Event offers a chance to search for paranormal
The Butler County Historical Society is bringing back its popular “Hair-Raising History” event in time for the Halloween season. And, just like in a slasher movie, the evening will take place at a cabin in the woods.
Specifically, the historic Cooper Cabin at 199 Cooper Road in Winfield Township will play host to this year's “Hair-Raising History” with tours at 7, 8 and 9 p.m. Oct. 16.
Society Executive Director Jennifer Ford said each hour-long tour will consist of three parts.
Members of Butler Paranormal Investigations, who had earlier spent two nights in the cabin, will brief visitors on how to conduct their own paranormal investigations, as well as acquaint people with the team's equipment.
Team members will recount what, if anything, they uncovered during their investigation at the cabin.
Emily Rauschenberger of Butler, who founded the group in 2012 and who is vice president of the historical society board, said she's still reviewing the evidence the BPI collected on the second night in the cabin.“What I think we have to take into consideration is who we think the spirits are,” she said. “The Coopers were simple people who kept away from other people.”Because of this, Rauschenberger thinks the high-tech instruments, electromagnetic field readers, digital recorders, thermal guns and SLS cameras that capture motion in the infrared, were off-putting to any spirits.“The energy that's out there really wants to be out there alone in a place where no living humans will bother them,” she said. She said the next night, investigators used bells and balls to try and communicate with any in the Great Beyond.Rauschenberger did say investigators on the first night thought they saw children playing in the woods around the cabin and captured a recording of something answering their questions.“We'll show people how to do their own investigation. You don't need a college degree just common sense to look at actual evidence,” she said.“We're trying to get scientific proof,” Rauschenberger said. “We're skeptical. We are trying to prove a haunting, not assume a haunting.”After their visit to the cabin, Ford said, visitors will move on to a fire ring outside where they will hear tales of hauntings around the property.
“Everything is based on documented events,” said Ford. “We will be telling tales out of history. We're historians. We cannot say anything we cannot document.”What she will be able to say is documented weirdness.For example, Robert Cooper was born in the cabin in 1840, the third generation of Coopers on the farm. He and two cousins signed up for the Union Army in 1862 during the Civil War.One cousin died of disease during his enlistment, Ford said, but Robert and his other cousin returned home on June 1, 1863. Twelve days later, Robert Cooper was dead.“There is no evidence of how or why he died,” said Ford. She speculated he could have been suffering from post-traumatic stress or just physically worn down from his military service.He was buried a short distance away in what is known as the Cooper Cemetery.In a macabre epilogue, Robert Cooper's original grave marker was replaced in 1939 with a Civil War veteran's tombstone. The original headstone was brought back to the Cooper homestead where it was promptly misplaced for the next 82 years.Ford said Cooper's tombstone was found leaning up against a tool shed when Historical Society volunteers were cleaning up the area around the cabin this summer.“We documented the fact that it is Robert's just last week,” said Ford.“Robert may or may not be walking around the farm looking for his headstone,” said Ford.The story of a lost girl who disappeared on the property will also be told around the fire ring.Supposedly a widow and her young daughter rented a room in the cabin. The daughter ran out into the woods just before a snowstorm and disappeared, never to be seen again.
This will lead up to the final part of the tour, a walk along a darkened nature trail that winds its way around the rear of the 10-acre property.At some point in the past, historical society volunteers hacked out a nature trail and put on plant identification signs.“People walking on the trail have heard kids laughing and playing hide and go seek,” said Ford.Visitors will be guided along the night dark path by volunteers with lamps. And if they see or hear anything...?Ford stressed, “This is not a haunted house, there aren't going to be vampires and ghouls.“It's going to be low-tech and dark. They may see some stuff out there,” she said of the participants of the tour.Cider and doughnuts will be available for purchase at the cabin.Visitors are asked to dress warmly and suitably for an evening in the country.
Ford added volunteers will use flashlights and glow sticks to guide visitors' vehicles from Route 356 onto Cooper Road and then up the driveway to the cabin.“Last year we had it at the Senator Walter Lowrie Shaw House and we were constrained by the rooms and hallways and the fact everyone had to wear masks,” she said of the historical society's headquarters in Butler. “We won't have to worry about that this year.”The 7 p.m. event is nearly sold out, Ford said, but people can buy tickets for the 8 and 9 p.m. shows by going to butlerhistory.com or by calling 724-283-8116.
