We all met at the Bisbee Inn on OK Street at 12:30PM. This was going to be a great investigation as our group had the entire haunted hotel booked for just our ghost hunting workshop! Owners Moses and Brena Mercer checked us in to their quaint hotel.
The Bisbee Inn (Hotel La More) was built in 1916. The 24 room hotel was built on the site where wooden buildings were destroyed by the fires on Chihuahua Hill. Mrs. S P Bedford furnished the hotel and leased it to Kate La More in 1917. It was located just up the hill from the train depot with rates at $2 per day. It advertised as the most modern hotel in Bisbee. In the 1930’s the hotel was sold to Grace V Waters who ran the establishment as the Waters Hotel. In 1982 the hotel underwent a Certified Historic Restoration and the name was changed back to the Bisbee Inn. In recent years and renovations period carpeting and furniture was added to complement the original oak dressers. It remains the second largest hotel in Bisbee.
A monsoon storm was brewing in the sky so we decided to take our group photo in front of the hotel early in the afternoon.
Debe broke the workshop group into four small teams of eight investigators. We were going to do a lesson on how to do an initial “house call” investigation. Each team was driven out to Debe and Kenton’s little 1934 miners bungalow across the road from Evergreen Cemetery. Inside, members of the MVD Ghostchaser team posed as homeowners and presented their tales of the haunted house. Some of their stories were true and other tales were typical situations they had heard though many years of investigating clients homes. Debe had seen a little girl in the house before—but most agreed there is a man lingering there as well! Investigators were to interview the home owners—tour the house—use EMF meters—recording devices—take photos—and decide where they would set up cameras and equipment for a future investigation.
Purple Team found a 3 degree drop of temperature in green Room---6 degree drop in bathroom. Cold spot in blue room. They smelled bacon cooking in kitchen.
Blue Team took photos in all rooms. They decided it would be to set up cameras in the bedrooms and the lining area facing living room.
Red Team dowsed and sensed a 6 year old girl named Nancy who liked cats. The spirits family are buried across the street. Maureen felt someone touch her arm. They felt it best to set up cameras and EMF meter in the Green room, blue room and living room. Set recording devices throughout house and interview neighbors for more information.
Green Team sensed a man in the house—laughing—with hair across his face. (Debe later learned that a man did die in the house). They felt a cold spot in the blue room. One person got chills and felt teary eyed. They would set up cameras in dining room towards closet and “hippie” bedroom.
We all met for dinner at the Mexican food restaurant called Santiago’s on Brewery Gulch. We enjoyed the great food! We also had time to get to know and share investigation techniques with the other ghost hunters in the group!
At 7:30 our guest speaker, Fran Maklary, talked to us in the sitting area of the Bisbee Inn. Fran grew up in Bisbee and gave us an insight on what it was like growing up “seeing” ghosts in Bisbee. She grew up in one of the most haunted houses on Tombstone Canyon—so haunted it had to have an exorcism performed there! She is the author of “Mi Reina—Don’t be Afraid” and a member of the Bisbee division of the MVD Ghostchasers team. Fran and I are striving to keep Bisbee’s history and ghost stories in their proper prospective.
Then the monsoon storm broke loose! It did not stop most of us from taking the Old Bisbee Ghost Walk Tour at 9pm. The ghostly tales were entertaining. Some of the group stayed behind to do some communication work with the ghosts in the hotel during a table spirit circle.
We were disappointed we had to cancel our visit to the cemetery due to the rains. The heavy rains also prohibited us from transporting the expensive monitoring equipment in and out of the hotel out of fear of water damage. It is very fragile and sensitive equipment. We encouraged the workshop crew to not risk taking their cameras out doors. Besides water damage—the photos might only show rain drops or moisture instead of paranormal phenomena.
A small group of ghost hunters took a midnight stroll up to the top of Brewery Gulch seeking the lost souls of ladies of the night and men who were killed in gunfights and stabbings. We stopped again at City Park that was once Bisbee’s Cemetery.
Many ghost hunters set up DVD cameras in the halls of the Bisbee Inn to film as we slept. Some ghost hunters were up at the crack of dawn to explore the quiet hotel and to head to the cemetery to catch an eerie fog covering the sleeping dead.
In the morning—at breakfast—one ghost hunter thought they had hit the jackpot with a photo of an apparition coming down the Bisbee Inn staircase! But, upon computer analysis it was debunked as a light reflection off the walls. See for yourself, at first glance, does it not look like a man in a suit coming down the stairs??
We did have a bit of activity in the hotel. In room 6, one of the ladies heard her name called out. They heard their cell phones on vibration even though they were turned off. Shoes were moved. The found a clump of long blond hair in their bathroom that had not been there earlier (none of them were blond). In room 5, a glass slid off their nite stand. (perhaps the glass that was used in the spirit circle earlier?) In room 14, a small group talked with two spirits (Teresa and Michelle) and the curtains began to move. We all plan to revisit the ghosts of Bisbee very soon.
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Click Here to download "I am here"
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Click Here to download "noooo"
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Click Here to download "uh oh"
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Click Here to download (whispering)