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| October 13, 2011 Shelton Mason County Journal |  |
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By EMILY HANSON,
NATALIE JOHNSON and
ARLA SHEPHARD
On Friday, Sept. 9, three
Timber reporters dared
experience what no one
else in Mason County
ever has.
We spent the night in the Mc-
Reavy House, one of the oldest
houses On Hood Canal and one of
the most haunted dwellings on the
Olympic Peninsula, according to
the Olympic Peninsula Paranormal
Society.
Our goal was to become amateur
ghost hunters ourselves. With our
varied backgrounds (Natalie being
the firm believer, Arla a thrill-
seeking enthusiast and Emily dubi-
ous of all things supernatural), we
brought our own experiences to the
table. We didn't know what we'd
find.
These are our stories.
The Believer:
All ghost-hunting shows -- and
there appear to be at least seven Journa~ U~o~o by Em~y Hans°°
on basic cable -- are at their core Mary Bethune, left, of the Olympic Peninsula Paranormal Society tries to communicate
exactly the same. with the supposed ghosts who haunt the McReavy House in Union during an Electron-
Whether the show features part- ic Voice Phenomenon session while Chris Boone listens in.
time plumbers, college students or
even bodybuilding ghost hunter-
studs (as a recovering ghost-show it wouldn't start at all and needed with my recorder and my trusty cessful and perhaps half-hearted
addict, I've seen them all), they all to be push started to get to the Ouija board, ready to connect with ghost-hunting attempts, exhausted
end with people stumbling around house, the dead. from our efforts. I slept soundly
in the dark saying, "What was When we got to the McReavy Before settling into our homebut woke with a start when Emily
that? Did you hear that? Some- House it wouldn't start again, and for the night, I ate up any and all loudly pronounced that there were
thing touched me, dude!" this time there was no room for information and wild tales people men outside our windows.
As intrepid ghost-hunting an emergency push-start. In the would give me about the houseIt was 6:30 a.m. and my heart
journalists at the Journal, we set morning we tried everything, and in order to properly freak myself was racing. The men walked into
out to say those exact phrases nothing in my aforementioned out. Ghosts seen at the top of the the house, witnessed our dishev-
while stumbling in the dark in the arsenal of mechanical knowledge stairs, by two different people in eled appearances and fear-stricken
middle of the night at the McReavy would help me start the car. Fellow two different decades? Awesomely faces and nonchalantly said they
House in Union - and we did. journalist/hunter of the dead Emily creepy. Papers moved mysteriously were here to do work on the house.
In our little group of ghost hunt- kindly drove me home. about the house without any sign We hurriedly left.
era, I was the Malder to Arla and Later I found out that the start- of a drafty breeze? Fantastically I may not have seen or heard
Emily's Scully. I believe in ghosts, er cable had broken off the starter, spooky. Voices recorded in ghost any ghosts that night, but I was on
but I'm skeptical about ghost evi- I firmly believe that a ghost did box sessions with the paranormal the edge of terror the whole time.
deuce. I thought as amateurs, we'd it. society? Terribly thrilling. Just the way I like it.
likely find nothing. Spooky. I didn't actually expect to collect -- Arla Shephard
We got to the house a little late, -- Natalie Johnson any ghost evidence, though, to be
but immediately started hunting, quite honest because I don't know The Skeptic:
Arla and I grabbed an electronic The Thrill-Seeker: if I believe in ghosts. I do, however, You know that saying "Seeing
recorder and set out to talk with I simultaneously love and hate believe in poltergeists, which are is believing?" Well, I totally believe
some ghosts, to be frightened, manifestations of bad or mischie- it. I don't really believe in haunted
Unsurprisingly, we didn't hear I love scary movies and I love be- vous energy, sometimes the result houses, ghosts, spirits, the undead,
anything but ourselves back on ing startled. There's just something of a violent death or deaths,whatever you want to call them, I
the recording. We did a good job about being spooked and letting Right before our sleepover, don't believe in them. When people
creeping ourselves out, though, but out a blood-curdling scream that our Journal editor fed us a story die, they're gone and that's the end
I don't think the ghosts had any- feels really, really good. about Fanny McReavy's death. He of it.
