Hold up – what exactly is a “Thought Form?” Well, according to Wikipedia, “A thoughtform is a manifestation of mental energy, also known as a tulpa in Tibetan mysticism. Its concept is related to the Western philosophy and practice of magic.” Hmmm…well that explains everything. Not. But never fear because not only is Bill going to present the results of a previous thoughtform manifestation experiment conducted at the Glen Tavern, but author/researcher David Weatherly is going to give a presentation on tulpas and the history of thoughtforms. David has written numerous books about all kinds of topics from hauntings to UFO’s, but get this – he’s also studied Shamanic and magical traditions with elders from a number of cultures including Tibet, Native America, Europe and Africa.

Other guest speakers include paranormal author and historian Richard Senate (Research Methods for Paranormal Investigators), LiveSciFi.tv’s Tim Wood (Adapting Technology for Paranormal Investigation) and Patrick Langdon (Forensic Photography), Keith Engel of SpecterCam LLC; and Jim Spann (Spirit Photography). In a rare appearance, John Huckert, the occupant of the home of the mysterious “Ghost Writer / Ghost Polaroids” case will be presenting his experiences and rare video of some of the unusual events that surround this case. As mentioned earlier, Los Angeles Paranormal Association will also be presenting at the event, on the topic of Investigation Techniques, and LiveScifi.tv will be live broadcasting portions of the event throughout the weekend.

Oh and one other cool thing – the Glen Tavern Inn will be open for event ticket holders only for the weekend, so we will have the entire hotel to ourselves. Hope you all will join us for this unique experience.

For a detailed itinerary, ticket and accommodation information, click on the flyer below:

Join us for a rare opportunity for a nighttime exploration of the buildings of the Old Los Angeles Plaza on our second paranormal investigation of the Pico House at the El Pueblo De Los Angeles National Monument.

The Pico House was once the most lavish hotel in Southern California and is now a California and National Historic Landmark. Long closed and now part of the El Pueblo De Los Angeles National Monument, the Pico House has had numerous reports of paranormal activity ranging from mysterious footsteps on the upper floors to shadow figures in the inner courtyard.

The investigation is limited to 35 registrants (broken into 4 teams) and will run from 8:00pm-2:00am. Locations include the main Pico House (3 floors plus inner courtyard), the basement and tunnels underneath the Pico House, the Masonic Hall and the Merced Theater (the oldest surviving theater in Los Angeles). We will also have access to explore the courtyard of the Avila Adobe, the oldest house in Los Angeles. Whether you are an armchair paranormal enthusiast, a seasoned paranormal investigator or simply a history buff, you won’t want to miss this rare opportunity to delve into Los Angeles’ history from a different point of view, during a 6-hour paranormal investigation of some of the oldest buildings in the city.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Ticket price is $85.00 per person and covers site fees, security and insurance. Event is 6 hours, 8:00pm-2:00am the evening of January 28, 2012. Tickets are non-refundable except in the case of event cancellation. This event is open to adults 18+ only and tickets are being sold in advance on a first come, first served basis. You will receive a confirmation email within 7 days of purchase. No actual ticket will be mailed out – please bring your receipt and confirmation printout for entry.

Email info@losangelesparanormal.org for current status on availability.

More on the Pico House and its hauntings:

Pico House: Ghosts of Old Los Angeles

Travel Channel / Ghost Adventures – Pico House

PICO HOUSE, 1870

Built by wealthy businessman and one-time governor Don Pio Pico, the Pico House was once the most lavish hotel in the young city of Los Angeles. It opened in 1870 – a transitional time in Los Angeles’ history, when wild-west lawlessness still prevailed. The streets around the plaza were filled with not only businesses and elite members of society, but also brothels, saloons and gambling halls. Many different cultures co-existed within an area of a few blocks, under an atmosphere of racial tension. Vigilance committees or “lynch mobs” were still known to take the law into their own hands, as happened on October 24, 1871, in a riot that become known as the “Chinese Massacre.” On that day, somewhere between 18-23 Chinese men and boys were brutally murdered in and around the Plaza by an angry mob of whites and Mexicans after an Anglo resident was killed in the cross fire between two rival Chinese Tongs.
The area around the Pico House continued to decline, as did Pio Pico’s fortune, and he lost the hotel in 1876. Today, staff have reported unusual activity ranging from mysterious footsteps from the 3rd floor to shadow figures in the inner courtyard.
( Source )

