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Paranormal activity is something that many of us wonder about. While there are thousands of people who claim to of had an unexplained and mysterious experience, the one thing that is often lacking is clear documented evidence. Our investigation found a lot of stories, but we must admit, finding reports that synched up and were backed by any kind of evidence were all but nonexistent. The people we did contact are credible sources and names have been changed to protect the privacy of those interviewed.
It was a fall night in 2012 when a man we’ll call Dennis was driving with a friend between Wrenshall and Holyoke in Carlton County, Minnesota. “We saw what looked like an aircraft with landing lights on flying from the (Duluth) airport, not towards it,” said Dennis about his experience that night. “It stopped, then shot up straight into the air like a rocket, with no noise, so far into the atmosphere that it disappeared…the light was moving so fast that it went from circular to oval as it shot upwards.”
This was just the beginning of a series of strange occurrences Dennis witnessed that night. Later on the journey they encountered a being known as the “Hat Man,” a dark shadow like figure that has been sighted all over the Nation. “It made a strange movement before disappearing,” said Dennis. “It’s hands

they were extended forward, brought to the torso then out again while walking, then disappearing…it seemed like we spooked the thing, it was in a hurry to disappear.”
It was approximately five minutes when the strange light in the sky returned, “Then we saw another bright light and I was struck with total fear, I am not normally a fearful person,” stated Dennis. “The light followed my car just above the tree line to the west of the road I was driving on, I started driving 80 to 90 miles per hour and was scared as hell. Then the strangest thing happened…animals started running out of the woods below the light frantically, a family of raccoons, then skunks, porcupines and several deer.”
The thing that adds to the mystery of the story is that Dennis claims he and his friend were not intoxicated in any way, yet they forgot about the night. “I never spoke to my friend about it for a few weeks until he asked why I didn’t,” said Dennis. “It was because it was strangely absent to my memory until he brought it up and I remembered everything vividly, except what happened after I left him.”
After hearing this story, I felt the need to check if anything similar had happened down in the Carlton and Pine County areas. It seemed best to start by asking the local authorities if they had encountered or heard of anything dealing with paranormal occurrences. They would be the ones on the roads late at night and perhaps they may have taken in someone ranting about such things. I sent an email to Carlton County Sheriff, Kelly Lake, and she eventually replied and indicated that she didn’t have anything. After also checking with the Carlton County Historical society and not having any clear focus or clues to go on, I realized that the investigation was coming to a dead end fairly fast. I did however find two more people who had experienced paranormal activity in that area.
I was given contact information of a law enforcement officer from that area that we’ll call Raymond. Upon calling him, I asked the awkward question of if he knew of any paranormal activity in the area. I was somewhat surprised to hear that he had personally experienced unusual things.
On my day off I drove down to the area just a little while before the sun was about to set and went to visit Raymond at his home. The reason I chose to go down at that hour was to get a feel for the roads and area in the dark. Also, if I was going to see anything, I assumed it be during the nighttime. “I came in the driveway four or five years ago and I got out, I’m going to get goose flesh here, and in that direction, I head my mother’s voice” said Raymond. “My mother died in 1982, wonderful lady. I thought to myself, ‘what on earth is this?.’” Several months later, Raymond had another experience, “I did the same thing, I got home from work and from the same location I heard my dad’s voice. I’ve got no reason to make this stuff up, I’m not a doper, I never drink to excess, but I heard what I heard.” These couple of experiences happened in Raymond’s yard, what he told me next occurred in his house. “There was a woman, half way down the steps and she had this beautiful circa 1890-1900s gown, it was gorgeous.” He said there was another instance where a shadowy figure appeared in his home very close to the steps. On one occasion Raymond had guests over and was telling them the story and got up and demonstrated where the apparition was standing, “when I showed them, they said, ‘did you see that?’ And I asked, ‘what?’ The light on the wall their was flickering when I told that story. I’ve never seen that light flicker since I’ve been here.”  

