June 26, 2009

Farnsworth Ghost Tour, Part II

The Farnsworth House...

As we walked back up to the hotel, our guide thanked us for being a part of the tour and the two groups switched spots.

We walked the four steps down into the basement, it was obvious the Farnsworth House was doing all they could to setup a “scary” scene. There were two coffins, each with wax-type mannequins inside, skulls, flowers and crosses all lit by flickering candles and a blue/green light in the back right corner of the room.

The new guide had a booming voice and wore a black vest over a long-sleeved red button-down shirt. He stood in the front of the room as everyone found their way through the rows of seats that filled the rest of the room.

Jake and Ben took the two seats closest to the door. They both said it had gotten really cold around them during our time down there, but since the guide had pointed out the air vents because he didn’t want anyone freaking out if they suddenly felt cold air, I couldn’t be sure if they had experienced something. I say that because one theory out there is that spirits create “cold spots” when they are trying to appear.

Since I had read a story of someone being touched toward the back of the room, I found my way toward the pew sitting in the last row on the right. But because the blue/green light was shining in my face, I didn’t moved to the second-to-last row on the right, in one of the darkest corners.

Our guide started talking and I pulled out my K2 EMF Meter (if you don’t know, Google it) to get some readings of the room.

A K2 Meter is used by the guys on Ghost Hunters to measure electromagnetic fields and is based on the theory that spirits give off EMFs, which causes the lights on the K2 to go off. More lights, the stronger the electromagnetic field.

One green light, which is what it should have been if there wasn’t any electromagnetic fields present. I checked the chair in front of me, behind me to the left and right, and along the wall to my left, one green light.

I set the K2 down in the chair to my right and left it alone while the guide continued telling us stories of not only his experiences in the Farnsworth House, but from members of the tour as well.

I kept my eyes on the K2 Meter as he was talking and saw it start to flicker from one green light to two. A slight fluctuation, but movement nonetheless, so I continued to watch and it went to the third light, orange. At that point I thought something was wrong with the meter so I picked it up and moved it front of my legs thinking it would go back down to one green light. It didn’t. Instead it stayed orange, which was odd since there wasn’t ANYTHING in front of (or around) me that would have caused the light to move, much less cause two lights to stay lit.

I nudged Tammy, who wasn’t as excited about it as me, but the light stayed the same. I moved it around Tammy and it went back to one green light. I checked the chairs behind her and one green light. When I moved it back to the SAME spot it had been previously, where the orange light was showing, I got one green light again.

Had something been there that none of us could see with our eyes? Was it just some weird shift in electromagnetic field that caused the spot to light up then go back off again?

The guide did tell us that one of the many spirits that occupies the Farnsworth House was one of a young boy named Jeremy who had been known to tinker with electronic devices. Had I peaked Jeremy’s interest with my toy but spooked him off by moving it suddenly.

If that’s all that had happened I wouldn’t have thought much about it, but it wasn’t. The K2 Meter was still sitting in the same spot, with one green light again, and I lowly whispered, “C’mon Jeremy, it’s OK you can play with it if you want.”

The K2 Meter moved back up to two green lights and stayed there for a full minute or so. This time I pulled out my camera and started shooting video of the lights. It wasn’t long before finally moving back up the orange light again. I just sat there amazed at the fact that it how long it stayed on the orange light.

Both of our guides had told us that one of the spirits in the house didn’t like strong-willed women. When the outside guide told us about him, I told Tammy that she should start talking smack and try to provoke it. I don’t know if she didn’t really want to or if she was a little scared, because she didn’t do anything.

When the basement guide started talking about the evil spirit, I started whispering that my wife would kick his ass and that he was a puss if he liked to pick on women. As I was doing this, I held the K2 Meter behind Tammy’s head with my right hand but didn’t get any hits.

I moved it back down to the chair where it was previously and got the same one green light. Before we left it had climbed back up to the orange light before falling back to the one green light again.

Some of the other stories the guide told us were about the actual events from the Civil War that happened in the Farnsworth House. The attic was used by Union snipers during the war and has over 100 bullets holes in the walls from the Confederates trying to stop the sniper fire. When the snipers were hit, they often bled to death before they could be removed from the attic, their bodies stacked in the corner.

Guest in the house often complain of hearing things moving in the attic, songs being sung and harmonicas/Jew’s Harp being played late in the night. No one is allowed in the basement after the last tour that goes in the attic (around 8:30 pm).

This house has so many stories to tell and many people from all over the world have had personal experiences with someone or something in the house. If anyone is ever in Gettysburg and you are looking for a ghostly encounter, the Farnsworth House is a good place to start. I’m already thinking about another trip back just so we can stay there for a couple of nights.

Unauthorized Farnsworth House Tour
Ben, Jake and I were all stoked about what had heard in the woods and decided that we wanted to go back instead of going to bed. Since it was around 12:45 am, Tammy wanted to go back to the room and check out the big tub in our room. The boys and I gathered up our flashlights, the K2 Meter, my camera and some bug spray and headed back down the car.

We headed back to the woods, found a parking spot and walked back into the woods. It definitely was an eerie feeling walking back to the area where the guide claimed to have seen Elizabeth.

I pulled out the K2 Meter as we walked around the clearing in the woods trying to contact Elizabeth. I sat the K2 Meter down on a log and asked Elizabeth to walk in front of the green light and make it light up.

The 30 seconds seemed to take 10 minutes to go by but nothing happened. I asked a few more questions before moving the K2 Meter to a different spot, but still go nothing. We spent about 30-45 minutes walking through the woods trying to get Elizabeth or anyone else out there to communicate with us but never caught anything. I don’t think anything will come out in the pictures I took either.

We left the woods and tried to find the where the guide had said a mass grave had been found (where the Witches had been chanting), but because we couldn’t find a path into the woods all we could do was along the edge of the forest and listen for anything out of the ordinary. All we heard were croaking toads and something that originally sounded like a cough but after really listening to it, we figured it was some type of frog or toad.

We made it back to the hotel around 2:45 in the morning. Tammy woke up when I walked into our room and asked if we got anything. I told her no but that it had been fun sneaking around out there. It definitely was an experience that I know the boys won’t forget regardless of if we caught anything or not.

I crawled into bed excited but tired and tried not to let myself think too much about what could have caused the spikes in my K2 Meter back in the basement of the Farnsworth House.

I knew we had another long and busy Day 3 ahead of us as I slowly drifted off to sleep.