MERCED THEATER, 1871

The Merced is the oldest surviving theatre in Los Angeles. Ticket prices ranged from 50 cents in the balcony to $1.00 for main floor seats. The opening attraction was “Fanchon The Little Cricket.”
William Abbott named the venue after his wife Maria Merced (or Mercedes) Garcia. The building had retail on the ground floor (Abbott’s furniture store), the theatre on the second and living space for the Abbott family on the top floor. It was also known as the Teatro Merced and Mercedes Theatre.

The Merced was the center of Los Angeles theatrical activity from 1871 until 1876. The Merced declined after 1876 when the Wood’s Opera House opened four doors south. The Merced closed New Year’s Day 1877 due to the Woods competition as well as a smallpox epidemic.
( Source )

THE AVILA ADOBE, 1818

The Avila Adobe was constructed in 1818 by a prominent ranchero, Francisco José Avila, a native of Sinaloa, who was alcalde, or mayor of Los Angeles in 1810. Following Francisco Avila’s death in 1832, his second wife, Encarnación Avila continued to live in the house with her two daughters. The Los Angeles Census of 1844 lists Encarnación Avila, age 40, as a widow living in the house with one daughter. For a brief time, from January 10-19, 1847, the adobe was commandeered as a military headquarters by the invading North American army under Robert Stockton. After Encarnación Avila died in 1855, the home passed to her two daughters, Luisa and Francisca and their husbands, Manuel Garfias and Theodore Rimpau. Francisca and Theodore Rimpau and their nine children continued to live in the adobe from 1855 to 1868 until they moved to Anaheim, California where Theodore served as the first mayor. From 1868 to the early 1920s, the adobe was rented and used as a restaurant, rooming house for transients, or was frequently vacant. The condition of the building deteriorated and was finally condemned in 1926 by the City Health Department, which caught the attention of Christine Sterling, who began a public campaign to save the adobe. Today, the Avila Adobe is open to the public as a museum and is furnished as it might have appeared in the late 1840s.
( Source )

Built in 1907, the Goldfield High School remains an impressive stone and brick structure that sits virtually in the shadow of its infamously haunted cousin. The last graduating class there was the class of 1952. The school was abandoned in 1953 due to structural issues and has been standing empty ever since. And while one might marvel today at the buildings endurance over all these years, it’s impossible to miss the warping and bowing of the wooden staircase leading to the front doors, the crumbling brick and plaster and the sagging of the right hand side of the building. There are entire walls missing, covered only with plasterboard and wooden support beams. Because of an odd architectural flaw that diverted rainwater under the building, rather than away from it, if left to its own devices, the Goldfield High School will soon collapse upon itself.

There have been efforts by the Goldfield Historical Society to save this beautifully decaying relic of the past. They have received grants from the National Park Service Save America’s Treasure’s program as well as the National Trust for Historic Preservation. These funds, along with private donations, helped to provide initial emergency stabilization for the building. However, further stabilization and restoration are needed to save it. To learn more about the current status of the Goldfield High School, and to find out how you can help, visit the website for the Goldfield Historical Society.

Rumors of ghosts residing within the walls of the Goldfield High School have centered around the spirit of a young girl. This past summer, we were able to tour and photograph the school, and we found the building to be a beautiful time capsule of Nevada and American history. It is our plan to hold a fundraiser and ghost hunt for the high school in the spring of 2012. Tours of the school can be arranged by contacting Dominic Pappalardo at Dominicp@frontier.com

~LMH

See also: Golden Ghost: The Goldfield Hotel

A Peek Inside the Mizpah, 2009

Fast-forward two years. We once again arrive in Tonopah, Nevada, this time as guests of a special pre-opening event of the Mizpah Hotel. We’d be spending two nights inside the hotel, with access to roam freely throughout the entire building for as long as we wanted. This was quite the turnaround from our first visit and needless to say, we were stoked!

