Brief History:
Oak Ridge Cemetery makes it's home in Springfield, IL. and is the final resting place of Abe Lincoln. The cemetery itself was started around 1860 and is full of beautiful markers, mausoleums and of course Lincoln's Tomb. The graveyard has a history of sightings of former president Lincoln walking the path from his temporary tomb to the completed tomb. Of course, these sightings were reported back in 1865 - 1871 while Lincoln's body lay in the temporary vault awaiting the completion of the permanent tomb. Lincoln was finally moved to his final resting place in September of 1871.
Other strange sighting have been observed by the local citizens surrounding the cemetery. Namely, strange lights. Although these reports of lights in the cemetery were few and far between, G.E.I.S.T. and G.H.S. were able to obtain permission to investigate the graveyard after dark. Locked in and no place to hide, we ventured into the darkening cemetery grounds in search of a few ghosts.....
Investigation Notes:
In 1996 G.H.S. President Michael Komen was invited to join G.E.I.S.T. founders Tim Harte and Michael Hollinshead on this investigation. We arrived at the cemetery gates near dusk where we were met by the grounds keeper and let into the cemetery. We were told that we would be locked in and no one else was permitted to join us after dark. We agreed and continued on into the cemetery. With only about an hour left of daylight, we decided to sweep the area and look for a good place to "set up shop". We decided on a large black obelisk marking the grave of a civil war officer. It was a central location and had plenty of visibility for the evening.
Many shots were taken around the cemetery as well as the temporary vault, permanent tomb and other civil war grave sites. However, we were surprised to find that we were getting readings around our equipment near the obelisk. High levels of E.M.F. were being detected while Michael Komen was returning from a routine sweep of the "Lincoln path". Tim Harte snapped a photgraph of Mr. Komen while he was near the equipment which would later reveal a large orb floating near him. Other shots included an almost washed out photo of the large obelisk taken by Tim Harte during a routine control shot.
Cold spots were also experienced on the path from the temporary vault to the permanent tomb of Lincoln. However, this could be explained away as ambient temperature changes. The temporary vault is located at the bottom of a large hill in area lower than the rest of the cemetery. A fog also formed later that evening covering the entire cemetery giving the investigation an eerie atmosphere but also hindering our efforts.
We left in the wee hours of the morning taking with us our spent film and equipment. The data recorded yielded some interesting readings on the E.M.F. detectors as well as a few other sensors. The prize, however, were the photographs taken by Mr. Harte showing that the inhabitants of Oak Ridge cemetery may not be truly at rest.
Equipment:
The following equipment was used on this investigation:
1. The MESA system
2. 35mm cameras (w/ auto and manual focus with flash)
3. Super 8 camcorder
4. Handheld tape recorders and PZM microphone
5. E.M.F. detectors @ 1-3 milligauss and 1-100 milligauss
6. a lot of bug spray
Investigators:
Tim Harte
Michael Hollinshead
Michael Komen