Odd Fellows Lodge #105 2022 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 1964. 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: 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. 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.

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.

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

Equipment setup: A passive infrared motion sensor was placed near the podium in the Temple along with a REM Epod and full spectrum camcorder with supplemental infrared light. K-II meters were used Garrett was using a Sony Nightshot camcorder. A Melmeter with a telescopic probe was employed and a Paranormal Music Box was placed on the pool table in the Basement. A Geophone was also set up in the Basement.

Experiments performed: A single Ovilus V session was conducted in the Temple and Tim started an Estes Method using a Ghost Box SB-7. Other attempts were made to contact any spirits nearby by asking them to set off a K-II meter. A Phasma Box session was also conducted.

The Ghost Research Society investigated the Odd Fellows Lodge #105 January 21, 2022. Team members included: Mike Rosario, Kathi Para, Mike Garrett, Mike Wright and Dale Kaczmarek with help from Dean Thompson, Jeremy Krzykowski, Tim Schmuldt, Amanda Pilgreen, Mark Schwabe and Nick Hanson of Ghost Head Soup

Personal experiences:

Mike Garrett: I used an HD DVC with IR light mount, Evistr voice recorder with 360° microphone, Erickhill EMF detector and radiation tester.

Unfortunately, I was not there at the beginning of the setup so I did not have any duties as setup is concerned. I arrived there and sat in the Main Foyer around 6:30pm. I began to unpack all the equipment that I brought myself. I met with the other members and we began to hear about the locations that are most noticeable. The group got all set up with the remaining equipment and we headed downstairs and talked for a bit and let the time pass. We heard a bit of the history regarding the fact the land had been once owned by a family before it was sold if I’m correct.

Which for me I wanted something to possibly separate what exactly if there is anything at the lodge is it from the lodge or maybe from the prior deceased family members who may have passed here.

I set up my camera shooting down the Hallway because of a claim referencing shadows that people see poking their heads around the doors. I did see on the camera what appear to be dust particles but one could say they resembled orbs. From there I began to walk around and felt a heavy cold are right around the back staircase but I will say it is most likely because the stairs have a door to the outside at the top of them. I would deduct it to poor insulation.

At that point I began to walk around upstairs alone to see if I could capture anything out of the ordinary. The rest of the members came upstairs after a period of time. At that point I entered the Closet that is being quoted as spooky. I will say due to my sensitivity to EMF once I walked past the door frame of the Closet I was blasted by a deafening ring in my left ear. I took out my EMF detector to the circuit box on the wall and the readings were shockingly high. They have a capped main electric circuit exposed out of the wall. This may be a very real reason as to why people say it is spooky to them or they have weird feelings. They may just be sensitive to EMF and perceive it as something unusual.

I sat in the Closet to see if I could experience anything alone and other than a few bumps nothing visual or audible made itself known. After 20 minutes or so I proceeded to take the opportunity to head downstairs since everyone was currently upstairs. It did not turn out to be pretty quiet. No EVPs recorded.

While heading back upstairs I overhead someone talking with an EVP box and began to record. The individual asked if there was anything they could say to make themselves known. After no response the person asked if you are here with us, the device said “Mark is a dick.” No later than five seconds later Mark came into the room and the spirit box said, “dick!” I did capture that on camera.

All in all, I would say we got a few pieces I was able to see and record to verify the claim. I would love to go back and spend a night there.

Mike Rosario: Intro, and Equipment Used: For this investigation, we traveled to the Odd Fellows Lodge #105 located in Sycamore, Illinois. This took off on Friday, January 21, 2022, at approximately 7:00pm with Dale Kaczmarek and several other GRS members and members from Ghost Head Soup. Night weather was cold, with skies clear and calm. Equipment used in this investigation were my K-II Meter; a Philips VoiceTracer Digital Voice Recorder; a DVC 4K Ultra HD 48mp Night Shot Digital Video Camcorder with an LED IR Light.

Initial Investigation: For this investigation, I was accompanied by Dale and several other members of the GRS and members of GHS, and we pretty much stuck together as an entire group for this investigation because there was only a whole open top floor and full Basement to conduct investigations. I began by doing my usual K-II sweeps in and around the first-floor areas. Around a steady 0.3-0.6mG reading. The Basement had a little fluctuation, around 1.5-2.0mG action at times, but not too much, as there was a lot of equipment being used by many people of the two groups, and could’ve had some type of false readings as a consequence. I had my IR camera stationed near the front end of the room on the first floor, looking directly at the notoriously-haunted Closet room area, where feelings of uneasiness are felt, and even entities are known to have appeared. EVP sessions were conducted in both these main areas, and did yield to some interesting results with the Phasma Box ITC device session, mainly.

Evidence: Upon reviewing all of my evidence, I did not capture any video evidence, but did capture some interesting audio whilst during our EVP Phasma Box session on the first floor of the Lodge. The evidence is as follows:

~ “Technology.”

~ “Guten Abend.”

~ “108.”

~ “Thomas.”

~ “Britannic.”

~ “Four.”

Dale Kaczmarek: I thought it was a pretty quiet night as compared to the 2018 investigation with a smaller group. This time the temple had been completed and renovated and I would have thought that there might be more activity but there wasn’t.

I got a 4.9 Melmeter hit in the basement and an occasional hit on the Paranormal Music Box was noted. There was nothing captured visually on my full spectrum camera but right at the 2:37 minute mark there were a number of clicking sounds very close to the camera. That was unusual as all participants had left the area and had walked downstairs into the Basement. It is unknown what or who could have made those sounds. I, Rosario and Wright did hear a couple of disembodied female voices that were very brief. Others in the group did not hear those sounds though.

Evidence collected:

108 oddfellows.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session, a question was asked, “How old is this building?” The device responded with, “108.”

Britannic oddfellows.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session, a question was asked, “Which ship sank in 1912?” The device replied with what sounds like, “Britannic.”

Clicking by camera oddfellows.MP4 - a static 1080p full spectrum camera located in the Temple picked up some strange loud clicking sounds next to the camera when nobody was around.

Dick oddfellows.MP4 - while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Temple, a person asked if you are here with us, the device said “Mark is a dick.” No sooner than five seconds later Mark came into the room and the spirit box said, “Dick”

Four oddfellows.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session, a question was asked, “One, two, three. What comes after three?” The device said, “Four.”

Technology oddfellows.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session, while cross-talking amongst ourselves, the device blurted out, “Technology.”

Thomas oddfellows.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session, a question was asked, “What is your name?” The device responded with, “Thomas.”

Words or phrases spoken by the Ovilus V: Rodger, fire, form, judge, president, scratch, hell, maximum, healer, religion and gone.

Conclusions: There was some contamination from the heater blower going off and on as it was quite cold outdoors. Also way too much cross-talk and reminiscing about past investigations. Investigators need to keep their mind on the current investigation. A lot of loud talking was even heard from one floor to another even though the door was closed with the Temple and the Basement.

There were several times that some investigators traveled from the Basement to the Temple and this disturbed the Full Spectrum taping that was recording at the time.

Very few pieces of paranormal equipment actually alerted besides some hits on the Melmeter and numerous alerts on the K-II which does pick up a lot of background EMF which can be naturally occurring.