The event was organized by Virginia Ridgway, along with author Janice Oberding and it was made possible by the gracious new owners of the hotel, Fred and Nancy Cline, who are in the final stages of renovations to the property as I type this. Guests of the event included paranormal and history enthusiasts from around the country.

Upon arrival, we were given room keys to our well-appointed (although not quite finished) hotel rooms and so the weekend began. We had plenty of time to explore the hotel during both daylight and nighttime hours. The hotel staff shared stories with us of their own experiences with ghostly phenomena at the Mizpah, including one story about the ghost of a young girl being spotted in the elevator.

Our investigations focused mainly on the 5th floor and basement areas. We did have some interesting experiences in the basement. One investigator was overcome by a feeling of being “rushed” by an unseen force and a few minutes later we heard an unexplained breathy voice(?). See the video here: Mizpah Hotel Investigation – Los Angeles Paranormal

During the course of the weekend, we ventured to another part of the Mizpah property – the annex building across the parking lot. As we learned, this building formerly housed a bowling alley and a saloon – and is also home to reports of paranormal activity. A worker there told us that he often hears unexplained noises from the basement at night. He also shared with us a story of another employee who quit his post there after being “pushed” by an unseen force. We briefly investigated the basement of this annex building and at one point we thought we could hear children’s voices, but we determined that the noise was likely from the street. Otherwise, we didn’t experience anything out of the ordinary during our short visit there, pending review of our audio/video recordings.

A fascinating highlight of the weekend came when Central Nevada Museum director Allen Metscher gave us a private tour of Tonopah’s abandoned and “cursed” Army Air Field and its decaying hangars. The Tonopah air base was once one of the Army Air Force’s largest World War II training bases. Sadly, during it’s operation from 1942-1945, 110 servicemen lost their lives there – mostly due to P-39 and B-24 plane crashes. This particularly high number of casualties and accidents led to the Air Field’s reputation as being cursed.

Mr. Metscher has a wealth of knowledge about Nevada history, including the history of Tonopah and the neighboring town of Goldfield. In fact, in speaking with him after the tour, he was able to shed some light on a few documented deaths that occurred within the Mizpah Hotel throughout its history. These included multiple documented suicides within the hotel.

Also during the weekend, we took a quick tour of a historic home known colloquially as “The Castle,” where past owners were known for conducting seances and where another miner’s ghost is thought to reside.

The overall experience of the weekend in Tonopah was fantastic. We felt very lucky to have had the opportunity to explore these historic locations and learn as much as we did about their history. Did we document the ghost of Lady in Red or the miners in the basement or perhaps one of their lesser known counterparts?

We can’t say with certainty. But we did visit with them for awhile… and we enjoyed their company.

-LMH

~~

To book the Mizpah Hotel, visit: http://mizpahhotel.net

For more information on the Army Air Field, visit the Central Nevada Museum: Central Nevada Museum Website

Many ghosts are said to haunt the Goldfield, including a young woman named Elizabeth, who, as the story goes, was a prostitute that became pregnant with the hotel owner’s child and was subsequently chained to a radiator in Room 109 and left for dead – her baby reportedly thrown into the mine shaft that runs underneath the hotel. But Elizabeth is only one of many spirits suspected to roam the long, dark hallways of this stone oasis of sorts. In fact, the hotel is claimed by psychics to be one of 7 portals to the other side. In addition, its haunted reputation has been fueled by TV and film coverage from shows like FOX’s “Scariest Places on Earth” and the “Ghost Adventures” documentary and series.

To enter the Goldfield Hotel is to be swallowed up by a living, breathing entity. Gulp. Smack. And there you are, in the belly of the beast. Inside, the air is thick with ancient dust, creating an otherworldly lens through which the outside world disappears. An initial calm gives way almost immediately to an uneasy certainty that you are being watched by a host of unidentified eyes. Eyes that have known this place for a very long time. And you know that not only are they watching you, but they knew you were coming. The quiet air of the lobby is filled with an awkward politeness and you are keenly aware of your own presence – a stranger in a strange land.

Walking the long, empty hallways of the upper floors and poking into what were once elegant guest rooms, you can almost hear music from a long gone era and almost see the members of the old west elite who once leisured here. Your eyes can’t help but flitter back and forth on the lookout for a shadowy figure that you half expect to see duck into a doorway. Even a skeptic of the supernatural might find themselves quickening their pace back to the central staircase, having caught an unshakeable feeling that someone is behind them.

