Ever since watching Ghost Hunters "Haunted Lighthouse" episode in 2006 we knew we wanted to visit the St. Augustine Lighthouse. Jay Hawes and Grant Wilson pioneered paranormal investigations on TV and brought it to the attention of a much broader audience. Many today would not be where they are if not for this show.
In January we got to visit the St. Augustine and the Lighthouse for a quick trip. We knew we could not stay long and we wanted to use this chance to explore the eventful history of the city and Lighthouse that inspired many to join the paranormal field.
The History of the Town:
In 1565 the Spanish crown sent Pedro Menendez de Aviles to destroy the French held Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. On the feast day of St. Augustine of Hippo (August 28th) his crew spotted land and on September 8th he claimed the land in the name of Philip II and named the city St. Augustine in honor of the Saint.
In 1586 Sir Francis Drake, an English privateer and explorer, brought the Anglo-Saxon War to St. Augustine. At the sight of his fleet approaching Governor Pedro Menendez Marquez ordered the residents to evacuate. Drake's forces seized some artillery, robbed the garrison, and razed the town to the ground.
In 1686 pirate Robert Searle sailed his ship, the Cagway, to St. Augustine. In the fight 60 citizens were killed and Searle and his men raided storehouses, churches, and the homes of the residents. After this and looking at the history of attacks on the small settlement Spain began building the Castillo de San Marcos on the western shore of Mantanzas Bay to defend the city.
It was completed in 1695 and is the oldest masonry fort in the continental US. In 1702 James Moore, Governor of the Carolina Colony, moved to attack St. Augustine. After a 58 day siege and still no progress taking the fort Moore's forces set the city on fire and retreated.
In 1740 James Oglethorpe governor of Georgia again tried to take the city and fort but again they held on and the fort did not change hands.
At the end of the Seven Years' War Great Britain, France, and Spain signed the 1763 Treaty of Paris and in that Treaty Britain finally took control of Florida including St. Augustine. Control was short lived though and through the 1783 Treaty of Paris Spain regained control of Florida. Spain maintained control for 40 years before signing it over to the United States.
As more settlers came to the area skirmishes increased between them and the Native Seminole, Creek, and Miccosukee people. There were three Seminole Wars with the longest being the Second War between 1835 to 1842 during that time American settlers forced the Natives first to a four million acre reservation in Florida and then to Oklahoma. During the wars Seminole prisoners were held in the Castillo de San Marcos.
In 1861 the American Civil War began and Florida ceded to the Confederacy. In 1862 Union troops took control of the city and held it for the duration of the war.
Today it is also known as the Ancient City....
It has been raised, sacked, sieged, burned, and fought over by the Spanish, French, English, Pirates, and both the Confederate and Union armies. Its place as the oldest European city in the United States is evident in the architecture of its oldest buildings.
Pictured above is the original gate of the city built in 1739. Those gates withstood 150 years of raids, regime changes, siege, and a Civil War.
In 1883 St. Augustine would be changed forever when Henry Flagler came to visit the Ancient City. Henry Flagler, co-founder of the Standard Oil Company, came to the city in 1883 and spent the winter in the more temperate Florida sun. He liked the town and saw room for growth. In 1885 he formed the Florida East Coast Railway which he would continue to build upon for years: at first buying existing railroads and then beginning to lay his own track. He saw the east coast of Florida as an area ready for growth and a great escape for wealthy northerners looking for some place to visit and relax.
By 1887 he also completed work on two large luxury hotels the Hotel Ponce de Leon and the Hotel Alcazar. He used Spanish Renaissance Revival and Moorish revival architecture to keep the old world feel of the city. Soon tourism would become the primary industry of St. Augustine. Wealthy northerners would come for the winter and many others would stop in St. Augustine before continuing to other luxury resorts further south. The invention of the car and increased popularity of family road trips and brought families to St. Augustine for fun vacations.
Today St. Augustine is still a popular tourist destination. Walking through the original gate you enter into a series of buildings that have been reconstructed to their original look. They are filled with small boutique stores, restaurants, and a lot of ice cream shops!
The History of the Lighthouse:
When the Spanish had first settled at St. Augustine they built a watch tower or beacon at the end of Anastasia island that was documented by Baptista Boazio in 1589 when he drew a map of the area showing the raid of Sir Francis Drake.
In 1737 they upgraded the wooden structure to one made of coquina, a rock composed of fragments of shells from various shellfish. In 1780 the tower was noted in a Jacques-Nicolas Bellin engraving "A Plan of the harbour of St. Augustin."
