Weaver House

Yesterday was a long, long day, but so worth it! After getting up at 5:30 and working for ten hours, I headed over to Ozark, MO, for my first ghost hunt with Southwest Ghost Finders! We met up at Golden Dragon and chowed down on some good Chinese food before heading just down the road to the historic Weaver House. The house was built in the mid-1800s and has definitely seen its share of Ozarks history. When the Baldknobbers (no, not the people from the Branson show. They were a group of vigilantes in the Ozarks around the 1880s.) were wreaking havoc in the area, they even held a meeting in one of the upstairs rooms of the house, and burnt their insignia into the floor. The original floor and insignia are still intact in the house, and I must say that the Baldknobber 'logo' looks kind of like a horse's head turned sideways. The house was also at one time a stagecoach stop. It is said that a young girl who had been on the stagecoach developed a terrible disease and died in the other bedroom upstairs.

The seven of us there for the investigation were SWGF founder, Kim, longtime members Oscar and Sandy, relative newcomers Scott and Paula, and newbies Jerri and me. We set up stationary cameras in both of the upstairs bedrooms, in the living area/spiral staircase, and in the basement. We each carried digital voice recorders and some of us used infrared and regular digital cameras. We also set up a motion-sensitive infrared camera in the sunroom (which is a relatively modern addition to the house), although it likely only captured us investigators as we headed toward the bathroom during the night.

We split up for the first part of the investigation, with Oscar, Sandy, and Paula in the living areas of the main floor, and Kim, Scott, Jerri, and me in the basement. While down there in the pitch dark, those of us in the basement kept seeing a small flash of light in one corner, even when there were no vehicles going by. We did an extensive EVP session, and Kim asked any spirits to play "Marco Polo" with us. During this, the gang upstairs heard a disembodied male voice say "Marco."

Throughout the night, we heard several knocks, bangs, and whispers which didn't come from any of us. When Jerri and I sat upstairs in the Baldknobber room, we both noticed a tension in the room, and had the feeling of a watchful presence in the closet. When we ended our EVP session in that room, we headed to the other upstairs bedroom, the one where a girl from the stagecoach died years ago. The feeling in that room was much more tranquil.

Kim performed a session with dowsing rods while Jerri and I were upstairs, and she seemed to get some responses from a male spirit. After a while, we all gathered in the living area near the spiral staircase, and many of us noted unexplained knocks, as well as catching glimpses of small traces of light or shadows on the staircase. As for EMF, the house really had no baseline, as certain areas of the house seemed to be at a constant spike, and not always near electric lines. On the staircase near the end of our investigation, we caught a free-floating spike on the staircase near where a team member had seen a shadow earlier, as well as a spike in the middle of the Baldknobber room.

Around 4 a.m., we called it a night and cleaned up the equipment. I had such a blast hunting with my new team, and I can't wait to find out what kind of evidence we may have caught at the Weaver House!

A New Page

After nearly a year-long hiatus from blogger-dom, I have returned! Just a moment ago, I re-read the last post I had written, and had to laugh at the fact that I am in much the same position as I was a year ago. Yes, a few things are different. For example, I'm no longer a college student; instead I'm a recent grad full of hope that maybe I'll get a 'real' job soon. And, I'm a rent-paying adult!

Up until about two days ago, I was in exactly the same spot as I was in my previous post, at least in regards to searching for a local paranormal team. The emails I sent out over the past year to numerous paranormal teams were only rarely met with a response, and never met with a real opportunity to go along on an investigation. Needless to say, I was bummed, and kind of put the paranormal stuff on my mental back burner. But in the past couple of months, I've really regained my hankering to do some more investigations, and just last week I promised myself that I would contact one more local group. If I got a response, I'd be happy to check out the team, but if I didn't get a response (which seemed more likely at the time), I'd just point my currently-unemployed energies toward setting up my own investigation team.

So, the search was on to pick out a local investigation group to email. The first site I stumbled across was the Southwest Ghost Finders' website. It stated that they were more than just an investigation team; they're like a family. My first thought was, "Bingo!" It sounded like a great group, so I went out on a limb and sent them an email. I didn't figure I'd get a response, so imagine my surprise when I got a really polite and welcoming email!

So, a couple of phone calls later, we got a meeting set up. Just a couple hours ago, I met with Kim and Susan, and I was so impressed with the real sense of pride they have in the team. They even invited me to join them on an upcoming hunt!

Words can't describe how cool it is to meet people who share an interest in ghosts and hauntings and whatnot. It's even more amazing to know they're in my own town! I'm so excited to get the opportunity to go on a case with them and learn even more about my passion, the paranormal.