Farnsworth Inn B&B Investigation

Location: Gettysburg, PA

Date: Sunday, December 8, 2002

Moon Phase: Half

Solar Weather: solar flares-M Class, geomagnetic activity-quiet

Investigators present: Hillary M., Robert H., guest investigator Jonathan H.

Equipment: Olympus C-3000 digital camera, RCA digital voice recorder, Sony digital video camera with Nightshot, Pentax PC-550 35mm camera, Extech EMF meter, Olympus 2000 Digital Voice Recorder, Extech IR thermometer, Sony Hi-8 Cam, Olympus C-4000 Digital Camera, Trifield EMF meter

History: The Farnsworth Inn was built in 1810, and has known several owners in its lifetime. The third floor garrison was used by Confederate sharpshooters during the Civil War. It is from this garrison, that the bullet that killed Jennie Wade (the only civilian killed in the battle of Gettysburg) is rumored to have come. Over one hundred bullet holes can still be seen in the south-side exterior wall of the building. The house is rumored to have several spirits inhabiting it, including the sharpshooters, a woman named "Mary", and a young boy who was run over by a carriage in front of the inn.

Investigation: We arrived at the Farnsworth on Sunday afternoon around noon, and were delighted to learn that we were the only guests of the house that night! We noticed the extremely heavy atmosphere immediately upon entering the main house. We checked in and took a look around, taking control pictures and EMF readings along the way. We found the whole building to have very strange EMF readings. For example, I recorded a consistent reading of 6.5 over my wooden bed in the Catherine Sweeney room; However, the closer I got to the ceiling, the walls, and the bed the lower the reading would drop, eventually reading a background level of 1-2. We experienced readings like this in several places, but most notably the main dining room. The high readings seemed to hover in mid-air, and we were unable to locate any explainable source for them.
At 12:15, Robert, Jonathan, Paul and I went down to the main dining room to attempt an EVP session. Fourteen second into the recording, we got a quick "Hi" which is notably different than any of our voices. Toward the end of this session I tracked an orb moving across the back of the room in two consecutive pictures.
We resumed our investigation at 7:15 in the Schultz room. Paul had already left by this time, and Jonathan was taking a nap. Robert and I did not get any results in the Schultz room, so we moved into the McFarland and Jennie Wade rooms consecutively. We obtained no results in these rooms.
We then enjoyed an awesome dinner of game pie and pumpkin fritters in the main dining room. After dinner, at 9:25, we snuck up to the third floor Garret room, but experienced nothing paranormal there either. We were beginning to get quite frustrated! The place felt very active, but we were unable to obtain any scientific data to back up that hunch.
We then headed into the small Sarah Black room. Robert sat near the bathroom doorway, Jonathan laid on the bed, and I stood on the other side of the bed. I kept getting the feeling that someone was standing beside me, and wanted me to move. Of course, it might have just been the dress form that stands at the foot of the bed. However, a few minutes later, I obtained a picture of an orb moving over the woodwork of the window at the bottom of the bed. A few minutes later, we heard a loud knock at the head of the bed, followed a few seconds later by a loud knock on the floor directly in front of Robert. Three minutes later, we heard floorboards creaking on the other side of the wall, in the Catherine Sweeney Room. We were the only people in the inn at the time.
From there, Robert and I headed into the Catherine Sweeney room, while Jonathan retired for the night. About halfway through the EVP session, I did get one stationary orb next to Robert, but that was about it. At 10:30 p.m., we headed into the hallway, but did not have any results there either, so we went to bed and decided to try early the next morning.
We awoke at 6 a.m. the next morning, and tried for EVPs in the McFarland, Catherine Sweeney, and Jennie Wade rooms. The only strange thing we experienced was that when we entered the Jennie Wade room, we found the alarm clock going off. When we went to turn it off, we found that it had never been set or turned on! We did obtain a few very clear EVPs during the investigation, but did not obtain any orbs on video.

Conclusion: The pictures and EVP we obtained do lead us to believe that there is a supernatural presence in the inn, but we did not obtain enough results to positively conclude that the inn is haunted. We have heard many stories about this property, but we found that it is not nearly as active as the stories led us to believe. The building does have a very heavy feel to it though. Maybe it was just a slow night? We'll definitely have to investigate this inn again in the future to know for sure.

We wish to thank the management of the Farnsworth Inn for giving us access to the all guest rooms.

Submitted by Hillary Murdoch