HGB Ep. 565 - Haunted Cedar Key and the Island Hotel

Moment in Oddity - Frog Milk (Suggested by: ?)

Throughout history, many methods of food and drink preservation have been discovered. Prior to the invention of modern refrigerators, preserving things like milk proved to be challenging. However, centuries before modern refrigeration, the people of Russia and Finland discovered a strange method for keeping milk fresh and free from bacteria. It just so happens that the body secretions of their common frogs have many antibacterial properties. Although the idea of preserving milk with frogs was considered folklore, scientists in Moscow announced this discovery back in 2012. Apparently, Russian brown frog's skin secretes peptides that have antimicrobial compounds that help reduce the growth of fungi and bacteria. The scientists even discovered that the slime of these amphibians can even be as effective as certain pharmaceuticals against bacteria like salmonella and staphylococcus. Now, we don't recommend grabbing some random frog and popping it into your milk to help it last longer. Nor do we recommend licking one because you're worried about a possible bacterial infection. But a fascinating amphibian fable that turns out to be factual certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Christopher Columbus Discovers Puerto Rico

In the month of November, on the 19th, in 1493, Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Puerto Rico. Columbus was on his second voyage to the New World and arrived on the island with approximately 1,300 men and 17 ships. He named the island San Jaun Bautista to honor Saint John the Baptist. The explorer encountered the indigenous Taino people who called their island Borinquen and themselves, Boricua. In the beginning, the Taino people were friendly with Columbus and his men, sharing gifts and food and showing the explorers how they lived. Unfortunately, Columbus and his men soured the relationship with the island people by forcing them into labor and slavery. As interrelations continued to decline, smallpox took hold of the natives wiping out a majority of their people. The first European settlement on the island was established by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1508. The settlement was called Caparra. By 1521, the island was renamed Puerto Rico which means "rich port" and that port city became San Juan.

Haunted Cedar Key and the Island Hotel

We originally featured the Island Hotel and Restaurant in Cedar Key, Florida back on Ep. 36 in 2015. In November 2024, we stayed overnight and did a little investigating and while our experiences were subtle, it does seem that paranormal activity does occur here. The building was originally built in 1859 and used as a general store and it was built to last. The building material that was used was Tabby, which is a mixture of oyster shells, sand and limestone, and the structure has lasted 165 years. The most recent hurricanes to hit the area, particularly Hurricane Helene, only caused slight wind damage to the structure. The building has passed through the hands of many owners, some of whom may still remain in the afterlife. People claim there are as many as thirteen ghosts here. The rest of Cedar Key did not fair well during Hurricane Helene, but we still enjoyed the surroundings of what seems to be a very haunted island. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Island Hotel and Cedar Key!

Cedar Key is located just south of the mouth of the Suwannee River. This is actually a group of barrier islands, despite being referred to as just Cedar Key. The islands derived their name from the Eastern Red Cedar that once grew abundantly in the area. It is believed that Archaic indigenous people were here, followed by the Woodland Indians. These groups left behind shell mounds that can still be visited at Shell Mound Historic Site. When the Spanish arrived, the Timucua tribe were here and they were decimated by the Spanish when they arrived in the 1500s. The Cedar Keys would go on to be used by several groups including the Seminoles and pirates. The United States Army established itself on Cedar Key in 1839 by building a fort there where a garrison was headed by General Zachary Taylor. A hurricane in 1842 chased the army away. That same year, Congress passed a law called the Armed Occupation Act. The bill was a blatant attempt to run the Seminole off and bring more white people to Florida.

It would be the Florida Railroad that would bring big changes to Florida and in particular Cedar Key. The President of the Florida Railroad was also a United States Senator, David Levy Yulee. Yulee was a Jewish Moroccan, making him the first ever Jewish Senator. Because he was the president of the Florida Railroad, he was nicknamed the "Father of Florida Railroads." Yulee had bought Way Island, which was part of the Cedar Key group, to have a place for the railroad's terminal facilities. Cedar Key would become the railroad's western end of the line. The first train arrived in 1861.

Because the railroad meant prosperity, several people took interest in establishing homes and businesses there. Major John Parsons bought some land and began construction on the building that would one day become the Island Hotel. The structure was built from Tabby as we said and massive 12-inch oak beams secure the frame of the structure in the basement. Parsons partnered with a man named Francis E. Hale and when the building was finished, they named it Parsons and Hale's General Store. Unfortunately, just as the general store was ready for opening and business seemed ready to grow in Cedar Key, the Civil War started. It brought a halt to all growth and it brought war to Cedar Key. Union troops invaded the area and they burned nearly every building. The general store was left alone because the Union saw it as a strategic point for a headquarters. Cedar Key was near a major port and the general store provided shelter, supplies and storage.

Major Parsons joined the war effort and he served as a commander of some Confederate volunteers. He and his men defended the Gulf Coast and soon the Confederates were able to take back Cedar Key and they then used the general store as a barracks. The war ended and Parsons returned to Cedar Key where he and Hale reopened the general store. Parsons and Hale ran shipping from the general store and supplied the area with everything from furniture to oil to hardware to food to building supplies. The Cedar Key Post Office and the customs house were also inside the general store. At some point, Parsons and Hale decided to offer boarding at their place and John Muir is one of the people who may have stayed there. Muir is considered the father of America's National Park System. Cedar Key was the finish to his thousand mile walk, which he had started in Indiana and this walk was his attempt to study and enjoy the natural landscape. He wrote of this adventure in his book "A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf" and in it he recounts stepping into a little general store in Cedar Key. President Grover Cleveland is also rumored to have stayed at the Parsons and Hale's General Store on a return trip from Cuba. Times were very good, but they would not last.

Parsons died in 1888 at the age of 71. Florida is known for hurricanes and a big one hit Cedar Key in 1896. Most of the town was destroyed and despite the fact that the general store was built from almost indestructible tabby, it did suffer damage. A fire roared through the town a few years later and then the business collapsed. Cedar Key had hit rough times. Francis Hale died in 1910 and the property went to Langdon Parsons, Major Parsons nephew. He decided to sell the building in 1915 to a man named Simon Feinberg. Feinberg had no use for the general store and he turned the building into a full fledged hotel he named Bay Hotel. Feinberg added a second floor balcony and reconstructed much of the inside. Marcus Markham managed the operation with his wife.

On May 11, 1919, Feinberg died in the hotel under very mysterious circumstances. Feinberg was a religious man and he supported the efforts of the Temperance Society, a group heading up the effort to bring Prohibition. Prohibition had not been made law yet, but President Woodrow Wilson had already called for a temporary wartime prohibition in 1917. Feinberg had gone to the Bay Hotel to collect money from the manager and was dismayed to find out that the manager had been running a whiskey still in the attic. There was a false roof about twelve inches below the real roof and this concealed the copper pipes used for the still. The manager wanted to placate Feinberg, so he treated him to a wonderful meal and then Feinberg retired to the hotel and went to sleep. He never woke up.

The hotel would filter through the hands of several owners after the death of Feinberg. The building became known as the Cedar Key Hotel and then later was renamed Fowler's Wood after a new owner. It was the hotel's tenure as Fowler's Wood that it would become a brothel and speakeasy during the 1930s. A Mr. Crittenden managed the hotel at this time. In 1932, the railroad stopped running to Cedar Key and economic depression hit the area once again. Times were so tough for the hotel that it went into foreclosure. The owner took the foreclosure pretty hard and tried to burn the building down three different times. His plan might have worked had he stopped to remember that the fire department was right across the street. The fire was extinguished every time.

Ray Andrews bought the property at the end of the 30s and had his sister and her husband manage the place. It was here that most of the residents of Cedar Key heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1945, the King Neptune lounge was added to the hotel. The hotel would experience a renaissance and one of its grandest times when in 1946, Bessie and Loyal "Gibby" Gibbs purchased the hotel. It was in bad shape and they renovated it and reopened it as the Island Hotel. The couple added their unique flair to the place and Gibby kept bar. The townspeople loved to gather at the bar, as did visitors. Some of those visitors included Pearl Buck, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Frances Langford, Richard Boone and Myrna Loy. In 1948, the couple hired an artist to paint murals in the restaurant and bar and upstairs. The restaurant had a great reputation as well and was known as a place to eat the freshest seafood and vegetables around. Bessie created many of the recipes cooked by their chef Catherine "Big Buster" Johnson and she chastised any patrons who did not eat their vegetables. She is credited with creating the signature dish for the restaurant with Big Buster. That dish is Heart of Palm Salad and the restaurant still serves it. The recipe includes slivered lettuce, slivered palm hearts, pineapple chunks, chopped dates, chopped crystalized ginger that is covered in palm dressing made from mayonnaise, vanilla ice cream, peanut butter and green food coloring.

In 1950, Hurricane Easy hit Cedar Key and ripped the roof off of the Island Hotel. The upstairs room was water damaged as well as the King Neptune mural in the bar. The couple added the nearly wraparound veranda on the second level in 1958 and they filled it with rocking chairs. Gibby Gibbs died in 1962 and while Bessie had just lost her love and her rock, she forged forward with continuing to run the hotel. Gibby's body was cremated and his ashes spread at Channel Marker 32. Everyone called Bessie "Miss Bessie" and she was beloved on the island. She had a big personality and didn't put up with any nonsense. A drunk who came into the lounge filthy was quickly ushered out by Miss Bessie and she handed him a bar of soap. Miss Bessie got involved in the community in many areas. She helped establish a museum, she fought to keep the oldest house in Cedar Key from being demolished and the hotel served as a de facto Chamber of Commerce for the city of Cedar Key. The city gained not only prominence in Florida, but at a national level as well. Miss Bessie served as a City Commissioner, Judge, Fire Chief and Mayor. On top of all that, she ran the Island Hotel successfully until 1973. 

