We once again found ourselves at the Crescent Hotel...

Location: Crescent Hotel; Eureka Springs, AR

Date: December 26-27, 2011

The day after Christmas, a large crowd descended on the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs. The occasion? John and I were getting married at the nearby Thorncrown Chapel and a reception was to follow at the Crescent. Not wanting to miss an opportunity to investigate, my parents requested Michael’s room, 218, for our two-night stay. Also joining us for the ride up to Eureka were two of my cousins, Cameron and Connor, who had been intrigued by some of our past investigations and wanted to experience something paranormal for themselves.

Orb above the lobby fireplace captured by Cameron and Connor.

The night before the wedding my mom and I shared Michael’s room, hoping he would show his true colors if there wasn’t a man staying in the room. After all, some of the most colorful stories of Michael’s antics occur when women, particularly soon-to-be-brides, stay in his room— water in the shower changing temperatures unexpectedly, the chain on the door rattling, footsteps, etc.

Fortunately, we were not disappointed. While I was showering that night the water, which had maintained a comfortable warm temperature for several minutes after I first turned it on, began to alternate between extremes, going from scalding hot and freezing cold with no in-between. The temperature was so extreme I couldn’t touch it without fear of being burned. It surprised me so much I called my mom in to try to adjust it, which took quite a while. She got it back to a mild temperature, but not for long. I tried to wash my hair, but it once again began to alternate between hot and cold, making the entire experience quite unpleasant. I guess Michael thought it was all in good fun towards the bride, because when my mom used the shower the water temperature never varied at all.

Gold orb on the window and unexplained
 flash of color in the lower corner.

Before I had gotten in the shower my mom and I had been discussing the numerous photos on the wall beside the bed. Many were of orbs or other paranormal phenomena from the hotel’s past, but there was a portrait in the middle of these of a man most likely from the early 1900s. I commented on how unfortunate the man’s hair was right before going to take a shower, and Michael seemed to not like my choice of words. While I was in the bathroom and my mom was going through her suitcase, the portrait was moved. When my mom looked back at the wall the portrait was tilted so far sideways that it had also tilted a couple of the paranormal photos into each other. There had been at least two inches of wall space between each of the pictures when they were straight.

Red orb above the tour group.

Elsewhere in the hotel that night Cameron and Connor had captured some interesting photos. We all went on the ghost tour, and during it they each took a large number of photos. They got a few orbs, a red one and a gold one being the most unique. Coincidentally, when they captured these orbs my mom and my cousin (and flower girl) Julia were both getting fairly high spikes on their K2 meters in the same areas. The most interesting find, however, occurred in the basement. Before the crowd of people entered the “morgue,” the boys were snapping pictures in the dark room. One photo was shot down the hallway off the back of the room, and upon closer inspection the boys realized that it contained a faint, misty figure standing against the end door. The entire photo is a bit grainy from being taken in the dark, but the figure is visible without any alteration. We couldn’t do much to clear up the photo, but by overexposing it slightly, I was able to make him a bit clearer. It looks like a man with a cap, turned slightly to the side with one arm down in front of him.

The original photo with the misty figure circled.

An overexposure of the photo, making the figure slightly clearer.

The next night after the reception, my dad joined my mom in Michael’s room. As a joke, when he heard the late-night ghost tour going by, he rattled the chain on the door lock when he heard the guide telling the crowd about Michael liking to do that late at night. After the tour moved on, he returned to the couch to listen to some audio we had recorded in the room. As he sat there the chain on the door rattled on its own.

We recorded several hours of audio in Michael’s room, but none of it contained any plain EVPs. It did contain a wide variety of unexplainable noises, though, from floor and door squeaks in the middle of the night to what sounded like the chain on the door rattling a couple of times. Overall most of what happened with Michael was personal experiences that couldn’t be documented. The photo Cameron and Connor took in the basement, however, seems like pretty solid evidence for all of us.

Hayley

A Local Hunt

Location: Boyett Residence; Searcy, AR

Date: November 26, 2011

Recently, SPI investigated the home of Susie Boyett. Since this was a local investigation, all of our members as well as our young, part-time investigator Julia (a niece who is very interested in ghost hunting) were able to join us.  The two primary “hot spots” in her home were a bedroom upstairs where lights apparently flicker on and off, and the basement, where a woman felt a deep and unexplainable cold sensation while working on a mural.

Upon arriving, we set our computer up in the downstairs office/library and placed infrared cameras in two of the upstairs rooms and the basement.  We then broke into groups and began the investigation.  Initially, there did not seem to be much taking place.  The lights did indeed flicker upstairs, and while down in the basement, I thought I saw a shadow pass into a dark corner on the opposite side of the room.  Obviously, neither of these experiences offered concrete, tangible evidence of the paranormal.

Later in the evening, my dad went upstairs to investigate the bedroom “hot spot.” My dad and my sister had both experienced an unexplainable heavy feeling in this room on a previous visit to the house. I went into the room next door with a flashlight, a K2 meter, and my iPhone, which was running the Ghost Radar app.  This app has received mixed reviews from paranormal investigators.  No one really knows how the application works, but most of the people who use it do tend to encounter something unexplainable.  On this evening, it apparently proved itself as a thought-provoking tool.

The iPhone’s screen becomes a green and black radar.  If the radar picks up energy, it produces a spot on the screen, which can be blue, green, yellow, or red, depending on the strength of the signal.  The app also claims to look for patterns in the signals it is reading, to see if the energy is “intelligent” and trying to communicate; if it notices a pattern, it will produce words.  While we were in Ms. Boyett’s home, the Ghost Radar produced the following words: “Jones”, “judge”, and “Ellen.”  All of these, in some way or another, are directly related to the house’s history.

While the Ghost Radar app was running, I also performed an experiment with the flashlight.  I twisted it so that it was powered off and asked if anybody or anything was around to turn it on.  The flashlight flickered and came to life.  When I asked the presence in the room to turn it off, it did.  This phenomenon occurred again in front of my parents, even after trying it with my dad’s flashlight.

The Ghost Radar readings and the flashlight experience were the only pieces of solid evidence that we collected while in the house.  But something else occurred after our investigation was over.  Ms. Boyett called my dad again a few days later with a strange story…  Apparently, the morning after our investigation, she found a note that had been missing for almost a month.   It was on the floor with three damp tissues.  And neither the note nor the tissues had been there before.

Our investigation of Ms. Boyett’s home was brief but intriguing.  It was the first time anyone’s actively attempted such an investigation in the home, and it’s reasonable to think that a follow-up could stir up more activity.

Mitch