Privately Owned Historic Business - Marathon City, Wisconsin

 

Synopsis

The historic building located in Marathon City, Wisconsin was most likely built in the 1890’s to around 1900. By the 1930’s the building was owned and ran by the clients in-laws, parents, prior to that the in-laws grandfather ran the business. The son of the clients in-laws parents currently resides next door. The client stated that the building was last used as a business and living quarters around 1950.

The only other significant details known is the fact that a still birth was delivered in the building at some point while they lived there. Also the current owner of the property, his brother, was hit by a car on the street in front of the house on February 27, 1944. He died from his injuries a few days later at St. Mary’s Hospital in Wausau. His body was kept in the building until spring when he was able to be buried. He was only 5 years old when he died.

I was contacted on November 9, 2014 by the client regarding some possible paranormal activity that has been occurring at the site over the years. Being that winter had already set in we scheduled the investigation for the spring of 2015.

 

Paranormal Activity Reported

Activity occurring in the building recently and in the past includes:

·        Strong Feelings of being watched by something unseen.

·        One witness seen what appeared to be a human skull briefly in one of the building's windows.

·        Lights have been seen on inside the building when in fact there is no electricity in the building.

·        A very tall thin man in a blue shirt and blue work pants has been seen from outside the building standing in the upstairs area on the North side of the building.

·        Family has stated that while in the living room area of the building they sometimes talk about taking the stove out of the building. On a few occasions a male voice reacts to that comment from the upstairs area. Upon inspection no one is present in that area.

·        A general creepy feeling is felt by many family members while out in the yard adjacent to the old dairy.

·        A ghostly cat has been seen in the building when the client claims no cats are present on the property.

 

Investigation

The WPRS investigated the building on Saturday May 9, 2015 from approximately 7:00PM to 11:30PM.  Investigators Blaschka, Duginski, Beaudry, Shaw and Williams were present.  The client gave us a tour of the property and explained where the above activity had occurred in the building. After the tour of the property was complete, I briefly interviewed the family in the yard of the current residence next door. The family then retreated into the house so that we could begin our investigation.

Basic equipment used during the investigation included digital cameras, digital voice recorders, Tri Field Electro Magnetic Field (EMF) meter, a 4 channel DVR camera system, Geiger counter, infrared and full spectrum cameras, REM Pod, and infrared/ambient thermal probes.

We began by placing cameras throughout the building. The first camera was placed in the lower level work area. The second camera was placed in the living room / kitchen area on the first floor. The third camera was placed on the second floor of the building and aimed toward the staircase area. The WPRS mobile command trailer was parked adjacent to the building and the camera’s where monitored from there by Williams.

Next we obtained temperature, EMF readings as well as prepared a sketch of the building’s floor plan. Many infrared and full spectrum photographs were taken in various areas inside the home. Several digital photographs were taken of the outside of the building as well.

The main level had temperatures between 56 and 67.4 degrees, with EMF readings at or near 0 Milligauss. Geiger counter readings were between .05 and .08 mr/hr. The lower level temperature was 57.9 degrees with EMF readings near 0. Geiger counter reading were higher here at .1 mr/hr. The second floor had temperatures between 60.5 and 61.1 degrees with EMF readings near 0 throughout. Geiger readings were .05 mr/hr throughout the second level. During the collection of our base line readings we found no anomalous EMF or temperature variances that could not be explained reasonably. 

After our base readings were collected we formed a group of four investigators to perform an EVP session in the living room / kitchen area. We also performed an EVP session in the upstairs living area; William’s stayed behind to monitor the DVR system while the other investigators used digital voice recorders to try to collect audio evidence of paranormal activity (Electronic Voice Phenomena or EVP.) We used a Rem-Pod during our EVP sessions as a possible communication device. We also used a small child’s ball as a trigger object when speaking out to the boy who died as a result of his injuries on the property back in 1944.

Upon later review of all our EVP evidence we found a few points of possible interest. During our upstairs session we captured a very subtle male response that sounds like it possible says “I’m home”.

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Also during our living room session another EVP was captured and sounds like some unintelligible whispering sounds. We reviewed our Full Spectrum and Infrared photographs in the WPRS command center. Only one photograph drew some attention. It was taken with our Full Spectrum camera in the lower level work area. A foggy shape can be seen near the ladder that is leaning against the wall. We are not certain if the photo is paranormal or just simply a play of refractive light from the IR camera near that area. It should be noted that we had taken a few other photos in the same area and did not capture the same anomaly.

We did not find any paranormal events on our DVR footage but did capture the image of bats and a raccoon in the upstairs area while we were all in the command center.

During the investigation we spoke out loud several times to whatever presence may happen to be in the building. We relayed the fact that the family still resides at the property and asked that any spirit present possibly leave a message for the current family members. During our sessions we did not hear any disembodied voices nor did we get any movement from our trigger object.

 

Conclusion and Recommendations

Upon review and consideration of all the claims made by the client we feel that it may be possible that the clients have been experiencing paranormal activity. It is possible that they are experiencing a true haunting as well as some residual haunting activity.  The activity however is not harmful nor does it frighten the family much as the building is no longer used as living quarters.

We may return in the future at the client’s request.

 

*Any use or reproduction of this documentation is prohibited without the sole permission of Shawn Blaschka or the WPRS.