled for the coming weeks across the Mountain West.
Here's what reviewers are saying:
"These are not 'ghost stories,' but rather are a collection of documented paranormal evidence that the authors collected at each of these wonderful Colorado hotels from the past... Wild West Ghosts is your tour guide to a wild ride of haunted locations that will definitely keep you from getting a good night's sleep!"
- Shane & Jennifer Herrin, founders of Small Town Haunts
"We live in a mysterious world filled with peculiar happenings, and Mark and Kym have done a fantastic job illuminating some of the curious corners of our world so that all of us may see them. This book is a wonderful addition to any library but keep it in your travel-bag, not on the shelf."
- John E.L. Tenney, co-host of Destination America's Ghost Stalkers reality series
"Wild West Ghosts is a must-read not only for those passionate about the paranormal world but also for Old West history buffs or anyone who loves to travel and experience a wonderful overnight stay. The coolest part of all is that they provide very specific local information, much like a travel guide, that will allow you the opportunity to find each of these beautiful locations and to do your own ghost hunting...and perhaps experience the very same paranormal events!"
- Timothy Yohe, paranormal investigator and founder of Paranormal Insights
* * * *
The book may be out, but what we're learning from those investigations is ongoing. Next week, we'll start sharing new findings from our evidence that are still developing since the book went to press.
Happy hunting/hauntings, all!
June 5, 2015
S/O to our indispensable paranormal community
The past year's journey into the paranormal has introduced to us to more than just things that go bump in the night (or day). It's been an introduction to a fascinating exchange of ideas and an opportunity to cultivate both friends and mentors.
As we stand poised to launch our new book, WILD WEST GHOSTS, we want to take a moment to reflect not on analyses of EVPs and anomalous activity but rather on the good will and support of our paranormal community.
The friends we've made in the Google+ communities that we've joined have been a constant source of new ideas and puzzling findings. Friends and followers who have experienced that world secondhand through our writing, we want you to know that these are a dedicated bunch of folks. They burn the midnight oil in some really creepy locations (sometimes even in their own homes!) ... and wait ... and wait ... and, sometimes, extraordinary things happen.
To each and everyone of you in these groups, we say, "Thanks for the warm welcomes and the generous sharing!"
We also want to shout out our thanks to the fourteen hotel owners and staff, who allowed us into their haunted locations. Without exception, they invited us in and supported our every request. (And, we might add, the results and material we collected were amazing.) These are the people you'll meet if you use our book to visit these paranormally special locales.
Thank you!
There are also several individuals we want to single out who helped us specifically with the content of our book. These folks read our manuscript, made suggestions, and offered kinds words to help make the final product a better book:
Shane and Jennifer Herrin
Finally, we want to give a vigorous hat-tip to those who lended critical copyediting eyes to the manuscript: Debra Anderson, Marty Grantham, and Teresa Milbrodt. Included in that team, of course, is our publisher Larry Meredith of Raspberry Creek Books. He's been with us in "spirit" every step of the way!
* * *We'll announce venues where the book will be available next time, as well as locations of a half dozen initial readings we're offering in Colorado and Montana over the next few weeks. In the meantime, please feel free to check out the WILD WEST GHOST Facebook page, which will have post regular updates as we tap our feet.
The book may be done but our paranormal journey is just beginning, and the following week we'll begin a new series of articles about the fascinating phenomena of ghost boxes and what we're learning.
Until then, happy hauntings, all!
As we stand poised to launch our new book, WILD WEST GHOSTS, we want to take a moment to reflect not on analyses of EVPs and anomalous activity but rather on the good will and support of our paranormal community.The friends we've made in the Google+ communities that we've joined have been a constant source of new ideas and puzzling findings. Friends and followers who have experienced that world secondhand through our writing, we want you to know that these are a dedicated bunch of folks. They burn the midnight oil in some really creepy locations (sometimes even in their own homes!) ... and wait ... and wait ... and, sometimes, extraordinary things happen.
To each and everyone of you in these groups, we say, "Thanks for the warm welcomes and the generous sharing!"
We also want to shout out our thanks to the fourteen hotel owners and staff, who allowed us into their haunted locations. Without exception, they invited us in and supported our every request. (And, we might add, the results and material we collected were amazing.) These are the people you'll meet if you use our book to visit these paranormally special locales.Thank you!
There are also several individuals we want to single out who helped us specifically with the content of our book. These folks read our manuscript, made suggestions, and offered kinds words to help make the final product a better book:
Shane and Jennifer Herrin
This dynamic pararnormal duo founded both Small Town Haunts and The Daily Ghoul -- and these publications are a constant resource for anyone serious about the supernatural world. They're also active with their own investigations. Check them out!John E. L. Tenney
John has been a longtime and well respected paranormal investigator even before co-hosting Destination America's reality series Ghost Stalkers, and his kind words about our project have encouraged and sustained our own determination to seek the truth.Timothy Yohe
Tim, an even more prolific writer than we are, offers astounding insights from his own investigations and about the supernatural world in general through his Paranormal Insights blog as well as his weekly newsletter. And we can't wait for his own forthcoming book!
Finally, we want to give a vigorous hat-tip to those who lended critical copyediting eyes to the manuscript: Debra Anderson, Marty Grantham, and Teresa Milbrodt. Included in that team, of course, is our publisher Larry Meredith of Raspberry Creek Books. He's been with us in "spirit" every step of the way!
* * *We'll announce venues where the book will be available next time, as well as locations of a half dozen initial readings we're offering in Colorado and Montana over the next few weeks. In the meantime, please feel free to check out the WILD WEST GHOST Facebook page, which will have post regular updates as we tap our feet.
The book may be done but our paranormal journey is just beginning, and the following week we'll begin a new series of articles about the fascinating phenomena of ghost boxes and what we're learning.Until then, happy hauntings, all!
May 29, 2015
Our Eureka! moments - 12 months, 20 para investigations
This is the final in a four-part series featuring highlights of our past year's paranormal investigations. This week we share the sometimes unsettling but mostly Eureka! moments during our inquiries.
(If you missed Part 1 on anomalous photos, click here. If you missed Part 2 on ghostly voices, click here. If you missed Part 3 on video documentation, click here.)
We've always approached our investigations with optimistic skepticism, never expecting other worldly encounters -- in fact, always assuming the next site visit would prove uneventful.
We've also tended to minimize pre-visit research so it wouldn't prejudice our own experiences.
To call the following moments unsettling might be a bit misleading since we've yet to encounter anything that frightened us. (Still waiting, of course, for that full-bodied apparition that whispers "Boo!" in our ear. That might elicit a scramble of retreat on our part.)
Nevertheless, the accounts below describe events that challenged our sense of reality -- even when we found ourselves at a loss at how to measure those experiences.
The Bross Hotel
Our first full-fledged investigation for the book took place in Paonia, Colorado, at the Bross Hotel.
All three above-ground floors as well as the basement have almost a century of paranormal accounts, including multiple and different full-bodied apparitions, mussed bedding, and even dramatic movements by physical objects before the eyes of surprised guests and owners. (Click here for our research into those paranormal accounts.)
We were nervous as we began -- not because we feared paranormal activity but because we doubted anything would occur. And we had a book to write!
We concentrated our initial investigation in the "English Room/Ghost Room," where the original early1900s owner "Mother Bross" still makes appearances in the room where her son Otto died, and who also still makes regular appearances.
English Room/Ghost RoomWe realized we were on to something when all the newly installed batteries for our equipment promptly drained and needed replacing.
We also received a series of contextual spirit box responses that described what we were doing and when -- as Mark set up the camcorder, we heard "Camera"; as Kym snapped shots of the room's interior furnishings, the box announced the several objects she photographed ("Bed," "Fan," and "Stairway," which was just beyond the open guestroom door). All promising, but none of it knocked out socks off.
The Eureka moment did arrive -- but after we'd packed up and restraightened the room. The proprietor had just called up the stairs as we began to descend, suggesting we go back and pick up the tourist literature in that room.
So five seconds after leaving the English/Ghost Room, we walked back in ... and saw a perfect fanny print pressed into the bedding. Horrified we'd left the bedding mussed, Kym instinctively smoothed out the imprint -- and then realized the only impression should have been the rectangular pattern of our camera bag, but Mark had already flattened and erased those ruffles before we left.
A beginner's mistake on our part, to be sure, but it was still the first Eureka moment we'd have, assuring us at least one chapter's worth of material for the book. (As you probably know by now, we eventually ended up with enough investigative material for 14 chapters!)
The Forest Queen Hotel
This one was also an early investigation, and perhaps the most unsettling, well, for Kym! Crested Butte, Colorado, was a violent frontier mining town, and most of the buildings on the original thoroughfare of Elk Avenue have reports of hauntings. The hotel is the one remaining building that comprised the one-block red-light district. The saloon-below-and-brothel-above arrangement of the hotel still feels like the Old West -- even though the lower level is now a trendy bar and grill while the upstairs caters to winter skiers and summer bikers.
The premises still resonate with much of that by-gone era's drama through regular reports of paranormal goings-on. (Click here for our research into those other accounts.) We were fortunate to visit the premises during off-season, and we had the solo run of the entire upstairs during our investigation.
We encountered a variety of phenomena on site, including invisible footfalls in the hallway as well as audio-only and spirit box EVPs. One was an EVP capture announcing Kym's name. That should have clued us in to what followed.
Note horizontal "pinch" striationsAs soon as we reached the top of the steep, narrow, single-flight stairway to the second floor, Kym had the sensation her feet were shackled. With each step, she felt a tug on the opposite leg as though her feet connected through some sort of restraints. After the initial EMF sweep, we went back downstairs to interview staff and the shackled feeling disappeared. When we revisited the second floor, the feeling of restraints returned, persisting throughout our time on that floor -- but only on that floor. In fact, she pulled off her socks and boots to discover pinch marks on the inside of her left foot.