In 1824 a new tower was built on Anastasia Island and in the early 1850s it was upgraded to a Fresnel Lens which improved the range of the light. However tragedy struck in 1858 when the Lighthouse keeper Joseph Andreu was on scaffolding to white wash the Lighthouse. The scaffolding gave way and the keeper fell to his death. He was buried in the Tolomato Cemtery, Catholic Cemetery, in St. Augustine.
His distraught wife, Maria Mestre de los Dolores Andreu took up the role of lighthouse keeper and became the first Hispanic-American woman to serve in the Coast Guard. In 1861 at the start of the American Civil War the prized lens was removed by Confederate sympathizers and hidden to avoid Union forces from taking control of it. The lens was not restored until 1867. Around this time Dr. Allan Ballard, who owned the property and the Lighthouse sold the property to the government partly out of fear that it was going to fall into the ocean and because the state told him if he did not agree to the price they would take the property.
As erosion continued to threaten the Lighthouse a new structure was started in 1871 and completed in 1874. During the building of the Lighthouse tragedy struck. Hezekiah H. Pittee was the superintendent of Lighthouse Construction and moved with his family to St. Augustine. In 1873 three of his children and a local friend were playing in a rail car that was used to bring supplies to the worksite. As the rail car approached the end of the track the brakes failed and the children were thrown in to the sea and pinned under the cart. Mary age 15 and Eliza age 13 as well as their friend were drowned before they could be rescued. Only four year old Carrie was rescued from the accident.
On October 5th 1874 William Russel, who served as light keeper at the old and new Lighthouse lit the new first order Fresnel lens. It could be seen between 19 and 24 nautical miles depending on the weather. The new tower was well timed as the old one fell in to the ocean in 1880. The ruins still exist underwater and is currently an archeological site.
In October 1875 William Harn after a career in the military where he lead troops in several major battles including Gettysburg became the light keeper until his death from tuberculosis in 1889.
In 1901 Peter Rasmusson took over as light house keeper and has the longest tenure of any keeper at 23 years. He and his wife Mary frequently had visitors to the Lighthouse from Flagler's hotels who would stop by to see the 165 foot structure. In a memo sent to the Light-house inspector in Charleston SC Rasmussen listed the increase in visitors over several years.
The tourists came from Flagler's hotels using the wooden bridge that was built across Matanzas Bay connecting St. Augustine to Anastasia Island and the Lighthouse. In 1904 it was renovated to allow for a trolley to run over the bridge further facilitating tourism. The Lighthouse did close to visitors from February 6, 1917 till after the end of WWI when Peter received orders in the name of national security. A few years later in 1924 Peter Rasmussen retired from his role of keeper and John Lundquist, who had served as an assistant keeper previously in 1893-1901, became the head keeper.
In 1936 Cardell D. Daniels was the keeper at the Lighthouse when on March 1st it was electrified. The Lighthouse keeper would no longer have to make the long trip up 219 steps to the top carrying buckets of oil or kerosene.
In 1981 the Lighthouse and Keepers' House were included on the National Historic Register and became protected buildings. In 1994 thanks to the hard work of the Junior Service League of St. Augustine, the Keepers' House and Lighthouse were opened to the public as a museum and for the first time ever visitors could climb to the top of the Lighthouse.
And finally as mentioned above, and what started this journey for us, in 2006 the tv show Ghost Hunters, about a team of paranormal investigators, filmed their highest rated episode at the Lighthouse. During the episode they captured on camera a shadowed figure peering over the rail in the Lighthouse.
The Paranormal History:
The whole area of St. Augustine has a deep history filled with turmoil and strife. Th'e historic city gate, Castillo de San Marcos, old Huguenot Cemetery, and the old Catholic Cemetery stand today as reminders of that past. Specifically there are several stories on the Lighthouse property. The first is the possible ghosts of Maria and Joseph Andreu. When Maria heard about her husbands death she ran to the top of the Lighthouse and cried. Then as the story goes she heard a voice tell her to 'take up the light' and she recognized that voice as her husband. Maria is rumored to have been seen on the grounds by visitors to the Lighthouse and numerous pictures have been taken of a woman in white with long dark hair at the top of the Lighthouse. Joseph is often thought to be one of the possible inhabitants seen as a shadow figure in the Lighthouse.
Another possible spirit is Dr. Allan Ballard, the previous owner before the state took control. It is said upon hearing the low price offered he replied: "I will never leave this property."
There are numerous stories of playful spirits and children's voices as well as wet footprints in the Keepers' House. These could be the spirits of the two young girls who drowned in the accident.
