In early June, 2010, I got up at 5:30 for a ten-hour workday, I headed over to Ozark, MO, for my first ghost hunt with Southwest Ghost Finders. The team and a couple of guests (myself included) met up for some Chinese food and to get acquainted with one another before heading just down the road to the historic Weaver House. Located near Jackson St. and N. 3rd St., the house was built in the mid-1800s and has definitely seen its share of Ozarks history. When the Baldknobbers (a group of vigilantes in the Ozarks around the 1880s, not the Branson performers) were creating some havoc in the area, they even held a meeting in one of the upstairs rooms of the house, and burnt their insignia into the floor. The original floor and insignia are still intact in the house, and I must say that the Baldknobber ‘logo’ looks kind of like a horse’s head turned sideways. The house was also at one time a stagecoach stop. It is said that a young girl who had been on the stagecoach developed a terrible disease and died in the other bedroom upstairs.
Preparing to Investigate
The seven of us there for the investigation were SWGF founder, Kim; longtime members Oscar and Sandy; relative newcomers Scott and Paula; and newbies Jerri and me. We set up stationary cameras in both of the upstairs bedrooms, in the living area/spiral staircase, and in the basement. We each carried digital voice recorders and some of us used infrared and regular digital cameras. We also set up a motion-sensitive infrared camera in the sunroom (which is a relatively modern addition to the house), although it really only captured us investigators as we headed toward the bathroom during the night.
Time to Investigate
We split up for the first part of the investigation, with Oscar, Sandy, and Paula in the living areas of the main floor, and Kim, Scott, Jerri, and me in the basement. While down there in the pitch dark, those of us in the basement kept seeing a small flash of light in one corner, even when there were no vehicles going by. We did an extensive EVP session, and Kim asked any spirits to play “Marco Polo” with us. During this, the gang upstairs heard a disembodied male voice say “Marco.”
Throughout the night, we heard several knocks, bangs, and whispers which didn’t come from any of us. When Jerri and I sat upstairs in the Baldknobber room, we both noticed a tension in the room, and had the feeling of a watchful presence in the closet. When we ended our EVP session in that room, we headed to the other upstairs bedroom, the one where a girl from the stagecoach died years ago. The feeling in that room was much more tranquil.
Kim performed a session with dowsing rods while Jerri and I were upstairs, and she seemed to get some responses from a male spirit. After a while, we all gathered in the living area near the spiral staircase, and many of us noted unexplained knocks, as well as catching glimpses of small traces of light or shadows on the staircase. As for EMF, the house really had no baseline, as certain areas of the house seemed to be at a constant spike, and not always near electric lines. On the staircase near the end of our investigation, we caught a free-floating spike on the staircase near where a team member had seen a shadow earlier, as well as a spike in the middle of the Baldknobber room.
Around 4 a.m., we called it a night and cleaned up the equipment, then we each made our way home.
The Helpful Haunt 