Hotel Gadsden - Douglas, AZ

December 30th, 2007

Here is a great synopsis from Tim of the investigation he and Joe did in 2007 of the Gadsden Hotel with pictures and audio coming soon:

The highway descended softly into the border town of Douglas, Arizona. We watched as shadow slowly overtook light. Darkness descended down from the rust colored mountains and crept quietly through the sand and scrub brush until it surrounded the isolated, desert town. Douglas lay there before us, alone and diminutive to the world around it. The history that flowed through the veins of this town was palpable. Thoughts of what could be dominated our consciousness.

We parked the car in the expansive back parking lot to the hotel, gathered our gear, and made our way to the side entrance. The hotel’s lobby was bright with illuminated hues of brown, orange, and emerald; distinct even in the waning light. A few people moved about, but the hotel was noticeably subdued. We approached the main desk and proudly announced our reservation for Room #333. The woman questioned if we still wanted Room #333. When we replied that we did, she lamented, “Oh Lord.” We told her that we were interested in investigating the paranormal and we very intrigued by her welcome. She immediately turned around and told her assistant that we were “ghost hunters.” Now to the hotel staff and guests, we were “Ghost Hunters.” (I couldn’t help but feel that we were infringing on someone else’s brand.) We naturally asked her if she had heard of any activity in the room as of late. She did not seem to recall any activity specifically, but she did say that the hotel is generally active. It was also brought to our attention that a woman was staying down the hall from us who was planning on working with an ouija board. On some level, we were unnerved. Beyond that, I could not help but notice that, despite being the day before New Year’s Eve, there were surprisingly few guests as determined by the overwhelming amount of keys still in their mail slots behind the front desk. We definitely wouldn’t have much living company this night.

After checking in, we were eager to get to the room. The three of us made our way to the antiquated elevator; a kind that still requires an operator. In the elevator, we spoke to the operator about any ghostly activity in the hotel. She concurred that there are “things” that happen here. We exited the elevator and made our way down the hall. It was a plain, green hall that was void of anything extraordinary. However, we when turned down the dead-end hallway that lead to our room, I was amazed at the difference in the overall feel. It was heavy…thick almost. The air was much denser than the previous hallway. I even felt a sense of foreboding. Second thoughts about this investigation found their way into my psyche. As we found the door to Room #333 roughly midway down the hallway on the right, I was even more unnerved by the many nail marks clawed deeply into the door. Apparently the hotel staff paints over them, but they continually reappear. 

If I wasn’t creeped out before, I was now. Entering the room was under whelming, but I had expected that having stayed in the hotel before. We all immediately noticed that the toilet ran continuously and loudly. There would be no need to use a white noise generator for this investigation. Aside from that, it was a typical hotel room. Joe set up a video camera while Dan and I watched and surveyed the room. After a few minutes, we left for dinner. (From this video recording, an EVP was captured. First, sounds of motion can be heard within the room and then a male voice appears to say, “able” or “Abel.” I speculated to Joe that the recording could possibly say, “Evil.”)

Over dinner in the hotel’s restaurant, we mostly talked about the hotel and our upcoming investigation. Joe had investigated Room #333 in the past. In that case, there was one good personal experience where something blew in Joe’s ear. There was also a quality EVP that responded to a direct question. During that previous investigation, Joe had laid out some common possessions on the nightstand in order to see if they would be manipulated in any way and had left video running. There were stories of golf clubs being thrown about and other less extreme examples of the physical manipulation of objects. Returning to the room, Joe entered and examined the nightstand to see if anything had moved. Having noticed nothing extraordinary, Joe rhetorically chastised, “Ah, you didn’t move anything.” Immediately on the recording, a female’s voice can clearly be heard saying, “Sorry.” Certainly the previous activity floated our collective optimism. During dinner, the woman with the ouija board introduced herself to us. She mentioned that she didn’t really know anything about using an oiuja board and seemed oblivious to any possible dangers associated with their use. I think we were all somewhat concerned for her…and us. (Interestingly, her husband was a skeptic.) After dinner, Joe retrieved a collection of journals kept behind the front desk that documented the paranormal experiences of the hotel’s guests. The firsthand accounts covered the whole spectrum of paranormal experiences. Some reports were seemingly credible and intriguing, at least superficially. Others were just too vague and lacking; the kind of reports that say, “I felt someone watching me” but there is never anything of consequence after that. The funniest entry was from a man who wrote, “The only thing that is haunted in Room #333 is the toilet. That thing runs nonstop.” (That was certainly a claim that could not be debunked. The toilet ran constantly.) Whatever the veracity of the claims, there were plenty of reported ones and I could only imagine a whole lot more that did not make the hotel record.

