True Ghost Stories: Jim Harold's Campfire 1
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If whoever or whatever it is left, I'd be sad. I really would. The incidents have kind of slowed down a bit, but we're starting to hear noises again. I think he's making a return.
I'm pretty much grounded in science. I would say that before all of this I had been a skeptic, but always open to it...open to the idea that there's energy in the world and that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, so where does that go? I guess I can accept it from a scientific perspective.
My family thinks the idea of a haunting is very credible. In fact, I had my sister and her family up for a summer after it first started happening, and my two little nephews refused to come in the house alone. They believe that something lives here.
-Chris, Minnesota
4. It Was Just the Cat
When I was growing up, we had quite a large yellow cat. Family pet. When she was getting on in years, she became ill, so we had to put her down. I'm a skeptical person, and I haven't had many ghostly experiences or anything, but about a month after we put her to sleep, my mother and I were talking to each other in the living room, a few feet apart, and the strangest thing happened.
I know what I saw. I'm not sure what she saw, but I saw something pet-sized dart in between us, running between our legs, and both of us looked down at the same moment. I asked, "What was that?" And not thinking of the implications of what she was saying, she blurted out, "Oh, it was just the cat."
But the thing of it is, the cat had already passed on, as I mentioned, so it was very odd. I wouldn't have believed it if it had just been me, but she was also there and we both reacted to it. It was interesting, to say the least.
-Heidi, New York
5. Calling Out the Spirits
I live in Minnesota and recently visited Lilydale Park. It's very near the famed Wabasha Street Caves, which are supposedly extremely dangerous and have signs all over that say so. Lilydale Park is apparently haunted.
The whole adventure started with my buddy Kevin. He had a film class in college and his project was to make a documentary. He decided to do one on ghost hunting. That was absolutely up my alley! I jumped all over it and said, "Absolutely, let's do it."
The night we went there it was dead quiet at first. Nothing. It seemed very calm. There were no loud animal noises. It was in the dead of winter, so I'm sure they were all sleeping by that time. But the first odd thing that happened actually did have to do with an animal.
I've always been a big fan of the Ghost Adventures show on Travel Channel so I took a page out of out of Zak Bagans's book: I tried to do a little intimidation. The Lilydale Park area is near St. Paul, but it's in the middle of nowhere St. Paul, so a lot of really bad things like crime happen in the area. There's a lot of bad energy.
So, the first thing I did was to call out any evil spirits that were there. Suddenly, we heard this incredibly strange howling noise. I've never heard a dog howl like that, and I don't know why a wolf or coyote would be in the middle of St. Paul. It kind of set the tone for the night. Then we walked down the trails, asked questions, and did a little EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) work.
There is a center trail that kind of forks to the left and to the right. You could clearly see where it was because the ground was very white. Me and my buddy Kevin were walking down the trail, just not paying attention, looking straight ahead. All of a sudden, the last part of the trail went completely black and then became white again.
We didn't hear any movement—nothing. It just went black. Me, being the skeptic, I went down there to investigate. There were no trees, so there's no chance that the trail got blacked out by the trees, because (a) I wasn't moving, and (b) there weren't any branches there. So that was another strange but interesting part of the evening.
Later on, after we were pretty much done, we were ready to get in the car, and I asked one last thing. I just asked if there was any evidence that we may have caught that we didn't realize, and probably a minute and a half later, there was a sound. We were standing by some steel barriers and it sounded like someone took a sledgehammer to it—right next to us.
I listened to the EVP that we recorded thousands of times. The only thing that I can get out of it is, "Will you save me?" It's perfect.
Our little ghost-hunting adventure piqued my interest, if nothing else. I am planning a trip to Waverly Hill Sanatorium in Kentucky. It is supposedly haunted!
-Bob, Minnesota
6. Minuteman on Guard
I was about 13 years old this time I had a friend over. We lived in an old house. It was built around 1850, and there was a shed behind it that was the original house that was built in the 1700s. My father was using it as a shed and it also functioned as a garage.
Anyway, it was time for my friend to go home, and she needed a ride because it was about 9 o'clock in the evening and dark out. She and I walked out to the car ahead of my father, thinking he'd be out in a few minutes. When we got out there together, it was very dark.
We looked into the shed/garage to go open the car doors. In front of the car, as big as life, we both saw a glowing green Revolutionary War soldier! We saw it at the same time, because we looked at each other and went, "Wha—? Did you see that?" Both of us!
We turned around and ran back into that house like we were on fire—hysterical 13-year-old girls. We ran up to my father and said, "You've got to see this, blah blah blah! We're not going back out there!" He just kind of chuckled at us and said, "Oh, you guys are silly." Of course, when he walked back out there with us, there wasn't anything there.