thing to do with it. My roommates in college once claimed that she had been brutally However, spending the night
But that wasn't all. played an elaborate prank on me strangled by burglars who climbed in a supposedly haunted house
When we did our daylight walk- one Halloween involving disfigured through the windows of the room was a little more frightening than
through of the house earlier that masks, fake blood on my windows we would be staying in. Cue the I'd bargained for. I arrived at the
day, our tour guide Mary Bethune and jumping out at me in the dark rising dread and excitement build- house later than my ghost-hunting
of the Olympic Peninsula Para- on the balcony while I was wearing ing in my stomach, buddies to discover that the sound
normal Society -- a group that only my shower robe. I screamed Ultimately, we found out thatof me coming into the house had
frequently collects paranormal evi- and ran through the house like a Fanny had NOT died such a death, freaked them out a little bit, since
dence at the house -- said a little chicken with its head cut off, even but that didn't stop me from imag- they couldn't see the driveway from
prayer to keep spirits from follow- after I realized who the culprits ining my own untimely and tragic the room they'd chosen to camp
ing us or our possessions, were. demise in the house whenever out in and therefore had no idea I'd
After that, my car didn't run Point is, I was majorly looking we heard a floorboard creak or a gotten there.
right. Before I set out for our ghost forward to our ghost expedition at drunken shout from outside. There was also hardly any cell
hunting expedition later that night, the McReavy House. I came armed We fell asleep after unsuc- reception at McReavy, so that was
creepy. It's a real commentary on
today's world when not having cell
phone reception feels almost like
losing an arm. But I digress.
I sat in on an Electronic Voice
Phenomenon (EVP) session with
Natalie and Arla wherein Natalie
recorded everything that we were
saying and, hopefully, everything
the ghosts were saying back to us
during a short time period. I didn't
have much to say to the supposed
spirits, Arla was just trying to
get one of them to come out and
say something and Natalie was
actually heckling them a little bit
-- maybe she deserved what hap-
pened to her car. When we tried to
listen to the EVP later, we didn't
hear anything, though we did learn
that whispering to each other dur-
ing an EVP session is not a good
idea because we could just barely
hear ourselves on the recorder and
it almost sounded like ghosts had
been in the room with us.
After playing a few board games
while trying to ignore the entirely
creeped-out feeling being in the
house was giving us, we three ama-
teur ghost hunters went upstairs
to the room we'd been told was the
McReavy's bedroom. Arla and I set
up a Ouija board across our laps
and tried to communicate with
"the other side," while Natalie sat
on the couch near us, thoroughly
freaking out. At one point, it felt
like the pointer was moving, but
when you sit still for so long with a
board across your lap and a friend's
lap, trying to hold your arms
steady and relaxed, your muscles
are going to twitch and of course
the pointer will feel like it was
moving.
Also, Natalie's apparent fear
at being upstairs seemed to be
contagious and actually freaked
me out more than using the Ouija
board ever could. I don't know if I
believe that a spirit board created
by a shaman would actually work
to communicate with ghosts, but
let me just go on the record right
now to point out that a piece of
cardboard with letters written on
it and a plastic pointer created by
Parker Brothers will never be able
to communicate with the spirit
world.
By the time we finished with
that pa~'ticular experiment, it was
nearing 2 a.m., so we went back
down to the room we had claimed
as our own to try to get some sleep.
As Arla has already said, she fell
asleep fairly quickly. Natalie fell
asleep soon after - I know because
I was awake for at an hour and a
half longer.
I've admitted I don't believe in
ghosts and I still don't, but when I
was trying to sleep in that creepy,
old, feels-like-it's-falling-down
house, I couldn't help but wonder:
'~What if I'm wrong?"
-- Emily Hanson
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