Happy National Ghost Hunting Day !

Held on the last Saturday of every September, today is the official day to honor the spirit of paranormal investigations. Established in 2016, today is intended to celebrate and promote human curiosity into matters unknown. Ghosts, phantoms, poltergeists, fairies...whatever it is that sits on the periphery of the human experience has always been a topic of intellectual endeavor; whatever it is that is a "ghost" has resided with countless generations of our ancestors. We likely still are no closer to proving their existence, let alone officially defining whatever it is that they are, but the interest, technological advancements, and methods of investigation are ever-improving; the human curiosity of the unknown can not be stopped.

In celebration of today's National Ghost Hunting Day, I returned to a hill that I grew up on. More specifically, I took my three-year-old daughter to a park on the hill for a little adventure. I didn't specifically tell her I was there looking for ghosts (always a bit worried to bring up ghosts to her), but I snuck a few photos in here and there of the highly spiritual area. Some quick background on the park for those interested:

The hill in question was a traditional camping ground for the Winnebago tribe of Native Americans. The park was actually owned by Buffalo Bill Cody for some time in the late 19th century; burial grounds were discovered when the tribes moved away from the area in the last 1890s and homes slowly began to be constructed. The area has a rich, sacred history; it was also known to have many haunted homes in the area.

I lived in two such homes on this hill. The first home was located on the Northside of the hill and was located near Winnebago burial grounds on the north side of the hill. The attic of the home was constantly filled with footsteps at night. Almost every night we would hear footsteps moving from the northside of the attic to the southside of the attic. My parents both thought the home was a gateway of some type; a gateway to where we had no idea. The noises here were never harmful, but the attic definitely had a spooky vibe. Families that have lived there since still talk about the presence of footsteps at night; one single woman actually moved out of the house because the noises bothered her so much.

The second home on the hill we lived in had more negative feelings. Shadows of hands would appear on the wall of the shower in the basement we used. Noises would erupt in my closet late at night. Shadows in the basement would move...so much so you could watch a line of a shadow literally move four to six inches along the floor, despite the light source being fixed. The oddest thing my brother and I experienced at that home was a breathing noise in the basement and my bedroom. We could literally sit at times playing board games or playing video games and hear a heavy breathing noise near us...it was almost as if something were near us and watching us. None of it was truly scary, however; it just was what it was.

As for the park itself, I only had a few odd experiences. The park overlooks a marshland; at one time when I was young, I recall looking into the marsh and seeing a massive pink, hairless pig-like creature. It looked at me and suddenly charged toward me...I remember watching it sprinting through the marsh and come up the hill toward me...at that point, I started to run away, made some distance between it and me, turned around to look at where it was, but it didn't appear at the top of the hill. I never saw it again.

I also saw an odd rectangular craft hover in the sky above the park. It made no noise and is sort of drifted in the wind from North to South. The craft almost looked like a box with four white strobe lights on each corner.

Alas, those days are long gone and all of my family have left the hill. Today, I felt compelled to visit and take some photographs of the area where the dead were buried, sacred ceremonies were held, and were some type of pig creature lives (allegedly, of course!)

Here are a few more photos from today's ghost hunt; don't worry, we didn't capture and photos of ghosts, pigs, UFOs, or otherwise.

Above is an area where skeletons were unearned in the early 20th century...not knowing that we used to play baseball in this area before it was left to a prairie restoration project over the past ten years. The area is now completely overgrown with native plants.

The swingset above has been there for almost 40 years. In the background is the crest of the hill with many trails leading to a nearby river utilized by the Winnebago people for trade and travel.

Beyond the trees in the background is where I encountered the pig type creature. It is also the area I recall seeing the silent, box-shaped craft hover above this area years ago with four strobing lights on each corner.

The center of the park now features a playground setting for children. In the background is an area where several effigy mounds existed before local treasure hunters destroying history in search of gold and wealth in the early, early 20th century. Sadly, so much of the history of this area has been destroyed by the early settlers of the area.

No ghosts were found or captured, but we did have fun on today's ghost hunt adventure. Hopefully, you too are able to get out and search for the unknown today (and if you do, let me know what you searched for today). Thanks as always for stopping by and taking a read. I plan to do more research on this area to share with the Hive community.