The workshop crew headed north to Camp Verde—a very haunted town that some ghost hunters might not even know exits. With the aid of Deb Wilber, Judy Valencia and Ginger Mason—ghost hunters in the Camp Verde area—we had a full day of history and ghost investigations ahead of us.
We met about 1pm in the Courtyard of the Adobe Café. Former Mayor Mitch Dickenson was our guest speaker. He gave us information on the history of the town Camp Verde. It began as civilian-run businesses near the fort (Fort Verde) in the 1870’s. There were trading posts, boarding houses, brothels, banks and cafes. He gave us the background on his family—the Wingfields—who were prominent settlers in the town. The Wingfield Mercantile store was family run for many generations. It also had some mysterious and deadly history as well. Tom Wingfield and partner Mack Rogers were gunned down in a robbery attempt by Tom “Black Jack” Ketchum. Mitch told us how the presence of his ancestors is felt in Wingfield building and in the courtyard where we all sat. Yes, his family owned the stage stop and trading post in that plaza as well.
We then walked to the Camp Verde Museum housed in the old grammar school building. Some of the old timers in town came by to give us more history background and stories of what it was like growing up in Camp Verde in another era. We all posed for our group picture inside the gazebo on the museum grounds.
As a bonus, the museum volunteers were able to show us around the old Clear Creek Church. This old 1903 church is normally off limits except for special functions and we felt honored to be able to explore this peaceful historic building.
We drove back into town to explore haunted Fort Verde. The fort protected the farms from Indian raids from the 1870’s until 1891. It was manned by as many as 300 soldiers during its busiest times. The rangers were happy to explain life on the fort and let us explore the remaining four buildings and parade grounds. Several investigators thought they saw a ghostly woman peering down from the upstairs window of the officer’s quarters.
The Adobe Café –an adobe building—was originally a boarding house and stage stop for pioneers coming to settle the Verde Valley and soldiers coming to and fro from the military fort. The building was erected circa 1860-1870. The Café owner arranged for a special menu for the ghost hunters. We dined on: A Julius Caesar Salad—Paranormal Club Sandwich—Orb Burgers—Unnatural Phenomena (fried Spam)—Spirit Plate and Spooky Soup! The owner of the café reported seeing a woman standing in the window of the café and has seen a pair cowboy boots out of the corner of her eye.
After dinner, Debe and Megan Taylor gave a lesson in Cemetery Dowsing. We learned how to tell the gender, size and age of the interred. Megan demonstrated other functions and uses for the dowsing rods as well.
We headed out to Clear Creek Cemetery near the Clear Creek Church one more time. This time we practiced our dowsing lessons and surprising saw how it worked at the gravesites of the cemetery residents. We also found the graves of the murdered partners—Wingfield and Rogers.
We all stopped back to the Adobe Plaza for coffee while the shop owners showed up where they had witnesses ghostly apparitions. After filming the Wingfield building one more time, we bade the sleepy town good bye and headed back down the hills to the Valley.
