Time: Approximately 2230
Location: Greefs Store, Mason Inn, Cemetery, Bentonsport Iowa
Members Participating: Juli and Erin
Juli's Report...
The trip to Bentonsport was really a good experience. The first day we arrived, there was a meet and greet in the basement of Greef’s General Store, where the conference was too be held. We met amateurs and professionals from all over. Members of IPRA were helping to host and we also met members of “The Spirit Chasing Ladies” from MO. There were several other groups there as well as women who weren’t part of any organized group but were just curious. We also met an author by the name of Debbie Fritter. She has written several novels with a paranormal theme and said she came to do research on her latest novel.
After the meet-up, several members of IPRA and The Spirit Chasing Ladies invited Erin and I to go up to the cemetery to do a mini-investigation. It was cloudy and quite windy at the cemetery, which was on top of a hill.
I was at first drawn to a headstone of a woman named “Thea”. Several of the others commented later that they were also drawn to that particular headstone. There was a headstone farther in of a young man that seemed to have some activity attached to it. When I walked over this grave, it felt difficult to breathe and I felt as though my heart stopped. Erin said she felt a similar sensation. When we asked others to stand on this spot, without telling them what we experienced, they all claimed to feel upper respiratory distress.
Much of the group concentrated on an outhouse in the cemetery. It seemed to be utterly surrounded by feelings of dread. Erin and I volunteered to go inside. We both received images of a young boy who was abused and severely beaten by an older male relative. We agreed that the man didn’t seem to be the boy’s father, but perhaps an uncle.
After this, I observed a slightly transparent woman in a long rose colored gown walk, perpendicular to my path about ten feet away from me and then disappear behind a large grave marker. When I walked to this area, no one was there but the air seemed to crackle. Erin and I went to investigate the area on the other side of the road. While we were there, we both heard “Psssssst!” as though someone were trying to get our attention. There was no one around us. A minute or two later, we heard a child giggle.
The first day of the convention was exciting. We met more people that were not at the meet-up the night before. Everyone was wonderfully friendly and there was much in the way of information and idea exchange.
One of the first speakers was Rochelle Evans with The Paranormal Realm in KY. Hers was a very informative speech and potentially solved a problem that I think plagues most group; the admission or rejection of orbs caught in pictures. She put forth the theory that if spirits can manifest as round orbs, perhaps they could manifest as different shapes as well. She suggested that when we ask the spirit’s permission to photograph them, to also ask if it/they would please manifest as a heart, triangular or diamond shaped orb instead of round. This could help distinguish it from reflections, dust or flash anomalies.
The rest of the speakers had fascinating stories to tell backed up by evidence in video, still pictures, and audio. One of the last speakers was Patrick Burns from the TV show “Haunting Evidence”. He showed some incredible footage from episodes of the show and then talked about some of his equipment. His equipment was essentially just more expensive versions of what we already use with the exception of a special barometer that he plugs right into his laptop. He uses it in conjunction with his thermometer stating that there does seem to be elevated barometer readings in the presence of paranormal activity.
Erin and I found this quite interesting since we’ve both experienced our ears popping and the feeling that the air was more “dense” in areas of cold spots and other activity. His presentation didn’t touch as much on this audio equipment as I had hoped. When I approached him afterward about this, he gave me his card and invited me to call him in the future and he would be happy to discuss audio equipment and how best to use it.
We then broke up for dinner and reassembled at the church for our group investigations. We divided into three smaller groups and would divide the investigation into thirds. One group would start in the basement of the Greef General Store where the conference took place, one group would start in the church and one group would start at the historic Mason Inn. The groups would then rotate after a period of time to give everyone a chance at all three locations. Erin and I were paired up with two young ladies from IL and we started at the Mason Inn.
Our first room seemed to have the spirit of a little girl. Erin picked up that the girl’s name might start with an “A”. Using my dowsing rods and asking a series of questions, the spirit seemed to indicate that she was six years old and that her name was Anna. I received an image of a little girl with dark curly hair wearing a dress with full petticoats and ribbons in her hair.
The second room we went to seemed darker to me. I sensed the spirit of a young man, perhaps late teens or early twenties. He seemed much more reclusive and didn’t communicate through the rods much.
