If there’s something strange in your neighbourhood…who you gonna call?
In the case of Minden Hills manager of cultural services, Shannon Kelly, who oversees the township’s Heritage Village, it was the Paranormal Seekers.
Kelly invited the Durham Region-based group’s researchers this spring for a look at the Stirling Bank building, Stanhope Schoolhouse circa 1898, and Bowron house, a log cabin from the 1860s.
Spokesperson and lead researcher, Rachel Cross, heads up the nine-person team.
“Our goal is to go into these locations, find that spooky, interesting history, share it with everyone and get people interested in learning about the past and learning about the culture in their community,” she said.
She added they often say, “a haunting is history waiting to be heard. We kind of bring that past, connect it with the present in that interesting way that hopefully grabs people’s attention and gets them to come out, whether they’re going to have an experience or not.”
They did have encounters when they descended on the site on a mid-April evening with researchers, investigators, intuitives and technology.
It was a dark and dreary Friday night, April 12, when the group arrived, beginning with a tour and setting up base camp in the cultural centre. They began their investigations in Stirling Bank.
“Immediately, right off the bat, it was like bang, bang, bang, things began to happen and we couldn’t even get our equipment out fast enough,” Cross said.
She added they captured a figure on their structured light sensor (SLS) camera. She said it was in human form and appeared to be pointing towards military artifacts in a cabinet. They just didn’t know which one it was pointing at.
She noted they were the first people to be in the building since January, “so this could be why things were happening. Whoever was there was like, ‘oh, people’.”
She said right after that, their equipment batteries started to drain – something that happened all night long, and a sign the entities were drawing the energy. “Anything they can use to manifest, to get what they want across, how they’re going to show themselves,” Cross said. She noted the video cameras only lasted for about seven minutes before batteries completely drained.
She said there was “surprisingly lots going on. More than we thought.”
Other bits of technology were “going off.” One of the team members thought she saw a shadow, and what looked like flashes going by, and their music box began to play. She said they tried to figure out who the person was by asking questions, answered via a ghost box app. It was inconclusive.
Moving to the schoolhouse, Cross said the SLS camera captured something on the ceiling. She isn’t sure what it was. “We don’t know if it was just somebody saying ‘what are these people doing here? I’m just going to stay up here and hang out’ type thing. The music box did go off. It went off so much I had to physically turn it off because it wasn’t stopping. And when I went to turn it back on, it was dead.” She said that was unusual since it usually winds down and does not cut out completely. She said another member of the team thought he saw a shadow.
The last stop, Bowron House, continued to suck the batteries, Cross said. “We just want to talk to you, don’t drain our batteries,” she recalled thinking. She sat on the floor in the parlour with voice-cancelling headphones and a blindfold while plugged into the ghost box. The others asked questions while she repeated words she was receiving. She said a bell they use also rang once.
Cross said they do research about once a month and activity at the Heritage Village was above average, especially the Stirling Bank. However, they were never fearful.
“Everything there was great. When we went into the Bowron House, we felt like there were a lot of eyes on us, ‘what are you doing in my house… maybe you should leave’ type thing, but it wasn’t menacing or evil.”
Kelly said she has not experienced any paranormal activity in the original buildings in the Heritage Village, but has had community members share stories with her. She has worked with Cook and her team in Port Perry at the Scugog Shores Historical Museum, and reached out to her again when she came to Minden.
And stay tuned as Cross said they will be back in August to investigate another Minden property.