Arthritis was getting the best of Miss Bessie by that time and two back operations had left her in a wheelchair. She sold the hotel to Charles and Shirley English and bought a little wooden cottage on Hwy. 24. Bessie would die tragically in a house fire two years later and her remains were cremated and laid at sea with Gibby. We ended our trip on Cedar Key with a visit to the Cedar Key Cemetery to see Miss Bessie's cenotaph. The Englishs did not last long and they sold the hotel to Harold Nabors in 1978. Nabors remodeled the bar and made that his main focus, letting the restaurant and hotel fall by the wayside. In 1980, he sold the operation to Marcia Rogers and she refocused efforts on the restaurant once again, hiring Chef Jahn McCumbers. The restaurant again became a place known for its food. Singer Jimmy Buffett became a frequent guest at the Island Hotel during the 1980s and gave impromptu performances in the Neptune Bar. The hotel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Marcia got a little New Agey at this time and closed the Neptune Bar to the public and made it into a coffee and juice bar where she hosted things like the Full Moon Wakefulness Retreat. Cedar Key residents burned her in effigy in front of the post office in response. And that's not surprising because the locals love this lounge and it was very busy on the Saturday night we stayed there.

Tom and Allison Sanders bought the place in 1992 and cleaned it from top to bottom and reopened the Neptune Bar after they fully reconstructed it, covering it with a Cedar Key cedar top. The Island Hotel became a social center once again and the restaurant continued its reputation for good food still under Chef Jahn McCumbers. Dawn Fisher and Tony Cousins moved to Florida from England and they purchased the Island Hotel in 1996. The couple would focus on refurbishing the hotel and added private bathrooms to every room. Central heat and air was also added, bringing the hotel more up to date. Televisions and phones were still kept out of the rooms to retain the hotel's charm and that continues today. While redecorating the dining room, the couple hired a colorist to help them decide which colors to use. They chose a lilac and plum with a pine ceiling. Dawn got the shock of her life when Bessie Gibbs' nephew came to visit and showed her a bunch of old photos. One of the photos was in color and featured the dining room. The colors that Bessie had chosen to paint the dining room were the same ones that the dining room was repainted with by Dawn.

Dawn and Tony got married and had a child and realized that the hotel was too much for them, so they sold it in 2001 to Bill and MaryLou Stewart. The Stewarts had been born in Florida, but they had both ended up in Texas. They retired and decided to return to Florida. Things at the hotel seemed fine at first, but in 2002, the couple abruptly fired the entire staff, boarded up the place and ran back to Texas. The Cousins took back ownership and reopened the hotel and restaurant. They then sold the place to Andy and Stanley Bair, who still own it today. They refreshed the place and have run it for the past twenty years. Stanley writes of their adventure, "We returned to the States in August 2003 and began a search for 'that one last quiet, undeveloped spot' that might be still found in Florida. We stumbled onto Cedar Key and the Island Hotel. We immediately knew we had found what we were looking for. The wonderfully quaint island and the manner in which they welcomed us has been a bonus beyond our wildest dreams. We are greeted every day by friendly, smiling faces. Our first few weeks were spent giving the hotel a face lift. We painted the downstairs lobby and replaced worn out furniture throughout the hotel. A new bath/shower was added for room #27. The hotel quickly came back to life, and I do believe even the ghosts are smiling. It is as if they had spent the day at a beauty parlor! Our staff is excited about the 'new look' and they have reason to be proud of 'their' hotel again."

The Island Hotel has ten rooms and operates as a bed and breakfast, so there is a complimentary breakfast in the morning. Get the french toast - you won't be disappointed. All the rooms are decorated differently with antiques and each has their own private bathroom. Rooms 27 and 28 have the bathroom across the hall from the room, which can be a little inconvenient, but we didn't mind. Although there are no televisions or phones in the rooms, there is Wi-Fi. As one can see, the hotel has passed through many hands, but it has never lost its character. Its spirit has continued to thrive and now some say that spirits from the past remain here at the Island Hotel. Thirteen spirits to be exact. Let us introduce you to the thirteen ghosts. As described earlier, Native Americans lived in the area before the Island Hotel was built. Three spirits have not been described by anybody, but psychics claim that they are there. Then there are two spirits of Native Americans that have been seen in the hotel at various times. A fisherman has made an appearance and another specter has been described as tall and thin. None of these spirits is very well known, but the rest of the thirteen are seen more often and have made themselves known.

One of these is a young black boy. When the Island Hotel was Parsons and Hale's General Store, this young man of nine was given the job of stock boy. He would stock shelves and keep the store clean. One day, something went missing in the store and the manager accused him of stealing. Whether the boy actually stole anything is not known, but he was scared and ran away and hid. The location he chose to hide in was a bad one. It was a five foot deep, 2,500 gallon cement cistern in the basement of the store and he drowned. No one knew what happened to him until his skeleton was discovered in the cistern a year later. The young boy's ghost continues to haunt the basement. Although, Kelly thinks she had him interacting with her on the dowsing rods in our room on the second floor.

There is another female spirit that is described as a small-waisted woman wearing a long black dress with a modest black hat. She has been seen in the downstairs by staff and guests for decades. This spirit is usually holding a pitcher of water. She is thought to have been a woman who ate at the restaurant and then died on her way home when her carriage overturned. This spirit and the little black boy are thought to cause puddles in the hotel. One of these puddles kept appearing under a bed. Sometimes water would be dripping down from the bed frame, but the bed and bedding were dry. On another occasion, a mother came to the hotel so her daughter could write a paper on the ghosts of the hotel. This mother was amused by the whole idea of ghosts until a staff member took them to the puddle room and a puddle of water formed at the mother's feet. When the staff member pointed this out, the mother screamed, grabbed her daughter and ran from the hotel.

The most seen ghost at the hotel is that of a Confederate soldier who apparently died on the property for unknown reasons. Had he been wounded or did something sinister take place? His ghost seems to like to take early morning walks and is often seen in the early morning mist that blankets the coastal location. He is seen standing at attention near the doors leading to the stairs, also. Some have wondered if the apparition is that of Major Parsons who had led a Confederate garrison.

As we talked about earlier, Simon Feinberg had died at the hotel under mysterious circumstances. Had his meal been too rich and caused him to have a heart attack or was someone trying to protect their whiskey still and made sure he would not interfere with operations by killing him? Was he poisoned? Feinberg seems to be at unrest. Hotel guests have seen him walking the halls and heard disembodied footsteps. Feinberg is called the "Wandering Ghost" for this reason. He has been seen in Room 27, which is the room where he died. He also seems to like the kitchen pantry.

Room 27 seems to be the most active area of the hotel, which is why we booked that one. Besides being haunted by former owner Feinberg, a prostitute from the brothel days hangs out in this room and the adjacent Room 28. She had worked here during the Depression and it is believed she was murdered. Male guests have had the most experiences with her. They not only see her, but they feel their bed being sat upon and occasionally a patron receives a disembodied kiss. When lights are turned on, she vanishes. This painted lady appears wearing white and also likes the waitress station in the early evening. Two female guests found a tiny indentation on their bed as though someone was sitting on it when they returned to their room after having a hot toddy in the Neptune Lounge.

The manager who some think poisoned Simon Feinberg was Marcus Markham. He was drinking one night in the King Neptune Lounge when he got in a fight with a steamboat captain. The argument got very heated and a knife was pulled. When the fight was over, Markham had been stabbed to death. His spirit seems to have taken up residence in the bar. His apparition is most often seen behind the bar near the pantry. Bullet slugs have also been found in the wall behind the King Neptune painting. Were these just from some idiot shooting at the painting or did something else take place here in the bar? Hopefully Markham and Feinberg stay away from each other.

The dominant ghost at the Island Hotel is Bessie Gibbs, whose tenure at the hotel is the most memorable. It's not surprising that she would be here since she loved it and she still enjoys taking care of the place. People claim to see her attempting to make beds and cleaning and rearranging furniture. Miss Bessie is a prankster who enjoys locking guests out of their rooms and occasionally comes walking through rooms in the middle of the night only to disappear through another wall. Owners have been locked out of the hotel several times with not only the front door being locked, but the kitchen screen door is locked from the inside. She drops pictures off the wall, unplugs lamps and makes loud noises. The swing on the second floor is her favorite spot as she sat there often during her tenure. We definitely interacted with her and will share more about that in a moment.

One guest reported the following story, "After being out many hours later, my husband wanted to go to sleep while I still wanted to hang out in the famous lounge. I told him to keep the lights on and I was taking the flashlight (having heard that the main ghost had sense of humor about flipping on and off lights). The lights were still on though when I went upstairs. I still felt strangely calm (and I'm rather intuitive and sensitive so if I hadn't been feeling peaceful I would not have even fallen asleep). After several hours of good sleep, I immediately was awakened by a LOUD BANG. It sounded like a book had been slammed to the floor. That was all I heard I waited a while longer and then woke my husband up and asked him to check to see if the Bible that was right next to the bed was still there. He said it was. He got up and turned the nightlights on and we both discovered that a Kleenex box that was on a coffee table across the room had been thrown down across the floor. Just to rule out any possibility of a breeze doing this we did all sets of tests placing the box under a fan and everything but knew it had to have been thrown." 

