EVENT: Full moon ghosthunt in Damariscotta

WHAT: ‘Midnight Explore’ PWA Benefit at haunted house
WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 13, 2011 -- 9:00pm to 2:00am
COST: $45 per person. A light buffet and a donation to the Pemaquid Watershed Association is included in the fee.
RSVP: Spaces are limited. Please contact Red Cloak Haunted History Tours ASAP at (207)380-3806 or redcloaktours@gmail.com to register for the event.

This unexplained bolt of light coming from the
roof of the Salt Bay Café building in Damariscotta
sometimes appeared in a photos taken during a
Red Cloak Haunted History Tour.

Heavy footsteps on an empty stairway and an ethereal mist that passes through darkened hallways can be a bit unnerving, but a ghost that knows you by name? Now that’s just downright creepy, say employees at Salt Bay Café in Damariscotta.

“That’s a very interesting paranormal manifestation; it implies that the presence has an understanding of its present circumstances,” said Sally Lobkowicz, the Director of Red Cloak Haunted History Tours. “Yet there are two employees who say they have been called by name when there is no one in the area, with one of the employees reporting two incidents.”

It’s a good reason for further investigation, which is why Red Cloak Haunted History Tours is hosting a Midnight Explore at the Main St., Damariscotta building that houses Salt Bay Café, the Damariscotta Region Chamber of Commerce (DRCC) and the Pemaquid Watershed Association (PWA). The Midnight Explore will take place on Saturday, Aug. 13 – a full moon night.

A portion of the proceeds generated by the event will go to benefit the PWA, which has the mission of conserving the natural resources of the Pemaquid Peninsula through land and water stewardship and education.

The Midnight Explore invites guests to participate in actual evidence collection activities, such as using meters to identify areas of electromagnetic field (EMF) activity (thought by some to be associated with a paranormal presence), using a digital recorder to pick up electronic voice phenomenon (EVP), and using video and still cameras to capture unusual images.

Equipment such as the EMF detectors, the EVP recorder, a digital movie camera and other assorted gear will be provided by Red Cloak Haunted History Tours, along with training on how to use them. (Participants are encouraged to bring their own cameras and any equipment they may have.) The group will be split into teams to explore the building and, hopefully, collect evidence that will shed light on some of the reported paranormal activity at the location.

Whether or not any evidence reveals itself, there’s no shortage of reports regarding paranormal activity at the building. According to Salt Bay Café owner Peter Everett, late night and early morning incidents began occurring shortly after he purchased the business in the late 1990’s.

Often, a side door was heard to open and close, followed by heavy footsteps moving up the stairs and into the second floor of the restaurant. Employees who thought they were working alone in an empty building would go to investigate, and find no indication that anyone had entered. These occurrences were so common that over the years most employees have come to take them in stride.

But some reports are bit more disturbing. The first report of an employee called by name was over 5 years ago, but that manifestation has continued into the present with another employee who has heard name called out twice – as though the person were right behind her – in a completely empty room. As recently as July 3 Peter Everett reported that he was alone at the end of the night in the upstairs office when he observed a vertical mist pass through the room and disappear through a wall.

Several years ago, a guest on a Red Cloak Haunted History Tour photographed an unexplained image that appears to be an energy bolt emanating from the roof of the building. The image was captured by the camera, but was unseen by the photographer.

The potential source for these manifestations is not apparent from the building’s historical record. The structure was built in 1810 for Rufus Flye and in more recent times was the home of Dr. Parsons. Perhaps the most unique aspect of the building is that it has changed position since it was built. In 1980 the original house was lifted off its foundation and turned sideways to allow space for the Damariscotta Bank & Trust driveway. So, the front of the present day building was the side of the original building. The Mainway Café opened there some 24 years ago, and later became the Salt Bay Café.

The Midnight Explore will begin at 9 p.m. with a light buffet at Salt Bay Café. During the meal there will be a briefing on the building and the manifestations associated with it, as well as instructions on how to use the paranormal detection equipment. The group will split into teams and explore the Salt Bay Café areas of the building, then move on to the upper floors occupied by the PWA and the DRCC. The Midnight Explore will wrap up at 2 a.m. Observations and any evidence from the Midnight Explore will be published on the Internet.

“This will be a great opportunity in that we will exploring all three floors of this unique building, which has a long and solid history of manifestations,” Lobkowicz said.

The fee for the Midnight Explore, which includes the light buffet, is $45 per person. A donation to the PWA is included in the fee. The group’s size is limited due to both the size of the building and the availability of equipment, so reservations will be accepted on a first come, first serve basis. To make reservations, or for more information, contact Red Cloak Haunted History Tours at (207)380-3806 or redcloaktours@gmail.com

If you can't make this event, but are interested in knowing more about local history, other Red Cloak tours tours have been ongoing since July and will run through through October. Their website is www.redcloakhauntedhistorytours.com, or you can reach them at (207)380-3806.

