Van Buren Poor House Museum
58471 Red Arrow Highway
Hartford, Michigan
Telephone: (269) 621-2188
October 2009
Operated by the Van Buren County Historical Society, this museum is housed in the historic 1884 county poorhouse. The museum contains three floors of historical items, a replica of a log cabin and a blacksmith shop.
MUSEUM HOURS:
Wed. & Sat. 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Sun. 1:00 pm. - 5:00 pm
Investigators: Dan, Deb,Jon, Jack, Theresa, Kevin, Denise, Deb.B, Angie
Weather: overcast and moist cold night 58 F. After 11:30pm we experienced slight low level fog (close to the ground)
EMF Base: between 0.2- 0.6 with light hits on the power box and power conduits.
The team was excited and overwhelmed by the organization and complete history of the collections inside and the original buildings on site, one building in particular being the original Van Buren Hospital. Although unsafe for entry, we were able to work the outside of the building and its grounds. The museum is very well kept and should be an example to other museums to aspire to be.
We were interested in the thought of paranormal activity attached to so many personal items held within the museum, and the building itself. Several museum committee members were present to assist and to observe our investigation; I separated the team into groups of four.
We began the investigation approximately at 10pm EST, the camera set up was difficult only due to so many interesting locations and that there were many separate rooms full of stories and reported activity, but we set up camera #1 in the basement carriage exhibit, camera #2 was et up in the second floor hallway, camera #3 was set up in the third floor world war two display room, camera #4 was the first floor hallway facing the Native American displays, and camera #5 was set up in the basement country store area display.
The reported activity this night was reported as light but at times very heavy in energy when entering certain rooms, such as the jail cell, the wedding dress display room, and the world war two display room. Kevin Hannah used this night, his experimental microphone and recording software in the wedding dress display room. Others reported slight touching on hair and arms as well as light pushing.
The more conclusive base reports of possible activity experienced by team members were in two outside locations, the hospital and the blacksmith shop. Dan, Jon, and Jack experienced very heavy feelings and even thought several times they heard audible responses to their EVP questions outside the hospital, while working the perimeter of the building. The team also witnessed shadows and movement on property surrounding the poor house itself, all of which we tried to recreate and debunk to no success. What we saw was unexplainable!
Later Dan and Jack witnessed a shadow of a person standing at the blacksmith shop doorway; this was just as Jack and Jon were asking if the proprietor was present. Upon them turning to face it, it then ran away hurriedly towards the hospital and disappeared while Dan gave chase running across the lawn.
Upon review of the audio during these events we captured several EVPs, including one very strange picture of what appears to be a circular mist about nine feet in the air on the back side of the hospital where Jack had seen something dark fly in front of him, slightly startling him in the process. Also several EVPs were captured in the poor house this night. We concluded the investigation at 3:00am EST.
The overall conclusion on this case is that the Van Buren poor house is haunted as well as the property by both residual and intelligent spirits. No ill feelings or negative energy was felt or reported by any investigators. This is based on our findings both physical, audio, and picture although we did not seem to capture anything on video. The response to questions on audio and the reactions we seemed to evoke we all part of this conclusion. We look forward to our return in the spring of 2010. The SMP team would like to thank Tad and the rest of the board members for the coffee and treats as well as their company during our visit.
We hope to shed light on the value of such a great museum which keeps the individual history of the local people alive.
Dan SMP Founder / CEO / Lead Investigator