Kym subsequently "tested" her well-worn footwear, wearing the same socks, at home and on other investigations but never again experienced those sensations in both feet or any pinch marks.
Hotel Norwood
This establishment proved a hotbed of paranormal activity, examples of which we included in earlier articles in this series. We also encountered three further anomalies harder to document while we investigated the hotel.
Our first experience occurred before we'd taken three steps into guestroom No. 2 on the second-floor east wing of the hotel: A coffee cup flew off the table and hit the wall behind it. Kym’s EMF meter jumped from 300 to 3,000mG, and two team members' spirit boxes began spitting out in rapid succession the words “Follow,” “Instinct,” “Dining room,” “Kitchen,” and “Cook.” Who were we to argue? We repacked our gear and headed downstairs to the dining room and kitchen.
The cold spot occurred
between the wardrobe
and the bed in Rm 12While the third member of our team scanned EMF baseline readings in the dining room, she stopped and asked us each to stand in front of the corner bookcase. We did, and we all three reported the same sensation -- an inexplicable heavy feeling that gave each of us goosebumps. Ironically, the EMF meter registered no elevated readings in that corner at all. (We did record an EVP that said, "Help me." Alas, we didn't hear the whisper in real time but only in later analysis.)
In our initial sweep of the building, we'd encountered a cold spot in the guestroom directly above the kitchen, so we moved there next. The cold spot was still present, a column of air three feet in diameter and extending from floorboards to ceiling, and several degrees colder than the ambient air temperature outside the column. Positioning spirit boxes both inside and outside the column, we conducted a two-way conversation with a spirit identifying herself as "Leah." (Click here for a fuller account of that ghost hunt.)
That investigation provided a whole sequence of cascading Eureka! moments.
The portal is reportedly under
the redstone building on the left.Linda Goodman's Miracle Inn
The final Eureka! moment we'll share occurred in a follow-up investigation in Cripple Creek, Colorado, and after midnight in the basement of the Miracle Inn B&B. We'd teamed up with paranormal investigator Shaun Crusha, who has a lot cooler equipment than we do, to check out a reported spirit portal in the substructure of the building. Shaun set up an array of devices, including a laser grid pattern that aimed a hundreds of points of light into the portal. Accompanying us during this investigation were the owners, Sofia Balas and Jason Barton. The portal ran the length of the basement under the house, beginning just beyond the stairs.
Stationed along the array of equipment, Shaun and Mark noticed several of the laser points temporarily wink
out in a sequence that seemed to approach our position. Shortly afterward, both Jason and Kym felt decisive tugs at strands of hair on the tops of their heads. (The basement didn't have much clearance, but Kym was at least a foot shorter than the beams above her head.)
It felt as though something had passed through the space in front of our position and joined us on "this side."
Sofia told us a psychic had described the portal as shaped like a pentagram that originated in the basement but extended up into the main levels of the B&B. Guests often report prankish hair tugs from invisible agents, so maybe those entities use the portal to pass from the Other Side to tease the residents on this side. (Click here for our research into some of those accounts.)
The tangible encounters of that evening found a place on our accumulating list of Eureka! moments over the past year, and the cumulative effects of the events we experienced have left us with more questions than answers.
If "Eureka!" means "I found it!", we're still not sure exactly what the "it" is that we've discovered during these moments. If anything, such experiences have strengthened the resolve to continue our paranormal journey and our investigations.
* * *Remember that we're only two short weeks away from the publication of our book, WILD WEST GHOSTS: an amateur ghost hunting guide to southwest Colorado, due out in mid June 2015.
We also invite you to LIKE our new Facebook page for the book, where we're providing updates on when the book actually releases as well as notices of our continuing paranormal journey and investigations.
Happy hauntings, all!
(If you missed Part 1 on anomalous photos, click here. If you missed Part 2 on ghostly voices, click here. If you missed Part 3 on video documentation, click here.)We've always approached our investigations with optimistic skepticism, never expecting other worldly encounters -- in fact, always assuming the next site visit would prove uneventful.
We've also tended to minimize pre-visit research so it wouldn't prejudice our own experiences.
To call the following moments unsettling might be a bit misleading since we've yet to encounter anything that frightened us. (Still waiting, of course, for that full-bodied apparition that whispers "Boo!" in our ear. That might elicit a scramble of retreat on our part.)
Nevertheless, the accounts below describe events that challenged our sense of reality -- even when we found ourselves at a loss at how to measure those experiences.
The Bross HotelOur first full-fledged investigation for the book took place in Paonia, Colorado, at the Bross Hotel.
All three above-ground floors as well as the basement have almost a century of paranormal accounts, including multiple and different full-bodied apparitions, mussed bedding, and even dramatic movements by physical objects before the eyes of surprised guests and owners. (Click here for our research into those paranormal accounts.)
We were nervous as we began -- not because we feared paranormal activity but because we doubted anything would occur. And we had a book to write!
We concentrated our initial investigation in the "English Room/Ghost Room," where the original early1900s owner "Mother Bross" still makes appearances in the room where her son Otto died, and who also still makes regular appearances.
English Room/Ghost RoomWe realized we were on to something when all the newly installed batteries for our equipment promptly drained and needed replacing.We also received a series of contextual spirit box responses that described what we were doing and when -- as Mark set up the camcorder, we heard "Camera"; as Kym snapped shots of the room's interior furnishings, the box announced the several objects she photographed ("Bed," "Fan," and "Stairway," which was just beyond the open guestroom door). All promising, but none of it knocked out socks off.
The Eureka moment did arrive -- but after we'd packed up and restraightened the room. The proprietor had just called up the stairs as we began to descend, suggesting we go back and pick up the tourist literature in that room.
So five seconds after leaving the English/Ghost Room, we walked back in ... and saw a perfect fanny print pressed into the bedding. Horrified we'd left the bedding mussed, Kym instinctively smoothed out the imprint -- and then realized the only impression should have been the rectangular pattern of our camera bag, but Mark had already flattened and erased those ruffles before we left.
A beginner's mistake on our part, to be sure, but it was still the first Eureka moment we'd have, assuring us at least one chapter's worth of material for the book. (As you probably know by now, we eventually ended up with enough investigative material for 14 chapters!)
The Forest Queen HotelThis one was also an early investigation, and perhaps the most unsettling, well, for Kym! Crested Butte, Colorado, was a violent frontier mining town, and most of the buildings on the original thoroughfare of Elk Avenue have reports of hauntings. The hotel is the one remaining building that comprised the one-block red-light district. The saloon-below-and-brothel-above arrangement of the hotel still feels like the Old West -- even though the lower level is now a trendy bar and grill while the upstairs caters to winter skiers and summer bikers.
The premises still resonate with much of that by-gone era's drama through regular reports of paranormal goings-on. (Click here for our research into those other accounts.) We were fortunate to visit the premises during off-season, and we had the solo run of the entire upstairs during our investigation.
We encountered a variety of phenomena on site, including invisible footfalls in the hallway as well as audio-only and spirit box EVPs. One was an EVP capture announcing Kym's name. That should have clued us in to what followed.
Note horizontal "pinch" striationsAs soon as we reached the top of the steep, narrow, single-flight stairway to the second floor, Kym had the sensation her feet were shackled. With each step, she felt a tug on the opposite leg as though her feet connected through some sort of restraints. After the initial EMF sweep, we went back downstairs to interview staff and the shackled feeling disappeared. When we revisited the second floor, the feeling of restraints returned, persisting throughout our time on that floor -- but only on that floor. In fact, she pulled off her socks and boots to discover pinch marks on the inside of her left foot.Kym subsequently "tested" her well-worn footwear, wearing the same socks, at home and on other investigations but never again experienced those sensations in both feet or any pinch marks.
Hotel NorwoodThis establishment proved a hotbed of paranormal activity, examples of which we included in earlier articles in this series. We also encountered three further anomalies harder to document while we investigated the hotel.
Our first experience occurred before we'd taken three steps into guestroom No. 2 on the second-floor east wing of the hotel: A coffee cup flew off the table and hit the wall behind it. Kym’s EMF meter jumped from 300 to 3,000mG, and two team members' spirit boxes began spitting out in rapid succession the words “Follow,” “Instinct,” “Dining room,” “Kitchen,” and “Cook.” Who were we to argue? We repacked our gear and headed downstairs to the dining room and kitchen.
The cold spot occurredbetween the wardrobe
and the bed in Rm 12While the third member of our team scanned EMF baseline readings in the dining room, she stopped and asked us each to stand in front of the corner bookcase. We did, and we all three reported the same sensation -- an inexplicable heavy feeling that gave each of us goosebumps. Ironically, the EMF meter registered no elevated readings in that corner at all. (We did record an EVP that said, "Help me." Alas, we didn't hear the whisper in real time but only in later analysis.)
In our initial sweep of the building, we'd encountered a cold spot in the guestroom directly above the kitchen, so we moved there next. The cold spot was still present, a column of air three feet in diameter and extending from floorboards to ceiling, and several degrees colder than the ambient air temperature outside the column. Positioning spirit boxes both inside and outside the column, we conducted a two-way conversation with a spirit identifying herself as "Leah." (Click here for a fuller account of that ghost hunt.)
That investigation provided a whole sequence of cascading Eureka! moments.
The portal is reportedly under the redstone building on the left.Linda Goodman's Miracle Inn
The final Eureka! moment we'll share occurred in a follow-up investigation in Cripple Creek, Colorado, and after midnight in the basement of the Miracle Inn B&B. We'd teamed up with paranormal investigator Shaun Crusha, who has a lot cooler equipment than we do, to check out a reported spirit portal in the substructure of the building. Shaun set up an array of devices, including a laser grid pattern that aimed a hundreds of points of light into the portal. Accompanying us during this investigation were the owners, Sofia Balas and Jason Barton. The portal ran the length of the basement under the house, beginning just beyond the stairs.