After a brief foray into Mexico, we made our way back to the hotel, entered the room, and prepared for our investigation. Equipment bags were opened, and Dan, Joe, and myself went about the varied tasks. We positioned our digital video recorder between the top of the dresser’s mirror and the wall which overlooked the bed. The room’s ice bucket provided the base. A video recorder was placed in the room’s corner on top of the luggage stand. Two digital sound recorders were in play; one with me while the other was with Joe. We had an EMF detector, digital thermometer, and digital camera at our disposal as well.

Just before 10pm on January 30, 2007, we began our investigation. I initially took EMF readings throughout the room. What was striking were the variances in the readings that would occur in the space of just a foot or so. Interestingly, there were no overt sources of electrical energy that would have caused these variances. On the bed, I was able to establish a base reading of 1.6. But that was only if I did not shift my position appreciably. Readings varied dramatically from spot to spot in the area of a queen-size mattress. Generally they were lower and the highest reading was in the low 2’s. Prior to and since that investigation, I have not experienced readings that have varied so dramatically anywhere else.

We situated ourselves for our first EVP session of the evening. I was on the bed while Joe and Dan were in the corner near outside wall. Our queries ranged from the routine to humorous to provoking. Our requests to make a “sign of your presence” were frequent. Within moments, the three of us established a rhythm with our questioning. We would break from asking questions to break into conversation that varied from the Celtics quick start to our experiences with the paranormal. After about fifteen minutes, I noticed that EMF readings were rising at my position. From the base reading of 1.6, the reading was now 2.9, which was the highest yet. After another minute, an EMF spike of 3.2 appeared. It was the highest of the evening from that location. There was nothing else noticeably different occurring at the time. A minute or so after that, I felt a weird sensation on my right ear. It felt as if something tickled my ear; almost like a bug crawled across it or a gentle electrical sensation. I immediately felt the side of my head and neck area carefully with my cupped hand and felt nothing. I shined a small flashlight around the back of the (still made) bed and saw nothing. If it was a bug, it would have had to been fairly large given the pressure that I felt. Since I was sitting upright, it was the middle of winter, and no one saw anything, I am doubtful that it was a bug. Beyond that, I cannot say for sure. I am intrigued by the fact that Joe, in a previous investigation, felt a sensation of someone blowing on his ear. Coincidence? Perhaps Annie, the resident ghost, has an ear fetish.

We had previously decided to break after the first hour. Near the end of that first session, Joe felt a faint, cool breeze pass by his face. The night was still, the room was quite warm all night, and the air was stale. Joe then asked for someone to make a noise or give a sign of their presence. Just a few seconds after that, I had heard a “breathy moan” to my right. Neither Joe nor Dan had heard what I had heard. Despite being intrigued by the sound, I didn’t think much of it at the time. I thought that perhaps it was my mind playing tricks on me and a product of an over-eager imagination. (Later, upon examining the digital recorder that I was holding, a brief, but distinct, “breathy moan” is heard. We are awaiting further audio analysis of the EVP. While I didn’t dwell on it at the time, now I can’t stop thinking about it.)

We broke from our investigation and took a slow walk downstairs to the hotel’s lobby. Joe and I stopped at the front desk to chat with the night manager. She had told us that another room in the hotel had been experiencing activity as of late. It appeared that she wanted to give us a chance to investigate it, but unfortunately the room was occupied. We talked further and the lady claimed to be sensitive to the paranormal. Of course, we asked about Room #333 and other experiences that she may have had. Her sensitivity to the paranormal made her feel that there was some negative energy associated with that room. The sensation that she described was one of “uneasiness.” So much so, that she maintained that she would not even go in the room. She also said that she was able sense and follow the activity throughout the hotel. We had the opportunity to take a walk through the hotel with her after her shift, but opted to continue with our planned investigation.

Our second session, which began shortly after midnight, was brief and uneventful. Nothing extraordinary was caught and there were no personal experiences. We decided to rest and relax for a bit. After a few video games in the Hotel Bar, Joe and I investigated some of the hotel’s deserted hallways. We took EMF readings as we walked slowly down the halls. There were seemingly no EMF anomalies in the hallways (unlike the anomalies we detected in Room #333.) The highest reading we found was in the mid 40’s and was directly attributable to Coke machine. While I did not feel that same heaviness that I had felt previously in the vicinity of Room #333, there was a certain creepiness to the hallways. We also began to take a series of digital photos in the hallways. (In one of the photos, an orb is clearly present in front of one of the room’s door. The orb appears to be legitimate and does not seem to exude characteristics that would indicate it is a reflection, dust particle, or moisture.)