Our friends over at Peace River Ghost Trackers have investigated the building and the following were their personal experiences:

*We entered the basement at 4:30pm and was also accompanied by Derrick from channel 20 news out of Gainesville. The basement had a lot of dust so any pictures from down there are hard to prove. Scott did have a heavy feeling at one point near the cistern where a 9 year old boy had drowned in the 1860’s. Scott had to remove himself for a moment from that area. Sprout also felt the heavy feeling in her chest and also chose to leave.
* Sprout was entering the room behind the bar at around 1:30am which was where a man had died of a knife stabbing. While entering I had a very cold breeze sweep over the top of my left hand and could find no explanation for it.
* At 2:15am Toni, Sprout, Janice and Scott where in the kitchen using dowsing rods to communicate with a man who is connected with the pantry. Many staff have seen and felt his presence for many years. We were standing in the order stated above when the activity occurred. Janice was facing the pantry and using the dowsing rods, she asked where the spirit was and the one rod swung around and pointed behind her. When Janice asked for the spirit to move in front of her, Toni said “here it comes”. Toni said she saw a dark shadow of a figure of a man coming towards her then making a sharp turn in front of all of us. One at a time we all said “oh” as the coldness swept passed us. I saw Janice shaking from the cold and Scott said it went down his arm.
*We had laid down for bed at 4:30am and shortly after I (Sprout) heard what I thought to be the piano down in the lobby. It was about 7 or 8 hits on the high notes of the keyboard then Lori started to talk. (her first time in a haunted hotel she was a bit nervous ) then I heard it again about 4 hits this time. That's when I asked Scott if we would be able to hear the piano in our room. He said he hopes so because he had just heard it. Didn't get up cause we were pooped and had enough for the night. I can say I believe we were the last to go to our rooms for bed and didn't hear anyone else up and moving about the hall.
* In the morning we were getting the 2 sets of keys together for check out but could only find one set. The key was finally found in the Velcro sealed left pocket of a pair of shorts in the suitcase. They were Scotts shorts and he does not use the left pocket. They were also folded up and unworn shorts. Lori watched her video from the night before and saw Scott take the key out of the door. He put almost everything on the dresser so it was assumed that is where he set the key. There were several incidents of room doors being unlocked by themselves told to us by other investigators. Sprout even witnessed room 23’s door unlock twice by itself. The occupants of the room were inside during the first time and were sitting on the opposite side of the room when the door unlocked.

The television show "Haunted Inns and Mansions" featured the Island Hotel in 1999. Debra Lyon-Dye wrote "Cedar Key Spirit Tour, A Walk Through History" in 2016 and she shares two of her experiences in it. (pg. 92-93)

Our investigation of the hotel gave us subtle results. We first conducted an EVP session and we think we caught something. (Island Hotel EVP) Sounds like "yeah" or "yep" perhaps to the question of whether there were multiple spirits with us. We tried a couple ESTES sessions, but absolutely nothing was coming through using the AM band. I (Diane) didn't trust the FM band. Our most prominent experience involved glasses. I was positive I had put my reading glasses in my fanny pack before we headed down to dinner, but when I went to pull them out to read the menu, they weren't in my pack. When we returned to the room, I expected to see them sitting on the bed or side table where I had accidentally left them. Not there. We searched the room and I concluded that I had lost them somewhere. We turned our backs from the couch to look some more and then Kelly goes, "Here they are!" front and center in the middle of the couch. No way we would have missed them, especially because my laptop was sitting there open and I had looked behind it. I tried to explain it away as we just both missed seeing them, but then we heard from our listener Joanne about her many experiences and this convinced us that Miss Bessie was playing around.

(Joanne's experiences)

There are other haunted locations on Cedar Key. The Historical Society Museum that was the former Lutterloh Building is located at 609 2nd Street. This started as John Lutterloh's private residence and eventually was used as an army depot, service station, restaurant, library and gift shop. The last owner was Gertrude Teas and she donated the building to the historical society in 1978. The building was restored in 2007 and hosts a variety of exhibits on the history of the island. The ghost here is referred to as the Chain Smoking Ghost. Smoke is smelled in the building and upon investigation, nothing is found. Chairs occasionally fall over on their own and strange noises are heard.

The Hale Building located at the corner of Second and D Street is named for former mayor Francis E. Hale who built the structure in 1880 to be used as a clothing and grocery store. The structure is 4,000 square feet with 17 inch thick tabby walls, fifteen foot ceiling, heart of cedar timber framing and a bricked courtyard in the back. A second story porch was added at the turn-of-the-century. Several businesses have used the building including I.O. Andrews & Co., which sold ladies' and gents' furnishing goods, a doctor's office was here as was a real estate office. There was a bar and a movie house and Tony's Chowder House, which opened in 2005 and is still there today on the ground floor. Chef Eric's chowder has won world-championships. The restaurant is named for his brother. Hauntings: pg 101

Cedar Key has certainly seen its fair share of tragedy and death via storms and such. The spirit of these islands is strong and some have to wonder if the presence of spirits is also strong. Does the Island Hotel host more than just living guests? Are there spirits here, particularly Miss Bessie? Are Cedar Key and the Island Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 536 - Artisan Hotel Investigation and Haunted Deland

Moment in Oddity - Bouncing Cannonballs (Suggested by Suzanne Silk)

Many people have had the experience of skipping rocks across a body of water. Finding just the right smooth stone is the key to success. That concept was used at the Bateria de San Antonio, also called the Spanish Water Battery of Fort Barrancas in Pensacola, Florida. Back during the American Revolution the British controlled Pensacola, Florida and had built a fort atop some hills overlooking the bay. Its purpose was to keep enemy ships from entering the body of water. In 1781, a Spanish fleet came up against the fort and quickly overtook the British, suffering very little damage from their gun fire. The fort itself was of strong fortification, however its location upon the hill made its fire power inadequate for proper protection. The Spanish added to the fort's design by creating a masonry water battery closer to the water level of the bay. The new structure was of semi-circular construction, allowing an expanded field of coverage for their artilleries. The most fascinating part of this complex was that due to its near sea level location, it allowed for cannonballs to be skipped across the surface of the bay. Thus allowing cannonballs to travel greater distances before making contact with their intended target. The fort is the third oldest in Florida with only Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas in St. Augustine being older. Currently, Fort Barrancas only offers exterior, self-guided-tours available on the National Park Services mobile app until May. Skipping cannonballs along a bay's surface to be able to reach their intended target, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Decoration Day

In the month of May, on the 5th, in 1868, the first Decoration Day was observed. It was three years after the end of the Civil War and the Grand Army of the Republic designated the day for decorating the graves of the war dead with flowers. Later, Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that the date should be moved to May 30th. The first large observance took place at Arlington National Cemetery. Several Washington officials conducted the ceremonies, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant and, then Congressman, James Garfield. Garfield set a standard at this inaugural address by explaining what Decoration Day was all about and why it should be commemorated. Once the speeches were finished, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery. They laid flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns. The name “Memorial Day” became more commonplace after World War II, but the federal government didn't officially adopt that name until 1967. Later, in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971.

Artisan Investigation and Haunted Deland

There is over 400 years of history connected to Volusia County in Florida, including Native American residency, Spanish exploration, French colonization and British settlement. Deland is a city in Volusia County, just a short drive from the Spiritualist camp of Cassadaga. We spent a night at the Artisan Hotel, a boutique hotel in the historic downtown. We did a little investigating and visited some of the paranormal hotspots in town. On this episode, we are going to share what we found about the history and haunts of Deland, Florida! 

The Native Americans who settled what would become Deland left behind oyster mounds and shards of pottery - you know, their version of trash. They knew peace for a long time because it was hard for settlers to reach this area. Only steamboats traveling up the St. Johns River could get here. Steamboat Captain John Rich was the first to settle what was known as Persimmon Hollow for years because of all the wild persimmon trees growing in the vicinity. He arrived in 1874 and built a simple cracker house. Rich had been to Florida before. He had come with his regiment, the 144th New York Infantry, because all of the men were sick with typhoid and they needed to recuperate. When he returned to live, he brought his wife Clara and they eventually had the first child born in Deland. The first religious service in the town was at their house.

Henry Addison Deland was a baking soda magnate from New York and he arrived in 1876 and he thought the area would be great for citrus and tourism. It seems Deland had a case of Orange Fever. That's what they called this fervor that overtook some people who purchased land in Florida. It wasn't that way for him at first though. His brother-in-law brought him down because he had purchased land near a place called Orange City. Deland had no use for dry sand and thick underbrush, but when they got to the rolling hills and towering pines near Orange City, Deland fell in love with the prospects of what he could build here and declared that the area was like the West. I can certainly attest that he couldn't be comparing Florida to Colorado! He founded a town in 1876 and the few residents voted to name it for him. Deland brought many workers from New York to clear the land and lay out streets. The town of Deland would be a special place because of the man who founded it. he felt that this was his time to give back for all that he had been given and he wanted Deland to be a community based on culture and education. Deland was the first city in Florida to have electricity.

