In yet another story of ghost hunters being denied access to a location, The Republic in Columbus, Indiana reports that county commissioners have denied a request by local paranormal investigators to investigate a supposedly haunted house.
SPENCER, Ind. — Owen County commissioners have denied a request by paranormal researchers to check for ghosts in the former county home.
The Indiana Society for Paranormal Investigations asked permission this week to come in at night and search the dilapidated brick structure for traces of ghosts.
But commissioners in the southern Indiana county say there’s already been enough research done at the former home for the old, infirm and mentally ill that was built in 1878 and abandoned in 2002.
Another group visited the home last year with equipment such as electromagnetic field detectors, voice recorders and laser beam motion detectors. The Herald-Times of Bloomington reports the group told commissioners they detected no ghosts but did encounter a number of low-flying bats.
The interesting thing here is the question of why the request was denied. It’s obviously not a “respect for the dead” or a “respect for the mentally ill” issue, as they’ve already allowed paranormal investigators in. It’s quite possible that they believe there’s been enough research done, as they claim, but this article only mentions one other group. Maybe they’re afraid of another group coming in and possibly finding some evidence, which would then create a buzz about the place, and naturally lead to more teams requesting investigations, as well as the token trespassers. We goof a lot on businesses who want to be haunted for better business here at The Occult Section, but this is the other side of the coin. Some places would rather that the stories die away. This might be one of those cases.
Maybe several have already been there with no success?? Just because they mention one group from the year before by no means immediately rules out that any other teams have already been there…
There are a whole slew of reasons, besides those mentioned, why they could not want more investigators to come in. Maybe their insurance company won;t allow it? Who knows.
You may be right, they might not want to legends or stories to live on, and, them being the property owners have that right exclusively. It’s best to respect that right and let it go.
@Grandfather_Time
I agree. There are a lot of legitimate reasons why they may not have allowed the investigation. Beyond not wanting to draw attention to it as a haunted place, there are reasons such as insurance issues, need to have a paid staff member on site to monitor the investigation as part of the insurance contract, safety issues, potential damage to the site, concerns about the professionalism of the group involved (No offense to them. The commissioners may have just had a bad experience with a previous group), or concerns about the potential for aggressive or disrespectful behavior towards any spirits that might still be around.
I think that the original poster is downplaying the problems that site owners have with trespassers, too, by referring to them as “token”. I volunteer at a project to restore a large, decrepit mausoleum that has a reputation for being haunted. The amount of wanton destruction done to that place by idiots trying to prove how brave they are is in the hundred of thousands of dollars.
The average person does not realize that there usually is some cost to the site owner or risk to the site to allow investigations. Be grateful to the places that do allow them, because they really are doing you a favor.
Nellie, you misunderstood my use of the word “token.” By mentioning “token” trespassers, I was not trying to downplay the issue at all. I simply meant that most of these places already have many trespassers, and had them long before ghost hunting became popular. So in essence, they didn’t need even more trespassers fouling up the ground than there already were.
The place is uber creepy, though!!
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i live near it and there is nothing weird or creepy about it. maybe instead of being concerned with if it is haunted or not maybe people should be concerned with how the homeless was kicked of it with no where to go it was not abandoned people was told to get out and with out help those who didnt have family or friends to live with went out on the street
i live near it and there is nothing weird or creepy about it. maybe instead of being concerned with if it is haunted or not maybe people should be concerned with how the homeless was kicked of it with no where to go it was not abandoned people was told to get out and with out help those who didnt have family or friends to live with went out on the street