Ghosts, haunted places, and history
Case studies and ghost hunting tips for specific haunted locations.
Click on the map or the link below it to see a hand-sketched map of the cemetery and the areas with the strongest paranormal activity.
Note: There is one error on this map, where I indicated the wrong name. However, the locations and activity indications are accurate.
For my articles about the cemetery’s ghosts, see Ghosts at Gilson Road Cemetery, Nashua, NH.
Demons…? At Vale End Cemetery…?
I used to laugh at this idea.
In November 1999, our research focused on haunted Gilson Road Cemetery.
I wrote the following report in 2000:
One night when our team was at Gilson Road Cemetery for an investigation, one of our photographers – Noreen, my closest personal friend – brought her teenaged daughter, Alice, with her.
(Note: Names have been changed for privacy.)
We had a mixed group that night, including believers and skeptics, new researchers and experienced ghost hunters. A few teens were with us.
The investigation went fairly well, with many manifestations and psychic experiences. It wasn’t especially scary. However, some people became frightened, including my friend’s daughter.
On their way home, Noreen and Alice stopped at Vale End Cemetery in Wilton, NH. According to Noreen, her plan was to take Alice to a comfortable, familiar cemetery near their home, so she’d feel better about the evening. Besides, Noreen wanted more photos.
They parked the car near the middle of the cemetery, as most of us do when we’re at Vale End. (Remember, this was 1999. From what I’ve heard, the parking area has been moved — or perhaps filled-in, for graves — in the past 10+ years. I won’t be returning there to check it out.)
And, they strolled towards The Blue Lady‘s headstone. (That’s it, on the right.)
Noreen mentioned being near an attorney’s headstone (identified by the ‘Esq.’ notation on the marker), when something dark seemed to come up out of the ground. She couldn’t tell what it was.
Alice ran in terror back to the car. As Noreen described the scene, she said that something screamed through Alice.
They drove away in such haste, a branch took their outside mirror right off the car.
Some time later that night, Alice called me at home. Fortunately, I was still awake.
She was terrified, and asked if anything follows people home from cemeteries.
I assured her that no, nothing follows you home. If ghosts could leave where they were, they probably wouldn’t be haunting.
Five days later, Noreen – Hollow Hill’s lead photographer – was found dead as she sat in her car in a busy parking lot in Wilton. Her death must have been sudden, or she’d have hit the horn on the car to get attention. Noreen was the epitome of common sense. She was also a very physically fit woman, and younger than me.
The hospital declared it a heart attack, and I thought nothing more about the odd circumstances. Mostly, I missed my good friend.
Looking back, if I could have prevented them from visiting Vale End that night… I would have. And, I wouldn’t have treated Alice’s concerns so lightly.
However, for several months after my friend Noreen’s death, I refused to believe that tragedy had anything to do with ghost hunting.
The following spring, some of us began keeping vigil at Vale End Cemetery, hoping to see the Blue Lady.
One night, four of us were at the cemetery, chatting. Nothing dramatic was going on, although I’d measured some significant EMF levels near the large evergreen just north of the Blue Lady grave.
We were about to call it a night as darkness fell, when I decided to stroll over to the Blue Lady’s headstone for some last-minute photos… just in case.
I was feet away from the attorney’s stone that Noreen had mentioned, when I spotted what I’ve since called ‘a little Grover guy’ about two or three feet from me. (Today, I might call him a little Elmo guy.)
He was short, between two and three feet tall. He looked like he was covered with fur, and disproportionately skinny like Grover.
I paused, startled, but decided to keep walking. After all, if the Grover guy – who was a vivid shade of red* – hadn’t bothered me yet, he probably wouldn’t. And, the figure seemed more amusing than anything to inspire fear.
Then, I walked into something like a force field from Star Trek. It felt as if I’d hit a glass wall, but there wasn’t anything there.
My story continues at Fear at Vale End Cemetery.
*People have asked why I don’t describe him as “Elmo.” Well, Elmo wasn’t a popular Sesame Street character at that point. Also, Elmo doesn’t have the same distinctively long, skinny arms that Grover has. So, I describe the figure as a “red Grover guy.”