~LMH

To see our findings from the Goldfield Hotel, visit our previous post: Goldfield Hotel – EVPs
and our YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/losangelesparanormal

*Note – The Goldfield Hotel does not allow visitors without prior permission and attempted trespassers will be prosecuted.

Recently, I was asked the question,  “What is your goal with all of this?” The person asking me the question was referring to my hobby of “ghost hunting” – or, in other words, why the heck do I spend my spare time in dark, abandoned places asking questions into thin air?

“Well,” I said, “it started out as a curiosity…”

Ultimately, I explained, it turned into a project, a hobby. I joined up with some like-minded folk, we started traveling to haunted locations on weekends, taking pictures, recording our adventures. A website was born.  We make videos, we write about our experiences. It’s become as much of a creative outlet as a spiritual journey of sorts.

“No, that’s not exactly what I meant,” said the asker. “I want to know why – I mean, is there a specific thing you’re looking for, something you’re trying to prove or achieve by the act of ghost-hunting. Did you lose someone in your life or…”

Oh, I see – he was wondering if I’m trying to prove the existence of life after death, a survival of consciousness, maybe the existence of another plane of existence, or a wrinkle in time, or even God. Am I trying to contact a lost love one? Did some specific instance or tragedy in my life compel me to seek hard answers to age old questions?

The answer is no.

I think most people have lost someone, or known someone who has died, and I’m no different. But for me there’s no one specific goal relating to that or to anything else. Nor do I expect to find any hard answers.

Ghost hunting, at it’s essence, is really just a way of paying homage to the dead, while at the same time confronting your own mortality. It’s a spiritual journey. It’s about being in the moment. It’s about taking a trip back in time, immersing yourself in the history of a location and paying homage to the people who lived and died there. It’s about facing your fears, confronting your demons. It’s paying a visit to those things that live in the darkest corners of your psyche, the monster under the bed. It’s a psychological, astrophysical, quantum mechanical, biological, metaphysical, spiritual, religious, historical, cultural, sociological, journalistic, humanistic exploratory romp. It’s about story, atmosphere, legend and myth. Time and space. Love and loss. Life and death. It’s interesting. It’s different. It’s fun. And as with life itself, it’s not about the destination, but rather the journey itself.

~LMH

The Mackay Mansion was originally built in 1860 and housed the offices of the Gould and Curry Mining Company. At the time, George Hearst, the father of William Randolph Hearst, worked as the Company Mine superintendent and was the first occupant of the home. Later, the home would become the residence of John Mackay, one of the most rich and powerful figures in the Comstock. Today, there are several spirits said to haunt the mansion, the most famous of which is that of a young girl in a white gown.

Actor Johnny Depp stayed in the home during the filming of his movie, “Dead Man” and he reported that he was visited by the girl in white during his stay. During our visit, the caretaker mentioned that the young girl whose spirit is said to roam the upstairs bedrooms had reportedly fallen down the staircase to her untimely demise.

This is an interesting clip from our last trip to Virginia City in October 2010 with “A Paranormal Interest Retreat.” We were on the 3rd floor of the Mackay Mansion & we had just heard what sounded like a child in one of the bedrooms. Look at the bedroom door on the right when the investigator walks by at around :23 seconds and then when he walks by again at around:30-:31 seconds. There appears to be a figure behind the gate that appears and then disappears, most visible at the :30-:31 seconds mark.

A few seconds later, there is some kind of movement at the end of the hall that moves across from right to left (at around:43-:44) (look towards the bottom of the door). Right before that at approx :39 seconds, we hear an unexplained whispery voice saying something like “who’s there.”

For more information on the Mackay Mansion, visit: Mackay Mansion
For more information on A Paranormal Interest Retreat, visit: APIR

Earlier this year, we spent several weekends exploring some of the neighborhoods and buildings around “old” Los Angeles – the area in and around which the city of Los Angeles was founded. Some amazing locations with a rich history can be found in this area, including Union Station, the Hall of Justice, the Sepulveda House and the oldest house in Los Angeles, the Avila Adobe. It was during this time, one building in particular across from Olvera Street caught our eye – the Pico House, located at 430 N. Main St, which is part of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles National Monument. We decided to arrange for a tour of the location to see if we could learn more about its history and perhaps, its hauntings.

