December 20th Day Investigations

Contributed by: tomcat Sunday, December 21 2008 @ 11:37 pm UTC

On December 20'th, myself and Christine B, from El Dorado Paranormal, joined forces to do a radio show at her 1 PM Saturday show at  KFOK studio and then left from that location to head out to do a day-tour of known haunted spots around the county.

We arrived at 12:45pm to prepare for an interview with Alexandra Holzer, the daughter of the well-known paranormal book writer and investigator, Hans Holzer. Little did we know what a totally fun person Alexandra would be. After the public announcement spots (and I did my first commercial ever!) with Alexandra on the line, we found ourselves laughing at the stories and observations that Alexandra told us about her life. She runs a group of investigators out of New York called "New York City's Pretty Paranormals Intuitive Investigative Team" or "NYCPP" for short.

Alexandra has a refreshing saying:

""Be an independent in the field of the paranormal and WORK with others as one big universal team."

Now *this* is ideal to see in our field! I'm impressed and think that this should be a standard saying and practice on all sites!  It's how we should be as investigation groups, sharing knowledge, ideas, techniques and data openly! Alexandra related how she came to the subject of the paranormal, later in life and that the paranormal sought her out and not the other way around. She told stories about her father and answered questions about his current doings, along with discussions about her book, "Growing Up Haunted: A Ghostly Memoir", as well as discussing some of the many books her father wrote.

Much of the discussion centered around a life in and around the paranormal and not in discussions directly related to it and it was nice to hear the many similarities and ordinary things that she experienced and related. I found her to be a friendly and very approachable personality with a very sane and down-to-earth grasp of a subject that is often anything but down-to-earth. I personally hope to interview her when my own radio show begins in early 2009. The World of the Paranormal show can be heard HERE if you are interested in the interview.

Upon concluding the show and saying goodbye to Alexandra, we decided to do a brief excursion around Georgetown. Taking our EMF meters and EVP recorders, we asked permission to look around the Georgetown Hotel and were given approval to briefly investigate the first floor. I picked up a few EVPs, which are posted HERE on this site. We did debunk some items at the site, including the fact that there are a lot of EMF fields coming from the fireplace area and the video-games that are in the room. A power-panel on that wall does seem to be generating a lot of RF and we are officially documenting that future investigations should examine this fact when investigating the first floor.

We were advised to investigate the "Miners Club" bar, just across the street and decided to go there. Christine and I entered the little bar and found a friendly bunch of people who allowed us in to run a brief investigation. We were treated to a number of stories about hauntings and odd things that have happened in Georgetown and have recorded these to the research file for potential future investigations. The bar was once a morgue, used during the Civil War. One EVP was especially telling, with the words "Burn Yankees" spoken.

While at the Miners Club, we recorded a number of EVPs. Most were friendly and a couple seemed to become excited at the name "Archie", which seems to have been a person who recently died. We felt that the Miners Club was more than paranormally active. In fact, it does merit further investigation with a potential evening investigation using video in a locked down room on an overnight investigation to see what can be captured.

The EVPs for the Miners Club and Georgetown Hotel can be found HERE for those interested in hearing what was captured.
We left Georgetown (and we wish to thank the very friendly residents of that town for a very hospitable reception) and headed to stop at the Bayley House, a southern-style mansion erected in the mid-1800s by AJ Baylee as a potential hotel for guests going to and from Auburn. The railroads bypassed the hotel and AJ ended up using the home as first a summer home and then as his permanent residence. The link to the site is operated by a group working hard to save that institution and your dollars towards restoration will be very much appreciated by them! Bayley House is a real treasure and worth saving!

The Bayley House is boarded up and surrounded by no-trespassing signs and we respected these boundaries. We ran EVP and camera investigations of the site and recorded a very disturbing woman's cry for help as well as a number of other odd EVPs that can be heard HERE.

We felt that we were being watched as we walked the property and were also very surprised at the site of a billy goat and a female goat on the inside of the fence when we walked near the back of the Bayley House. We also noted that there was ample evidence that there were probably burial spots in the area and potentially it would be worth examining the field out back to see what sorts of EVPs might be captured in a day-investigation of the area.

Leaving the Bayley House, we drove down to the Coloma area and entered the James Marshall Gold Discovery Park. We investigated the statue at the top of hill and immediately noticed strong and persistant EMF spikes on the K-II meter. After ruling out other electronics and inspecting the area (and finding now power lines or sources of interference), we decided that this was indicative of spirit presence. We placed the EVP recorder and K-II meter on the flag pole base and began asking questions.