Ghosts and demons are two different things. Demons are generally spirits that have never been human, and they are characterized as evil… perhaps pure evil, if there is such a thing.
They are very rare at hauntings. In over 20 years of research, I’d never encountered one before.
The following continues my story from a chilling Vale End investigation.
As I paused at what seemed to be an invisible force field at haunted Vale End Cemetery in Wilton, NH, I knew that I was right next to something profoundly evil and wholly without a conscience. This was an entity that had never been human, and he viewed me as prey.
I was certain that the Grover guys – I could now see what seemed like dozens of them – worked for this entity. They weren’t evil themselves, but had a, “Sure, why not?” kind of attitude. I have no idea why I thought that or was so certain of the hierarchy.
This experience was so foreign to me, I can remember thinking, “Okay, I’m going to take a few photos and then get out of here.”
I’m not someone who runs away from ghosts, and I didn’t plan to abandon this vigil without taking a few more photos.
As I raised my camera and looked through the viewfinder, the red Grover guys seemed to multiply. When my camera clicked, I saw three of them clearly outlined by the flash. They were emerging from behind Mary Ritter Spaulding’s headstone, and I swear they looked like they were doing the “walk like an Egyptian” dance.
Yes, my sense of humor kicks in at the weirdest times, and this was one of them. I said to my friends, who were standing – wide-eyed with fear – far behind me in the cemetery, “Good. I’m sure that I’ve got them on film.”
That’s when I realized that I was in danger. It was like a bolt of lightning had struck feet from me. I ran for my car and didn’t even put on my seatbelt until I reached the gate. I floored it, to get away. My friends followed suit.
I was about ten miles away before I felt that whatever-it-was had stopped following me. And, I was terrified, because I didn’t want to die.
I may never know if this is what my friend, Noreen, experienced. She was dead less than a week after she encountered whatever-it-is. (It was a sudden and mysterious death.)
This remains the only time I’ve been truly frightened during hundreds of ghost hunts.
Obviously, I survived this experience. But, the story doesn’t end there.
When my film was developed, every frame but one was black. I had been so sure the Grover guys would show up, I was baffled by the all-black pictures.
On the one photo that had an image, I saw a vivid red shape, the same color as the Grover guys. I thought it was just a strange design.
Another researcher who’d been with me that night, looked at the photo and raised an eyebrow.
She turned the photo 180 degrees. Then, she said that it looked like the classic image of Satan.
She was right. Oh, I thought that was a slight stretch, but I could see why she seemed so certain.
A couple of days later, after a series of odd events connected with the film and the photos, I gave the negatives and prints to someone who was eager to own them.
I wanted the film, the prints, and everything connected with it, to stay far away from my family and me.
On subsequent trips even near Wilton, I could feel that same evil presence nearby, menacing. This feeling continued for two years and then – for no particular reason-stopped.
Other researchers heard about my experience, and confirmed their similar encounter with whatever’s at Vale End.
And, oddly enough, at a ghost conference, I heard that there’s a spirit at a haunted prison (in Ohio?) that’s described as a Grover-type figure.
But, what really alarmed me was when I met demonologist John Zaffis, and saw some of his startling photos. One of them contained the exact same red, satanic image.
I have no idea what to think of all this. At the time, I didn’t believe in demons in the traditional sense. I’ve never seen anything like the little Grover guys since then, either. Were they “demons,” too? That’s outside my field of study.
I no longer scoff at the idea of demons. And, I stay far away from anything related to them.
Obviously, I’m still ghost hunting. And, I did return to Vale End twice more, but only during daytime hours.
Once was to show another team of researchers where different events had happened. They did not have a similar encounter, and their investigation was inconclusive.
Another time, I was filming a segment for a regional TV show. I’m not sure what the cameraman saw through his eyepiece, but – whatever it was – it terrified him. He jumped into our van, started the engine, and floored it.
Once we were a few miles outside Wilton, he said he’d seen something through the viewfinder that just wasn’t possible. And, after saying that, he refused to talk about it.
