Tinker
Swiss Cottage Investigation Tinker
Swiss Cottage Investigation 
The
Tinker Swiss Cottage is a
historic place, museum, and park in
Robert Hall Tinker was born in Honolulu
to missionary Reuben Tinker (1799–1854) and his wife Mary Throop Wood
(1809–1895) in 1836. Tinker moved to
Upon the death of the Tinkers, the cottage was left to the Rockford Park District. The home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on December 27, 1972.
Located
at
Website: www.tinkercottage.com
Experiments performed: EVP experiments were conducted in the red
room, main living room and octagon room. Ghost Head Soup investigators used
their reverse speech device during some EVP sessions.
Personal experiences: I did feel a cold draft several times in the Red Room and could not debunk where or why. Someone seemed to indicate it was coming from a crack in the floor but the air of coldness was several feet off the ground and intermittent.
I thought I saw a short shadow figure standing just within the door jam of Tinker’s Bedroom while looking up from the library with the naked eye. It was a fleeting glimpse and was only there for a few seconds.
The light formations that I was seeing through my Nightshot camera in the one corner of the Red Room were nothing more than dust particles apparently stirred up by air currents and people walking about. At first they didn’t fit the profile of dust particles which tend to have a snow flurry effect. But in later analysis, it was most definitely just dust particles.
Dean and I both clearly heard a
disembodied female sigh come from the other room and we both said simultaneously
that we had heard the same thing.
The Ghost Research Society investigated Tinker Swiss Cottage on October 21, 2011. Team members included: Dale Kaczmarek with help from Mark Schwabe, Dean Thompson, Jessica Kasza, Tim Schmuldt, George Hawrylenko and Angela with Steve Litteral.
Evidence collected:
Cat.MPG – a catlike sound was captured on the full spectrum camera positioned in the Red Room.
Eight.MPG – during an EVP
session in the library, Dean suggested to George to mention eight in his EVP
questions, the Ovilus said, “eight.”
Gunfire.MPG – we were able to
capture the shooting incident in Rockford
of gunfire.
Female sound.MPG – during an
EVP session in the library, a question was asked, “Mary what happened in the
library?” In the background, you can clearly hear a disembodied female cry
which several people also hear in real time.
Healthy.MPG – during an EVP
session in the library, a question was asked, “Did you have a favorite
cigar?” The Ovilus responds with, “help.” Then the conversation continues
with bringing back memories for Tinker when the question is asked, “Is there
something you would appreciate for us to bring to you?”
A whispering voice responds with what I believe is, “healthy or help
me.”
Help.MPG – during a group EVP
session before the investigation in the room with the coffin, the digital
recorder was placed on the coffin. A question was asked, “Tinker can you make
a noise upstairs if you’re here with us?” A muffled sounding “help” was
the reply.
I hate Dean.MPG – the Ovilus
says very clearly, “I hate Dean.”
Joe.MPG – during an EVP
session in the library, the Ovilus says, “Joe” which could stand for
Josephus.
Look up air.MPG – during an
EVP session in the Red Room there were comments made about cold drafts of air
felt by a few in the room. The Ovilus said, “look up” and followed that
with, “air.”
Mmm.MPG – during an EVP
session in the library, George was asking what he could do to make Tinker
remember what it felt to be alive in exchange for a conversation. He asked,
“Maybe the smell of baking bread?” An “mmm” like someone enjoyed that
suggestion was the reply.
Running feet.MPG – during an
EVP session in the Red Room, a question was asked, “Robert can you follow the
sound of my voice and join us in the Red Room?” What follows is the sound of
running feet.
Singing.MPG – a singing female
voice was captured on the full spectrum which was in the Red Room. However the
sound did not appear to emanate from that room and it sounds like a lullaby.
The Ghost Radar said the words:
uncle, Joe, label, student, produce, fruit, hungry, run and swept when in the
Red Room while the Ovilus said look up, soccer and tide.
Conclusions: I believe the building was active on the evening of the investigation both with disembodied voices, sounds, shadows and direct responses during EVP sessions. However the wooden floor made a lot of noise when walking on it and there was a lot of extraneous other sounds and unnecessary talking during some of the EVP sessions including when we were conducting the very first session in the Red Room. A smaller group was heard downstairs either talking or conducting their own session so a lot of tagging was necessary.
I think it would have been a good idea to limit the EVP sessions to much smaller sessions that way we could have covered many more parts of the cottage that evening. The last session in the library lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes. It is not customary to expect communication from the other side lasting that long in one session. Even the spirits must be given a break to recharge sort to speak. Also we like to have a ten minute complete quiet time during our investigations where nobody moves, talks or says anything to see if anything is heard or recorded later.
I would like to investigate this location again with more cameras and equipment and a Command Center.
