Paranormal Activity?
This was probably the freakiest photo shoot location I’ve been to and am pretty sure I had my first paranormal encounter here. Here’s the story:
This winter, I set out with my friend Ben in Pennsylvania for an abandoned coal facility that I had shot at before. Problem was, I hadn’t been there for over two years. It was a lot freakier this time than the last. To make matters worse, it was cold and pouring down rain. We decided to venture in anyway and immediately I felt some sort of odd feeling that is hard to explain. The whole time I was shooting I felt like I was being watched. People make that statement all the time and it’s easy to roll your eyes at it, but I truly felt that. It seemed as if someone was lurking around the corner at all times.
This feeling of uneasiness lasted the entire time we shot. In the middle of shooting a set of brackets, I started to hear strange metal clanking sounds. (Now is a good time to point out that there was absolutely no wind blowing) Thinking that it was just something swaying or moving from the rain, I kept shooting. The clanking was almost rhythmic, something that a dangling pipe wouldn’t do. It would speed up and slow down, all at regular intervals. Ben and I decided that was a sign that it was time to go. I packed up my gear (at this point the noise stopped) and gathered up my tripod and umbrella. As we stepped outside, the real freak out occurred.
Outside the huge front door, there is an old truck (looked like a 1960’s model) half sunken in the dirt and junk that litters the area. The exposed radiator fan on the truck was spinning full speed, silently. A little taken aback, I walked toward it. As I took a few steps, the fan drastically slowed down and suddenly stopped. Now, being that this truck has been sitting in that spot for all this time, there is no way that rusty fan could turn so easily, right? And what’s the explanation for it’s strange deceleration?
I just wish that I hadn’t put my gear away, who knows what I could have captured if I shot that old truck. It was quite simply the strangest, most unexplainable thing I’ve experienced. Just as the uneasy feeling had swept over me as we entered the property, it disappeared as we left. As we walked back to the car excitement and wonder set in. But the entire time we walked, I couldn’t help but look behind my back…
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photos ©2012 Zach Frailey
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The Old Burying Ground | Beaufort, North Carolina
In preparation for Halloween, a friend and I visited the Old Burying Ground in Beaufort, NC last week. The oldest cemetery, in North Carolina’s third oldest town, was established in the early 1700’s with the oldest legible grave stone dating to 1756. The oldest part of the cemetery was also, to me, the most interesting and best to photograph. It was not only very crowded, but overgrown and spooky looking. Peeking into the brush that had grown up around the trees, you could see more grave markers, long forgotten. A little known fact that I learned was that most of the grave sites face east, as the families of those buried there in the early years wanted their loved ones to face the rising sun on the morning of judgement day.
Some notable, and creepy, grave sites:
- Vienna Dill (1863-1865): Died of yellow fever and was buried in a glass topped casket. The child would later be exhumed by vandals and reburied after her body ‘disintegrated’ upon opening of the casket.
- An officer in the British Navy who died in port at Beaufort. He was buried standing up, facing England and saluting the King.
- A mass grave in which the sailors of the ‘Cassie Wright’ are buried. They froze to death in January 1886 when their ship ran aground.
- A little girl who died at sea during a voyage from England with her father. He had promised her mother that he’d return her home safely, however she died at sea. Rather than being buried at sea, she was preserved in a barrel of rum so that she could be returned home, as promised. Her grave site is distinguishable because of the pile of toys and gifts that visitors leave there.
- Captain Otway Burns, great privateer during the War of 1812. He sailed from Nova Scotia to South America, plundering British ships all the way. His tomb is marked by a canon from his ship, The Snapdragon.
There are many others buried here including soldiers of the American Revolution, War of 1812 and Civil War, as well as a grave marked “Here lies the remains of the settlers killed in the Tuscarora Indian War; September 1711.”
On my visit, the sun was bright and the sky was cloudless. I can imagine that as conditions change, the Old Burying Ground changes as well. I’m looking forward to visiting again with some more dramatic light to shoot!
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