In 1877, Deland built a public school for the town. A freeze in 1885 wiped out the orange crop and basically wiped out Deland himself, so he headed back to New York and handed over the school to his friend John B. Stetson. Yes, the guy who created the Stetson hat. The school eventually became Stetson University, named for him. The sports teams are known as the Hatters...we'd like to go with Mad Hatters, but they probably wouldn't appreciate that. Deland was officially incorporated in 1882 and is the county seat of Volusia County. The first courthouse was built in 1888 out of wood on land donated by Henry Deland. The historic Volusia County Courthouse was built in 1929 in the Gothic, Neo-Classical style with a wonderful cupola that features a four-sided clock tower and colossal porticos with fluted Corinthian columns. The interior features stained-glass in the dome and columns with ornately carved capitals. Other buildings have been added to the complex over the years and there is a memorial garden and long fountain pool across the street where the modern courthouse is now located. The newer Volusia County Courthouse is where Aileen Wuornos was tried and convicted and sentenced to death in 1992.

Our first official stop on our adventure through Deland was The Haunted Antique Shop, which unfortunately closed recently as the landlord died and the woman who ran the shop, Corrine Kenner, couldn't buy it herself with all the work that needed to be done. It's a bummer because this was a really cool place! The shop was inside a Craftsman bungalow that was built in 1920 for James and Lucinda DeWalt. There was a building boom in Florida after the First World War and the DeWalts were a part of that. James was a chauffeur and worked shuttling people back and forth in Deland and nearby cities. Lucinda liked to sit in a rocking chair by the fire and work on needlepoint as she waited for James to come home. The shop had a rocker that was built in the 1970s that Corrine dubbed Lucinda's Chair because it would occasionally rock on its own. That chair sat by the fireplace and the front register area. The interior was like walking into your grandmother's parlor, only this one was filled with various curiosities and creepy mannequins. Corrine is a certified Tarot Master and astrologer and we liked her immediately. The shop had an antique register we oohed and ahhed about and then we did the little tour that was offered. The shop has the typical haunting activity of doors opening and closing on their own, lights turning off and on without assistance and there are disembodied footsteps and voices that come from rooms that are empty. A mirror on the top of a cabinet had what looked to be the impression of a woman's face. It was weird.

The house wasn't huge with two bedrooms to the left of the front room, a hallway that leads into a dining room and then a kitchen area behind that filled with vintage kitchen wares. It is believed that there are five spirits in the shop. These are James and Lucinda, James and Rossie Hearne who lived in the house later and Annette Dennis who also lived in the house. James DeWalts disembodied voice has been heard often in the pantry. Corrine and her daughters both experienced that describing it as a deep, baritone calm voice. We had some stuff happen while we were there. Our EMF had a little action, but only hit red a couple times briefly. Corrine came out to tell us that a little wooden soldier apported. (Apported Soldier) Now, of course, we weren't in the room so we can't completely vouch for it, but Corrine seemed like she honestly was shocked that it happened. The most haunted object in the shop was a very little doll called Charlie. We put a video up on Instagram of the Cabinet of Curiosities that had many strange things inside. (Cabinet of curiosities)

There are two little dolls in the cabinet that are a groom and bride and they are named for James and Rossie Hearne and quite possibly, they might be inhabited by their spirits. Corrine would sometimes find the dolls facing away from each other when she would come into the shop in the morning. She would usually leave them with the groom putting his arm around the bride. How they moved, she didn't know. The cabinet certainly has a heavy feeling about it when it is open. When we went into the dining room, we found a little fun wheel of fate that you could spin and the K2 Started going crazy near it. We debunked that there was anything electrical around it and later we went over to see if we would get any spikes and we didn't. Kelly spun the wheel and got "watch your back." A little unnerving. It really was a cute little shop and definitely had energy. Its next evolution will be as a Montessori school. Wonder if any of the kids there will notice anything strange?

We mentioned John Stetson earlier. He brought his wife Elizabeth and their three sons to spend winters in Deland. He not only donated a million dollars to the school that would take his name, he built an ice-making factory, power plant and a packing plant. Stetson had been born in 1830 in New Jersey and learned the hat trade because that was his father's profession. Stetson became ill with TB and headed West to Colorado. In his travels he saw Mexican Vaqueros with 10-gallon sombreros and he decided to make a similar hat that was waterproof. The hat worked so well that cowboys could give their horses water from them. The first one he made was bought off him quickly by a cowboy who saw the value in a wide brim that offered protection from sun and rain. People started calling it "The Boss of the Plains." Stetson settled in Philadelphia in 1865 and became incredibly successful in the hat business, opening several factories. He came to Deland in 1885 and spent 20 winters there. The Stetsons built a magnificent mansion that still stands today. Stetson died in the mansion at the age of 75 in 1906 from a stroke. Elizabeth closed up the mansion after that and it sat abandoned for many years with just a caretaker.

We drove by to have a look, but it is only open to the public at select times like the holiday season. The mansion describes itself as the "only Gilded Age mansion, and the largest, grandest, most innovative home ever built in Florida before 1900." It is very eclectic for sure. Architect George T. Pearson designed it as a blend of Gothic, Tudor, Moorish and Polynesian. This three-story house is huge, but apparently only half the size of what Stetson really wanted. Mrs. Stetson is the one who got the plans reduced to just under 10,000 square feet. This was one of the first homes in Florida to have electricity and Edison himself supervised the installation as he was friends with the Stetsons. The interior featured a variety of complicated carvings, a stunning grand staircase, Tiffany stained glass, a glass wall imported from a French chateau, 16 patterns of the nation's most rare and intricate parquet wood floors and 10,000 panes of original leaded glass windows. There are gardens and gazebos and fountains around the property. An 800 square foot Polynesian-styled building was built next to the house as the kitchen. After the house was expanded to include a kitchen, the building became a private school for the Stetson children. The house hosted the likes of the Astors, the Vanderbilts, Henry Flagler, the Carnegies and PresidentGrover Cleveland. The house is currently owned by J.T. Thompson and Michael Solari who purchased it in 2005. There are those who claim that John Stetson haunts his former home. Much of the activity comes from a middle room on the second floor. A woman staying there claims that she was kissed by someone she couldn't see. Another visitor saw an apparition of a servant wearing garb from the 19th century. People hear music from another era outside where concerts were held in the yard. One might even see the spirit of Stetson's unique pet: an alligator named Beauregard. It was kept in a pit behind the house.

Stetson University is one of the oldest privately funded universities in Florida. It was originally named Deland Academy when it was established in 1883. The campus stretches over 175 acres and several of the buildings on campus are said to be haunted. Deland Hall is known as the "Grand Old Lady" and was built in the late nineteenth century in the French Second Empire style. It has a gorgeous tower at the front of it with the very distinctive roof. One female student claimed that she was sitting in a couch in the hall studying when the grandfather clock near hear struck three times and then she heard very loud footsteps near her. She looked up and around but there was nobody around. She left and later told a professor about the odd experience and he looked at her strangely and told her that the grandfather clock didn't work and hadn't chimed in years. Elizabeth Hall was named for Stetson's wife Elizabeth and was designed after Independence Hall in Philadelphia. This started as the College of Natural Sciences. Several different departments are housed there now, along with faculty offices. The south end of the building has Lee Chapel. This is a 100-year old performance hall having been built in 1897. It is named after a former president and features a 1961 Beckerath Organ made in Hamburg, Germany that has 2,548 pipes.

Chaudoin Hall features disembodied footsteps and strange noises and screaming down the hallways. Cameron Chavannes wrote of the haunts on campus in a Medium article in 2013 named "The Ghost of Deland." She said, "I was in Chaudoin last year and I did experience hearing noises and loud screams at the end of the hallway. The history of Chaudoin Hall and the experiences of my friends and I all point toward possible paranormal activity. My favorite haunted place on campus is Elizabeth Hall, and the ghost of Elizabeth who haunts it. I think every Stetson student has heard of this particular ghost. Some of my friends have experienced paranormal events going on in Elizabeth Hall while they were studying for finals a couple of years ago. One night, my friend Danny was studying in Elizabeth and he heard noises from the bathroom. He heard the bathroom door open, but did not see anyone come out. The noises become louder even though no one was around and he eventually packed up his stuff and walked back to his dorm. He has never been back to study at Elizabeth Hall, and to this day, he still will not go back to the building." And she didn't say what dorm she lived in but she also shared, "A couple of months ago, I had come back from class and went into my dorm room. I said hi to my roommate, but she was not in the room, so I assumed she was in the bathroom. I heard her say hello back only for her to walk into the room from the front door a couple of seconds later. I was completely shocked."

Hulley Tower is a unique part of the campus and despite the fact that the tower part no longer exists, it still has something about it that makes it strange on a university campus. This is a mausoleum. One of the presidents of Stetson University was Dr. Lincoln Hulley. He served from 1904 until 1934, so he left a mark on the place. During his tenure, he helped to fund the building of the Hulley Tower in 1934. This rose to 116 feet and featured rough cast bells that ranged in size from 575 to 3,000 pounds. Before the tower could be finished, Hulley died and he was buried on the first floor. His wife, Eloise Mayham Hulley, died 25 years later and was buried next to him. The eleven bell carillon were named for Eloise as the Eloise Chimes. Stories on campus maintain that the Hulleys like to take ghostly walks and they usually have a small dog with them. The couple are usually seen arm-in-arm walking near their mausoleum, but sometimes they venture across campus. Nearby residents also have experiences. One of these residents was walking near an establishment that had housed the Holiday House Restaurant when he saw a couple walking their little white dog and he approached them to see if he could pet the dog. As he got closer, he noticed that their clothing was of another era, so he thought perhaps they were on their way to a costume party. And then the couple just wasn't there anymore. People who have investigated outside the tower have picked up the distinct smell of flowers even though there were no flowers around.

