Ghost hunters (from left) Steve Davis of Tylersburg and Colette MacLees, Skip Moss and Rick MacLees, all of the Meadville area, keep their cameras ready and use small handheld devices to detect electrical anomalies as they walk through a cemetery in Oil Creek State Park.
It's a beautiful Saturday evening in Oil Creek State Park. The sun is shining and the air is a pleasant 60 degrees.
Visitors are out in droves to take advantage of the warm weather to engage in springtime recreation, but one group of visitors is there for a much different purpose.
Members of Northwest Pa. Hauntings aren't interested in the picturesque bike trails or fishing for trout. They're there for the cemeteries.
Steve Davis and his fiancee, Maria Alfred, both of Tylersburg, wait at the ranger station at the park for the rest of their posse.
Hauntings founders Colette and Rick MacLees of Meadville arrive a short time later with a fifth group member, Skip Moss. The MacLees formed the group in September to investigate reportedly haunted areas in an effort to find evidence of paranormal activity.
They use electromagnetic field detectors, cameras, digital thermometers and audio recorders to pick up anything out of the ordinary.
PETROLEUM CENTER CEMETERY
The first stop is Petroleum Center Cemetery. Although there have been no reported hauntings as far as Colette MacLees knows, the group does the standard electromagnetic field testing, photographing, audio recording and temperature taking just in case.
Before taking photographs, Colette MacLees asks any spirits present for permission.
"We always make sure it's OK before we do anything," Davis said.
The tombstones emit typical base .1 and .2 electromagnetic field readings - the group doesn't get excited until the number jumps to at least 2 or 3 - and no circular orbs can be seen in any of the digital photographs.
All obvious sounds and movements are also taken into consideration to help explain any possible abnormal results.
The children laughing on the bike trail and a chainsaw in the distance will be discounted if heard on the voice recorders.
The sun is sliding down into the treetops and there's still a lot of ground to cover before dark, so they head back to the cars.
For the time being, the spirits at the Petroleum Center Cemetery seem to be resting in peace.
On the way back to the cars Moss gets an electromagnetic reading of 1.6. He concludes it's nothing more than one of the group member's cell phones coming into active range, but some photos of the area are taken for later review.
MILLER FARM CEMETERY
The group heads to Miller Farm Cemetery, also within park limits, where there are reports of a mysterious woman in white and a tombstone that glows green at night.
Unfortunately for the Hauntings, this site is off limits after dark - clearly the reports came from someone who broke the rules - and nothing seems out of the ordinary around 7 p.m.
No one is permitted to enter either of the Oil Creek cemeteries after dark, the time when activity is most often captured.
Colette MacLees offers two explanations why phenomena are reported in the nighttime rather than during daylight. She says the spirits may feel more comfortable when the sun goes down and there are fewer people out, or perhaps everything that is there at night is there during the day, but the paranormal is muted by the hustle and bustle of our daily lives.
THE CHILDRENS CEMETERY
The Childrens Cemetery - a name given by the Hauntings - is a collection of about 10 graves on private property in a remote location in Crawford County. All the graves are dated August 1918. Davis speculates the children, ranging in ages from 1 month to 12 years, were killed during the influenza pandemic of that year.
Colette MacLees first came to the site after hearing about a silhouette of a man in a black hat (supposedly the caretaker) and a strong odor of rotting meat.
The group has sort of adopted the site. They visit it often and try to keep it clean, and they have experienced a great deal of unexplained phenomena there.
Davis says they have heard giggling voices, seen apparitions and discovered strange looking ectoplasm in their pictures. Davis says he was physically touched by someone he couldn't see.
Colette MacLees' camera batteries go dead immediately upon her arrival. Davis says spirits need energy to manifest, and batteries are a ready source of power for them. Things look promising for the Hauntings.
After about half an hour of observing the cemetery, Rick MacLees notices a temperature drop in some nearby bushes. The thermometer reads 32 degrees in the spot about five feet away from the graves, a good 10 degrees lower than the rest of the area.
Cold spots are very good indications of spirits, Colette MacLees says.
Other usual indications of spirits stem from intuition. When the little hairs on the back of your neck stand up on end, or you get the feeling someone is watching you, it's possible there is a supernatural presence, the group believes.
Unfortunately, there are no such signs tonight, and the group will most likely go home empty-handed.
A car comes barreling down the dirt road and Colette MacLees decides it's time to go. The dust kicked up by the vehicle will corrupt the pictures.
Davis thanks the children for allowing the group to spend time with them, but asks them not to follow them home.
"We don't want to take anything home with us," he said.
RESULTS
Group members scrutinize their photographs and audiotapes on Sundays. The members try to scientifically explain any anomalies in their evidence before they can confirm or deny any spiritual activity.
No one involved in the investigations is permitted to smoke cigarettes or walk around too much during the investigations to cut down on smoke and dust in the air that could create false results.
"Last week some of the group members were smoking, and we had to throw out all of our pictures," Colette MacLees said.
Most glittering spots in photographs are discounted as dust particles reflected in camera flashes.
Two of the pictures from the Childrens Cemetery show promise though.
One has a faint outline of what could be a person's head and shoulders appearing in the background where none of the group members were standing.
Another shows a blue circle - the ghost hunters call this an orb - floating in between two of the group members.
Although the photos can't be explained, Davis says the results are too weak to be considered definitive evidence of any paranormal activity.
These photos will be added to the many others containing unexplained phenomena posted on the group's Web site, www.nwpah.com.
Davis and Alfred are asking local residents to share their ghost stories with them. They hope to delve further into the stories with their equipment and turn their findings into a book on paranormal activity in northwest Pennsylvania.
The Hauntings will be investigating historic Pithole City later this month. Visitors have reported seeing apparitions at the old boomtown during the daytime and at night. Davis and Alfred hope to get some definitive evidence there to add to their book.
Source: http://www.thederrick.com/stories/05062006-6010.shtml
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