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1859 JACKSON COUNTY JAIL - OUR CONCLUSIONS |
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| The 1859 Jackson County Jail Museum Investigation Report is now complete, and this
section of the report allows each investigator to add his/her own conclusions about our investigation and the location. MIKE CROSS' CONCLUSIONS Here are the EMF readings for the 1859 Jackson County Jail. 2nd Floor - Except for obvious electrical sources (which were readily apparant throughout the building due to the fact it was constructed before electricity and so it's electrical system is on the outside of the walls) all locations measured on this floor (Master Bedroom, Closet, Children's Bedroom, North Bedroom, Upstairs Hallway, Jail Hallway) were zero. 1st Floor - Parlor, Cell 2, Cell 4 and Cell 5 all measured 1. In the Museum by the Quilts I recorded our highest reading of 2.5. All other areas were zero. I think it's interesting to note that our highest reading came from the quilt area. If one subscribes to the theory that EMF may be associated with residual emotions or psychic energy then this reading would be consistant with that theory. Quilts are a labor intensive item to create often done for individuals with whom the maker had a close personal relationship. Personally I think Mark's comment that the item itself (or rather the cloth used to create the item) has the potential to hold a greater static charge. We are all familiar with how walking across a carpet can transfer/create a static charge. I'd like to note the methodology used for our EMF readings. As I noted earlier the electrical system in the building was easy to discern and as would be expected polluted our readings in close proximity to it. Because of this I was careful to note where the electrical lines and outlets were and ignored readings generated around these. All readings reported above were made approximately 5' feet from any electrical source. One last note on the EMF readings. I thought it interesting to note that although I took three seperate readings in Cell 1 over the course of the night, I never obtained any reading. The only other item of interest I'd like to report concerns the back stairs that connect the 1st floor museum with the 2nd floor museum/office and storage area. On the stairs I experienced the smell of "fresh" tobacco smoke about halfway up the stairs. I was on the stairs alone (I know bad protocol) and immediately got Mark to go up the stairs but he did not experience the smell. A little later Mark and I both smelled tobacco in the Extended Breezeway. This smell for me seemed more stale than what I had smelled on the stairs. However after a little investigation we discovered that Dave is a smoker. After we smelled his jacket I felt confident in writing off the tobacco smell in the breezeway as a residual smell from his having been in that area shortly before we experienced the smell. It should be noted however that I was the first investigator to go up the backstairs and so I can't write off that smell in the same way. -Mike SHAWN GEABHART'S CONCLUSIONS Ok...my investigation report and conclusions. I started off the evening taking air temperature readings with the DTP...and consistantly got readings in the 52-56 degree range (almost always 10 degrees higher than Chris' surface temp readings) throughout the building. I then proceeded to conduct a vigil and evp work with Dave in the back stairwell. Dave and I sat and talked a bit about the place and also asked general questions to elict evp responses. I started out sitting on the floor in the 2nd floor hallway and Dave sat at the top of the stairs. We spent some time being quiet, letting the recorders do their thing. After 20-30 minutes we changed positions and sat some more. We then went into some of the rooms and looked around, recoders still running in the hall and took some photos. Neither of us (to my knowledge) had any paranormal experience in this location (although we did pick up an audio anomaly here). Next Dave and I spent time in cell #1 I sat in the chair left of the door and Dave across from me. We had recorders running and proceeded to do evp work....spent silent time then time talking about a variety of subjects. About 15 minutes into this vigil I felt what I referred to at the time as an "ear flick" on my right ear...it wasn't so much a flick as it was that stinging sensation you get after someone flicks your ear. Dave took a picture moments after I mention this. A little time passes and I suggest to Dave that we switch postions and I move to the chair he was using that was in front of the cell door and off camera. We continue to sit and talk. Another 10-15 minutes pass and Dave mentions he's feeling a warm, tingling sensation on the right side of his face and neck. I took a picture and then we sat a little longer. I never felt uneasy or nervous in this cell. While looking for audio to document the "physical" events(or psyhcological, it was dark and we knew there was history there...maybe we imagined these things) , I found an audio anomoly. The rest of the evening was spent on the second floor taking photos and trying to get a sense of the place. I never smelled anything unusual (something funky once...just not paranormal) like others claimed and did not see anything out of the ordinary. I think that if we get to investigate further, I