The DaVinci Design Studio is located at 117 W. Howry Avenue. This has been home to a variety of businesses over the years including Trilogy Coffee, Buddha Bowl, a hot dog stand, CBD store and an antique shop. There are thought to be three ghosts here. One is a little girl. Another is named Hiram who had lived in a back room of the house and he is a mean spirit. A woman named Tifany had worked there and she heard his raspy disembodied breathing and one day she was up on a ladder painting and she turned around to see a man standing there with glasses and a bald head and he disappeared. The third ghost is named Evelyn and it is thought that she was Hiram's cousin and she took care of him. The lights flicker on their own often in the house.

The Masonic Building at 142 S. Woodland Boulevard was built in 1925 by William Carpenter and was known as the St. John's Masonic Lodge #7. The lower floor had a lobby, fireplace and five stores. The second floor contained parlors and a large banquet room. The third floor had the lodge rooms where rituals were conducted. The main meeting room was obscured from onlookers. People who have worked in the building claim to have heard disembodied chanting and they have seen a figure wearing a cloak. No businesses have been successful on the second floor. 

The Putnam Hotel started as the Grove House in 1880 and was built by Henry Deland. It changed its name to Putnam House for Arthur Putnam who bought it in 1885. In 1888 it changed to the Putnam Inn. This was a wooden structure that burned to the ground in 1921. The newly built concrete hotel opened in 1923 designed by architect William Carpenter in the Mediterranean Revival style. (Fun Fact: Carpenter designed Hotel Cassadaga too.) It had a great run as a hotel offering luxury, but eventually it became more of a night spot for drinking in the bar, which later expanded into a rock music venue and then a few other incarnations before it finally closed in 2011. It was demolished in 2023. One legend behind the haunts that were here is about a couple renting a room. The female was an actress and she was starring in a play and she went off to do that while her husband stayed at the hotel. Later, he saw a man embrace his wife and give her flowers and he got really jealous and the two argued later at the hotel and were told they would have to leave if they didn't quiet down. The next day, the actress went to do her play while her husband went and bought a gun. He again saw her being embraced and getting flowers and he confronted her when she got back to the hotel and pulled the gun. She tried to grab the gun, it went off and it killed her. He then turned the gun on himself. The man who had been visiting her at the play turned out to be her long lost brother. Even though the hotel was torn down in 2023, people still claim to hear a man and woman screaming and two gunshots when they pass the site. The sixth floor had a poltergeist spirit and there was a burning wood and flesh smell that probably carries over from a 1917 fire in the hotel. Much of the hauntings here were thought to be residual. And this is crazy, Tifany shared a video of the hotel being torn down and the SLS app on her phone showed a figure standing at the chainlink fence and it looked like it was trying to shake the fence in anger.

The Athens Theater was once the centerpiece of downtown Deland. The theater was designed by Murray S. King in the Italian Renaissance style and features some weird decor. There are these gargoyle grotesques and what looks like the medical symbol all across the top. The theater opened its doors on January 6, 1922 with a four-act comic play, a silent movie, a melodrama and four vaudeville acts, with legend claiming that W.C. Fields was one of those acts. Silent movies were accompanied by a Wurlitzer pipe organ. When talkies started, the theater transitioned to movie house. For a time it became a dinner theater and closed in the 1990s. It sat vacant for twenty years and then community leaders decided to renovate and reopen it, which they did in 2009. Like all other historic theaters, this one has some haunts. A former stagehand walks the catwalks and apparitions of past performers are seen in the dressing rooms. Two specific spirits are brother and sister, Isaac and Maria. They were from the Athens family and passed away when they were children in the livery that had been where the theater now stands. Theater employees always make sure to say hi to them when they come in. Maria is seen wearing a simple dress and ribbons in her hair. The entire production of a play once heard the children singing along in the wings. The two mainly hang out in the box seats on the left-hand side of the building. And they do like to run up and down the stairs.

Edwin Barnhill built the Deland Hotel in 1927 with his wife Jeanette. The interiors were luxurious for the time and each room had a bathroom. Kind of. Each room had a sink and then two rooms shared a bathroom. There were forty fairly small rooms to help make the place more affordable. An open-air bus would carry guests to the beach. Just four years after opening, Jeanette passed away. Edwin was declared insane a year later. People claimed that the spirit of Jeanette had driven him crazy. The two didn't have a good relationship and spent much of their time having scream fights. Edwin complained that Jeanette was hounding him after death about his drinking and spending. The hotel became the Landmark Hotel for awhile. The building was bought by Chryst and John Soety in 1996 and they renovated it to eight suites and renamed it the Artisan Inn. They leased to another company in 2011 and it eventually fell behind on payments so the Soetys decided to sell in February 2013. The Artisan sat vacant and stayed that way until the following year when it reopened as the Artisan Downtown under the ownership of Sara and Hina Patel. There were eight boutique-style suites on the second floor and an Indian-European fusion restaurant downstairs, along with a bar. Today, the hotel has fourteen rooms and the restaurant is now CHICAS Cuban Cafe and the food was amazing!

We loved our room and we decided to do a little investigating before we went down for dinner. Edwin and Jeanette are thought to haunt the premises, especially on the second floor where their room had been. Edwin also likes to hang out in the basement. There is the spirit of a young girl named Sara Elizabeth and she likes to tug on sleeves. Disembodied footsteps and whistling is heard in empty rooms. Dishes fly off counters and shelves in the kitchen. Legend claims that a prostitute was strangled in the hotel, although we haven't found proof for that. Some think that she haunts the hotel. Diane turned on the Ghost Tube App and we immediately got trapped and then we were told we were talking to someone who was young, which struck Diane as weird because she was just about to ask the age of the spirit. Kelly got out her dousing rods and we immediately got interaction. We got confirmation that we were talking to a child. We talked about the bear we brought with us and the dousing rods pointed that direction. We also had set up the flashlight experiment near the bear and the flashlight came on and then it turned off at our request. (Artisan Flashlight) Kelly confirmed we had multiple spirits with the dousing rods and the flashlight came on again and the Ghost Tube App said "where am I?" We continued to dial into how many spirits were with us. (Artisan Three) So we not only had Diane's head saying 3, but the flashlight turned on for three and the dousing rods confirmed it.

(Estes Session 1 Artisan) Our first Estes Session immediately started with "callate," which is basically, "shut up" in Spanish. Diane wasn't sure that the music she referred to as Cuban was really Cuban music, but it's interesting that Kelly was talking about the music from the Cuban restaurant downstairs. Diane had taken off the headphones when that last part came through. We really can't make it out. Here it is again. (End Estes Session 1)

We conducted a second Estes Session and got the following interactions. (Estes Session 2 Artisan) Although the voice doesn't sound like a child, we definitely got a "yes" to the question about whether we had a child with us. There was flirting with "hey baby" and we got some Spanish. It was cool to get "habla" when Kelly was talking about speaking one at a time. 

We went for dinner and returned for some more investigating and our room was completely dead - lol! The lounge downstairs had ramped up with music and frivolity and we figured the spirits were bored with us old ladies.We slept through the night without any issues. The next morning we hit C's Country Diner at 413 S. Woodland Blvd and it was excellent. As you can see, Deland is a fun day trip and even overnighter. Are these locations haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 493 - St. Augustine Haunted House Investigation

Moment in Oddity - Penny Treasure

Economic times have been tough for many of us these days, but what if you came upon an unexpected stash of coins? Copper to be precise, as in a collection of 1 million pennies! Recently a family in California discovered a collection of coins while cleaning out the basement of a deceased relatives home. Some of the coins were still encased in bank sealed bags and boxes. Reports in the New York times estimated the value of the pennies at around $10,000. Removing the coins from the crawl space they were found in was tedious. The process even left imprints on the fingers of the family members who removed them, due to the weight of the coins. One helpful detail in the discovery was that each parcel removed had the number of coins written on the outside of the package, somewhat simplifying the task at hand. However, the family has been faced with difficulties in finding a bank that actually wants all the copper coins in exchange for the appropriate pay out. A Wells Fargo manager said that the family may possibly find a few high value pennies that could be pre-WWII in the midst of the collection. The relatives have no desire to sort through the 1 million coins for the possibility of happening upon a few of the rare pennies. So they have decided to list the coins for sale on OfferUp, asking $25,000. Most people would concur that coming across an unexpected creatively concealed cache of coins is exciting. However one thing is for certain, finding 1 million pennies in a deceased relatives crawl space, certainly is odd. 

This Month in History - Death Sentences Halted

In the month of June, on the 29th, in 1972 the US Supreme Court halted all death row executions. In Furman v. Georgia, the court ruled 5 to 4 that capital punishment violated the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The case centered on Furman who was burglarizing a home when he was discovered. During his attempt to flee Furman tripped and fell, causing his gun to fire which killed a family member in the home. By a narrow majority the court decided that the death penalty constituted 'cruel and unusual punishment'. This was the first time that the US Supreme Court had ruled against capitol punishment. However, the Court ruling also suggested that new legislation could make death sentences constitutional again in the future. The Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 in part because polls showed two-thirds of Americans supported capital punishment and progress had been made in jury guidelines. Today, the Court often faces questions on the constitutionality of particular aspects of the death-penalty system but cases continue forward following the revised laws of 1976.

