Dale the Doll: I Am A Real Ghost Hunter

The trip with The Human and Ms Julie did not start off well. The Human got me a cowboy outfit and I figured I'd hob nob with the Tombstone Earps, but then I found out she was getting me a "Baby Cowboy" outfit complete with diaper snaps!

I didn't let that take me down. I was determined to be a ghost hunter and show them both!

Then, they put me in the car and The Human duct tapped my mouth. She apparently doesn't like when I ask if we're there yet.

I kept my dignity when they put me in the haunted hotel room up against a closet door and referred to me as a "trigger object." I cautiously waited until they departed to sift through The Human's ghost hunting vest for her tools. Some of them made no sense to me, like the metal rods bent at right angles or the little pointy stone on a chain. There was a cool meter that lit up and I think that must be the handy ghost meter that makes her so successful. She doesn't see me as a legitimate ghost hunter, but I was not only a great ghost hunter, but I did it all alone!

I was very brave doing this task that would frighten most humans and I think I kept my dignity.

On the Road: Ghost Hunting!

Bisbee is chock full of ghosts. In fact, I think that it's one of the most haunted towns I've come across in Arizona, along with Jerome and Globe.  Incidentally, all three are mining towns.

Julie and I investigated a stairwell just up the hill from the Bisbee Grand Hotel. We had seen a rather intriguing photo captured there by someone who said he was standing there waiting and he had this strange sense to turn and when he saw the staircase, he felt the need to photograph it and he got something very unusual - weird lights, odd looking shape.

Julie and I went to test it, but as soon as I stood at the bottom of the stairs, I had a sense of a female wanting to come down but cautious. I got all this information in my head at once that spirits access the stairs often, but not when people use it. She wasn't sure if we were going to go away or not. I stepped up and whispered, "come on down, it's okay, come on." I went and sat on the stairs while Julie photographed me and at one point, I felt someone step beside me and a hand on my head - the scalp tingles were intense!

We both when photographing the stairwell saw shapes on our screen that did not show up in the photos. Another example of how cameras can be impotent at capturing things. I was seeing the shape with my eyes and not even looking at the camera screen. Julie got the scalp tingles as well, a sure sign of physical contact or exceedingly close contact, kind of like the prickles when lightning strikes nearby.

Our first night in the Copper Queen room 312, it was fairly uneventful except the occasional whispering voice or sound of footsteps in the room. It was the usual things you might hear in an unfamiliar environment.

The second night, however, we decided the room was used to us and the hotel was nearly empty. I picked up Dale the Doll from the floor where he had been staring across the room at us and put him on the sofa and stuffed his hat over his face so I didn't have to look at that creepy sight. Julie asked about him as a target object, and I doubted anyone would want to touch him and that I put the hat over his face. She chuckled.

The floor was quiet. In fact, we didn't run into anyone on our floor. So, we sat down to a little pendulum session. I asked questions and a little boy was the apparent unseen guest.




When we finished this enlightening session, I did a little EVP work and then decided to use my divining rods to try and locate Billy. As soon as I got near and my skin got prickly and the rods began to cross, it was like he would dart away in glee, happy that I couldn't find him. I chased this around the room for a time and then said I had enough. I gave him a closing bit of advice and we ended our session.

I went into the bathroom and when I turned around and looked into the room, I saw Dale the Doll on the sofa. Only, his hat was not on. I was shocked. I stood there staring at this face, mouth hanging open. I rushed over to look and saw his hat nowhere.






The hat was underneath Dale and fully underneath, only the brim stuck out. How is this possible? I know people think of ghosts as invisible people, but that is not the way it works. There was not a Casper lifting the doll up and placing the hat beneath. More than likely the manipulation of the hat involved sliding it down, and being worked beneath him. Thus, we did not hear this happening.

It seemed the evening was over. We went to bed. I always have the sheets pulled from the bed because I hate to be pinned down. I also sleep hot, so I shoved the comforter to the other side of the bed. I went to sleep and when I awakened around pre-dawn time, my body was wrapped in the comforter like a mummy. It was pulled over me, tucking my legs tight together, then my hips, and my arms were at my sides, the comforter tucked beneath them and my shoulders. It freaked me out at first because I hate to be pinned. I lifted my head and was shocked to see how very neatly this was done. There is no way in any stretch of the imagination I could tuck my legs, hips, straight arms, and shoulders in myself. I kicked myself free and shoved it aside, got up, paced around a bit, got a drink of water, went back to bed and whispered, "Billy, I hate blankets!"

When I woke up after dawn, everything was back to normal. The feeling of someone in the room was gone.  Julie and I reviewed the previous night and it's oddities. I check on Dale. He was back to normal as I left him before we went to sleep. Other trigger objects around the room were in place.