He was a news cameraman, for heaven’s sake. He’d seen lots of horrifying things.
But something at Vale End scared him badly. I haven’t forgotten the color of his face and the look in his eyes as he said he’d never go back there.
Ghost hunting is supposed to be fun or at least interesting. When it starts being scary and the fun goes out of it, it’s time to do something different.
I’m glad that the police patrol Vale End Cemetery steadily after dark, to prevent others from visiting it. And, I firmly recommend that no one go there for a ghost hunt.
Yes, there are ghosts in that cemetery, including the alluring Blue Lady.
However, in my opinion, the risks aren’t worth it. Look for ghosts elsewhere. Something at Vale End is not a ghost, and it could be lethal.
Note: I spoke about Vale End at Dragon Con 2007. Other than that, I prefer not to discuss the subject. I’m not an expert on demons and I’m reluctant to use that term to describe anything… even the chilling entity at Vale End.
Frankly, I still think the Grover-guys looked hilariously funny. In any other context, I’d recommend the cemetery, in case you might see them, too.
I am aware that another New Hampshire “ghost hunter” – more of an entertainer than a serious researcher – has gone out of her way to ridicule my experiences at Vale End. (You don’t need to email me about this. Someone first told me about it about a year after the critical post appeared.)
Her main criticism…? Things that had changed in the 10 years between my report and when she visited the cemetery. The parking area has been moved. Really, that was her leading attack on my research…?
Wow.
Then, she misrepresented what I’ve said about Vale End, the Grover guys, and so on.
She’s not the first to try to use my name as a career-booster. That’s okay. She’s having fun being a self-parody.
Most people can tell the difference between that and serious, academic research, and there’s plenty of room is this field for both.
All I can say is this: I hope she never has a reason to regret treating Vale End lightly.
You may also be interested in my notes about Vale End and Pukwudgies.
Is this a real ghost at haunted Gilson Road Cemetery, Nashua, NH?
This “ghost photo” was taken at Nashua’s Gilson Road Cemetery when we were researching ghosts and hauntings. It’s one of my favorite “What is this?” pictures.
I took this ghost photo with a $6 disposable Fuji camera. On that night, a group of us were testing inexpensive cameras to see what an amateur could expect when taking photographs at random in a haunted location.
By the time I took this photo, the fog was just starting to roll in. We could see clearly without a flashlight, and many of our cemetery pictures were normal, but the mist became a factor later in the night.
We took two identical shots at every spot, and the photo immediately before this was almost entirely black and crisp. (You can see it at my article about the strange mist that night.)
The photo after this one was also sharp. It looked identical to the first of the three. There was no photographic evidence of humidity or fog, just a few orbs. It’s typical of what we see in photos from Gilson.
No one was smoking. There were no houses nearby when this picture was taken, so there was no risk of wood smoke from a fireplace, either.
(Since then, a subdivision has been built immediately across the street from this cemetery.)
What is this weird, swirly mist…? Is that a gravestone to the right?
It should be, because that’s what the camera was pointing at.
We’ve had dozens of letters from readers, suggesting everything from a ghostly finger to the Virgin Mary. This is our most popular real “ghost photo.”
Whatever it is, it’s weird. And cool. And yes, this is real. It’s not altered from the original film print in any way at all.
I don’t think that it’s scary, but some people do. In fact, it reminds me of an old InfiniteFish background, in a way.
Camera: Fuju disposable Quicksnap, 800 ASA
Developed at: One-hour processing, Shaw’s Royal Ridge, Nashua
Location: Gilson Road Cemetery, Nashua, NH
When: 26 Nov 1999, about 5 p.m.
2012 update: After testing photography techniques, I’ve realized that this might be the result of exhaling while taking the photo.
However, there’s a problem with that theory. The orbs in this photo… they’re not consistent with other false anomalies (with the same camera) from exhaling.
That’s part of debunking: Not just saying “it might be ___,” but also confirming that it’s consistent with the new theory.
So, this is still my best mystery photo.
