Spend the Night with Ghosts of Ohio - Prospect Place: August 2008

INSIDE PROSPECT PLACE: WENDY’S REVIEW

On Friday night, August 22nd, the second Spend the Night with The Ghosts of Ohio event occurred at Prospect Place in Trinway, Ohio. Arrival time was set for 7:30 and after everyone took some time to walk around the house and barn and take some photos, we began to unload the stacks of equipment that are brought on every investigation. The DVR system, the Vernier Labpro, handheld cameras, IR extenders, close to 1000 feet of extension cords, and boxes of EMF detectors and temperature gauges found their way to stations throughout the property for initial setup.

At slightly past 8:00, we broke for a group photo and historical tour with George Adams, the great-great grandson of George Wilson Adams, the builder of Prospect Place. While drinking water to counteract the heat and swatting at mosquitoes, we learned not only about the history of the home (the insides were gutted by fire the night before the family was to originally move in during the summer of 1856), but the history of the Underground Railroad, and the Adams family's work bringing slaves through Ohio to escape to freedom in Canada. We also received some very interesting tidbits on how the families of that era decorated their homes according to station and gender. It is very clear that George takes great pride in his family's history and their home, and he loves to share all the information he has gleaned from his research into his roots.

It was close to 10:30 when we broke into our assigned teams and headed out to our first stations for the 45-minute investigation blocks. After each block, we met in the dining room—command central for this investigation—for a 10 to 15 minute break before heading out to our next station. This setup seems to work perfectly for large groups (we had 20 people that evening) because it enables everyone to spend a nice chunk of time in each reputedly haunted area. We had five stations set up: the attic/ballroom where animal sacrifice took place and a child apparently likes to play with the balls you leave; the second floor where the ghost of a young girl is seen and a bed will shake; the basement, where the body of Constance—who died of consumption—was kept in a ice cellar until it was warm enough to break ground outside and bury her; the barn where there may have been a hanging of a bounty hunter after a standoff over escaped slaves; and the dining room, where we monitored our cameras.

The most popular question that evening was, "Did you get anything?" We did have some repeat phenomenon. During my team’s time in the basement, I picked up the sound of footsteps walking on the dirt floor, and my teammate Sam heard odd sounds coming from one of the rooms where the slaves hid on their way North. Later, another team also heard those same sandy-type footsteps. Footsteps and noises were also heard out in the barn and in the attic ballroom. Some people heard them live, while I heard them via the headset I had connected to my analog recorder.

Keep in mind when investigating to try and debunk any mystery noises you may be hearing. And...make sure you are not causing them! We had an instance in the basement where we kept hearing a thunk/creak sound. The team stationed at command central was watching and listening to us, and our fearless leader Jim realized that every time we said, “Did you hear that, where is it coming from?” it was in conjunction with him turning in his chair to look from the Labpro to the camera monitor! So, just that little motion on old wooden floor boards was creating a very noticeable sound to the people below him. He came down to enlighten us with the explanation, and it is now something we can discount as paranormal when we do a full review of the tapes.

All in all, it was another successful event and a great learning experience for both the investigators and the guests alike.