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Follow-up Investigation on August 17, 2013
GRS members present: Stan Suho, Marge Sucha, Kathie Para, Yvonne Zanilah, Joanne Schullo, Sandy Weber and Dale Kaczmarek
Equipment
setup: Stan set up the Command Center in the basement of the cottage and had
the G.E.I.S.T. equipment, GhostCam and Ghost Microphone deployed in the
Servant’s Quarters (Red Room). I
had a static IR camcorder with supplemental IR illuminator set up in the Master
Bedroom facing the upper balcony of the library where shadowy figures have been
reported in the past. The Geophone was placed in the doorway between the upper
balcony and the Master Bedroom.
Experiments
performed: EVP, Ghost Box, Ovilus X and Inductive Probe sessions were
conducted in the Red Room, Library both upstairs and downstairs, the outside
Indian Mounds and a downstairs Canning Room.
Personal
experiences:
Joanne
Schullo:
|
Weather Conditions: |
|
Warm
during the day but cooled off after dark.
Slightly humid. |
Equipment
Used:
|
Ghost
Meter Fuji
35 MM digital camera Infra-red
camera provided by Dale |
Summary:
|
After setting up in the
basement of the cottage, we conducted EVP sessions throughout the house.
Various pieces of equipment began to lose battery power and Sandy's
FLIR device malfunction at one point during the investigation.
The house was very quiet. No
footsteps, whispering or noises were heard at any time.
My ghost meter remained at zero throughout the night.
I noticed that Dale's was the same way.
In summary, a very, very quiet night despite our various attempts
at interaction. We closed the
investigation at approximately 2:30 AM. |
Yvonne
Zanilah:
Weather Conditions:
78º down to mid-60's after sunset, light clouds,
humidity 43%, moon phase 84% full
Equipment Used:
Olympus Digital Voice Recorder, Model VN-480PC
Sony DSLR, Model A390 - modded for IR photography
Sony DSC-V1 CyberShot
K-II Meter
Summary:
I took a total of 35 shots
with the night vision DSC-V1, no anomalies found although I did find that the
images would be better with a tripod used. Useful information to know for the
next investigation. With the IR
modded camera, a total of 54 shots, nothing of note found.
No activity on the K-II Meter
Upon the reviewing of the 3hrs
& 38minutes of recordings I found two whispers while we were in the lower
library area, one slightly after the other. To me it sounds like someone saying
“let me page her” and the second clip says either “tired” or “card”.
This could possibly be someone in the group whispering, I'm not sure so I'm
putting them up for review.
Also I caught some strange
growls in the upper library EVP session; these are in the middle of Dale talking
about the basement. It is possible that someone's stomach was growling, but I
think if it growled that loudly they would have called it out.
A side note – during one of
the EVP sessions the word “specular” came up on the Ovilus and the
questioning of the word meaning, I looked it up and per Merriam Webster
dictionary it means: “of, relating to, or having the qualities of a mirror”
Marge
Sucha: Kathie and I got to Tinker Swiss Cottage before everyone else so we
decided to walk around the grounds and took some pictures.
Before
our investigation Steve gave us a quick tour and history of the location.
Red
Room -Everyone went to the red room to do an EVP session.
During the first part of our session I had a lot of ringing in my ears.
At one time the Ovules did say "sister” This was interesting to me
because Kathie & I are sisters.
Library-
I didn't catch any EVPs in this room.
When we first got settled in this room Kathie was talking about the light
from the camera set up in the living room going in her eyes.
Right after this Dale spelled out started spelling out a work that just
came up on his device. s p e c u l a
r
Specular reflection is the mirror-like
reflection of light (or of other kinds of wave) from a surface, in which light
from a single incoming direction (a ray) is reflected...
2nd floor Library- It was overall quiet.
Sandy's camera would not focus on people.
Dale said the battery Voltage was low.
After we left that location her camera was able to focus on people.
Red Room part II - This room is next to
the nursery and we tried to stir up activity by singing lullabies.
We also did an EVP session in the
basement canning room area and outside by the Indian mounds.
Even though the evening was overall quiet
I still enjoyed spending the evening here and look forward to going back again.
Kathie Para:
GRS investigated Tinker Swiss Cottage on
I got sporadic activity on my K-II meter. During
this session we had equipment malfunction and batteries draining. I captured an
EVP repeating a word said by the Ovilus and a couple other possible grunt-like
sounds. The Ovilus also said sister (two of us in the room were sisters) and
sand (there was a
Next we went to the library and I caught nothing
unusual on my recorder. The Ovilus said some unusual words including
“specular, coffee, calcium, grave, carbon (we got this twice), product, inches
(after questioning Mr. Tinker about his woodworking abilities) and grave”. We
also got the name Chris and Rose (or Roselin). Once again we had problems with
our equipment. Dale’s (fully charged) phone went dead and his audio recorder
quit after just a few minutes of recording.
We went outside next and did another session on the
Indian mound. I turned my recorder off after just a few minutes due to
contamination. Dale’s camera shut off after just a minute or two.
We then went to the area right above the library.
Immediately we had some strange activity on the
We moved to the basement next and did an EVP session
in the canning room. I came away with no audio evidence there.
Our last EVP session was back in the Red Room on the
second floor since that room seemed to be the most active previously that night.
