Destination
Caledonia
– A
Journey Back to Yesteryear
More
investigation photos at
http://www.paranormaltaskforce.com/caledoniapics.html
By Greg Myers
When one dares to travel south from the St.
Louis area in Missouri on "Blood Alley",
the infamous Hwy. 21 which is very well known
for its numerous fatal accidents over the
decades, they embark on a journey to yesteryear
and become privileged to some of the most
historical sites in the Midwest.
This was no exception, when Greg Myers and
his team members of the Missouri Paranormal
Research division of Paranormal Task Force
(www.catchmyghost.com)
took a recent eighty mile journey after being
contacted by The Caledonia Wine Cottage (www.caledoniawinecottage.com)
nestled within the very historic Bellevue
Valley of Missouri in the small town of Caledonia
(www.caledoniamo.org).
Paranormal Task Force were no strangers to
the history and hauntings that are associated
with this trudge south for them. It was only
a year ago when they began their intensive
investigative process to document paranormal
happenings in Potosi (www.historicpotosi.com),
another small haunted and historic town located
along this life taking highway only thirteen
miles north of Caledonia and about two years
ago when they investigated the very historic
Arcadia Valley Academy (www.arcadiaacademy.com)
which is nestled alongside blood alley twenty
five miles past Caledonia in Arcadia Valley.
As with the locations investigated the prior
two years, this one would prove no less historic
and just as haunted. How could it not be with
the tragic and brutal history that occurred
along this area south of St. Louis, MO.? The
tragic plight of pioneers attempting to settle
these areas as far back as the 1700’s
who endured a variety of hardships and tragedies
over time including savage attacks from natives,
various plagues, whatever mother nature could
toss at them, the violence of the great Civil
War which pitted brother against brother in
a State where loyalty existed equally for
each side and even the tragic “Trail
of Tears” where many Native Americans
lost their lives partially used this route
which is now Missouri State Highway 21.
Caledonia was no exception to these hardships
and tragedies which have left their everlastingly
lasting impressions upon this land. Starting
as the Miles Gorforth Spanish Land Grant,
the Caledonia portion of it was later bought
by a Scotsman named Alexander Craighead in
1812. Mr. Craighead platted the land to form
a town which he named, Caledonia, after a
village in his native land of Scotland. Although
he already built his home here in 1816, the
auctions for plats began in 1819 with many
buildings following shortly afterward giving
birth to a thriving new town within what would
be later known as the State of Missouri.
“When we arrived to Caledonia, it was
like stepping back 100 or more years in time”,
Greg Myers, the leader of Paranormal Task
Force recalls. That is exactly how all members
felt who attended the recent paranormal investigation
at the historic and haunted Caledonia Wine
Cottage.
The building which is now the Caledonia Wine
Cottage was built in 1824 by Jacob Fischer
as the Stage Stop Inn. The stage coach
would drive up on a stone road to the front
of the Inn and passengers would disembark
for a stay. The stones from that road
are still there today and make the foundation
for the steps that lead into the now Wine
Cottage. Upon entering the Wine Cottage
one is greeted by a three story continuous
walnut staircase, possibly the only staircase
of its kind in the Missouri Ozarks.
In addition, the property is stated to have
the second oldest persimmon tree in the State
of Missouri.
Originally, the house had twelve rooms and
a dirt floor basement. The back of the
house contained separate quarters for the
slaves. A separate entrance to the rear
side of the second story of this historic
building allowed the slaves to enter and exit.
Tunnels connected this and the two adjacent
buildings on each side with a third tunnel
(now under State Hwy. 21) exiting outside
in the vicinity of a nearby creek. The slaves
were at one time jointly owned by the families
in these three building and used these tunnels
to get from one building to another and as
passage to work in nearby fields. It is also
said that these tunnels later served as part
of the Underground Railroad for moving slaves
from the South to their freedom in the North
during the Civil War.
It was also during the Civil War that this
building served as a temporary hospital ran
by the Union forces. Some wounded soldiers
from both sides of the nearby Battle of Pilot
Knob were transported to this house and treated
for their wounds. Soldiers contagious
with disease or other illnesses were put into
a quarantine room on the third floor of this
house. This room was pad locked from
the outside and a hole was cut in the door
to pass food, water and other supplies.
The original door leading to this room still
exists this day. When Confederate soldiers
became well enough they were then treated
as prisoners and locked up in a separate room
within the basement until transported further
North to actual prisons. The window bars
from this room are still in place today as
they were during the Civil War.
Later, the home became residence to the Crenshaw
Family for many decades followed by the Ramsey
family. It is known fact that Mr. Ramsey passed
away in this home in the 1980’s while
resting on his couch. Mrs. Ramsey also passed
away in the early 1990’s within the
home and was found one Sunday afternoon while
sitting in her chair within the same room
after others were concerned about not seeing
her at church services. It was during the
Ramsey’s tenure within this historic
home that it was placed on the National Register
of Historic Places. However, after Mrs. Ramsey’s
death the home sat vacant for over a decade
with the small exception of being used as
an antique store for a short tenure. As with
any historic treasure such as this, without
constant upkeep and maintenance deterioration
and decay starts to set in at an accelerated
rate. Luckily, Dave Buis and Pepper Carpenter
purchased this historic wonder in 2006 and
began the restoration which saved it in 2007.
