Date: Saturday, March 13-14, 1999
Time: Started at 4:00 PM and ended at 7:00 AM
Location: Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia Pa.
Equipment: Camera -- Cannon Snappy AF (Auto Focus) with the strap removed. Film -- Kodak Gold 400 speed. Thermal Scanner -- Raynger ST2. Tape Recorder -- Sony Portable Cassette Recorder with external microphone. Video Camera -- Sony Camcorder.
Weather: When we first arrived the temp was in the low to mid 40's with light winds. As night fell, the weather became colder with temps in the high 20's. No fog, rain, or mist was present. The sky was clear until about 4:00am.
History: Please visit the website of Fort Mifflin for the correct info on it's history. As for ghostly history, the following are just a few:
1. People have been given very detailed tours about
the Fort by an unknown tour guide.
2. A man has been spotted carrying lumber over his shoulder in front of the
Officer's Quarters.
3. A crying/screaming woman has been seen high atop the Forts walls.
4. A faceless man has been seen by visitors.
5. Unknown noises and voices have been heard throughout the Fort.
Many more strange things have happened aside from the above mentioned.
Those
Present:
Investigators -- Lew & Sharon G., Donna & Kenny B., Bob R., Andy
K., Rachel G., and Jen J.
Diane, Office Manager of the Fort
A reenactor
Stan, a friend of ours who allowed us the opportunity to use some very impressive
and new equipment that no other ghost hunting group in the world has access
to. This equipment is Stan's own invention which has won him the "Inventor
of the Year" award. The equipment Stan invented was not made for Ghost Hunting.
However, we, as well as Stan, have come to realize that it still may be of
use to us in obtaining evidence of the existence of spirits. We are just
now beginning to experiment with this new technology and will reveal our
findings when the time is right.
Report: Everyone arrived to the fort at 4:00PM. Once unpacked, we walked the fort like we normally do before actually starting our investigation.
Because it would be nearly impossible to document how many times, when, and in what order I had entered the fort's buildings, I have decided to list each building and document my findings and experiences while in them (as I have done in the past). I find that this works best.
Casemates on the exterior of the fort:
During our last visit (second investigation), one of the visiting reenactors
who used to live at Fort Mifflin told us of a few Casemates that were located
in the woods just outside of the fort's walls. By the time he had mentioned
this to us, it was too late to go exploring.
This time however (third investigation), we were able to locate the Casemates while it was still daylight out. It was a pretty good trek through mud and brambles but we found them. Each Casemate (there were two) consisted of nothing more than a tiny room. I'd say that each was no larger 6 feet by 10 feet in size. Because the two Casemates are no longer cared for and are left wide open, both were very dirty with leaves and other junk scattered about inside.
At no time did we detect anything unusual. However, it should be noted that while inside, Jen was able to see through her night vision video camera, dirt and other junk flying about the room.
Dungeon/Casemates:
We had entered this area of the fort many times throughout our entire stay.
I had absolutely no results or unusual equipment readings in this section
of the fort. Nonetheless, pics were taken.
Oven Room/Kitchen:
Entered this room a few times. Each visit turned up nothing unusual.
Torpedo Magazine:
No results and nothing unusual.
Artillery Shed:
No results and nothing unusual.
Blacksmith's House:
No results and nothing unusual.
Sallyports:
No results and nothing unusual.
Parade Grounds:
No results and nothing unusual.
Powder Magazine:
This building is usually one of our "hot spots". But because we had been
experimenting with some new equipment in this building, all investigators
stayed away from this area of the fort as to not ruin the outcome of the
experiment. However, I did enter the magazine early in the evening to take
some photos. Nothing out of the ordinary happened while there.
Officer's Quarters:
In the past, I have had some rather strange and unexplained events happen
to me while in this area of the fort. During this visit, our third, much
more had happened.
Throughout the night, my group pretty much consisted of myself, Andy, Jen and Rachel. I'd have to say that 90% of our investigating was done in the Officer's Quarters. At about 10:00PM, myself, Rachel and Jen had ventured up to the second floor of the OQ. When we got there we found Andy standing in the last room of the second floor looking through his night vision scope. This room was connected to a smaller room that was separated by a door that leads down to another small room that once was a kitchen.
Andy told us that when he had first got there, he had heard a loud bang coming from the back room (smaller one). I then told him that it could have been Rachel, Jen and I shutting the kitchen door on the first floor. He said no it hadn't been because he could seen the three of us walking around on the outside of the OQ when he had heard the bang. He also heard other noises coming from the back room while standing there. No one had been in the building except for Andy at the time. He also said that right before we got there, he had heard what sounded like someone's feet shuffling around in the room next to the one he had been in. A room that had been locked and off limits to us due to the relics and artifacts that hadn't yet been marked and put away.
The three of us decided that we would stay with Andy to see if anything further would happen. After about 30 minutes of nothing, Jen said that she was going out to the building in which all our stuff was in so that she could get some of her other equipment. I'd say that Jen had been gone no longer than 2 minutes when the next unexplained event occurred.
All along, we had kept the door that was in-between the two rooms upstairs almost completely shut (left open about 4 inches). Also, when Jen had left out of the room, she left the door that leads to the outside, open about 6 inches. All of a sudden, the door between the two rooms had come swinging open and the door to the outside had shut. Of course we thought nothing of it and assumed that it had been the wind. Well, we were unsuccessful at re-creating the the events. We had opened and positioned the doors in the exact same location that they had been in before they suddenly closed and opened. They never once moved. We did this throughout the night and not once did it repeat itself.
Throughout the night similar events happened such as the door to the outside slamming shut completely when it was open. This had even happened while Kenny was up with us. He tried and tried again to set the door up to see if maybe the wind had blown it shut. It was impossible for three reasons. For one, the wind was not blowing that hard (maybe about 1mile per hour). Two, the door to the room has to be accessed after passing through two outer doors (the door to the room is actually inside an alcove type area). And three, the door took a bit of force to be slammed shut in the fashion that it had. Even though we really don't believe it was the wind, we still aren't going to rule it out totally.
That was pretty much the highlights of the night. Nothing too exciting happened. We were pretty much done around 5:30-6:00am so we started gathering our things. Once packed we did a final run through and thanked Diane for her generosity.
Impression: My impression is still the same as before. Fort Mifflin is definitely home to more than one spirit.
Thanks again Diane for allowing us to stay!!
Sharon G.
Vice-president
3/16/99