We began out third session just after 1am. This session was much more relaxed in its tone. While a conscious decision to provoke was not made, that was the direction our questioning went from time to time. During the session, I didn’t feel that we were overly uncouth, but upon review of the evidence, we were pretty tough on those ghosts. Given that the ghost rumored to haunt Room #333 was prostitute named Annie who had two boyfriends, we had plenty of provoking material to work with. It did not take long to achieve results. Approximately 15 minutes into the session, Joe says, “Hey Annie, why don’t you send one of your tough guy boyfriends to mess us up.” I believe a male spirit took him up on his invitation. A few minutes after that, Dan, a skeptic at heart, heard some weird jingling noises coming from within the room and became unnerved by what he had heard. Neither Joe nor I heard the noises that had frightened Dan. (Upon review of my digital recordings, there was no evidence of what Dan had heard. However, an odd jingling noise can be heard for a few seconds immediately following Dan’s announcement.**webmaster note...this EVP does contain profanity. Please listen only if you are 18 or older**) Less than a minute after that, I heard a faint noise within in the room. Neither Dan nor Joe heard it. Instantly, Joe naturally asked what it was that I had heard. I deliberated for a moment and said with a high degree of certainty that I had heard a voice. (During my evidence review, I can clearly hear something that resembles a “breathy you” sound. I immediately called Joe and told him what I heard and gave the time stamp of the event. After some review, Joe called back to inform me that he caught a voice saying, “F**k you!” **webmaster note...this EVP does contain profanity. Please listen only if you are 18 or older** I guess our provoking worked. Later, I sent the EVP to my tech contact in Milwaukee who cleaned the recording up and was able to confirm our initial conclusions. He was also able to confirm that the voice was not occupying the same wavelength as any of us.) Immediately after that, I asked, “Do you need a priest?” In the evidence review, a mechanical knocking sound can be heard immediately following that question. The sound was completely foreign to any other noise that appeared during the recordings.  While Rachael was reviewing the evidence she believes before the knocking sound there is a drawn out word that sounds like "No."

Our questions returned to being time specific to the period of the reported ghosts who haunt the Gadsden. I asked about opium derivatives that may have been used. I asked about opium smoking. Then I asked, “Do you like to drink?” (There was a response of, “Yes”  picked up on both digital recorders in use.) Four minutes after these series of questions, both Joe and I noticed that the room was noticeably cooler. I found the room warm and stuffy all night so any relief was welcomed and noticed. I would not say the room was dramatically cooler but I could sense something different. We had both noticed faint breezes from time to time that seemed out of place and unrelated to any meteorological factor. One breeze was felt across my front of my face. (Upon review of the evidence, a breathy “Hi” can be heard. Three minutes after that, at the 33 minute mark of the session, another EVP is caught. During the investigation, we had broken into conversation about video production. Woven into our discussion is a short response that does not match our voices in any way. We are currently awaiting further sound analysis on this and all other EVP’s caught.)

Given the late hour, we left some of the equipment running and assumed a horizontal position. No more experiences were had and no more evidence was captured.

We cannot help but wonder what affect the woman with the ouija board down the hall from us had. Did she attract more activity? Did she attract negative, more powerful spirits that potentially had some affect on more benign spirits? I can only wonder how she faired as we did not see her again.

The next morning as we left the hotel room, I couldn’t help but think that the hallway did not have the same heaviness as it did the previous night. There was still a creepy vibe to the hallway; maybe even a sadness, but not the same ominous weight as the night before. Was the product of the daytime? Joe had caught woman’s voice EVP during the day in a previous investigation so it would seem that the activity was not confined to the nighttime. Also, other purported evidence was obtained in the day at the hotel. Or was it that three men in a hotel room provoking (and snoring) drove out any spirits.

The evidence review added a great deal of clarity to the investigation and really enhanced my understanding of the investigation. Events become more causal and connected where previously they were disjointed and isolated. Listening to our observations and our feelings associated with the investigation of the room become a series of related events where before they were just a random collection of memories. Ultimately, some of these observations were directly connected to physical evidence caught with our equipment. Instead of wondering if I was hearing things, those doubts were erased by audio-recordings. A touch to an ear correlated to an EMF spike. A cool breeze was followed by a “moan” caught on a digital recorder. To me, this was powerful. It validated my experiences and intuitions.

With two digital recorders in use, voices were caught on both twice. The two recordings are different in clarity to a certain degree. That difference would seem to indicate that a presence was in a closer proximity to one as opposed to the other.

Dan had heard a “jingling sound” which none of us had head. Moments after that, my digital recorder picked up what I can only describe as a “jingling sound.” Was this auditory anomaly traveling around the room? What would cause this sound to be heard by the human ear in one position and then later appear on a recording from another position?

I cannot help but wonder why I heard two of the voices that we caught on audio while no one else did. My history of ear infections, concerts, hunting, and time spent in the public school system would seemingly not make me a great candidate to hear faint sounds.

It would appear that two or three different male voices were caught. One was low and harsh. One was much higher in its pitch. The other was breathy and really sounded as if it was not of this world. No female voices were captured.

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Last updated: March 09, 2009.