When the Pico House (Casa de Pico) opened in 1870, it was the most luxurious hotel not only in Los Angeles, but also south of San Francisco. Built on the southwest corner of the Los Angeles Plaza (currently known as the “Old Plaza”), the Italianate style hotel designed by architect Ezra Keysor boasted indoor plumbing, opulent gas-powered chandeliers, a fountained courtyard, an aviary and a French restaurant. At that time, Los Angeles was a relatively small but growing city and the Plaza was the epicenter. Los Angeles was still in a transitional phase, 20 years after its incorporation as an American city after the ending of the Mexican-American war.

The streets around the Plaza were not only filled with businesses and elite members of society but they were also subject to a certain “wild west” lawlessness. Brothels, gambling halls and saloons were prevalent and many different cultures co-existed within a few blocks of each other under an atmosphere of racial tension. Vigilantism was not uncommon as vigilance committees or “lynch mobs” took to the streets, taking the law into their own hands.

Wealthy businessman and one time Governor, Don Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor under Alta California, built the Pico House with funds he obtained from selling off a portion of his land grants. The lavish new hotel was a success, upstaging it’s rival hotel, the Bella Union. But the success did not last long.

Racial tensions in the city came to a head with the Chinese Massacre of 1871, which occurred in and around the Calle De Los Negros adjacent to the Plaza and spilled into the Plaza as, by varying accounts, 18 to 23 Chinese men and boys were brutally murdered by an angry mob of whites and Mexicans. An employee of the Pico House at the time later recalled the scene: “The street was a madhouse of frenzied, armed men and terrified, stampeding horses. From the entrance of the Pico House I could see a mass of men flocking toward the Aliso street opening of Nigger’s Alley [sic] and heard a steady roar of guns. I remember one fellow, big, hatless and coatless, with bulging maniacal eyes as he ran passed us, brandishing huge butcher’s axes.”- (Michael M. Rice, I Saw the Wild West Tamed!, Los Angeles Times, May 13 1934, G12).

After the riots, and with the influx of people brought in by the railway, the town’s business center began to move southward and the neighborhood degenerated into seediness over a period of years.

Pio Pico was known for throwing lavish parties and being a heavy gambler as well as having a penchant for the ladies. His signature cane displayed an ivory female leg poised in the air. In addition to his extravagant lifestyle, the financial strain of some bad investments along with his falling victim to the fraudulent dealings of other businessmen helped contribute to his eventual loss of wealth.

As the neighborhood and his fortune declined, Don Pio continued to entertain at the Pico House for 10 years until 1880, when he lost his hotel to foreclosure. The building became a flophouse and spent many years in decline before eventually passing into California State hands in 1953. Today, the Pico House belongs to El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Monument and is both a California and National Historic Landmark.

Given the rich history of the building and the surrounding neighborhood, it is not surprising that some believe the Pico House may be haunted. As we learned on our tour, which included the three main floors, the inner courtyard, the basement and tunnels and the adjacent old Merced Theater, security staff have reported hearing mysterious footsteps from the upper floors late at night and seeing shadow figures leaning over the balconies of the inner courtyard. Perhaps Don Pio Pico himself is still entertaining guests in his beloved hotel. With regard to the living, tours of the Los Angeles Plaza Historic District can be arranged here: El Pueblo de Los Angeles National Historic Monument .

-LMH

Additional Photos from our tour:

Attention horror fans in Los Angeles!! Lionsgate is showing a special advanced screening of what could prove to be the scariest movie to be released in a long time – Eli Roth’s “The Last Exorcism” – and our readers have a chance to attend! For your chance to receive screening passes, log on to WWW.GOFOBO.COM/RSVP and enter RSVP Code: H9BZR5YF

The screening is Wednesday, August 25, 2010 in Burbank, CA

Good luck!