The smell of cigar smoke in the Keepers House is sometimes attributed to William Harn and other times Peter Rasmussen. Both men could also be the figure captured on film by the Ghost Hunters or it could be William Russel, the first keeper who is seen standing to the right in this photo.
Our Findings:
While we did not do a full investigation we did take lots of photos and I looked around with my Seek Thermal but did not see anything strange. We did take this awesome photo which shows the shadow of the Lighthouse cast on the overcast night sky, not paranormal but very cool looking.
And while we were at the top about to come down we both heard a male voice despite the fact that at the time there was only us and one employee who was female in the Lighthouse.
The Huguenot, Protestant Cemetery, and Tolomato, Catholic Cemetery contain graves of some of the earliest residents of St. Augustine including several of the Lighthouse Keepers. Both are only open one Saturday a month so we know we will be making at least two more trips to St. Augustine to see those locations. Each time we plan to explore the Lighthouse and the city more.
Johann Albert Lotz was born in 1820 in Germany where he worked as a master craftsman woodworker. In 1848 Johann moved to the United States, first stopping in New Orleans where he met his wife Margaretha. Shortly after that they moved to Franklin TN and bought a small plat of land from Fountain Branch Carter. There Johann built his showcase home. The house is two stories and features four large columns in the front reflecting the Greek revival style. Inside he built three fireplaces of varying degrees of woodworking to show his skill. He also built a magnificent walnut railing on the staircase with the first post being a piano leg. On the top he carved his name and the year. Everything from the cabinetry and furniture in the home could be used to show potential clients his range of skill.
Johann and Margaretha had five children of their own Paul, Augustus, Matilda, Julius, and Julian. Also living in the home were Margaretha's two children from a previous marriage, Joseph and Amelia. It's a beautiful home and location sadly the family would not be able to enjoy it properly. Years later on April 12th, 1861 the American Civil War began and the Lotz house would be at the center of one of the bloodiest battles.
Before the battle Julius and Julian passed away from either sickness, drowning, or possibly poison by playing in a creek that had been contaminated. Sources are unsure but I believe they were 3 or 4 years old.
The Union army under the command of Major General John Schofield arrived in Franklin around 4:30am on November 30th. They began setting up their position with their backs to the Harpeth River while repairs were done to the bridges that would allow them to cross and continue north to Nashville. They had been moving all night as they tried to reach Nashville before Confederate General John Bell Hood could cut them off from the 30,000 reinforcements that Major General George Thomas had waiting in Nashville. Due to over confidence and a failure of command or orders being followed (it is unclear) the Union army was able to pass by Confederate troops at Columbia and Spring Hill. This set up the two sides for a meeting 12 miles further at Franklin.
On the morning of the battle the family woke to discover thousands of Union troops. The river however was impassible at the time because of recent rain fall and they could not cross until repairs were done to bridges. With no choice the soldiers began fortifying their position and preparing for battle with over 20,000 Confederate troops. The Carter family, hurriedly sent a message for the Lotz family to come to their home and shelter in the cellar.
Almost 12 hours after the Union troops had arrived in Franklin Hood and his army also arrived in Franklin. Some say Hood was angry at his commanders and troops for allowing the Union to pass in the night and so ordered his men to battle immediately. Others say it was not anger but determination to prevent the joining of two large union forces from meeting in Nashville. Either way this would start one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War sometimes referred to as the Gettysburg of the West.
At some point the Confederates broke through the Union line and brutal hand to hand combat began around the Lotz and Carter Houses and gardens. The Union troops were able to hold their defenses and by 11pm both sides were exhausted. Hood and his men pulled back to regroup and rest. Schofield and the Union took this chance to continue their march to Nashville. Technically that left Franklin in Confederate control but it was not a victory. The Confederate side had 6,252 casualties with 1,750 killed. Among them were six of Hood's Generals one of which was Patrick Cleburne who was arguably one of the best division commander's on either side and today has a small park just a block from the Lotz House named for him.
This was the most exciting investigation we have had so far. We left knowing we had good communication and probably one of the best S-Box interactions we will ever have. But beyond the evidence we collected one thing that stands out in our mind is how much the staff and especially Thomas Cartwright love and care for the spirits. It was evident in every interaction Thomas had whether it was the others using dowsing rods trying to communicate with Eula Lee Carothers or with Mark using his GeoPort.
While we waited for the whole group to arrive Meg and I split up and began taking photos inside the home. Meg went upstairs and was taking a series of photos in the "red room". In her fourth photo a figure can be seen in the back of the mirror. In the following video I go through the photos and then attach the real time audio recording.
Later in the night one of the Lotz House employees told us that there are numerous reports of seeing soldiers in that mirror.
