Side Trip: Marks' Mill

True Stories of a Paranormal Investigator

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SIDE TRIP TO MARKS' MILL

CLEVELAND COUNTY, ARKANSAS

Sometimes we at Arkansas Ghost Hunters have little side trips enroute to investigations. We hit Warren several hours early to hit the local library with no success. After grabbing lunch and meeting with Jordi, Joseph and Angela, we were told by a couple of the locals about a nearby Civil War battlefield. Nearby turned out to be about several miles north and into the next county. But the drive was worth it.

The Battle of Marks' Mill was fought on April 25, 1864 and resulted in about 1793 causalities, not counting any civilians (1500 on the Union side, 293 on the Confederate side)

Marks' Mill was owned by John H. Marks and his homestead was about a mile from where the battle took place. He and his family witnessed the first shot and causality of the battle, the driver of the lead supply wagon. After the battle, his home served as a temporary field hospital and his daughter testified that several soldiers were buried on their property. Not far from where the house once stood is Marks' Cemetery  where members of the Marks family are buried.

Now the area where Mark's Mill, the Marks' homestead and a small portion of the battlefield is now a State Park. A dirt road leads to the cemetery and along the road is various markers about the Mill, the Battle and the Marks themselves. There are also equipment from the mill and the Marks' homestead in the area. The park also sports nature trails.

Now we didn't go out there to investigate anything. We just went out there as history buffs.

The Coker Hotel 2/16/13

I haven't forgotten about you. We just took a break during the holidays.

Our first investigation of 2013 was in the small town of Warren, Arkansas in the southern part of the state. Now Warren is a quaint little town (this from someone who has lived in big cities and good sized towns all her life) Very quiet and the people are quite friendly. And the homes there! A good majority of the houses there are old good sized homes (We were even told by a librarian that several of the houses have had reported activity) I should stop talking about the houses before I side track myself as I'm a sucker for houses built before and during World War I.

Ahem...

The History

The land that Warren sits on now once belonged to the Quapaw and Choctaw peoples. The town was built in 1851 and according to tradition was named after a slave freed by Captain Hugh Bradley, the man the county is named after. Around the turn of the century, the timber industry hit a big boom and folks flocked to Warren and the surrounding towns to work in the field and in the lumber yards ad sawmills. In 1914, Philip Coker, who had previously owned mercantile businesses*, along with his wife, Fannie, built the Coker Hotel to house those passing through and also serve as a type of boarding house. Folks that worked at the mills and lumberyards would live there when they first got to town. The hotel was in operation from 1914 until the 1980's when it was closed. It currently is mostly boarded up and abandoned, although one of the lower rooms has been converted into an apartment. From what I could tell, hooligans break in regularly and spray paint all sorts of crap in the upstairs portion of the building. Parts of the floor on the second story are weak and warped. in 2012, the Coker Hotel, along with 9 other locations, was placed on Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas' Endangered Places list, which, I believe, is a step towards being placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Now we haven't been able to find much on the history of the building aside from word of mouth from folks that live in Warren. We were told that both Mr and Mrs. Coker died in their apartment there.

The Investigation

Only four of the team members went on this investigation as one was sick and the other couldn't get off of work. Trish, Justin and I rode together. Jordi met us there. We were also joined by another paranormal group, Off the Grid. Their members, Joseph and Angela, were some awesome people. While I never actually investigated with them at the hotel, they are a couple of very professional investigators with a unique investigation tactic. We were also joined by a member of Warren's Chamber of Commerce, his daughter and  the client's daughter, although she only stayed briefly. Like I've mentioned before, two of the rooms on the ground floor had been converted into an apartment. The rooms opened out into the courtyard, thus the tenet doesn't have to actually go into the building itself. The tenet has complained of hearing a conversation and footsteps from behind his apartment. (He is the only tenet in the building. Behind his apartment is where the hotel's kitchen is located.)

To start the night out, Jordi and I went upstairs to test out how bad our footsteps could be heard downstairs. Chamber of Commerce (called henceforth CoC), his daughter and the client's daughter joined us a moment later ad we began the investigation, while Trish, Justin, Joseph, Angela and the client investigated downstairs. Now, CoC was quite chatty and regaled us with stories that his grandfather told him about the hotel and Warren itself. We did find out that across the street where a parking lot and a drive through bank is now was a bus station, making the Coker Hotel perfectly situated to welcome travelers and newcomers. He directed us to a library/music room where the Cokers' grandson lived before he moved out of state. Jordi and I did an EVP session there and we even got a slight hit on the K2, the only time the entire night it did anything. After hearing what I thought was a footstep, we went back downstairs and were met by Justin, who'd stayed in the building while the others went to check out the apartment. He, Jordi and I went back upstairs while the client's daughter left and CoC and his daughter went to have dinner. We all heard another footstep and Justin were able to debunk it as a door hitting a chair propped against it. We explored the library and did another EVP session before going downstairs, where we found that a door had been closed. We explored the kitchen area and did an EVP session before we headed over to the apartment ourselves and did an EVP session there.

