Nemacolin Castle Investigation

Nemacolin Castle was built by the Bowman family in 1789. It is alleged to have been a stop along the Underground Railroad. The original part of the castle was built by Jacob Bowman, a pioneer merchant from Hagerstown, Maryland. Three generations of Bowman's lived here at Nemacolin. The name Nemacolin is from a Native American who occupied the area and aided white settlers making their way along what is now Route 40. Its twenty-two rooms reflect early colonial to late Victorian living and many of the furnishings are original to the family. Since the 1960s the castle has been owned and maintained by the Brownsville Historical Society and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

136 Front Street, Brownsville, PA. 15417, 724-785-6882

Website: www.nemacolincastle.org

Hauntings: At least ten ghosts have been reported. The two most prominent are Elizabeth, who seems like a very proper lady wearing a white dress, and Mary, a seven-year-old girl with dark curly hair. Elizabeth, dressed in white, has been witnessed screaming and running in the house and disappears into rooms. One ghost is a woman wearing a dark dress with her hair pulled back who is seen frequently in the second floor hallway. Some people have seen a man, thought to be Jacob Bowman himself, in the library and a male spirit has been reported in the basement. A ghost of a little girl has been seen and heard in the nursery that is just off the master bedroom. Her laughter and giggles have been heard in the nursery. The sounds of footsteps in the upstairs hallways and cupboard doors opening on their own have been witnessed. A lady dressed in purple has been seen in a small bedroom upstairs where people often experience a heaviness in their chest or complain of difficulty breathing. It is said that this woman died of a respiratory illness. Just outside this room in the hallway, a ghost of a little girl has been seen by police peering out of the windows. Motion sensors had alerted police and owners of possible trespassers and when police arrived they saw this girl upstairs waving to them. They assumed she had gotten locked in somehow. When the door was finally opened by owners, no one was found inside! In the library, author and researcher, Rene Kruse saw a glass cane tumble over and over again on a table without human assistance and in the foyer just outside the room, sounds of a dog have been heard. Additional reports of a rocking chair in the Bishop's Room always bunching up the rug have been told and shadow figures have been seen downstairs.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Nemacolin Castle on May 22, 2010. Team members included: Dale Kaczmarek, Jim Graczyk, Stan Suho, Joe Tito, Joey Tito, Nicole Tito, Artie Schramm, Lisa Krick and Rosemary Ellen Guiley. We were also assisted by: Rene Kruse who generously set up this investigation and Craig & Melissa Telesha.

Equipment setup:

G.E.I.S.T. and a video surveillance system was set up downstairs and cameras were rigged to the room adjacent to the library, the master bedroom, the nursery, purple lady room, and Bishop's Room. EM Pump was employed by rocking horse that moves in nursery and rocking chair in Bishop's Room. Motion detectors were placed by rocking horse in nursery and rocking chair in Bishop's Room. G.E.I.S.T. equipment which included Negative Ion Detector, Geiger Counter, Tri-Field Natural EM Meter and the newest G.E.I.S.T. device a motion detector along with the Ghost Camera was set up in the hallway upstairs where the little girl has been reported by the police officer.

Later experiments were conducted in the upstairs hallway just outside the master bedroom using the Full Spectrum Camera, Sony Nightshot Camcorder, I.C.E.S. and Geophone.

Personal Encounters:

Jim Graczyk : Equipment: 12mp Digital Camera

This is a rather nice old historic building that is filled with lots of history and items. The first room I walked into gave me an uneasy feeling at times. I don't know if it was the lighting or how it was setup but it was a room I never stayed in too long. I did feel an off balance sensation when we were on the second floor as we were walking in the hallway. Dale and I discovered the unevenness of the floor as in transition possibly into another add on section. I did not capture anything out of the ordinary on my 12mp digital camera. I did not get a chance to use the "Ghost Cam" at this location.

Stan Suho: We arrived about dusk and took photos of the outside of the Castle.

During the walk through I did get a couple of orbs on my VHS Camcorder. One was especially bright and floated R-L across the field of view. I quickly alerted the group to this fact.

We set up the Command Post on the first floor near the center of the building. G.E.I.S.T. was setup without the Ghost Mic or Audio Recorders. A new device was field tested, an IR perimeter detecting device. There were a few hits on the Geiger Counter and Tri-Field, but otherwise it was quiet. The pictures from the Ghost Camera are still in the camera so it will be a while before we see them. I did walk around with a Digital Audio Recorder, but nothing showed up. One thing to note: As I approached the top of the stairs (by the room where the little girl was seen working looking out the window), I heard a deep mans voice say "Go Back." I could not pin point the direction, but I'm sure it came from the second floor. I did not have any audio recording equipment running at the time.