After Thomas gave a history and tour of the home we began investigating. I left stationary cameras in the downstairs gift shop, the stairwell, and the upstairs "red room." With those areas covered we went upstairs to the "children's bedroom." There we used our EMF detector to try and communicate with any spirits present.
Every investigation before this we would leave and be like "nothing much happened but we will listen to the recorders and see what we got." Not this one! We had three of the best S-Box interactions we have ever seen! Really I can't see how they can get much better. To explain what we were doing our S-Box or Spirit Box sweeps very quickly through radio stations so that words of sentences heard are across multiple stations. Meg was listening to the S-Box with noise cancelling headphones so that she could not hear my questions. At one point in this first session I thought we were communicating with several Civil War soldiers. I asked what other battles they had been in and after a few moments Meg listed three cities that also had battles. I asked what state they were from and a few moments later she said a state. She couldn't hear me and I was floored by how accurate the responses were. It took every bit of constraint to not stop and tell her how awesome this was going. I uploaded the whole S-Box session on youtube as well as a short version where I took out the long pauses between questions because I realize some people don't have 20+ minutes.
Full version:
Short version:
After investigating in a few other rooms we returned to the bedroom where we had such a great S-Box session and tried again. This also did not disappoint. This session was again quite long so I have condensed it in this video. One of the high points of this one was when I asked the soldier if they were here as a hospital. They responded with the word "ether" and then when I asked about their injury they answered "foot" and "they took it". Meg also had the word "sick." Also she heard the phrase "General Hood Killed us." Now before the battle the Union troops moved through the night past where the Confederate army was and were spotted by scouts. According to some accounts Hood says he gave a command to attack but others said no command was given. As I said above overall the battle was a loss and the army of the TN never fully recovered. We also got responses asking for a priest which may have been from a soldier named Willard Tolliver who the staff has identified even researching to find what unit he may have served in.
S-Box Session 2:
Speaking of Hood we also heard a response on the GeoPort that a different group had brought that was possibly about General Hood:
We had a third S-Box session but this time it was at the end of the night and most everyone else had stopped investigating so we played the S-Box out loud since it would not interfere with other investigations and we had several other people in the room with us investigating.
We also made contact with past residents of the house. We were upstairs trying to reach out to Johann Lotz and we received an answer from the Geoport:
And finally in this compilation we possibly made contact with Thomas Carothers.
Since we were making contact with soldiers Meghan decided to read an A.E. Housman poem about soldiers.
Overall this was an amazing experience that has us excited to return. When talking about the paranormal I often say I know I will never have any evidence that will convince a skeptic but this maybe the closest I can possibly come with the photo and S-Box sessions.
Another reason we love the home though was, again, the staff. Everyone we met not only loved the location but they respect and care so much for the spirits that still reside there. I think that helps foster communication.
After Thanksgiving passed I started putting up decorations for Christmas including our 6 foot tall snowman that Meg had named George last year when we bought him. It was a Friday and by the time it got dark I had a few decorations up but I had started late so wasn't finished. Nevertheless I plugged them in and let them light up the night. This picture is from last year but it is pretty true to where George was located again. He was at the end of the rocks just 10 feet or so from my front porch. The plan was to collect snowmen slowly and put them on the right side of the house.
It was a warm night so I had the door that leads to the second floor porch open because Tennessee weather is ever changing and I wanted to enjoy the unseasonable temperature as much as possible. At around 2am I woke to a loud banging noise like something being thrown into the bed of a truck. I jumped up and looked out the door before putting on my glasses. Parked in front of my neighbor's house was a pickup truck and I couldn't see what was in it but the bed looked very full. I moved away from the door and grabbed my phone to call the police as I went downstairs to my garage door. While on the phone with the dispatcher I gave my info and what I could about the truck including that the bed looked full and I heard banging like things being thrown in it. I also said I would be home and willing to speak with an officer. Looking out my garage door I could see the truck was gone so I went outside. I walked toward the street in front of my house and then turned back to look at my house and that was when I realized that George was gone. What I had seen in the back of the truck was most likely our tinseled snowman. I immediately posted on the neighborhood Facebook page and NextDoor.
Then I sat on my front steps waiting for an officer to come. I would learn the next day that at least two other neighbors had decorations stolen. I waited for almost an hour before finally going back to bed. A little while later a sheriff drove around the neighborhood but did not call me or stop by the house. Saturday morning I called our non-emergency number and reported the actual theft of the snowman. Sadly he was never found.
