Paranormal investigators get in spirit of things with Kansas legends (+video)

In the middle of a discussion about the ghosts of Kansas, Sherrie Curry’s cellphone rings, belting out “Who ya gonna call? GHOST BUSTERS!”

Curry, an investigator with the Wichita Paranormal Research Society, takes the call in front of at least 30 pairs of eyes as a featured speaker at the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum and offers to call back later.

Ghost hunting has been featured on national TV shows and is the subject of countless books, YouTube videos and autumnal events across the state. Within the past decade, there has been a surge of interest of everything paranormal.

Paranormal, Curry explains, “Is anything and everything that is not normal or mainstream.”

It could be sightings of Sasquatch, aka Bigfoot, the giant gorilla-like figure that is said to frequent dark, shadowy tree lines and underpopulated areas. And, of course, space aliens.

In Kansas? Has she seen them?

“I have not, although I have heard stories about Sasquatch in Kansas.”

Curry, a real estate agent by day, paranormal researcher on weekends, goes out on investigations – free – across the state, sometimes as many as 50 a year. The 14-member team from the Wichita Paranormal Research Society is just one of several similar types of groups in the state.

Whether the ghost population is growing or even exists is up for debate. But with high-tech gadgets with sensitive audio and video features, Twitter, Facebook and popular ghost-hunting shows on TV, stories of ghosts are almost commonplace.

Kansas has numerous paranormal groups looking for the supernatural.

Into the wee hours of the night, Curry and her team hold digital recorders, flashlights, electromagnetic field detectors and video cameras.

Explaining the unnatural

The team tries to use rational explanations to explain the things that go bump in the night, she said.

“We get a lot of claims from people who may be laying in bed and hearing footsteps and see shadows pass by a door,” Curry said.

New homes or new neighborhoods can sometimes startle or puzzle new residents when neighbors make noises, temperature changes cause floors to creak or trains rumble nearby, Curry said.

Electromagnetic field levels can cause people to think ghostly thoughts – the radiation from alarm clocks, cellphones and televisions can cause some people who are sensitive enough to the levels to hallucinate, she said.

“In one case we investigated, the husband was using a C-pap machine,” Curry said, citing a device used to deliver oxygen to those who have sleep apnea. “The wife was having all these experiences, and he said she was crazy. The C-pap machine radiated the entire room. The wife was angry we didn’t find a ghost.”

Sometimes paranormal investigators are there to provide counseling, said Terry Rowe of Catch a Ghost Tours, which concentrates on western Kansas.

“I have had people come to me and say they have a ghost in the house, we do counseling,” Rowe said. “If there is a ghost, a lot of times it comes down to people having issues in their lives.”

Night is most often the time when people are aware of ghosts, Curry said, simply because it is a quiet time when most people are trying to sleep.

But ghostly apparitions and spirits can occur any time of the day or night, she said.

Finding haunted areas

In nearly 155 years of statehood, Kansas has had its share of murders, unexplained sounds and creepy sensations. Atchison, for example, hosts haunted trolley tours, walking tours, cemetery tours, ghostly dining experiences, on-site investigations and tarot card lessons.

There are things, the 46-year-old Curry said, that sometimes cannot be explained away.

Old Cowtown Museum, Curry suggests, is one of the most paranormal places in Wichita.

“We have investigated and ruled out all the normal possibilities,” Curry said. “And we ended up with something we can’t explain – a voice that wasn’t ours. Wind chimes in a sealed Mason jar moving five times over a 22-minute period.”

Cowtown, she said, has a few apparitions.

“There are several spirits there – someone who walks the grounds and appears as a shadow,” Curry said. “As soon as you see him, he disappears. Several of the buildings have different spirits – both male and female. We have heard what sounds like male and female voices on recorders.”

Cowtown’s volunteer coordinator, Jacky Goerzen, said she has sometimes experienced unexplained adventures at the living history museum, particularly in the Murdock House. The Victorian house was the home of Victoria and Marshall Murdock. In 1872, Wichita city leaders recruited Marshall Murdock, a newspaper publisher, to start The Wichita Eagle.