He went on to give an account on how his sister and her husband at the time who were both atheists had seen apparitions in their home and in their driveway, “the history of the place is that it was an old farmhouse that they had rebuilt and they checked the history out and the woman who had lived there had died of hypothermia and had froze solid in the driveway back in those days.” Raymond reported that his house was fairly new, being built in the 80s, and that there was no obvious history that would tie his home to some sort of troubled past event.
Raymond had also witnessed a UFO with a number of other people south of the Twin Cities years earlier, “it was seen by a number of physicians, three or four ambulance people and whole s**t load of kids who were running up looking at it. We called the Sheriff’s office and they said, ‘wait in line,’” said Raymond. “I don’t know the size because I don’t know how high it was. It was red, it was lit up on it’s own and I remember I grabbed binoculars out of the car and I looked up for maybe the most five seconds, then it extinguished.”
One other person we talked to from the area who had paranormal sightings is a young woman we’ll call Faye. “I was about 13 years old and I was sitting in my window sill. It was really late at night and I was alone just sitting there and I heard heavy footsteps, I looked up and this horse back rider was just a silhouette. He looked like he had a trench coat on and his hat was really long and had a flat brim. They rode up, they were maybe 30 or 40 yards away and they stopped for a moment. It wasn’t like they were looking at me but do you know that feeling that something is looking at you through the back of your neck?” Faye also reported seeing orbs of light around her home in the area.

As you the reader might be able to discern, all of these encounters seem to be independent of each other. What is of interest is that in our search we had the opportunity to hear a number of smaller encounters where normal everyday people experienced something that can not be obviously explained. Stories of paranormal encounters and sightings are common all around the world. In a story released by the Huffington Post on October 26, 2013, Peru officially reopened their UFO investigation department due to an increase in sightings. It seems that there is a lot more video footage and evidence of UFOs than of ghosts, but it’s not hard to find someone who knows someone who moved into a house and started becoming a believer after things started moving around without explanation and lights started turning on and off by themselves.

Perhaps what speaks louder than eye witness accounts and footage for UFOs and the possible existence of extraterrestrials is the technology of mankind. It’s certainly amazing to realize that around a little more than a century ago we were hard pressed to get a crude glider off the ground and now we can fly faster than the speed of sound, have stealth capabilities and can land a laser missile from an incredibly fast flying plane through a window. Going back into ancient times there are a number of things that humans may have not had the technology or resources to create. Two good examples come out of Peru. A fortress known as the  Sacsayhuamán is built of stones weighing up to 360 tons that came from over 20 miles away. The stones were cut with such precision that no mortar was required and not even a razor blade can fit between them. Another fascinating find is the Nazca lines that are essentially a drawing on the plains of Peru; huge drawings that span for up to 15 miles and are perfectly straight the entire way. Questions of how exactly spacecraft can travel such long distances and the exact nature of aliens interest in us if they do exist is still a mystery. When it comes to ghosts, what they are and why they present themselves is even more of a mystery.
As my several week investigation winded down I had the chance to catch a presentation about haunted places in Minnesota with Chad Lewis at the Duluth Public Library. At the end of his presentation, he was asked if he personally had ever had an experience and he had just one and it was not very exciting. I ran into a fellow newsperson, Billy Wagness, who has done occasional paranormal investigations, when I asked him if he’d ever found a “slam dunk or smoking gun,” he said, “no.”

Top Three Haunted
Twin Ports Locations:

1. Glensheen Mansion
The Glensheen Mansion, also known as the Congdon Estate, was built in 1905 to be the family home of Chester Congdon and was turned over to the University of Minnesota Duluth in 1968. Although the University took over the building, Elisabeth Congdon, the youngest daughter, was allowed to live the rest of her life on the premises. On June 27, 1977, Elisabeth and her nurse were killed and the adopted daughter of Chester and her husband, Roger Caldwell, were dealt charges for the murders. Roger Caldwell eventually confessed to the murders.
Tour guides will not bring up the murders while a tour is happening. Reports of the security system mysteriously going off for no reason are common and some members of the staff have resigned due to difficulties of being in the building. One maintenance worker was reportedly on a ladder when he saw a ghostly hand tugging at him, he quit soon after that incident.

2. Nopeming Sanatarium
It’s fitting that Nopeming means “out in the woods” in Ojibwe. This sanitarium for tuberculosis patients was eventually turned into a nursing home. Many found their end in the walls of Nopeming which is now closed off after some bad business deals. Former staff have reported hospital carts being moved around and visitors, from both before and after the close, have gotten their share of the chills from being in the building.  

3. Fairlawn Mansion
No one is quite certain why the Fairlawn Mansion, overlooking the bay in Superior, is haunted. There have been reports of people entering the mansion and being greeted by a butler who would get them started on a tour and then would disappear and make every one a little creeped out when they found an actual member of the staff and learned no such employee was on the premise. Reports of lights turning on and off at odd hours have only added to the mystery behind the Fairlawn Mansion.