June 4, 2008
GH: Colonial House Inn
The Colonial House Inn in Cape Cod, Massachusetts didn't seem nearly as large as some of the other places the Ghost Hunters have investigated, but Jay & Grant decided to bring along two other TAPS members (Joe Chin, Krystyn Gartlyn) to give them better coverage for the evening. I'm sure the true motivation was something along the lines of screen-testing them with the audience, but I'm not going to look harshly upon any attempt to make the investigations more thorough.
The Inn, like many of the places TAPS visits, has a rich history and in this case that history goes back nearly three centuries, all the way to 1730. Ownership has changed many times over the years and perhaps as a consequence there are many, many legends. In one room a man supposedly hanged himself and guests often report hearing a man crying. One of the previous owners had nine children, five of whom (according to legend) died young — and there is a room where guests report hearing children screaming, crying and/or running around, even when there are no children staying at the inn.
The different teams experienced a few things (like hearing a knocking sound) that were so borderline as to be hardly worthy of mention but when Jay and Grant went into room 208, where guests reportedly feel uncomfortable and ask to switch rooms, they came up with a very nice debunk.
Jay noticed that his discomfort seemed to be attached to a humming sound and they used the EMF detector to single out the ceiling fan, which they subsequently determined was actually broken on one of the speeds, so when it was on medium the fan did not spin (so people would think it was off) but the motor was still on and it made an unnerving background hum.
Not content to leave it at that, Jay and Grant decided to make Kris Williams into a guinea pig (yet again) and put her in the room twice, once with the fan really off and once with the fan on "medium". She didn't know what had been reported or anything about the room but she reported that the room felt normal on her first visit and got creeped out on her return visit, which corresponded with Grant's ceiling fan settings. All in all, a shining moment for the Ghost Hunters, IMO.
During the evidence review they discussed some of their borderline experiences and confirmed some of the legends as historical fact, but there was no audio and no video to report. At the reveal the manager of the Inn, who had told some of his own personal experiences (including touching a ghost) during the initial walk through, told the team in the couple of days since the investigation he had yet another impressive experience — apparently a door opened right in front of him but no one walked through.
The stories and the history are definitely impressive, but the personal experiences and evidence just weren't there for the TAPS team. A good example of someplace that seems to have some genuinely odd goings-on, but just doesn't perform on cue.
Filed under Ghost Hunters, Posts by Logisti
Comments on GH: Colonial House Inn »
allie0720 @ 9:10 pm
I was worried that they'd claim this one was haunted because of the cold spot(hello! They were sitting next to a window!) on their legs in that one room (I was also worried they'd start feeling each other's thighs, but fortunately, we avoided having to see that!). I was very, very relieved when they said that the place wasn't haunted.
I admit, I rolled my eyes when the owner talked about "touching" the "hair" of the old woman ghost. Ever hear of spider webs?
blinddog50 @ 10:07 pm
To me it was another case of a commercial establishment trying to be certified as haunted to bring in business.
They need to change their criteria for investigations.
Private houses and state or national historic places only.
Even though J&G's(especially G's)credibility hangs by a thread I do give them kudos for the Moss Beach fiasco.
One other thing.
Why does Steve treat and talk to Tango as though he is retarded.
And Joe Chin, go back to your day job.
You're just another so-called "investigator" caught in the revolving door of warm bodies.
June, Like you I did some eye rolling also.
At the beginning of the show and saw it was a bed & breakfast.
Here we go again.
jack @ 11:40 am
There are things these so-called haunted sites could do that we never seem to see–like adding closed circuit recorders to hot spots and leaving them on all the time.
That 'touched' ghost is the perfect example. She comes back to the same place over and over. So why not stick a camera on it all the time? I've got a paranoid neighbor who's got her house wired with 24/7 CCTV–if this non-working crazy can do it how come none of these sucessful businesses can?
Garflonk @ 4:15 pm
The Colonial House Inn, Yarmouth, Cape Cod Massachussetts.
I thought this was an excellent potential haunted house. The manager, Robert Munro, had several excellent first hand accounts of the Inn, from a stable hand who reportedly committed suicide in the Widow's Walk, to children screaming and running around upstairs, and a man sitting in the bar watching his wife garden. The strangest occurrance is the proported touching of the ghost woman's hair. I have never heard of anyone actually making contact with a ghost. (Unless, of course, you count Dr. Peter Venkmann being slimed by Slimer and Dr. Ray Stantz being accosted by a succubus in Ghostbusters.) Thought that was odd and creepy!
First off, Steve being the adamant joker that he is gave Grant a nice little treat by pointing the camera at Joe's buttcrack. Yuck! Lucky Grant. I'm glad they showed the front angle though, cause that is not family entertainment. This was Joe's only function in the episode. I guess he is just used for comic relief. Oh those jokers!!
Up in the third floor of the Carriage House, the Widow's Walk Jason and Grant heard shuffling sounds about, but alas, they weren't very audible to the viewer. Then when J and G are sitting attempting to commune with the supposed ghosts, J gets a chilly feeling on his thigh area. J says to Grant, "I am not they type of guy to ask you to feel my inner thighs…" But if I were..!? Luckily, they had the FLIR, so Grant didn't have to caress J's thighs. Thank god. They then decided to switch seats so they could see if Grant could experience the same sensation. He did. I guess they could attribute it (as it has been brought up previously, to a draft or something), but they really don't try and debunk that experience at all. They claimed it felt as though the cold spot could have been like a child sitting on a lap. That's weird.
Meanwhile Steve is in Room 207 and he tells Tango that there were reports of a woman who stayed there for a month and every morning her glasses would be crumpled up on the floor. I am not sure what that means. Crumpled up? Like a piece of paper? Do you mean folded up? Strange adjective, Steve.
Room 102 with Tango and Krystn Gartlyn, they do a real good job of debunking the strange shadows by the lights of cars possibly reflecting off of objects in the room. Way to go! There were also some strange "false knocking sounds" whatever that means. I thought it was funny when Tango opened the closet door and said, "Hey dark shadow, sorry to bother you!" Well done. I'm glad there is humor that doesn't involve Joe's buttcrack.
The best piece of debunking I have ever seen on this show came from J and Grant who discovered using the EMF detector(finally a practical application) found that the ceiling fan was buzzing and emitting a rather large EMF reading. They quickly put 2 and 2 together and found a mini fear cage that was making the guests of the room uncomfortable. Then by using Kris, not as eye candy, but as a guinea pig conducted an experiment with the fan, first off, then on to see if she experienced any uncomfortable feelings. (I guess they picked her because, 1, she probably wasn't doing anything important anyway and 2, she puked a few times when they were investigating a massive fear cage in a basement, so she is more sensitive to large EMF frequencies). Apparently, this experiment worked because she started feeling uneasy when the fan was humming and started subsequently conducting EVP work.
Unfortunately, for the manager, Robert Munro, there was no solid evidence to back up the paranormal reports around the Inn, but a few personal experiences, some solid debunking and great historical research by Kris. (Or as Grant so eloquenltly stated, "What you drug up about history"). This gets Kris the elusive "Fist Bump" that J and Grant often share among themselves after a kick ass investigation. Job well done!
Disappointing that there was no hard evidence, but some great historical research to substaniate the oral history about the Inn and some solid debunking. It seems like this investigation was classic Ghost Hunters!
Toodle-Pip!