But for about a week (well and even now but in a different way) the theft of George became a focus. At the time I drove up and down highway 24 after people said they saw the snowman on the side of the highway. I was hoping he had blown out of the truck and maybe I would find him tucked into the tree line or something. I posted on a few neighborhood Facebook pages and responded to people on NextDoor. I was very much obsessed and for good reason. First George was expensive. He was a solid 8 hours of work to earn the money to buy a 6 foot tall tinsel snowman. I had to work an entire day to buy what someone stole in under five minutes. Second whoever stole him came right up to my house to grab him. They were within 10 feet of my house and 20 feet of my door. And three Meg, who was still upstairs overheard them yell/laughing "they are going to have a Merry Christmas" so they were callous. I talked to anybody who would listen about this theft. I was upset.
Was it worth getting so upset over... maybe not. It was, after all, just a decoration and neither I nor Meg were hurt. I started thinking myself down questioning why I was so upset. I imagined that people reading the posts and responses would think it is silly (#firstworldproblems). It was just a decoration. And that some reading it, maybe some reading this would think "I wish my biggest problem was a stolen Christmas decoration." But here is the thing I realized. It wasn't. But that didn't make it not important. And it wasn't my biggest problem, not even close, but it felt like the most unnecessary and it also felt like one I could solve. Because I couldn't solve my biggest problems. There was nothing I could do for those. I can do my best to mitigate my biggest problems and not let them control my life but I can't solve them. But this one I felt like I could and I should be able to solve it. I felt like I could do something about it. Like drive up and down the highway looking for George.
And then I thought of this meme which has become one of my favorite and a go to for understanding different mindsets and events.
I saw this on Facebook and unfortunately I don't remember where to properly credit it.
I think my reason for posting this and writing this is just to say "be kind" you don't know what someone else is going through. What may seem insignificant could mean the world to a different person.
When we first decided to give paranormal investigations a try one of the first locations we went to was Waverly Hills Sanatorium. We hoped our second visit would be a private investigation that would allow us to investigate the building alone. However we decided to return for another public investigation to become more familiar with the layout and make a plan for our future private investigation. The first two hours of the night was a detailed tour. The whole group was split in half and we were in the group that started at the morgue. Our tour was given by Jason and Josh. As we walked around the building they shared stories of paranormal accounts, history, and their own experiments and experiences. It was a great tour that gave us a lot of information about the building and those who still reside there. Jason seemed to care deeply for the residents which showed through the stories he told. Josh offered his help to the group and shared his current experiments and different plans that he had to investigate the building. He invited anyone to take part in his experiments.
We had some specific plans and as soon as the tour ended we got to work. We walked along the first floor to the morgue where Meg slid on to one of the storage tables.
As I was setting up the stationary camera another group had wandered to the morgue. One jokingly said "Are you going to lock us in" to the tour guide and while he answered we hear another voice say "Yes"
Once Meg was settled I left to walk down the entire length of the body chute. Let me tell you that is a walk I think I only need to make once. The passage way has steps on one side and a ramp on the other. Staff could walk back and forth on the steps and use the ramp to move a cart back and forth with supplies or deceased patients. Walking down the chute was fine except for one moment when I stepped into a giant spider web. Coming back up the chute is no joke. I tried to walk on the ramp for a bit because I thought it would be better then tackling the steps again in total darkness. The ramp was slippery and as I walked it felt like I was being pushed backwards and towards the wall. And that wasn't anything paranormal it was just the slant and grade of the ramp. Overall the walk was uneventful except for when I walked right in to the before mentioned giant spider web.
Another area we planned to visit was the fifth floor. Half that floor served as the children's ward with a playground on the roof. The first time we visited Meghan had read a children's story and we planned on reading another story by the same author. Meg settled down with our light up catballs that we first used at the Lotz house in front of her.
At one point while Meg was reading a small light appeared next to her knee and then faded away which I will have at the end of the blog in a compilation video.
I started taking a video of her reading but then moved on to explore the rest of the floor. The fifth floor is one of the most visited floors because of room 502. There are many different theories about what happened outside that room and on that floor. In 1933 a nurse was found hanging from a light fixture and many questions still continue today. When we were first here we had an EVP, Electronic Voice Phenomena, that said "hanged". This time looking back at my photos taken with my IR camera I believe I have a figure looking back through the window into the area. I had taken two photos in a row.
Photo 1:
Photo 2:
Close up:
The night was a clear night so Meg left her camera taking a picture of the stars while she read the story.