Dale Kaczmarek: I think the noise level was a little too high for good EVP recording as sound did seem to travel throughout the building fairly well and the floorboards did creak a lot making a lot of noise making it almost impossible to sneak around quietly. Video Ovilus experiments were inconclusive with only random responses and nothing that seemed to coincide with questions asked. A Geophone experiment was conducted on the upstairs hallway where reports of footsteps and cabinet doors opening have been seen but no activity was observed at all. Later an EVP session along with the Full Spectrum camera was conducted in the Master Bedroom with no video or audio evidence collected.

Lisa Krick: Equipment used: Canon digital Rebel XTI, Sony audio recorder, K-II meter, Sony Nightshot Video Camcorder

What a beautiful location. This castle reminded me a lot of the Cheney Mansion. We were given a tour by Rene Kruse and it appears that there has been activity in virtually every room of the mansion. There are also mannequins in almost all the rooms to add to the "startle" factor. Even on the tour, as I tagged along at the rear, I felt as if someone was following along behind us and watching us. Additionally, on the tour, everyone was in the blue bedroom which sits between the ladies bedroom and the bishop's bedroom and listening to Rene, when there was a crash in the ladies bedroom as if someone had dropped a book from waist high to the ground. However, upon investigation, nothing was found out of place. What a cool way to start out the evening!

Nicole and I first started in the Bishop's bedroom and we had Joey with us doing some videotaping. Nicole sat in the corner across the room from the bed. Joey and I lay down upon the bed and we began our session. I began some mild provoking by telling the bishop that I was not only Baptist, but a female and lying upon his bed. I asked him if that made him uncomfortable. The K-II meter popped up to three. Nicole then asked if the bishop was over beside me and the meter popped up again. My arm went dead cold at that point and Nicole kept talking to the bishop, asking him questions. This whole time the K-II meter started popping up into the red and Joey got it all on video. It appeared to us as if the bishop was quite intelligent and answered our questions. Nicole asked, "Do you want lisa to get out of your bed" "are you mad that she's lying there?" "Are you mad that I'm in here as well?" All were responded to with the K-II lighting up fully. Then she asked, "what about Joey?" And there was no response from the meter. She then asked, "if you understand what I'm saying, make it flash all the way red once" and it did. She repeated the question and got the same response. Then she asked if he was angry that we were all in his room and the K-II fully lit to red three times in a row, as if he was showing us just how angry he was. Sadly, I got no audio responses from the clergy.

Next, the three of us went to the little attic space to do some EVP work. I asked if the children had played hide and seek in the attic space and the K-II popped. I asked the same question again, and it popped again. I then said, "When you hide in here, where would you hide there are some really good places." Right then, Nicole exclaimed that someone had just touched her hand, a light tap just above the wrist. The cool thing about this was that she had been squatting down and so was closer to the ground. At the time we thought perhaps one of the ghost children had touched her. After I listened to my audio recordings, I've changed my mind. After Nicole had her wrist touched, we heard some of our group walking out in the hallway and thought we might pop out and startle them, so Joey was scouting the situation and peeking out the door. He said something about the group in the hallway moving slowly and then on the audio recorder you hear (and this is at 8.30-8.33 minutes on the recording) what can only be described as a "yip" from a small dog. I believe Nicole had been "nosed" by a small dog, rather than a child. It has been confirmed by Rene that others have obtained barks from that attic space on audio as well. We didn't know that going in or I would have tried talking to the dog to begin with.

At that point, Joey left us and Nicole and I went to the bachelor's turret room to see if Pete or the Confederate Soldiers would come out to play. I got no audio in this room, but I did get some good K-II interaction with something intelligent. I asked (talking to Pete), "I think you and Mary are from different times" The K-II popped up to three. As I saw it pop, I queried, "Was that right? ARE you and Mary from different times?" The K-II responded again. Nicole then asked, "Are you over by Lisa?" And the K-II responded. She said, "do it again you have my permission to use my energy." And again, the K-II responded to her question. I then said, "I am so sorry that you and Mary are from different times do you still get to play with her?" And the K-II meter shot all the way into the red. Nicole then asked, "Mary, are you here, too?" And the K-II responded. Then, I asked, "Will you sing a song with us?" And the K-II popped again. We sang ring around the Rosie, but nothing was picked up on audio.