Stationed along the array of equipment, Shaun and Mark noticed several of the laser points temporarily wink out in a sequence that seemed to approach our position. Shortly afterward, both Jason and Kym felt decisive tugs at strands of hair on the tops of their heads. (The basement didn't have much clearance, but Kym was at least a foot shorter than the beams above her head.)
It felt as though something had passed through the space in front of our position and joined us on "this side."
Sofia told us a psychic had described the portal as shaped like a pentagram that originated in the basement but extended up into the main levels of the B&B. Guests often report prankish hair tugs from invisible agents, so maybe those entities use the portal to pass from the Other Side to tease the residents on this side. (Click here for our research into some of those accounts.)
The tangible encounters of that evening found a place on our accumulating list of Eureka! moments over the past year, and the cumulative effects of the events we experienced have left us with more questions than answers.
If "Eureka!" means "I found it!", we're still not sure exactly what the "it" is that we've discovered during these moments. If anything, such experiences have strengthened the resolve to continue our paranormal journey and our investigations.
* * *Remember that we're only two short weeks away from the publication of our book, WILD WEST GHOSTS: an amateur ghost hunting guide to southwest Colorado, due out in mid June 2015.We also invite you to LIKE our new Facebook page for the book, where we're providing updates on when the book actually releases as well as notices of our continuing paranormal journey and investigations.
Happy hauntings, all!
May 22, 2015
Our Best Video Paranormal Evidence - 12 months, 20 investigations
This is the third in a four-part series featuring some of the past year's best evidence from our paranormal investigations. This week we share our most intriguing video documentation.
(If you missed Part 1 on anomalous photos, click here. If you missed Part 2 on ghostly voices, click here.)
We seemed to be slow learners.
Well, at least lazy ones at first. It took us a while to realize just because nothing seemed to be happening during an investigation, that didn't mean we should let up our guard.
Ghosts don't seem to work on our timetable. (Duh.) In fact, they often seem to respond when it suits them.
We learned the hardest lesson during one of our earliest investigations, this one at the Hotel Norwood in Norwood, Colorado. At that site, we moved our inquiries a half dozen times (lots of reported hotspots at this hotel), and toward the end we got lazy in setting up our camcorder to document findings. We'd already experienced multiple encounters during the visit, including a poltergeist incident involving a cup flying off a table (not our fault we missed capturing that one since it occurred while we unpacked), a cold spot, and EVPs that repeatedly led us from one locale to another.
Hotel Norwood
By the time we made our last stop, we were tired and sloppy. Big mistake. In the final location, we didn't set up the camcorder -- just as our spirit box announced, "Flashlight," which we hurriedly pulled from the bag and switched on. At that moment our EMF meter jumped 45 fold, from a baseline of 230mG to 10,710mG! A second later, our flashlight dimmed and then completely winked out.
A stunning correlation of spirit box, EMF meter, and flashlight -- even our new batteries drained completely. And we failed to document the incident. It'd be an understatement to say we felt chagrined. We just knew we'd never experience a similar event during future investigations. Fortunately we were wrong, and many times over. In our subsequent paranormal inquiries, we took care to record what we did and what occurred at each locale.
Although we ultimately recorded to camera eight other successful flashlight experiments during our 20 investigations, below are three experiences representing some of the strongest evidence we captured of unexplained activity -- two involving flashlights and one involving a flurry of orbs around a co-investigator.
The Beaumont HotelThe Beaumont Hotel & Spa
The proprietor told us she couldn't think of a single room or space in this hotel in Ouray, Colorado, that didn't harbor accounts of paranormal activity, and our own on-site inquiries produced results confirming her claim for the three locales we visited, including three separate and successful flashlight experiments.
We'll discuss some of our other experiences at the Beaumont in the next article, but the following video clip is a typical response we received using a flashlight. The light we used had a switch requiring a firm, deep push and "click" to engage. Notice in the background we ran our EchoVox spirit box during the experiment, set for reverberation, and you can hear the echo effect for our own queries as well as the voices produced by the box.
Flashlight Experiment at the Windsor Hotel.
Notice the above video clip includes a clear response of "No" to our query to try turning off the flashlight. But we also invited any spirits present to simply dim the light, which they could do very well, and to dramatic effect. We were also pleased by the number auditory responses this clip captured as we coaxed spirits to interact with us.
The Vintage Inn B&BThe Vintage Inn
Our investigation at this Gunnison, Colorado, B&B produced another classic flashlight experiment -- but with a startling twist we only realized on later analysis.
This investigation was different for two reasons. First, the building certainly looked the part but had no history of hauntings. We went in on a hunch because we thought it had the look and longevity of a place that ought to hold paranormal potential. And second, the owner wanted to accompany our investigation out of curiosity. We had no objections, inviting her to help set up our equipment and even inviting her to question her invisible B&B "guests."
The following video clip once again records our spirit box (this time without reverb) and allows you to hear the interaction with the voices we recorded both before and surrounding the spirit manipulation of the flashlight. Listen especially for their polite acknowledgements of our thanks for interacting with us at the end.
Flashlight Experiment at the Vintage Inn
When we analyzed this recording later that day, we discovered something that astounded us. Listen again to the above clip for the voice saying "Good" and then Kym moments later saying the same thing, this exchange occurring from 00:26 to 00:30. And in particular, pay attention to the voice inflections, which match exactly.
What may not be apparent from this exchange is that the spirit is talking under Mark's chuckle -- he was poised very close to the experiment. But Kym was on the other side of the room at the time. She couldn't hear that spirit voice, drowned out at the time by Mark's voice. (We've amplified the spirit voice at this moment in the recording to make it easier to hear.) In other words, the spirit "repeats" Kym's voice, mimicking her inflection *before* she utters her response to the the spirit saying, "Happy" five seconds earlier in a loud, clear voice.
The implications are profound, even if illogical.
Our recording leads us to conclude the spirit mimicked Kym's inflection and response but "repeated" it back before Kym's arrow of time uttered it.
We've heard other investigators report that EVP recordings have sometimes only made sense when played in reverse. Others report receiving answers to questions before investigators ask. For such occurrences to be meaningful, spirits must not be bound by our arrow of time -- a conclusion consistent with the notion they're also no longer bound to the space-time plane of existence. Do they choose the When of their interactions with us, synching to our own arrow of time so we can understand and engage with them?
Before we wax any more epistemological, let's move on to our final evidence.
Lawmen and Outlaws
Jail MuseumLawmen and Outlaws Jail Museum
For this investigation, we teamed up with Hotchkiss Paranormal Investigators (HPI) for a lock-down at the Old Jail Museum in Cripple Creek, Colorado. We spent half the night at this site.
It was the fourth visit to the jail museum for HPI, and that team had a harrowing encounter with a malevolent spirit that actually attacked two members of the group on previous occasions. The spirit is known as "Joe," a pedophile incarcerated at the jail until his death. (Even Zac Bagans & Co. have investigated this location and interacted with Joe for their Ghost Adventures television series.)
All our previous investigations had occurred with spirits that seemed benign or, at the very worst, mischievous. We felt a bit nervous to up our game to this level of paranormal inquiry, but we also wanted to see what our own reactions would be under such circumstances. Turned out we were up to the challenge.
The following clip records a portion of our time in the confinement cell where Joe spent much of his time while alive and, it would seem, still does now that he's dead. The camera focuses on investigator Seth Davis, one of the HPI members previously assaulted by Joe. For this session -- and the only ones present during this filmed inquiry were Seth, Kym, and Mark -- Seth donned vintage inmate clothing the museum had on hand.
Swirling orbs in the Cripple Creek's old jail museum
We finally got our orbs, and in spades. We actually captured close to 30 orbs over the next 15 minutes but decided to restrict the video clip to the beginning minutes, capturing a dozen or so in rapid succession. That's Kym's voice behind the camera. Did you notice how cocky she gets? In the end, it never even occurred to us to be nervous or apprehensive during the investigation.
* * *Next week, we'll share findings harder to categorize -- certainly harder to document -- ghostly touches, visual scene flashes, cold spots, aromas, and our brush with a spirit portal.
Remember that we're only three short weeks away from the publication of our book, WILD WEST GHOSTS: an amateur ghost hunting guide to southwest Colorado, due out in June 2015.
We also invite you to LIKE our new Facebook page for the book, where we're providing updates on when the book actually releases as well as continuing paranormal events and investigations.
Happy hauntings, all!
(If you missed Part 1 on anomalous photos, click here. If you missed Part 2 on ghostly voices, click here.)We seemed to be slow learners.
Well, at least lazy ones at first. It took us a while to realize just because nothing seemed to be happening during an investigation, that didn't mean we should let up our guard.
Ghosts don't seem to work on our timetable. (Duh.) In fact, they often seem to respond when it suits them.
We learned the hardest lesson during one of our earliest investigations, this one at the Hotel Norwood in Norwood, Colorado. At that site, we moved our inquiries a half dozen times (lots of reported hotspots at this hotel), and toward the end we got lazy in setting up our camcorder to document findings. We'd already experienced multiple encounters during the visit, including a poltergeist incident involving a cup flying off a table (not our fault we missed capturing that one since it occurred while we unpacked), a cold spot, and EVPs that repeatedly led us from one locale to another.
Hotel NorwoodBy the time we made our last stop, we were tired and sloppy. Big mistake. In the final location, we didn't set up the camcorder -- just as our spirit box announced, "Flashlight," which we hurriedly pulled from the bag and switched on. At that moment our EMF meter jumped 45 fold, from a baseline of 230mG to 10,710mG! A second later, our flashlight dimmed and then completely winked out.
