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All of the photos in the Investigation Albums (parts 1 and 2) are captured from the video we taped
during the actual investigation. They aren't of as high a quality as the images taken with our film and digital
cameras and larger versions of them are not available, but they give a good feel for what it was like to be there.
Browse through...and read what interests you.
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When we had made our way down into the basement, we quickly realized the basement
was two distinct areas. The modern basement sections underneath the later additions to the building...and the over-a-century-old
basement sections underneath the original family residence. It goes without saying that the older portions of the
basement had a lot more of an "atmosphere" to them. In the picture on the left, Mike is examining the
arched ceiling of the canning room. This almost cavernous area was at one time insulated with natural cork to help
preserve the goods canned at the house and orphanage. |
| Francie told us that a group volunteered to help the museum by cleaning out the canning
room, and began the process by removing the layers of natural cork from the walls. The group was mostly done with
the cork when they just stopped showing up, and they never finished fixing up the room. Currently it is used for
storage. Shawn is taking a look around in the picture on the right, taking notes on temperature ranges as we progressed
through the basement. |
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This picture was taken in the Boiler Room using the Night Shot feature on our analog
video camera. Francie is working on opening the door that leads to the Recreation Room. Clusters of breaker boxes
like the one shown in this picture and the network of wiring conduit that snakes out in every direction from them
can really interfere with any attempts to take EMF readings. With so many fully explainable Electromagnetic Fields
present, its almost impossible to find unexplained
fields in their midst. |
| This is another image captured with the Night Shot feature on our video camera. The
Boiler Room is all pipes and duct-work, and a brand-new boiler dominates one side of the room. To get to the Recreation
Room from the main portions of the museum you must pass through the boiler room. It appeared to all of us that
when the orphanage was up-and-running, the children probably entered the Recreation Room from an outside entrance.
The Boiler Room just didn't seem like the sort of room that nun's would allow the children to pass through. |
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Here we're taping a piece of paper to the floor of the Recreation Room in the basement.
We had traced a thin black line around the base of the plastic Care Bear toy, and with the paper firmly taped to
the floor...we would be able to tell if the toy was moved during the duration of our investigation. The presence
of several spirits of children had been reported in this room, and we were hoping that we could entice them into
moving this trigger object for us. For details on how this went, visit the Strange Events section of this investigation
report. |
| This is another trigger object we placed...this time in the Tower Room on the first
floor of the museum. This small stuffed bear named Hannah was placed on the bare wood floor, and the fake snow
was pushed in tightly around the bear. That way if the stuffed bear was moved, we would see bare wood through a
gap in the fake snow. We trained a video camera on this trigger object for around 30 minutes to see if we could
capture it moving. See the Strange Events section of this investigation report for our results. |
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This curtain over the door of an old bathroom on the 2nd floor posed a 5-minute-mystery
for Chris and I, when it decided to move and billow wildly as we came down the hallway. We had left the Children's
Dormitory, and turned down the hallway to go to the Girl's Dormitory. The curtain billowed out several feet and
kept doing so as we advanced forward. We decided right away that we may have caused the billowing in some way by
our movement, and set out to confirm that this natural explanation was true. |
| As Chris and I were taking pictures of the billowing cloth as Shawn, Dave, and Mike
showed up from the 1st floor. As they approached the cloth billowed...but not as drastically as before. Chris and
I both went back to the Children's Dormitory to retrace our actions...while our other investigators kept their
eye on the cloth. When we advanced down the hallway, the cloth began billowing again...and it became clear that
as we walked forward, we were pushing an envelope of air in front of us. This was causing a change in air pressure
in the hallway, causing the cloth to billow wildly as the air pressure equalized. |
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The older portions of the basement were atmospherically and psychologically impressive.
In other words, I found those areas to be fairly creepy. This picture was taken with the Night Shot setting on
our video camera...at a time when we had all the lights off and were walking through in almost absolute darkness. |
| We continued having the lights off when we reached the Recreation Room in the basement
to check on one of our trigger objects (a toy). The trigger object had not moved, and we began doing EVP work with
our audio recorder. Even with the lights off, the room was lit through its windows by the street lights outside.
We spent about 20 minutes asking questions out-loud on the audio recorder, with long pauses in between to allow
a chance for possible EVP's to be imprinted on the audio tapes. |
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Next we headed upstairs to the 2nd floor to do some more EVP work there. Its impossible
to describe how beautiful the woodwork is within the original family house. The foyer, the stairs, and the archway
leading under the stairs were especially amazing. Here Chris climbs the stairway to the 2nd floor with all of his
gear and equipment hanging off of him. |
| The Nun's Hallway has been the site of some of the reported paranormal activity in
the museum. Members of the museum staff have heard music and singing in this area of the museum in the past. And
it was the scene of some reported paranormal activity over the 2005 Christmas Holidays...specifically the Pope's
Room. See the Background section of this investigation report for details. Here Mike to going to check on some
of our equipment. |
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Mike had placed two stationary tape recorders in different portions of the Nun's
Hallway, hoping to capture some EVP's. With the reported unexplained music in this area, it seemed like the perfect
location for trying to capture some auditory phenomenon. The tape recorders were set on "record" and
then left in place while our investigators retreated back to another part of the museum. Check out the Possible
EVP's section of this report for the results of our EVP work in the museum. |
| I liked this image because of the light-effect behind Mike. This was unintentionally
caused by Chris taking a photo with a flash directly behind Mike. Throughout the investigation, photos are being
taken...and investigators say "Flash" out-loud before setting theirs off. This allows the other investigators
to close their eyes and not have their vision temporarily impaired by the bright light. When someone forgets to
say "Flash," everyone usually lets them know about it... |
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This image is of the Pope's Room. This room is locked and can only be viewed through
glass from the hallway in the Nuns dormitory area. It contains items used by Pope John Paul II on his several visits
to the United States. All of these items were taken from the TWA plane that the Pope used on these visits. There
is a bed, plates and cups, even a toothbrush used by the Pope on display. Its understandably an important display
within the museum...and they keep the key to the room actually locked away in a safe. |
| Over the 2005 Christmas Holidays, the Pope's Room was found unlocked and open. When
the museum staff closed up for the night, the door was closed and locked...and the key was locked away in a safe.