The K-II continued to respond, but not on command, to our questions. So we feel that the EMF evidence was only indicative but not conclusive evidence. The EVP evidence was a different matter, with a huge amount of EVP recordings gathered and indications that many spirits were surrounding us. Note  that this was in the afternoon and not at night, proving that paranormal investigations can be done at just about any time.

The EVP evidence can be heard HERE. Amongst the best of these picked up a lot of names, indignant responses to our questions and we learned the death dates of a few of these people.

Lessons Learned

We also learned a thing or two about planned EVP questions as a result of this investigation.

Since this was an informal investigation, with limited historical knowledge, we did learn that our EVP sessions need to be changed as follows:

1. Much longer quiet times for our questions with silence the golden rule.
2. Scripted questions that use pre-investigation lessons and historical knowledge to use our time meaningfully.
3. Instead of asking if someone is a man, woman, or child, we need to structure the questions and divide the groups by stating so and that will make for more meaningful answers.
4. Death date questions need to have names added, so we know who is telling us when they died.
5. Allow much more time investigating.

We left the statue area and descended into the cemetery, cabin and church area. Upon getting out, our EMF meter pegged and we later learned that the EVP revealed a spirit telling us to "get the hell out". Obviously this spirit is a bit angry at all the visitors and perhaps needs some reassurance that we are not there to gawk or poke fun.

Christine captured the photo at right in the cabin. It is unusual in that it doesn't appear to be the standard orb. I'm normally not given to publishing orb photos, but this one is unusual and merits a return to the cabin to look at trying to debunk and recreate the photo. I do think it is extremely unusual and ties in well to the hostile EVPs we captured in the area of the cabin.

Also, Christine did seem to draw the attention of some spirits, who commented she could see them and some wanted her gone! It does strike me as odd that many of them ask for help but don't want to be seen or grow quiet when we try to help! I guess, just like real people, they get shy and also want things different than what they say when push comes to shove!

We did spend time walking the area and a number of good EVPs were gathered from this locale. These can be heard HERE. Christine picked up an awesome photo of an orb from the cabin area and it isn't the usual orb. The photo is seen at the right.

We will return soon to the Marshall site and also to the other sites with our evidence in tow and refined procedures in hand. To the entities we encountered, we thank you for your time and also for teaching us what to ask and what not to ask. It was a pleasure to work with Christine and we look forward to more investigations with her in the future.

By the time all was done, it was dark, cold and I was ready to rest. I checked a few EVPs out before bed and was amazed at some of the captures we received. Each site visited gave us good EVPs and I do think that Georgetown offers a chance to do some good evening indoor work with video and audio in 2009. We'll be talking with some of those folks in the coming months and quite likely scheduling investigation time there!

Conclusions

This case was not "formal". It was a day scouting mission and thus the results are not submitted as "evidence". The results are for training purposes and provides us with valuable pre-investigation knowledge for future investigations.

1. The Georgetown Hotel has some paranormal activity based on EVPs captured. However, there are strong EMF fields from electrical gear near the fireplace on the first floor and this must be taken into account for future investigations.
2. The Miners Club bar is paranormally active, but can only be deemed haunted after a more formal investigation. There were a large number of EVPs captured and the past morgue history and Civil War background make this a primary candidate site for our team to investigate in the future. EMFs in this place were few, with the bar and florescent fixtures being known spots. Otherwise, the bar is obstacle-free, suited for a large investigation group and has friendly proprieters and customers who share knowledge readily.
   
3. The Bayley House is paranormally active and worth a full investigation. A series of drop recorders strategically placed on-site would be useful for further probes of the site in an all-night mode without risking investigators safety. The owners have not been communicative to past inquiries and we feel it may be due to insurance reasons, but the parking lot is a good spot for a day investigation with the maximum time being about one hour for a formal investigation by a team.
   
4. The Coloma area is haunted. Our probes and the sheer number of EMF and EVP responses indicate that this site is very much worth using as a training ground and also to further refine our scientific protocols for EVP interviews and to garner more history from the many spirits who obviously know a lot of the history and secrets of the past at this location. We feel that the use of more structured protocols for garnering more history would be the best application of our limited time when investigating here, thus missions should have strong objectives and draw on past missions for structuring outings to gather new knowledge.
   

Until next time -- Jon

- Ghost Rider Investigations
http://historical.ghostriderinvestigations.com/article.php?story=20081221153721238