A stunning correlation of spirit box, EMF meter, and flashlight -- even our new batteries drained completely. And we failed to document the incident. It'd be an understatement to say we felt chagrined. We just knew we'd never experience a similar event during future investigations. Fortunately we were wrong, and many times over. In our subsequent paranormal inquiries, we took care to record what we did and what occurred at each locale.
Although we ultimately recorded to camera eight other successful flashlight experiments during our 20 investigations, below are three experiences representing some of the strongest evidence we captured of unexplained activity -- two involving flashlights and one involving a flurry of orbs around a co-investigator.
The Beaumont HotelThe Beaumont Hotel & SpaThe proprietor told us she couldn't think of a single room or space in this hotel in Ouray, Colorado, that didn't harbor accounts of paranormal activity, and our own on-site inquiries produced results confirming her claim for the three locales we visited, including three separate and successful flashlight experiments.
We'll discuss some of our other experiences at the Beaumont in the next article, but the following video clip is a typical response we received using a flashlight. The light we used had a switch requiring a firm, deep push and "click" to engage. Notice in the background we ran our EchoVox spirit box during the experiment, set for reverberation, and you can hear the echo effect for our own queries as well as the voices produced by the box.
Flashlight Experiment at the Windsor Hotel.
Notice the above video clip includes a clear response of "No" to our query to try turning off the flashlight. But we also invited any spirits present to simply dim the light, which they could do very well, and to dramatic effect. We were also pleased by the number auditory responses this clip captured as we coaxed spirits to interact with us.
The Vintage Inn B&BThe Vintage InnOur investigation at this Gunnison, Colorado, B&B produced another classic flashlight experiment -- but with a startling twist we only realized on later analysis.
This investigation was different for two reasons. First, the building certainly looked the part but had no history of hauntings. We went in on a hunch because we thought it had the look and longevity of a place that ought to hold paranormal potential. And second, the owner wanted to accompany our investigation out of curiosity. We had no objections, inviting her to help set up our equipment and even inviting her to question her invisible B&B "guests."
The following video clip once again records our spirit box (this time without reverb) and allows you to hear the interaction with the voices we recorded both before and surrounding the spirit manipulation of the flashlight. Listen especially for their polite acknowledgements of our thanks for interacting with us at the end.
Flashlight Experiment at the Vintage Inn
When we analyzed this recording later that day, we discovered something that astounded us. Listen again to the above clip for the voice saying "Good" and then Kym moments later saying the same thing, this exchange occurring from 00:26 to 00:30. And in particular, pay attention to the voice inflections, which match exactly.
What may not be apparent from this exchange is that the spirit is talking under Mark's chuckle -- he was poised very close to the experiment. But Kym was on the other side of the room at the time. She couldn't hear that spirit voice, drowned out at the time by Mark's voice. (We've amplified the spirit voice at this moment in the recording to make it easier to hear.) In other words, the spirit "repeats" Kym's voice, mimicking her inflection *before* she utters her response to the the spirit saying, "Happy" five seconds earlier in a loud, clear voice.
The implications are profound, even if illogical.
Our recording leads us to conclude the spirit mimicked Kym's inflection and response but "repeated" it back before Kym's arrow of time uttered it.
We've heard other investigators report that EVP recordings have sometimes only made sense when played in reverse. Others report receiving answers to questions before investigators ask. For such occurrences to be meaningful, spirits must not be bound by our arrow of time -- a conclusion consistent with the notion they're also no longer bound to the space-time plane of existence. Do they choose the When of their interactions with us, synching to our own arrow of time so we can understand and engage with them?
Before we wax any more epistemological, let's move on to our final evidence.
Lawmen and OutlawsJail MuseumLawmen and Outlaws Jail Museum
For this investigation, we teamed up with Hotchkiss Paranormal Investigators (HPI) for a lock-down at the Old Jail Museum in Cripple Creek, Colorado. We spent half the night at this site.
It was the fourth visit to the jail museum for HPI, and that team had a harrowing encounter with a malevolent spirit that actually attacked two members of the group on previous occasions. The spirit is known as "Joe," a pedophile incarcerated at the jail until his death. (Even Zac Bagans & Co. have investigated this location and interacted with Joe for their Ghost Adventures television series.)
All our previous investigations had occurred with spirits that seemed benign or, at the very worst, mischievous. We felt a bit nervous to up our game to this level of paranormal inquiry, but we also wanted to see what our own reactions would be under such circumstances. Turned out we were up to the challenge.
The following clip records a portion of our time in the confinement cell where Joe spent much of his time while alive and, it would seem, still does now that he's dead. The camera focuses on investigator Seth Davis, one of the HPI members previously assaulted by Joe. For this session -- and the only ones present during this filmed inquiry were Seth, Kym, and Mark -- Seth donned vintage inmate clothing the museum had on hand.
Swirling orbs in the Cripple Creek's old jail museum
We finally got our orbs, and in spades. We actually captured close to 30 orbs over the next 15 minutes but decided to restrict the video clip to the beginning minutes, capturing a dozen or so in rapid succession. That's Kym's voice behind the camera. Did you notice how cocky she gets? In the end, it never even occurred to us to be nervous or apprehensive during the investigation.
* * *Next week, we'll share findings harder to categorize -- certainly harder to document -- ghostly touches, visual scene flashes, cold spots, aromas, and our brush with a spirit portal.Remember that we're only three short weeks away from the publication of our book, WILD WEST GHOSTS: an amateur ghost hunting guide to southwest Colorado, due out in June 2015.
We also invite you to LIKE our new Facebook page for the book, where we're providing updates on when the book actually releases as well as continuing paranormal events and investigations.
Happy hauntings, all!
May 15, 2015
Our best EVP evidence - 12 months, 20 paranormal investigations
This is the second in a four-part series featuring some of the past year's best evidence from our paranormal investigations. This week we share our most intriguing EVPs -- what some investigators and researchers refer to as "voices of the dead."
(Our focus last time was anomalous photos we captured during our investigations. If you missed that article, click here.)
EVPs -- Electronic Voice Phenomena, or voices captured by electronic means. It's not "unheard of" (forgive the pun!) to hear ghostly voices with the unaided ear, but it's only by recording such sounds that they move from hearsay and anecdote to documented evidence.
These days, two common methods of capturing EVPs are audio-only digital recording and so-called spirit boxes.(More on the latter in a moment.)
We used both methods, and with startling results.
Audio-Only EVP Recordings
We used a digital audio recorder during portions of all our investigations, conducting interviews and pausing to see if we captured any responses that that might not have been audible except when amplified later. This final necessary step was, at times, frustrating because we sometimes discovered responses that were missed opportunities for further dialog. Even more dismaying were the several occasions where we captured "Help me," which we only discovered during later analysis.
The Forest Queen Hotel
The recorded voices are sometimes so soft it's not always certain what the words are. We tended to set those aside if we both couldn't agree on the meaning. One notable exception occurred at the Forest Queen Hotel in Crested Butte, Colorado, where we conducted a session in the room where a distraught prostitute reportedly hurled herself from the window and to her death in Coal Creek in the 1880s.
The voice we captured as a digital recording sounded like three syllables -- all in the same woman's voice -- but we couldn't make out her words. They may have even been Slavic. (The mining town included several different immigrant worker pools). See what you think she might be saying:
The voice of suicide prostitute "Liz-Liz" or "Thelma"?
Another audio-only recording we captured was the single word, "Yes," but what made it memorable to us was that it came in immediate response to a question we asked about the investigative procedures we used at the time. Ironically, this event occurred in the room of another suicide, this time a woman who had taken her life in 1906 at the Windsor Hotel in Del Norte, Colorado.
The Windsor Hotel
We were uncertain at the time whether we had accidentally disrupted our flashlight or the incident was a manipulation by an unseen presence.
The EVP we later heard under amplification settled the question unequivocally for us. (You can compare this separate EVP with the video YouTube clip of the same event, called "Windsor Flashlight Experiment.")
Here's the EVP, along with the context:
Suicide Maud Heinz clarifies her role in the investigation
Even though we captured several other audio-only EVPs during our investigations, the above two instances
intrigued us the most.
Julia
Fariplay HotelStill, we have to mention just one more, an EVP we captured at the Fairplay Hotel of a prostitute named "Julia" (yet another suicide), reported to dance in the hallways at night. We conducted an audio-only session in her former room, where Mark asked her to interact with us. A very faint woman's voice told him, "I don't want to f**k with you." Guess Mark wasn't her type! The EVP is so low you need headphones and it doesn't compress well to video, so we haven't uploaded it to share. But it remains one of our favorites.
But it was through our spirit box-generated EVPs that we obtained more reliable auditory volume as well as more frequent recordings. Read on!
Spirit Box EVPs
Many spirit boxes are electronic devices configured to scan random radio frequencies (RF). The theory is that spirits can pick out and share RF words appropriate for the conversation at hand. But many of the hotels we visited have limited -- and in one instance, no -- radio reception.
Although we tested a number of spirit boxes, the EchoVox provided the best results we obtained during our investigations. We really liked this device because it doesn't use RF at all, instead generating random sounds rather than words, which makes intelligible responses all the more remarkable. We received not only words from this spirit box but also the occasional sentence!
All EVP links we share below were generated with the EchoVox.
