Cherokee Strip Museum
5/26/2018
General Information
Investigators: Christy, Ashley, Kathy, Curtis, Donna and Kris
Equipment used: DVR, 6 IR video cameras, 1 full spectrum video camera, personal audio recorders, digital camera, geophone, FLIR IR Camera, Mel Meter, surface temperature thermometer and 2 KII EMF meters, Rem Pod and other person emf and recording equipment.
Cam 1 – Second Floor – West Hallway
Cam 2 – Second Floor – Surgical Room
Cam 3 – Second Floor – South Hallway
Cam 4 – Basement Hallway 1
Cam 5 – Basement Hallway 2
Cam 6 – Basement Hallway 3
Cam 7 – Military Hallway
Initial Interview:
This building is currently a museum and it has several volunteers who run the building. Some of the current experiences that have been reported are:
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• Voices are heard throughout the building.
• Shadows are seen in different areas of the building, especially on the 2nd floor.
• There is an old piano on the 2nd floor that supposedly plays by itself.
• Strange noises are said to be heard throughout the building.
• Strange lights have been seen throughout the building.
Historical/Factual/Relevant Info:
The Cherokee Strip Museum in Alva, Oklahoma, was originally built in 1932 as a hospital. The hospital cared for locals until it moved to a new location in 1972. The building’s basement was rented out to local college students for a few years before it became a museum in 1976. The second floor has maintained a portion of the surgical suit
with antique medical artifacts as well as an old iron lung from a survivor of polio. The old hospital rooms are now various themed displays of antiques from donors and museum contributors.
The town of Alva was established in 1893 as a land office for the Cherokee Outlet land run. This was the largest of the land runs that settled western and central Oklahoma. During World War II, Alva was the site of a prisoner of war camp for German POWs. On July 19, 1943, the United States Department of War ordered Camp Alva to be the location for the internment of German prisoners of war. These prisoners were some of the worst Nazi leaders, Gestapo agents, and extremists from the Afrika Corps. The camp was located on the southwest side of Alva (south of what is now the Cherokee Strip Museum).
The buildings of the camp were sold in the 1950’s and were remodeled into homes, factories or storage buildings. The campsite is now home to the Woods County Fairgrounds, the local airport and a racetrack. All that remains of the original prison buildings are an incinerator, water tower and one building now used by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The only death at the internment camp was of a prisoner who was said to have escaped and was shot by local authorities. The museum has a large display of carvings made from prisoners that was found when the buildings were remodeled. They also have other relics of the time in the World War II section of the museum.
Investigation Report
Client Interview
Our team arrived on location at approximately 7:00pm. We were greeted by a few of the caretakers of the location. They gave us a tour of the grounds and buildings. We started with the old school house that was moved to the grounds of the museum for preservation. Our team then took a tour of the entire museum for approximately an hour. During our tour of the location, we had high contamination from the staff present so there was no audio, video or photographic evidence collected during this time. We were able to record a light EVP we believe said “Mary,” while interviewing the clients. Christy and two staff members filmed a personal experience on the 2nd floor and had just walked down the ramp. Towards the bottom of the ramp, Christy and the two staff members heard a faint whispering but didn’t know what was being said. After listening to the audio, the faint “Mary,” was recorded.
Set-Up
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Our team began our set up at approximately 8:43pm. During this time we had a lot of talking from the staff and a lot of background noises so questionable audio findings were ruled out. We were able to record an EVP of a male voice saying, “Yes,” captured on Christy’s audio recorder on the 1st floor.
Investigation/Sweeps
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The group began investigation at around 10:30pm. Donna and Kris began in the basement area. Christy, Curtis and Kathy began on the 2nd floor. The paragraphs below outline the 3 floors of the building, the basement, 1st floor and 2nd floor.
Basement Area
Donna and Kris spent some time investigating in the basement. At approximately 10:56pm, they decided to do a sit-down in the hallway. During the sit down in the hallway, Donna and Kris heard a beeping noise. After trying to locate the noise, Donna found that a stopwatch in the head start playroom was the source of the beeping. After Donna shut off the stopwatch, she and Kris began looking for a doorway that led to the outside of the building. Before reaching the door, the stopwatch began beeping again. "Stopwatch" Donna and Kris resumed investigation in the kitchen area of the basement, where an EVP session was conducted. No more than a minute later, a sound of movement was heard in the kitchen area.
