Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Halloween Investigation: Museum of the Mountain West, Pt 2

This is the second of our two-part account of the investigation on Halloween weekend October 2016 at the Museum of the Mountain West (MMW) -- a collaboration of three paranormal research groups that conducted round-robin investigations at six locations within the museum's sprawling grounds near Montrose, Colo.

Museum of the Mountain West
(Click here to see Part 1 of this two-part account.) 

The investigation included 18 researchers consisting of Wraiths in the Thick of Things, Hotchkiss Paranormal Investigators (HPI), and a group of university students that Mark and Chris have been training as part of the next generation of critical paranormal investigators. (We'll publish more on this project in a forthcoming article for the National Paranormal Society's Focus Magazine.)



A note on our methodology
Mel on the left and K-II on
the right, with investigator's
finger pointing at the device
You'll notice for the following video clips that each team employed a combination of K-II and Mel meters. Both meters used in these experiments are designed to register EMF (Electromagnetic Field energy), and increased EMF is a phenomenon often reported during paranormal activity.

Key to the experiments, however, is using two meters, where investigators ask for interaction with one meter (generally the K-II) but not the other. This helps us, as investigators, to eliminate the variable of random EMF emissions from the surrounding environment that could affect both instruments during each session.

We're also careful not to actually touch the K-II unit when pointing to it (cautious about contamination due to a possible grounding effect).


THE INVESTIGATIONS

The Main Building Dry Goods Store
The team Mark led with student trainees first swept this one-room store to establish baseline EMF readings and then preceded to ask a set of agreed-upon questions that both Wraiths teams asked in each locale. In the following clip, you'll hear some of those scripted questions. At one point, however, a team member asked about attachment to particular garments in the store (see our earlier article on paranormal accounts by museum staff and visitors), and that question prompted an unexpected conversation via K-II responses. Here's that exchange:

Our K-II conversation in the Dry Goods Store

This Dry Goods Store interaction was one of the most surprising of the evening since that session suggested an intelligent haunting through a conversation with an entity well aware of our presence, and the respondent was willing to help us locate not only the particular dress but also a particular pair of shoes.

The Louise House
At one point during the night, Wraiths investigator Chris led another set of student trainees in a session conducted in the so-called Louise House, an early-day Montgomery Ward mail-order home that was later relocated to the MMW. In this session, Chris's team used not only the K-II/Mel meter combo but also consecutive sessions first with the Spiritus and then with the EchoVox spirit boxes. See their results in this clip:

Coordinated K-II and spirit box responses

What really got our attention is how the two separate spirit boxes both produced the name of "Annette" and how the K-II responded when Chris repeated that name later on in the session. Listen carefully to the spirit box recordings to hear what additional responses you think the team may have captured.

The Empire House
We've saved sharing the most intriguing investigation for last, one that took place in a building only recently moved to MMW, and so named because of its Empire-style architecture. However, this former home has a darker name applied to it by locals: "The Murder House."

The structure once stood near the middle of town in Montrose, and it was the site of a murder-suicide.in the 1940s. HPI investigated the location before its removal to MMW and reported a number of chilling experiences, including invisible scampering footsteps of children and a dark energy that menaced their team. (See HPI's Facebook page for those accounts.)

Wraiths team member Egan (our resident sensitive) also scouted out the building prior to its move to MMW, and she reported that the Murder House also contained a dark presence as well as the persistence of the woman who was murdered there. During our Halloween weekend investigation at MMW, Wraiths student-trainee Trenton saw from outside the house the shadow figure of a woman cross the bay windows of the living room. (At the time, no one was inside the building.)

Once we entered the house, Wraiths student trainees conducted a session on their own in the stairway where the woman was murdered on the third step and may have interacted with that murder victim:

 A K-II conversation with a murder victim

While the above session took place, in another part of the house Egan reported that she no longer sensed the dark energy she'd felt before the building was moved to MMW. But of equal interest was her impression that the woman was still in the house, and now content. It was an intriguing corroboration to what the student trainees captured in the above clip.

Further corroboration of that finding occurred when HPI conducted their separate investigation of the Murder House later that same evening (shared here with HPI's permission):

HPI's EVP capture in the Murder House

This extraordinary EVP, which HPI captured on the audio track of their video recording, seems to confirm our own findings that the dark energy was no longer in the Empire House. (EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon.)

Our joint investigations at the Museum of the Mountain West were ambitious, but it was also very fruitful. We want to return on a future date, of course, to see if we can replicate not only the responses we obtained but also the same kinds of interactions we recorded.

***
We're still having as much fun documenting current and ongoing investigations as we did conducting the investigations for our book, WILD WEST GHOSTS.

There are puzzling experiences and encounters aplenty out there, and you just may want to pick up a copy of that book for either armchair musings or else as a guide for your own expeditions into the fascinating world of the paranormal.

You can buy the book as either an e-read or a trade paperback. Visit our Website for links.

In the meantime, happy hunting!

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Halloween Investigation: Museum of the Mountain West, Pt 1

Our investigation on Halloween weekend October 2016 at the Museum of the Mountain West (MMW) was perhaps our most ambitious: a collaboration of three paranormal research groups that conducted round-robin investigations at six locations within the museum's sprawling grounds near Montrose, Colo.

Museum of the Mountain West
(Click here to see the history of this reconstructed and assembled frontier town as well as the paranormal accounts we previously collected from staff and visitors.) 