“Sometimes people have said they have seen a little girl in the upstairs window looking down,” Goerzen said. “One creepy experience I had was when I was in the house and heard somebody throw something or slammed something inside the house. I thought somebody had broken in and was inside the house. I had one of our guys check upstairs, and he didn’t see anybody. I was then talking with a guest and heard footsteps run across the upstairs. I yelled, ‘Who is upstairs? Is somebody up there?’ I grabbed another guy. This time, two guys went upstairs, and there was nothing out of place. They couldn’t find anything. They left, and I then heard somebody coming down the stairs. I spent the rest of the day on the front porch.”

The stories are fun to share with guests, Goerzen said.

“It scares some people. Others are fascinated and want to hear every story,” she said.

Becoming a ghost hunter

Curry became a paranormal investigator after some unsettling experiences.

“I would hear paper shuffling, bangs, see a shadowy figure pacing in front of my door and white misty figures walking down stairs,” Curry said.

Paranormal investigations and ghost hunting are different, she said.

“Investigations are controlled environments where I limit the number of people investigating. I trust them,” she said. “That way if there are sounds, I know it is not them.”

Investigations are kept confidential.

Ghost hunting is when people go along for the experience, out of curiosity. There is no control over the sounds and noises people make. Public fundraising events allow anyone to join in.

“I have been on ghost hunts, and we have had fundraising events for different places like Cowtown,” she said. “To be an investigator, you need a level head. You have to be someone who doesn’t jump to conclusions. Just because someone may think they have a ghost doesn’t mean they do.”

Why the popularity

Ghost tours often allow people a chance to explore the local lore and history of an area, said Rowe. His Catch a Ghost Tours allow people to use and handle his equipment.

In Hoxie, Rowe said, people learn about the Cressler Creek Cabin, where cameras have caught the face of an old woman and recorders have picked up a woman screaming at children. In Lucas at the Garden of Eden, it is said S.P. Dinsmore, the creator of the concrete garden extravaganza, flirts with female ghost hunters. In Hill City, there is a ghostly woman who rocks in a chair, and at Fort Larned, a blacksmith whistles as he works.

At Battle Canyon in Scott County, ghostly drums have been recorded. In Ellinwood at the Historic Wolf Hotel, there is talk of ghostly prostitutes and a strict librarian.

The Blue Handkerchief Ghost of Carey House Square and her fondness for roses and rose-colored wallpaper is one story. The ghost is of a young prostitute who worked in the Wichita Hotel in the 500 block of East Douglas on the square during the 1920s or 1930s. She was supposedly murdered in her room on the third floor, but her killer was never found.

The Emporia Country Club ghosts – a chef, a golfer and two former managers – are said to haunt the nearly century-year-old structure on the northern outskirts of town. Sometimes things are moved. People hear unexplained thumping coming from inside a storage closet, and lights sometimes go on and off on their own.

And legend has it that the ghost of George Armstrong Custer frequents Quarters No. 24 on Sheridan Avenue at Fort Riley. The house, built in 1855, is one of four buildings still standing from when the fort was established in the 1850s.

Beyond that, Rowe also offers night sky tours of western Kansas, fossil tours and haunted highway tours.

“We are trying to promote small towns in Kansas,” Rowe said. “On the haunted highway tour, we tell the stories of a dirt farmer, rancher, banker and millionaire. These are abandoned homes sitting in the middle of nowhere. We have helped preserve the locations” by boarding up windows and making sure the roofs aren’t leaking. “We want them preserved for the next generations – if we can preserve them for another 20 to 40 years, hopefully other people will start preserving things.”

How to get rid of a ghost

When a ghost is found, Curry said, homeowners have one of two options: make the ghost feel welcome, or get rid of it.

“If you want to get rid of a ghost, it depends on a person’s religious preferences and their background. What we would recommend is if they are Catholic, asking their priest to come in and bless the house,” Curry said. “If they don’t have a religious preference, I recommend the entire family go through every room in the house and show and tell the ghost ‘This is our home. You are not welcome.’ Have the front door open and explain why the spirit is not welcome; they have to leave.”

But Curry said some people don’t mind the unexplained.

“One of our investigators, if she hears or sees something, talks to them just like with a living person,” Curry said. “They may be there for a reason, as protection.”

This story was originally published October 25, 2015 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Paranormal investigators get in spirit of things with Kansas legends (+video)."