We started the investigation at 9 pm on a Thursday night in September. It was me and my friends, Nicole and Ryan. We gathered two video cameras and a light kit. We put a camera on a tripod to shoot the third floor while we investigated the first and second floor. We used the EMF detector to communicate and found that there was a male spirit that had been a faculty member. Rounds Hall, at Plymouth State, is an epicenter of activity for the paranormal. This is just one of a few locations I’ve investigated here in Plymouth, but it proved to pay off and lead me to other locations.
We investigated for about two hours and finally we gathered some compelling evidence on the second floor. We were sitting, waiting for responses on the EMF detector when we all started to smell cigarette smoke. An EMF detector is used to measure spikes in electromagnetic fields. It is theorized by scientists and paranormal experts that these entities may be masses of energy manifested by spirits and ghosts to make themselves known. When we smelled the smoke, all doors and windows were closed and we were all confident that the not only did we smell smoke, it also smelled like it was in the same room as us, it was so strong. We asked the EMF detector if the man had smoked and it said “Yes.” We then asked if he was smoking right now and once again, it said “Yes.” Over the course of the night, we heard other small noises but the most notable we heard was a loud banging on metal repeatedly. I ran down to see who was downstairs and there was no one, nor could I see what could cause the issue. It was not until I reviewed some footage and saw metal lockers next to room 118 that I was able to decipher the noise. A few days later, I returned to Rounds Hall and banged on the locker with my fist and sure enough, the sound was identical to what we heard on the investigation. Upon reviewing the footage there really was no visible evidence; however, there was some audio evidence. Over the course of our time there we captured a lot of knocks and taps, but what was compelling was the low chatter of two voices talking and laughing after I asked, “Can you make a noise?” Although we did not hear anything at the time, voices were captured on the camera.
I have gotten many reports of people seeing a shadow in the clock tower moving and I too have seen a shadow. I’d point it out when I saw it and people would stare in awe as they were witnessing an apparition move. This is an age old tale that I decided I needed to investigate with history. I interviewed many people and none knew anything about why there would be a person in the tower. Finally, I found a lead at the Town of Plymouth Clerk’s office. I read through every death from 1890 to 1966 to find leads on any activity on campus. In 1900, I found the death of a 17-year-old boy with the last name Monteiph, who drowned on June 27th in the Pemigewasset River, right on campus. His job was the “Bell Boy.” His job was to go up in the clock tower every so often and look after the bell and ensure it was in working order. This was a very important job and he most likely spent a lot of time in there. Is it possible that his energy is still there? Is his energy there because he loved his job or because he is returning to a traumatic event? With my findings, there are some that no longer refer to the shadow as “the ghost in the clock tower” but “the boy in the clock tower.”
The Samuel Read Hall building is interesting because it is attached to Heritage Commons, and from Heritage Commons, there is a door that leads to the tunnels underneath the school. In addition, there is a very well talked about ghost story that is about Sam Read Hall. Years ago, after the building was converted into a dorm, it was reported that a student committed suicide by hanging from a support bar, or a pipe, on the fourth floor, which housed the recreation room. Years later, the room was converted into an exercise space. The school hung a punching bag from the same pole or support beam where the boy committed suicide, and it is said that the bag would then swing on its own as if there were a body there. For this reason, I decided it was important to investigate for answers as to how factual this story was and also because the boy was trapped there, his spirit could not move on due to the severity of the traumatic event. Because of the space we needed to cover, we investigated all three spaces over the course of two nights. I first completed the first investigation with a guy named Charlie I met, and my friend, KellyJo Boland, a fellow Theatre Tech major and History minor who is also enthusiastic about the paranormal. We were let in by a Sergeant from the University Police and I asked him to open the door at the top of the fourth floor so we could set up a camera in there. Sadly he did not have a key. He left and we began investigating by leaving a camera on the third floor pointing to the fourth-floor staircase. I hung my necklace on a pipe in hopes it would move like the punching bag did. We went downstairs and did a bulk of our investigation on the second floor. First, we started using the EMF detector and Charlie took a video on his phone of it. The next day he went to review it and the video was messed up. it looked like the video had been squeezed horizontally and stretch across the screen and there were multiple of these that filled the screen. After an hour or so of investigating with no compelling results, we began to pack up.
There was still footage from the third floor I had to review. Over the entire time of recording there was very little movement in the necklace; however, the sounds were the important part. Aside from taps and footsteps, there were two voices captured. One was a male that screamed “My heart stopped!” and the other voice, captured two minutes later, was a woman screaming, “Get out, get out!” A few weeks later, I got a new crew together to investigate the tunnels. We first set up a camera at the end of the tunnel and started and EMF detector at the other end to see if we had any spirits with us. There was a response but not as strong as I had hoped. We decided to leave the camera there while we left the tunnels to do another investigation in Sam Read Hall. I explained that we had gotten a good response in the conference room on the second floor so we headed up. Adjacent was the staff kitchen. I put my camera and handheld flashlight on a table pointing to a table of papers and pencils to see if anything would move. We were in the conference room talking with the ghost by taps. we would ask a question and the ghost would tap once for yes and twice for no. after a while we decided to call it a night. I asked it to do one more thing and we would leave. As soon as I asked, my flashlight began to slowly strobe. My flashlight has no strobe function whatsoever. It turns on and off. I quickly grabbed it and we left. I turned it off and back on and it worked just fine. Upon reviewing the footage from the tunnels, there was a haunting scream that chills people to the bone, still, of a man screaming, “I don’t feel guilty!” and then a large bang. More so, there was audio evidence of three loud bangs, thirty seconds later, another three loud bangs, and thirty seconds after that, another three loud bangs. This was concerning because there are a few demonic symbols, one being the sign of things happening in threes. In specific religions, that demonic symbol is a mock of the holy trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. By having three bangs in three sections was interesting.