Read more about Haunted Gilson Road Cemetery.
(Continued from Portsmouth – real ghosts, private home, part two)
A TRUE GHOST STORY – PART THREE
There were a few more incidents of things casually flying through the kitchen. The faucets turned themselves on more frequently, and with more force. Other odd little things happened, but nothing particularly destructive or frightening. In fact, many of these things struck us funny.
One of the funniest “ghostly” events was when the paper cups would topple in the kitchen. It almost always happened when my oldest daughter was in the kitchen. She did the dishes every afternoon at about three o’clock.
With three children, we have always used paper cups for beverages. It reduces the number of dishes to wash, and the cups were safer for the children when they were small; my youngest liked to chew on the edge of whatever held his beverage. Paper was a vastly better choice than glass. As the children got older, we simply continued to use paper cups for convenience.
Paper cups come in two stacks of 40-50 per plastic-wrapped package. They stand on a level counter easily, and our kitchen counter was level; we’d checked it.
However, when my oldest daughter was in the kitchen, and usually when she was washing dishes, the cups would topple repeatedly. One of us would straighten them back up, make certain that the cups were stable, and stand back. While we watched, the stacks would begin to sag and then fall over, as if someone had accidentally leaned against them.
This didn’t happen just once or twice, but dozens of times. We finally gave up, and learned to leave them sprawled across the counter the first time this happened, each afternoon. Later, we’d prop the cups back up again when my daughter was about to leave the kitchen. Then they would stay in place until the next time she visited the room.
Although the poltergeist incidents ranged from funny to annoying, the bigger problem was the general sense of discomfort we felt in the house. We tried painting the front hall a warm, cheerful yellow with crisp white trim. I displayed quaint country quilts on the walls, and later tried sunny landscape paintings. I bought country-style bleached pine furniture. We read about feng shui and tried a variety of “remedies,” and though they made the house look better, they didn’t solve the problem.
The house still wasn’t cozy and home-like, although we’d been there over six months. Still, the house seemed like an irresistible real estate opportunity, so we stayed. But I was anxious about the fire premonitions, and kept making trips to the storage place with boxes of our belongings, ignoring the illogic and unnecessary expense of it.
More and more, I had the impression that the woman in white was kindly urging us to leave the house, while the man in brown was ordering us out in a sinister manner. I have no idea why I got this impression. The woman seemed to be trying to leave through the kitchen door. The man always seemed to pause abruptly at the door instead of trying to exit. I can’t honestly say that I ever connected their focus on the door, with the idea of leaving the house, but in retrospect it seems obvious.
Nevertheless, I rarely saw the man in brown, and he visually appeared fewer than five times during our year in that house.
Then the neighborhood took a turn for the worse. About three nights each week, I’d answer the door to the police, who were searching for reported criminals. During the day, the police were often on our street, dealing with malicious mischief. Tagging — words I didn’t want my children to see — appeared on walls a few blocks from our house.
My husband and I decided that the house might not be a smart investment, after all.
Then, one night, our next-door neighbors’ truck had been smashed with what looked like a baseball bat. They gave notice to their landlord at the same time we told our house’s owner that we would not be staying.
We prepared to move. It wasn’t much work. Many of our belongings were already in storage on the other side of town.
The story concludes in part four
Our friend Annie brought us this picture, taken by a friend of hers. Annie wanted us to see the figure in the window.
Right away, I saw the small – perhaps winged – figure in the left lower corner of the window. She has wavy hair, and she’s looking across the landscape, perhaps slightly down.
Nice, but… Who knows what these things really are? The figure isn’t distinctive enough to be significant, but it’s a charming photo anyway.
Then I enlarged just that portion of the window.
I’m not saying that this is the image of a ghostly girl trapped in an abandoned New Hampshire house, held captive by something with a wicked gleam in its eye.
However, it’s one possible explanation. It’s just not the happiest one, and I don’t think that’s the real story.
I’m sensing loneliness but not terror or even significant fear, but I could be wrong.
No matter what else this is, it’s an intriguing image.
Gilson Road Research Map