BELTON CEMETERY - INVESTIGATION ALBUM


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All of the photos in the Investigation Album are captured from the video we taped during the actual investigation. They aren't of as high a quality as the images taken with our film and digital cameras and larger versions of them are not available, but they give a good feel for what it was like to be there. Browse through...and read what interests you.
You'll notice a lot of these images have that green-hue that occurs when you use cameras with "night vision" or IR light capability. This was a night-time investigation in a cemetery...so the investigation video has very little material shot with natural light.

This photo is of Dave beginning to freeze to death. During the investigation, we measured air temperatures between 29 and 31 degrees Fahrenheit consistently throughout the night. Investigating after dark, in a damp cemetery, when its below freezing is quite an experience!
We noticed immediately upon entering the cemetery that the cemetery was surrounded by natural light sources. House lights, business lights, street lights, the glow of the city, even the headlights of passing cars. The image on the right is a perfect example of the light-pollution that makes the Belton Cemetery a very poor place to take legitimate paranormal photographs. Light is everywhere...and light is reflecting everywhere within the cemetery. If you get a photo-anomaly in a photograph taken there...how could you possibly exclude natural causes for the anomaly? It would have to be one great anomaly!
It was so cold, and everyone was so bundled up...that at times it was hard to know who was who. Here Stewart has just finished making some adjustment to his camera with numb fingers.

Along with light-pollution, there was a large amount of noise-pollution. Cars driving by, the endless barking of dogs, and even children playing and screaming in backyards that bordered the cemetery. This made legitimate EVP work impossible. With so much constant background sound, it would be impossible conclusively say a particular "unexplained" sound had a paranormal cause.
Of course there were tombstones...lots and lots of tombstones. There were brand new ones...all shiny with a fresh pile of dirt in front of them. And there were ancient ones so weather-worn that you couldn't read the words that were once carved into their stone faces. Personally, the fresh gravesites are somehow more psychologically frightening than the older ones. Something about seeing the clumps of fresh dirt and the wilted funeral flowers still laying upon the earth that made these gravesites something I wanted to entirely avoid. The older graves I walked over with respect, but without fear or revulsion.
Shawn was as bundled up as the rest of us and stayed fairly warm during the investigation. But his equipment kept falling prey to the cold temperatures. He had the most difficulty with his I-Pod, as it eventually froze-up and wouldn't work properly. When this happened, we fell back to the trusty old analog microcassette recorders and forged ahead. See our Possible EVP's section of this investigation report for details on the unusual sound we captured.
Just like Stewart, this was Edward's first investigation with us. He volunteered to carry the TIF 7000 digital thermometer/pyrometer and did an amazing job of watching the temperature readings throughout the investigation. The picture on the right is of Edward juggling the TIF 7000 and his investigation clipboard. With all the gear we carry, notes we take, and then add in a flashlight...I'm pretty sure we could all benefit from having 3 or 4 hands. Some investigators opt for the forehead-mounted flashlight...but I just can't bring myself to do that.
In the picture on the left you can see behind Shawn the ever-present background lights. Since serious EVP work was compromised by all of the neighborhood noises, we decided to record sound throughout the investigation. We normally take a very strict approach to EVP work, but we decided to loosen up our methods as an experiment. We've seen other paranormal groups record while walking around, talking and joking, and taking photos. We decided to follow this methodology for the night. See the Possible EVP's section of this investigation report for the results of that experiment.
Here we paused for a bit and discussed some future investigations we have coming up. Stewart has been looking into one potential investigation location at a reportedly haunted pub. We were all pretty excited to hear some of the details, and hopefully that one will work out for us in the future.