1st Floor
Our group finished sweeps and reconvened on the 1st floor to compare notes and take a short break before the sit-down. Donna and Kathy decided to go back up to the 2nd floor to look through some written documents for names of doctor’s associated with the hospital. Christy left her audio recorder on the 1st floor and left the area. It was during this time that Christy’s audio recorder picked up a female voice saying, “Liz.” The teams’ swapped floors and while on the first floor, Christy, Kathy and Curtis were investigating
the area underneath the ramp where the staff kept chairs and other items stored. Curtis was operating the walking video camera. Upon review, a light EVP is recorded of a young male’s voice saying, “Where?”
2nd Floor
At 10:36pm, Christy, Curtis and Kathy were in the surgical area of the second floor looking at artifacts. Kathy asked Christy if she was picking up on any spirit communication. She stated she was not picking up on anything in the area but began to mention clairvoyantly seeing a lady in the basement when the team heard a loud bang. They checked with Gary to see if he heard anything from the World War area on the first floor and he stated he had not heard anything. The team concluded the sound was coming from another area outside of the surgical suites on the second floor. No people were on the second floor at that time.
Christy, Curtis and Kathy were conducting a sweep on the 2nd floor in the train room. After being in the room for a couple of minutes, Christy’s audio recorder picked up a faint EVP of a male’s voice saying, “Hey you, stop playing games.” This EVP was also captured on video and the voice can be better heard on video rather than on the audio clips.
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At 11:50pm Donna and Kris had gone upstairs to the top floor. Donna noted EMF spikes. A
male whisper saying, “go,” was picked up by Donna’s recorder. The spikes were noted immediately but the whisper was not heard until evidence was reviewed.
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12:40am, Donna and Kris left the area to get water. Donna left her recorder upstairs in the same Victorian room. The male whisper “chair” was picked up.
Sit-Down on 2nd Floor
Christy, Curtis and Kathy were in the velvet furniture room on the second floor for a brief sit-down portion of the investigation. Christy stated she had been picking up on a female spirit that said she couldn’t find her son. It seems this spirit had died when the building was a hospital. This spirit thought the year was 1938. Then at 10:52pm, Christy verbally asked the spirit why she still stays at the location and a female EVP was captured that sounds as if it is saying, “stop it” or something similar.
After finishing investigations in the basement, Kris and Donna began investigating the upstairs. At around 12:20am, Donna and Kris were in the Victorian room, where several events happened. They began asking questions around 12:33am. During the EVP session, Donna’s KII meter fell off the arm of her chair without being physically touched. After review of the video, we cannot find a source that would cause the KII meter to have been knocked off the arm of the bench. Both Kris and Donna stated they were sitting very still in the room and the KII meter had sat on the arm of the bench for quite a long time without moving.
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Wrap-Up
Due to high contamination of moving equipment and various guests, audio or video evidence was not collected during this time.
Conclusion
Our group feels like this location has a few different ghosts. Some of these appear to be residual and some appear to be intelligent. We can only assume that the reason some of the ghosts there are from the time when it was a hospital. The other "ghostly" appearances are from residual energy from the location's past. We do not feel like any of the spirits present are harmful.
Psychic Investigator’s Comments: Christy Clark
This old building had a lot of energy in it. Some of this was residual but some of it was intelligent. We seemed to experience more activity on the 2nd floor rather than any of the other floors. When the curator was showing us around in the basement area, I saw an older woman who told me she was a cook for the hospital. She loved the old hospital and still seemed to be preoccupied with taking care of things in the kitchen.
She seemed oblivious to the changes and the old hospital now being a museum.
On the 2nd floor I encountered a woman by the name of Agatha. She told me she was admitted to the hospital because she had pneumonia. She said however that she was feeling better and was looking for her husband and son but when she went home they weren’t there anymore. She told me she had come back to the hospital in hopes that her husband and son would come there looking for her. She was confused about what year it was but knew there had been some changes to the hospital but she didn’t understand why. I explained to her about what year it was and how she had the option to leave and cross over if she wanted to. When I was up on the 2nd floor I saw a shadow walk from the middle of the hallway to the other side and then disappear. It looked like the shadow of a woman to me and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was Agatha. I felt like there was a stern male down on the first floor but he refused to say much to me. He seemed to like the military hallway so I thought maybe he might have served in the military while he was alive.
evidence collected
There were 5 EVPs that was recorded during this investigation and 2 audio clips.
There were no positive photos and three positive video clips.