DOUGLAS

SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

JANUARY 17, 2004

 The workshop crew met at 11:30am in one of the most haunted hotels in Arizona—The Gadsden Hotel.  We anxiously registered at the desk and received the keys to our rooms.  Debe greeted us in the lobby with the workshop folders and our first instructions.

 We headed 17 miles east of Douglas to the Slaughter Ranch and Museum.  We explored various buildings to determine if its former owner, John Slaughter, was still looking over his ranch.  In the past we had heard someone singing in the main house.  This time two of the men heard something dragging along the ground near the site of the old fort…and someone heard a little girl giggling…was it Apache Mae?

 Later in the afternoon we headed to the historic Grand Theatre in Douglas.  Douglas Arts and Humanities are continuing their renovation of the landmark theatre.   We were given a tour that took us from the projection room and the balcony to the orchestra pit and the basement.  Although there was no roof at the time of this investigation, the massive building has still kept the energies of the early movie theatre heavily closed in.   The basement under the lobby remains the most haunted area of the structure.

 Dinner was at the Grand Café across the street from the Gadsden Hotel.  A spirit saved the establishment from a fire by waking the previous owner in time to snuff out a smoldering carpet.  No ghost joined us at the dinner table although he had plenty of time to be seated!

 Jeff Martino and his team from Paranormal Research Investigators of Tucson demonstrated the monitoring system we were going to be using that evening to detect any spirit activity.  We plan to set up his equipment in the basement to monitor the hallways and capture the ghosts on film.

 After the traditional group photo on the Gadsden marble staircase, we headed to the Pirtleville Cemetery just 3 miles west of Douglas.  This old, tiny Mexican cemetery is very haunted and an excellent site for filming ecto and recording EVP.

 Back at the hotel we explored all the known haunted spots: the laundry room on the 2^nd floor, the 4^th floor, mezzanine, and the banquet room.  Most of us stayed up all night monitoring the basement from the computer screens set up in the hallway near the kitchen.  There was moving orb footage shot in the basement and many of us captured energies on cameras.  The Gadsden Hotel continues to be a popular workshop site and keeps it status as a treasure house of ghosts!