Opening as the Caledonia Wine Cottage in August
of 2007, it is once again full of life and
vigor. It now serves its visitors like it
once did over one hundred years ago as a Bed
and Breakfast, a restaurant serving lunch
and dinner, a shop selling various specialty
items and a place to enjoy a glass of house
wine or specialty beer while relaxing on the
large patio area with others.
The haunting history is a bit more recent
as it seems recent renovations may have added
that needed spark to ignite paranormal activity
or else this is a town where the resident
locals like keeping their stories to themselves.
Whatever the case, it was during the renovations
when the new owners had their first unexplainable
encounter which was the opening of the door
which leads to the old slave quarters. Nothing
much was thought of this incident at that
time.
Then in March of 2008, the basement took
in an inordinate amount of water after the
creek across the highway rose above its banks
and somehow back flowed through the once existing
tunnel that exited near it. It seems that
this event somehow became the catalyst that
invoked the recent and more significant unexplainable
activity witnessed by many since then.
These more recent numerous ghostly encounters
have included people hearing the voice of
an elderly lady saying “Hello”
on the first floor accompanied by the sounds
of loud unexplainable footsteps coming from
the second and third floors when the doors
are locked and they are alone inside the Wine
Cottage. The footsteps have even been loud
enough for the owners and employees to think
someone broke into the building after it was
locked up. Customers have also heard the sounds
of footsteps coming down the stairs and ghostly
voices on numerous occasions.
Employees have also witnessed a shadow man
wearing a hat and trench coat near a doorway
in the kitchen area. Employees have also experienced
objects dropping out of thin air and have
had small objects tossed at them by the unseen.
Overnight guest staying in the Bed and Breakfast
rooms all night have reported hearing voices,
footsteps and having objects in their room
moved or knocked over for no explainable reason.
Children visiting the Wine Cottage have been
noted to wave at someone unseen by others
then when asked they say they are waving at
a little girl named Erica.
There was also a time when Pepper, one of
the owners, hung a new tapestry in the wine
room. Upon opening up the next morning she
found it taken off of the wall and sitting
ten feet away from the spot it was originally
hung. This happened on several occasions before
the spirit finally gave up. Even the resident
canine, Blue, has been observed looking curiously
at areas where nothing is seen by others.
Exactly what and whose ghost haunts this
location is not fully known, but many local
residents speculate that one of them is the
ghost of Mrs. Ramsey and who is saying hello
and other things to the owners, employees
and customers. With the age and history of
the location, one can only guess as to how
many spirits actually reside here.
Even Greg Myers and Sandra Oates of Paranormal
Task Force had a very eventful stay their
first night in the Wine Cottage. Greg further
elaborated that he had an experience he will
always remember. “I was starting to
fall asleep in the Bed and Breakfast Room
called the Cottage Room which served as the
old Civil War quarantine room when I loudly
heard the door knob rattle” he explained
and further stated “after awakening,
I watched the door to my room open part way
then closed on its own”. He then did
what any ghost hunter would do and reached
for his camera and other equipment in hopes
of documenting the haunting. “While
trying to reach my equipment, I then observed
the small rocking chair in my room rock on
its own then ambient temperature of the room
suddenly seemed to drop several degrees Fahrenheit”
he concluded. After making enough commotion,
Sandy Oates, the Case Management Coordinator
and an Investigator for Paranormal Task Force
who was sleeping across the hall in the “Garden
Room” awakened and heard multiple voices
coming from the empty and locked up downstairs
below. “It was like several people having
a conversation” she avowed.
Although the full review and analysis of
all the collected audio, video and photographs
of Paranormal Task Force’s weekend investigation
have not been completed, investigators are
comfortable in stating that this location
has a lot of paranormal potential and is most
likely haunted as collaborated by the multitude
of the first hand witness accounts of others
and their own personal ghostly experiences
while staying there. The haunting type, classification
and full content are yet to be discovered
through their extensive analysis of collected
media and correlated equipment data. The Paranormal
Task Force team utilized many types of video
recording devices including high definition
equipment as well as several audio recorders,
radiation detectors, temperature sensing devices,
electro magnetic field (EMF) meters to monitor
both man made and non man made levels, motion
detectors, various still photography cameras
and more in hopes of quantifying the existence
of unexplainable paranormal activity at this
location.
Paranormal Task Force also utilized and field
tested a new device designed by Bill Chappell
of Digital Dowsing ( www.digitaldowsing.com
) during this investigation. This device is
called the Ovilus which utilizes an Environmental
Communications Mode (ECM). ECM takes various
environmental energies believed to be easily
manipulated by ghosts or other paranormal
entities and converts them to speech. Greg
Myers stated that this device provided some
very interesting results during the all weekend
investigation which would have to be further
analyzed as well before coming to a final
conclusion.