On later analysis of our various recordings, we noticed two recurring patterns that interested us:
EVPs that named individuals EVPs that participated in contextual conversationsWe became accustomed to spirit box voices calling us out by name -- even before we started introducing ourselves at the beginning of EVP sessions for unseen presences. For example, during our investigation at the Windsor (but across the hall from Maud Heinz's room), we recorded the following request from spirits to give them more time to answer:
Not always a need for introductions, it seems
At many of the other hotels, we captured the names of individuals present during the investigation -- or else the names of individuals we were trying to contact. For example, when we visited the Spruce Lodge in South Fork, we received an EVP of "Dee," and at the Linda Goodman Miracle Inn in Cripple Creek an EVP of "Sofia" -- the names of the two respective owners of those inns. And when we investigated the Creede Hotel in Creede, Colorado, we recorded EVPs of both "Alice" (in Poker Alice's former room) and "Bob"
Creede Hotel(possibly Bob Ford, Jesse James's killer, who was later gunned down in a saloon while still living at the hotel). You can visit our YouTube Channel to listen to those clips.
One recurring EVP theme we noticed in retrospect to the year's investigations was the number of actual interactive conversations we recorded. A good example occurred, again, at the Creede Hotel. For this session, we used a mode of the EchoVox that boosts random sound generation, creating a burst of sounds that takes later manipulation to slow down and separate into distinct voices. Listen to the logical flow of the following conversation which includes a burst:
One of our conversations with EVPs
Hotel St. NicholasWe wonder, as we reviewed some of our findings, why we weren't more unnerved at the time by some of the conversations we recorded.
For example, the Hotel St. Nichlas in Cripple Creek was a former Sisters of Mercy hospital and where we conducted one session in the operating-room-turned-guestroom.
A number of EVPs in that room almost sounded like conversations taking place as though we only eavesdropped. One somewhat chilling exchange involved discussion of some unnamed killing:
EVP from former hospital's operating room, now a guestroom
So far as our collective EVPs are concerned, we suppose it might be a bit misleading to call the above samplings our "Best Evidence." Perhaps better to call them "Representative Evidence" since we captured several of similar quality at the various establishments.
Nonetheless, we became increasingly impressed with spirit box EVPs because they so often provided voices that seemed spot on for context and specifics.
* * *Next week, we'll share the evidence that impressed us most of all -- the experiments we conducted where unseen presences multiple times responded not only by voice but also by physical deeds.
Remember that we're only a few short weeks away from the publication of our book, WILD WEST GHOSTS: an amateur ghost hunting guide to southwest Colorado, due out in June 2015, and covering the above encounters in more detail as well as many other paranormal experiences.
We also invite you to LIKE our new Facebook page for the book, where we're inviting other paranormal colleagues to also share their own experiences and evidence each week.
Happy hauntings, all!
(Our focus last time was anomalous photos we captured during our investigations. If you missed that article, click here.)EVPs -- Electronic Voice Phenomena, or voices captured by electronic means. It's not "unheard of" (forgive the pun!) to hear ghostly voices with the unaided ear, but it's only by recording such sounds that they move from hearsay and anecdote to documented evidence.
These days, two common methods of capturing EVPs are audio-only digital recording and so-called spirit boxes.(More on the latter in a moment.)
We used both methods, and with startling results.
Audio-Only EVP Recordings
We used a digital audio recorder during portions of all our investigations, conducting interviews and pausing to see if we captured any responses that that might not have been audible except when amplified later. This final necessary step was, at times, frustrating because we sometimes discovered responses that were missed opportunities for further dialog. Even more dismaying were the several occasions where we captured "Help me," which we only discovered during later analysis.
The Forest Queen HotelThe recorded voices are sometimes so soft it's not always certain what the words are. We tended to set those aside if we both couldn't agree on the meaning. One notable exception occurred at the Forest Queen Hotel in Crested Butte, Colorado, where we conducted a session in the room where a distraught prostitute reportedly hurled herself from the window and to her death in Coal Creek in the 1880s.
The voice we captured as a digital recording sounded like three syllables -- all in the same woman's voice -- but we couldn't make out her words. They may have even been Slavic. (The mining town included several different immigrant worker pools). See what you think she might be saying:
The voice of suicide prostitute "Liz-Liz" or "Thelma"?
Another audio-only recording we captured was the single word, "Yes," but what made it memorable to us was that it came in immediate response to a question we asked about the investigative procedures we used at the time. Ironically, this event occurred in the room of another suicide, this time a woman who had taken her life in 1906 at the Windsor Hotel in Del Norte, Colorado.
The Windsor HotelWe were uncertain at the time whether we had accidentally disrupted our flashlight or the incident was a manipulation by an unseen presence.
The EVP we later heard under amplification settled the question unequivocally for us. (You can compare this separate EVP with the video YouTube clip of the same event, called "Windsor Flashlight Experiment.")
Here's the EVP, along with the context:
Suicide Maud Heinz clarifies her role in the investigation
Even though we captured several other audio-only EVPs during our investigations, the above two instances
intrigued us the most.
Julia
Fariplay HotelStill, we have to mention just one more, an EVP we captured at the Fairplay Hotel of a prostitute named "Julia" (yet another suicide), reported to dance in the hallways at night. We conducted an audio-only session in her former room, where Mark asked her to interact with us. A very faint woman's voice told him, "I don't want to f**k with you." Guess Mark wasn't her type! The EVP is so low you need headphones and it doesn't compress well to video, so we haven't uploaded it to share. But it remains one of our favorites.But it was through our spirit box-generated EVPs that we obtained more reliable auditory volume as well as more frequent recordings. Read on!
Spirit Box EVPs
Many spirit boxes are electronic devices configured to scan random radio frequencies (RF). The theory is that spirits can pick out and share RF words appropriate for the conversation at hand. But many of the hotels we visited have limited -- and in one instance, no -- radio reception.
Although we tested a number of spirit boxes, the EchoVox provided the best results we obtained during our investigations. We really liked this device because it doesn't use RF at all, instead generating random sounds rather than words, which makes intelligible responses all the more remarkable. We received not only words from this spirit box but also the occasional sentence!
All EVP links we share below were generated with the EchoVox.
On later analysis of our various recordings, we noticed two recurring patterns that interested us:
EVPs that named individuals EVPs that participated in contextual conversationsWe became accustomed to spirit box voices calling us out by name -- even before we started introducing ourselves at the beginning of EVP sessions for unseen presences. For example, during our investigation at the Windsor (but across the hall from Maud Heinz's room), we recorded the following request from spirits to give them more time to answer:
Not always a need for introductions, it seems
At many of the other hotels, we captured the names of individuals present during the investigation -- or else the names of individuals we were trying to contact. For example, when we visited the Spruce Lodge in South Fork, we received an EVP of "Dee," and at the Linda Goodman Miracle Inn in Cripple Creek an EVP of "Sofia" -- the names of the two respective owners of those inns. And when we investigated the Creede Hotel in Creede, Colorado, we recorded EVPs of both "Alice" (in Poker Alice's former room) and "Bob"
Creede Hotel(possibly Bob Ford, Jesse James's killer, who was later gunned down in a saloon while still living at the hotel). You can visit our YouTube Channel to listen to those clips.One recurring EVP theme we noticed in retrospect to the year's investigations was the number of actual interactive conversations we recorded. A good example occurred, again, at the Creede Hotel. For this session, we used a mode of the EchoVox that boosts random sound generation, creating a burst of sounds that takes later manipulation to slow down and separate into distinct voices. Listen to the logical flow of the following conversation which includes a burst:
One of our conversations with EVPs
Hotel St. NicholasWe wonder, as we reviewed some of our findings, why we weren't more unnerved at the time by some of the conversations we recorded. For example, the Hotel St. Nichlas in Cripple Creek was a former Sisters of Mercy hospital and where we conducted one session in the operating-room-turned-guestroom.
A number of EVPs in that room almost sounded like conversations taking place as though we only eavesdropped. One somewhat chilling exchange involved discussion of some unnamed killing:
EVP from former hospital's operating room, now a guestroom
So far as our collective EVPs are concerned, we suppose it might be a bit misleading to call the above samplings our "Best Evidence." Perhaps better to call them "Representative Evidence" since we captured several of similar quality at the various establishments.
Nonetheless, we became increasingly impressed with spirit box EVPs because they so often provided voices that seemed spot on for context and specifics.
* * *Next week, we'll share the evidence that impressed us most of all -- the experiments we conducted where unseen presences multiple times responded not only by voice but also by physical deeds.Remember that we're only a few short weeks away from the publication of our book, WILD WEST GHOSTS: an amateur ghost hunting guide to southwest Colorado, due out in June 2015, and covering the above encounters in more detail as well as many other paranormal experiences.
We also invite you to LIKE our new Facebook page for the book, where we're inviting other paranormal colleagues to also share their own experiences and evidence each week.
Happy hauntings, all!
May 8, 2015
Twelve months, 20 paranormal investigations - our best evidence
This is the first in a four-part series (as we tap our feet awaiting the forthcoming release of our book on haunted hotels).
Twelve months and twenty investigations later – what did we come away with, what conclusions have we drawn, and do we as authors believe in ghosts?
Last question first: Kinda, not at first, maybe, sometimes, and now more baffled than ever when we try to maintain our skepticism.
Our paranormal project began as a book on haunted hotels in Colorado, and we approached the project as trained investigative journalists with an assignment from our publisher.
Sure, we were interested in the topic. After all, we once lived in a haunted house for nine years, and we’d encountered plenty of strange activity. (See our earlier blog on that experience.) It’s amazing how much the rational mind can justify in the aftermath of anomalous events.
Our haunted houseBut here we were: researching, investigating, and writing about ghosts. Other people's ghosts – well, mostly, since we decided to include in the book our own paranormal investigations at each establishment.
Drawing on our formal forensic training as field investigators for MUFON (but that's another story!), we decided to approach investigations using an Instrumental Trans-Communication (ITC) protocol –utilizing instruments to register fluctuations in electromagnetic field readings at each site, to record electronic voice phenomena, and to videotape interactions we experienced using a flashlight.
