One of the first trips that we organized for DSGT was a bus trip to Zoar Village in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. This trip took place on October 17, 2012, and wow, what a great adventure.
UPDATE: In April of 2020, we did a live stream video on YouTube discussing our experiences on this trip. You can check out that video below.
Although I took part in the organization of the event, I was determined to do a little research investigating while I was there. I also managed to pick up a copy of the “The Ghosts of Zoar” book from the gift shop for some future reading, and to review/add to our claims in the PANICd.com database. Let me just say before I begin the analysis of the evening that Marianne and I own a Canon Power Shot D10 camera which we picked up for one of our excursions. This camera will do photos and video and is small and compact. The reason why we picked it up in the first place is that it is also waterproof and will take underwater photos and videos which is really cool. Another thing we noticed, just by a fluke, is this particular camera is awesome at capturing Orbs.
Yes, I said the “O” word, and I know there are a lot of skeptics out there about Orbs; however, we are also somewhat semi-professional photographers and know how to debunk lens flairs, glares, insects, dust, reflections and other things that can cause orbs as well. We never claim that these photographs contain paranormal evidence, but once you see a few of them you will see what I am actually talking about. The address we use to travel to Zoar Village is: 198 Main Street Zoar , OH 44697
The tour began in the basement of the Zoar Store. We all gathered around as our tour guide gave us some explanation on how the village was created and how the building came to be built. Down in this basement, several of our guest had an uneasy feeling. I did as well, but it was more of Adrenalin rush for the anticipation of what we may run into. You need to remember, we have only been researching and investigating the paranormal for only 2 years at this point. There were a couple of shots taken down here in consecutive session. You be the judge.
Were these orbs? Did we have other guests with us on the tour? Well, the argument can be made that it was probably dust, or mostly dust. We were down in the basement of the building.
Behind the store, you can find access to the communal dairy processing. Dairy products was the number one industry in Zoar and the process was highly streamlined for the time. Outside of the building we capture several strange orbs that you can see in the photographs below.
These photographs again were taken in succession from the same angle. Is it possible that the spirits where coming out to greet us or again, are we running into dust? Next we visited the magazine. We didn't have too much going on here, except one of the guests said they caught a glimpse of someone in the window looking out at us. Was this a previous community member wanting to know what was going on? In the communal laundry area, the uneasy feeling returned again. Again, I dismissed this, I haven’t even started using the KII meter yet, but here are a couple photos from this area.
These Orbs, we need to throw out, because they can be dismissed as reflection off the flash off the windows. Notice how the camera angel slightly changes moving to the right, the Orb moves to the right.
From here we moved onto one the creepiest buildings in the entire village. The number one house. As we approached the house, someone claimed to have seen a light flickering in one of the windows on the third floor. Our medium said that someone was in the window of the second floor looking down at the group as we approached. Not like that statement wouldn't make the hair stand up on your arms or the back of your neck.
First we went down in the basement. As we were all gathering around, our medium asked if there was a fire here before. The tour guide answered by saying there has never been any documented fires in the entire Zoar village. After the answer, another guest claimed they had smelled something burning. Our medium responded by saying, “That’s why I asked about the fire, I smell it too.” As we all began to sniff around, we noticed that the smell was more like pipe tobacco. The tour guide then mentioned that the town founder Joseph Bimeler and other town elders lived down in the basement for a while, and Joseph did smoke a pipe.
I immediately broke out the EMF detector and started getting a baseline reading of the basement. There were no large EMF fields anywhere throughout. I joined the group where our medium was trying to communicate with Joseph and I detected the pipe smoke. During the time of the communication, the EMF detector was jumping up to 3, then 0, then 2.5, then 0, then 3.5, then zero… for about 3 minutes. There was definitely something in that basement trying to communicate with us.
When we went upstairs into the building, several of the guests commented that they were not feeling very well. We had one lady that had to go outside of the building and sit for a bit to regain her composer. As we walked through the hallways (and rooms) of the second floor. All of us experienced sudden burst of air rush by us as if the air conditioning kicked on. Many people had problems taking pictures due to their cameras not be able to focus. I later asked the tour guide why they had the air conditioning on in this building since it was October in Ohio. Her reply was, it was not on at all. We also experienced several spikes and drops on the KII meter. It was if the spirits or entities on this floor was moving around at a rapid pace and really did not want any of us there intruding.
One of the last places where we got most of the activity was at the communal gardens. The tour guide told us that the gardens were the center of the community, and the center of the communities spirituality. The medium said that it would make sense that we would get some activity within the gardens. As we approached the area, we began to take shots over the garden fence.
What is interesting for some of these photos and orbs is the different colors, and as if some of the orbs are omitting their own light. As you can see, there were "Orbs of plenty in this area".
As we walked around within the gardens, we got the sense that there were people watching us. Also, the KII meter would spike to full in some locations. I immediately debunked that I was getting readings from cell phones or other devices since I continued to have a communication type conversation with someone as I walked off by myself, and nobody (well living) was around me at the time. The KII meter spiked all the way to 5.0 at this time during my private conversation. I thanked the entity for being with me and said that they could go on with the other group, and the KII meter immediately dropped back to zero. It was an amazing experience to say the least.
In conclusion, our tour at Zoar Village was very interesting in terms of historical research and paranormal evidence collection. There is the definite potential of paranormal activity within this village. The reason for the activity would not be contributed to tragedy or traumatic events, but it is easy to see even at night how these community members loved their village. If they had to return to earth, what better place for these spirits to congregate.
