Wasco Train Station Investigation

Wasco was originally named "Campton", after an early family that settled the area.  Wasco stands for the Water and Sewerage Company Inc. (WASCO) was first started in 1965 as the Central Water and Authority (CWA). Most likely tribes like the Potawatomi inhabited this area long before the white men arrived. European settlers began arriving in the mid-19^th century mostly for agriculture and farming purposes.

The railroad arrived in 1873 including the Chicago Great Western Railroad Company.  The depot was build circa 1900 and now houses the Campton Hills Community Center. It is part of the Kane County Register of Historic Places.

In the 1950s and 60s this building belonged to the township with the VFW downstairs.

Address: 5N082 Old La Fox Road, Campton Hills, IL 60175

Owner: City of Campton Hills

Hauntings: Doors have been slammed and heard by Rev. Rake. She believes a former train conductor is the cause of all the paranormal problems. When the reverend says mass at 10:35am, there is always a noise. He is very regular. One of her paranormal friends says that he is very fussy and became irritated when remodeling and reconstruction was taking place. According to Rake; the times that the spirit is most active is at 9:35 and 10:35am.

In the Basement, Rev. Rake always gets the chills. She has sensed a couple of veterans from World War I who are still downstairs. There are some old Bathrooms that have been turned into closets. According to Rev. Rake, this is the scariest part of the entire building. Rake’s husband wouldn’t even use the Bathrooms downstairs due to strange feelings. Several other people don’t like in down here including the County Assessor and Rev. Rake’s son.

A lot of noises have been heard in the Attic. People constantly hear what sounds like people running on the roof. There’s no place to run in the attic, so this could very well be some kind of residual effect from the building’s past.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Wasco Train Station on October 28, 2023 and the team members included: Charles Williams, Mike Rosario, Diane Oksanen and  Dale Kaczmarek, with help from Reverend Rake.

Equipment setup: 4k and regular camcorders were placed both on the Main Floor and in the Basement. Other devices used included a laser grid, digital recorders, Ovilus V and X, full spectrum camera, Melmeter with telescopic probe, Samsung Galaxy S-21 Slim Ultra, flashlights and headlamps.

Experiments performed: Ovilus V sessions in both phonetic and dictionary mode was conducted on the Main Floor and Basement, as well as the Phasma Box. A SB-11 Ghost Box session was also performed on the Main Floor.

Personal experiences;

Diane Oksanen: I used a digital recorder and a K-II Meter. My K-II was going off on the Main Floor. I sensed that the Basement felt creepy.

Mike Rosario: For this investigation, we traveled to the Wasco Train Station located in Campton Hills, Illinois. This took off on Saturday, October 28, 2023, at approximately 8:05pm with Dale, Chuck, Diane, Rev. Christina Rake, and me. The night’s weather was slightly cold, with clear skies, and calm.  Equipment I 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; Green Laser Pointer; and a FujiFilm FinePix A330 3.2mp Digital Camera for interior shots.

For this investigation, I was accompanied primarily by the entire group that attended that night during the Main Floor and Basement level investigations. I first began by doing my usual K-II sweeps in and around the Main Floor area to get some base readings. Around a steady 0.3-0.5mG reading.  The Basement also had a little fluctuation, around 0.5-1.0mG action at times, but not too much. I had my IR camera stationed near the front end of the Main Floor area to capture the rear section of the building for about one hour or so. I also had my night shot camera situated downstairs in actually two locations: the second hour in a little storage area where lots of known activity is said to have happened, and the last hour near the Bar area, by the counter. EVP sessions were conducted on all two levels with the Phasma Box, and other ITC devices. I had interjected in between these EVP sessions to use my model trains in the train station as trigger objects, just to see if that could conjure a particular pastime moment in time, and trigger a response from whatever entity that night have been with us that night. I used these trains on both levels to try to stimulate a response. During our investigation, these two main areas of the building yielded some interesting results with the Phasma Box ITC device sessions, mainly.  The evening was truly very interesting!

Upon reviewing all of my evidence, I did not capture any video or photographic evidence, but did capture some interesting audio whilst during our EVP Phasma Box and other ITC sessions on the two floors of the building. I thought I saw a light disturbance while using the laser grid in the basement area, but it turns out that it might have been one of us slightly moving up or down in its path (as a shadow perhaps), blocking out some of the green light in the process, therefore creating an anomaly. I also think that using my model train was a success whilst using it as a trigger object because of the fruitful EVP responses we received during the night! It was an overall very productive, fun night, and can’t wait to visit this location again!

Charles Williams: I used a Panasonic 4K camera, Zoom Recorder and a Melmeter with a telescopic probe.                        

Dale’s Tri-Field Natural EM Meter went off in the Basement while we were on the Main Floor.  REM Epod also went off at times. Mikey noticed some temperature changes and light distortion in the Basement. 

