Black Friday at the Lake Norfork Inn

Date: November 28, 2014

Location: Lake Norfork Inn, Henderson, Arkansas

Family friends Jennifer and Rusty went on this investigation with us to the Lake Norfork Inn in Henderson, Arkansas. The hotel and accompanying restaurant sit on a hill overlooking the beautiful Lake Norfork. The hotel was built over an old cemetery that could not be excavated, potentially giving rise to a wide variety of spirits and energy.

The show was featured on SyFy Channel’s Haunted Collector, but despite John Zaffis’ team removing several “haunted” objects from the property, the owner and her staff still regularly encounter multiple spirits at the hotel and the restaurant. The owner and staff were gracious hosts for the evening and told us many of their own personal experiences with the local spirits.

I began taking photos as we toured the property upon arriving. While in The Club

Windjammer restaurant my camera was persistently having trouble focusing and flashing to take pictures in the dark rooms. However, when I hung back to photograph the kitchen after everyone else had proceeded back into the dining rooms, I captured an interesting image of a tall, dark figure standing across the room from me, hidden from the waist down by a food preparation counter. Although the image is dark because the flash did not work on the camera, it appears that the figure has one hand on his hip and the other raised, almost like he is waving at the camera. In the next photo, taken only seconds later, the flash on the camera worked and there is no one on that side of the room.

The original photo of the shadowy figure with no flash. 

The photo taken immediately after the one of the shadowy figure. Taken with flash.

A zoomed in and lightened version of the original photo. 

The other interesting encounter we had in The Club Windjammer occurred without our knowledge in the dining room where we had our monitor set up. Photos of the room taken by Jennifer and myself between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m. show that all of the chairs in the dining room were setting firmly on the ground. However, at around 9:45 p.m. John was alone in the room watching the monitor and looked across the room to find that eight chairs at the long back table were now sitting on top of the table, six lined up in a row with the right-most chairs double stacked. At the time he noticed this, John was the only person in the restaurant building, and the dining hall was never left empty. At least one member of our team was there at all times watching the monitor, and none of us heard or saw the chairs moving.

Photo of dining room tables and chairs taken at 8:37 p.m.

Photo of rearranged dining room chairs taken at 10 p.m.

In the hotel itself, the staff and visitors encountered a wide range of spirits. Reports include hearing children playing in the atrium around the pool, seeing a lady in white, and footsteps wandering the halls. Room 212 is reported to have a wide variety of activity, so we focused a lot of our attention in the hotel on that room. Early in the evening my mom, Jennifer, and I went into the room to do an EVP session and noticed that we were hearing a low but continual conversation that included 2-3 different male voices. We could not make out particular words in the conversation, but at times it sounded like it was coming from all around us. The hotel was technically closed for the winter already, so the only guest staying in the rooms was a young nurse who was already in bed at the time of our investigation. Despite that, we still went looking for the source of the conversation, thinking someone may have snuck into a room or left a TV on in a room above us, but we found no answer.

Jennifer and Rusty investigating in a guest room.

Later in the evening we returned to room 212 with my dad and Rusty and were able to communicate with a spirit that identified itself as Richard using a flashlight. The spirit was also able to tell us that his age was around 31 and that he had somehow been involved in the building of the hotel. Based on the owner’s research into the hotel, we knew that the primary spirits identified in the restaurant was of one of the three developers of the hotel whose name was Richard. Although the developer Richard died when he was in his 40s, we still believe the male spirit we talked to could be the same one that the owner encounters in the restaurant. Throughout this session with the flashlight we all again heard the muffled multi-person conversation going on around us, but it was too low to be picked up by our audio recorders and we once again could not find a source for the voices. A brief excerpt from our half hour EVP/flashlight session in room 212 can be viewed below. 

This hunt did not yield any EVPs for us, but it did result in some interesting personal experiences, a photograph of a full body apparition, and some great memories. The Lake Norfork Inn was well worth the drive and we certainly hope to return again in the near future. Based on the wealth of experiences the hotel staff and guests have reported, we feel that we most likely just scratched the surface in unearthing its secrets.

Hayley.

The Many Spirits of the VWF

Date: November 7, 2014

Location: VFW Post 2399, Mineral Wells, Texas

We first learned about the VFW from a friend in Texas, and after contacting the Post Commander, Jim Branson, we discovered that the building has a long and mostly undiscovered history. What is known is that the structure was originally opened as the New Milling Sanitorium pre-1920. The building was later purchased by a different doctor and renamed the Irvine Sanitarium. The hospital treated a variety of ailments and mental disorders with the healing mineral waters from the local springs. VFW Post 2399 purchased the building in the 1970s and have utilized the building ever since.

