Gilbert museum may be haunted, experts say after investigation

Gilbert museum may be haunted, experts say after investigation
Oct. 23, 2009
by Srianthi Perera
Azcentral.com

This Halloween, Gilbert Historical Museum
creaks open its old doors and invites the community to a paranormal investigation.

Unlike other Halloween parties where the ghosts are special effects, the cobwebs are plastic and the frights and voices are recorded in advance, some of the museum's scary offerings may be the real thing.

West Coast Ghost and Paranormal Society conducted an investigation there recently and concluded the museum showed possible paranormal activity.

The group spent eight hours on a September night and, using professional equipment set up in six spots, captured evidence to indicate unexplained phenomena within the building. The museum was built in 1914 as Gilbert's first elementary school.

The activity was centered in the museum's basement, which was used as a gym and a music room when it was a school.

In what is now the library, several investigators experienced voices of children. A girl hummed and sang on two occasions. A low voice grumbled on two occasions also. The sounds, called "electronic voice phenomena," were captured on audio recorders.

The team also caught on video what appeared to be answers to questions; a flashlight on the floor dimmed and brightened in response to the questions asked. The flashlight batteries were new.

In the basement, a female investigator also felt the "cobweb effect," where it feels as though you have walked through a cobweb when there aren't any there.

A current theory, the society's founder Andy Rice said, is that spirits draw energy from around them and create static electricity which turns into a "cobweb" experience for humans.

But Rice said it takes more than this activity to substantiate paranormal phenomenon.

"We'd like to have enough to back it up; to me, that's not enough. We need more video evidence and personal experiences," Rice said, adding, "They have some sort of activity going on there. Whether it's paranormal, I don't know."

Since it formed in 2007 in Phoenix, the non-profit West Coast Ghost and Paranormal Society has conducted 30 investigations. Rice, who analyzes businesses by day, spends 40-60 hours weekly on paranormal investigations, traveling to various locations in the region with members of his 16-strong team.

The society came to Gilbert when museum volunteer Bobbi Smith heard about its work at Monti's Casa Vieja restaurant in Tempe and invited them to investigate the museum. The service was free of charge.

Part of the society's mission is to debunk notions held by some of the people who now use the building. Volunteers told the crew about the footsteps and voices they experienced in the gift shop.

Rice concluded that the building creates sounds as a result of temperature and humidity changes.

"Footsteps and voices do carry throughout the museum. The acoustical patterns from the wooden floors create the perfect atmosphere for voices to be misinterpreted by someone in another part of the museum as something paranormal," wrote Rice in his investigative report.

"During our investigation, we were careful to eliminate all possible audio contamination from team members. No significant EMFs (electro magnetic fields) were present that would give the feeling of being watched, cause nausea or audio and visual hallucinations," he wrote.

The report records the weather conditions, seismic data, geothermal and topography research, including magnetic activity, for the day of investigation.

The crew plans to return to the museum before the year ends, and hopes to have firm paranormal evidence by next Halloween.

Till then, the museum is hoping the community will turn out for its first Halloween event.

Don't be afraid, Rice added: "No one shoved or pushed. Every encounter we had was friendly."