The third room was larger and was actually two adjoining bedrooms and a bathroom. The room with the large bed felt colder so we started there. There seemed to be a female presence there that indicated that this was her house and at first seemed almost to resent our intrusion. When we behaved and spoke to her more as visitors she would have been used to in the 1800’s, she seemed to relax and warm to us a little more. When we complimented her on her lovely gown and her home and thanked her for her gracious hospitality, I felt that we had “passed her test”. We followed this presence to the other room with the two twin beds when she began to play with Erin’s hair. She seemed fascinated and Erin stood still as this presence walked all around Erin, picking up pieces of her hair and fingering it like she’d never seen a woman with short hair before. This went on for several minutes before this presence finally moved away. We thanked her again and left the room.
The last room we visited was downstairs right off the foyer. Erin and I immediately sensed the presence of an older man perhaps in his sixties. He seemed quite gregarious and flirtatious. We both heard him say, “Well, look at this! I have four women in my room!” and laugh. He seemed to be quite willing to have us there and to try to make his presence known. One of the other young ladies we were with, Amber indicated that she felt his presence quite strongly too.
Erin and I elected not to participate in investigating the other two locations as we’d already been inside both and we were tired.
The next morning, the conference concluded with thanks to the hostesses and speakers and then a brief history of the town by Chuck and Joy, the owners of the Mason Inn.
One item to note: One of the spirits of the Mason Inn is a young boy who seems terrified and will not leave the attic. He had been beaten to death by a male relative – his uncle.
Erin's Report...
With Juli driving and myself navigating, off we were on our way to the WISP Expo in Bentonsport, Iowa. We arrived around 6 or so in the evening in Keosauqua and with some direction from a nice old fella at the gas station we shortly found the Hotel Manning. Our room was actually behind the Manning with a nice view of the Des Moines River. It was a more modern Motel than the actual Manning itself, but that was fine, as we actually weren't going to spend much time in our room. We dropped off our luggage and met another lady who was also staying there wondering if she could follow us to Bentonsport, and of course we said, "Sure!" hoping we could find the way ourselves!
Thankfully Bentonsport is only six miles from Keosauqua and it was easily found.... whew! We grabbed a choice parking spot in front of the Greef General Store where the expo was being held. Coming into Bentonsport is like warping back through time. One main drag with a few stores now operating in buildings which were banks, post offices, and private homes of a hundred years gone by.... a couple of churches and a handful of residences. I couldn't tell you what the population is there, but I'd be willing to bet that there are under a hundred full time Bentonsport human residents.
The Greef General Store is actually no longer a general store, but is filled with gorgeous antiques and beautiful wood stoves for sale. Of course we had to take our time wandering through to get to the back stairway leading to the basement, where the expo was held.
Elizabeth Corey-"Beth"- was manning (womanning?) the check in table where we stopped to get our name "lanyards" and goodie bags. An artist was painting beautiful pictures of ethereal "spirit women" of all sorts. First we met Kristy Hinkle, author and hostess of Haunting Existence Radio. Kristy and I had written back and forth on MySpace previously to it was a real pleasure to meet her in person! It was good to see Phyllis Galde again too! Jacqui Carpenter, whom we've met before, was busy making sure guests, hostesses and speakers were mingling...and it was good seeing her and Beth again! We introduced ourselves to Patrick Burns, who is really outgoing with a great sense of humor. I've admired his work on the show "Haunting Evidence" on the TRU TV network for a while now. I can tell you that it was a real pleasure and honor to be able to spend some time with all of these fine folks with so many years of experience and experiences!
Everyone found a seat and Kristy "officially" welcomed all. Friday night was for getting to know each other and eating cake.... having coffee, and chitchatting.
Jen and Michelle and their group from Missouri, The Spirit Chasin' Ladies, invited us and a few other gals and Eric Kline (from Jacqui's IPRA group) to take a short drive up the hill to check out the Bentonsport Cemetery with them. How could we turn that down? Personally, I love old cemeteries for the artwork and beauty of the memorials.... and generally I don't feel much of a "paranormal vibe" from them at all, but this one was different. Even the iron fence seemed to have a story to tell! It was a beautiful night with a bit of wind and a little on the chilly side. Juli and I were instantly drawn to a grave, which was set above ground level. A few of the ladies seemed to have a creepy feeling around this one. I didn't sense that myself, but as I touched the stone I got a whiff of something.... maybe vanilla, or maybe not.... something spicy that I couldn't quite name, and then it was gone. Juli and I wandered around just seeing what we could sense and both of us had the feeling of being watched. As if there were people in the tree line by the entrance just watching us all while we were there. Some of the ladies seemed fascinated by a two-holer outhouse that was toward the backside of the cemetery. (I thought it was strange for there to be one in a cemetery at all, but later learned that it was a common thing back in the old days.) As Juli and I walked, I bent to touch a stone, which felt oddly warm. Not sure if it was holding the heat from earlier in the day, although it hadn't been particularly warm, or exactly why it was warm...it just was. Whereas neighboring stones were much cooler. Interesting!
