Potter County: Odds Country

With an EMF detector in one hand and a laser thermometer in the other, I walked across the long, dusty basement. I got at EMF reading to my right, and focused in on it---Just an outlet that looked like it had been installed in 1955. A drop in temperature to the left turned out to be a small vent that ran to the sidewalk outside.

I moved forward. I passed a door to an alcove containing paper products and old equipment on the left. On my right, there was a crumbling alcove with old decorations inside it. Then I passed another door on the right that led to a storage alcove, and the EMF detector lit up. This time, there was no easy explanation, and I switched the thermometer for a camera.

I clicked several photos, then moved forward. Got a reading up ahead, on the left, and shot photos of that, too, as I reached the end of the basement.

Up above, I could hear my co-workers talking through the floor. The basement of the print shop ran the whole length of the building, and I'd discovered that, as two people had been murdered down here in 1962, I could use the place as a sort of haunted Hogan's Alley if I felt I needed a warm-up.

I walked up the steps to the main floor, where I found Emily waiting. She said,"What were you doing in the basement?"

"I was....Looking for more...."

She grinned. "You were checking for ghosts, weren't you?"

"Well. I gotta keep in practice. Tim and his family invited me to go to lunch in a haunted hotel with them this weekend."

"Weren't you guys going to go check a cemetery for a banshee a couple of weeks ago?"

"Yeah, the banshee had to be cancelled due to weather."

"I hate it when that happens."

"So we're going to the Germania Hotel in Potter County. This place was built in 1856, and is said to be haunted by at least three ghosts. I figure we're going to sneak in for lunch and use it as an excuse to do some investigating."

Emily laughed. 

I said,"Been known to sneak some investigations before. One time at my wife's holiday party in Northumberland County, I snuck out to investigate a water monster. When I got back, a drunk guy drank my water sample and I had to go back for more."

She laughed again. "You never told me you went looking for water monsters."

I like having new co-workers.

"Yeah, it was called the Susquehanna Mystery Thing."

"You do tend to attract the crazies, don't you?"

"It's kind of a professional hazard. You get that a lot when you're known for paranormal investigation."

We started toward the front office. Emily glanced at my sweatshirt.

"Loch Ness Monster's the Hide and Seek Champion, huh?"

I grinned. "I gotta be me."

It's gotten so I get mildly annoyed on my days off. I usually check my messages and drink coffee while I send Paul off to school, do a little writing, and then figure out what I want to do with the rest of my day. I'm easily bored.

I was sitting on the couch with the dogs when there was a knock at the door. When I went to answer it, sort of expecting someone to try and sell me new windows or something, I was pleased to see it was Tim and his family member Devaughn.

I smiled. "Guys! Hi!"

"We brought you something," said Tim. He handed me a bag. When I looked in, it contained T-shirts, hats, notebooks, and business cards for his team, Schwartz Paranormal Investigations.

"Oh my god! Thanks!" I said. 

"There's one for you, and one for Paul. Will he be coming with us Saturday?"

"Unfortunately, his little bestie has a birthday party. He'll come along next time."

"Haven't gotten to meet Paul yet," commented Devaughn.

"That's right, you haven't have you? We'll bring him on an adventure soon. Hey, Tim, I got a copy of Linn's History and the Jerry Church journal for you. I'll run and get them."

"Thanks," he said. "Looking forward to Saturday."

The sign at the county line said,"Welcome To Potter County: God's Country." We blew past it in the SUV as we left Clinton County.

I was up front with Vince, Tim's husband. Behind me was Millie and Petey, Tim's adopted kid, and in the back, Tim and Devaughn. Vince said,"Did we pass it?"

"No, I think we're on the right track," I said. "The hotel is supposed to be just past a turnoff up here somewhere."

We came to a crossroads, and he turned left. "There it is!"

We pulled into the parking lot. It was chilly, and still wet from the rain the night before. I was wearing my black ghost sweatshirt, black jeans, my warm puffy vest, and my leg rig. The hotel was  a small place in a small community, but it looked busy. We walked in to the tune of "Friends In Low Places" on the jukebox.

A bunch of guys were lined up at the bar, drinking beers and whiskeys. They turned to look at us as we walked in, looking us over. Then one of them lit up. "Hey! Paranormal investigators! Come on in!"

We walked into the dining room area as a bunch of them gathered around. "Find anything yet?" someone asked.

"Well, we just got here," I said. "We're hoping to find something."

"We wanted to ask the owner about scheduling an investigation," said Tim.

The bartender waved her hand. "Sure, go on upstairs."

"Really?"

"Sure. We have a little girl haunting room thirteen."

Well. That was easier than expected.

We walked to the stairs. I said,"Look at this, Tim. These steps, these doors....My dad's house has doors like this. They're clearly from the eighteen hundreds. These locks....They haven't made locks like this in well over a century."

"This place definitely has the potential for ghosts," he said.

I walked into Room Thirteen with my EMF detector. The entire upstairs was old, and badly in need of repair. There was a bed and a small shelf in the room, and water stains on the ceiling. As I walked around the side of the bed, my detector went up to orange.

"Got a reading in here," I said.

Tim and Millie came in. Millie had her EMF detector and Tim was carrying his cell phone with a FLIR detector attached. Millie said,"I'm getting a few readings."

"Heat signature in that corner," said Tim. 

I checked around the empty socket dangling from the ceiling on a chain. "No reason to think this has electricity running in it. I think the power's shut off to most of the second floor."

"We got something in here," said Tim.

I walked out to the hallway and looked around. There was a stairway at the far end, curling upward to a boarded-off attic. Down at the other end, there was a door. I looked out the window; it opened out to a sloped metal roof.

Devaughn joined me at the end of the hall. I said,"This place seems to have been built in stages. Look, there had to have been a balcony here once. No way this door originally led to that roof."

He looked out. "I can see that. You think that part wasn't there originally?"
"There's no way this door was meant to do that," I said. "The place was built in 1856; it's likely there have been a few additions and changes over the years."

Tim came down the hall and walked into Room Nineteen at the end. We followed him in. He was clicking photos with his FLIR.

"Bit of a reading in here, too," I said. "Funny how we're getting all the activity on the north side of the building, in the odd rooms."

"That is odd," he said.

"I see what you did there."

Tim got a photo, and said,"Oh my god. Look at this."

I looked over his shoulder. I could see the window on his FLIR photo, and clearly see a humanoid set of legs walking beside it.

"Checking," I said, and did a search with my EMF detector in one hand and my thermometer in the other. "Getting a bit of an EMF rise in that corner. That photo couldn't be either of us, we were standing behind you."

"No," he said. "There was nothing there."

'We can all vouch for that," said Devaughn.

"Send that to me when you get a chance," I said. "That's one of the best pieces of evidence I've seen yet."

We sat around the table downstairs, all of us, eating our food. The food at the Germania Hotel was really good, and I could see why they had a crowd in there. I'd ordered the horseradish burger, which had a slice of cheese on it the size of Linn's History.

"Next time we're here, we'll hit Ole Bull State Park and the local cemetery," Tim said. "It's getting dark now."

"Hey, we got a good investigation in," I said. "I'm not gonna throw a fit over the state park. I know you wanted to talk things over with the management and set a time, but considering how open they are about us investigating, we'd have been idiots not to."

"I'm thinking an overnight sometime," he said. "What do you think?"

I grinned. "Why not? I'm in."