The rest of the night was going to be simple. We would walk each floor twice first by walking up the solarium and then back through the dark center hall. It was on the fourth floor that Jason's tour really had its biggest impact on me. We were all stopped at the stairwell looking down the hall and you could see the shadows moving back and forth across the hall. Now the shadows in Waverly are very active and there are good reasons why people so often report seeing shadow figures... they do interact with you. Jason told a story about how after Waverly had closed a geriatric hospital had been opened up and there was terrible abuse and neglect. During a visit in 1981 a fire marshal mistakenly exited the elevator on the fourth floor, the building was only cleared for occupancy up to the third floor. There the marshal found "the forgotten ones" as Jason called them. As we watched their shadows move back and forth Jason told us he promised to tell that story to every tour and that they would not be forgotten again. As we listened back to our recorders we think we have an EVP from that hall.
A few minutes later we had another EVP that sounded different on both recorders. In this video I play one recorder, then the other, and finally both at the same time with the audio over each other.
With each investigation I feel like we really get to delve in to different theories about hauntings and the history of locations. With this investigation the idea of Egregores kept coming to mind. It was fresh on our mind because shortly before we went Meg had been reading a magazine article with Adam Berry and Amy Bruni commenting on the subject. The theory of the Egreore is that by continually telling the same story it can actually be brought into existence. For example one of the most popular "ghosts" of Waverly is a young boy named Timmy who is said to play with the many balls that can be found throughout the building. While there may very well have been a boy named Timmy at some point there were hundreds of children that lived at Waverly at one point or another. Is the ghost child really named Timmy, maybe? Or is Timmy a creation of the story telling.
There were several moments were we tried to empathize with the patients and medical professionals who lived and worked at Waverly. One way was acknowledging that we have names like Timmy or Lois Higgs who people will go and ask for them but that there are many others who we don't know the names of that lived and died at Waverly.
At the end of the night we stopped across from where the old cafeteria was and I read a poem by Robert Frost called Desert Places. There we think we have another EVP.
For more clips (including the light while Meg was reading) watch this compilation.
Going through evidence review is long and boring at times. It involves listening back to hours of recordings or just watching videos of nothing happening. But finding an EVP or something strange in a video is worth it. Also it is worth it to know that we are being as thorough as possible. We both carry recorders so that we can verify what we hear on one with the other. In one instance it really paid out. While listening to Meg's recorder we thought we had an intelligent answer; however listening to mine we heard the same sound and it was me going through my bag.
Growing up Meg and I had a lot of strange unexplained experiences and stories. As a result when we moved to TN we decided to try our hand at Paranormal Investigations. So first we went to the Crescent Hotel in Arkansas and Waverly Hills in Louisville.
Both were fantastic experiences so we added some equipment and went out to Shiloh and Vicksburg.
Having had success and really enjoying the investigations we decided that we were going to continue and take a step up by going to a location that we could really deep dive in. So we booked a night at a house in Hartford City, Indiana which had been featured in the tv show Paranormal Lockdown. The episode had really stuck in our minds and the location was very intriguing. So we began researching the home and taking the stories we had heard and evidence we had seen from other investigators and matching them with newspapers and public/historic records.
Afterwards we looked for local groups that might be willing to take new members but didn't have much luck.
Then we booked two tickets to a public investigation at Historic and Haunted Octagon Hall in Franklin Kentucky. There we were talking with a couple who had shirts for Paducah Paranormal. We asked about how they found and joined a group and they said they didn't they just made their own. So we took their advice and decided to make our own group.
The name Travelers made perfect sense. We love road trips and exploring different locations. Not only that but with a Paranormal Investigation we are talking about interacting with the spirits who lived in the past. Travelers are looking for connections and experiences with the world around them with an openness and curiosity for the world. And that is what we hope to do as we figuratively travel through place and time.
We know that we will never have a video, picture, or recording that will convince a skeptic but that isn't our goal. Our goal is to learn about the people who lived before us and the locations they visited. I want to understand how or why we are able to communicate with them and what was life like for them.
Now that we had a name and a goal next we needed a symbol. Meg took care of that combining our Irish and Italian heritage and her love of folklore. She started with the Ash Tree, the tree of Life in Norse Mythology. Under the Ash Tree is Pulcinella a figure of duality in Italian folklore. He is holding a red pepper to ward off the evil eye in one hand and a lucky four leaf clover in the other. At his feet is a hedgehog which symbolizes good luck and a guide. Finally in the bark of the tree are a series of numbers. The numbers are from smorfia the use of number analysis in dreams to tell the future and, very commonly in Naples, play the lotto. The first number is 85 which stands for the souls in purgatory, next 48 is the dead man who speaks, and finally we wanted to put 42 as a nod to Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy but it also means coffee which really is perfect because after an all night investigation coffee is the first thing I want.
With our name and symbol ready we started the year off by going to a Haunted Playground and Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama.
