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API Ghost Post
Training Investigation Turns
Paranormal
by James
Kelly
On March 31st,
2007, Arizona Paranormal Investigations (API) staff and interested
members of the public teamed up together for a training
investigation that turned up the unexpected.
Paranormal
phenomenon.
When Henry
Wickenburg hacked away at the parched, scorched earth of the Arizona
desert in the 1870s, little did he know that he would discover the
largest producing gold mine in the fledgling Arizona Territory?
The Vulture
Mine produced millions of dollars of ore in its productive lifetime.
Miners and gold seekers came from all over the southwest to try and
whet their prospective beaks in the precious yellow ore, trying to
fulfill their dreams of wealth and a better way of life. It is even
rumored that the famous Lost Dutchman, Jacob Waltz, might have
worked at the Vulture, even though this was never proven and might
have just been a legend.
The Vulture
once housed thousands of people. Apartment houses, a Ball Mill,
Power Station, Mess Hall, and the famous Assay House: a two story
building where the precious ore was kept, and which still stands
defiant in the baking Arizona sun. There was even a bordello
available for the lonely workers to parlay their gold to the “soiled
doves” of the west for services rendered.
The land has
long since swallowed most of these buildings up.
Closed down
during the Second World War, the mine was purchased by private
owners who now allow the public to visit this tiny ghost town and to
walk through and experience the historic buildings on their own for
a small fee. You can even peer down the lonely gaping hole of the
mineshaft entrance where intersecting tunnels snake underneath the
earth for miles and miles.
Today, the
Vulture Mine is a shell of its former self. Most of the buildings
are torn and dilapidated, their tin roofs creaking soft music in the
afternoon wind.
Just to walk
through a place of such rich history is an experience no one should
miss. And one you might never forget.
Yet there is
a dark side to this very rich historical site that says wherever
quick money is to be made, tragedy seems to almost always follow.
And the Vulture Mine is no different.
There have
been numerous acts of violence during its height of popularity.
Armed guards protecting the small gold bars of gold in the
underground holding area of the Assay House were gunned down in the
1800s.
A hanging
tree located next to the building has a macabre historical sign
posted on the trunk claiming that 18 men were hung for various
crimes at the site. There was no law per se in the tiny town, but
groups of vigilantes ruled with an iron fist, taking the lives of
several criminals for theft, rape, and murder along with various
other unlawful deeds.
In 1923,
seven men and twelve burros were buried under one hundred feet of
soil, a brutal price for stealing gold from support beams in the
shaft. The area is now called the “glory hole” because those seven
men went to their glory that day, and their bodies were never
recovered.
It is no
mystery then that many visitors have reported seeing ghostly
figures, phantom voices and an overwhelming presence of being
watched. Many people believe that the area is haunted. When you walk
into the ghost town, it seems to beckon to you; I liken it to
walking back into another era, a wrinkle in time. Human emotions and
experiences seem to be recorded in the land and in the structures
that occupy it.
Paranormal footsteps.
At 4:00 PM,
the Vulture Mine closed for the day. All members of API and the
public congregated at the mine entry point to hear a short history
lecture by the caretaker. The owner had agreed to allow us to
investigate for the entire evening. I volunteered to stay behind
during the lecture and to watch the equipment that would be used
that night and which was being stored in the new schoolhouse that
had been built in the 1930s.
Killing time,
I began to do a few practice Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP)
sessions with one of my digital recording units. After completing my
first session in the new schoolhouse, I walked next door to the
original Vulture Mine Schoolhouse built in the 1880s. It is a very
small building; the sound of rotting wood crunches beneath you
nearly every step you take from the creaky floorboards. The windows
of the structure are without glass so you can hear just about
everything that goes on around you.
Nearly three
minutes into my EVP session, I noticed that the Schoolhouse seemed
to get very quiet. I heard a large fly buzzing by my head. There
were no birds singing, no wind or wafting late spring afternoon
breezes floating by, just deafening silence when my paranormal
experience began to unfold around me.
I was near
the rear of the building standing very still and holding my little
IC digital recorder tightly in my hand when I asked, “If there is a
presence here with me now, can you please rap twice on the wall?” A
few seconds later, I heard four loud banging noises to my left. I
did not move a muscle. After the last noise, I looked out the window
and saw a vehicle rounding the corner and realized that the history
lecture was over and everyone would soon be at my location. I then
ran out of the Schoolhouse and checked the entire perimeter of the
building expecting to catch a possible prankster crouching in the
area.
