Odd Fellows Lodge #105 Investigation

On the property where the lodge is now located used to be a residence. Mike Ryan was the original owner and bought it from Theodore Smith. The original lodge was in downtown Sycamore but it burned down in January 1864. The person who donated the current property was Elizabeth “Lizzy” Wackt. The lodge was built in 1966. She eventually moved into 216 S. California St. Lizzy’s step father died on the property and a lot of older relics are now housed in the current lodge including Old Fellow meeting minutes dating back to 1857, old books and other personal items. There are also former Lodge member’s ashes in an Urn. There was also a wake within the building of a woman named Dorothy.

Thompson was meditating one evening and envisioned a bunch of tombstones and on one he saw the name, “Smith.” He said, “Is there a Smith here?” Later research determined that Theodore Smith was the one that built the house originally. His wife Martha died when she was 32 and had a child. Lizzy and Theodore were married. Theodore was much older that Elizabeth. They had a baby, Lizzy, Jr.). She tried to take him to court but he moved out of state to Oregon.

Address: 131 Sabin St., Sycamore, Illinois 60178

Hauntings: In the basement of the lodge the basement door at the foot of the stairs was open, Schwabe saw “something” come out of the closet and walk upstairs. About thirty minutes later, Thompson saw “something” now return from the stairs and enters the closet. Neither eye witness had related their story to one another prior. The image is not really a shadow but appeared to be more like a flurry.

Sometimes “something” is seen peeking around the corner by the stairs and looking into the basement. Little kids have also been seen in the basement area.

Lodge: This location is very active but was also in a state of reconstruction which could, in my opinion, also stir things up a bit. There are no windows and when the lights are turned off, it’s literally pitch dark. Investigators have observed the area seeming to get darker and darker over time. Dark masses and luminescent lights have also been reported.

Closet in Lodge: This room is simply used for storage but shadows have been seen walking out. Stick figures have been videotaped in the past using the X-Cam SLS device.

Ante Room: This room is very creepy with the occasional shadow play.

Green Room: This room is currently being used for storage. During a past investigation Thompson was using an EMF meter and taking readings of each of the chairs which gave an alert except one. A comment was made whether the ghost was asleep, at which time the meter then alerted.

June 26, 2018 the doors to the Ante room were closed, Thompson began to get chills, another investigator, Tim also got chilled and they both began to see some movement. As they walked into the doors, the chills suddenly stopped for both of them. An SLS device also caught some stick figures at the time of this event.

In the Ante Room, Thompson saw a larger dark man coming from the closet and looked around. The figure was next to him staring down at him. The Ghost Box, in a past investigation, said, “Did you see Lizzy?”

You can sometimes hear what is described as “party chatter”, chanting or mumbling but the exact words cannot be made out.

A possible encounter with a phantom dog has been reported in the past. “Harley” was a former Lodge member’s dog.

Transparent figure have been seen coming out of downstairs bathroom and then a large raffle wheel located in the basement began to spin slowly.

One day, Tim, was pointing out pictures to other members when he came across one that looked familiar. Other members said, that’s Tommy and his ashes are right there. Tommy died on July 3^rd; the same day of this investigation.

Paul Benecke was a former military soldier from WWI and had posted some unusual newspaper clips about people throwing skunks on his porch and even offered a #10 reward for their capture. One day as he left, a monkey jumped on him as he walked out the back door. Some monkey had indeed escaped from somewhere.

During an investigation, a small stick figure was falling out of the ceiling. Was it the monkey?

The X-Cam SLS device caught a stick figure by the closet that looked like they were dancing and it lasted for about two minutes! When the photographer later tried to retrieve that footage, it was gone.

A psychic named Jen (which actually came through the Ovilus X during an EVP session) had come through the building as did a psychic named Ruth.

Many believe that there may be a portal in the front area of the building.

Equipment setup: A shadow detector was point at the closet in the Lodge in an attempt to pick up any shadow play. A passive infrared motion sensor was placed in the doorway between the Lodge and the Ante Room. A REM Epod was deployed in between both locations along with a Tri-Field Natural EM Meter. A Nightshot camera was setup to document some EVP sessions. An X-Cam SLS device was used by Krzykowski which did pick up some stick figures in the Lodge and Ante Room.

