NEWS

The Haunting of the Dungeness Schoolhouse

 

The Dungeness Schoolhouse may host ghosts according to team members of Red Ball Paranormal Investigators. They tested the building on Feb. 20 for several hours and said they may have communicated with one or two children, a woman and a man. 

— Image Credit: Sequim Gazette Photo By Matthew Nash

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• by MATTHEW NASH,  Sequim Gazette Reporter 

• Mar 18, 2015 at 2:47PM

 

 

Halloween is long over and it’s not quite time for spooky stories over a summer campfire but Sequim may have a ghost story coming to life at the Dungeness Schoolhouse.

A team with Red Ball Paranormal Investigations out of Jefferson County recently examined the historical building at the prompting of Julie Haney, a former criminal investigator and Sequim transplant.

She helped the team of three women: Stephanie Brock-Farrington, lead investigator; Cricket Webster, chief administrator; and Shawna Falero on Feb. 20 examine the school for paranormal activity. The women have investigated several other places but this was their first time investigating a Sequim location.

Falero said they aren’t there to prove if there is a ghost or not in any place they visit.

“We just put the evidence out there,” Brock-Farrington said.

“It is a new field and we don’t understand it all but that’s why we do it.”

Katherine Vollenweider, former director of the Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley, joined the group who spent five-plus hours in the dark taking photos, watching video, recording audio and trying to communicate with spirits.

The group reported their findings to a group of family and friends at the Museum & Arts Center’s DeWitt Building coincidentally on Friday, March 13.

“(The schoolhouse) definitely has paranormal activity,” Brock-Farrington said. “But it’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s just another part of this wonderful, historical building.”

Webster said by listening to raw recordings for Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP), sounds found on electronic recordings that are interpreted as spirit voices, they heard communications from one or two children, a woman and possibly a man mumbling.

Vollenweider said while speaking to the alleged spirits they referenced artifacts such as a photo of a student named Catherine Monson, which is the first picture upon walking into the schoolhouse.

This image was one of the items the team found the most response from, Vollenweider said.

Some of the phrases they captured in the evening were “I’m here” and “don’t know” in response to their questions.

In their photos, the group saw orbs or white lights, which they said weren’t caused by their cameras or other known sources.

“People assume they are a spirit anomaly,” Webster said.

Shadows and process

Possibly the most significant experience the group discovered was snapped in two photographs in a closet.

In one image, a piece of A/V equipment sits with a flat surface but in a second image shooting into a mirror and looking into that closet there was a reflection of a round figure that appears to resemble a head.

Webster said she’s still on the fence about the images.

“I have no logical explanation,” she said. “I can’t say that was A/V equipment or not.”

Webster said paranormal historians would refer to images like this as shadow men but they are typically attributed with evil.

“But I didn’t feel there was any evil there,” she said.

Prior to testing and attempting to communicate with ghosts, the team sets up multiple cameras in each room and tests the rooms’ temperatures, visuals and audios.

Falero, who has been with the team since it started 1½ years ago, said they test everything prior to starting to not confuse any readings.

“We can usually debunk if it’s something else,” she said.

In an evening, they’ll take hundreds of photos with the flash on and Webster said they don’t filter or edit their images or recordings.

Participants are asked not to wear new scents like perfume or deodorant, too.

Brock-Farrington said, “It doesn’t happen often but they can get a whiff of something coming through.”

Vollenweider, a biologist by trade, said she was impressed with their process.

“I didn’t feel they brought in any agenda,” she said. “They also established a baseline and proceeded along standard protocol to do it sequentially.”

She appreciated that they answered her questions, too, while working which she said showed they were comfortable using their equipment.

Friday the 13th

After presenting their findings in the schoolhouse, the paranormal team set up inside the DeWitt Administration Building’s collection room on Sequim Avenue on Friday night.

This time they welcomed back Vollenweider and museum volunteer Joy Headley and museum board secretary Bob Stipe. He was the first man to come on an investigation with Red Ball Paranormal Investigation.

But the investigation seemed anticlimactic, the team and volunteers said.

Even though they don’t fully disclose their findings until after they review audio and video, Webster said she’d rate the schoolhouse at an 8 for paranormal activity and the DeWitt Building at 1.

Headley said she was told that since the building was built in 1996, spirits are more connected to places than things but she’s still glad she participated.

“I never felt scared or that it was hokey,” she said. “It was done in a way I feel they were taking it very seriously to see if there is something there.”

Vollenweider agrees with the sentiment. “I didn’t feel we were at a séance,” she said. “We were at some kind of scientific experience.”

Headley said she sat with Haney attempting to speak with spirits using a device for a portion of the night.

“We got someone to say something,” she said. “The name Dick came out but we’re not sure if it’s a first or last name.”

In the 20-30 minute conversation she said they could make out the words “human,” “confused” and “outside.”

Headley said she’s still skeptical a little bit but she had fun and appreciated the team’s approach.

“Everything was calculated and scientific,” she said. “If someone would cough or clear their throat, they would say who is clearing her throat and the time. And at one point in time, we were seeing all these little things on the screen, they called them orbs, so they stirred up dust to compare.”

Schoolhouse spirits

Stipe said he wouldn’t commit to whether there are ghosts or not in the schoolhouse.

“Two different people could look at it two different ways,” he said. “Some may be scared that there are spirits there whereas others may say it’s adventurous. I’m not going either way.”

The Dungeness Schoolhouse was built in 1892 and served the community in a number of roles through the years before the museum took over ownership and management of it in 1988.

Vollenweider said in her time as director ghosts never came up in conversation.

“I think that’s why I’m so interested in it,” she said. “I was so busy dealing with the day-to-day that it never came up.”

She said there’s a lot of attention in paranormal activity particularly on television but she feels everyone recognizes the schoolhouse as a wonderful building.

“It fills with light, has high ceilings and is built to invite people and encourage learning and still does, no matter what the results are,” Vollenweider said.

The investigation of the schoolhouse and DeWitt Building were done at no cost to the museum.

Red Ball Paranormal Investigation team members are coordinating with the museum to arrange a public meeting on the findings of both investigations.

For more information on the Museum & Arts Center, visit macsequim.org.

For more information on Red Ball Paranormal Investigation, visitfacebook.com/redballparanormalinvestigations or http://redballparanormal.wix.com/red-ball-paranormal.