Haunted Ohio and Ghost Hunters in Ohio

Wright Patterson Air Force Base, just outside Dayton, Ohio has had numerous cases of workers reporting phenomena which they cannot explain such as hearing footsteps, voices and seeing apparitions - specifically one of a little boy in building 219, one of an older woman in building 70, and children playing in the Arnold House, the former residence of Gen. Henry "Hap" Arnold himself. Building 70, now a warehouse, has also had reports of names being called out and stacks of sheet metal have been heard crashing down, only to find nothing disturbed in the warehouse.

With all the reports over the years it's no wonder Wright Pat called in the expertise of T.A.P.S. or the The Atlantic Paranormal Society. In case you are unfamiliar, TAPS members make up the show Ghost Hunters which airs on Sci-Fi on Wednesdays.

Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, the lead investigators of TAPS declined to say if the base is haunted, but seemed to hint that they had found much during their three-day investigation and added that it would be a great episode and surprising to Ohioans. The episode is scheduled to air as part of the show's fourth season, premiering in early March.

TAPS arrival to Wright-Patterson marks the first Ghost Hunters investigation at an active military installation as well as the largest investigation they have performed.

Mansfield Reformatory

Mansfield Reformatory is reportedly one of the most haunted places within Ohio. Building officially began in 1886 with architecture based on medieval style German Castles. Mansfield Reformatory opened its doors ten years later as a reformatory for boys and was closed in 1990 due to not meeting Federal Codes for a Prison. Since its closure, rumors of the spirits of tortured inmates who died in the prison fill the halls with restless energy, unable to escape the prison's bars. Rumors of guilty guards also contribute to the stories of the haunted facility, as they remained trapped in the gruesome nightmare they created for the prisoners locked inside. The building is now a museum but it's haunted tales have spread to the point that the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society now even offer year round Ghosthunting tours.

Sinclair Community College - Haunted?

Many schools and universities claim to be haunted. Sinclair University in Dayton, Ohio, is no different. Sinclair happens to be located above the old Dayton city gallows in fact, just where the cafeteria now sits, a variety of criminals met their demise and it is speculated that some of those thieves and killers may still be lingering behind.

It has been said that in Blair Hall, people have reported invisible hands tugging at them or pressing against them. They have heard laughter coming from nowhere, the sounds of cats inside the walls, babies crying, and people walking around. They have also experienced elevators working on their own, doors slamming shut and other strange events. Some students who had stayed behind after a concert in Blair Hall had another strange experience to recount. They were cleaning up after the concert and once everyone left, they locked the revolving door. Suddenly, all of the lights went out and chilling wind rushed past them. They heard a snapping sound as the locks on the revolving door came open and the door began spinning on its own.

A security guard at the school experienced a ghost who was not a part of the land's past... but of his own. One night on duty, he saw his former boss, the security chief, get off of an elevator and walk down the hallway. This would have been totally unremarkable if the chief had not died the week before. Perhaps Sinclair College really is a stopping place from our world to the land of the dead?

More recently, another ghost has appeared at the college. He has been dubbed "Mr. Joshua" and he has been sighted in Building 13, which was the former site of the United Color Press. According to legend, a worker had been killed there when his arm was caught in a press.

Mr. Joshua has been described as an older man, with white hair and wearing a shirt and denim pants. He has been seen walking through walls and in the hallways. He has also been joined by a another ghost in the building, or rather two of them, an old man and a mule, who vanished into a freight elevator. The building was formerly the site of a railroad roundhouse, where mules were used to turn railroad engines around... perhaps this explains that sighting as the roundhouse was destroyed by a flood in 1913.

Dayton Ohio's Haunted Theatres

Memorial Hall
is the home to the Dayton Philharmonic and it was built in 1909 and renovated in 1956. The theater is said to be haunted by the ghost of a former custodian who accidentally fell into the orchestra pit and broke his hip more than thirty years ago. He died shortly after and strange events began to take place in the theater. Stage hands and staff members often report that the lighting system behaves erratically, footsteps sound on the overhead (and empty) catwalks and even toilets sometimes flush by themselves.