On our visit to the VFW we were shown around by Commander Branson, who told us many of the paranormal encounters that have occurred in the building, including a female spirit known as Florence who hangs out in the bingo hall, a young boy named Michael who often plays upstairs, a chef who watches over the kitchen, and many other spirits that roam the halls at all hours. Other VFW patrons such as the very friendly and informative Mr. Walter Choate, welcomed us to the Post and told us their personal encounters with the spirits as well, many of which focused on hearing footsteps in the halls, mysterious voices, and feelings of being watched.

An orb along with a creepy mannequin in the upstairs storage room.

After touring the facility and setting up our infrared cameras to monitor the upstairs, which still closely resembles the original hospital setup in half of the building (and was still partially set up for the annual haunted house in the other half), John had the first of many personal experiences for the night. Around 10:30 pm he was alone watching the infrared cameras at our monitor. We had the monitor set up in the chapel room upstairs, so he sat with his back towards the long wing lined with small hospital rooms. The rest of us were downstairs with the Commander waiting for Mitch and Samantha to arrive, and John first noticed his water bottle shaking, soon followed by the sound of footsteps walking the length of the hallway towards him. Of course no one was there when he turned to see who was coming, but he did have the feeling that someone was standing nearby. Beverly had a similar experience while watching the monitor about a half our later, except the approaching footsteps culminated with someone touching her hair.

Around this same time, my mom and I decided to check out the Bingo Hall while we waited. After entering the Hall we heard a noise coming from some tables on the far side of the room to the right of the stage. We sat down and started asking questions and monitoring for energy with the K-2 meter. Base readings were low on the meter, with only the green light being on, but we soon had several small spikes towards the yellow light. The meter had its highest readings (the red light) after we asked “Are you a woman?” and “Is your name Florence?” My dad joined us in the Bingo hall and we decided to play Patsy Cline music (which Commander Branson said Florence seems to enjoy) to see if Florence would dance with my dad. I played the song “Crazy” and the K-2 immediately flashed over to red. My dad soon felt a presence near him where he stood on the stage. During this episode, our audio recorder picked up a very audible female voice humming and singing along when I played the song a second time. While my mom and I were in the room, we can be heard whispering in the background during the singing, and neither of us are capable of singing as high as this voice is. Audio of this EVP is included in the video below. Later in the night Mitch played a different Patsy Cline song while he was in the Bingo Room with my dad, and the audio recorder again picked up a brief instance of a female humming along with the song.

 

Orb following my mom at the end of the night. 

Later in the investigation (around 12:40 am), my mom and I decided to go sit in one of the hospital rooms that is particularly active according to the local stories. The young boy named Michael, who is most frequently encountered in the large open room on the other side of the building, has been known to visit the old hospital rooms as well. We began asking questions with both a flashlight and the K-2 laying across the room from us in a doorway where Mr. Branson said other visitors had been touched or had seen a shadowy figure. While the K-2 never lit up, something began answering questions with the flashlight laying in doorway. Through approximately 30 minutes of questioning we learned that the spirit claimed to be Michael and said that his age is around 12 years, that he was a patient at the hospital, and that he liked to play stickball (It took going through a long list of sports to get a response for that one). During this session we also picked up an EVP of a small voice saying something similar to “wow” after I said that I put the flashlight back down for him. Both the EVP and video of a couple of the flashlight questions is below. We spoke to Michael again later using the flashlight in what is said to be a very high-energy corner of the upstairs storage room.

Blue haze over the Bingo Room

The night also yielded several odd photos. After telling Michael that we were leaving, I captured an orb floating near my mom’s back. Mitch captured several strange lights in his photos, including one taken in the Bingo Room that shows a blue haze over the room. The photo was one of many taken in a row in the room, but only the one had blue light or haze in it. The infrared camera in the upstairs storage room also caught an odd oblong orb or light moving quickly across the screen. We saw no insects in the building that night, and the movement pattern of the light/orb didn’t resemble bugs we’ve caught flying past the cameras before— It did not flutter or move erratically at all; it just glides across. What is more strange about this is that my dad, Mitch, and Samantha were at the other end of the room at the time the light/orb is seen, and just before it came into view they heard a sound of glass shattering at the other end of the room where the camera was. They found no evidence of anything being broken and nothing was caught on camera other than the odd light. At the same time, Mitch snapped a picture and captured the above photo of an orb floating near where they heard the noise. The brief video clip of light/orb is featured at the end of the clip below. 

Overall the Mineral Wells VFW Post 2399 turned out to be pretty exciting, and we are positive that we captured our first instance of a singing EVP. This is certainly on our list of places worth a return visit.

Hayley.