We stayed together as one group, EVP, Phasma Box, Ovilus V, Spirit Box sessions were held.  When Bishop Rake mentioned her religious use of the area, meters went off.  This is in line with her claims of the conductor not liking her having services in the area.  Was quiet otherwise, can’t wait to dig into evidence!

Dale Kaczmarek: I got a bit of a headache immediately upon entering the old downstairs Bathrooms which are now closets but it almost immediately stopped upon leaving the area. This could have been caused by unusually high EMF readings. Other than that, I didn’t feel anything odd or unusual whilst in the building. The Ovilus V even though full charged the night before was almost immediately drained and could not be used. I had to use the Ovilus X instead.

A sound like a bell ringing was clearly heard during a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor. Quite a few names were also heard including Ike, Emma, Lenny, Howie, Dale, Chuck, Michael, Sam, John, Dan and Matt.

Evidence collected:

Be quiet wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Basement, a question was asked, “Do you want us to stay or go?” The device replied with, “Be quiet.”

Chuck Mikey Diane wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, we were saying our first names for the device to repeat, when the device apparently said, “Chuck Mikey and Diane.”

Dale Michael wasco.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus X session on the Main Floor, the device said, “Dale Michael.”

Drunk wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Ghost Box session on the Main Floor, the device blurted out, “Drunk.”

F*ck wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “What’s this place used for?” The device responded in a high-pitched female voice with, “F*ck.”

Greetings wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, the device said, “Greetings.”

Halloween wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “What do they call October 31^st?” The device responded with what sounds like, “Halloween.”

Hello Mikey wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a comment was made, “Hello Dale.” The device responded with, “Hello Mikey!”

Here wasco.MP4 – while conducting an EVP session in the Basement, a true faint EVP was recorded saying, “Here.”

Hi wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “Can you say hello?” The device replied with, “Hi.”

Howie wasco.MP4 – while conducting an Ovilus X session in phonetic mode in the Basement, a question was asked, “What’s your name?” The Ovilus X responded with, “Howie.”

Lenny wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Ghost Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “What’s you first name?” The device answered with, “Lenny.”

Lloyd Black here wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “What’s the conductor’s name here?” The device, slowly and deliberately, replied with, “Lloyd Black here.”

Medication wasco.MP4 – while conducting an EVP session on the Main Floor, a faint EVP voice was recorded saying, “Medication.”

Moan wasco.MP4 – while conducting an EVP session on the Main Floor, while the team was talking, a faint “moan” was recorded in the background.

My name’s Emma wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box on the Main Floor, a comment was made, “My name’s Dale.” The response, almost talking over me said, “My name’s Emma.”

Neither wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “Are you a male or a female?’ The device responds with what sounds like, “Neither.”

No nothing come out wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “Give me a scream.” The device replied with, “No, nothing come out.”

Old time building wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “Why are you still here?” The response was, “Old time building.”

Ralph Baker wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “Who are we talking to? What’s your name?” The device replied with, “Ralph Baker.”

Rosario wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “Can you tell us who is setting around this table that really likes trains?’ The response that came through somewhat sounds like, “Rosario.”

Scared wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, the device blurts out, “Scared.”

Sure wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “If you’re downstairs, can you come up here?” The device responded with, “Sure.”

Then go wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, a question was asked, “Would you like us to stop or go?” The device replied with, “Then go.”

There we go wasco.MP4 – while conducting an EVP session on the Main Floor, a true EVP in a deep male voice was captured while cross-talk was going on, that says, “There we go.”

Tri-Field alert wasco.MP4 – while conducting an EVP session on the Main Floor, suddenly the Tri-Field Natural EM Meter begins to alert.

We don’t know wasxo.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Basement, a comment was made, “Something’s coming?” The quick response was “everyone.” A follow-up question was, “Whose coming?” The reply was, “We don’t know.”

We heard it wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor while doing a very fast scan, the device said, “We heard it.”

Where are you we’re hiding wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the Main Floor, two spirits are apparently talking to one another when the first asks in a very faint voice, “What are you doing?” followed by another spirit’s voice saying, “We’re hiding.”

Yeah obviously wasco.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session in the Basement, a comment was made, “We’re not going to be here all night. You better make up your mind.” The device responded with, “Yeah obviously.”

Conclusions: For such a small but historic old train depot building, it was very active. Captures of an intelligent nature was very frequent during our stay. A lot of team members had their names called several times. There were several words that might have indicated either a present or a past atmosphere of the building like scary, evil, scared, bad air. Even the word priest came through as Rev. Rake was helping in our investigations and EVP sessions.

In some cases, the spirits seemed to be talking to one another and asking and answering their own question which is something I don’t believe that we’ve actually heard anywhere else during our studies. A couple of times the ghosts might wanted us to terminate our investigation here when they said stop, be quiet and then go.

A most interesting couple of hours here and while there may have been some residual words coming through, I believe the bulk of them were actual intelligent responses to questions asked.