Experiments performed: EVP, Ovilus X, Mini-Portal, Radio Specter, SB-11 were used for the EVP sessions exclusively in the Lodge area.

The Ghost Research Society investigated the Odd Fellows Lodge #105 July 3, 2018. Team members included: Dale Kaczmarek with help from Dean Thompson, Jeremy Krzykowski, Melissa Johnson, Mark Schwabe and Nick Hanson of Ghost Head Soup

Personal experiences:

Dale Kaczmarek: This was a neat place and great to investigate with members from Ghost Head Soup and connect with a number of people that I haven’t seen in a while. I believed that I might have seen a shadow figure move quickly during the 2^nd EVP session. I don’t believe it was a trick of my eye.

The Tri-Field Natural EM Meter which isn’t sensitive to internal AC fields was alerting during the 1^st EVP session. This device hardly ever alerts but when it does it’s usually something interesting. There were some minor bumps, thumps and other small sounds several times during the investigation.

There were some interesting words that came through the Ovilus that were relevant to the history and past investigations of the lodge including: Jen (the name of a psychic that visited the place) in fact it said Jen seen and that name came through twice, Oremus (let us pray), flowers (there was a wake there in the past), passed (died), ghost, portal (psychics in the past claim that there is a portal in the building and a number of first names including: Jen, Vern, George, Jess and Beth.

Evidence collected:

Bye lodge.MP3 – while conducting a SB-11 Ghost Box session, a question was asked, “Can you say goodbye?” A faint female voice came through that said, “Bye.”

Dark lodge.MP3 – while conducting a Mini-Portal session, a question was asked, “Can you see us from where you’re at?” The device responded with, “Dark.”

Get out lodge.MP3 – while conducting a Mini-Portal session, a gruff male voice was heard clearly saying, “Get out!”

I’m an asshole lodge.MP3 – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode, the device said what sounded like a very choppy, and “I’m an asshole.”

I’m scared lodge.MP3 – while conducting a Mini-Portal session, a question was asked, “What am I?” The device said, “I’m scared.”

Mark lodge.MP3 – while conducting a Mini-Portal session, the device shouted out the name, “Mark.”

The LAB July 3^rd 2018.MP4 – is a very nice video designed by Dean Thompson of Ghost Head Soup that shows the team in action at the Odd Fellows Lodge in Sycamore, Illinois.

Tragic lodge.MP3 – while conducting an Ovilus X session, a question was asked, “Does this anniversary mean anything to you?” The device responded with, “Tragic.”

Unknown.MP3 – while conducting a Mini-Portal session, the device responded with what sounded like a full sentence but the words and context could not be made out.

Words spoken by various devices:

1^st session, Ovilus X in dictionary mode: Wheat, tragic, Jen and seen. Ovilus X in phonetic mode: Herb and I’m an asshole. Mini-Portal: Unknown sentence, get out, Mark dark and I’m scared.

2^nd session: Ovilus X in dictionary mode: Through, Oremus, yours, rose lin, word, class, stood, rot, flowers, Jen, shuttle, along, passed, sister, ghost, gravity, portal, memory, sight, numb, Jess, communicate, adultery, train, Vern, George, felt, England, our, face, seen, project, hey, numbers, Beth and be.

3^rd session: SB-11 Ghost Box: Bye.

Conclusions: This was a small building with a lot of interesting history and paranormal occurrences in the past. The sheer number of trigger objects, old books, past meeting minutes and even the cremated remains of former lodge members made the place a hotbed of activity. A number of the investigators saw shadow play and heard noises and possible voices within the main lodge room.

The first session probably could have been a bit shorter however the team was receiving a lot of responses and interesting words that came through the Mini-Portal. None of the other devices detected any measurable EMF readings except the Tri-Field Natural EM Meter which is most significant.

Nothing was picked up with the passive IR motion detectors or shadow detection device which was pointed into the very active lodge’s closet area. Nothing was videotaped on my Sony Nightshot camera or any of the normal digital pictures that were taken.

I greatly appreciated the opportunity of at long last being able to investigate this location! Thanks to those there that evening and the great pizza!