The room was sunny and felt utterly empty. Having grown up in a very active haunted home, I know the feeling of others in the vicinity. I had that feeling almost the entire time we had the room until that next morning. It was oddly sterile.

I have had strange experiences each time I've stayed at Copper Queen and it is my favorite place to stay in Bisbee.  I highly recommend it!

Later today, Dale the Doll will give his version of ghost hunting here on the blog. Hmm....

Displaced Brazilian Bigfoot and An Unsettled East Texas?

There's some interesting dynamics being reported from folks in the field in Texas. One of them involves some rather unusually aggressive behavior among potentially provoked Bigfoot, as well as "unnamed authorities" covering up the woodland activity and generally harassing Bigfoot researchers.

When probed about why the Bigfoot in East Texas are hoping around like bare feet on hot pavement, a poignant insight was made about the unlimited resources in East Texas and the rather tough to navigate thicket and bogs that make fantastic Bigfoot breeding grounds to perhaps the extent of creating a population boom.

Unless conditions change drastically, the majority of Bigfoot seem to stay in regions they are accustomed to and not migrating north and south with the seasons like snowbirds as some researchers believe. However, in a hugely disruptive environmental change, Bigfoot can push on to find better new territories. In some cases, resources can be endangered and that is where I have heard reports of  Bigfoot clans in Brazil being forced out for some time due to Brazil's huge push to build hydroelectric dams, flooding villages and huge acreage of rainforests which were their stomping ground. 

Reportedly, these South American Bigfoot utilized systems of tunnels and channels of swimming to get on to lands to the north and away from the rainforests they had known their whole lives. Many settled in along the way in parts of Central America and Mexico, but yet more moved on into America, following a very promising and fruitful region in East Texas where even the local Bigfoots were having a population explosion in this unfettered paradise.  Between state parks and preserves, ranches, waterways, high population of wild boars and few people pushing through the brush - the Tall Ones found their Eden. 

With the supposed influx of Brazilian Bigfoot into Texas lands, the disruption has caused all kinds of outcomes including aggression by a foreign Bigfoot that is used to a different treatment from the "hairless" ones in Brazil. The locals where they come from are used to allowing them free passage, not harassing them and generally not going into their territory.

Now, these displaced new tenants of the Texas wilds are being seen more often, not used to the objective of American Bigfoot to remain hidden while living in close quarters with the hairless ones. They are also having aggressive reactions to humans shooting near them and their young and being stalked and intruded upon.  Add into the mix that American Bigfoot understand that where the hairless ones go, there is a constant source of food and useful objects, to the foreigners this abundance is exciting and also very dangerous as far as being seen.

From insiders involved in this situation, the American Bigfoot are fine with sharing the land with the newcomers, but the American Sasquatch are also working to try and help the outsiders understand the objective of being not seen, not heard. There have been occasions in which aggressive action by a Brazilian Bigfoot has caused the American counterparts to step in and try to hold them back from hurting a human in their frustration. Whether this interaction is helping to adapt the supposed Brazilians or not is impossible to judge from afar, but another event is occurring that adds more to this powder keg.

Reports from Oklahoma and Mississippi, Arkansas and even Louisiana have shown more and more humans stumbling across Bigfoots who are pushing in on more populated areas and being seen on roadways and out in the open like never before, as well as seeming to be easily blinded by car lights and other things they would normally know to remain out of the line of.  The overall consensus is that there is a mass exodus of Bigfoot trying to leave East Texas.  

Yet one more log on this fire is reports of potential culling of Bigfoot population by authorities of rather vague and shadowy origin. Unmarked dark helicopters, park areas being closed off, the sounds of shooting, Bigfoot screaming, and harassment by these unnamed officials towards researchers, as well as potential surveillance with cameras in the woods by these authorities who actively monitor and dispatch units to sites before campers even get settled in.

In general, the greater activity and more erratic behaviors noted in East Texas might be a good time to reconsider the use of guns in the field. Understandably, given dangers from wild boar and the like, guns are vital in the field, but one must also remember that shooting a Bigfoot is going to create violent and immediate retaliation. A shot up into the air is a better warning. The Bigfoot have shown that they do not want confrontation, but even the most passive of people become deadly when you hurt one of their family.

My advice would be, if you get the rare and unusual chance to see a Bigfoot, do not bother to rush and raise a camera which can be threatening. Simply take it in for the moments you are allowed to burn it into your memory. Allow free passage. This is all they have ever desired, the ability to have free ingress and egress.

They don't want to deal with you and believe me, you don't want to deal with them if you threaten their family units.

