Ghost Hunting - Gettysburg - Cashtown Inn

Our travels this summer brought us through Gettysburg, PA for a brief exploration. The Gettysburg area is well known for it's ghostly activities, and rich historical significance. Our visit to Gettysburg would fall on the anniversary of the begining of the civil war (July 1st and 2nd). My wife and I didn't realize this until much later, and really, we couldn't have planned this portion of our trip better if we had tried to. We even managed to book a room in The Cashtown Inn, an inn and resturant also known for it's many strange occurances, and historical significance.

I brought the majority of my equipment, including a Sony Nightshot Digital 8mm video camera, Cannon SD400 Digital Camera, Rayek Raynger ST Non-Contact Thermal Scanner, Dr. Guass EMF Detector, and an Edirol R-09 Digital Recorder.

We didn't have much time or opportunity to conduct any worthy investigating of the battlefields, so our productive investigative time was going to be spent at the Inn.

Because there are so many accounts of strange activity in this B&B, I was expecting a considerable amount of substance to our documentation, especially since this is the anniversary of the great battle, however, the evening was quite uneventful. Nothing out of the ordinary happened while I was investigating, meaning I did not see or hear anything peculiar both with my own eyes and ears, and with the assistance of the equipment. At one point however, while in the lobby of the Inn, the EMF detector was behaving oddly, but there was no further documentation to back up that anything 'paranormal' was occurring.

PHOTOS:

Clicking the link below will display the only orb photo that was taken during the entire stay at the inn, including during the investigation. This photo was part of a series of pictures that were taken on the porch of the Inn. No other outdoor photos revealed anything of the sort. Though this is the only orb photo that I have from the entire Cashtown Inn shoot, I am still very cautious about claiming that this is indeed a photo of something 'paranormal' in nature. Had there been many other orb photos during this shoot, I would have discounted this photo immediately. Considering that it is the only one I took, and many other people have captured ghostly images on film (both digital and emulsion, from orbs to peculiar mists) from the porch, I have included it for entertainment purposes only.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f168/slynchmaass/CashtownInnPorchOrb.jpg

EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena):

Lastly, reviewing my audio recordings was uneventful, but the effort was not a complete waste of time. In the nearly two full hours of digital audio that was recorded there is only one piece of the recording that I can say is a true EVP. The recorded EVP is CLASS 'B' in nature. Cleaning up the recording a little using Audacity, it sounds like a mans voice perhaps saying, "Friends with me." I am not sure if there is any significance to what was said, or the time that this was recorded. This EVP was recorded prior to, and very close to the time that the video camera ran out of tape. This EVP was recorded at approx. 12:30am in our bedroom. My wife was asleep, and no one was talking (not even myself, so as not to disturb my sleeping wife). If there was a way to load the .WAV file here I would. If you are interested in listening to it, please let me know, and I can email the audio file to you.

VIDEO:

It has been my experience during investigations that just because a location is 'hot' with ghostly activity, in some cases overflowing with activity, video documentation of the phenomena such as orbs (globules) and peculiar mists is not always guaranteed. This was the case during this investigation, but the addition of the video camera to the ghost hunting arsenal is still extremely useful.

CONCLUSION:

Though leaving a little on the light side as far as documented ghostly activty, I am sure that there can be much better days for such an endeavor. In the future i would like to return, and spend more time investigating.

S.Maass

Ghost Hunting In Savannah, Georgia

During a recent vacation to Savannah, Georgia my wife and I spent our days seeing the sites, exploring the historic district, and sampling the wide variety of amazing food that one can get in the city's excellent restaurants. Our nights however, were spent taking in the vast amount of ghostly culture there is to learn about, and investigate in what is officially known as "America's Most Haunted City."

Since I didn't bring all of my investigative equipment on this vacation, I was limited to informal Ghost Hunts based on the stories were heard and read about. This kept our vacation atmosphere still relaxed enough to enjoy, rather than delving into a full on investigation. One of our ghost hunting experiences took us on a walking ghost tour hosted by, The Sixth Sense Ghost Tour. These tours are a great way to learn more about the haunted locations in the city you are exploring, they give you a chance to do some informal documentation, and meet others interested in the paranormal. As a matter of fact, my first ghost hunting experience was kicked off through a walking ghost tour in Boston, MA.

The picture to the top left is of a house that is known for lots of ghostly activity, so much in fact, that since the last owner died in the house years ago, only one family has lived in the home; they left within a short period of time in the middle of the night. It has been many years since any realty company has been able to sell this home. The homes to either side of this haunted location experience the same ghostly phenomena, but are lived in.

Because of my experience with ghost photography, I put very little faith in what are known as Orb Photos, but the consistancy of this particular orb is notable. I am still very skeptical of orb photos, especially since they can be recreated in so many different ways.

The picture above is one of the reasons why I put so little faith in orb photos. This shot was taken at the Colonial Cemetary, located in the heart of the Historic District. There are many orbs in the picture, but moisture in the air, especially at night, often appears in pictures as seen above. However, there are two other anomolies in the photo, indicated by the red arrows, that are worth examining.

These anomolies are sometimes referred to as Vortices. They often show motion of a spherical object, and appear as different colors. In this picture, the vortex on the right is blue, shows directional change, and motion. In the center of the picture there is a white bar-like object. It also shows motion, but more importantly this anomoly appeared in a second photo taken 2 seconds later. In the second photo, seen below, the bar-like object is more to the left.



There is no way to know for sure what these anomolies are under these conditions. Taking pictures outdoors creates many variables that make distinguishing paranormal photos difficult for investigators, and incredibly easy for skeptics to toss out as true evidence. Though I find these two photos interesting, strange, and uncommon in normal nighttime photographs, I am not claiming that these photos are genuine paranormal evidence because they are taken outdoors, and no other form of documentation was used to back up the photos.

More photos from our trip to Savannah will be posted soon!