Paranormal investigators will take a second poke at ghosts Saturday night in Stanwood.
When members of PIHA, Paranormal Investigations of Historic America, visited the Stanwood Hotel & Saloon in December, their motion detector was activated, said Vaughn Hubbard, case manager and historian.
“Unfortunately, the infrared camera was not pointed into the area where the motion detector light was turning on and off,” Hubbard, 64, said. “Something had to be moving around in that area to activate the motion detector, but we didn’t get it on video. Maybe this time we will.”
Intriguing, huh?
Hubbard, who lives in Monroe, is a retired engineer from Lockheed Corp. He married his high school sweetheart after he got out of the Army in 1968. They have two children and six grandchildren.
“I’ve never had any personal paranormal experiences and am quick to tell people that I’m not sure what a ghost or spirit even is,” he said. “All I know is that we do record some strange things that I am unable to explain, but find fascinating. I expect that someday science will have some definitive answers for these phenomena, but probably not in my lifetime.”
He uses the same approach to paranormal research as an archaeologist uses when excavating a biblical site.
“They are not trying to prove or disprove the existence of God, but are trying to understand more of how the people of that time lived,” he said. “I am doing the same thing, but trying to understand what happens to us after we die.”
Hubbard said he learned about ghostbusters on television, and was intrigued by the electronic equipment.
“I had to determine for myself whether or not there was any validity to claims,” he said. “I first joined a local paranormal group to witness for myself what was actually going on at certain locations. I soon realized that what this group of paranormal investigators was experiencing was real. I was hooked.”
The history buff, with deep roots in Washington, said that by combining paranormal investigations with history, perhaps he could help museums, historical sites and smaller communities entice visitors.
“I believe that for every piece of history we lose, we lose a piece of ourselves,” he said.
The Stanwood Hotel was built in the late 1890s, and is one of the oldest buildings in town, Hubbard said. Although it has been changed and added to, it is essentially the same structure that housed loggers, mill workers, hunters and tourists for many years.
“Mill workers purchased meal cards to eat there. It became a tavern with a card room after Prohibition.”
Hotel owner Marilyn Guthrie will close the bar by 10 pm. Saturday night, Hubbard said, so the PIHA’s Grey Team can begin to set up equipment. They will probably pack up around 2 a.m. Sunday.
At the December visit, they heard voices and footsteps that sparked their interest in returning.
“Our last investigation there was really interesting,” Hubbard said. “That old building gave up some of its ghostly secrets.”
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451; oharran@heraldnet.com.
Odd encounters in this world
Vicki Tanner, former owner of the Stanwood Hotel & Saloon, said she never had an encounter with a ghost on the premises, but they had many unusual tenants.
One man grew pot in his room, turning the wardrobe closet on its back for a big planter.
“Maybe a ghost helped with the cultivation,” Tanner said. “Come to think of it, maybe it was ghosts who spilled a bottle of Absorbine Jr. on the wood floor. We could smell it for two years.”
Then there was the guy who stole two new mattresses off his bed, she said, carried them downstairs, tied them to the top of his Volkswagen and drove off.
“He had to have help from ghosts. Where were those ghosts when I was making beds and cleaning? I could have used the help.”
Come to think of it, Tanner said, there was a man staying at the hotel who died of a heart attack.
“Maybe he saw a … “
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