St. Augustine Investigation

A haunted house in the city of St. Augustine is not unique. It seems every location near the historic downtown is haunted. But this house was fairly new, being built in the 1980s. We conducted an investigation here that lends credence to the theory that any place can have unexplained activity, regardless of age. Perhaps it is because of the land. Maybe things that happened in the house left spiritual residue. Or its also possible that spirits gather somewhere because of people seeking to communicate with them. Join us as we investigate a small house just outside of the historic downtown of St. Augustine!

So we arrived at the house at midnight and were greeted by our host John. we had booked a private investigation for just our family for two hours with Ghost Augustine and Para4rce Investigations. Ghost Augustine hosts ghost tours and pub crawls and they also make investigation equipment. One of our first pieces, an EMF detector, we bought from them and Diane has done a tour with them. John gave us a quick history of the spot before we went inside. (St. Augustine Intro) We also found that this was a commercial property for many years. One of them being Jim's Dry Wall.

The Seminole Indians were involved in three separate Seminole Wars. They are a tribe of Creek origin. The name Seminole is thought to derive from the Creek word simanó-li, meaning “separatist,” or “runaway.” The name may also have derived from the Spanish cimarrón, “wild.” They settled mostly in the Everglades and were joined by other tribes and runaway slaves. Eventually, the Indian Removal Act came calling and that is what started the wars as the Seminoles fought removal. The Second Seminole War was one of the deadliest and costliest American Indian Wars ever fought on US soil and a group of Seminoles was captured and brought to St. Augustine as prisoners. They were kept at the Castillo de San Marcos, which at the time was known as Fort Marion. They were held for two months between November and December of 1837. Osceola, a famous Seminole war leader, was one of those prisoners. After the wars, many Seminoles fled south again and to this day they claim to be the unconquered tribe.

Plantations were spread across parts of St. Augustine. They grew sugar cane and indigo. Indigo in St. Augustine was called blue gold. It was the major export crop from St. Augustine in the 1760s and 1770s. Florida had a perfect environment for growing indigo and plantations could produce three crops a year.  It took about 100 pounds of indigo plant to produce four ounces of processed indigo. Indigo was processed in three vats that were made from coquina, tabby or wood. The plants were cut up and placed in the vats that were filled with water and urine to help the fermentation process. The urine usually came from slaves. In the second vat it was beaten with sticks as the water drained off and in the third vat it was pressed and then dried into blocks. The finished product would be shipped to England. The indigo was grown by and processed by slaves. The chance of there being slave graves in the area where the house stands is possible. The plantation closed down in 1866 and the land was sold.

The house is fairly small. We entered into the kitchen at one time with a restroom to the right. This is a modern restroom, but that doesn't stop it from being haunted and we will get some evidence in there a little later. The kitchen area is the central hub with a TV featuring the transmission from four cameras throughout the house. There are two small bedrooms coming off a central hall that empties into a medium size room that was probably the family room. It holds a dining table now. The original house was built in 1931 and there was another house right next to it where there is a garage today. That second house burned down in the 1940s. The 1931 house stood until 1981 when it was demolished because of foundation issues and then rebuilt. The kitchen and bathroom were part of an extension built in 1985. The house is fairly new considering that it was built in the 1980s, but that doesn't stop it from being incredibly active. This house is proof that it is important to know about the land and everything that has stood on the property through the years.

John told us about the various spirits they believe are in the house. The first room we went into was Jack's Room. The story behind Jack is that he lived in the original house during the 1940s and he became depressed and hanged himself in the house. John is going to tell us about the spirit and right at the beginning you will hear us react to a piece of equipment that picks up static electricity because it blipped. It is similar to a REM Pod. (Jack) 

The main room with the dining table is home to the spirit of a little boy named Tommy and just as always seems to happen with us, we got the most interaction from him. He was a ton of fun! There is also a ghost cat that hangs out as well as another entity. Here's John telling us about these spirits.(Tommy) That thing called the Spider will seem to show up later in the way John said it would, on the SLS Camera. There are some people who think that the Spider was brought in via a Ouija board at some point. John also told us later that Tommy occasionally swears because he has picked up a few of those bad words through the years.

The other small bedroom is home to a spirit named James. John told us that it feels oppressive to people who are sensitive and Kelly definitely felt weird in there. Here's John sharing about the ghost. (James) It is a small room that could make people feel claustrophobic, but Kelly felt something else. So perhaps this is some kind of portal. Then John cut us loose to start investigating. We started in the main room. Diane set up the flashlight experiment, but the light never turned on. John had a maglite he set up on the table and it was really active, but even after we set our flashlight next to his, we got nothing. That makes us think that maybe there was a battery issue. Although it did turn on once when Kelly asked it to and then turned off right after that when John asked for James to turn it off and then it turned on again when Kelly asked it do it again. 

Ghost Augustine makes equipment and they have an Ovilus like device they developed because Ovilus went out of business. It was spitting out a lot of words, which again made us wonder if it was an equipment issue. It did say "34 years" when first turned on and it is believed that Jack was in his 30s when he committed suicide. Diane asked about the spider entity - you will hear the Ovilus in the background and John does decide to turn down the sensitivity. (Spider) There are many spirits in the house, so that also may be why there were so many words coming out of it. We also had a music box set up in the front room and it is going to be very active. It went off for the first time about 10 minutes into the investigation. The creepy word at the beginning of this clip is the Portal Box in Jack's Room. (Music Box 1)

While Jake and Diane stayed in the main room, Kelly, Christy and Jordan went into Jack's Room and did a dowsing session. Diane heard Kelly ask if something was pushing on her legs. It seems that Kelly and Jordan were getting touched quite a bit. Jake and Diane picked up an orb that moved from the floor to the chair and back down again so we thought maybe this might be the cat. Then the music box went off again and it seems that Tommy was here, so perhaps he was the orb because the chair the orb went up on had Tommy's bear sitting in it. In this clip you also will hear the Spirit Box starting because Diane was setting that up when the music box went off. (Music Box 2)  Sounded kinda like a kid saying "yes" when we asked if he liked the bear. 

Diane got the idea that we should sing nursery rhymes and this is going to be a big hit with Tommy. In this clip you'll hear us singing and then we ask Tommy if he'd like us to sing again and we think we got a pretty clear answer on the Spirit Box. (Spirit Box Yes Sing) We continue with the song fest! (London Bridge) As you heard, the REM Pod also went off, along with the music box and the cat ball went as well. We finished off with Itsy Bitsy Spider in the room that has the spider. LOL! Then we decided to Ring Around the Rosie and go around the actual table and the REM Pod went crazy. (REM Pod 1)

John pulled out the SLS Camera at this time. We first aimed it at the bathroom and there was definitely something sitting in there on the toilet. We recorded a video of that. Then we took it to the main room and Jordan gets touched as does Jacob. (Touched) So Jordan's butt got touched and Jacob's hand got tingly. Tommy showed up on the SLS Camera and waved and we did "Ring Around the Rosie" again and Diane made a video of the SLS Camera and a bunch of stuff going off on the table. (Rosie)

Jake then gives the ESTES Method a try. Unfortunately, we don't have the internal Spirit Box recording for this (Jake Estes Final) We wonder if the numbers he said like 7 and 8 were referring to spirits in the location because he said "here" a bit after that. John mentions the Spider being on the table numerous times. There was a vase with dried roses in it on the table, so it was interesting to hear Jacob say rose when we asked where the spider was. Then we were told to leave, but we didn't agree to that. 

Jordan tried the Estes Method next. You'll hear at the beginning that John gets his ear tugged and then he mentioned someone else who died in the house named Colleen. Apparently she died in a fire. John also mentions hearing something like nails on a door. (Jordan Estes) We asked for a name through Jordan, but Jack apparently preferred the Portal Box and said his name through that. A word that Jordan didn't catch may have been (Sweetums)? There was also safe a couple of times, sense, 40th and fight or sight. Lots of alliteration, Kelly.

Christy tried the Estes Method next. (Christy Estes) Something got screwed up with her Spirit Box internal recording because I think it actually somehow merged something from our Lilian Place investigation because we got words that we remembered from that. And unfortunately it happened with all the rest of the sessions. Here is John giving the Estes Method a try. (John Estes) He got six several times too. Maybe in reference to our family group of 6? And then Diane did an Estes session. (Diane Estes) Diane thought it was cute that Jack was behind her and Jordan said "Jack and Diane." The Portal Box said "Yep" after Christy asked if Jack was behind Diane. And then that was hilarious after Kelly said Christy hadn't been touched before and Diane blurts out "Horny." Then at the end of Diane's session the SBox just switched what it was doing all on its own. 