One day we didn't have plans so we went to Historic Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Nashville to walk around and carry recorders and take some photos of the old cemetery.
Our first big investigation this year was in Independence, Missouri when we traveled to the Vaile Mansion. Which was the first time I filled out paperwork under the group name Travelers.
We also stopped at a small cemetery in Hopkinsville to visit the grave of Edgar Cayce.
While talking to a friend who has a podcast called Ed DIE Horror and Paranormal Podcast he pointed out that starting up social media would be easier now rather than later. So that felt like the next logical step and we did just that.
In October 0f 2024 we put out our top 31 pieces of paranormal evidence so if you want to see the best we have collected and what we are all about here is a link to that video.
So if you are interested in the paranormal and the links to my past blog posts provided you some entertainment please like, follow, and subscribe. My goal right now is to get 100 youtube subscribers so that I will be able to change the URL to something easier to remember and closer to our group name.
Currently we are doing evidence review for our return visit to Wavery Hills. We also have recordings and video from the Historic Lotz House in Franklin, TN, a return to the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and the Thomas House in Red Boiling Springs, TN. So stay tuned for more.
While looking up things to do in Hopkinsville, Kentucky I saw the number three listed spot was the gravesite of Edgar Cayce. That lead me to reading about the "sleeping prophet" and taking a quick trip to Riverside Cemetery. The cemetery is a beautiful cemetery with naturally flowing paths and various beautiful large trees. We saw graves dating back to the early 1800s. While some graves were broken or fallen over the cemetery is clearly well cared for unfortunately stones get broken due to age, storms, or other reasons.
Edgar Cayce was born in Hopkinsville on March 18, 1877 to farmers Elizabeth and Leslie Cayce. His abilities first manifested when he was a child. Reportedly he saw his deceased Grandfather as a translucent figure. He also saw the winged image of an angel. He also had an ability to recall to memory entire pages from books after sleeping with his head on them. He is considered by many to be one of the founders of New Age thought. The majority of his fame and success came when he would have visions while sleeping. With little information about a person he would fall asleep and wake with answers to medical concerns or other questions.
We left a recorder at Edgar's grave while we explored the cemetery.
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Rules of the Road trip - 3 highways/directions for 2 hours each and then stop and see where we are and what is there to see/do there.
In February of 2020 we had played this road trip game before: where were they going.
We were dog sitting our Uncle's dog so we loaded her and Gypsy Rover into the car.
We left late at a little after 11am. First we drove to Nashville to pick our first highway. Being near Nashville is a major benefit because we have three major highways that circle the city: I-24, I-40, and I-65. A quick look at a weather map told us that we wanted to aim south and west, we would drive through rain perhaps but it didn't look consistent. So we started on I-40 west towards Memphis. We turned onto I-40 at 11:07am near mile marker 207. Now I have driven this route before so I had an idea that we would end up somewhere near the exits for Jackson because we may not do research before hand but at this point we have been on a lot of road trips and especially in our local area we know pretty well the highways and directions to where we are going. I knew two things for sure on this trip: I didn't want to end up somewhere we had already been and I didn't want to need to go near the Arkansas and Tennessee State line because the Hernando de Soto Bridge which crosses the Mississippi River was closed in May due to cracking in the main support and has caused all traffic to be switched to I-55 to cross the river.
At 1:04 we got off I-40 at exit 87 and jumped on 70 west. The highway was heading south when we first got on it and so we figured it would continue south west however it quickly took a u-turn and began heading north back to I-40. Because of the weather around the area south was better so at 1:17 we yielded 70s remaining time to US45S which branched off of 70 just before it's hook back north.
As we were driving in Jackson we passed a historical marker for "Big Maybelle," Mabel Louise Smith. She was born in Jackson on May 1st, 1924 and began singing Rhythm and Blues professionally at 14. She recorded "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" in 1955 two years before the Jerry Lee Lewis version would become the definitive version. But Lewis credited Maybelle's version as an influence for his. Here is one of her early songs released in 1953.
We also passed through "Historic Bemis." At one point it was a company town in Madison County centered around cotton mill owned by Judson Moss Bemis. Under the direction of his son Albert Farwell Bemis several residential neighborhoods were planned out as well as services for the residents. The process started around 1900 and by 1926 there were Bemis schools, post office, The Bemis United Methodist Church, a YMCA, and an 850 seat auditorium. Around 1965 the company began selling off bits of the town including the homes with the owners being offered financing from the company and within a decade most of the town was sold. In 1977 the town was annexed by Jackson and while there is a Bemis Historic District listed on the National Historic Register the mill and many other buildings have been taken down.
