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If you’re looking for ghostly mischief, the best night for that might be Halloween.
However, in the northeast U.S., Halloween can be sultry or freezing cold.
This year (1999), the weather turned unusually warm. Halloween night was perfect for ghost hunting.
After dropping my son at a church youth social, I decided to return Blood Cemetery (aka Pine Hill Cemetery) in Hollis, NH.
I wanted to take some quick photos from the roadside.
(Like many New England cemeteries, Pine Hill is closed from dusk to dawn. I don’t go into cemeteries when they’re closed.)
I carried my “old reliable” 35mm (analog/film) point-and-shoot camera, which I’d used for years. (This was before digital cameras were trustworthy, and long before phones’ cameras were among the very best for photos.)
I’d taken over 100 photos with it during the two weeks before this, and it had worked perfectly. In fact, about half of my photos are taken in low-light conditions using the flash.
On this evening…
- the batteries were fresh,
- the film was fine, and
- there was nothing to jam the camera.
Nothing could go wrong… right?
Well, maybe.
A few (ghostly?) chills…
Since it was Halloween, I felt a little nervous as I approached the pitch dark graveyard. In fact, I shivered, even though the evening was warm.
The cemetery’s scary, haunted reputation didn’t bother me as much as being alone on a very deserted road.
Because Blood Cemetery had closed at dusk, I stood at the side of the road, staring into the eerie darkness. It was as if something wanted my attention… but I didn’t know what.
So, I started taking photos at random, pointing the camera into Blood Cemetery.
(I have no idea why, except that I was there. I mean, I felt like I should do something related to ghost hunting.)
That’s when things went weird
I pushed the button to take a photo.
Click.
Nothing happened. No flash, just the film advancing.
Click again. Still no flash, as I was using up film.
Click. Click. Click.
It took me eleven photos to realize that my flash was not going to work.
Yes, eleven flashless photos of total darkness.
“Great,” I muttered. “Ghostly mischief scores a win.”
Then, to make things worse, the police – who patrol the cemetery regularly at this time of year – arrived and asked me to “move along.”
(My team and I always respect the laws, especially at haunted sites. And, when the police ask us to leave, we do so, immediately.)
Something didn’t make sense
Of course, I left, but I kept muttering to myself about my camera. Fresh film, fresh batteries, a good camera… why had it suddenly failed?
For the next few minutes, I went through a checklist in my head. Sure, it was easy to blame it on ghostly mischief.
However, that wasn’t enough for me.
I needed a logical reason why the flash had abruptly stopped working, for eleven photos in a row.
About two miles from the cemetery, I stopped at a red light. Figuring that I had nothing to lose, I picked up my camera and took a quick photo of… well, the car seat.
After all, it was right there.
FLASH!
Yes, the flash was suddenly working again.
Hmm… I wasn’t going to let a camera glitch – or Blood Cemetery – spoil my Halloween ghost hunting.
Challenge accepted!
I drove another ten minutes to another old cemetery. It was “Schoolhouse Cemetery” in Nashua, NH. It’s the early burial ground next to Spit Brook Plaza shopping center.
But, at the time, that burial ground did not have a “haunted” reputation. (With lots of traffic on at least one side, and an apartment complex along one side, it’s not a great research location.)
There, I took another dozen photos to finish the roll of film, and the flash worked fine every time.
Evidence suggests…
Frankly, although it doesn’t feel that odd to me, I may have to accept that Blood Cemetery is, indeed, haunted. Abel Blood’s headstone is just one landmark among several local haunted cemeteries.
(Since writing this article, I’ve heard that Abel Blood’s grave marker has been stolen, perhaps twice. And then returned. If that’s true, I’m not surprised. It would be the gravest mistake – no pun intended – to steal a gravestone with such an eerie reputation.)
I’ve inspected my camera and batteries. Nothing seemed amiss.
Was the problem paranormal? Just a bit of ghost mischief?
Maybe. Even now, I have no reasonable explanation for the abrupt, location-specific failure of my camera.
I know that this sounds like a campfire tale from a Scouting trip. However, it’s what really happened.
I can’t think of a reasonable explanation. Not for eleven photos with a very reliable Olympus camera. The camera had worked fine for years before, and – as I update this story in 2020, over 20 years later – that camera has never failed since.
(However, other cameras have reacted weirdly at haunted cemeteries, too.)
Blood Cemetery seemed like a comfortable old graveyard before these experiences. But, it took me months to feel comfortable returning there.
Even today, I’m a little edgy about that cemetery.
Yes, something’s just not right at Blood Cemetery.