LOOP HARRISON REPORT
Home
News
Services
ABOUT US
Member Services
Meet Our Team
Ghost Walks
SpiritSketches
2013
Investigations
Paranormal Talk
PIRCOM Press
Stories
Gear Guide
Recommeded Readings
Evidence Extras
Photos
Forms
Links
Glossary

pircomlogo.gif

FINAL INVESTIGATION REPORT

 

Case #: 08-PS-001-LHM

 

Investigation:             Residential                  Commercial

 

Location: Loop Harrison Museum, Port Sanilac, MI

 

Date: June 14, 2008

 

Client: Cathi

 

Time at start of investigation: 7:00 PM EST

 

Time at conclusion of investigation: 11:30 PM EST

 

Total duration at investigation site: 4 h, 30 min

 

Investigators present: MPRC member Debi-Lead investigator/psychic

              MPRC member Deanna-Investigator

              MPRC member Jerry-Investigator

              Dee-Investigator

Description of location and surrounding area: 20-room Victorian mansion built in 1872, now home to a historical museum. Grounds include several out-buildings including a general store, chapel, and various cabins relocated to the mansion’s property for preservation.

Area history: The village of Port Sanilac was originally a lumberjack settlement on the shore of Lake Huron named "Bark Shanty." In the late 1840s and 1850s, the settlement gained its first sawmill, schoolhouse, and general store. In 1854, Bark Shanty's first post office opened. In 1857 the village was renamed to Port Sanilac, as it is in Sanilac Township in Sanilac County. Local legend attributes the name to a Wyandotte Indian Chief named Sanilac. Local landmarks include the Port Sanilac lighthouse (burning kerosene from its opening in 1886 until its electrifcation in 1924) and a twenty-room Victorian mansion (now a museum) built in 1872 by a horse-and-buggy doctor, Dr. Joseph Loop. The Sanilac Shores Underwater Preserve is a designated ship wreck preserve that is very popular with scuba divers.

Client claims: For many years, there have been myriad rumors swirling around about whether or not the Loop-Harrison mansion is haunted.  Staff, volunteers, and visitors have had many fascinating experiences in the house; the sorts of little encounters that make you scratch your head and wonder.  There have been unexplained aromas, voices, apparitions, furniture and object movement, footsteps, clock chimes, and music.

            In November of 2007, Port Sanilac painter, Joe Bulone, was turning 85 and his family threw him a fabulous birthday party in the museum mansion.  Family and friends came from all over.  Joe's godson from downstate, who had never been to the museum and knew nothing whatsoever of the stories surrounding the house, was standing talking to friends when he blanched.  Someone had brushed against him as sure as he was standing there, except, there was no one there.  This incident prompted us to contact Michigan's best paranormal investigating team to either endorse or end the speculation about otherworldly activity.  The team has now been to the museum complex twice; the second time to survey the outbuildings.  Their professional approach and equipment impressed the volunteers and made us confident that their conclusions would be reliable.

           Over the years, every time anything odd happened, we would say, "It must be Ada."  Ada Loop Harrison had died tragically in an auto-pedestrian accident in front of the residence in 1925 and we'd just always assumed she was the most likely and sole presence.  The paranormal investigators, when they arrived, had all commented that there was a warm and welcome feel to the house from the other side.  The ghost-hunters made it clear that there are many benevolent spirits within the walls - not just those of family members.  So, when you drop by for a tour to see for yourself, all you need to know is that whatever unseen presences may be here in the residence, they will be happy to see you enjoying the beautiful home that they love so dearly.           

Location history: In the early 1870's, Dr. Joseph Loop, Port Sanilac's original horse-and-buggy physician, decided he was going to build a house that would impress his wife's family and blow everyone else in town out of the water.  The Loop-Harrison mansion was the result. The Loops: Dr. Joseph, wife Jane, and daughter Ada had lived in a log cabin down on Sand Street (now Lake Street) and in a clapboard house, which still stands directly east of the Loop home.  Despite more than one hundred and forty years of cutting edge architecture and design, and many beautiful, incredibly expensive, new houses popping up all over Port Sanilac-even today-none of them can hold a candle to the impressive grandeur of the Loop family's Second Empire home.

           The house, with its French-inspired mansard roof and shuttered windows, took three years to complete and was built at a cost of $11,000.  The original white/yellow brick, unusual in this part of Michigan but common in eastern Canada, was barged across Lake Huron from Ontario.  Because this brick has a tendency to blacken and requires a massive amount of maintenance to retain an attractive facade, the Loop home is routinely painted a pleasing shade of yellow.  We are told that the house's distinctive chimneys were added by an itinerant Irish mason who just happened by during construction.

           The entire house, including the summer kitchen-a separate cooking area used to avoid heating up the house during Michigan's already hot summers-and the coal and wood storage room at the very back, were all built at the same time.  A separate brick outhouse/smokehouse burned down at some point and was replaced with the two-room Victorian privy that still stands behind the house.  The first two stories of the mansion are open for tours.  The Barn Theatre is the original 1880's Loop family barn.

           The General Store, which dates from the turn-of-the-last-century, was originally located just west of the old Platts' Drugstore in Port Sanilac.  When the Platts family decided to add a parking area to the property, Charlie Platts and his sister, Ruth Plats Glencer, donated the clapboard building to the museum.  The structure had been used as a bank, a feed store, a barbershop, and a storage facility over the years.  It was moved to the museum grounds in the late 1980's.

           Today, the General Store is half exhibit and half gift shop.  The building holds, among other things, antique merchandise items found in the cupboards of the house, a classic cash register, a gigantic coffee grinder, and the original post office box unit from the Argyle Post Office.  Old fashioned toys, vintage candy and local history books are among those items for sale.                         