There were some other tales around town but nothing like what we experienced. There was a house in the same town that was even older, from the early 1700s, owned by one of the town founders. Supposedly, they had had to house some Hessian soldiers in the basement there. They would have been prisoners of war; they were German mercenaries. So there was a little bit of a history in our town of people from that time period who may not have died under the best circumstances. On the property where I grew up there was actually a sort of little family cemetery plot. My grandparents, when they bought the house, removed the headstones.
It was 30 years ago now, but it was kind of burned into my memory. I remember sort of a lime-green light, and darker portions that were enough that you could make out some features, you know, like the shadows of someone having a coat on, and maybe a belt. There was enough detail. It was sort of like if you looked at a sepia-toned photograph or something, except instead of being brown it was green. And it was a vibrant light, because it drew our attention. Looking into a completely dark shed, it was like, Whoa, there it is.
It's kind of funny, because people kind of laugh at you and they say, "Oh, that can't happen," but I've also met other people who claim to have seen spirits. I love to ask them, "Was it green and glowing?" A lot of times they'll say yes, which always makes me feel sort of vindicated, you know?
-Katie, Connecticut
7. The Groaning Ghost
I was living in a small farmhouse in a very, very remote area in northern Minnesota, and my boyfriend at the time and I were asleep. We were woken out of a dead sleep by something that went "UHHH." Right outside the bedroom door. And we just instantly said, "What the heck was that??" We were thinking, Was it the wind? No, the wind's not blowing. Was it this? Was it that?
It was so loud that it kind of reverberated, from what I remember. We got ourselves settled down, and kind of calmed down a little bit and talked about it, and went back to sleep. As soon as we got to sleep again, it went "UHHH." Right outside the bedroom door again. It was weird, and it was so loud it vibrated the door of the bedroom.
This was in 1985, and I still think about it constantly. And I wonder, What could it be? And I'm a total debunker. I tried to think of every possible thing it could be, and I can't think of anything.
Well, the area was settled in the late 1800s by a Finnish family, and the house that I was in was about 60 years old at the time. I know that because my dad actually spent time with his friend who l
ived in the house when he was a small boy. But there was another house on the property that burned to the ground before that. Whether anyone died in that house I don't know.
There was that instance, and then there was another when I was home by myself. It was just me and my German Shepherd and my cat, and I was lying in bed reading, wide awake, and all of a sudden it sounded like someone was stomping around in my basement wearing wooden clogs. And the first thing I thought was, Why is there a horse in my basement? It was crazy, it was that loud. And my Shepherd went up to the top of the basement stairs, and her hair was standing up and she was snarling. I was petrified.
That clomping noise probably went on—it probably seemed like it went on longer than it did—but I would guess it went on for about 10 seconds. I tried to re-create that sound in the basement—and again, it was super loud, just like that voice that yelled at me—so, I don't know. It scared my dog; it scared me half to death. I think if it were to happen now, I think I wouldn't be so scared, probably partly from listening to your show.
-Keeley, Minnesota
8. Goodnight, Grandpa
When I was a kid, my grandmother watched us a lot. The night of my grandfather's funeral, I decided to spend the night at my grandmother's house the way I usually did. When my grandfather was alive, there was almost a ritual that he would perform: In the middle of the night, he'd walk down the hall and go into the kitchen. I'd be sleeping on the couch. From my vantage point there, I could see into the kitchen. He'd go in for a piece of fruit or something like that and then he would walk back up the hall. I'd awaken slightly and usually hear him crunch into an apple or something as he was walking back up the hall going back to bed.
As I mentioned, the night of his funeral, I decided to spend the night there, because I just wanted to feel closer to him. For some reason, in the middle of the night I woke up because I heard somebody walking down the hall, and I wasn't sure if my grandmother was getting up for something. I know I was awake because I pretty much sat up on the couch and waited for her to come down the hall, but she never did.
All of a sudden there was a light on in the kitchen, as if someone had opened the fridge. And I was thinking, Okay... I was sitting there waiting, and the light went off, and I didn't see anyone come out of the kitchen. It was light enough in the house that you could see someone walking in and out of the kitchen. After the light shut off I heard someone walking down the hall, and I heard a crunch, like an apple being bitten into. So I just kind of rolled over, said "Goodnight, Grandpa," and went back to sleep.
I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that there is so much more after this life. In the years since, I've had a chance to process it, and the experience has really helped me deal with any kind of loss in my life, because I know that they're still here, you know what I mean? I'm sad that they're gone, but I can say goodbye to them and feel as though I'm going to see them again.
-Thomas, Illinois
9. The Girl in the Attic
When I was about 9 or 10 years old, my best friend in the world was one of the neighborhood boys, named Hubert. His family had invited me to go with them on a long weekend to visit some of their relatives, so I went. I'm not really sure where we went, but it couldn't have been very far; it was just a couple hours' drive. Not much about the weekend was that memorable, to tell you the truth. I don't remember much about the family either. Of course, being a young boy, I wasn't aware of much anyway.