K-II showed some activity again in this room, but other than that we had little
success and more strange equipment malfunctioning. We called it a night.
We had an unusually high amount of batteries
draining and equipment malfunctioning throughout this location. There was even
an instance of a battery that had drained in one room and then showed a charge
later in another room.
This is a great house!
Dale Kaczmarek: Numerous times
I had equipment with battery drains both inside and outside of the house that
were inexplicable considering all the batteries were fully charged prior to the
investigation and some even showed 65 minutes of charge left when they suddenly
died. Several times I thought I heard either voices or strange noises coming
from various parts of the house that could not be explained as other researchers
since we were almost always together.
Stan Suho: Yet another great
old historic building, this one located in Rockford. We arrived around dusk with
the usual suspects and were given the first class tour by the proprietor. The
rooms were small as was the style back then and all interconnected. Out in the
front yard there were several very old Indian Mounds.
The
Command Post was set up in the basement which gave us fairly easy access to the
room I was interested in. This was a small room on the third floor where Dale
had recorded a little girl’s voice on a previous investigation. The complete
G.E.I.S.T. setup was placed in the room along with the IR Camera and Microphone
feeding Audacity. Because all the rooms were interconnected and the house was
very old, all the floors were squeaky which prorogated through the whole house.
While
G.E.I.S.T. was running on automatic the group went outside to do some EVP at the
Indian Mounds. This might be a good place for a future G.E.I.S.T. Setup,
except for having to deal with the occasional Freight Train passing by. Then
back inside to finish off the rest of the evening with more EVP sessions, most
of which I participated in.
Conclusions;
I took many Photos and Videos of the activities of the group thought out the
evening and participated in as many as possible. Reviewing all my
Audios and videos turned up nothing of paranormal nature. This place could use a
following up investigated based upon prior evidence collected.
Evidence collected:
Gender.MPG during an Ovilus X session in the Red Room the Ovilus X says,“Gender”
and a few seconds later a whispery male voice in the background also repeats the
same word, “Gender.”
Grunts.MPG during an EVP session in the Red Room a question was asked, “Can you make
one of these dresses move?” A grunting sound is heard in the background.
Another question is asked, “Do you like the dresses in here?” And a louder
and longer grunting sound is also captured.
Howling
sound.MPG during the initial walkthrough as we were about to enter the
Master Bedroom, a strange howling sound is recorded on a hand held camcorder in
the background.
Jim’s
here.MPG during a Ghost Box session in the Red Room a question was asked,
“Is there anyone in this room that wants to talk with us?” The Ghost Box
responds with, “Jim’s here.”
Response.MPG during an EVP session in the Red Room a question was asked, “I would
really to hear that beautiful lullaby that I heard last time I was here.”
Several seconds later, the static IR camcorder in the Master Bedroom picks up a
response that is indiscernible.
Response2.MPG during an EVP session in the library a question was asked, “If so, can you
join us in the library?” A few seconds later the static IR camcorder in the
Master Bedroom picks up a whispered response which is heard to make out.
Scream
tinker.MPG during an EVP session in the Canning Room in the basement a
disembodied scream is recorded after the question is asked, “How many servants
did the Tinker’s have?”
Singing
Red Room.MPG while conducting an Ovilus X session in the Red Room, singing
is picked up in the background. It sounds muffled and was probably coming from
the Nursery.
Singing2.MPG while conducting an EVP session in the Red Room background singing is again
faintly heard and recorded.
Whoop
tinker.MPG while just beginning our first EVP session in the Red Room, a
whoop sound is recorded in the background.
Yes2
tinker.MPG while conducting a Ghost Box session in the Red Room a question
was asked, “Do you want us to leave?” The Ghost Box responds with,
“Yes.”
Yes
again tinker.MPG while conducting a Ghost Box session in the Red Room a
comment was made, “He does a real nice job running this place.” (Referring
to Steve Litteral) The Ghost Box responds with, “Yes.”
Yes
tinker.MPG while conducting an EVP session in the Red Room a question was
asked, “Are you a relative of the Tinker’s?” A whispered response replies
with, “Yes.”
Conclusions: Again this location
did not disappoint us with lack of evidence and personal encounters. There does
definitely seem to be a female presence of some kind in the Nursery as we twice
encountered and recorded the sounds of a female singing voice in the background.
This is amazing! Last time we were here perhaps the same female presence was
humming Brahms’s Lullaby in the Nursery while we were still unpacking and
setting up downstairs.
There
were lots of disembodied voices and true EVPs picked up along with Ovilus X and
Ghost Box hits. However the Indian Mounds outside were very quiet and perhaps
not active at all. Part of it could have been all the train contamination that
evening as well.
I
think another follow-up investigation with emphasis on the Nursery would
definitely be in order. Additional video and audio equipment as well as
equipment should be placed in this area as it seems to be a very active portion
of the building every time we investigate here. I look forward to another
investigation soon!
Ghost Research Society (www.ghostresearch.org)
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