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My First Blog Post

Introduction

Welcome to our website. We are affiliated with Western Slope Paranormal from Grand Junction, Colorado. We are interested in ghost stories from around the world, and do paranormal investigating locally. I am still figuring this website out, so it may be rough for a while, but hopefully it will be a good resource for anything paranormal. There is going to be a place for readers to share their stories, information on ghost walks, and more. Bear with me as I build this exciting website.

If you have a story to share or know of or operate a Ghost Tour, please share via email

Paranormal Fundraiser at the Haunted Elks Lodge

Western Slope is fortunate to be able to be connected to the historical Elks Lodge in Grand Junction Colorado. We are getting to know the history as well as the hauntings. The unliving residents are starting to know us and respond to us.

As an Elk myself, I have someone messing with me while at a meeting. A pin on my jacket lapel has never fallen off. It is securely fastened. It was removed from my jacket and placed on the floor.

When our team is there, we set up various pieces of equipment, such as melmeters, EMF detectors, led balls, to name a few. At least of the residents enjoys making the lights come on. They are also starting to show themselves as shadows. Unfortunately we still haven’t seen a full body apparition, which other Elk members see frequently. There is at least two men that have been seen.

We are visited by a man named Nick. His name comes up frequently on our Ghost Box. And there is a “dancing lady”, or so she is called, that resides in the attic. When our team member Trey is there, the perfume of this woman is also. She has an attraction to Trey.

We would like to invite the community to join us for an investigation Oct 29. It is an Elks Fundraiser and has been called fun and exciting. Join us for more stories, see the beautiful building, and if your a lucky, meet one of the resident ghosts. You will learn about the equipment we use and find out what it is like to be a paranormal investigator.

Details and payment is at the link:

https://ticketbud.com/events/a3993d5e-3936-11ed-ac6d-42010a71701e

The Headstone Under A House

Our team, Western Slope Paranormal, was asked to investigate a house in Montrose, . The owners were having what they felt was paranormal activity and were horrified when their electrician found a military headstone laying on the ground under their home.

Five of our team went to investigate. We were told by the owner that things would be misplaced and found in unusual places, they heard odd noises, and when he was sitting at his desk working, he often felt he was being watched.

The first thing we did was check out the headstone and get the name and dates. It was a standard white Veterans headstone and the veteran served in WWII. Then we walked around inside the home with the Electromagnetic Field Detector (EMF). What we discovered was that the EMF was pretty high near the desk and discovered the electric box was on the outside wall parallel to the desk. That would indicate to us that that may be the cause of his paranoia of being watched. High EMF can cause headaches, paranoia, nausea, etc. We also discovered a cemetery up the hill behind the house.

We set up inside the living area of the home with some of our standard equipment such as the EMF detector, digital recorders, video camera, digital cameras and decided to experiment with the flashlight test. (Spirits can sometimes manipulate the maglite and twist it off and on).

The atmosphere would change periodically, and it will feel like “someone” was checking in on us. We would get the occasional yes answer by getting the EMF detector to light up to red. Using intuition, a big part of being an investigator, we were getting the impression that it was different spirits checking in on us. Our answers were sometimes female, sometimes male. We were wondering if visitors were coming in from the cemetery, checking things out.

Two of our team members are veterans, so we began to discuss the Army. That is when all the detectors lit up bright and the flashlight came on. We were excited about the flashlight experiment because it was actually working. It would light up and dim off, on command. What we did discover is that the owner of the headstone was in the home and just wanted to be noticed. He was not evil and didn’t really mean to be scary but he was the previous owner of the home. His wife may have also been hanging around, and she could have been one of the visitors, but at the time, we didn’t know he had a wife and never even thought of talking to her.

As we were sitting quietly at one point, we heard a noise that wasn’t one of us. We figured out that “someone” had sat down on the drum stool in the room with us. We also heard noises in the kitchen but couldn’t discover what it was. We always take photos, and most of time nothing is captured on film. It is advisable to take at least a sequence of three to note changes if anything paranormal shows up. My sequence was 1. clear, 2. foggy, 3. a member was touched. In the third photo, it is shown that the meters were going off.

Unfortunately, we had no conversation on our recorders but all the other activity was pretty compelling.

After the investigation, we did some research on the man and the headstone. He was actually cremated so he was not buried under the house. Talking to a mortuary, we were told that the family may have been given the headstone and not knowing what to do with it, it was pushed under the house.

Western Slope Paranormal Meetup

Save the Date: 23 January (Sunday), 1:00. We will be having a meeting at The Dancing Moon B&B 568 34 Rd Clifton. Our agenda will be to discuss our function and accept applications from interested people. We are looking for tech support, librarian/record keeper, case manager, and help with tours, investigations, and fund raisers.