Suddenly Juli stopped by a three pointed, crown shaped stone, and by the look on her face, I knew it was an odd sensation so I went over and stood by her with my hands out, palms down, and sure enough.... before too long it felt as if electricity was rising up into my palms making them feel buzzy and strange. On further, as Juli walked she stopped as if she'd just been tugged. I didn't have a flashlight with me to see the name on that stone so I knelt to check if I could feel the lettering and as I did I noticed a nausea sweeping over me. Enough of that! Time to go see the outhouse that was causing such feelings of dread in some of the other ladies. Eric came along and brought his video camera. It was thankfully obvious that this outhouse hadn't been used in recent years so that was a good thing. Eric couldn't believe that we were actually going to go into this "outhouse of dread", but how else do you check things out? Upon entering I knew that I surely wouldn't want to be in there with the door closed! I started getting the impression of a torture or punishment that over-exceeded the crime. As if a boy, maybe a young teen was being beaten and hollered at. What a strange impression, I thought, to get from an outhouse in a cemetery! So, that seemed a little out of place to me.... puzzling. We went from there out toward the road and Juli told me that she had just seen a lady in a rose colored dress walk across the way a bit ahead of us. I took pictures, but nothing unusual showed up in them. We both heard a "Psst" coming from the area on the far side of the road as if a child was trying to get our attention. We walked over to that side and found no one, yet it seemed as if there was something were supposed to see or know there. We heard the "Psst" sound a couple more times and the rest of the ladies were ready to go back to the store so, not wanting to walk after hearing coyotes in the not too distant area we took the ride back. Things there were wrapping up for the night so Juli and I thanked Jen, Michelle, and the ladies and wished all a good night.
As we were driving back to our hotel in Keosauqua, Juli and I couldn't get our mind off of the outhouse and what we each felt there...of all places. It seemed to me as if this young teen boy was being raised by a cruel Uncle or some other father figure. We both thought it was a little absurd to get these images in an outhouse in a cemetery. We got back to our motel and tried to sleep, anticipating the speakers for the next day, and I had forgotten how thin motel room walls were.
Up early Saturday I got ready first for the day and as I was sitting outside our room watching the river, there was a man fishing. He had just tossed his line in and he caught an enormous Asian Carp. I'd seen news stories on how they are invading river systems and how they actually jump right in boats! This fish had to have been about 35 pounds and I surely wouldn't want to be in the boat one like that would jump in to!! The man who caught it said they used them for turtle bait.
Juli was ready so we looked around Keosauqua and found a little place open for breakfast called "Cakes and Cups". We had a good meal and another lady, Chris, who was also attending the expo, joined us.
Bentonsport was hosting a flea market/craft fair type of thing the same weekend as WISP so we had to park on a side street. Being a gardener myself I was impressed with a yard full of daisies and lupines by the (at that time seemingly empty) museum there. There were daisies here and there throughout the town, which really added to the charm of the place. I'm not sure if they had been purposely planted or not...but I suspect those by the museum were intentional and perhaps the wind and birds had planted the rest. The town was abuzz with activity - ladies setting up for and attending the expo, vendors of all sorts setting up their booths in the small park across from the shops, families coming to see the town and crafts and such. I told Juli that I'd heard Bentonsport had a small public garden and how I hoped we'd get the opportunity to see it!
We grabbed some coffee and took seats near the front so as not to miss a thing. It took a short while for everything to be set up as Beth and Patrick worked it out to send a live stream from the expo to the Internet so that those who couldn't attend in person could watch and be a part of it all through the wonders of modern technology. I thought that was pretty cool!
Soon our first speaker was ready for her presentation, Rochelle Evans, founder of the group, The Paranormal Realm from Kentucky. She spoke of the value of women on a team.... that in general, because of our nature, women tend to be more sensitive than men. She also brought up the subject of orbs...which is touchy in the paranormal field. She said that she asks, when on an investigation, that if an entity wanted to show themselves in a photo as an orb, to make a shape other than a circle. She said that she has asked specifically for a heart shape and she got one! What a novel idea, and one that I'm going to try from now on. Her presentation made me feel very proud to be part of a team whose co-founder is a woman and other co-founder is a man who accepts and values the sensitive women on our team!