In the process, we decided to test and use a number of so-called spirit boxes, an experimental technology only a dozen or so years old and akin to high-tech Ouija Boards designed for 21st-Century users. Plus, we tried to document much of our experience by camcorder.
Now, only a month away from the publication of Wild West Ghosts – an amateur ghost hunting guide to Haunted Hotels in southwest Colorado, it’s time to stake stock of the best evidence we collected during a score of investigations.
And it’s time to ask YOU to be the judge of what we found out.
We’re going to share four kinds of experience:Photographic evidenceEVPs captured by audio-only digital recordings and by spirit boxesVideo evidence recording interactions and responses Other sensory encounters we experienced but can’t explain For the remainder of this article, we offer several puzzling photographic exhibits.
Our Photographic Evidence
During our year of investigations, we captured three pictures that have us scratching our heads. The first was of an orb.
We’ve always had orb envy.
Lots of folks we know – both friends and paranormal colleagues – have really good luck in capturing orbs. Not us. Except during our first serious investigation. We were in the courthouse in Virginia City, Montana, in the original 1880s holding cells in the building’s basement. Missy, the on-duty dispatcher/jailer, was showing us around and letting us take readings and recordings during our initial sweep of the facility.
This orb followed the jailer
through several photosIn the basement we took a whole range of still frames using a Canon PowerShot S3 IS digital camera. But it wasn’t until we returned to base that we discovered several frames contained luminous spheres – and each time right behind Missy. We took a variety of shots from different perspectives and even some from the same perspective. But only those that also included Missy captured these orbs.
When we later showed her the photos, she confided she regularly has the feeling someone (or something) is right behind her as she makes her rounds. When she gets that sense, she told us she sometimes turns around abruptly to see who’s following her, but she’s always alone. Or maybe not.
These have been the only anomalous orbs we’ve captured on stills but not the only anomalies our cameras caught.
During one of our earliest investigations for the book, we visited the Twin Lakes Inn in the village of Twin Lakes, Colorado, and Kym took a number of photos that contained blurry streaks. At the time, we thought nothing of it. But they were odd. They looked like motion blurs, sometimes with a single slanted striation running across the picture but others with five or six parallel streaks. However, the backgrounds were always in sharp focus. This really puzzled Kym since she’s been a long-time photojournalist and didn’t recall even taking most of those dozen or so frames.
Still, we were each trying out cameras on our two new tablets at the time, and she dismissed her photos as flawed – and deleted them! At the time it didn’t occur to us that these images might constitute “evidence.” Talk about N00bs. Sheesh. We still kick ourselves for deleting those pictures.
... in the "stretched" image?
Is that a figure in the
green image above?
And a face ...However, Mark managed to capture an anomalous image on his tablet at that same inn but also not on purpose. It was days after the investigation that he noticed two frames that seemed odd, and for three reasons.
First, he also didn’t remember snapping either of them since they were focused on an uninteresting edge of a stripped-down bed in a room during our initial tour of the inn. In fact, it wasn’t even a room we decided to investigate.
Second, the pictures were out of sequence. Like most cameras, it logs and stores photos in the same sequence they’re taken. Always. But these two pictures were at the very beginning of the camera’s memory storage. That simply shouldn’t happen. The two pics were also only a fraction of the file size of every other picture that camera has taken. (We’re talking 45k files where all the others are the standard size of at least a meg each.)
One of the pictures shows only the corner of the mattress and part of the black frame of the wrought-iron headboard. But the other picture – for the third and oddest reason – includes a vertical swatch or strip of green superimposed over the edge of the bedboard. There seemed to be some sort of image in the green swatch, so we stretched it for a better look. The image resembles a person to us.
We’re not sure we’d have scrutinized the picture so closely had it not been for the unusual circumstances of capturing and storing this picture. Make of it what you will.
Our final anomaly on film occurred at the Spruce Lodge in South Fork, Colorado. We were conducting EVP sessions in a room on one end of the lodge’s second floor. Right before we went inside, we snapped a picture of a really cool looking mannequin in period dress posed at the end of the hall. All the while, we had the door open, not ten not ten feet from the mannequin.
Note parasol up
Note parasol down
When we packed up our gear and walked out the door, the parasol that had been in the mannequin’s hand now lay on the floor nearby. This photo capture is less an anomaly than a record of what we saw. The flooring was hardwood, which made for distinctive echoes with every footfall.
We never heard the parasol move or fall, and we were only a few feet away. But the lodge has repeated reports of objects moving on all three floors of the main lodge.
* * *Next week, we move on to highlights of our EVP sessions, with YouTube links that document some of the more startling interactions we recorded during our year of investigations.
Twelve months and twenty investigations later – what did we come away with, what conclusions have we drawn, and do we as authors believe in ghosts?
Last question first: Kinda, not at first, maybe, sometimes, and now more baffled than ever when we try to maintain our skepticism.Our paranormal project began as a book on haunted hotels in Colorado, and we approached the project as trained investigative journalists with an assignment from our publisher.
Sure, we were interested in the topic. After all, we once lived in a haunted house for nine years, and we’d encountered plenty of strange activity. (See our earlier blog on that experience.) It’s amazing how much the rational mind can justify in the aftermath of anomalous events.
.jpg)
Our haunted houseBut here we were: researching, investigating, and writing about ghosts. Other people's ghosts – well, mostly, since we decided to include in the book our own paranormal investigations at each establishment.Drawing on our formal forensic training as field investigators for MUFON (but that's another story!), we decided to approach investigations using an Instrumental Trans-Communication (ITC) protocol –utilizing instruments to register fluctuations in electromagnetic field readings at each site, to record electronic voice phenomena, and to videotape interactions we experienced using a flashlight.
In the process, we decided to test and use a number of so-called spirit boxes, an experimental technology only a dozen or so years old and akin to high-tech Ouija Boards designed for 21st-Century users. Plus, we tried to document much of our experience by camcorder.Now, only a month away from the publication of Wild West Ghosts – an amateur ghost hunting guide to Haunted Hotels in southwest Colorado, it’s time to stake stock of the best evidence we collected during a score of investigations.
And it’s time to ask YOU to be the judge of what we found out.
We’re going to share four kinds of experience:Photographic evidenceEVPs captured by audio-only digital recordings and by spirit boxesVideo evidence recording interactions and responses Other sensory encounters we experienced but can’t explain For the remainder of this article, we offer several puzzling photographic exhibits.
Our Photographic Evidence
During our year of investigations, we captured three pictures that have us scratching our heads. The first was of an orb.
We’ve always had orb envy.
Lots of folks we know – both friends and paranormal colleagues – have really good luck in capturing orbs. Not us. Except during our first serious investigation. We were in the courthouse in Virginia City, Montana, in the original 1880s holding cells in the building’s basement. Missy, the on-duty dispatcher/jailer, was showing us around and letting us take readings and recordings during our initial sweep of the facility.
This orb followed the jailerthrough several photosIn the basement we took a whole range of still frames using a Canon PowerShot S3 IS digital camera. But it wasn’t until we returned to base that we discovered several frames contained luminous spheres – and each time right behind Missy. We took a variety of shots from different perspectives and even some from the same perspective. But only those that also included Missy captured these orbs.
When we later showed her the photos, she confided she regularly has the feeling someone (or something) is right behind her as she makes her rounds. When she gets that sense, she told us she sometimes turns around abruptly to see who’s following her, but she’s always alone. Or maybe not.
These have been the only anomalous orbs we’ve captured on stills but not the only anomalies our cameras caught.
During one of our earliest investigations for the book, we visited the Twin Lakes Inn in the village of Twin Lakes, Colorado, and Kym took a number of photos that contained blurry streaks. At the time, we thought nothing of it. But they were odd. They looked like motion blurs, sometimes with a single slanted striation running across the picture but others with five or six parallel streaks. However, the backgrounds were always in sharp focus. This really puzzled Kym since she’s been a long-time photojournalist and didn’t recall even taking most of those dozen or so frames.
Still, we were each trying out cameras on our two new tablets at the time, and she dismissed her photos as flawed – and deleted them! At the time it didn’t occur to us that these images might constitute “evidence.” Talk about N00bs. Sheesh. We still kick ourselves for deleting those pictures.
... in the "stretched" image?
Is that a figure in thegreen image above?
And a face ...However, Mark managed to capture an anomalous image on his tablet at that same inn but also not on purpose. It was days after the investigation that he noticed two frames that seemed odd, and for three reasons.
First, he also didn’t remember snapping either of them since they were focused on an uninteresting edge of a stripped-down bed in a room during our initial tour of the inn. In fact, it wasn’t even a room we decided to investigate.
Second, the pictures were out of sequence. Like most cameras, it logs and stores photos in the same sequence they’re taken. Always. But these two pictures were at the very beginning of the camera’s memory storage. That simply shouldn’t happen. The two pics were also only a fraction of the file size of every other picture that camera has taken. (We’re talking 45k files where all the others are the standard size of at least a meg each.)
One of the pictures shows only the corner of the mattress and part of the black frame of the wrought-iron headboard. But the other picture – for the third and oddest reason – includes a vertical swatch or strip of green superimposed over the edge of the bedboard. There seemed to be some sort of image in the green swatch, so we stretched it for a better look. The image resembles a person to us.
We’re not sure we’d have scrutinized the picture so closely had it not been for the unusual circumstances of capturing and storing this picture. Make of it what you will.
Our final anomaly on film occurred at the Spruce Lodge in South Fork, Colorado. We were conducting EVP sessions in a room on one end of the lodge’s second floor. Right before we went inside, we snapped a picture of a really cool looking mannequin in period dress posed at the end of the hall. All the while, we had the door open, not ten not ten feet from the mannequin.
