Local Bigfoot Hunter on HIstory Channel

Don Keating, a long-time local Bigfoot hunter will be part of The History Channels "Monster Quest" which will air June 19th. The following is taken from The Times Reporter newspaper:

By Joe Mizer
The Times-Reporter
Posted Jun 11, 2008 @ 12:23 PM

Don Keating of Cambridge, a former Newcomerstown resident and the originator of the Eastern Ohio Bigfoot Investigation Center, will be featured on next week’s episode of the History Channel’s “MonsterQuest” miniseries.

The episode, to be broadcast next Wednesday at 9 p.m., is titled “Ohio Grassman.” The program will be repeated June 19 at 1 a.m. History Channel is seen on cable Channel 24.

The History Channel’s Web site describes the Grassman as “a bogeyman that has terrified local children for over a century.” And, according to stories and sightings, is similar to a Bigfoot, but builds strange nests and has been known to attack.

Keating said he was first contacted about being involved with the “MonsterQuest” production in mid-February. He said one of the program’s producers and a cameraman were in Ohio from late February to early March “shooting interviews and conducting day and night research.”

Keating was interviewed for several different parts of the show, as were residents of Noble County, Canton and Sunbury, the latter who claim to have sighted a Bigfoot at Salt Fork State Park near Cambridge in late December 2006.

He said he’s not sure how much of his interviews and nighttime research will be included in the show, but estimates it will be “a good bit.”

Denise and I attended one of his seminars a few years ago and found it very interesting. I have always had a fondness for the phenomenon know as Bigfoot. Especially since I had my own experience back in 1997 while living outside of Kent.

Hey, paranormal doesn't always just mean ghosts ;-)

Some possible pictures of evidence from the Ghost Walk

The PERVS might have picked up some interesting pictures from our ghost walk on Saturday, June 7, 2008. These might be possible pictures of evidence but we shall leave that up to the viewer. Please take a look and let us know what you might think.

On one part of the tour we stopped at an area near a train line. The story of the area is a man had killed himself by shooting himself in the heart after being rebuked by a woman he was in love with. Here are few pictures taken in that area.
In the first picture you see a red mist rising off the grass. Perhaps something...not sure. We do know that a different man in the group also had the red mist in one of his pictures too.

This picture was taken immediately after the rising mist not even one second later. As you can see here the red mist seems to be hovering over the ground. This picture below is of the train tracks near where the man had killed himself. This seemed a bit odd. Just like the previous pictures, a picture was taken right after and showed nothing.

The picture that really intrigued us after it was taken was the one below. This was taken in a pioneer cemetery. There are founding city members and children buried here. There are also many unmarked graves and possibly unknown graves here. At first we thought we had captured something. We're still not sure. We do know that the camera shutter was open for 2 seconds. A lot of things can happen in that time. However, you can see that the woman on the right side is in focus but the boy on the left is not. We think perhaps he was moving and the camera might have taken multi pictures. This was taken with a digital camera. As for the middle the streak in the middle might be a line of energy or could be a light source. The boy on the left did have a candle in a lantern on the ground but was not moved. The other small light you see in the background might be a different source of energy. The light appears to be coming from the cemetery. You can also see what looks like two outlines of light gray behind the light streak. If you look you will see what appears to be two silhouette. Evidence? Not sure but it is intriguing.

Zoar Analysis Report

Zoar Ghost Hunt, April 26, 2008

Analysis report

BACKGROUND:

The town of Zoar, located in the Tuscarawas Valley, was founded by a group of German Separatists in 1817. The spiritual leader of the group was Joseph Bimeler. When they first settled, life was extremely hard for them, so they formed a communal-type society, in which every citizen contributed, and all food and clothing was shared. There were textile mills, farms, a tin shop, a cooper, iron foundries and several stores. They made money by contracting to dig a seven mile stretch of the canal, which enabled them to pay off their debts early on. Over time, outside influences, such as guests at the hotel, worked to eventually have the communal Zoar disbanded, and citizens were each given a piece of land as their own. Today, the Ohio Historical Society operates a portion of the town as a historic site. A number of the Zoarite buildings are restored and are open to the public.