Next, we went to the ladies bedroom, which reminded me a LOT of Miss Dorothy's room from the Cheney investigation. We saw some light anomalies on the walls, but debunked those as traffic. However, as we were sitting there asking questions, (on the recording from 1.52-2.15 minutes) I asked, "Does it bother you that people come through your house like this?" and I audibly heard (as well as on the recorder) a sigh. I asked Nicole if she had sighed and she said no. We also (around the 8.10-9.20 minute marker) heard (audibly) a sound to the left between the wall and the bed by the dress maker's form. However, we couldn't get any intelligent responses or K-II responses at all.

Our next room was the maid's room. This is where the lavender lady is purported to appear. It's also where I had my Sony Nightshot set up and recording video. I got absolutely no K-II response in this room. However, as we were sitting there, my video recorder had Nicole perfectly in frame. Nicole talked about how rude it was to scare people so much that one woman had to leave in an ambulance. At that point, my video recorder froze and it I cannot get it to play further on that mini DVD. It continued to record, but the playback won't work after that statement by Nicole. Additionally, right after that (on the audio recorder, the video froze at 2.44 minutes) at 3.23 minutes on the audio recording, you hear a very distinct whisper which I believe states "PEOPLE DON'T DIE." It was neither Nicole nor me. As we were sitting in the room chatting, my video recorder made a noise which told me it was time to change DVDs, so I got up to change it. THAT DVD stopped inexplicably as well. I have given those DVDs to Joey to check with his video recorder just to see whether the malfunction is in my recorder or the DVD or what. At 5.45-6.25 minutes on the audio recorder Nicole stated she smelled something weird. I asked her if it was the smell of ironing (starch), because I had been thinking about that ironing board being in the maid's room. She said yes it was the smell of ironing and I began to smell it as well. We talked about that for a bit and then Nicole's batteries died in her recorder. They had been at almost full strength when we went in the room. As she was changing her batteries, I smelled the "ironing" smell again.

In the nursery, Nicole sat with her back almost against the door, facing into the room. I sat beside the dresser with my back against the wall and almost in the doorway of the master bedroom. We tried to get response from the K-II meter and also asked Mary to ride her hobby horse. We got nothing. However, at about 6.17 minutes on the audio recorder, I thought I saw the closet door open just a little bit. Then I thought it was an optical illusion. I began to doubt myself, as I have a problem with closets anyway. But, right after I told Nicole that I though the closet door had just opened, the entire feeling in the room turned VERY uneasy. It's like the room was charged with bad feeling and discontent. We later learned from Rene that someone else on another investigation had encountered "something" from that closet. The feeling was so bad for me that I had to talk myself out of jumping up and literally running from the room. We kept hearing footsteps in the hallways (both the long and the short hallway) during the length of the investigation of this room. We'd just say "someone in the hallway" when we heard it, thinking someone from the team was checking equipment. However, when we went downstairs to check in with the crew when we were done with the room, we were informed that EVERYONE had been sitting out on the sun porch the entire time we were up there. When we went back to the nursery for a second sit down to try to contact Mary, the crew was cleaning up the equipment and we heard footsteps again. But it was a TOTALLY different sound from what we had heard the first time. Interesting �

I got no picture evidence from the Nemacolin. But, I got great EVP and an interesting problem with my video recorder, which is being checked right now by Joey. Nemacolin is a beautiful location which would be wonderful to investigate again.

Video Evidence: None

Audio Evidence: At approximately one hour and 14 seconds after setting up the Nightshot camera in the upstairs hallways a strange disembodied screech was recorded. You hear was first sounds like footsteps of people coming up the stairs followed by the noise. This sound is almost identical to the noise we recorded at Mineral Springs Hotel in October of 2009. Screech

Nemacolin Maids Room: Nicole and Lisa were chatting back and forth and then sat quietly. A strange female whisper is heard saying either, "die, die" or "people don't die." The unusual thing about this clip is when played backwards it sounds exactly like, "white noise."

Nemacolin Attic: Nicole, Lisa and Joey were in the attic doing EVP and were going to scare the group walking through the hallway. Joey mentions something about them moving slowly and then you clearly hear a dog bark. None of them heard this in real time. (There have been reports of a phantom dog)

Master Bedroom: At 4:30 on Disc 1 a voice was heard nearby the camcorder.

Victorian Room A breath was captured.

Rosemary's Ghost Box session got a clear response to, "Yes" to the question asked.

Rosemary's Ghost Box session got a clear response to, "Who was with us in the library?" Response, "Nelson."

Later a soft tap was recorded within the room and a sigh was also very clearly heard and recorded.

Here is a compilation of audio evidence in one video from that evening.