would like to do a vigil in cell #4, and also revisit the back stairwell. The question - Is the place haunted...from a scientific standpoint, there is not enough evidence to say "yes". From a experiential standpoint...it seems that there is definately something at work in the building that piques my curiosty and warrants further study. -Shawn CHRIS STEVENS' CONCLUSIONS On each investigation GVI increases it's completeness and thoroughness. The equipment list increases and methods improve. The 1859 County Jail investigation was our most event filled to date. We captured anomalies on film, audio, and first hand experiences. The report documents in detail each occurrence. Did a poltergeist jump out and grab us? Well, actually Stew's neck was squeezed. But, no, we can not say we are the Ghostbuster's, nor can we claim National Geographic status and appear on 'The Unexplained.' However, If we can return to the site and validate our findings with a repeatability & reproducibility study, National Geographic may want to give us a call. -Chris DAVE BRYANT'S CONCLUSIONS OK, I’ve kept quiet until now. There hasn’t really been anything to talk about. But after the jail investigation I feel a few incidents need to be addressed. Before we arrived at the jail we were informed that one of the cells was particularly haunted. We were not told which one. We all walked around and made observations that we kept to ourselves. After going in all the cells I thought…maybe one gave me a slight “lightheadedness” that the others did not. I made a brief mental note of it and basically dismissed it. It was very slight and hardly worth reporting. Later in the investigation when we set up cameras I found out that it was the reportedly haunted cell that I had the feeling in. I would like to point out that we were all looking for one cell to be different from the others. There were eight cells, so we had a one in eight chance of picking the correct one. Also, although I reported a “feeling” that is all it is. Could it have been my imagination? Yes. After the cameras were set up Shawn and I set up for a vigil in the cell. After about ten minutes Shawn told me something thumped his ear, I took a picture at that time. A few minutes later he said we should switch places. After sitting in the other chair for 15-20 minutes I felt a slightly warm, prickly sensation behind my right ear and on the right backside of my neck, similar to the feeling when you’ve been slapped. I should point out I felt no slap or thump like Shawn. Could this be my imagination or the power of suggestion? Yes. Although it is interesting that other people in the group reported a “choking” feeling later after spending time in the same cell. It is also worthy to note that a couple weeks before our investigation another group investigated there. It seems their investigation team had more “experiences” there than we did. They have psychics on their team, and we don’t. Is there a connection? And if so is it truly psychic power or is it the power of suggestion creating an atmosphere where you are more prone to imagine things. I’m sure everyone has been either alone or with someone and talked yourself into being scared. It would be an interesting control experiment to bring along a psychic or sensitive to re-investigate one of the sites we were previously at to see if there is any difference. -Dave Bryant MARK STINSON'S CONCLUSIONS As usual, let's get the big question and answer out of the way. From a professional and scientific standpoint, can I assert that during our on-site investigation we found proof-positive of paranormal activity at the 1859 Jackson County Jail? My answer would have to be, "No." But with that out of the way, I'd have to add that we had a very eventful investigation. Right off the bat, investigators began detecting unexplained odors. Even our strictest skeptic experienced this phenomenon. While our experiment to see if the "haunted" cell could be identified by almost anyone entering the jail had mixed results, during our vigils in Cell #1 several investigators were "touched" in some way. One had the back of his neck squeezed firmly, another had his ear flicked, yet another felt a hot tingling feeling on his neck, and several complained of tightness in their throats, difficulty swallowing, and being short of breath. At one point Lindsey heard what he thought was a woman's voice when we were coming down the main stairway in the Marshall's House. And then there was the tobacco odor that a couple of investigators detected briefly. Looking over our evidence, while nothing conclusively proved the existance of paranormal activity, we did find several interesting possible EVP's. Along with our regular assortment of white translucent dust orbs, we saw for the first time a "dense" blue orb and a strange vaguely human white shape in our photos. While I wouldn't claim these to be proof of paranormal activity...they did make us pause and wonder a bit. While I don't have the physical proof I'd like to have before declaring something like this, based on the anecdotal experiences our investigators and decades worth of museum visitors...I personally believe the 1859 Jackson County Jail is home to paranormal activity. And I intend to arrange a follow-up investigation in an attempt to gather the physical evidence to truly back that up. -Mark |
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