Check us out on Facebook at Western Slope Paranormal

Coaldale, Colorado

Coaldale, Colorado

Coaldale is a little community along the Arkansas River, between Salida and Canon City. It seems to be a hotbed for paranormal activity. According to stories that I have been told, two Indian tribes killed each other off in wars. Spirits of Indians and animals are reported to be seen walking through the walls of houses. There have also been reports of UFOs flying along the ridges of the mountains.

My parents rented several different houses there with the intention of buying a home eventually and living there permanently. Each home had its own oddity. I visited them several times while I was in the service. I wasn’t particularly comfortable in any of these houses and I didn’t like to be left alone. Actually, I never felt alone at all! I always felt like someone was watching me.

Their first house was nothing more than a fancy shack. It made a person dizzy because the floors had an odd slant. My father and brother occasionally would encounter the scent of cheap perfume, so strong that it smelled like a bottle was busted on the floor somewhere. The first time they smelled it, they searched the house thinking a cat knocked over a bottle of my mother’s perfume. My mother cannot wear perfume due to allergies, and they never did find the source.

The second house was newer and it was the summer home for some city people. My parents rented it for the winter, while they looked for a place to buy. There really are no stories with this house except for the mass amount of flies. I am not sure if there is anything about flies and the paranormal, but these were huge house flies beating themselves up against the windows in the dead of winter.

The third house was the most active in the paranormal sense. It was high in the hills with no neighbors near. The kitchen faucet would turn itself on quite frequently, but that could have been plumbing issues. Someone would knock on the door, and there would be no one there. One night my father was awaken by flashing lights and a car horn. He got up to find out that no one was around but his jeep was flashing and honking. This was before the automatic keys and panic buttons.

This house was sold to someone else, so they had to move once again, and found another trailer down the hill to rent. My brother decided to spend one last night in the house. He thought it would be great to have the house to himself and watch tv all night. After he fell asleep on the sofa, he was startled by some unusual noises. When he opened his eyes, a bright blue light was coming out of the fireplace towards him, and then would pull back before touching his face. This went on for a while and my brother told me he was too frightened to run away!

Footnote: I have recently been told that the old shack has been torn down. It seems one of the neighbors there now has been having odd things happen. He saw my aunt in town and asked if my parents had anything strange happen to them while living there. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t tell her what was happening to him.

SIVA Investigation, Private Home, Brandywine, WV

In Brandywine, West Virginia lived a man everyone called “Goosey”. According to some stories, he was cranky and very protective of his garden. The local children had to walk pass his garden and over a ridge to get to their one room school house. He would yell at them every day, “You better not step on my potatoes!”

In 1997, we purchased that plot of land, long after Goosey was gone. After a while, we began to wonder if he ever did leave.

Thanksgiving 1999, we moved into the double-wide trailer we had placed on the land. I loved my new home, but was never comfortable in it. When I was alone, I would be “antsy”. I would wander around looking for something, but never knowing what I was looking for. Then my daughters began to tell me stories. One told of a man with a deep voice standing at the end of her bed telling her to “Get out!”. She also told me of blue lights that would come out of her mirror at night. My other daughter told of a blue mist she saw in the kitchen early one morning when she got up to get a drink.

We had moved to Virginia due to my husband’s job. My house was empty for a few months between a renter and going on the market. So, I gathered SIVA members together and we went looking for old man Goosey.

All in all, this investigation was rather disappointing. We didn’t collect any digital voice or electromagnetic activity. Our digital and video cameras came up with no apparitions. We did photograph many orbs and an odd yellow light in the bedroom that the most activity was reported in. We were unable to isolate what was causing the odd light, but we ruled it out as being paranormal.

One of the members sat in that room alone for a period of time – the room that had the deep voice and blue lights. He had his digital recorder on and was asking personal questions to see if he could get any response. The more questions he asked, the heavier the air of the room seemed to get. Unfortunately, there was still no evidence of a haunting captured. No EVP’s on the recorder. No shadows or figures of blue mist. As an investigation team, we put this on our “not haunted” list, but my daughters still disagree!

Footnote: Several weeks after the investigation, my husband and I did some cleaning before we sold the house. My husband was in the garage, which is detached from the house. I was sweeping the kitchen floor. No one was in the house with me, but there were banging noises coming from the other end of the house. I went to investigate. The rooms were all empty, as I knew they would be. It was 97F outside, but what we called the haunted bedroom was ice cold. I guess this may have been my one and only encounter with Goosey.

***SIVA is short for Supernatural Investigators of Virginia. We were a team that worked together for several years***

Ferry Plantation, Virginia Beach, Virginia

Ferry Plantation House. Photo from My Files

The Ferry Plantation House is set in the center of the Church Point subdivision in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The houses surrounding it are half million dollar homes and this mansion fits right in. The house sits on .1 acres that is owned by the city and is surrounded by 2 acres of land owned by the homeowners association. Behind the house is an herbal garden with benches and an outside fireplace. There is a large backyard with a tree that was reported to be the spot that two slaves were hung and a large magnolia that was planted 6 Apr 1863 by Sally Rebecca Walke in memory of her fiance who was a fallen Confederate officer.