Brian and I both own iPhones (actually, Grant does too), and so we’ve been playing around a lot with some of the photo apps available – which led to the discovery of a cool app by Art&Mobile called TiltShift Generator or TiltShiftGen. The app basically allows you to take any existing photo and add varying degrees of blur (along with radial / linear blur shape control), saturation, brightness, contrast and vignetting to achieve a tilt shift or “fake miniature” effect. It’s a great app – not only for creating fake miniatures, but also for creating more subtle softening effects and vintage looks, and – in our case – helping to convey the creep factor of some of the haunted/abandoned/weird locations we’ve visited.

For the examples below (click each photo for a larger view), we pulled photos that we had taken with our standard digital cameras (Canon) and transferred them to our iPhones for editing in TiltShiftGen. You can see the difference in results between Brian and I —

I took a more subtle or subdued approach in the editing:

Former Camarillo State Mental Hospital.

Clown Motel, Tonopah, Nevada.

Linda Vista Hospital, Los Angeles, California.

Linda Vista Hospital, Los Angeles, California.

Old Washoe Club, Virginia City, Nevada.

Cemetery, Tonopah, Nevada.

Goldfield Hotel, Goldfield, Nevada.

Goldfield Hotel, Goldfield, Nevada.

On the other hand, Brian’s photos are brighter and more vibrant, with higher contrast:

Former Camarillo State Mental Hospital.

Gold Hill Hotel, Virginia City, Nevada.

Gaylord Apartments, Los Angeles, California.

Linda Vista Hospital, Los Angeles, California.

Old Washoe Club, Virginia City, Nevada.

~~
-LMH

Today, the museum celebrates and preserves the history of American law enforcement, and boasts an impressive array of US law enforcement memorabilia dating back to the 1780′s, including the largest collection of law enforcement badges in the country. But from 1876 to 1991, this same space was occupied by those on the wrong side of the law, when it served as the Storey County Jail. Ten original cells remain – five on the main floor and five above – with solitary confinement cells in the center of each row. In the later days of the old jail, from the 1940′s onwards, the top cells were reserved for female inmates, while the bottom ones accommodated the males. In the earlier days, however, cells would have been unisex, with one bunk bed accommodating four inmates at a time. This was the only jail for the entire county, and during the rough and tumble era of the silver rush, the most notorious criminals of the day shared space with drunken miners, soiled doves and hardened cowboys.

Our first night in the jail was fairly quiet, however, on the second night we began to hear unexplained noises and see a number of odd flashes of light. One investigator received unexplained scratches. During one EVP session, one of the investigators asked the question “are you a female?,” at which point we heard what sounds like a murmuring female voice respond. We were able to capture the unexplained noise and our reaction to it on video (see video below).

On the third night, in addition to seeing more mysterious lights and shadows, one investigator was overwhelmed by strong feelings of sadness and had to leave the building. Female crying sounds and moaning were heard. We also heard once again what sounded like a female voice, this time sounding younger in origin. Fortunately, we were able to document some of the unexplained phenomena on video and in our audio recordings.

The following audio clip was captured on our 3rd night, towards the end of our investigation. The museum staff who were accompanying us during our investigation that evening had mentioned that they were going to put on a pot of coffee. During our final EVP session, Layla decided to reference the coffee, asking the question “…how do you feel about that?” We then all heard what sounds like it could be a female disembodied voice, almost childlike in nature, which we could not attribute to any known natural cause. Voice occurs between :06-:09 seconds:

The following video is compiled from footage from our second and third night investigating the old jail. ***It is best viewed while wearing headphones and with volume turned up in order to best hear the anomalous audio.***

Special thanks to the various organizers, guests and speakers of “A Paranormal Interest Retreat,” and to the Silver State State Peace Officer’s Museum. To find out more about the museum, visit: http://www.peaceofficersmuseum.org/

In January, 2010, LA Paranormal Association returned to Linda Vista Hospital with a group of guest investigators including EVP specialists Mark and Debby Constantino. We were conducting an EVP session in the surgical suite with Mark and Debby and Debby asked, “Are you better at moving things and showing yourself than you are at talking through the recorder?” We then heard what sounded at the time like growling or an angry voice. Upon review, it sounds to us like it’s saying, “No…leave!”
*voice occurs between :16 – :20 seconds. As always, we recommend listening with headphones on and the volume turned up.