Our next speaker was Phyllis Galde - Editor in Chief of "Fate" Magazine. Juli and I had met Phyllis previously as she tagged along on one of our team's investigations at the Mississippi Belle Restaurant here in Hastings. It was a pleasure to see her again as she is such a jewel - always upbeat, smiling, and genuinely down to earth. She shared her many memories of growing up in haunted houses and of visits from relatives no longer living.
We all had a nice lunch which Jacqui and her team brought in and everything sure hit the spot. During this break time Juli and I asked how to get to the garden. It was located just across the street past the flea market vendors and across a small wooden bridge. The garden is planned and planted in the foundation ruins of long gone flourmill...the Hitchcock and Noble Flour Mill, built in 1843 and used through the early 1900's. It had rained all morning while were inside so the iris, roses and phlox that were in bloom looked delightfully juicy! There was such a peaceful feeling about that garden in the mill ruins by the Des Moines River there....ahhhh!
Next up back at the Expo was Kristy Hinkle. She had blogged on MySpace before the expo that she was nervous about speaking, as it would be her first time giving such a presentation, but you sure couldn't tell as she came across as she'd been speaking in front of groups forever. Very professional young lady with such a heart for paranormal research! Kristy spoke of her most favorite place to investigate - Prospect Place in Trinway, Ohio (http://prospectplace-dresden.com/).
As we all gathered, chatting on the porch of the store, I noticed Steven LaChance had arrived with his good friend Linda from Union, Missouri. They were up next to speak with all of us. They shared individual and very frightening experiences in a rental home there in Union. Their stories have been featured in an episode of the television series "A Haunting". Their episode is called "Fear House". There, at the WISP Expo, was Linda's first time speaking of what she and her family had gone through during the time they lived in the home. Steven spoke of the fear his children endured and I had to ask him afterwards if those experiences were what had led him into studying the paranormal. He answered that it was.... and the look in his eyes when he spoke of that fear his children endured showed me that his heart is truly in the field where he belongs. The both agreed that the experiences they had - horrifying one's - were only barely touched by what was presented in the "Fear House" episode. Steven has written a book The Uninvited to be released in October 2008 detailing their haunting survival tale.
Jacqui Carpenter was up next and she chose to, instead of actually speaking, give gallery readings. Several women either had specific questions regarding various aspects of their lives and other were simply curious as to what she may have sensed about them. Juli went up and Jacqui told her that her headaches weren't a sinus problem, and that she should have that checked out.... which is fairly accurate and I don't know how Jacqui would have known about Juli having headaches other than through intuition.
Patrick Burns wrapped up the presentations with an in-depth look at the kinds of equipment he uses as both an investigator/founder of his team, Ghost Hounds out of Georgia, and his paranormal documentation of his "Haunting Evidence" show. For this program, he documents any paranormal activity that may occur at cold case crime scenes that he and two psychic detectives are taken to. He brought up the use of a barometer when he investigates which really made sense to me as I often get the sensation of my ears plugging when paranormal activity is present. He is very informative in the tech field of the paranormal!
When Patrick was done it was after seven in the evening so we were told to go find some dinner and meet at the church up on the hill at around 8:30. Off we went to try to find a place to grab a quick dinner back in Keosauqua since by that time the vendors in Bentonsport had closed up shop for the day. The pizza place was so crowded and we were short on time so, although Juli was so craving chicken noodle soup, we settled for burgers and onion rings at Misty's Malt Shop. We met Cher Andersen, founder and lead investigator for Paragon Paranormal from Illinois there...really sweet young lady who was enjoying it all as much as we were! Being one of our friends on MySpace, it was awesome meeting her in person! We ate quickly and headed back to Bentonsport for the investigation.
Small groups of women were gathering in the churchyard on the hill overlooking the small town. When Jacqui arrived we all went inside the church. She explained that three places were open for investigating.... the basement of the Greef Store (where we had been all day), the church we were currently in, and the Mason House Inn. Juli and I had discussed previously that we may not investigate each area since not having much sleep the night before, after such a long drive, and then absorbing the speakers all day - we were exhausted! We chose to be on the team Kristy headed up as they were going to begin at the Mason House Inn. http://www.masonhouseinn.com/index.htm
Kristy gathered everyone together in a large dining room at the Inn. There was quite a large group so we split into smaller groups of four or five after Chuck Hanson, the Inn owner, basically explained about how we are guests there of theirs and the spirits who call the Inn their home. He advised us against provocation and said that the spirits of the Inn would show themselves with gentle invitation. We teamed up with two young ladies, Amber and Stephanie. Stephanie let it be known that she did not want to be touched at all by anything! This was their very first time partaking in anything like this and they were both fairly excited. The first room we went into upstairs was The Des Moines Suite, a smaller two-roomed suite. We sat on the bed, and Stephanie and Amber got situated and we began sensing a small, shy little girl. Juli tried the rods to see if we could get a conversation going. We all explained that we each had little girls in our lives and it seemed to me that the entity we sensed started feeling a little more confident. At one point in time, I could actually see shadows of little feet going towards and away from Juli. I got the feeling that this little girl's name began with an "A" and Juli thought her name was possibly "Hannah" or "Anna". We thanked her for visiting with us and moved to another room.
