Paranormal Activity Investigators

LOCATION HISTORY

The Garnett House was built in 1858 by D.W. Houston and was opened as a hotel by Hiram Tefft in the fall of that year. The building sits at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Walnut in Garnett, Kansas. The building was the first hotel in town and had several additions built onto the building. It was said that Mrs. Houston refused to move into the original structure due to its swaying in the breeze. The hotel became known as The Garnett House and the Lighthouse Hotel due to its bright lantern on the top floor, which could be seen for miles at that time. It is the only surviving antebellum structure in Garnett, Kansas.

As a hotel, the building has witnessed and participated in many events in its 160-year history. During the time known as “Bleeding Kansas,” it is said that the famous Abolitionist John Brown hid escaped enslaved people in the attic of their home. This is said to have happened around 1859, just before the American Civil War.

During the 1870s, the town of Garnett became a crossroads of cowboys; settlers headed West and citizens. It became the scene out of the Old West with saloons, brothels, and gunfights in the streets. During this time, the hotel hosted some of its most famous guests. The guest list includes famous lawmen Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Wild Bill Hickock. It also contains renowned scout Buffalo Bill Cody who was traveling with Hickock at the time. Belle Starr, the favorite female cowboy shooter, was also a hotel guest. The famous outlaw Jesse James was rumored to have stayed here under one of his many aliases.

After this time, the hotel became a more prominent private residence, and modern hotels began to appear in the town of Garnett. In the early 1950s, the building became the Doctor’s Office of Dr. Robert Stevens and his wife, Dr. Julius-Stevens. They treated patients in the old hotel up until the 21st Century. 

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Investigator's Notes

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Jennifer, Lead Investigator: 

On this investigation we started off with reviewing a video tour given by Rob, who is always a great host! The equipment used were cameras, audio recorders, a red grid light, motion activated equipment, white noise generator and a rem-pod. ( Both used for an experiment to see how easily they influenced each other. Rem pods do not detect paranormal activity and are extremely sensitive to outside stimuli)

Overall this investigation seemed pretty quiet. We did have one strange occurrence of a doll falling out of a chair ( which is often reported) of which Sarah caught my reaction on her audio. Unfortunately we did not get footage of the doll falling, only the reaction. We could not seem to figure out what caused this as we were walking all around that same area the majority of the night with no occurrence of the doll falling. We did try to recreate different ways of how it could fall and were not successful. It important to note that just because the doll fell does not prove it was paranormal.

We also split up into groups throughout the night and investigated as a a full group and in partners. We set up a grid to see if we could determine any shadows. We did not see any that night. We did spot only natural fluctuation in the grid with small dust particles. We also did not catch any for certain EVPS, as there were many people down the street creating noise, which caused any recording of ours to be possibly contaminated with noises from them.

We did have two investigators report the feeling of getting touched both while investigating upstairs and downstairs. I noted that down for documentation purposes as well.

Rob is always a generous host and we thank him for allowing us out! Some things may be still under review and we will post any updated findings.

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Previous Investigations at this Location:
1858 Garnett House Hotel - Garnett, Kansas