Zak Bagans, Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin took us to Tuolumne hospital in Sonora, CA on this episode of Ghost Adventures.
This area of the country was “gold country” and the hospital was built in the hey-day of the gold rush, 1849. Zak told us there were two ways to get rich: find gold or steal it. He said mining was often a violent lifestyle. This hospital was at the edge of town, first a collection of tents and then the hospital building went up. It was closed in 2011 and was reported to be extremely haunted.
We were treated to some special effects right about here, but they were short and not too unpleasant. Zak, Nick and Aaron were the first ghost hunters ever to explore this hospital and they could hardly wait. A former nurse, Kristy Moore, said she had been on the third floor and felt something on the back of her neck and a bad atmosphere. She said she felt very uncomfortable. Sean McIntire, actor, was filming a horror movie in the hospital when a phone kept ringing during filming. The staff would find which phone it was and then it would stop, only to begin again the next time they started filming. The phone that had been ringing wasn’t plugged in! Ed, a former employee, stated that the ghost he often encounters could be a real “butt-head.” Ed said he feels the spirit used to be a miner. The guys laughed and said they’d never heard of a ghost referred to as a “butt-head” before. Ed had named the spirit “George” and when asked why, replied that he felt it should have a name rather than just being called the “spirit” or the “ghost.”
Even before the lock-down got started, things began to happen. Jay and Bill had set up the nerve center while Zak, Nick and Aaron were talking with Ed. Suddenly Zak experienced a sharp pain in his temple and had to actually leave the building. Immediately after leaving the pain went away. He pointed out that had this been a migraine, it would not have left so suddenly. They conducted a “spirit box” session and asked who was present. A female voice came through that said, “Jacob.” The atmosphere became extremely cold and Ed commented that happens a lot. They waited a half hour more, but got nothing further. They wondered if the voice was correcting them that it wasn’t “George” but “Jacob” that was the spirit haunting people.
There is still one employee; a woman named Rose who works all alone in the basement record department. The team visited her in her office and asked if she could search the records for someone named “Jacob” that had died in the hospital during the 1900s. She found two names and one of them had died and he was listed as a minor, confirming Ed’s supposition.
The team had set up a Kinect camera in an operating room, focused on a dummy lying on an operating table. This camera tracks and maps figures it senses in the room. Jay and Bill suddenly saw on a screen a stick figure next to the operating table and it appeared to be trying to do something with the IV stand and the “patient” at the same time. They called Zak and everyone became extremely excited. The team rushed to the nerve center to witness this amazing catch. It was very astonishing, to say the least, watching with them as the figure captured was replayed for Zak, Nick and Aaron. They could barely wait to get to that room themselves to see if they could experience the action. The figure was gone.
Immediately, Nick’s battery was drained as was Zak's. They grabbed the recorder that still worked and Zak tried an EVP session with no luck. Then Nick shoved the dummy off the table and jumped on himself. They watched to see if the spirit would return. They tried calling doctors, nurses, Jacob and anyone to get a rise out of the spirit. Then Nick felt something very cold, but still nothing showed on the camera. Nick said his eyes were watering and then sat up and said his stomach hurt. The figure had come back, in the same place and it appeared that it had just punched Nick in the stomach at the exact time he said his stomach hurt! Nick went to the nerve center, feeling sick. Zak tried to communicate with whatever was there. They heard a female voice say “George.” Then he heard the voice say, “Now, get out!” Zak said he felt goose bumps.
They kept flashing back and forth between Zak on the hospital operating bed and Nick in the nerve center. Zak was asking, “Who is there”? A ball of light went into the spirit box. Zak continued to try for about 20 minutes. When they were all in the nerve center, they heard a loud crash! When they rushed back to the operating room they could see that the monitor had been pushed over. It had been in a bracket and could not have fallen itself. Then the EMF began flashing. Was this the same spirit who told Zak to get out?
On the third floor, Aaron was tasked to find the padded room where emotionally disturbed people had been confined. After looked in several doors, he was able to locate it and went inside. He began talking, trying to communicate with any spirits present. The team in the nerve center watched on the monitor. The longer Aaron was in the room, the more he began to resemble a patient in his speech and movements. He got up and looked out the small window in the door and his eyes did not look like Aaron! He later said this was the most crazy, emotional lock down in his life.
This hospital still had sheets on the beds, fluid in IV bags and apparently had been closed quite quickly. Zak said it had been due to corruption. The nerve center guys radioed to say they saw something in the basement but that was quickly debunked as being lights from traffic outside.
It was almost daylight and Zak and Nick were ready to call it a night, but Aaron was still in his “cell.” Aaron said he heard footsteps and has the guys replayed the tape, we could all hear them! In the padded room, Aaron got an EVP from a female voice saying, “Please don’t help me.” He said for the first time he felt as if he’d gotten inside a spirits head.
This was the most paranormal site they have visited. They showed the film of the kinect camera having captured the stick figure to an expert. He said he had no explanation and that it wasn’t equipment malfunction or a “glitch.” It was an “anomaly” that could not be explained, something outside of our realm. Indeed!