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Oct 25, 2009 10:44 pm US/Central
Finding Minnesota: Ghosts In The Twin Cities
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
This is the time of year when ghost stories are especially popular. Some of those stories are completely made up, but others may leave you wondering.
A volunteer group known as the
Twin Cities Paranormal Society claims to have evidence that several buildings in the Twin Cities are indeed haunted.
"We go in and investigate and see what we can find that would be a normal explanation for what's going on," said group founder Michelle Bays. "And if not, whatever's left over we deem as paranormal."
One of the buildings where the group says it repeatedly detected paranormal activity is a Minneapolis art gallery known the
Soap Factory. It's a structure built in 1883, in the old milling district.
From 1937 to 1990, it contained scores of dead animals, used to make soap at the National Purity Soap and Chemical Factory. Before that, another manufacturing facility sat on the same site, turning out artificial limbs for soldiers wounded in the Civil War.
Tam Prose of the Paranormal Society will never forget one of her first visits.
"Coming up the stairs from the basement, I thought I had another team member coming up behind me. I turned around and there was nobody there," said Prose. "And that happened to another one of our investigators shortly after that."
On Bay's first visit, she and a friend were checking out the artwork on the walls, when she says she heard what sounded like a human voice.
"And all of a sudden I hear this (breathing sound) like right in my ear, and I turned around expecting my friend to be right there, and he was still way over across the room," she said.
The Paranormal Society uses digital voice recorders, cameras, and other devices designed to measure room temperatures and electromagnetic fields.
"I would say we've got at least three or four different voices on the recordings that we've found so far (in the Soap Factory)," said Bays.
Will Ventling, another member of the Paranormal Society, played a recording of what sounds like a child's voice saying "I'm cold." He said the voice appeared as they were setting up their investigation in the building's basement.
Each October, the Soap Factory takes advantage of its haunted designation, hosting heart-pounding tours of its basement. The executive director, Ben Heywood, says he's never really seen any ghosts there.
"I don't find it that spooky because I spend a lot of time in this building," he said, "But for people who don't know this building well, it's a spooky old castle."
The Twin Cities Paranormal Society will take on about 20 or 25 investigations in the metro area each year. Prose handles most of the calls.
"More often than not, the first thing they say is, 'You're going to think I'm crazy.' If that's the case, then I'm probably crazy for doing what I'm doing," said Prose. "But I really feel that there is something out there beyond our world that we live in right now."
The Twin Cities Paranormal Society does not get paid for its investigations. It relies on donations and dues from its own members.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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