When they returned in the morning, the door was unlocked and open...but the key to the door was still locked away
in the safe. Nothing was disturbed and nothing was missing. For the full details of everything that reportedly
happened in the museum that night, see the Background section of this investigation report. This picture is of
the bolt lock on the door. |
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We observed that the bolt lock on the door could be unlocked with a key from the
outside, but had a turn-latch on the inside. Seeking a natural explanation for the open door, we considered the
idea that if someone could get to that turn-latch, they could unlock the door without the key that was locked in
a safe. This picture is of the transom window over the top of the door. It was rather small, and would probably
not allow enough space for someone to crawl through. But it was a large enough space to allow someone to use a
stick or hanger to turn the latch from the outside. |
But why would someone in the middle of the night, without setting off the alarms,
get into the museum, unlock and open the Pope's Room door (and the other stuff that occurred on that night), but
take nothing from the museum? Why break in, move things and open this door, but not take a single thing? It just
doesn't seem likely.
The picture on the right is an example of one of the mannequins we encountered during the investigation. This display
shows a nun's dormitory room much like it would have looked when the building was an orphanage. |
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Dave Berg is our technical advisor and helps us convert our analog video tape over
to digital. He mentioned to me when he handed me the finished disk that as he watched the tape unfold, he couldn't
believe the number of shadowy figures that caught his eye in the video...and caused him to look twice. All of these
shadowy figures were mannequins, as he pointed out. But he laughed about how disturbing some of them looked when
in a dim light. I thought the image on the left was a good example of what he was talking about. |
| The image on the right is of Chris and I doing some EVP work in the Nun's Hallway.
When I was reviewing the audio tape later, I heard what sounded to me like an EVP. I couldn't exactly make out
what it was saying, but it didn't sound like me...and I could not remember speaking at that point in time. I then
wondered if Chris had unintentionally mumbled something under his breath at that moment. In the interest of always
excluding natural causes first, I went back to the video tape and watched it at the moment of the possible EVP. |
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Reviewing the video tape, it turned out to be me saying something to Chris. I wasn't
whispering (something you should not do while trying to capture EVP's), but I was speaking in a different tone
of voice than when I was asking the EVP questions. See the Possible EVP's section of the investigation report for
more details. I already knew that having video confirmation of your EVP work was important, but this episode drove
that belief home for me. For me it calls into question any EVP work done without a video tape recording the process. |
| When you are attempting to record EVP's, all five of your senses are at work. You
are in the moment...you can see, hear, and smell the environment you are in. When you are at home later listening
to the tapes, you are essentially listening in the dark. You are left with only the sound...and nothing else. No
matter how good your notes, you can't capture every noise...every comment made...every creak of the wood floor,
etc. But with video confirmation...you can go back and watch the video images and listen to the video sound, and
discover natural causes for sounds you may have otherwise consider unexplained. |
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Another factor that comes into play on investigations is exhaustion. Physical, mental,
and emotional exhaustion. Especially in a location as big and complex, with as long a history as the Strawberry
Hill Museum. At around the 4-hour-mark you just start to get a little tired. In the picture on the left, I had
just caught something move out of the corner of my eye...due to just being very tired. You can see the high level
of concern on my face...until I realized it was just a trick of my eyes. This image definitely made me laugh, so
I wanted to share it. |
Chris and I (with Mike video-taping) did EVP work in the Nuns Hallway for around
20 minutes. At the same time, Dave and Shawn were in another portion of the museum doing EVP work in the 3rd floor
closet...and the Girl's Dormitory. Being able to split up into two teams allowed us to get more work done, splitting
into three teams would have been even better.
One thing missing from the investigation was "sitting & waiting" time. We didn't really perform what
is traditionally called a "vigil." In a future visit to the museum, that's something I intend to rectify. |
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This image is one of our trigger objects (a toy). This one was on the floor in the
Dormitory Hallway...at the location where Chris had a feeling of "presence." See the Strange Events section
of this investigation report for more details on that. While the trigger object did not move, we did capture a
possible EVP at this location of the museum. See the Possible EVP's section of this report for more details on
that.
And that concludes our Investigation Albums...make sure you check out some of the other section of our investigation
report on the Strawberry Hill Museum. |
Click here for Investigation Album Part
1 (of 2)
And check out the sections of this investigation report listed under the category
of "Analysis" for detailed discussions and analysis of the evidence we gathered during this investigation...
-Mark Stinson
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