LOCATION: Tin Shop
TEAM: Andy, Denise, Jen, Eric
EVIDENCE: One EVP and personal experiences
ACTIVITY LEVEL: Low
METHODOLOGY:First impressions- group was optimistic, this was our first hunt, first group to enter Tin Shop this evening. Group spent approximately 20 minutes here. Took digital photo, video, audio.

Experiences: Jennifer got the impression of a tall, thin, gaunt man, very stern but not mean, with dark hair and beard, and he lived on the second floor. Jen also heard distinctive ‘knock’ coming from upstairs, which is empty.

EVP: You will hear a car driving by, shortly thereafter a strange sound which the group describes as a small child vocalizing. No children were in vicinity.
Click here for the EVP


LOCATION: Bakery
TEAM: Andy, Denise, Jen, Eric
EVIDENCE: None
ACTIVITY LEVEL: Low
METHODOLOGY:First impressions: too much outside noise, not promising, others investigating. Group spent approximately half an hour to forty-five minutes, between upstairs and downstairs.

Digital photos, video, audio showed nothing.

Experiences: Jennifer got impression of tall, robust, sturdy, pleasantly happy woman here. (Story was told of woman named Mary, who died of cancer here; vials of morphine have been found in the walls. This does not go along with the impression that Jen received.)


LOCATION: Number One House
TEAM: Andy, Eric
EVIDENCE: Multiple EVP’s, personal experience
ACTIVITY LEVEL: Medium
METHODOLOGY:First impressions: many others investigating, lots of noise. Eric and Andy investigated basement of Number One House. Digital photos and video showed nothing. K2 meter was also used. They had several EVP’s and personal experiences, and modest K2 readings. Andy described having ‘had an eerie feeling’, brushing against something, took photos but nothing appeared. Eric attempted to communicate with an entity and picked up two EVP’s as a result.

EVP: Two EVP’s occur in short order. The first sounds like a hard soled boot taking two steps across the stone floor. The second happens about a minute after the first and Eric makes mention of all the noise upstairs sounding like a “herd of water buffalo”. The voice sounds as though it may respond by saying “mm hmm”, as in agreement.
Click here for the EVP


LOCATION: Number One House landing
TEAM: Jen, Denise, Andy, and Eric
EVIDENCE: K2 Meter, Video camera, audio, and EVP
ACTIVITY LEVEL: High
METHODOLOGY:First impressions- possible activity on the first floor landing next to clothing exhibit. Eric, Andy, Denise, and Jennifer investigated the first floor landing after being told someone felt they were ‘pushed’. Audio from digital recorder and audio from the video both record an EVP of a woman’s voice after spikes on the K2 meter.

EVP: You hear Denise ask, “Can you tell us your name?” You then hear a very clear voice answer, “Mary Grace.”
Click here for the EVP


LOCATION: Number One House Attic
TEAM: Eric and Andy
EVIDENCE: Third Person and First Person Experience
ACTIVITY LEVEL: Debatable
METHODOLOGY: Eric and Andy went to the attic and witnessed a woman having a personal experience with a ghost child. Digital photos, audio recorders, and videotape proved inconclusive. The woman having the experience was visibly upset and sad. She claimed to have contact with a sickly little boy who was upset with all the noise and people in the house that night.


LOCATION: Magazine basement (large)
TEAM: Andy and Eric
EVIDENCE: EVP
ACTIVITY LEVEL: Low
METHODOLOGY: Andrew and Eric visited this stone basement together. After spending about 20 minutes of investigating, the team turned up one EVP. Digital photos and digital video turned up negative. A K2 meter turned up modest results and K2 activity did coincide with the EVP. No team member had a personal experience.

