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Overnight Investigation with PGHA
We sat down for the opening presentation on one of the bunks. We both smelled smoke, like from a fireplace at the same time. We looked at each other, and could not locate the source for the smell. It was definitely smoke from wood burning, not a cigarette or cigar smoke smell. Mary approached Lew (the coordinator) after the presentation, and he stated that he did not experience that smell.
The first place we went was the Officer’s Quarters, since we had results there last time. The group consisted of Mary, her husband, John, and me. We stood by the back door in the front bedroom in the officer’s quarters and Mary and I both noticed at the same time that we were covered with goosebumps. It was not cold that night. As a matter of fact, our clothes were clinging to us with sweat!
I felt something cold go across the back of my neck, like a light touch, and then Mary reported that she felt her shirt moving. We called to John to take a picture as we were experiencing something, and then I saw the profile of a man’s face on the fireplace screen. He was wearing a cap, squared at the top, with a short bill in front. He had a very prominent nose. The profile appeared in the top left portion of the fireplace screen. Neither Mary or John saw the face. The face was mostly white with shades of grey; it was not flesh-colored.
At 10 p.m., we headed into Casemate 5, one of the notoriously haunted areas of the fort. Mary and I both reported that we saw a shadow moving back and forth across the back wall. After the first picture was taken, we saw the shadow moving towards us. It was a very large, dark figure appeared to be over six feet tall. Suddenly, I could not catch my breath and I was seized by complete panic and began to shake. At that moment, I felt something hit my chest and I fell back. John grabbed my arm and asked what was wrong. All I could do was repeat, “I have to get out, I have to get out of here”. Then the sensation was gone and I felt very silly, but I was still shaking. I don’t know why I felt like I couldn’t breathe, or why I panicked, but after the sensation left, I was fine. Right before the sensation hit me, I had taken a photograph. When I got the prints back, there was a mass of some kind visible in the picture.
As we left the casemate, Mary shushed us, she thought she heard a shuffling sound coming from up the hall. We stood for a few minutes, but no one appeared. I did not hear the shuffling sound in this area. I mention it now because this location comes into play again later.
At midnight we returned to the Officer’s Quarters, and to the front bedroom. We tried to communicate with the spirit of Elizabeth Pratt At this time I recorded an unexplained male voice on my tape that says, “Broke a promise…to me”. We heard some noises outside the building, but we did not investigate them. When the entire group came in for the ghost tour, we left and returned to the casemates.
During our time in the casemates, Mary and I heard a laugh, and all of us heard a strange tapping that seemed to respond to our questions. That is, we would ask a question, and then we would hear tapping, then silence. We would ask another question, and the same tapping would start again.
We took a short break, and then we walked the ramparts of the fort. We did not experience anything unusual at that time. At about 4:30 am we returned to the casemates. Another group was in casemate 5, so we stayed in the hallway. This time I thought I heard shuffling up the hallway, and when no one appeared as the source of that shuffling, I took a temperature reading, and that area read as 60 degrees, where the average temperature of the fort was 73. When Mary saw the reading, she said, “Wow, that’s’ low” and we started to take pictures. Unfortunately, she was heard by the group in Casemate 5 who then stampeded out and proceeded to run up and down the hallway in search of this cold spot. We went back outside until they left.
When we returned to the “shuffler” area in the hallway, we were unable to locate a deviation in the temperature. The temperature was steady at about 72-73 degrees. When I attempted to take a picture of the area, my 35mm camera would not advance. So I got out my digital camera and turned it on. Then it turned off by itself. The camera is turned on and off by pressing a small button on the back. I went to push the button to turn it on again, and it came on by itself. I checked my audio recorder, and it was working, and our temp indicators were functioning properly. My camera continued to turn itself off and then on a few more times. What is also unusual about this off and on, is that it turned completely off! When I turn off that camera using the button, I then have to close the front by pushing the sliding front of the camera against the side of the lens. When my camera was turning on and off, the lens was retracting as well. When the camera loses power, I am unable to retract the lens without connecting it with an alternate power source or installing new batteries.
The remainder of the audiotape was negative for EVP. Most of the photos I took that night did not turn out, due to a camera malfunction that started after I took the picture in the casemate when I felt that panic sensation, and continued to the end of that roll of film and the beginning of the next roll. (The malfunction began after the picture in which the mass was recorded)
No, this is not my finger! I had assumed it was somehow my finger, until I was out at a subsequent investigation, and in order to test it, I decided to put my finger in front of the lens to see what it looks like. To my shock, I cannot reach the front of the lens of that camera with any of my fingers! It is a Minolta X-370, and it has a regular lens attached, but it sticks out far enough to make it impossible for this to be my finger. What is it? I have NO IDEA.
I was unaware of any malfunction at the time, and did not make any adjustments. I took the camera to a birthday party the next week to use up the film, and those pictures were also effected by the malfunction.
I took the camera to a repair shop. The repair person opened the camera and asked me how it happened. I told him the truth; all about my Fort Mifflin experience. He told me that he has no explanation for how the shutter and internal mechanisms of my camera were so damaged when there was no evidence of trauma to the outside of the camera...
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