Team members of Paranormal Task Force also
had the pleasure to paranormally probe the
historic Wilcox House across the street from
the Wine Cottage and also visit other very
historic locations during the daytime in their
step back to yesteryear. Sandra Oates of Paranormal
Task Force stated “this seems to be
a place where history has remained untouched”
after her visits to many local antique shops
which were located in many very historic homes
also on the National Register. Both Myers
and Oates were in awe by the number of buildings
in this small town which have seemed to remain
the same as day they were built over one hundred
years ago. When asked about the most impressive
place within this very historic town, Myers
responded the “Old Village Mercantile
which still looks the way it did inside and
out a hundred years ago.” Myers further
stated “If someone wanted to see what
an authentic mercantile looked like a hundred
years ago with the glass jars of candies and
other goods, soda fountain, clothing areas
and much more then they need to come to Caledonia
and visit this business of historic beauty”.
“When you enter its doors, like a lot
of other places here, you feel like you transcended
several decades back in time … you can
spend hours upon hours just looking at all
of the nostalgic items in this place”,
he further added. Their web site can be found
at www.oldvillagemercantile.com
For a taste of history or a haunting, one
has to place Caledonia, Missouri on their
“must see” list of places to visit.
For an extra indulgence of both with a special
touch of southern hospitality, then one has
to definitely spend part of a day, evening
or an entire night at the Caledonia Wine Cottage
as well.
About Greg Myers
Greg Myers - Director - President
Paranormal Task Force Co-Founder - Lead Investigator
- EVP Specialist
Administrator MPR Divison Email: greg@paranormaltaskforce.com
MySpace:
www.myspace.com/gregory_myers I
Am Haunted:
www.iamhaunted.com/Gregory_Myers
Greg has had personal paranormal encounters
since being a teen and has years of paranormal
investigative experience. He is well versed
with haunting classifications, paranormal
investigative techniques and leadership through
example. Greg has served as a technician and
supervisor while serving in the military and
has further enhanced his education and abilities
with legal issues while serving over ten years
in the legal field. With his background of
legal issues, lobbying experience and issue
advocation, he hopes to apply these skills
to the enactment and strengthening of "haunted
house" and "psychological impact"
disclosure laws for prospective property owners,
tenets and lessees. Greg also has an extensive
background in genealogical research and familiarization
with record research vital to the research
of potential haunted properties.
Greg is one that shares the philosophy that
paranormal investigations can come with many
unknown dangers which are not properly addressed
by most of the paranormal research field.
This and other important issues are overlooked
and need further advocation to current and
future researchers and investigators within
this field. Greg adheres to a Humanistic Approach
to investigations which always places the
client first above everything else.
Greg became part of MISSOURI PARANORMAL RESEARCH™
in August of 2005 serving as a co- administrator,
lead investigator and EVP specialist. While
serving with MPR, Greg became an instrumental
element in the collection and analysis of
evidence in a case involving an extreme "inhuman"
haunting and possession. This Haunting was
featured on the Discovery Channel's "A
Haunting" series as the Season 3 opener
in October 2006. Greg then co-founded PARANORMAL
TASK FORCE, Inc. in October 2006. PARANORMAL
TASK FORCE™, Inc. is a not for profit
incorporation which educates and promotes
the awareness of paranormal research as well
as other historical and paranormal related
issues along with providing assistance to
the public and other organizations. MISSOURI
PARANORMAL RESEARCH™ now serves as its
non-extreme investigative and research division
while other divisions will be launched making
Paranormal Task Force™, Inc. a "One
Stop" resource for all paranormal needs
of clients, the public and other organizations
as well.
Greg has been a featured guest on many radio
stations across the US, UK, and Canada and
has completed filming in 2007 with Keith Age
and The Booth Brothers for "Children
of the Grave" which was released October
2, 2007 on DVD and aired on the SciFi Network
in 2008 and recently finished filming for
another Booth Brothers (Spooked Television
Releasing) production titled "The Possessed"
which should be released on DVD in 2008 and
air on the SciFi Network sometime after that.
He also served as a Location Manager for that
project. He also completed filming for the
Exspiro Productions documentary "The
Other Side" which was released in 2007.
Greg has also authored articles and short
stories concerning his experiences within
the paranormal realms and theories related
to such which are published on the World Wide
Web. Some of these articles and stories have
been selected for
inclusion in “Weird Encounters”
and “Weird Missouri” which will
be published in the near future.
Greg has also recently been added to the
League of Paranormal Gentlemen and is also
a Missouri Statewide Representative for the
American Ghost Society (AGS). He was also
voted as one of the top 10 best most haunted
up and coming people, places and things to
investigate on Haunted America Tours (www.hauntedamericatours.com).
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