There was
nobody there.
I then
realized that I might have experienced a paranormal event. Had some
type of phenomenon responded to me? After years of asking that
question during EVP sessions during investigations, could I have
finally received a response from the paranormal realm that I not
only experienced physically, but recorded on audio as well?
Later, when
listening to the recording, I determined that the banging noises
were actually footsteps. They sounded like hard boot on solid wood.
There was only one creaking noise in the EVP clip as the steps moved
towards me across the Schoolhouse wooden floor.
My
perception was off too. I heard only four noises during the
incident, when in fact there were six distinct noises in the audio
clip. Since I had asked for “raps” on the wall, my mind
automatically assumed that the noises were raps when the incident
began. This is a common occurrence when a witness experiences
something out of the ordinary. Perception can be affected by
emotions; even though I was not scared, I was excited and shocked
while the incident was unfolding. Thus, I assumed the sounds were
“raps” on the wall when in fact they were footsteps. My audio
recorder exposed human error in this case. My power of perception
abandoned me.
It was an
experience that I will never forget. And it changed me.
Listen
to the Footstep EVP
Training
Investigation Begins.
The
first few hours of the training investigation were spent teaching
the public about Arizona Paranormal Investigations and why we do
what we do. As I was still reeling from my earlier experience at the
Schoolhouse, I forced myself to try and forget what happened and try
to concentrate at the day at hand. Paranormal classes were taught by
members of API on different types of haunting classifications: ghost
hunting equipment, spirit photography, and EVP. Then, after a dinner
break, three teams of eleven people were formed and sent with
certified members of our group to explore different parts of the
ghost town. I found out later that other teams reported smelling
food in the old mess hall building, which had not operated since the
1930s. Some members reported the light scent of perfume by the
miner’s apartment building as well.
The team I
was with began our mock investigation in the Old Schoolhouse, where
just hours before I had experienced those phantom footsteps.
Temperature readings and electromagnetic field measurements were
taken. Then, we performed an EVP training session with four digital
recorders being used. Nothing unusual happened. That is, until a few
days later, a person who was on my team emailed me that her sister,
who was with her that night, had been touched by something unseen in
the Old Schoolhouse during the EVP session. She did not want to
cause a fuss and bring it up then. I understood why.
Next, it was
on to the Assay House where the gold was stored and measured and
where many people had lost their lives in the dangerous days of the
Wild West.
During our
EVP training session, I again placed four digital recorders around
the living quarter’s area where the guards used to live. The full
moon pushed shards of bright light in through the front windows on
the first floor as we all stood motionless asking random questions
in a building built long ago in a different era.
API
investigator Deb Lane began to sense the presence of someone by the
name of Stanton, who she said was somehow connected to the area.
Indeed, there was a ruthless man that worked at the Vulture Mine in
the 1870s named Charles Stanton. Mr. Stanton was rumored to be
involved in many incidents of theft and violent crime throughout
Arizona. Was Deb picking up his presence in the Assay house?
I explained
to the students that we should pursue a line of questioning with Mr.
Stanton.
“Mr.
Stanton, is it true that you robbed the miners of their gold, or is
that just a lie?” I asked.
Just a few
seconds later, a soft sounding, “No!” echoed through the room. I
asked if the other people in the room had heard the voice. Six out
of the eleven people raised their hands, most of whom were members
of the public. Several more attempts to establish communication with
the presence failed. But some of the skeptical people in our group
were astounded at what had just happened.
I checked
the audio recorders the next day. All four of them recorded the
“No!” EVP, but the voice was barely audible on the recorders. If it
had been someone trying to hoax the voice from somewhere inside of
the Assay House, it would have been recorded much louder on one of
the audio units. It wasn’t. Some more evidence to consider. And it
did not stop there.
Listen to the EVP
API Director
Joe Shelton took a photo about an hour after I had my experience in
the Old Schoolhouse earlier in the day. The photograph was taken in
the field in front of the Schoolhouse and appears to show the
outline of a dark figure standing in front of shrubs and trees.
Is this the
photo of a ghost? Well, we can’t say for sure, but the amount of
activity that took place that day points to the fact that some type
of phenomena at the Vulture Mine was thriving, and trying to
communicate.
To say that
this area is haunted is an understatement. It is a virtual breeding
ground for ghostly type phenomena. You can visit the Vulture Mine
and see for yourself. I have visited there several times in the last
two years and sometimes I feel that the community is watching and
waiting for me to return.
And they
could be watching and waiting for you as well.
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