(this entire session was also captured on video as seen in the previous post Los Angeles Paranormal Returns to Linda Vista Hospital)

For information on booking Linda Vista Hospital as a location, visit: http://www.lindavistalocation.com/

In December 2009, Los Angeles Paranormal had the pleasure of presenting at “Voices From the Past,” an event held by the Hayward Area Historical Society and the American Paranormal Research Association (APRA). The 2-day event featured lectures and evidence presentation from both the LA Paranormal team and the APRA team, and two nights of investigations at two historical locations: the Meek Estate and the McConaghy House. It was an amazing event. We met so many great folks and experienced some really interesting paranormal activity at the two locations.

LA Paranormal investigated the McConaghy House the first night. There, we heard what sounded like disembodied voices in the attic, and we later captured the following evp in one of the children’s bedrooms:

Captured in Mary’s bedroom at the McConaghy house in Hayward, CA. We were sitting in a circle at the foot of Mary’s bed, and there was an antique ladies hat resting on a wooden chest. You will hear one of the people we were investigating with saying “you’re gonna need to move the hat because there are other people.” Then, the EVP comes in right after her – it sounds to us like it’s saying something like “the show” or “good show,” although we’re unsure of what that could be in reference to. Were we amusing a watchful spirit? Perhaps the hat was worn to a show or used in a show?

On night two, we investigated the eerily foreboding (see photo above) Meek Estate. Grant was with a group of people upstairs in the children’s playroom when the door to the room mysteriously opened with no visible cause. Grant immediately got up to inspect the door at which point footsteps were clearly heard in the hallway outside the room. However, upon inspection, it was learned that no one else was around. Although the events were witnessed by several people, the incident was not captured on video and therefore falls in the annals of  “personal experience.”

Another interesting event of the evening occurred again upstairs, this time while we were in a room near the servants quarters. In the middle of an EVP session, Layla tried to elicit a response by knocking on a door (to the tune of “shave and a haircut”) – and got a response in the form of knocking that sounded like it was coming from the next room. Startled, we all immediately ran out into the hallway and heard a louder knock near the top of the servant’s staircase. Upon further inspection, we learned that we were alone in the house at that time. *listen with headphones* – the knocking is faint, but we all clearly heard it at the time.

Thank you again to APRA Paranormal, Heather Farquhar of the Hayward Area Historical Society, and all the attendees of this awesome event!

For more information visit: Hayward Area Historical Society
and also visit APRA’s site: APRA Paranormal

Virginia City, Nevada, or “Old Virginny Town” as it was called by locals, was built around the infamous Comstock Lode, which, in 1859, was the first major discovery of silver in the US, and which lured fortune-seeking prospectors from all over the world. Here, immense fortunes were made by a lucky few while countless others toiled in the mines, often meeting their death in pursuit of the same.

Death came in many forms on the Comstock, not only in the mines, but on the rowdy streets, in the saloons, gambling halls and brothels. Shootouts, bar-room brawls and straight up murder were everyday occurrences. Disease was rife and epidemics such as the typhoid epidemic of 1874, were commonplace.

The Old Washoe Club was built in 1862, during the heart of the silver rush. Originally built as an office building, it later housed a saloon on the first floor, as it still does to this day. It was one of the few Civil War era buildings to survive the great fire of 1875, and this fact led to it’s history being forever altered when a newly established “Millionaire’s Club” relocated after the fire from it’s original home across the street to the Washoe Club’s second floor.

The Millionaire’s Club was where the newly rich and elite of the ‘Comstock’ could rub elbows, drink in excess, gamble and cavort with ‘soiled doves,’ away from the riff-raff of the wild and wooly streets below. Many of the most powerful and notable men of the era were known to grace the spiral staircase that led to the upper floors, including Ulysses S. Grant and honorary Millionaire’s Club member, Mark Twain.

Today, the millionaires, wild west cowboys and soiled doves are long gone in body – but perhaps not in spirit, as the Old Washoe Club is known as one of the more haunted buildings in a very haunted town. It’s haunted reputation has been fueled by media coverage, most notably from the Ghost Adventures documentary, in which the filmmakers, Zak Bagans, Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin captured on video what appeared to be a full-bodied apparition in the ballroom. Subsequent investigations by EVP specialists Mark and Debby Constantino yielded EVPs that seemed to clearly call out the names ‘Zak’ and ‘Nick.’