This investigation was a ton of fun and even better, we got the opportunity to introduce our niece and nephew to ghost hunting. Our brother-in-law Rich still left as a skeptic, but there was no doubt that some things happened on this evening that we couldn't explain. Is this house in St. Augustine haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 449 - Hogestown Church Investigation

Moment in Oddity - Angel Glow

Back in April of 1862, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War took place in Tennessee. Approximately 25,000 Union and Confederate soldiers lost their lives. Those who were injured soon encountered a strange experience. They weren't hallucinating. The injured began to see their wounds glowing at night. A blueish greenish glow, not super bright but visible none the less. A number of those injured soldiers who glowed tended to recover more rapidly than those who did not have glowing wounds. This is why the phenomenon was dubbed Angel's Glow. This legend was passed down through the times between friends and families alike and it literally was just that, a legend, until the early 2000's. There was a teen who was an avid civil war enthusiast traveling to reenactments and the like. It is said that this boy learned about the Angel's Glow from a reenactor in Virginia. This teen had parents who were scientists so he was able to delve into the world of investigating bacteria and glowing wounds. It was quickly determined that a bacteria was indeed the cause of the glow. There were particular environmental necessities for this glow to occur. There was a need for cold temperatures, moist ground and the nematodes that carried the bacteria liked plants but specifically peach trees, which is where this battle happened. This bacteria was called photorhabdus luminescence. It is believed that this bacteria could also produce an antibiotic affect. While seeing wounds glow with bio-luminescence is strange enough, having the glow actually increase healing and survival chances, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Chappie Chapman Becomes Only MLB Player to Die From Being Hit By Pitch

In the month of August, on the 16th, in 1920, the Cleveland Indians shortstop, Ray "Chappie" Chapman, becomes the only baseball player to die as the direct result of being hit by a pitch. Baseball players wearing batting helmets has been around for so many decades, it might surprise some people to find out that they were only required starting in 1971. Baseball was much more dangerous in 1920. Helmets weren't worn and pitchers could pretty much do whatever they wanted to with balls from rubbing dirt and spit all over them, cutting into the ball and pretty much anything to affect the pitch's path. Chappie was a good batter and specialized in bunting and stealing bases. New York Yankee Carl Mays was pitching and he was known for beaning batters. His pitch hit Chappie so hard in the head that people thought the ball had hit the bat. Chappie collapsed as he ran to first base and he was helped from the field. He collapsed again in the dugout and was taken to the hospital with blood running from his ear. Chappie told people, "Tell Mays not to worry," before he lost consciousness, never to regain it. He died the following morning, on the 16th. Some fans called for Mays to be banned, but he was not and he was never prosecuted either. He took 10 days off after the incident and said later that this was “the most regrettable incident of my baseball career. I would give anything if I could undo what has happened. Chapman was a game, splendid fellow.” Spitballs were banned starting the following season, but helmets would take decades to become common place in major league parks.

Hogestown Church

Hogestown was a town settled in 1730 by a man named John Hogue and that is where it gets its name. Its first name was Sporting Green and today is part of Mechanicsburg in Pennsylvania. We ventured to this small historic settlement to investigate the Hogestown Church with an old friend of Diane's, Robert Brandt aka Sarge, who is Vice President of the Cumberland County Historical Society. There definitely seems to be some unexplained activity going on at the church. Join us as we explore the history and investigate the haunting of the Hogestown Church!

This location intrigued us because we had been told that the family that had transformed this church into their residence had left abruptly, leaving all their belongings behind. Something had scared them out of the place. We interviewed Sarge for a Paranormal Conversation a couple months ago and during that he shared some of the experiences his team, Ghost Ops Paranormal, has had on several of their investigations of this historic church. (Sarge Experiences) (Sarge Spirit Box)

So we arrived on the evening of August 5th after having dinner in Harrisburg and meeting our first Pittsburgh Salad. Sarge and his team were setting up the equipment and cameras and we went inside the church and met Mary, who is the President of the Cumberland County Historical Society. She shared with us the history of Hogestown. (Mary Int) Yeah, so the church was built to give the people of Hogestown a closer place to worship. It became a school for farmers while still being a church and then in 1997 the church was sold and converted into a private home. The owner of the house in 2013 abandoned the property, including the shed in back. In 2014, a group of Hogestown residents organized as the Hogestown Redevelopment Committee, became a 501c3 nonprofit and changed their name to Hogestown Heritage Committee. 

Sarge gets the investigation underway. (Sarge Intro) While Sarge was doing the initial walkthrough, we asked Ghost Bait about the entity in the basement. The basement has a dirt floor and we wonder about these places built down under the earth, with the earth still there and do they possibly harbor more energy than other places. (Ghost Bait Basement) So the audio went out in a few places and I have no idea why because we didn't move, but Ghost Bait was talking about how when Maude is around they get this distinct old lady perfume and a cool breeze, usually in the hallway where the rooms are located. They believe she is a source for good and protection in the building. And listening to him, one really has to be careful about opening themselves up to entities. The two times he has done it, has led to him being mean to people - his personality changed as though he had an attachment.

Kelly and I went inside and did a session with the dowsing rods and an ESTES Method Spirit Box session. (Kelly Dowsing) Is this an EVP under Kelly talking, we're not sure. (EVP Church) (Diane ESTES) Pretty cool that you asked if it was Zack and I said Zack. Sounds like he was telling us he was six years old. And pretty chilling towards the end that I said "Good riddance" and "He came up" like the bad entity came up from basement, but then left. Kelly started to not feel well and mentions fumes, which I didn't really register what she was saying. She told Jared and I back at the hotel that the fumes had gotten to her. Jared and I had no idea what she was talking about. We said it smelled like wood, but no fumes. 

Throughout the evening the REM Pods went off and the paralights went off. Many times on command. Sarge and Jared did a long session in the church after Kelly and I. (Sarge Church) The best evidence this evening came during this part of Sarge and Jared's session with the REM Pod and EMF detector. (Sarge REM) Sarge and Ghost Bait do an ESTES Session in different rooms. Sarge got the name Maude and told Ghost Bait "I'm behind you." Ghost bait said he could feel it because his arms felt cold. The box asked (Who Are They) "Who are they?" Was this in reference to us? They got Student during this and Sarge told us later that they got it 3 times and all with the same male voice. (ESTES Church) Then we all came in for a session and the voices you hear coming over the speaker are from the GhostTube Vox app.This gets some weird voices coming across.

By this time it was a little after midnight and we needed to be up and on the road by 7am, so we called it a night. Hogestown is an interesting area and we hope that it can someday be protected as a historic district. We're sure the ghosts at the church feel the same way. If there are ghosts. Is the Hogestown Church haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 309 - 1889 McInteer Villa

Moment in Oddity - The Human Fly Dies at Rutherford County Courthouse

The Atlanta Constitution reported on April 7, 1923: "'Human Fly' Falls Off Court House Steeple to Death, "Stunt" Performer Instantly Killed in 40-foot Drop to Roof." A story of this sort with a man claiming to be a human fly certainly catches the eye of a Fortean. The Human Fly was a young man of 25 named Ray Royce who was a daredevil steeplejack. He arrived in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1923 with his sights set on scaling the Rutherford County Courthouse. He asked officials for permission and told them that he would only be using his hands and feet, so there would be no damage to the building. He also pointed out that he had scaled taller buildings successfully. They agreed to let him do it and then he went about getting local businesses to sponsor his great feat. Two hundred people gathered to watch on the night of April 6, 1923 and a hat was passed around for donations, which came back with only $12. Royce was not deterred and he began his accent with the spotlight from a firetruck lighting the scene. He quickly climbed the brick exterior and made it past the second floor courtroom and onto the flat roof. He then climbed the steel cupola and stood over the weather vane. He had made it to the top, some 200 feet above the crowd. They cheered and that should have been it for the show. Royce climbed down to the roof, but then for a reason only he knows, he decided to climb the cupola again. A light rain had begun falling and predictably, he lost his grip and fell 40 feet. He broke his neck and knocked a hole into his head. People would find out that Royce was really James A. Dearing and that Ray Royce was a stage name. Royce wasn't the first man to claim to be a human fly and he wouldn't be the last and he wouldn't be the only one to die. Why he chose to climb back up the courthouse will remain a mystery and certainly is odd!

This Month in History - The Reuben James Torpedoed

In the month of October, on the 31st, in 1941 the USS Reuben James was sunk by a German torpedo. Construction of the Reuben James began on April 2, 1919 and was launched in October of 1919. This was a four-funnel Clemson-class destroyer and named for Boatswain's Mate Reuben James whom had fought heroically in the First Barbary War. It was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet and participated in post-World War I activities, particularly helping refugees. When World War II started, she joined the Neutrality Patrol, guarding the Atlantic coast. The Reuben James eventually started escorting convoys to Great Britain and Iceland. Her final voyage would start on October 23, 1941 and launched from Newfoundland. She was accompanied by four other destroyers with a mission to escort the eastbound Convoy HX 156. Right off of Iceland, she was torpedoed by U-552. It was a heroic act as the destroyer got between an Allied ammunition ship and a group of German U-boats. Her entire bow was blown off and immediately sank. The back end of the ship was below the waves in five minutes. The attack killed 100 men, leaving only 44 of the crew members alive. Pearl Harbor had not been attacked yet, so this sinking of an American ship happened before America had entered the war, making it the first US Navy ship sunk in the European theater.

1889 McInteer Villa (Suggested by listener Laura Weikel)

Atchison, Kansas was once a really prosperous town and John McInteer laid down roots here. The McInteer Villa began as a grand home for the McInteer family and over the last century it has been a place of comfort for many people. For several decades it was a boarding house and then eventually it became a private home once again. Through that time, it has not only been a place for the living, but also for, reputedly, the dead. There are several here and the McInteer Villa hosts tours and investigations. This location helps solidify Atchison as one of the most haunted towns in Kansas. Join me and the owners of the McInteer Villa, Stephanie and Jeff Neal, as we discuss the history and hauntings of this historic home!