EVP: Eric asks the questions while Andy is taking photos. Eric asked the entity if it was a child and the entity responded with a distinct, though very soft “yes”. Speakers need to be up for this one.
Click here for the EVP


LOCATION: Magazine basement (small)
TEAM: Denise and Jen
EVIDENCE: Personal experience, possible EVP
ACTIVITY LEVEL: High
METHODOLOGY: Jen and Denise went into the lowest part of this basement. As they were going around the corner down the stairs, Denise saw a dark shadow go around the corner in front of them. Tried to recreate this shadow by going back up and down several times, but were unable to recreate. Immediately upon following shadow down into deepest part of basement, Denise felt very uncomfortable. Audio recorder used, possible EVP of a heavy sigh into microphone. No camera was present at this time. Jen tried EVP work, with humming. When humming would stop, EMF would spike, as if to prod her to keep humming. Denise felt a sudden tug on hair at this time. EMF spikes continued for approximately 10-15 minutes.
Click here for the EVP


LOCATION: Magazine basement (large)
TEAM: Andy, Denise, Eric, Jen
EVIDENCE: Equipment malfunction, K2 readings very active.
ACTIVITY: Medium
METHODOLOGY: Team went back into part of basement where Andy and Eric got the “Yes” EVP, almost full battery went suddenly dead, K2 readings spiking very high, seemingly in answer to questions. No EVP’s caught, but Eric felt that he heard ‘something’ behind him at one point. Questions ‘answered’ seemed to be that it was a younger, married, male entity.


FINAL IMPRESSIONS:Overall, too many people involved in hunt to be able to investigate accurately. Too much outside noise, and people moving around. We had many personal experiences, but it was noted nothing happened in the Number One House until Jen picked up a quartz crystal and started carrying it around. At the end of the evening, we spoke to one of the Zoar tour guides and asked if she knew anything about the tin-smith, and she told us she had seen pictures of the gentlemen. Her description of the pictures matched almost exactly to Jen’s earlier impressions of the man who lived there. The guide also told us the man was married and had 7 or 8 children, and did, in fact, live in the upstairs of the tin-shop, as Jen had suggested earlier. We were pleasantly surprised to have been able to capture all of the EVP’s that we did, even with the large crowd that was there that night.

Special thanks goes out to our “Ghost Guide” of the evening, Sherri Brake-Recco of Haunted Heartland Tours, and her work with the Ohio Historical Society for arranging this hunt.

Prelude to the Ghost Walk in Canal Fulton

Spirits Rule At Warehouse On Canal

Canal Fulton is a quaint town with a ghostly past. SLIDESHOW: Tour Warehouse On the northern edge of downtown is an old warehouse on the canal. The three-story brick building dates back to 1906. It used to be a mortuary and funeral home. Now the building is home to an antique store, Let's Mango Tea Garden restaurant and a host of spirits.

Lester

The most prominent ghost is Lester. He once ran the mortuary and still likes to hang out there. One day, the owner, Margarita Roberts, was working in the office in the basement when she felt someone breathing on the back of her neck. There was no one there. She immediately ran upstairs. Some time later, a woman who did not know of her experience approached Margarita in the restaurant telling her that the man was sorry and didn’t mean to frighten her. He was only looking over her shoulder to see what she was doing. Margarita said she was totally surprised, because she hadn’t told that story to anyone but her husband, Ken. She also said one day she was joking with a customer about Lester when she felt a slap on her face. At that point, she made a deal with Lester that she wouldn’t joke about him if he never touched her again. Now they have almost become buddies. Margarita said that he travels with her in her car. He likes to flicker the lights inside.

Sunshine

Ghost investigators have felt the presence of other spirits in the building. There is said to be a little black girl in the corner near the basement garage door. Sunshine tends to huddle in the corner trying to look small. She is very afraid and dates back to the Underground Railroad. Sunshine has a Virginia accent and appears to be waiting for her parents. It’s believed her mommy and daddy dropped her off their and never returned. She rocks back and forth while holding a rock in her hand, waiting to go home.

