Tuesday, April 14, 2009 • Ghosthunters coming to investigate the historic Hotel Mt. Lassen
Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, April 14, 2009 edition of the Lassen County Times.
The popular SciFi television show Ghosthunters will be pulling into Susanville on Saturday, April 18, to investigate reports of paranormal activity at the historic Mt. Lassen Hotel on Main Street. Founders of The Atlantic Paranormal Society, Jason Hawes, left, and Grant Wilson, will lead a team of investigators using high-tech electronic equipment to try to explain claims of glasses inexplicably flying off shelves and hotel guest and employee sightings of ghostly apparitions.Susanville might very well be on the map, after the 12-man crew of the hit TV show Ghosthunters pulls into town to investigate paranormal activity in the historic Hotel Mt. Lassen building.
The hotel managers began thinking about contacting the show since employees of the hotel, which came under new ownership about a year ago, began noticing some unexplained activity happening in various areas of the building.
A member of the hotel management staff, Laura, said most of the strange activity began to occur right around the time that renovations on the historic hotel began, activity that has included glassware flying off of shelves, strange footsteps in the hotel hallways and employees seeing shadowy figures and full-body apparitions.
On Saturday, April 18 the hotel will literally be taken over by the TAPS team, or members of The Atlantic Paranormal Society, who will spend the entire night attempting to find explanations, paranormal or not, for the occurrences reported by hotel staff.
Since first airing on the SciFi channel five years ago, Ghosthunters has gone from a small cult following to a legitimate hit, earning the respect of a myriad of fans because of the TAPS team’s thoroughness and skepticism, only admitting to paranormal activity if concrete evidence is found, evidence that cannot be explained in any other way.
The founders of TAPS, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, who also work day jobs as Roto-Rooter plumbers, have led Ghosthunters investigations in places that are reported to be haunted all over the country. Hawes and Wilson have worked hard to maintain the credibility and integrity that viewers have come to appreciate in the show, trying whenever possible to “debunk” claims of paranormal activity that can be otherwise explained.
The team will use the latest high-tech electronic equipment at the hotel, equipment that is believed to be capable of detecting paranormal activity such as electromagnetic frequency scanners, which were originally designed to detect electromagnetic emissions from appliances and electrical wires, but are helpful to paranormal investigators to detect the presence of ghosts by measuring electromagnetic distortion.
The TAPS team and other paranormal investigators also commonly use electronic voice phenomena equipment, which detects sounds the human ear is simply unable to hear, as well as digital video cameras, temperature readings, and a device called a K-2 meter, a type of EMF detector that uses lights to indicate the energy present instead of a needle.
Hotel management said the TAPS team will also be staying in several of the hotel’s newly renovated rooms, which could prove to provide some interesting personal experiences for the investigators and crew.
According to hotel management, a recent guest, who was the only guest on the third floor, reported hearing footsteps in the hallway several times outside his room, but each time he checked the hallway, there was no one there. Another guest reported seeing the figure of a man as he stepped off of the elevator, though the figure disappeared as quickly as it appeared.
The manager said there have been several other instances involving the apparition of a little girl and of a man with a mustache and a plaid shirt, and employees feeling uneasy in the basement and boiler room, where it is said a previous manager and bartender were trapped and died during one of the fires that ravaged the historic building. She said there were famous fires at the hotel in 1926 and 1947, though she is not sure which year it is purported the employees perished in the fire.
The footsteps on the upper floors have been attributed by many at the hotel as those of one of the establishment’s previous managers, whom it is said was nearly decapitated in room 200 of the hotel. Employees have also reported feeling unexplained taps on the shoulders and strange whispers. The 4-year-old son of one of the bartenders, who knew nothing of the legends surrounding the hotel, claimed he was able to talk with one of the ghosts, the apparition of the young girl he claims he saw.
Management said none of the possible spirits in the hotel are menacing, but are seen as more playful spirits by most of the staff at the hotel.
Mt. Lassen’s management has been in contact with the TAPS team for more than six months, trying to arrange an investigation, and Laura said they are happy to possibly have some closure to the claims of activity throughout the hotel.
“It will be nice to know if there are possible energies around to explain certain events that have happened,” she said. “It will be nice to have some piece of mind.”
To celebrate the event, the hotel will be hosting a “Ghostbusters” Ball, at 8 p.m. on Friday, April 17 in the Lion and the Lamb Britsh Pub. The ball will be a gathering for locals to come and share an unexplained experience they may have had in the hotel, or simply to listen to the experiences of others.
Laura said TAPS investigators are also interested in hearing local resident’s stories of any sort of mysterious activity they may have encountered in the historic building.