Research is better handled in a different form than many have practiced.  One reason that landowners have positive and regular interactions with the Tall Ones is that they are predictable. Bigfoot live in constant anxiety of not knowing who is coming into their area, where they will pop up, what will happen, but landowners are certain members, coming and going regularly, predictably, and they know what parts of the property the humans don't probe around (my advice - always leave land that is a "safe room" for the Tall Ones to retreat to).  Researchers are up against a huge obstacle in trying to have interactions by yelling, knocking and scaring the Bigfoot away, coming into the woods for a weekend and causing disruption. The only way there will be successful interactions and study will come from preserves/habituation/circuit sites.  

More on this in the future on this blog - it is a subject of obsession for me.

On the Road: Retro Street - Lowell, Arizona

On the edge of the Lavender Pit Mine in Bisbee, Arizona is a little ghost town called Lowell.  Julie and I stumbled onto it looking for a diner that had breakfast.

We were wondering why all these bikers were wandering the street taking pics of each other in front of stores and cars until we stopped and studied it and realized the street was retained as a 1950s relic.

On the Road: Bisbee, Arizona!

(tiredness and hard beds)

We took off from Tombstone midday and arrived in the charming mining town of Bisbee -

We checked into the Copper Queen Hotel - awesome place! Just love it!  This old historic hotel is not only perfectly located to walk to EVERYTHING, but right alongside Brewery Gulch where the fun honky tonk bars are. Lots of yuppie shops for gourmets and antique shoppers, but also a fun population of very relaxed folks escaping the rat race to live as artists, expressionists, free souls, or even stoners, but it's all fun and good. They are a kind town that likes its visitors and perhaps feels a bit of sympathy for us because we can only visit and not stay in that suspended state of creating and relaxing that they get to do every day.

We got the Grace Dodge room. It was a sweet corner room on the third floor, #312. It had two beds and a clawfoot tub and right outside the window close beside our room was a beautiful church -

The hotel touts 3 famous ghosts; a cigar smoking shadowy one, a playful boy and a female who likes to mess with men's bedsheets. It's apparent as you walk the halls and stay in the rooms that this hotel has these entities coming and going through the rooms, not any particular limiting factor. In fact, we had one of the most amazing events I've seen since I stated officially started investigating with the turn of the millennium (tomorrow's post).

We had a great time at the bar downstairs. The atmosphere was nice, the drinks good, and the bartender entertaining and funny.

Julie and I hit the streets and did some serious shopping. The antique shops are awesome and I stopped into a tea shop for some awesome custom teas and an awesome shop called Bisbee Olive Oil where I went nuts getting some of the yummiest things ever -

There was a wide variety of cute cafes, antique shops, and unique shops. There was also Brewery Gulch where there were colorful bars and interesting street art. We also did photography in Lowell (tomorrow's afternoon post) and hit the cemetery (last Sunday's post).

The town has a history of quite a few ghosts and justifiably so, not only from a rough and tough mining town and whore house angle, but because the very way it's tucked between hills of ore is promising as a conduit for craziness.  I'd suggest the trek Julie and I took on this trip because you will be likely heading south from Phoenix and seeing The Thing is not only worth it, but Texas Canyon is a great photo op site - pull off at the rest stop in the boulders! Then, to St. David and the Monastery and Tombstone on the way to Bisbee.

 

The Shady Dell Trailer Park is right on the edge of the Evergreen Cemetery. There are mid century aluminum trailers set up for a fun blast back into the past to rent for the night.

I recommend Bisbee if you want a mining town that is supported by an artist colony feel - Jerome is the other one in Arizona that comes to mind and fills that bill (if you like a town on a scary mountain road up high). Here's a couple videos of, well, having only ONE margarita - and a glimpse of the cemetery at sunset.

Paranormal Geeks Radio - Nick Redfern!

Nick Redfern is the very special guest on Paranormal Geeks Radio.  Nick is one of my very favorite author/researchers in the field of all things unexplained. He might just be the king of Paranormal Geeks! He has numerous fantastic books and articles published all over.  Check out the books on Amazon and your eyes will pop out!  He is into the tantalizing, as well, like Men In Black and conspiracies, Mothman, Bigfoot, you name it! Hear that? That's the sound of my toes curling!

Listen in tonight. I'll be in the chatroom listening avidly!

On the Road: Tombstone Arizona!

Julie and I trekked on, putting on our hats and boots and stepping back in time in Tombstone!

We worried we might be off on a bad note. We checked into the Tombstone Grand and it set the tone by having their computers out, except for one, and a line of bikers waiting to check in. A long while later and with a guy at the front desk who couldn't give proper directions for the rooms, we managed to enter to find they had stairs and no elevator on our end, so we had to make a few trips dragging luggage up to our room. Hot and exhausted, I tried the soda machine - all out. Checked for ice -- none. The bed was hard. It was noisy. And generally so miserable that I highly advise do not stay there!

That being said, we did decide to do Tombstone up and so we walked the streets and checked things out before going out to supper at Big Nosed Kate's Saloon where they had live music, cold beer, and lots of yummy appetizers. The place was packed on a weeknight and everyone was having a good time in their hats and boots.

