Ghost Adventures – Cripple Creek – S07E07

For this investigation, the guys head out to another state I’m quite familiar with, Colorado, specifically, Cripple Creek. I spent 10 years out in the Rockies and remember Cripple Creek quite well. As you might expect in Colorado, this is an old mining town and we all know what that means, gambling, gold and murder. The investigation starts off with two locations, the Colorado Grand Casino and the old County Jail.

As with so many mining towns, the Grand Casino has an apparition of woman who is said to be seen walking around the ballroom. She makes her presence known repeatedly and may in fact be sharing a room with the living. There is even a claim that she was captured on film and her ghostly form can be seen in mirror.

Within the old jail there are reports of an inmate with hepatitis who spit at the guards to try and infect them. There are also claims of an inmate who was a child molester that attacked two investigators during the night. Strange voices and noises are also heard.

But as the investigation gets started, both of these sites are pushed to the side as Jeff Belanger brings in another location the guys need to check out. They meet up with Dan who says that all of his tenants end up leaving and become hostile after living in his rented house for 6 months to a year. They start off pleasant, but turn "evil" and then run away from the house. Dan really doesn’t have any history of the place, but gives a story of a young boy dying on Christmas Eve and talks about battles with and between the Indians.

They look around the house and decide to give it their attention. Before you know it, they’ve launched a full investigation. Oddly, they’re tearing up some concrete down in the basement because of some old items Dan has found down there. When they come back with their full barrage of equipment, things seem to heat up. They start off the with PX device and get the word, "Madison", the name of Dan’s daughter. Madison also claims she saw some figure touching her dad. The PX then has boughts of interference, but manages to come up with the words, "spirits" when asked who is in the house, the words, "under" and "ground" when asked where it was, and "ghosts" when asked what’s in the basement. There is also the phrase, "drain the well", which causes Dan to relay a quick story about losing hundreds of thousands of gallons of water. The PX device also gives, "Hell" in response to what is holding the entity there and "earth-line". In conjunction with all these voices, multiple flying anomalies are seen behind Dan.

Back at the Colorado Grand Casino, Bill Tolley is working with Bill Chappell on a 3D camera to record paranormal activity. It’s the same technology used to film athletes for games and record human movement for "blue screens". They blanket the wall and then if something breaks the plane it will show up as a stick figure. Sounds like a cool idea.

As they begin, they hear banging, several knocks and a woman’s voice. Are these just coming up from the casino below? They’re trying to find Maggie, the apparition that many claim to see. While they don’t get any of the traditional evidence, they do get something showing up on their imager. A small stick figure is seen walking around and may even be waving to Bill. When Bill stands in the same spot, his figure is much larger than what they just recorded. As Billy Tolley comments, is it the figure of a child? It certainly appears far too small to be Maggie.

The investigation does continue at the county jail, but Zak admits he wasn’t able to capture any evidence during his time there. He forewarns that he’s not discounting that it may be haunted, just that he didn’t capture anything.

I had to say, this was indeed a strange episode. They start off talking about two locations they plan to visit, then spend almost all of their time at a completely different place. And what about Dan Piotrowski’s house? They don’t capture much evidence, but the PX device was very talkative. Is there something to his renters leaving? Does he have an unusual presence in his house? Is there something buried in the basement to account for the activity? Or is he just a bad landlord and people keep leaving because they don’t want to deal with him? He seems like a decent guy, but I don’t think there is enough to support his claims that the house is full of a bad or dark energy. Maybe there are other problems. It would have been interesting to interview some people who used to live there and get their side of the story.

They need to do more research on the place and see what kinds of events have taken place in the past. Dan also need to provide more information about this water issue and perhaps they need to excavate that area in the basement properly. Guys from a TV shows bashing at concrete with rudimentary tools isn’t the right way to handle the job. There might be more to the story, but they need to find out what the story actually is first.

As for the Grand Casino, I don’t think there is much to these stories either. It’s an active casino, so it strikes me it will make tons of noise all the time. Bang, voices, cries, sobs and all of that would be a regular occurence. Voices will travel through the duct work. Trucks roll by all the time, even Bill makes mention of one. Are people just hearing the wrong thing? Are the sights and sound of the casino getting to them?

However, they do get something on their piece of equipment. Is it picking up a shadow? Does it just need some fine tuning? Or was there really a small child from the other side stopping by to say hello and give a wave?

Other Articles of Interest:

• Paranormal Lockdown – Old Chatham County Jail – S02E12
• Ghost Adventures – Snug Harbor Sailors – S07E19
• Ghost Adventures – Maysville Slave House – S04E25
• Ghost Adventures – Winchester Mystery House – S12E11
• Paranormal Lockdown – White Hill Mansion – S02E08
• Ghost Adventures – Titanic Museum – S15E12
• Ghost Adventures – Old Gila County Jail – S16E04
• Ghost Adventures – The Exorcist House – S08E07
• Ghost Asylum – Pauly Jail – S03E06
• Ghost Adventures – Chinese Town of Locke – S12E05