The site is dated back to Indians in the 16th century. An Indian burial ground was discovered beyond the Ferry Plantation grounds. In 1642, Savill Gaskin started the second ferry service in Hampton Roads to carry passengers on the Lynnhaven River. There is still a cannon in the river near the house that was used to signal the ferry, which had eleven stops along the river.

In this spot the first brick courthouse was built, the third courthouse in Princess Anne County. This courthouse was used until the Walkes built their home.

The Walkes had built their mansion in the 1700s but it was destroyed by a fire in 1828. It is believed the Walke ran a tavern from his home during the Revolutionary War.

The present house was built in 1830 by slave labor. It was done in Federal style with bricks used from the ruins of the Walke home. Bay additions were added in 1850, one of brick and one of wood. It was covered with oyster shell stucco at one time.

The house has been used as a plantation, courthouse, school, tavern and a post office. It is currently a museum and an educational center.

It is reported that 11 ghosts haunt this building. These include people who died in an 1810 ship wreck at the ferry landing, Rebecca Walke, the Lady in White who supposedly died in 1826 after falling down the steps, Stella Barnett who died after eating poisoned mushrooms, a male slave who lived in quarters above the kitchen and still comes down to start the fire, and a cat. It is also believed that Grace Sherwood still walks the grounds. She was called the Witch of Pungo, and was tried by dunking near this location and the only person tried for witchcraft in Virginia. Mary is a little girl who has been seen frequently. Legend state that spots appear on the walls that she passes through. Eric is a little boy who fell out of a window in the late 1800s. A male servant name Henry is seen in the yard. His job was to escort house guests from the ferry landing. A nanny has been seen on the third floor, wearing a dark dress. Is she mourning on of the children? Supposedly several children named Margaret were born here but died shortly after birth.

Supernatural Investigators of Virginia had the opportunity to spend the night in this haunted museum. We were given a tour when we first arrived. Going up the stairs we were hit by a strong, overpowering fish smell. Our guide said she had never smelled that before. Oysters were a commodity at the home at one time and a sign proclaimed the oysters were shucked in a room at the top of the stairs. Phantom smells?

We were shown the rooms that Eric fell out of the window and that Stella died in. We were taken to the kitchen were the slave is frequently seen. We were also told a story about a previous investigation where a candy bar was placed on the fireplace mantel and it moved on its own. So, since we rarely travel without chocolate, we placed a candy bar on the mantel and video camera facing it. Our candy bar didn’t move.

Our team took pictures, ran video cameras and did EVP work. The kitchen is where Tracey had heard a cat meowing on an earlier day trip. We captured an EVP that sounds like a cat, but it sounds more like a child calling for her mother. In the gift shop, we picked up a name: Jasper Moore. We haven’t found a connection to the house with this name. Maybe one of the passengers that were killed when the ship wrecked?

Our staged candy bar did not move, but in the middle of the night some of the team were laying down in the dining room. They heard the rustling of candy paper but no one was eating candy. Someone had left a candy bar on the dining room table and it seems there is a Ferry Plantation spirit that likes chocolate. We recorded the sound on a digital recorder, but unfortunately, we didn’t have video set up in this particular spot.

The parlor was used to lay out the dead for viewing. I was not able to walk into this room without my ears hurting. It felt like I had a double ear infection, but it only was in this room.

Four of us were sitting in a room downstairs between the parlor and dining room. The hallway to the front door and staircase was between this room and the dining room. Two of our investigators heard voices coming from the hallway. The voices were male and it had the sound of an old fashioned radio. We looked for anything or anyone that could have been heard talking but there was no explanation.

We would have loved to get visuals here but we loved this museum and the history it holds.

Horse Thief Canyon, Mesa County, Colorado

Horse Thief Canyon is a beautiful, relaxing spot to hang out, camp, hike, or ghost hunt. We have spent several evenings under the stars on warm summer nights, looking at the stars and hoping for a visit from at least one of the ghosts that seem to haunt this area.

In my research, I haven’t quite figured out the history of the area. Many conflicting stories. One story is that a woman was trampled while horse thieves were bringing a herd of stolen horses through the canyon. Oral history states the the canyon got its name because of a “backslider” form the Mormon church named Herber Young lived there. He was known to buy horses stolen from Mormons in Utah. The story that I do know as fact, is a farming/ranching family lived, loved, and a woman named Jennie died in a farmhouse in the canyon. (could she be the woman in white that people report seeing?) I also know that there is something haunting the area.