Jeff and Stephanie have definitely had many of their own experiences and, of course, I love that Jeff is a skeptic because it makes his experiences that much more believable.  I look forward to finding out for myself if there really is someone or something trying to communicate from beyond the veil. Is the McInteer Villa haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 308 - Investigation of the Squirrel Cage Jail

Moment in Oddity - Jacob Miller, a War Survivor
Suggested by: Chelsea Flowers

Jacob Miller was a private in the Union army during the Civil War. He fought at the Battle of Chickamauga in northwest Georgia on September 19–20, 1863. This was a tense battle with high casualties and a loss for the Union. The only other battle to have more casualties would be the Battle of Gettysburg. Miller was one of those casualties. He suffered a bullet wound to the head, but miraculously he survived with the bullet lodging in his forehead. We all know head wounds bleed like crazy, so when Miller managed to regain consciousness and work his way off the battlefield, the Confederates didn't take him prisoner because they either thought he was as good as dead or they couldn't tell what uniform he was wearing. He eventually collapsed by a road and was taken to a field hospital where the surgeon decided he was a goner and so it made no sense to do surgery to remove the bullet. The next day, the hospital was moving the wounded because the Confederates were coming and they decided to leave Miller, even though he might become a prisoner of war, because he was too injured to move. Well, Miller was not about to become a prisoner, so he asked a nurse to fill his canteen and he was off. This man had some guts and nerves of steel as he couldn't see because his head was so swelled his eyelids were shut over his eyes. He had to physically lift an eyelid to even see, so he just made sure to head the opposite way of the boom of the cannons. Eventually, Miller was picked up and taken to Chattanooga. He then had to move again to Nashville. All this time, he was carrying the bullet in his forehead. He was transferred again and again to various hospitals and would beg to have the bullet removed, but no surgeon would do it. Finally, after nine months, doctors removed the musket ball. However, that wasn't all that was in there. Seventeen years later a buck shot dropped out of his forehead. And thirty one years later, two pieces of lead came out. So for nearly his whole life after the war, Miller had carried a bullet in his forehead and that, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - The Magic Flute Premieres

In the month of September, on the 30th, in 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premieres his opera, "The Magic Flute." This was a singspiel, which meant there were both singing and speaking parts and the libretto was written by Emanuel Schikaneder. The basic premise of the opera is that the villianous Queen of the Night persuades a young and attractive prince named Tamino to rescue her daughter, Pamina, from the priest Sarastro. Tamino falls in love with Pamina when he sees her picture and agrees, taking a magic flute with him. When he gets to the temple where Pamina is held, he finds that Sarastro is actually a good guy and trying to protect Pamina from the Queen of the Night. Pamina and Tamino decide to join the priest as part of his temple and this makes the Queen angry. She finds Pamina and threatens her that if she doesn't kill Sarastro, she'll disown her. Pamina won't do it and she and Tamino use the magic flute to go through all the trials they must surpass in order to be part od Sarastro's people. The couple succeed and the Queen of the Night is magically cast out into eternal night. For the premiere, Mozart's own sister-in-law played the part of the Queen of the Night and Schikaneder played the role of Papageno, a man who joins Tamino on his journey. The opera was a great success and had hundreds of performances during the 1790s. Unfortunately, Mozart would not realize much of this success as he died two months after the premiere. The opera has endured and is still performed in our modern era.

Investigation of the Squirrel Cage Jail

The Squirrel Cage Jail is very unassuming. This is a regular looking historic brick building in the middle of Council Bluffs, Iowa. No one would really know there was a jail inside, save for a few windows with bars in them. A black wrought-iron gate closes off the back of the jail and a colorful statue of a horse decorated with lights stands behind it. We had featured the Squirrel Cage Jail in Ep. 284, but this would be the first time we would actually get to go inside and tour the building. But we did more than just tour this location. This was the inaugural ghost hunt hosted by History Goes Bump and seven listeners joined myself and Kelly as we searched for communication with something from beyond the veil. And we believe we received that. Join me as I share the investigation of the Squirrel Cage Jail in Council Bluffs!

We met up with Dolly, Cynthia and Phil at the Monster Club in Omaha before meeting everyone else at the jail. I did a BonusCast featuring that location, which also happens to be haunted. Our group at the jail for the evening would be Lynne and her daughter Emmalynn, Cynthia and her boyfriend Phil, Crystal, Amber and Dolly. You'll hear them throughout the audio I share. We all gathered in the front office area to take care of money, buy Squirrel Cage Jail wine and meet everyone. The stairs loomed behind us, inviting us to climb into the core of the most unique jail I have ever seen, three stories of rotating cells barely big enough to give a man room to stand or lie down and each set to hold two men. There are narrow bunk beds and a curved area at the back of the cell where the toilet is located. This lead to an innovation , a core sanitation system. That would help carry waste away, but it also made the place stink, especially on the fourth floor where the warden lived. That's why eventually the warden moved down to the second floor and converted the women's area of the jail into his apartment. Although we also heard that the hauntings up there drove the warden to not want to stay up there.

The jail would be a horrible place to spend even an hour and some men served years in what had to have been a very hot or very cold and stinky building. Ashley would be our guide and she gave us a brief overview of the history and explained the different hauntings they thought were going on. She introduced us to solitary confinement right away. Everyone is laughing because I got inside the cell, which is only big enough to stand in. While in solitary confinement, the eating and relieving oneself was anything, but fun. Here are excerpts from the rest of the tour. Listen closely as she talks about some of the inmates. Those inmates called the Mad Dog Killers, Charles Kelley and Charles Brown, will come up again as we conduct our investigation.

Ashley set us free and we gathered in the former kitchen and gathered our investigating equipment. And for those of you that support the show and are in the Facebook HGB Losers Club, this is where you started joining us and we ran a live investigation for you for around 1.5 hours. The top floor is where the warden and other guards lived and Dolly had gone up there before us and said the warden's room seemed to be active. Up here it is said that the spirit of the jail's builder, J.M. Carter, still hangs out because he used to live in the apartment. There is a previous jailer haunting the fourth floor as well. He was named Otto Gufath and his full-bodied apparition has been seen. We didn't see any spirits, but we did have experiences.

I had never tried the flashlight experiment for myself. I'd seen it on TV and I'd experienced it being used on various tours I've done. In the back of my skeptical mind I always thought something was rigged somehow. Obviously, nothing was rigged with our investigation and our first communication with something we couldn't see, came through the flashlight. So we were waiting for Dolly and Kelly to join us because they had the dowsing rods. As we waited, the Ghost Radar on people's phones were giving us words and such and we were discussing volumes. As I listened back to the audio I was reminded of exchange that happened. I think we caught something. I'll play it a couple times to see if you guys hear it and then I'll discuss it.  Now I'm going to pull out the specific spot I wanted you to hear and I think Cynthia wasn't hearing things. We debunked it. Nobody's app had Hello as a word at the time or archived. This voice didn't sound robotic and it sounds as though it is saying hello almost as a question. And here is a comparison of the male voice on the phone app versus the hello voice.

We then used dowsing rods to communicate. After a little while, we asked the only male in our group, Phil, to take the rods. He was a total skeptic and so we felt he would get the best results since he would not be prone to make the dowsing rods move with his own bias.

Dolly's EMF detector went off several times. The first time was in the cells where juveniles were kept. We also had the Ghost Radar say "draw" and we had a fun interaction based on that. Then I'm going to play this clip and listen to the end. Not sure what it is, but throughout the evening we heard weird noises. A couple times, Kelly and I heard what sounded like rocks being dropped from an upper cell. Then the Ghost Radar started shooting out words from what we thought was a young inmate. We continued the Dowsing Rod Session, this time with our tween participant asking some questions, Emma asked great questions, and listeners watching the live got to ask questions too. And I really love the questions we were asking and the answers. This is why I do investigations. I want to know what it's like to be in spirit form. I ask towards the end if the spirit gets tired and then I think I hear something very low. I amped it as high as I could without distorting and I hear a "Yes". The reason I don't think this was one of us is that I didn't have to amp any of our voices this much, even when someone whispered. This was very faint and none of us responded as though we had gotten an affirmative from the rods. EVP? I'll play the amped yes again.

Inmates would set paper on fire and use the smoke to smudge designs and words on ceilings and walls that are still here today. Lynne, Emma and I hear this. The second level is where things start getting really crazy with activity. We stand outside the cell where the inmate hanged himself. Behind us is the display case with the noose used to hang the Charlies. The EMF Dolly has starts going crazy. And then Kelly has her hair touched. And as you heard, the flashlight turns on and off. And it seemed Charles Kelly was talking to us. Carla Borgaila with the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County has said she has had the following experiences, “I have had my hat pulled off my head and my hair played with." This claim seems to be backed up by the fact that Kelly had her hair played with too.

We headed into the infirmary next to see if we got any activity. So did the Ghost Radar actually say Amber's last name Johnson because of her? And you gotta love stomach growls. Next we head into the Trustee's Room and the first thing you will hear is a word by the Ghost Radar. So not much activity in there. We decided to head back up to the fourth level where the warden's room was and we sat in a circle in the room where there was an organ and a music box that sometimes plays by itself. We heard there were ghost cats up there. We had no activity the rest of the evening and we packed it in at midnight.

We spent three hours inside the Squirrel Cage Jail. That's really not enough time to get a scientific feel for whether the jail is haunted or not, but based on our experiences and the bit of evidence we collected, there definitely seems to be something unexplained going on here. Is the Squirrel Cage Jail haunted? That is for you to decide!