While Ghost Vigil Investigations responds to requests for investigations from people who are experiencing paranormal activity in their homes or businesses, we also seek out some of the most interesting and dramatic investigation locations on our own.
This massive white monument really stood out near the western edge of the cemetery. The monument had tall columns and stood at least 15 feet high. We examined it a bit closer and noticed it had a Shriner or Free-Mason symbol carved into the side of it. This symbolism and the size of the monument seems to suggest monument marks the grave of a successful person or a prominent family. Its monuments like these...and the interesting tombstones in the Belton Cemetery...which illustrate just how boring those modern cemeteries are with their mower-friendly ground-level plaques.
Its important to remember that every marker and tombstone in the cemetery represents a human life. A man, woman, or child that was born...lived a life...and then died. The saddest of these markers are the ones that represent infants or children. These tombstones remind us of lives cut short and hint at potential never fully realized. Every time we came across the grave of a young person, you could feel the mood of the investigators change.
Thank goodness for Sony camcorders and nightshot IR technology. In this shot of Stew, you can see the IR light coming off the front of his camera. None of this IR light can be seen by the naked eye. This allows us to tape and explore dark cemeterys and buildings without having to shine camera lights, flashlights, or other lights into the area. This was the first Ghost Vigil investigation where we had two of these Sony camcorders along.
Since this was an older cemetery, there were ancient trees and cedars here and there. They sort of loomed over us when we would examine the graves under their outstretched branches. Out in the open the cemetery just didn't have that strong a psychological effect on our investigators. But in the oldest portions of the cemetery...with the older tombstones...when you were around the old twisted trees, the cemetery took on a little bit darker atmosphere.
I keep mentioning the stories that tombstones tell. This one caught my eye when I was examining the investigation video. Here is Joseph Herron who dies in 1894, at the age of 55. His wife Sarah lives on to the wonderful old age of 95...the last 42 years of her life spent without James. And yet, its clear how important their marriage was to her and her family, as she has the caption "his wife" under her name on the tombstone. We really know nothing about James and Sarah, but their tombstone tells a story of its own.
Dave Bryant was carrying the EMF detector during this investigation for the first half of the night. He also carried Shawn's I-Pod during the time we were using it to record audio for possible EVP's. Away from Ghost Vigil Dave works as a professional comic book colorist. He receives the black & white comic book artwork and digitally paints in the colors that make it ready for print. Dave is also an amazing penciler...but is currently making his living doing coloring.
The oldest parts of the cemetery held the most interest for us. This was the area of the Belton Cemetery where the other paranormal group had gotten interesting photographs and EVP's. So, where better to concentrate our efforts? Plus the old tombstones held quite fascination for us. Seeing birth and death dates in the 1800's, reading old fashioned script carved into the worn stone, and knowing that some of these stones had withstood time and the weather for well over a hundred years...it very compelling.
At one point in the night the Ghost Vigil investigators gathered around this severely cracked tombstone. It appeared that at some point the stone had cracked in half and had been put back together and repaired. It was chalky and worn, and spotted with greenish lichen. I think we were all drawn to this stone...so we'll spend a little time talking about it here.
  Here we turned off the Nightshot technology and used the regular light on the front of the camcorder. The details included on these older stones is beautiful... especially compared to the flat shiny stones of today's cemetery burials. The scrollwork around the edges of this stone gives it a certain personality. The red coloring in the picture on the left is from a flashlight with a red lens being used by one of our investigators.
Besides names and dates, these older stones often include symbolism and imagery. You can vaguely see in the picture on the right that the top half of this tombstone has a circle that encloses two hands clasped in a handshake. I believe this represents a hand outreached by divinity to clasp the hand of the departed soul. We saw other tombstones with a hand pointing its index finger straight up into the sky. We assumed this was pointing towards heaven.
  Carry A. Nation...the hatchet-wielding "cyclone in petticoats" and driven proponent of temperance is buried in the cemetery. She's such an interesting historic figure and fun to read about, that it was amazing to actually find her gravestone. Engraved on her large tombstone are the words, "Faithful to the Cause of Prohibition - She Hath Done What She Could." It was within 10 to 20 feet of her tombstone that we experienced a drop in air temperature. See The Temperature Drop section of this investigation report for details.
An EMF meter has a single coil within it that allows it to detect and measure any electromagnetic fields with which it comes into contact. The range of EMF that our EMF meter detects is extremely effective in cemetery investigations. Other than powerlines or underground power cables (both rare in a cemetery) there are no natural sources of EMF in a cemetery. If the EMF meter detects EMF in the cemetery, it is a very unusual situation and definitely worth checking into further.  
In the picture on the left Shawn is getting a little bit closer look at a grave with a flashlight fitted with a red lens. A red lens prevents the light of the flashlight from wrecking your night vision.

After Shawn's I-Pod froze and stopped operating in the cold weather on this investigation, he resolved to purchase a new digital recording device prior to our next outing. The real expense of paranormal investigation is the equipment. If I wrote up an equipment wish list...it could easily top several thousand dollars. Yet...we absolutely refuse to charge for investigations.
I thought I would end with a shot of one of our trusty old Sony camcorders. Every image on this page is captured from one of our two camcorders.

Its said that you should never say never. But, I think its fair to say that Ghost Vigil investigators won't be making any return trips to the Belton Cemetery. There are no solid paranormal stories surrounding the location, the background lights and noise make many investigation techniques impossible to effectively use, and the cemetery is the main training ground of another paranormal investigation group.
 


Despite all that, we were glad we went. We had fun on this investigation, got to know the other group a little better, and trained together using some new equipment with some new members. All in all, we achieved all of the primary goals we set going into the investigation. Check out the sections of this investigation report listed under the category of "Analysis" for detailed discussions and analysis of the evidence we gathered during this investigation...

-Mark Stinson

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