Our two-night investigation of the Old Washoe was to be marked by an unexpected snowstorm that blanketed the town and turned the streets to ice. The wind was whipping and icy snow pelted us in our faces as we slipped and slid our way down the street toward the former Millionaire’s Club. The air inside as we entered the building was only marginally warmer as we ascended the steep staircase from the side entrance that leads directly to the Millionaires Club. The upper floors of the building are not heated and needless to say, it was mighty cold.

Unsure of what to expect, we did experience paranormal activity during our investigation, especially in the wee hours of the morning. From hearing low, murmuring male conversation throughout both nights with no known origin, to hearing footsteps on the 3rd floor above us and shuffling and shadows at the top of the stairs as we stood at the bottom looking up. We also captured unexplained movement and footsteps on our remote audio recorder during an hour-long break while we were not in the building, from approximately 2:00am to 3:00am. Perhaps most startling, we heard what sounded like the disembodied voice of a young girl, which later appeared again on our recorded audio, along with other mysterious voices that we did not hear at the time.

Given the bawdy history of the location, we were not expecting to encounter the spirit of a young girl, although we later learned that, according to reports, a little girl has been one of three spirits commonly known to haunt the location. According to some reports, she was an orphan sold into prostitution at a young age and others believe that she may have been the daughter of one of the prostitutes who lived and worked here.

We may never know for sure, but we hope to return to the Old Washoe Club to find out more about the silver spirits that linger there. Preferably, in warmer weather.

- LMH

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***As always, the following EVP clips should be listened to with a good set of headphones and the volume turned up high.***

It was approximately 3:00 am on the first night of our investigation, and we had just returned from a break in which we left to get coffee. Upon our return, we conducted an EVP session in the ballroom. Layla asked the question ‘do you mind that we came back?’ and we heard what sounds like the disembodied voice of a little girl saying ‘get out.’

During another EVP session in the ballroom, Layla asks “can you come closer to us?” A few seconds later, you can hear what again sounds like the voice of the little girl, either talking or laughing. In this case, as you can tell from the clip, we did not hear the voice at the time, but only upon review of the audio. *EVP occurs at approx :18 seconds in.

A chilling EVP from the ballroom. In this one, Layla says “we’re not here to harm you” and the response sounds like an angry child yelling “die.” Not audible to us at the time of recording.

Next, another evp from the ballroom. Layla asks, “if you’re a little girl, how old are you?” About halfway through the clip, you will hear a loud drip (water leak dripping into a bucket). Right after the drip, we hear what sounds like a very faint “twenty” then something else we can’t make out, and then, more clearly, a whispery “seven”. It sounds like it could be 3 different voices, and these were not audible to us at the time. Could there have been more than one spirit speaking to us? *This evp is very faint, so you will want to make sure you have a good set of headphones and the volume turned up all the way. The drip occures at approx :10seconds, and the EVPs begin at about :11seconds in.

In this next clip, Layla first asks about the ‘Vigilance group’ and receives no response, but right before she asks about the story of a woman who had been hurt there (some reports reference a prostitute who had been slashed by a knife), we hear what sounds to us like a male voice saying “i am the doc” or “i am the doctor.” Not audible to us at the time of the recording. The loud ‘popping’ sounds you will hear are drops of water falling into a bucket. *EVP occurs at approximately :32 seconds in.

In this clip, Brian, Grant, Les and Layla were all standing at the foot of the stairs that lead from the 2nd to the 3rd floor of the former Millionaire’s Club. Layla was getting ready to ask a question when we heard what sounded like footsteps above us. We later heard more footsteps and along with shuffling and shadows at the top of the stairs.

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*thank you to our friends Kristin Baalman of Altered States Para Radio and Maria Quijada of Channel Islands Ghost Trackers for braving the cold and snow to join us for this investigation. We are still reviewing our video footage from the Old Washoe club, so stay tuned…
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***Update***

Restoration is needed to save the Old Washoe Club Building. Become a member now and help preserve this historic location. All membership donations go towards the restoration of the building. For more details, visit: http://www.thewashoeclub.com/