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In 1927, the first 1000 acres of farmland
that would later become the 1200 acre Manteno State Hospital were purchased by the state of Illinois.
Two years later, on Nov. 21 1929, the formal dedication ceremony
took place with the laying of the Administration Building's cornerstone. Purpose of acquisition, as stated in the dedication,
was to bring into being the tenth such hospital to be "dedicated by the State of Illinois to the welfare of its people for
their relief and restoration, a place of hope for the healing of the mind and body where many may find health and happiness
again."
From 1929 until its closing in December of 1985, there were thousands of patients who
lived and died at the Manteno State Mental Hospital. Many being subjected to experiemental therapies (electro-shock,
lobotomies, ect...) performed on them. Also, in 1939 the hospital experienced a severe typhoid fever
epedemic, involving 453 cases and resulting in 60 deaths. With all of the pain and anguish experienced here, it is easy to
understand why tales of strange shadows, apparitions, phantom footsteps and disembodied voices continue to be told about
Manteno Mental Hospital to this day.
Investigation
March 11, 2006 6:00pm - 10:00pm
Equipment:
TriField emf meter, Trifield Natural em meter, noncontact infrared thermometer, Nikon digital camera, 2 digital voice
recorders, 1 mini Dv video camera. All video cameras equipped with night shot
Investigators:
Jim, Trevor
| MORGAN BUILDING |
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| CLICK TO ENLARGE |
Baseline readings:
6:00pm:
1: Emf 0mg Temp 47° - 57°
2: Emf 0mg Temp: 49° - 59°
3: Emf 0mg Temp 47° - 55°
4: Emf 0mg Temp 48° - 58°
5: Emf 0mg Temp 48° - 58°
6: Emf 0mg Temp 50° - 57°
7: Emf 0mg Temp 50° - 57°
8: Emf 0mg Temp 50° - 55°
9: Emf 0mg
Temp 45° - 52°
8:00pm:
1: Emf 0mg Temp 44° - 55°
2: Emf 0mg Temp: 47° - 56°
3: Emf 0mg Temp 45° - 53°
4: Emf 0mg Temp 45° - 57°
5: Emf 0mg Temp 47° - 56°
6: Emf 0mg Temp 48° - 55°
7: Emf 0mg Temp 50° - 57°
8: Emf 0mg Temp 49° - 53°
9: Emf
0mg Temp 45° - 50°
9:30pm:
1: Emf 0mg Temp 43° - 54°
2: Emf 0mg Temp: 45° - 53°
3: Emf 0mg Temp 44° - 52°
4: Emf 0mg Temp 45° - 55°
5: Emf 0mg Temp 45° - 55°
6: Emf 0mg Temp 46° - 55°
7: Emf 0mg Temp 48° - 56°
8: Emf 0mg Temp 48° - 53°
9: Emf
0mg Temp 45° - 50°
Weather:
Temperature: 60°
Dew Point: 58°
Barometric pressure: 29.89 falling
Wind: 0 - 10 MPH
Precipitation: Thunderstorms
Investigation:
We first arrived at Manteno at around 4:00 p.m.
We drove around and surveyed the grounds of the facility, and then it was decided we would conduct our investigation in the
Morgan cottage. A walk through of the building was conducted during daylight hours in order to get a feel for the
layout of the location and find any potential hazzards. As we were walking through we encountered another group of three
people there taking pictures of the place. A map of the cottage was then prepared, noting areas of interest where we
would concentrate our efforts later on that night.
At 6:00 p.m. we returned to start our investigation.
We walked through the entire cottage and took baseline readings with the Trifield emf meter and the IR thermometer. During
this time we encountered two gentlemen walking around videotaping the building, but they left shortly thereafter. We
then decided to go down into the basement to have a look around and see if there were any of the tunnels connected to this
cottage that we had read about. It was more of a crawl space than a basement, and it was considerably colder
than the rest of the building. It was extremely damp, with water dripping from the first floor into the crawl
space. Some of the water was still frozen on the floor joists above, but was in the process of thawing. The
fact of the large amount of moisture in this area caused our pictures to show a "mist", that could have easily been mistaken
for ecto mist or some other anomaly, when in reality it was just condensation in the air.
| Basement mist caused by condensation |
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| CLICK TO ENLARGE |
We then moved back to the upstairs of the building
and attempted to record evp's in every room of the cottage. We were hoping to capture the sounds of disembodied voices
or maybe some of the residual sounds that may be imprinted in the environment from days gone by. We then took
up positions in the hallway between 3 & 2 on the map. This area was chosen so that we could observe a large
area of the cottage from one spot. At 8:00 p.m. we conducted another walkthrough of the entire cottage, taking readings
and photos. We then took up positions to observe the dinning area of the cottage (4,5,6). At 9:30 we
took more readings and walked through the cottage again. During this walkthrough of the building attempts to
record evp's were made in all of the rooms. Then we prepared to observe again from the hallway between 7& 8
on the map. A thunderstorm that had been moving into the area was in full swing by this time makeing any further
investigation useless, since rain was pouring into the building through the numerous holes in the roof.
We reviewed all of the evidence
that we collected from the Morgan cottage and only came up with one class C evp that was recorded in the hydrotherapy
room between 3 & 2 on the map. There were no cold spots detected, no emf variations, nothing paranormal
captured on video and none of our pictures showed any anomalies that didn't have a natural explanation. While we
believe Manteno has the historical background that could support the claims of a haunting, on our investigation,
we were unable to record any evidence of paranormal activity.
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