They're Baa –aack! The Spirits Are Haunting A Famous Detroit Landmark

By Kris Kelly
CBS 62/CW50 Community Affairs Manager

I write blogs for the website when the Spirit moves me and after my recent ghost hunting trip to Historic Fort Wayne, I definitely felt "moved" to share it.

Last year, on a lark, I attended my first Ghost Tour at Detroit's favorite fort. I had so much fun, I decided to go back for more this year to see if anything had changed.

And it definitely did change. It still starts with history of the fort and a little background on some of the hauntings.  Last year there was a tour of the grounds first, but this year we immediately broke into small groups to explore some of the areas known for their supernatural activity.

There were also new ghost hunting tools to play with on this year's tour. Some group members carried EMF meters which measure fluctuations in the electromagnetic field.  The theory is an otherworldly presence can manipulate the field and make lights on the EMF meter light up.

Another tool was a laser grid scope which throws a cross-hatch light pattern on the wall. The theory on this one is an unseen presence who moves between the light and the wall will disturb the pattern and become "visible" as a result.

The third and most fascinating tool was an iPad with software to combine a thermal imager, an ultrasonic distance measuring detector, and a light sensing array. When a presence walks into the scene it picks up on the energy and creates a "stick figure" that shows up on the screen.

So what happened with these new tools? Really interesting stuff.

The first stop on the tour was at the entrance to the Fort itself. The story there was a young sentry was stationed at those huge, heavy doors.  Other soldiers were hauling a cannon into the fort.  The cannon slipped away from them, rolled down the hill to the door, and slammed into one of the doors.  The door smashed into the young sentry, killing him.

When we played with the EMF meter at this location, it went crazy. Lights were flashing almost constantly, staying pretty steadily in the high end, red-light area, which means there was a lot of energy there.  As every good ghost hunter does, I was asking the "entity" questions and waiting for answers.  Unlike the real ghost hunters, I forgot to hit the record button on my voice recorder.  So…lots of pretty, flashing lights and no sound.  We will never know what the sentry said that night.

The grid light was very cool, but I don't think we were using it correctly. Nothing happened the few times it was correctly focused on the wall.  The iPad was another story.  That was my favorite experience.

We were in the guard house or jail where lots of strange things have been known to happen. The story here was about Private Stone who managed to escape the guard house and started running down the street.  The officer on duty ordered Stone to stop.  He didn't.  A shot was fired, hitting Stone in the back.  The Private was brought back to the guard house where he died two hours later – and haunts the place to this day.

The iPad camera was aimed at the cots in one area of the guardhouse. You could see colors change on the screen.  At one point, I saw a little "stick figure" form on one of the cots, then disappear.  Later, I was recording the activity on the iPad when a strange, stick figure appeared on one of the cots.  It almost looked like someone trying to crawl off the cot.  It was there for a second, then it was gone.  Fascinating!  I could have played with that tool for hours.

I could go on, but I won't. I do recommend that you experience it yourself.  History buffs and ghost hunters alike will  enjoy this after dark tour of Historic Fort Wayne.  Reservations are required and the tour fills up fast.  For information about this and other tours, visit the Historic Fort Wayne website at historicfortwaynecoalition.com

Kris Kelly is the Community Affairs Manager for CBS 62/CW50.