Bonanzaville Pioneer Village and Cass County Museum 2018
We reached out to Bonanzaville after seeing they were holding public events exploring the paranormal in some of the
43 historic buildings, on 12 acres.
Located in West Fargo, North Dakota with more than 400,000 artifacts.
They were as excited to say yes as we were to hear it.
Click here for more info on Bonanzaville
We first went in October after all of our other activities were over for the month. It was the first real investigation for a couple new team members. After review it proved to not disappoint. It was cold that night. We all bundled up as much as we could. Sarah even brought a big pile of hand warmers to share. Kristy brought crock pots with warm food, and a coffee maker. The museum staff had the heat on in Dawson Hall and let us set up in there. We set up and got busy by 5:30 pm and went till 3 am. These are the clips that we caught that night.
6:08 pm. Our first session of the of the night was held in the Bjerklie Drug Store. Bonanzaville puts on public events that allow people to investigate the buildings. They use ghost boxes, and K-2 meters. Jeremy asks for the K-2 to be lit up. He get’s shutdown once again.
10:39 pm Maier House. An odd sound from a building the employees never experienced anything. We can’t explain this one. None of our electronics make this sound.
12:35 am Brass Rail Saloon. We combined two recorders audio tracks. The “Help Them” was caught in an adjoining room on the 2nd floor of the Brass Rail Saloon. It pauses and plays just the audio from just the recorder that caught the voice.
2:10 am. We are back in the Brass Rail Saloon. Kristy is curious about the piano and if any could sing us a song. Well someone gets close.
After conducting the investigation and doing the review, we felt that we needed to go back. You know, when it’s warm. We thought April would be warmer. They wouldn’t be reopened to the public yet, we all had time that month. They were excited to have us back. The day we have all been waiting for is upon us. The forecast for this nice April weekend…20 degrees for a high…we still have snow on the ground. It was colder this time than October. We sucked it up and rolled with it. This time the staff had us set up in the main building. We were given keys to the collections room and told of a story of a woman whistling, scaring the only staff member present at the time. We got going this night at 8 pm, and went till 2:30 am.
8:05 pm Main building. We set up base camp in the main museum building. Kristy has her recorder rolling the moment we get to a location. There have been several occasions that we were very grateful she did. Here is another example of why it’s a good idea. It sounds like two females having a conversation in whispery voices while we are all talking. We can’t say for sure what is being said. We wouldn’t post this if we thought there was a chance it was any of us.
10:15 pm Collections. Six out of seven members were all in the same area of the collections room. Kristy was walking a couple rooms away, closer to the public are of the main building. We present the clip as heard in the collections area where six of us are in first. Then the audio from Kristy’s recorder is played. The end result tells us the voice is coming from the gift shop area or near there in the hallway. Which leads into our next clip 10:30 organ note.
10:30 pm Main Building. Once we leave the collections area and go back to the room we had base camp set up we pass by an organ. Sarah heard the organ play as she walked by. Then we all had the “these organs need air to play a note” discussion. Is the organ the item that belongs to the spirit caught singing in the “10:15 collections” clip?
11:39 pm Main Building. We had base camp in the main museum building. We were out of the building, but due to reports of whistling, we left a recorder going. It sounds as if someone was trying to get out. The entry doors have the push bar style opener on the inside.
2 am Bjerklie Drug Store. Brian, Sarah, and Jeremy went out for one more round. They went back into the drug store and were commenting on the items they have in there. This clip is only heard on one of the three separately placed recorders. If one of us did indeed tap the display case it would have been picked up on more than one device. It’s a small shop, with all of them within 6′ of where we are.
9pm – 3am 2nd floor Brass Rail Saloon. Sarah had left her recorder on the 2nd floor of the Brass Rail Saloon most of the night. After listening to all the pops, and crackly noises you will hear in most “quiet” buildings for hours she picked out some that stood out as odd. This is a collection of the better occurrences.
Wow, what a cold investigation, but man how rare is it to come away with so much evidence. Obviously we wanted to go back. After doing the reveal Jeremy was able to set up a night in June. One more time before getting ready for ParaCon. The weather was perfect. No wind, warm temps, dry…perfect night. We got there early to meet the staff before they clocked out for the day. 5pm, we went around and placed recorders in the usual hot spots, and in some new spots. Then we went for supper. Got back, grabbed the cameras and got busy. we went till 2 am.
12:17 am. Jeremy was doing a solo session in the Brass Rail. We had heard a story that happened in the bar previous to it moving here from Paige, ND. A woman killed her husband when she heard he had cheated on her. Jeremy asks if he deserved to die. Listen for the response.
12:55 am. In the Telephone Museum building. Kristy was putting the plugs back into the operator console because she knew where they all went. Sarah and Corrine were joking if anyone was there while she was putting them in. Sarah had a pop bottle and opened it to take a drink right before the voice. The giggling was in response to what they were doing.
Yes only two clips. Does the weather play a part in the activity? There are many theories on that subject. This case tends to go with the snow on the ground/winter theory. Maybe they are just reluctant to visit with us after a long day of visitors. We may never know, which keeps the field interesting and wide open. You can’t be wrong in this field, until you say you’re right.