Note parasol up
Note parasol downWhen we packed up our gear and walked out the door, the parasol that had been in the mannequin’s hand now lay on the floor nearby. This photo capture is less an anomaly than a record of what we saw. The flooring was hardwood, which made for distinctive echoes with every footfall.
We never heard the parasol move or fall, and we were only a few feet away. But the lodge has repeated reports of objects moving on all three floors of the main lodge.
* * *Next week, we move on to highlights of our EVP sessions, with YouTube links that document some of the more startling interactions we recorded during our year of investigations.
April 30, 2015
Colorado Haunted Hotels - The Twin Lakes Inn
We're sharing the history and haunted legends associated with each of the hotels and B&Bs in our book forthcoming in late June,
Note Mt. Elbert in background
(highest peak in Colorado)
WILD WEST GHOSTS:
an amateur ghost hunting guide
to Haunted Hotels
in southwest Colorado.
This week, we feature the Twin Lakes Inn in Twin Lakes, Colo. (If you missed the earlier account of our own paranormal investigation at Twin Lakes, click here.)
* * *Historical Context
Twin Lakes is filled with Colorado extremes – tallest mountain, largest glacier lakes, one of the worst avalanches, and maybe even its own monster. Read on.
Once a stop along the way between Leadville and Aspen, Twin Lakes was a mining transportation hub during the Colorado Gold Rush starting in 1860.
Built in 1879 by Maggie Webber, the facility that ultimately became the Twin Lakes Inn once served as a stage stop, a hotel, and even a brothel. A few years later, mining magnate James V. Dexter built the Interlaken Resort across the lake from Twin Lakes, attracting wealthy tourists who boated in the summer and skied in the winter. At one point, a storm sank the connecting ferry, and many passengers drowned. After a dam expanded the lakes and cut off easy access to the resort, interest started to fade and it eventually closed.
One of the twin lakes just a
mile before you reach the inn
An onslaught of tragedy befell the community starting in August 1961, when Twin Lakes suffered a heavy snow storm. Earthquake tremors and strong winds followed in November. Another storm hit that January, accompanied by 70 mph winds. An avalanche struck three days later, killing seven people as the snow freighted at speeds between 150-200 mph and reached the village limits. Rescuers found at least one victim under twelve feet of snow and rubble.
Through tumultuous and prosperous times, the Twin Lakes Inn continued business, even though its name and flavor changed according to each owner. The establishment, in turn, operated under such various names as Twin Peaks Inn, Twin Peaks Hotel, Sportsman’s Lodge, Inn of the Black Wolf, and Twin Lakes Nordic Inn.
During the “Black Wolf” era, the owner kept a kennel of wolves behind the hotel, allowing a couple of favorites to frequent the inside of the premises. They usually lay quietly in the dining room. But one day, a waitress dropped a tray of dinners in the vicinity of the wolves. The owner quickly commanded everyone in the room to freeze while the animals scarfed down the spilled meals. (As far we heard, that’s the only thing they ate.)
The Red Rooster Tavern & Brothel
used to be the inn's competition -
now it's the village visitor centerEven though the hotel has undergone several renovations, the town itself has changed very little since its inception. The general store, hotel, blacksmith shop, schoolhouse, and vacation homes of the early miners are still there, now part of the National Historic Register. Even the Red Rooster Tavern and Brothel still remains across the street from the Twin Lakes Inn but currently functions as the village visitor center.
Interlaken Lake holds one more secret. According to locals, the waters hide a lake monster affectionately known as “Bessie.” If you tire of ghost hunting, you might stroll the banks and keep an eye out for her.
Legends, Stories, and Guest ExperiencesThe Twin Lakes Inn has a reputation for guests hearing the invisible footfalls of heavy boots tromping up and down the hallway, and sometimes even the clanking of chains! Housekeeping sometimes finds the impressions of hands and fannies on freshly made beds. Another staff member told us about a music box turning on unexpectedly in the downstairs bar.
Stay in the Mt Elbert Rm
if your dare - a former
owner witnessed an
apparition in this doorwayA previous owner of the inn once saw an apparition standing in a guestroom doorway. She was fluffing pillows in Room Two when she witnessed a cowboy leaning against the doorjamb. She tossed the pillow on the bed, taking her eyes off the figure for only an instant. When she straightened up, the cowboy was nowhere to be found.
In the mid-1980s, one former guest recounted attending a séance in the second-floor room during a Halloween party. Hands joined in a circle with six others, she witnessed the vision of an apparition coming into the room to accost a shadow woman – not one of the attending participants – in a dress printed with pink polka dots. When the session concluded, the guest couldn’t wait to share her experience, but the woman sitting next to her spoke first, describing the same scene right down to the dots. Other attendees of the séance also reported the same vision.
Another guest reported seeing a ghost in the upstairs corridor, and still another saw shadowy arms in one of the rooms.
* * *
In the past twelve months, we conducted twenty paranormal investigations (including follow-ups) as part of our ghost book project.
It's time to take stock of the mass of evidence we've collected and analyzed. So next week -- while we tap our toes waiting for the street release of the book! -- we're going to offer the first in a four-part series that presents our best evidence for the supernatural at the fourteen locales we investigated.
Did we succeed?
Oh yeah: imprints appearing on beds, cups flying off tables, pillows off beds, cold spots, invisible footsteps, ghostly touches, flashlights winking on request, EVP voice recordings, interactive conversations through our spirit box, off-the-charts electromagnetic field fluctuations during our interactions, swirling angry orbs, and on and on.
Who knew Colorado was so haunted?
Join us starting next week, and you be the judge!
.jpg)
Note Mt. Elbert in background(highest peak in Colorado)
WILD WEST GHOSTS:
an amateur ghost hunting guide
to Haunted Hotels
in southwest Colorado.
This week, we feature the Twin Lakes Inn in Twin Lakes, Colo. (If you missed the earlier account of our own paranormal investigation at Twin Lakes, click here.)
* * *Historical Context
Twin Lakes is filled with Colorado extremes – tallest mountain, largest glacier lakes, one of the worst avalanches, and maybe even its own monster. Read on.
Once a stop along the way between Leadville and Aspen, Twin Lakes was a mining transportation hub during the Colorado Gold Rush starting in 1860.
Built in 1879 by Maggie Webber, the facility that ultimately became the Twin Lakes Inn once served as a stage stop, a hotel, and even a brothel. A few years later, mining magnate James V. Dexter built the Interlaken Resort across the lake from Twin Lakes, attracting wealthy tourists who boated in the summer and skied in the winter. At one point, a storm sank the connecting ferry, and many passengers drowned. After a dam expanded the lakes and cut off easy access to the resort, interest started to fade and it eventually closed.
.jpg)
One of the twin lakes just amile before you reach the inn
An onslaught of tragedy befell the community starting in August 1961, when Twin Lakes suffered a heavy snow storm. Earthquake tremors and strong winds followed in November. Another storm hit that January, accompanied by 70 mph winds. An avalanche struck three days later, killing seven people as the snow freighted at speeds between 150-200 mph and reached the village limits. Rescuers found at least one victim under twelve feet of snow and rubble.
Through tumultuous and prosperous times, the Twin Lakes Inn continued business, even though its name and flavor changed according to each owner. The establishment, in turn, operated under such various names as Twin Peaks Inn, Twin Peaks Hotel, Sportsman’s Lodge, Inn of the Black Wolf, and Twin Lakes Nordic Inn.
During the “Black Wolf” era, the owner kept a kennel of wolves behind the hotel, allowing a couple of favorites to frequent the inside of the premises. They usually lay quietly in the dining room. But one day, a waitress dropped a tray of dinners in the vicinity of the wolves. The owner quickly commanded everyone in the room to freeze while the animals scarfed down the spilled meals. (As far we heard, that’s the only thing they ate.)
The Red Rooster Tavern & Brothelused to be the inn's competition -
now it's the village visitor centerEven though the hotel has undergone several renovations, the town itself has changed very little since its inception. The general store, hotel, blacksmith shop, schoolhouse, and vacation homes of the early miners are still there, now part of the National Historic Register. Even the Red Rooster Tavern and Brothel still remains across the street from the Twin Lakes Inn but currently functions as the village visitor center.
Interlaken Lake holds one more secret. According to locals, the waters hide a lake monster affectionately known as “Bessie.” If you tire of ghost hunting, you might stroll the banks and keep an eye out for her.
Legends, Stories, and Guest ExperiencesThe Twin Lakes Inn has a reputation for guests hearing the invisible footfalls of heavy boots tromping up and down the hallway, and sometimes even the clanking of chains! Housekeeping sometimes finds the impressions of hands and fannies on freshly made beds. Another staff member told us about a music box turning on unexpectedly in the downstairs bar.
.jpg)
Stay in the Mt Elbert Rmif your dare - a former
owner witnessed an
apparition in this doorwayA previous owner of the inn once saw an apparition standing in a guestroom doorway. She was fluffing pillows in Room Two when she witnessed a cowboy leaning against the doorjamb. She tossed the pillow on the bed, taking her eyes off the figure for only an instant. When she straightened up, the cowboy was nowhere to be found.
In the mid-1980s, one former guest recounted attending a séance in the second-floor room during a Halloween party. Hands joined in a circle with six others, she witnessed the vision of an apparition coming into the room to accost a shadow woman – not one of the attending participants – in a dress printed with pink polka dots. When the session concluded, the guest couldn’t wait to share her experience, but the woman sitting next to her spoke first, describing the same scene right down to the dots. Other attendees of the séance also reported the same vision.
Another guest reported seeing a ghost in the upstairs corridor, and still another saw shadowy arms in one of the rooms.