They regularly hold tours in Bath, Boothbay Harbor, Camden, Wiscasset and Damariscotta, by reservation only.

For more information on unusual images in photos, check the “Ghostly Sightings” section at www.RedCloakHauntedHistoryTours.com.

Photo by Cathy Orne, (c) Red Cloak Haunted History Tours.

TONIGHT: Ghost hunting tour in Bath

Investigators from the Maine Ghost Hunters Society will join “The Lady in the Red Cloak” for a special Haunted History Tour in Bath on Tues., Aug. 24.

The special Haunted History Tour with the Maine Ghost Hunters Society investigators will be on Tues, Aug. 24. The tour is by reservation only by calling (207)380-9912 or redcloaktours@gmail.com. Once a reservation is made, the starting time and location will be given out. “We do this so that we’re able to control the number of our guests so that everyone will have a fun and comfortable experience,” Lobkowicz said. The cost of the tour is $17.50 per person, a portion of which is donated to the Maine Ghost Hunters Society.

The ghost hunters will come equipped with specialized equipment used to test areas on the tour for the possible presence of paranormal activity.

“We’ve had plenty of unusual things show up in photographs taken by guests on our Haunted History Tours over the past 4 years that we’ve been in business,” said Sally Lobkowicz, Director of Haunted History Tours. “These include ‘orbs’, bolts of light, strange mists and more, but all that we’re really able to say about them is that we can’t explain why they appear in the photos. We’re researchers and story tellers – not paranormal experts.”

That’s where the investigators from the Maine Ghost Hunters Society come in. “This is a great group of people with a solid background in paranormal research dating back to 2007, and the ability to use equipment to enhance their investigation,” Lobkowicz said. “They have just completed an in-depth investigation of the former AMHI mental hospital, and their work has been widely published and televised. They have just started their own show, Maine Paranormal Radio on Maine Public Radio.”

The Bath special tour will be the first time that Haunted History Tours has conducted a collaborative effort with the Maine Ghost Hunters Society, which Lobkowicz feels is appropriate since 2010 is the first season for Haunted History Tours in Bath. “What better way to introduce something new than on our newest tour?” Lobkowicz asked. Haunted History Tours with “The Lady in the Red Cloak” already have venues in Camden, Damariscotta, Boothbay Harbor and Wiscasset. Special tours with the Maine Ghost Hunters Society will also be scheduled in those areas in the coming weeks, according to Lobkowicz.

Both the Maine Ghost Hunters Society and Haunted History Tours are hoping that the special tours will provide guests with an educational experience. “Watching the investigators use their equipment and explain how it all works will just be the first part of the experience,” Lobkowicz said. “Following the special tour, they will post the results of their investigation regarding that tour area on www.maineghosts.org.”

Julie Velez, co-founder of the Maine Ghost Hunters Society agrees. “Education is a primary part of our mission,” Velez said. “We look forward to introducing people to our investigation methods, and perhaps better understand what we do.

To help accomplish this, the Maine Ghost Hunters Society will provide a two-person team for the special tour comprised of a Lead Investigator and an Investigator equipped with devices that help see the unseen, whether by image, sound, or even electromagnetic activity.

First on the equipment list are two items that are sensitive to electromagnetic activity, which is associated with things both seen and unseen. In the everyday world, most living things generate an electromagnetic signature, as do (of course) electronic devices and wires that carry electricity.

What’s unusual is when the devices pick-up electromagnetic activity where it shouldn’t be. To observe this, the investigators from Maine Ghost Hunters Society will carry a K2 Electromagnetic Field (EMF) device that registers the activity on an LED meter. According to Velez, this device is particularly noteworthy in that it can instantly record changes in the EMF, which sometimes appear to be responsive to spoken questions and other input.

A second EMF device, the Electromagnetic Field Detector, will provide investigators and tour guests with a much more sensitive device for recording EMF signals. However, this instrument has a read out with a needle, making the K2 EMF device a more immediate and visual instrument.

Use of both these devices at once literally provides the “best of both worlds” to record any potential paranormal activities, according to Velez. The two devices, working simultaneously, tend to corroborate each other’s EMF observations.

The Maine Ghost Hunters Society will also carry two pieces of equipment well known to most of the public – a digital camera and a digital sound recorder. The digital camera will be used to record scenes for later examination, as sometimes things will appear in the images that were unseen by the human eye at the time that the image was recorded. Likewise, the digital voice recorder has the ability to pick up on sounds that cannot be heard by the human ear.

For more information on Haunted History Tours (and photos taken by guests of unusual phenomenon) check www.RedCloakHauntedHistoryTours.com (there is also a page on the website discussing orbs under “Ghostly Sightings”). For more information on the Maine Ghost Hunters Society check www.maineghosts.org.