We saw a colorful man at the next table willing to pose with us. He calls himself Johnny Bones and he ties rib bones to his fingers and clanks them and tambourines on his knees and plays them as he dances. He's colorful, happy, and the band wanted him to join in for their songs. It was quite the show.

We promised to meet up with him on the street the next day and we did (more on that later)....

The next day, we woke up and got ready and headed out across the road to the infamous Boot Hill Cemetery.

Boot Hill has a quaint gift shop and the grounds have scenic vistas while you study the sometimes funny and goofy headstones and the seriously historic ones.

We finished Boot Hill and headed to OK Corral to get some tickets to see the noon shootout re-creation.

While waiting for the carriage ride, we walked around town and then decided to do the horse carriage ride which was great. It rode us up and down the roads and the driver told us the story of all the sites and what happened there.

We got out and went over to the OK Corral shoot-out.

We did a little shopping and headed over to the Bird Cage Theater. A few years ago, Julie and I were part of a group that did a ghost study at the Bird Cage late at night and it was very interesting. We decided to go in the daytime and photograph some.

Lastly, on our way out, we ran into our buddy, Johnny Bones performing. If you run into him, tip him big! The dude is really smart, really super nice, and just a total delight. I could have hung out with him all night and talked stories. He had lots of great ghost stories to share too.





When we got back to our room, I had my first two shots of tequila ever and, well, I decided to explain Arizona history -  (as you can tell, I'm a lightweight)




Julie and I decided to hit the road for Bisbee. The next leg of the trek on tomorrow's post -

What Is the Southwest Desert Like?

I had an image of this when I first moved here in 1977. I thought people still rode horses and had hitching posts. I didn't know goofy things like, there are orange trees everywhere. First time I saw one, I said "mom, what's those orange things on those trees?" She laughed, "oranges!" I didn't know citrus grew here. I imagined a row of Saguaros.

The mountains are naked here in the desert -

They turn purple, blue and mauve depending on the sun and where it is in the sky.

The land is generally flat and you get 180 degrees of sky - you can see so far away, in fact, that you watch distant mountain ranges and drive towards them but you might not be there for 70 miles.

The air is dry, the sun sharp and ruthless. You get a lot of static shocks when you touch metal here - A LOT! Air blows warm or even downright hot. It kicks up dust and in monsoon season - huge Haboobs - dust storms! 

It's an insane wall of orange dust that rises up so high in the sky that it's mind boggling. You can see a storm arriving and you think it's far away, but this one I photographed here, was atop of me in about 4 seconds.  It is intense, scratchy, orangish light, utterly insane, and if you're lucky some rain follows it in, but then it just manages to spit enough to make the dust turn to mud on your car and patio furniture and I won't even talk about what it does to your swimming pool!

We know it's official monsoon season by the sound of the locusts and the scent in the air. When it gets humid enough for monsoons to form, the locusts suddenly start screaming and the creosote desert bushes put out a scent that is like rosemary mixed with pine.

The vast amounts of sky here had me specializing in sky in my paintings. I'm obsessed with the sky. Unfortunately, we don't get a lot of clouds here, so when we do, having dimension to the sky is pure heaven and seeing it into the distance allows one to see storms approaching and the lightning here is insane because you can see every bolt meeting the ground.

It's not just cacti here. We do have scrub brush and mesquite trees and the like, but one thing people marvel at is that the desert becomes exceedingly colorful with wildflowers in early spring.

The desert isn't forbidding for everyone. The turkey vultures and rattlesnakes (vulture eating rattlesnake above) are common, but there are also brave javelinas (wild desert boars) and a ground squirrel commonly called a prairie dog, wild rabbits including jackrabbits, and hawks.

The open desert, especially along I-10 from Phoenix to Tucson, you see lots of dust devils in the distance, dancing around, forming, churning up dirt, dissipating. When winds kick up, all the tumbleweeds go mad. I once pushed a giant tumbleweed almost all the way to Tucson. It finally broke into brittle pieces and flew aside.

Yes, sunsets are intense. It's a combination of the fact that you can view the sun on the horizon all the way to ground level and the particulates that are always in the air allowing lots of glitter and color to form.

Geology here is intense and magnificent.

You can be driving through desert and suddenly there are huge boulders, go through mountain passes where cutaway earth shows all the layers of an amazing history of change.

We are sky and earth.  Not much water, but when it does happen - it's magic!

 

The desert is foreign to those who live where it's green and there are seasons, but the contrasts here are something worth experiencing.  I try to share the desert experience from mining towns to ghost towns, road trips to hikes, and I hope that y'all decide to experience the Grand Canyon, Sedona, petrified forest, Tombstone, and more!