A visit to the Iron Island Museum...

Saturday night, me and Shannon Steele (from Kiss 98.5) went and did some ghosthunting at the Iron Island Museum in Lovejoy. The SciFi Channel's Ghosthunters found stuff, so we were hoping we would too!

I would love to believe in ghosts, but I need rock solid proof myself before I'll ever consider that. So I went in with the attitude of disproving everything that happened. I was successful occasionally, but not with everything.

My plan was to go through the place without any technical equipment. I wanted to experience this with just my own senses. But eventually, I did bring out a digital camera to take some pictures for the blog here. And the others did have audio equipment (which turned out to be a good thing I guess).

Here's a rundown of some of the stuff that happened (with all times being approximate - I didn't have a watch)...

7:45pm: We showed up and met with Jen (our guide for the night) and Linda (the president of the Iron Island Preservation Society). Jen previously didn't believe in any of this until she started spending some time in the museum. Her opinions have now changed and she's a definite believer.

10:00pm: After an initial tour and some supper (while watching the Iron Island episode of Ghosthunters), we began in the Kids Room of the museum (I turned the lights on just for this picture - the lighting makes it look like the table was hovering, but trust me, it wasn't). This is my favorite room as this is where all the old Crystal Beach memorabilia is (the museum is a cool place all on its own, even without the haunted stuff). Armed with a KII EMF meter (measures electromagnetic fields that go along with paranormal experiences) and an audio recorder (for the EVP's - electronic voice phenomena) , we waited for the ghosts to contact us. The KII meter did move around a bit, spiking occasionally. The original thought was Shannon's phone camera caused it. But why would it cause the meter to go crazy only sporadically? It should have made it do that consistently. But we stopped debating that when something real did happen. We saw a light go out in another part of the building. Sitting in a dark room waiting for something to happen and then having something actually happen was freaky. Thinking about it at the time, I tried to reason that maybe it was from outside like a car going by or something like that. Just this morning, Linda e-mailed me this...

I checked the cameras and at 10:10 PM the light in the back of the building next door went off (probably on a timer) and it was at 10:12 that we got up and looked around. That had to be it. It was very scary at the time, wish it would have been something else, but we have to try to debunk everything before we put it out there because if we put one thing out there wrong people would think everything is fixed.

That is an awesome attitude she has! I do believe Linda is completely honest about everything that happens at the museum. So that was disproved (which is good, because I didn't think it was anything special), but the audio recording from that room was strange. After we left the room, we listened to it. There was a definite voice on the recording that wasn't there when we were in the room. It sounded like a kid saying one quick thing in between something we were saying. Hmmm. I'm not a fan of audio recordings of ghosts because I think we should also be able to hear them ourselves while there. And there were cell phones around - maybe that had an effect on the recording somehow. Plus, I didn't want to rely on technical stuff - that can be faulty. But whatever, there was something there.

1:00am: Linda went home to sleep - she didn't plan on spending the entire night and had actually stayed a lot later than she thought she would. As she left and goodbyes were being said, I was alone in the house briefly so I went wandering around. I have to admit, I was spooked just being alone in an unknown place and going through it in the dark. This is the hallway I walked all the way down to get to the far room. Sorry for the blurry picture - in addition to not being familiar with this camera, I was holding it with just one hand (the other was holding the flashlight). Nothing crazy happened though. But this was definitely something to remember!

3:30am: Me, Jen, and Shannon were talking while wandering through the place, recording as we walked. When played back, there was something making noise over me and Jen. I even commented on it in the recording, but I thought it was far away. In the recording, it sounded like it was right there next to us. I'd like to say it was because of the strange acoustics where we were at the time, but I'm not sure. Sadly, I don't have the audio recordings to upload here (again, I didn't bring my own equipment). Next time though, I'll bring recording equipment.

5:00am: We went into the basement. Basements can be spooky to begin with. This one especially because there's dirt and stone walls. We did hear a noise from upstairs that stopped us all at one point, but we decided to ignore it and continue on (old houses like this will make noise). We came upon a wall that was in the process of being dug through. Jen said psychics didn't like this area. So naturally, I peeked my head in. Then I reached as far as I could with the flashlight while Shannon video recorded what was in there. At that moment, there was a very loud door slam (or something) from upstairs and Shannon's camera shut off. The camera didn't run out or have the battery die - it just turned off for no reason (it had done it a couple other times while in the basement too). We immediately went upstairs just to be safe (the noise could have been anything, but I'm pretty sure it was from inside the house). No one was there though. And we couldn't find the noise. That's strange. Stranger still - the camera resumed working once upstairs.

5:45am: We went into the Altar Room to investigate. While in there, there was a very loud slam coming from the room next to ours. There was no way anyone was in that room. I immediately checked just to be sure. Nope, nothing. Okay, I really can't explain that.

At 7:00am, we called it a night. Shannon had Kiss music to schedule and I had to drive to Rochester to visit my parents for Easter. Going in, I was just expecting to have fun. We were definitely successful in that (this was one of those crazy things that I'll remember for the rest of my life).

But I do think we had some stuff happen that just can't be explained too...

--- The loud noise and camera stopping in the basement. Sure, that could be someone playing games upstairs. But I really don't think anyone was there and it was too loud of a noise to have just been something random. And how could we explain Shannon's camera stopping exactly then too?!

--- The loud noise from the room next to us while in the Altar Room. That was weird and couldn't have been anyone. I had checked immediately.

--- The unknown voices / sounds on the recordings. That never happens to me when I record stuff at work or home (for station broadcasts). So why here?

Overall, well worth the visit. We had an awesome time and I would highly recommend this! I can't definitely say this place (or anywhere for that matter) is haunted. But if there is a place that could be haunted, this would definitely be it! It even has that feel to it. Hopefully, something more will happen the next time I go (and there will absolutely be a next time).

One thing I'll definitely do next time - take better pictures! I was so focused on just being there, I didn't even get a picture of Linda and Jen (sorry about that)!

Shannon says she'll be uploading her audio soon. I'll put a link here for that when she does.

You can book your own overnights at the museum at the Iron Island Museum website. If you go and experience anything out of the ordinary, please let me know!