Elevator Spirit

Ken also told NewsNet5.com that there is a presence near the elevator in the basement. Many people have said that they felt as if they were being pulled into the elevator. The spirit has not yet been identified. That’s where you’ll find our live Web camera. Keep an eye on the camera and tell us if you see the spirit or maybe even Lester passing by. There are also reports of spiritual energy across from the elevator. This was the room where bodies were stored for the mortuary.

Third Floor Ghosts

Near the elevator shaft on the third floor is a narrow staircase. There appears to be repetitive loop or scene that has been impressed on this location. There was a fight at the top of the stairs between two men. A knife was involved and one man was killed. During the fight, a young girl fell down the stairs. A man tried to grab her ankle but was unable to stop the fall. A boy visiting the warehouse recently got upset when he was near the staircase. The presence of the girl falling really bothered him, Ken said. It is also believed that a worker who trying to help the girl jumped out of the window on the third floor. His spirit is still felt near the fifth window. In the northeast corner of the floor there supposedly is a woman looking out. It’s believed that she is waiting and looking out the window for someone to arrive. She tends to make people cry. Visitors who walk near the area are often overcome with emotion.

In The Restaurant

The basement and third-floor areas are only accessible by invitation or during a Ghost Tour and Dinner. But the restaurant is open during the daytime. At the entrance to the area is an upright piano. It is said to have a ghost hanging around it. One paranormal investigator identified a ghost dog in the restaurant. She stood petting him and later saw him perched on one of the table chairs. Whether you see or feel a ghost at the Warehouse on the Canal or not, there are no explanations for the noises and effects the owners and visitors have identified in this historic building.

credit:newsnet5

Rookie Mistakes

A post by Denise and Andy
Finally, the audio is being digitized for review from our April 26th Ghost Hunt of Zoar, Ohio. Yes, I realize that it's been several weeks since the event, but life gets in the way.

As we are sitting here listening to the audio that we captured on our digital audio recorder, one thing is clear. We're rookies. Sure, we've watched Ghost Hunters on Wednesday nights and may think in the back of our mind that, "this stuff is easy!" But let me tell you, it's tough. Here's some examples of things not to do.

1. First, digital recorders are great at one thing. Picking up sounds. All kinds of sounds. Even when you think you are being quiet in one area that you are investigating, sounds from another room come through almost as good as if you were standing next to the recorder. Also, when speaking with others in your group, speak in a normal voice, don't whisper. Whispers can be mistaken for EVP's. That is of course if you are asking questions in hope of a response. And if you are doing the interview process, put the recorder on a surface away from you and don't touch it. The slightest sounds from shuffling it around get picked up VERY easily.

2. As for video, if you think you are picking something up on another device like an EMF meter or thermometer, point the video camera at it! Watch the "Yes" video to see what I mean. The EMF meter was going off and I had the camera pointed somewhere else. Duh!

3. Wear soft shoes, like sneakers. Going over our audio is driving us crazy with all the clomping around we're doing.

4. If someone makes a noise, like bumps against something, drops something, any loud noise, document it on audio. There are many sounds like this when we're asking for signs, and now we have no way of knowing if it was one of us. For instance, say into your recorder, "That was Dewey tripping over his own feet." Sounds simple, but helps immensely.

5. Watch your breathing. I hear myself breathing like a marathon runner. Honestly, it's VERY sensitive.

6. When capturing the audio to a computer, remember to adjust your levels! The first time through the computer, the mic input in windows was turned all the way up and the volume on the digital recorder was up all the way too. So when listening back to the recording, EVERYTHING was distorted to the point that it was barely understandable! As I monitor the recording levels on the capture now, it appears to be within appropriate levels and not spiking in the red.

Okay, so that's it for now. Our advice is just practice. Go with the flow. Trial and error. That's why it's a hobby for us and not a Wednesday night hit television show for us. Not yet, at least.

Ghost Walk

The PERVS are going on a Ghost Walk in Canal Fulton! This weekend we will be looking for ghosts and having a good time. Hopefully we can come across some ghosties, spirits, or strange things. Here is hoping we can get some evidence up soon from Zoar, Ohio and from the Ghost Walk if we find some there.