By Danielle Nyland
T
he Greene County Historical Society Museum has an interesting and sometimes strange history, which we talked about in this month’s “I Love This Place” and in “Ghost Hunting Greene.” When T.J. suggested taking the GreeneScene on a ghost hunt through the museum, I jumped at the chance. The first day of fall was the perfect date for the hunt and thanks to a turn in the weather, a chill was in the air – perfect atmosphere for an after-hours, lights-out ghost hunt. My husband, Daytona, and I met T.J. and fellow WPPH team member Adele Barton, lead investigator and researcher, outside the Museum late that evening in preparation for the hunt. Before we head in T.J. shares some interesting events from earlier that day. A couple attending Stone to Steel were walking around the museum, using a MEL meter to check for paranormal activity. While touring, the meter spiked. He happened to share this with T.J., who then took him around and he received an even bigger spike, “the biggest he ever had,” T.J. says. T.J. also had his own experience while waiting o us to arrive. While sitting outside, he heard someone banging a window from the inside of the empty museum. Once inside, T.J. and Adele take us on a tour of the museum, sharing paranormal happenings throughout the museum, letting us know what areas seem to be hot spots and what areas have little activity. We start in the main hall of the museum, where many of the museum’s WWI artifacts are stored. The Thin Mints EVP mentioned in the other article occurred here. The other rooms on the main level – the gift shop, the kitchen, the dining
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room, and the parlor – have had some activity such as hearing children, noises, a cabinet door opening on its own twice when investigators asked for a sign that someone was there. The music room across the hall is often a source of activity but what seems to be there doesn’t respond to investigators- although it gets upset when they leave. Former board president Mark Fischer shared a story with T.J. from when he was a young boy hanging out at the museum. While there during a storm, a bright flash of lightning lit the room up, revealing 3 figures in the room. Upstairs, the investigators have had little success with the front bedrooms. The upstairs is difficult to investigate because of the clock room – the loud ticking of the large clock ruins recordings taken in its vicinity. The upper west wing, which serves as storage wing, however is a different matter. Nicknamed the ‘bad hallway’, the atmosphere in the storage wing often seems to leave people uncomfortable and feeling sick. “I’ve gotten sick while investigating in here and I get really anxious,” shares Adele, while we tour the storage wing. “I was up here investigating with other people around room 8 or 9, when another team member asked me if I could see what was happening around me. I couldn’t but he said that he could see shadow figures walking around behind me.” T.J. adds, “We actually had another team member leave because he was physically ill and in tears. I’ve been called by name, heard voice recordings warning me to get out, growling noises. Once, while up here with another investigator, we were standing back to back, all of our devices going off, and there were stomping noises going around us in a circle. Suddenly the footsteps stopped and
we heard the chiming sound downstairs of the door being opened, but once we went down to investigate there was no one there.” As we walk back downstairs into the lower level of the west wing, T.J. shares a visitor’s experience while in the lower west wing, where most of the WWII relics are kept. “Years ago, there was a lady taking pictures of the hall. In one of her pictures, a woman dressed as a World War II nurse stood at the end of the hall, but you could see through her.” We continue down, into the basement, where the mentally ill were kept when the house served as the poor farm. The rooms still have the remains of the chains that were supposedly used to chain the disturbed in the rooms. The basement has a particular story attached to it that seems to be one of those urban legends you hear about places like this, but this one is backed up with documents proving it is true. We won’t go into details about the story, but activity in the basement often seems to come from this troubled individual. During an EVP session when asked a specific question about the incident, a voice was heard confirming it. “The activity at the museum is pretty constant. While it doesn’t happen on command, you should walk out of here with an experience,” T.J. says, back in the main hall, as he passes out the gear and turns out the lights. T.J. asks me where I would like to start, and armed with the knowledge of the grisly tale, I pick the basement. Flashlights in hand, we head down into the lowest levels of the museum. Once there, T.J. and Adele spread the equipment around – a MEL meter, KII EMF meter, a thermal imaging camera, 2 motion sensor lights, and a REM pod, along with 2 voice recorders.
The downstairs west wing hallway during the day. This is where the WWII nurse was spotted in pictures, as well as where we thought we heard EVP replies on the voice recorder.
Daytona Nyland using the thermal imaging camera as he explores the basement. GreeneScene Magazine •
OCTOBER 2018