Weather at time of investigation:     Outdoor temp.  71 deg. F

Dew point  64 deg. F

Humidity 71

Precip. 0%

Wind  6 mph WSW

 

Equipment used: 3 Digital audio recorders, VHS video camera, 5 digital

                             cameras, EMF Detector, Walkie-talkies

 

Equipment placement: VHS locked off inside school out-building. All other

                             equipment hand held throughout investigation.

 

Psychic/Medium perceptions prior to arrival: (This was a re-visit by

                          MPRC members, so no prior perceptions could be reported)

 

Psychic/Medium perceptions during investigation: (See Dee’s and

                                                                                     Steve’s reports)

 

Investigator personal experiences on site: Noises (pops and bangs) were

            heard by team in Banner log cabin. Dee and Deanna witnessed EMF  

            fluctuation during attempt at communication with a spirit in Hunting

            and Fishing cabin which coincided with questions asked by

            investigators.

 

Dee, Deanna and Debi all reported strange feelings of heaviness in the chest and air upon stepping in and out of Ada’s bedroom threshold.

 

EMF spikes occurred in dairy museum then suddenly went back to baseline 0.0

 

Jerry heard footsteps in Hickins Schoolhouse.

 

Investigation summary: Upon arrival team met with Cathi and took a quick

            tour of the main museum building.  Equipment was set up in school

            building. Teams split into two groups and rotated through all

            outbuildings. Investigation concluded with a return to main museum in

            hopes of debunking experience in Ada’s room. Feelings were not able

            to be reproduced.

 

Evidence review and findings: Shadow person caught on VHS camera in

            Huckins Schoolhouse. MPRC owns all findings and therefore, are

            not available here.  Class A EVP captured inside museum where a

           distinguishable male voice says "Get out."

 

Final summary: The Loop Harrison Museum staff has been very hospital and

            we enjoyed the opportunity to work with MPRC members on a small

            portion of their continued investigations of this property.

 

 

Report compiled by lead investigators Steve and Dee for

Paranormal Investigators and Research Council of Michigan

(PIRCOM)

www.pircomghosthunters.com

pircomwebmaster@gmail.com

STEVE'S TAKE

(from prior investigations with MPRC)

 

It was in March of 2008 when the group leader of Michigan Paranormal Research Center (the group I was previously associated with) asked me to go on this investigation.  This place was way up north about 2 hours from my house.  I got my younger brother to go with me, because he and I have many years of experience ghost hunting together.  We got to the investigation around 5:00 PM on a very cold March night.  There was snow still on the ground and the air was crisp and cold.  I stood outside for a minute looking at the main building of the Loop-Harrison Museum.  I could feel the spirit presence in this place already.  We were here for a scientific-based investigation so talking with these spirits would have to wait.  I walked in with the rest of the group as we introduced ourselves.  Then we took some pictures for the local paper.  By this time it was getting late and we had to start the investigation.  I set up the command center and got it running.  All I had to do all night was run the command center, answer questions, and take reports from the investigators.  I did have a chance to take a trip all of the way upstairs in the museum and take some psychic readings.  I immediately felt the spirit of a young woman in a white dress looking out of the window upstairs.  The investigation rapped up around 11:30PM and we packed up and left. 

A few months later some of our members broke away from the Michigan Paranormal Research group and started our own group called PIRCOM (Paranormal Investigators and Research Council of Michigan).  I wanted to get back in the Loop-Harrison Museum, but that was MPRC’s case.  Interestingly enough, I did find out from others involved in the case that a repairman was working in the museum one day and saw a woman in a white dress in that same upstairs window.  I knew I was right on about that lady in the window.  I looked for more information on the museum from the locals.  I met a man name Mike B. through a friend.  Mike had a first hand experience with the ghost of the lady that was hit and killed outside the front of the museum.  Her name was Ada.  Mike granted me an interview.  Mike laid out every detail of that night long ago in the 1970’s.  Mike said to this day he will never drive down the road in front of the Loop-Harrison Museum.  I asked in a joking voice “Never?”  Mike answered back very seriously “Never ever again!”  This ended our interview as I shook his hand and thanked him for his time that day.  I have posted the audio interview at the bottom of this page for anyone to listen to.  To this day I will never forget the look on that man’s face as he told me his scary tale.  Now please keep in mind that this man is neither small nor wimpy in any way! 

 

 

DEE'S TAKE
(Saturday, June 14, 2008)
 
7:15PM: As we toured the mansion on arrival, everyone remarked on the obvious atmospheric change as we entered Ada's bedroom in the upstairs of the main mansion.  The room was extreemely stuffy and felt very heavy.  The hair on my arms and the back of my neck tingled like I had never felt before.  There was a distinct heaviness on my chest as well.  As soon as I crossed the threshold into the hallway, everything felt completely "normal" again.  Three investigators all experienced this same phenomenon simultaniously.  We began to experiment by crossing back and forth into the room and back out trying to assess and verify the different feelings we were experiencing.  We then continued our investigation into the outer buildings on the museum grounds.  Following this part of the investigation we decided to re-visit Ada's bedroom one last time.
 
11:00PM: Upon re-entering the upstairs of the museum, fully expecting to feel those same feelings again, we all noticed that the atmosphere felt as normal as could be.  What could have caused this drastic change?  Perhaps earlier we were intruding on Ada's personal space...maybe we were feeling the residual effects of a nearly missed manifestation of Ada herself as she peered out of her bedroom window to keep watch over these strange, new visitors.  Maybe if we had been seconds earlier...