I'm going to stop right here and say that it was freezing that night and the hotel has no electricity. Luckily, we were able to take refuge in a beauty shop that was nice and warm. After I regained feeling in my fingers, Jordi and I were rejoined by CoC and his daughter and we went back into the apartment. After doing an EVP session there, we joined Justin inside the hotel and did some more EVP sessions.

All in all, the Coker Hotel was a wonderful place. To see all the history that the grandson collected and to see all the furniture that was left that wasn't destroyed and seeing the places where the community bathroom was. You don't see that a lot. I really hope the Coker Hotel finds itself restored to it's original condition. Makes me sad to see a wonderful piece of Warren's history being left to crumble like that. The Hotel closed the decade I was born and seeing old places like this being allowed to deteriorate makes me realize how much my generation is going to miss out on.

Bonus Investigation

And here you thought I was done...

After we finished at the Coker Hotel, Off the Grid invited us to their second investigation of the night, an early 1900's building. While Arkansas Ghost Hunters didn't stay very long, we did walk through the location and gather some of the history that the clients could gather. While it was more of a mini investigation for us, Off the Grid has been there before and we were told to start our recorders right away. (I've listened to one of the recordings we'd done and Justin another and together we've gotten about 8 possible EVPs. Farther analysis pending.) We were able to see how a ghost box works first hand (Joseph made theirs) which was pretty nifty. I would like to return and actually do a full blown investigation there and work with Off the Grid again.

Until next time, ghost friends

~Peach

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Having unexplained activity? Need answers? Email us at arkghosthunters@yahoo.com

* http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~arbradle/in_county/from_files.html  14 Mar 1940

http://searktoday.com/2012/05/02/warren-hotel-named-to-states-2012-endangered-places-list/

Undisclosed Location 8/4/12

~The client has requested we not disclose the location or the name of the building we investigated.~


Welcome to another investigation.

First, I apologize for not blogging about the last two investigations, but I'm afraid there really wasn't anything to write about.

But our last one was an awesome one.

The building was, it's believed, built in the 20's or 30's and was originally an orphanage. The client told us a story of how the neighborhood was referred to as Shantytown and the kids in the area were forbidden to play around the orphanage. We were also told that more than likely the orphans were mistreated. The most common story was that of a boy the clients call Jason. During the time it was an orphanage, children who got sick would be quarantined in a small room in what is now the basement. (We've come to understand that parts of the building have been closed off for some reason over the years) Now this hidden room is being used for storage. The story is that Jason got sick and he was quarantined to keep the other children from getting sick. Unfortunately, the caretakers forgot about him and he passed away in that room. The building then was turned into a school and then a business and has been in its current life for the past 30 years. (Since the only history we know about the building is what little the clients have gathered, Trish and I are planning on making a trip to the local library to do some research and I shall either edit this blog or make a whole new post)

The clients said that toys would be played with, keys would be messed with and a TV would be turned to anything with cartoons on it. In the basement, the clients would feel very uncomfortable and feel a bit freaked out in a few of the rooms. In their darkroom, you can see where a staircase is. The client told us the staircase is sealed off and they didn't even know about it, until a fire broke out in the building. The firefighters found the staircase on the other side of a firewall (left over from the bombing fears of the Cold War). The clients reported feeling uncomfortable there and in the back area of the basement. In the farthest back room, the clients said that a few of them were in there and, although they never would say what happened, they said they would not go back into the room. There are reports of footsteps and voices and a very creepy Native American statue that moves. And when I say creepy, I mean creepy as in talking dolls creepy. (I can handle getting touched but I swear if that statue moved, I was going to have a major freak out and move on out of there.) As you can tell, I'm not a fan of lifelike inanimate objects.

Now for the good part:

After we set up our equipment, including a few news toys thanks to our newest member, Jordi, Brandon, Justin and I went into the basement area while Trish, Eric, Debbie, Jordi and the client stayed upstairs. As the smallest person, I volunteered to climb into the crawlspace and check it out. And got a face full of cobwebs. Which proves how much I love this, I hate spiders. I sat in the crawlspace, which is the size of a small room and went the length of the room it's hidden in. At least from what I could tell, it's full of boxes and old electronics with a small amount of space for me to walk around in. I'm about 5'6" and I could stand easily. After doing an evp session, we moved on the the "creeped out feeling" room where the clients had said they didn't want to go back in. Earlier, during our walkthough, I'd felt uncomfortable and felt a pressure on my head but when I walked out of the room, it went away. This time, I didn't have the pressure. As we did an evp session, I began to feel uncomfortable. Now I have a bad right knee from a fall several years ago, so at times it'll randomly flair up with shooting pain. As we did the investigation, my left knee started hurting. At first, I brushed it off. Until I felt a burning sensation on the inside of my knee. I pulled my pant leg up to reveal a scratch the length on my knee. Which is the first time that has happened. After several videos and pictures of my leg, we traded places with Trish, Eric, Debbie, Jordi and the client. We had the Ovilius, an EMF reader and a Mel Meter (which measures both EMF and temp) The EMF reader was going crazy during that time. Debbie ended up rejoining us after a little tumble up the stairs (See, I'm not the only clumsy investigator on the team!) Justin saw a shadow and heard movement down a hall. When he asked, if there was anyone over there and if they would give us a sign, a walkie I had in my equipment bag went off with a woman's voice. I run over there and Justin follows me. I find the walkie that had somehow turned on and as I'm holding it, the same woman's voice comes through it. I check the other walkies and they are turned off. "Why weren't we using the walkies?" you ask. The batteries were low and I didn't have enough extras to replace them. Trish and the client come upstairs and ask if we were stomping around. Now I did run, but I'd taken my shoes off since it's very rude to put your shoes on someone else's couch. They also asked if we'd dragged anything across the floor. We hadn't touched anything.

Later, the others joined us and we did a group EVP with the flashlight trick. And the flashlight and our equipment went crazy. As we did this, I glanced into the hallway and saw a glimpse of someone walk out of one of the rooms and down the hall. Naturally, I get up and go check it out. I find nothing. Several of us had personal experiences during the investigation.

Over all a great investigation and yet another place I would love to go to again. As long as the Native American doesn't turn and look at me...

Until next time,

~Peach

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Lonoke Private Residence 4/7/12

I know it's been a while since I posted an investigation. Like I mentioned in my previous post life got in the way. The group has been on two others, I was only able to go on one of them. But anyway, on to the investigation.

The house has had several owners over its life. The current owners believe the house was built in the 1700s and was originally a plantation but cannot find any records on the house to confirm it. "But can't they find records at the courthouse?" you ask. Well I think you need a little history of Lonoke first. Lonoke wasn't always Lonoke. The city of Brownsville stood there once but during the Civil War Union troops burned it to the ground after the Confederates retreated to Little Rock. After the war, the leaders of Brownsville decided to move the town closer to the nearby railroad so that those who wished to stay could. According to local legend, the town was named for a large Red Oak tree that was found while houses were being built, Lone Oak. But due to a misprint in the local newspaper, it was spelled Lonoak. The name was farther misspelled to its current spelling.

Now for the investigation

It was after dark when we arrived (Maybe a little late too because of my stupid GPS crapped out when we got to Lonoke. Damn cell phone reception). Trish and I decided to interview the clients' granddaughter (Sorry but I will never reveal the clients' names or identity.) According to the clients, the granddaughter is terrified of the house whenever she is over. We did not see that fear when we did the interview, but doesn't mean that she is normally afraid of the house. Eric, Justin and Brandon did a walk through with the clients to determine where the most activity occurs.

We started our investigation in the dining room, where we did an EVP session. Trish and I kept feeling cold spots and the hair on Trish's neck stood on end at one point. We did what we call the flashlight trick, where we set a flash light where a slight movement will turn it on. As we asked questions, the flash light would turn on and off with no one touching it. We also used a device called the Ovilious, which is similar to a ghost, or Franks, box. While a ghost box uses radio waves that the spirit uses to communicate, the Ovilious has a preprogramed vocabulary that the spirit uses. The downside is you can't understand what it's saying. At least I couldn't...

We moved on to the living room/den next, where the granddaughter sleeps when she is over. This is the room she is most scared of. We did the flashlight trick again here along with an EVP session. Brandon was sitting on the love seat, Justin was sitting in a chair and Eric, Trish and I were sitting on the couch. During the session, I kept seeing something peak around a curtain the clients had tied back at the entrance into the den. I saw it several times and I took a ton of pictures but sadly I didn't catch it on camera. I mentioned seeing it to the others but no one else saw it. The clients reported hearing footsteps in this room and we heard what sounded like heavy boots as well. Justin was even able to capture them on his camcorder.

Our last location in the house was the clients' bedroom, where one had been grabbed and they reported seeing a "black sheet" over their bed. Unfortunately, we didn't catch much in that room. And the flashlight only turned on once or twice.

Overall, it was a good investigation and a location that I'd like to do a secondary investigation at.

Be sure to check us out at www.arkansasghosthunters.com and if have unexplained occurrences and you need someone to check it out, contact us at our website or drop me a line here.
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Until next time, be safe and happy hunting

~Peach