* * *
In the past twelve months, we conducted twenty paranormal investigations (including follow-ups) as part of our ghost book project.It's time to take stock of the mass of evidence we've collected and analyzed. So next week -- while we tap our toes waiting for the street release of the book! -- we're going to offer the first in a four-part series that presents our best evidence for the supernatural at the fourteen locales we investigated.
Did we succeed?
Oh yeah: imprints appearing on beds, cups flying off tables, pillows off beds, cold spots, invisible footsteps, ghostly touches, flashlights winking on request, EVP voice recordings, interactive conversations through our spirit box, off-the-charts electromagnetic field fluctuations during our interactions, swirling angry orbs, and on and on.
Who knew Colorado was so haunted?
Join us starting next week, and you be the judge!
April 24, 2015
Colorado Haunted Hotels - The Spruce Lodge
We're sharing the history and haunted legends associated with each of the hotels and B&Bs in our book forthcoming in early June,
WILD WEST GHOSTS:
an amateur ghost hunting guide
to Haunted Hotels
in southwest Colorado.
This week, we feature the Spruce Lodge in South Fork, Colo. (If you missed the earlier account of our own paranormal investigation at the Spruce, click here.)
* * *Historical Context As early as 1874, South Fork was a stop along the Rio Grande for the Barlow and Sanderson Stage Company’s route, carrying passengers headed to more northerly destinations following the Old Spanish Trail. By 1881, the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad laid tracks through the town on its way to silver mining areas in the mountains further west. The narrow gauge trains served the local emerging sawmill industry in South Fork, and soon sheep and cattle operations as well as farming developed in the Rio Grande valley surrounding the town.
The Galbreath Tie & Timber Company, which began in the 1880s, built what would become the Spruce
Lodge’s main two-story log structure in the 1920s. The building served as a boarding house for sawmill workers and, except for the hardwood floors, all the wood in the construction comes from locally harvested forests. That mill continued operation until 1999 in what’s now a vacant lot across the highway directly south of the lodge.
The Spruce later passed into private hands and became a public lodge. It appears on the National Register of Historic Places, administered by the National Park Service as a way to coordinate and protect sites with historic and cultural significance.
Although one of the oldest communities in Colorado, South Fork didn’t become an incorporated town until 1992, making it the “youngest” statutory town in the state.
Rob and Dee Plucinski have owned and operated the Spruce Lodge since April 2006.
Legends, Stories, and Guest ExperiencesThe original two-story log building provides the setting for paranormal activity at the lodge, and reports occur in virtually every room of both the main floors and the basement – day and night.
Spruce lobbyEven before current owners Rob and Dee took possession of the lodge, the previous owners made it clear to expect paranormal events regularly on the premises. Although skeptical at first, the new owners soon discovered for themselves just how haunted their lodge was, and at all hours. In fact, so much paranormal activity has been reported by the owners, staff, guests, visiting friends and family, and construction workers, we can’t mention it all in this article.
Below is a summary, with a few particularly intriguing events in more detail.
Plenty of footsteps – sometimes for as long as ten or fifteen minutes at a time – occur throughout the building and even within guestrooms while occupied. Owners and visitors frequently hear voices, groans, sighs, and whispers throughout the main lodge. On separate occasions, owner Rob distinctly heard the same woman whisper in his ear, “Look at me” and “Hello.” A couple reported hearing Indian drumming in the hallway outside their room, and a plumber working in the basement heard a voice over his shoulder ask, “What are you doing?” while he worked alone. He didn't stick around long enough to carry on further conversation.
These antlers have mysteriously
moved twice - one time nearly a footA whole range of poltergeist activity takes place, including ghostly touches, moving kitchen utensils, rolling
balls, moving toys, electrical anomalies, drained batteries, and unscrewed light bulbs. The antlers on the lobby table have twice moved, once eleven inches from its original position.
The owner’s pets have frequently responded to unseen presences as well.
Apparitions also manifest on the premises. Guests have reported seeing shadow figures dart from room to room or down the second-floor hallway. One building renovator observed a basketball-sized winged object fly out of one room across the hall and into another. No windows were open at the time.
On our own investigation,
the parasol next to the
above mannequin moved
out front on the floorComing out of the laundry room, Rob noticed a dark figure standing in the doorway to the kitchen, very much resembling a previous deceased owner. He also came face to face with a blonde woman wearing a teal-colored shirt and blue pants sitting on a pool table in the building’s basement. There is no pool table in that particular space, but the room did serve as a pool hall in years past. According to Rob, she didn’t seem surprised to see him.
Dee had her own encounter with an apparition early one morning: “I reluctantly got out of bed and walked past Rob who was still standing by the alarm clock. I walked into the bathroom and was very surprised to find him in there – not in the bedroom where I [thought I] had just seen and spoken to him.”
Even the owners’ children have witnessed ghostly guests. Their son at age three pointed to an upstairs window, asking, “Who dat girl?” The parents saw nothing. Five months later, the little boy told his mother about “the other mommy” who sat on his bed, describing an older woman with white hair and glasses.
These days the owners have learned to take all the paranormal activity in stride. Guests might as well follow that example -- if they want to get any sleep.
* * * Next week, we report on the history and ghostly stories at The Twin Lakes Inn, home to multiple hauntings, including an account of uninvited apparitions who attended a seance on the second floor.
Now only five weeks away from the publication of WILD WEST GHOSTS, where we recount more on this and thirteen other haunted locales.
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WILD WEST GHOSTS:
an amateur ghost hunting guide
to Haunted Hotels
in southwest Colorado.
This week, we feature the Spruce Lodge in South Fork, Colo. (If you missed the earlier account of our own paranormal investigation at the Spruce, click here.)
* * *Historical Context As early as 1874, South Fork was a stop along the Rio Grande for the Barlow and Sanderson Stage Company’s route, carrying passengers headed to more northerly destinations following the Old Spanish Trail. By 1881, the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad laid tracks through the town on its way to silver mining areas in the mountains further west. The narrow gauge trains served the local emerging sawmill industry in South Fork, and soon sheep and cattle operations as well as farming developed in the Rio Grande valley surrounding the town.
The Galbreath Tie & Timber Company, which began in the 1880s, built what would become the Spruce Lodge’s main two-story log structure in the 1920s. The building served as a boarding house for sawmill workers and, except for the hardwood floors, all the wood in the construction comes from locally harvested forests. That mill continued operation until 1999 in what’s now a vacant lot across the highway directly south of the lodge.
The Spruce later passed into private hands and became a public lodge. It appears on the National Register of Historic Places, administered by the National Park Service as a way to coordinate and protect sites with historic and cultural significance.
Although one of the oldest communities in Colorado, South Fork didn’t become an incorporated town until 1992, making it the “youngest” statutory town in the state.
Rob and Dee Plucinski have owned and operated the Spruce Lodge since April 2006.
Legends, Stories, and Guest ExperiencesThe original two-story log building provides the setting for paranormal activity at the lodge, and reports occur in virtually every room of both the main floors and the basement – day and night.
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Spruce lobbyEven before current owners Rob and Dee took possession of the lodge, the previous owners made it clear to expect paranormal events regularly on the premises. Although skeptical at first, the new owners soon discovered for themselves just how haunted their lodge was, and at all hours. In fact, so much paranormal activity has been reported by the owners, staff, guests, visiting friends and family, and construction workers, we can’t mention it all in this article. Below is a summary, with a few particularly intriguing events in more detail.
Plenty of footsteps – sometimes for as long as ten or fifteen minutes at a time – occur throughout the building and even within guestrooms while occupied. Owners and visitors frequently hear voices, groans, sighs, and whispers throughout the main lodge. On separate occasions, owner Rob distinctly heard the same woman whisper in his ear, “Look at me” and “Hello.” A couple reported hearing Indian drumming in the hallway outside their room, and a plumber working in the basement heard a voice over his shoulder ask, “What are you doing?” while he worked alone. He didn't stick around long enough to carry on further conversation.
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These antlers have mysteriouslymoved twice - one time nearly a footA whole range of poltergeist activity takes place, including ghostly touches, moving kitchen utensils, rolling
balls, moving toys, electrical anomalies, drained batteries, and unscrewed light bulbs. The antlers on the lobby table have twice moved, once eleven inches from its original position.
The owner’s pets have frequently responded to unseen presences as well.
Apparitions also manifest on the premises. Guests have reported seeing shadow figures dart from room to room or down the second-floor hallway. One building renovator observed a basketball-sized winged object fly out of one room across the hall and into another. No windows were open at the time.
.jpg)
On our own investigation,the parasol next to the
above mannequin moved
out front on the floorComing out of the laundry room, Rob noticed a dark figure standing in the doorway to the kitchen, very much resembling a previous deceased owner. He also came face to face with a blonde woman wearing a teal-colored shirt and blue pants sitting on a pool table in the building’s basement. There is no pool table in that particular space, but the room did serve as a pool hall in years past. According to Rob, she didn’t seem surprised to see him.
Dee had her own encounter with an apparition early one morning: “I reluctantly got out of bed and walked past Rob who was still standing by the alarm clock. I walked into the bathroom and was very surprised to find him in there – not in the bedroom where I [thought I] had just seen and spoken to him.”
Even the owners’ children have witnessed ghostly guests. Their son at age three pointed to an upstairs window, asking, “Who dat girl?” The parents saw nothing. Five months later, the little boy told his mother about “the other mommy” who sat on his bed, describing an older woman with white hair and glasses.
These days the owners have learned to take all the paranormal activity in stride. Guests might as well follow that example -- if they want to get any sleep.
* * * Next week, we report on the history and ghostly stories at The Twin Lakes Inn, home to multiple hauntings, including an account of uninvited apparitions who attended a seance on the second floor.
Now only five weeks away from the publication of WILD WEST GHOSTS, where we recount more on this and thirteen other haunted locales.