The Victoria Theater
is a restored and ornate building that is said to be home to at least two ghosts. The most famous is that of an actress who disappeared mysteriously from the building in the early 1900's. She left the stage for just a moment and vanished, never to be found.... and that mystery remains unsolved. In the years that have passed, the ghost has been seen in the theater and often leaves behind the scent of rose perfume to announce her presence.

The other ghost is the spirit of a young woman who was attacked at night in one of the theater boxes during a performance. After her death, the ghost returned to linger in the box and on one occasion a man entered the box and was slapped by an invisible hand that clearly left a mark on his face.

Below is a list of different types of paranormal investigation equipment and how each device is used:

Air Ion Counter

This device measures positive and negative ions in the air. Ghosts can cause a lot of positive ions because they give off high amounts of electromagnetic discharges.

Barometer

Some ghost hunters believe that paranormal activity can affect barometric pressure so it may be useful to take one.

Candles and Matches

These are essential items especially if your flashlight and equipment stop working. Some ghost hunters believer that ghost energy can drain equipment energy and candles should be taken as a back up.

Camera

A 35mm camera with black and white film and/or infrared film is very useful for capturing any pictures. Ensure that you have plenty of film. For best results use a film speed of no less than 200. A speed of 800 may produce better results although it will be very grainy. It is also important that your camera has flash either its own or slave flash. Have all the film developed by experts and don't forget a tri-pod to avoid camera shake.

Compass

A compass is not only very useful for navigation it is also great for picking up electromagnetic forces. A compass will react to any magnetic or electrical stimulus that may be out of the ordinary. For this reason it is probably better to avoid an electronic compass instead use the needle points north kind.

Digital Recorder

These are very useful and they are quickly becoming the item of choice for obtaining electronic voice phenomenon results.

Dowsing Rods

Some researchers feel that the use of dowsing rods can help to pick up ghosts

EMF (Electro Magnetic Frequency) Detector

These detectors can pick up electronic fields over different frequencies. Disruptions in electronic fields could possibly mean ghosts.

Thermal Imaging Scopes

This device allows you to actually see what your thermal scanner detects. Should there be a cold spot, this infrared technology makes it possible to see the shape and size of the cold pot. Unfortunately this is still quite expensive equipment.

Thermometer or other temperature gage

Rapid drops in temperature has often been associated with the presence of a ghost. As with the compass the old fashioned mercury filled, red-line thermometer is probably better than its electronic counterpart. A good thermometer can detect changes in room temperature quickly and where electromagnetic forces have been reported, an electronic device might fail or be wrongly affected.

Our first stop takes us not to far from home, to the small village of Bradford, Ohio. It is reported that this small town had a sanitarium built in 1920 and a terrible fire caused it to burn to the ground in 1935. It is also said that many spirits now wonder the site where the sanitarium used to stand and at night glowing orbs appear.

The first stop was the Village of Bradford Library. Nothing could be found that showed that the Sanitarium ever existed and noone in the town had ever heard of it. Being a small library, it had few resources, but one being a book called History of "Bradford through the years." 1866--the cycle of a century--1966 written by Bradford native Robert E. Perry. It also made no mention of a sanitarium or fire in 1935. It did however mention a major fire in 1920 which destroyed most of the town and that fire has been documented by other sources as well.

Just because the information wasn't available there doesn't mean that the Bradford Sanitarium did not exist, so more proof was needed. A trip to the Miami County Engineers office provided no help either, without an exact location and plat maps only showing land owners, not businesses, nothing could be found.

One last lead discovered that Bradford had a newspaper running in the late 1800 to early 1900's, the Bradford Sentinal. A close by libray, Piqua's Flesh Public Library, did in fact have the issues of the Bradford Sentinal on microphilm for the entire year of 1935. If a Sanitarium had burnt down during that year surely it would be mentioned within the local newspaper. Hours of searching microfilm also turned up no mention of a Bradford Sanitarium.

While the existance of the Bradford Sanitarium seems unlikely, if it did exist then no proof could be found to its whereabouts for investigation.

Although the Hauntings of the Bradford Sanitarium site could not be proven, Bradford did seem to have some strange supernatural aura around the whole town...

maybe another investigation at another time.