In this room, the Ashland Room, I sensed a young man and so did Juli. I was attempting to communicate with the rods and I asked him to point the rods to where he was if he could and at that time the thought occurred to me, "You silly women! How can I move those things when I'm all the way over here by the bed!" which is indeed where we felt he was and yes...it would have been difficult for him to reach the rods from there. Anyway, it made me laugh too hard to continue using the rods.
Ah, the next room was breathtaking! The Mason Suite is wonderfully decorated and contains the bedroom set of Mr. and Mrs. Mason as well.... which I did not know at the time, and was also the bedroom of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Mason, also not known to me at the time. We sensed the presence of a woman with some authority over the Inn here. She seemed to be fascinated with my hair as I was walking through the larger of the two rooms I stopped when I felt a hand brush my cheek. I stood very still and it happened again. Then it felt as if someone was taking very small pieces of my hair and very gently running them through unseen fingers. This went on until Kristy came in looking for a girl who was there with her mother on the investigation. It was really quite a different sensation!
Downstairs, the Bentonsport Room was our last spot to check out. We picked up a male in there who seemed really tickled to have four women in there, which made me giggle. Come to find out that this particular room was once the Inn's pub, where no women were allowed!
After that we stepped outside to take a bit of a break and Juli and I explained to our partners there how our group generally does investigations and how different it was to have so many people in one place for such an abbreviated amount of time.
When I reviewed my photos and recorder from our time at The Mason House, all I came away with were my personal experiences.... unfortunately, yet understandably.
We wished everyone a good night as we were just too tired to complete two more rotations of investigating so we headed back to our motel. We should have been able to fall right to sleep yet found ourselves, lights out, lying there discussing the "mysteries of the universe" for quite a while before sleep would come!
Sunday morning we got up early after finally sleeping more soundly than the night before. We checked out of our room and headed to Bentonsport one final time. We all met again at the Greef Store in the basement for coffee and doughnuts. Chuck and Joy Hanson gave a talk about the spirits they believe inhabit the Mason House Inn. They spoke of the Inn's history and how they believe it was a stop on the Underground Railroad. The spoke of "Marquis" who was a young teen aged confederate soldier who had been injured during the Civil War and was brought to the Inn to be cared for and he died there. Perhaps he was the one who thought we were "silly women"? They spoke of "Amanda" who has a special relationship with their daughter. They spoke of "David" who doesn't want to leave his room on the third floor because he is terribly afraid of his Uncle Frank, who beat him to death. Remember the outhouse in the cemetery? I could have choked when Chuck mentioned this one.... why would that come through in an old outhouse at the cemetery? Is "David" buried there? Was it he who was trying to get our attention? Hmmm.... Chuck said that he and Joy believe they have twenty-five full time entities at their Inn and up to sixty-five counting those who come in visitation there. They have used a device called a "Frank's Box" with paranormal investigator Chris Moon to communicate with them all at one time or another. I had never heard of such a device myself and will have to look into it further before having any sort of opinion on it.
Our gracious hostesses and Patrick thanked us all for coming and we all were free to go. Juli asked Chuck and Joy if they had any experience with an "Anna" or "Annie" in the Inn and they said that they hadn't yet, but they'd watch for her. We explored the town for just a bit.... one more visit to the wonderful garden and a couple of souvenir purchases and we were on our way home again.
I have to mention that the weather took a turn for the worse there in Iowa and there were huge storms all around us the entire way back to Hastings and yet - right where we were on the road, there was sunshine all the way home...for which we are both very thankful!
EVP's from Investigation...
*We are now adding the name of the team member who carried the device that picked up the EVP*
Conference Photos...
Due to the large number of photos taken during the conference, we have grouped them accordingly and have provided a separate link to each category. Please click on the appropriate link below to view the photos.
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