Sunday, June 8, 2008

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.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Glad to have you all along with me at Zoar this past year.

Keep your fingers crossed for more dates there and at Schoenbrunn Village.

We posted your website and blog at www.HauntedHistory.net

Regards,
Sherri