The investigation included 18 researchers consisting of Wraiths in the Thick of Things, Hotchkiss Paranormal Investigators (HPI), and a group of university students that Mark and Chris have been training as part of the next generation of conscientious and critical investigators. (We'll publish more on this project in a forthcoming article for the National Paranormal Society's Focus Magazine.)

Our para team collaborators

Before we go into details, a shout-out to museum curator Bob DeQuinze, MMW board member Carolyn Bellavance, the whole MMW volunteers and staff (who made us so welcome, and even fed us!), and HPI co-founder/lead investigator Hector Zeferino as well as his dedicated team.

What a pleasure this whole experience was.

THE INVESTIGATIONS
Student investigators Chrissie and Doug
during our MMW investigation
(photo by Paul Hurschmann,
Montrose Daily Press 10-30-2016)
After preliminary sweeps of the MMW grounds on previous, independent dates by both Wraiths and HPI, the collaborating teams decided we had an unprecedented opportunity  to break participants into four coordinated sub-teams. Each group could then rotate sessions round-robin through agreed-upon locations. And we each used the same methodologies, asked the same initial questions, and performed the same experiments -- all while carefully logging findings and recording time-stamps for every procedure, response, and encounter.

We also agreed not to share findings in between our musical chairs relocations, so we wouldn't bias one another on what occurred during the ongoing investigations.

The onsite experience is over, and the real work of analyzing what evidence we collected is now underway. However, we can already share a few striking moments from the investigation.

The D&RG Railroad Section House
The 1882 Section House was dismantled and moved from Olathe, Colo., to MMW in 2006, and the structure originally served as a bunkhouse for Denver & Rio Grande Railroad workers. At least one of those workers may still be present. (See our earlier article.)

A haunted brake light?
Wraiths investigator Egan, who's a sensitive, had previously visited this building and encountered a strong presence that seemed possessive and protective of one brake-light lantern displayed on the south wall inside the section house. Curator Bob DeQuinze had earlier related to us that a museum visitor reported seeing a figure in that building who announced the lantern was his and demanded the visitor get out.

On the Halloween weekend night investigation, Team Mark (consisting also of Wraiths team member Egan as well as students Frances, Kane, Lily, Marlida, and Trenton) approached the section house, but the unlocked door wouldn't open at first. Egan later reported she'd felt intense negativity both outside the door and when we entered. In fact, it almost overpowered her.

We checked the door afterwards, and it both opened and closed freely, and had done so earlier in the evening for the previous team.

We set up our instruments (camcorder, K-II and Mel meters, and spirit box) and began asking the scripted questions. While the team conducted the interview and monitored equipment, Trent felt an undeniable touch on his left side under his arm. And as our questions became more insistent with regards to the brake-light lantern, Egan became nauseous and both Egan and Trent felt simultaneous sharp spikes of pain to the right back side of their heads.

Here's what we captured on K-II and Mel meters as well as on the EchoVox spirit box at that time:



The K-II and Mel meters used in this experiment both register EMF (Electromagnetic Field energy), a phenomenon often reported during paranormal activity. Key to the experiment, however, is using two meters, where investigators ask for interaction with one meter but not the other. This helps us, as investigators, eliminate the variable of random EMF emissions from the surrounding environment that could affect both instruments since investigators request interaction through only one of the devices.

You'll notice in the above experiment, and the one below, that the Mel meter remained constant while the K-II meter registered changes repeatedly upon request.

The Main Building Saloon
Pool table at the center of the saloon
While the above experiment progressed, Team Chris (including students Caitlyn, Doug, Chrissy, Emma, and Sam) investigated the saloon inside the main building. (Again, see our earlier article for paranormal accounts in this locale.) The team decided to focus their investigation at the center of the room on top of the antique pool table.

The investigators followed the agreed-upon scripted questions, using an EchoVox spirit box first and then repeating questions  using a Spiritus spirit box. They also simultaneously incorporated both K-II and Mel meters.

But their interviews soon took a different turn when both boxes produced references to the pool table. See the following video for results from their session:


Note in the above clip a number of intelligent-response EVP that correspond to playing pool, including the term "rookie" to taunt Chris as well as the term "break." (EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomena -- voices generated by the spirit boxes.) The team also twice received the clear response of "Faye" when asking for the name of the entity.

Earlier in this session, they had heard "black ... white" on the spirit box and subsequently, whenever team members brought up those words immediately prior to the above clip, the K-II would light enthusiastically once the team figured out the EVP referred to the white cue ball and black eight-ball on the table. Notice how the K-II in the above clip continues to respond to their mentions of black and white.

The night was just beginning, and with many encounters yet to come.

And in the next article ...
Click here to continue to Part 2, where we share additional on-the-ground interactions and encounters the teams experienced that night and then turn to insights we gained about the haunted Museum of the Mountain West when we compare experiences and findings with the other investigative teams.

***
We're still having as much fun documenting current and ongoing investigations as we did conducting the investigations for our book, WILD WEST GHOSTS.

There are puzzling experiences and encounters aplenty out there, and you just may want to pick up a copy of that book for either armchair musings or else as a guide for your own expeditions into the fascinating world of the paranormal.

You can buy the book as either an e-read or a trade paperback. Visit our Website for links.

In the meantime, happy hunting!