My team and I originally started investigating the canyon when it was reported by a waste truck was driving through to pick up a dumpster. The driver said something “whooshed” through the truck. She is not a follower of the paranormal and was pretty shook up.

The first time we went up there it was probably the most active and unusual. We usually walk the area, checking out what might be “hot spots”, getting a feeling of the area. That is easier to do in small enclosed locations, but we did hike around some. We than sat in a circle, talking, collecting evps, watching for potential shadows, and seeing if motion detectors would go off. That is when I had my personal experience. The air temperature was 64 degrees that evening but I began to feel extremely cold. When hitting me with the the laser thermometer, my body temperature, as well as the chair I had been sitting on for several minutes, showed up as 46 degrees. We did not get any electronic voice at that time but it took me 20 minutes and a heavy jacket that one of the team members just happened to have in their car, to warm up.

We decided to walk down the road and do an EVP session. We stopped at a spot that interested us in the moment. Team member Lynn began to complain about a sharp pain in her back. She was doubled over for a few minutes while we tried to get a possible spirit to talk to us. Lynn stood up and announced her pain was gone. At the same moment, we did get a woman’s voice say “I’m done”.

We decided that this location definitely had some paranormal activity.

The next time back there, we really didn’t have much activity to report. There was the whisper of a woman’s voice on my recorder. We were unable to decipher what was said.

Some of us returned at the beginning of this past summer. I seem to capture the voice of a woman every time there, so we were hoping to contact her again and would really like to know who she is. We didn’t get any names but a white mist formed twice by two of our investigators. Was that the Woman in White that many people have reported seeing in the canyon?

We will return again, and maybe next time we can come up with a name and a story of the woman.

Returning with a Message

Letters, Envelope, Old, Antique, Post, Labeled, Paper

When I was looking for stories and legends in Pendleton County, West Virginia, my friend Janice told me about something that happened when she was young.

She was spending the night with a friend in Brandywine and a woman appeared in the bedroom. She kept pointing to the wall. This was a continual thing in this house, so finally someone opened up the wall where she was pointing and found some important papers. The family found the previous owners son, and gave him the papers. The woman stopped her visits.

When you study ghost stories, there seems to be many of this sort. Business left undone. Mysteries left unsolved. Another family in Brandywine was being disturbed by knocking throughout the night. When they discovered some old newspapers in the attic, the knocking stopped. They never figured out the significance, but the newspapers must have meant something to someone.

I am looking for more of these type of stories so please share if you have one.

The Virginia Quilt Museum

Photo from Yelp

Located in downtown Harrisonburg, Virginia, the quilt museum “exists to celebrate and nurture Virginia’s quilting heritage by collecting and preserving quilts from Virginia for the benefit of the public for educational purposes.”

The museum is housed in the building known as the Warren-Sipe House, which was built in 1856 as a wedding gift for Edward “Tif” Tiffin Harrison Warren and his bride, Virginia Magruder.

Edward was a Harrisonburg attorney. During the Civil War, he served as a Colonel with the 10th Virginia Infantry. He joined early and fought in many of the most famous battles that were fought in the East. In 1864, he was killed by a bullet to the head while fighting in the Battle of the Wilderness.

In 1863, the home was used as a hospital following the battle of Gettysburg. The 19 year old “Boy Major” Joseph White Latimer died in an upstairs bedroom from wounds he received at Gettysburg.

Latimer was a promising young officer in the Confederate Army Northern Virginia’s artillery branch. He went to school at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and studied artillery tactics under Stonewall Jackson. During Joseph’s second year at VMI, the Civil War broke out and he left school to serve with the Southern Confederacy. He served as a drill master and eventually was promoted to the rank of major. Due to his youth and slight build, he was called “ The Boy Major”.

During the Battle of Gettysburg, an exploding shell injured Joseph’s arm. The arm was amputated at the Daniel Lady Farm, which still stands at the Gettysburg Battlefield. Latimer was hospitalized in Winchester, Virginia, but the movement of the Federal troops required him to be moved to a safer location. He was transported to Harrisonburg and to the Warren family home. Eventually, gangrene took over Joseph’s wound and he died August 1, 1863, just twenty-six days before his 20th birthday. He was buried in the Woodbine Cemetery in Harrisonburg.

There have been reports of a male spirit being seen at the top of the stairs of the Quilt Museum. Some reports have the spirit descending the stairs. Some reports state that the ghosts head seems to be wrapped in bandages. Could this be the ghost of Colonel Warren checking up on the female going-ons in his home?

I had the opportunity to talk to one of the workers at the museum. No one from the museum has ever admitted to seeing a ghost in the building. A psychic visiting the museum felt a presence of a small spirit near her in the upstairs hallway. It sounds like the Boy Major still might be there also.