So anyway, we got there, Hubert and I. He was usually the one who was more inquisitive; he'd do things...he was mischievous, in other words. So, at one point, we decided to go up to the attic and play. The one thing I remember about the attic is that it was very clean and sparse. There wasn't a whole lot to do up there.
We got up there, and noticed that there was a little girl in the attic. This little girl, she wanted to stay in one corner of the attic, like that was her space, and she didn't want to come down and really play with us much. I remember at one point we had maybe a ball or something that we were tossing around, and we'd toss it to her. She'd never respond.
She never talked. She had long hair, and I never saw her face; it was strange. Never saw her face. She had long hair that basically just covered her face. It came down probably to the middle of her chest. And I remember she was wearing maybe a white sundress or a gown of some sort. Her clothes seemed modern. That's my feeling about it.
So, after trying to play some ball with her, we decided...I think there was a table, so we were going to play some cards or checkers, something like that. We got her to join us at the table, and she was just sitting there with us. We'd make our moves, and she was just sitting there, not doing anything. She didn't talk, and I don't remember seeing her face. It was kind of like the girl in The Ring. At the time, I was a kid and I thought, She's no fun; she doesn't want to play with us.
Well, in addition to how strange she was acting, my memory of her is not of fluid movement; it's not like she actually moved. She didn't seem ghostly, like ethereal or something like that; I just remember that she was in the corner and she wouldn't play with us, and then all of a sudden she was at the table. Kind of herky-jerky; it was almost like snapshots of her.
Well, the family...that's what led me to believe that something strange was going on, because I remember after we did what we were going to do in the attic, we got bored with it or whatever, and came downstairs. I remember watching a movie with the family and even having dinner with them later that night, and the girl wasn't there. She wasn't there with the family at any point! If the girl was for real, she would have been there with the family. At that point it dawned on me: Oh God, we've been playing with a ghost! That's the only conclusion I could come up with, really.
If he listens to the podcast: Why don't you call up, Hubert? Maybe he could fill in some of the holes for us. I haven't been in touch with him since. They moved away.
-Lindsay, North Carolina
10. Civil War Phantoms
I grew up in Mechanicsville, Virginia, with my family—my two siblings and parents. Our property was located on the actual battlefield where the battle of Beaver Dam Creek took place. It was a major engagement during the American Civil War. If you were to go outside and sit on my front porch, you would be less than a quarter of a mile to the actual marker of this battlefield that claimed well more than 1,000 casualties.
Oddly enough, I never associated my experiences within the house with the battle until I got older and became interested in the paranormal. And it just seemed kind of strange that very peculiar things happened to me as a kid growing up in this house, because the battlefield was so close to where we lived.
The first thing that happened to me in this house, the first thing that I noticed, was in the early to mid-1990s. I was somewhere between 8 and 12 years old. As I would go to sleep every night, I would hear breathing. This was human breathing: inhales, exhales...it was clear as day, and it would happen multiple times throughout the week. There's nothing else I could have mistaken it for—there was no central air in the house, no fans, nothing. It sounded exactly like breathing. Almost every other night I would just listen to it, and it would scare the hell out of me.
I told my parents about it, and they didn't really believe me. Quite a few things actually happened in that house, but they didn't experience anything. It seemed to only gravitate toward me and my room, which was really strange. Perhaps it's because kids are more susceptible to these types of things.
One interesting incident happened when I was about 11 years old. It was a typical summer and we were out all day climbing trees and having fun. I'd jumped from one branch to another and lost my grip; as I fell back I tried to break my fall with my arm, and I broke it. I ran home crying. My parents didn't quite believe that I had actually broken it, so they wanted to wait until the next day before they went and got the X-ray.
That night, they put me in my sister's room for the evening because it's closer to their bedroom and the bed was easier to get into with my hurt
arm. So I was lying there in the middle of the night (I didn't know it at the time, but I did have a broken arm). I was there with my arm elevated, and the house was totally still. Not a sound. All of a sudden, I heard footsteps start from the beginning of the hallway, and they were coming in the direction of the bedroom.
I was lying in the bed, parallel to the wall that meets the hallway and near the open door to the hallway. I listened to the noise come closer and closer—and it was unmistakable; they were definitely footsteps—and as the footsteps landed directly in front of my room, right where my head was, near the door, I screamed loudly for my mother. She jumped out of bed and asked, "What's going on?" She reassured me that no one was up; it couldn't have been anybody—but I heard it. Someone or something was walking straight down the hallway, as clear as day.
Well, growing up we would always hear the schoolyard stories about hearing cannon fire, or gun shots, those types of things. I never experienced anything like that. I did, as I got into the paranormal, try to look into it myself, and I wasn't able to find anything. I even asked—you know, as an adult—I asked my siblings, "Did you experience anything in this house?" And no, nothing at all. But I know something sure happened to me.