As we continued south we switched stations on the radio to try and avoid commercials and eventually had settled on a local station WFHU 91.5 The Lion. The car display gave a request phone number but when Meg tried to call to request "Greyhound" by Harry Chapin, a superb road trip song, the phone just rang. We tried to text the number but I got a reject response because it was a land line. At one point the DJ began talking about a local shop called Sweetly Ever After that was closing later this month as the owner was retiring to spend more time with her Grandchildren. He urged listeners to check out the shop while they still had a chance. Well, we felt like since we were in the area we should check it out and entered the address. Incredibly it was on our way just about seven minutes ahead on our left. Unfortunately when we arrived the shop was closed. The owner is counting down her days to a happy retirement and the shop is currently open on Thursdays and Fridays. To bad for us because every review I have looked up says the cupcakes are the best. Looking at the company Facebook page it appears that someone is purchasing the business so hopefully the same great desserts will be served going forward under new owners. Maybe some day we will be in the Henderson TN area again and get to try it for ourselves.
For more road tripping and Harry Chapin here is a blog post from last year. Story of a life
We passed a sign for Pinson Mounds State Archaeological Park. Now to stop there would have been way too long of a stop but it is one of those locations we can note to return to at a later date. The site is 400 acres and features at least 30 mounds built between 100-300AD.
As we crossed into Chester county the highway became the "Rockabilly Highway" named for the Rockabilly music. The musical style became popular in the 50s and was a combination of country and western with rhythm and blues and is considered the start of rock music. The whole area is rich in that musical history.
Eventually we were reaching Tupelo and we had a decision to make because we were almost at the end of two hours we could take 22 however one direction would bring us to Memphis and the other direction would bring us to Birmingham, both places we had been already. However just three minutes later was 278 west. We opted for the latter highway and turned west towards a town we had never heard of before.... Clarksdale.
As we drove down 278 we crossed over the Tallahatchie River. Immediately the song "Ode to Billie Joe," though it took me a few minutes to think of the title, came to mind. The song is a haunting tune with a few unanswered questions in it. Bobbie Gentry described the song as an example of "unconscious cruelty" and it definitely shows a disconnect of insight into emotions of others.
As we approached our destination we (well Meg) passed time by looking at the clouds and she saw Scooby Doo!
You see it right?
Clarksdale is the county seat of Coahoma County. For thousands of years the Choctaw and Chickasaw people lived in the area until the 1830 Indian Removal Act when they were forced away from their ancestral home to Oklahoma. In 1848 John Clark started a timber business and a trading post. In 1879 the Louisville, New Orleans, and Texas Railway was built through the town and in 1882 the town was incorporated. By 1920 The Illinois Central Railroad also passed through Clarksdale. Many African Americans would use that line to move north to Chicago and other areas looking for better economic opportunities and looking to escape violence and racism like Jim Crowe laws. This movement would become known as the Great Northward Migration which saw six million African Americans move from the south to northern and western cities like Chicago, New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
Martin Luther King Jr would visit Clarksdale twice first on May 29, 1958 for a meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1962 he returned and Clarksdale was the first stop on a tour of many towns in the region.
The town has also played a large role in the history of blues. Ike Turner was born in Clarksdale and began his musical career there. Duke Ellington, Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Nighthawk, and Ike Turner all stayed at the Riverside Hotel. Ike reportedly wrote Rocket 88 in room 7.
It is also said that at the Crossroads in Clarksdale Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to become the greatest guitarist and blues musician to ever live.
For some modern day music Morgan Freeman owns a nightclub in town called Ground Zero, recognizing Clarksdale as ground zero of blues.
Also of interest to us was the Carnegie Library in Clarksdale. Between 1883 and 1929 over 2,500 libraries were built with donations from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
After driving around Clarksdale we began heading home. We hadn't eaten since breakfast which was awesome because it was zucchini and eggs with the zucchini from our garden and potatoes also from my garden but it was now almost six and we were hungry. The best route home took us up towards Memphis so we looked up breweries there and settled on Ghost River Brewing because they had an awesome symbol and were dog friendly.
They didn't serve food but they did have a food truck: Gandy's Grub Hub we split a quesadilla and ordered our own burgers before splitting an order of fried twinkies.
The brewery was a nice spot with a large outdoor area, private room, yard games, and live music. They did not have flights so we read the descriptions and each ordered a couple of beers. Our favorite was the Grind-N-Shine cream ale which we brought home a crowler of for later. What really sold us on the brewery though was when Meg noticed a shirt behind the bar that said "Made to Wander." What a great slogan to describe the road trip and the whole day.
