Location

Date: April 30th, 2010 & August 6th, 2010; investigations conducted by www.sci-pro.net

Story / Reports of Activity: This location was known as Owen County's "Poor House." It was originally built to assist the underprivileged / indigent in self sustaining themselves in their community and provide them with a sense of continuing to be productive despite their challenges. The location was maintained and utilized by those who lived there. They populated gardens for food, regularly maintained the land and on-site facilities and even had a cemetery for those who needed buried and had no family to help with this duty elsewhere. Over the years the house traded hands and owners - some uses included, but not limited to, a homeless shelter, old folks home, group home for MRDD and SMI populations. When we were involved with investigating this house, it was being prepared for auction, but a lack of interest yielded no solid leads. They planned to attempt another auction, however, we haven't heard if this occurred or if there was any new interests in buying the property - the county was asking $103k. The home is currently owned and maintained by the Owen County government and is strictly off limits to the public. Sheriff department frequently patrols this location and no trespassing signs are clearly displayed throughout the property. Violators could be fined and/or arrested on site if caught so please review our findings instead of going there and risking a charge.

"The Owen County Home in Clay Township on State Road 43 was built in 1878. An earlier facility, known as the County Asylum or Poor Farm, was built about 1860 two miles down river from Spencer on State Road 67. It was a two story frame building, large enough, but by 1878 not large enough. The County traded that former Tornmy Howe farm for 395 acres known as the Col. John Franklin farm and let a contract to William F. Mcgenhardt to build a brick County Asylum for a cost of $8,000. The earlier house is still standing in good repair, and is the home of Bill Edwards. The outward appearance of the 1878 brick County Home, a pleasant well-maintained facility, has changed little over the years. The property no longer functions as a working farm, and the barn and other outbuildings have been torn down. Sixteen people reside at the County Home in 1994." Source: Owen County Indiana - a history - 1994.

The folklore behind this location is very rich, and why not? It has been a staple in the community for a very long time! We were given the honor of capturing some of the local folklore and investigating this location with equipment used to detect paranormal activity. On two different nights (due to poor weather conditions on the first night) and were given unrestricted access to the property. In fact, the Owen County Commissioners voted 3-0 in favor of www.sci-pro.net investigating the historic site (click here for article) and collecting the stories that continue to be the local 'lore. Regarding claims associated with the site: People report hearing noises, seeing shadow figures, feeling like their hair is being pulled, abnormalities in pictures when taken with a camera, strange feeling of a violent presence when in certain rooms of the house... and most of those claims occurred even prior to the home's closure and abandonment. One report from a local resident living near the home stated, "1000s of people died in that building." Many of the deaths reported at the Owen County home were by suicide (i.e. hanging of a self proclaimed cowboy in the garage) and/or homicide (unconfirmed however), accidental deaths (a visiting child relative fell to his death from a 2nd story window... elderly falling in showers) and deaths by natural causes (i.e. old age, illness). We were told of a ledger, by past employees, which was in existence that told and recorded deaths and big events at the home, however, we were not able to locate it. If that weren't enough, several locals reported tails of how the cells/cages were used to isolate unruly or mentally ill "inmates" for days or even weeks at a time until they were deemed ok to return to the general population. Reports alluded to the two slides that are fixtures on each side of the house - some simply report that those were used for garage to ease the burden on the people cleaning... and yet others report there use to be for fire escape purposes only. Some locals informed us however, "To keep the moral of the other residents up, if a resident of the home would die, they would wait until late and the staff would remove the body from the house by placing the deceased in the slide and slide the body down to an awaiting hearse below. This was procedure as not to march the deceased's body in front of the others residences' room..." All of the potential heartache these people endured simply adds to the allure and potential for paranormal activity at this location.

Findings: We utilized all of our equipment which included - Several K-2 models (various features on each), Ramsey TFM3C trimeter, Lutron EMF-822A, Voice recorders: Olympus DS-30 & RP5130-A, Hybrid Ambient/Surface Temperature Instant Gun Trigger Type Thermometer w/ Ambient Air Probe, Ovilus 1: v1.27. with Altec Lansing iM207 Orbit Portable Speaker System, Cameras: Canon EOS Digital Rebel - model: DS6041, Samsung S860, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT - model: DS126071, Camcorders: Sony Handycam - model HDR-SR7, Sony Handycam - model DCR-DVD403, Sony HI-8 Handycam CCD-TRV138, 2 wireless Nortech static IR cams connected to Easy Cap 2.0 and then relayed through Compal HEL80 Laptop for digital quality recording, Home Safe - Wireless Laser Beam Motion Detector System, 51 UV 395 nm Ultra Violet LED Black Light Flashlight and UV/IR camera / camcorder. Despite all of the equipment we utilized, nothing substantial was found at Owen County Home in regards to paranormal activity. Many of the things people reported feeling, hearing, seeing in photography could be explained by environmental factors - bats are a common species found in the home (every level and every room had some bats and they were frequently flying around making noise and flying so close that you could feel the wind as they passed), lamp posts outside provide an eerie glow into the building and an elapsed photograph in someone's hand would yield an anomaly due to the light.

Suggestions: Provided findings to the Owen County Commissioners and the findings are on file at their office. It would be amazing if there was a way to restore this building and make a museum in honor of its historical significance. The biggest factor in doing everything with the site, of course, is having the available money to do anything. A lack of money was the reason the doors closed at the Owen County home in 2002.

Evidence suggesting Paranormal Activity: We were left scratching our heads on this one, because we thought for sure this place would be active. That is why we put so much effort into getting the approval. However, after 24hrs of footage, nothing was caught which couldn't be explained. A little history of our preplanning stage of investigating this location: We had a much different outcome in the preplanning days compared to our sanctioned investigation at the location. We went to the location and entered the home with a sheriff escort (3 of them to be exact) to see if there was potential. At that time, there were a lot of call and responses captured with the K2 sensors, cameras turned off unexpectedly, more EVP activity - and even one of our investigators was scratched on the middle of her back. However, nothing, was caught on K2 during the two separate investigative times we were there... no flashlight play... no EVPs that were considered Class A or B (anything less simply isn't worth providing as evidence in our eyes). Only thing that we could conclude is that somebody could have cleansed the home during an unauthorized trip to the location. If effective, this procedure would have assisted whomever was there the opportunity to cross over. In closing, admire the Owen County home for its amazing history and ability to survive all these years with little change. Morn the fact that there is one less resource in our community to assist families and individuals in our community struggling with homelessness. It continues to be a standing monument to years past, even if nobody (living or deceased) calls the place "home" anymore. Sorry folks, there just was no definitive evidence to suggest that this location has any paranormal activity.