Fort Delaware

Pea Patch Island - accessible from Delaware City, DE

It was sunny, 82 degrees, with a nice breeze blowing over the water of the Delaware to keep us cool. We had not been to the fort in a year, and we were anxious to see if we would experience the same things we had experienced before.

We did have to go to an orientation, where they proceeded to tell everyone that being a prisoner at Fort Delaware wasn't so bad, that reports of it being the 'Andersonville of the North' were greatly exaggerated. That's nice. Then why is their bookstore still selling books that have copies of documents written during the time following the Battle of Gettysburg describing deplorable, inhuman conditions? Beats me! Their new attitude may have something to do with their site being featured in the National Enquirer, but that is conjecture on my part.

We got some evidence of a spirit presence in an alcove on the far left first floor of the fort (as you are facing the entrance). It is easily indentifiable by a wooden sign on the wall that says "Bake Oven". When we entered the alcove, the atmosphere felt different, so I took out the thermal scanner and started recording. The median temperature was about 68 to 72 degrees Farenheit. The breeze that day was warm, and it was registering at 73 degrees. We took a few pictures, and then I scanned the area again. One spot in the far corner started losing heat. I watched the temperature indicator go from 69 degrees down to 60 degrees. We got this picture from a digital camera, and another one from a 35mm camera.

The temperature began to rise again, and the other investigator reported that she felt a cold breeze blow by her arm. She had goosebumps on that arm, but nowhere else. The temperature in the room remained steady after that, so we surmised that we had apparently caused the spirit in residence to go elsewhere.

We continued on our investigation of the fort, and decided to set up in the area I refer to as the "Bench Room". When we visited the fort the year before, a guide had reported to us that he saw the shadowy figure of a woman in this area. We proceeded as usual with temperature readings,photos, and setting up our voice recorder. I took out my camera to take a picture, and it would not work. I could not get tha camera to turn on,so I got the digital camera out. The digital turned on, but then it turned itself back off. I believe that spirit energy was draining the batteries or causing this malfunction. What had prompted me to reach for the camera were some temperature fluctuations in the area where the guide had reported seeing the shadow figure.

I placed both cameras on the bench and stood there. I began to speak to the spirit, saying that we just wanted to take her picture, we were not trying to harm her or threaten her...We just felt that she was there and we wanted to see her. As I was saying that, I noticed some kind of movement off to the right, coming from the corridor. I picked up the nearest camera, which was the digital one, turned it on successfully, and took a picture. This is what showed up:

After that, a bunch of people came down the hall,so we had to stop recording.

More from Fort delaware....

All summer, Fort Delaware hosts haunted tours on Friday evenings, and hosted by authour Ed Okonowitz. For a complete schedule of tour dates, visit Myst and Lace .Feel free to browse the site, there are some great photos!

Investigators: 
L. Hull, T. Antonyuk