The History – Built in 1899 in northwestern Oklahoma, the entrepreneur and visionary, Jacob Bartles, established the hotel Just north of Bartlesville in the new town of Dewey. He and his Cherokee wife, Nannie Journeycake, would also reside in the hotel as their primary residence along with their kids. The hotel would serve as the social hub of the surrounding areas for years to come.
The layout of the hotel was pretty standard. 1st Floor opened up into a large lobby with offshoots to a piano parlor, office, dining room and kitchen. The second floor were are private rooms. The third floor was used mostly as a community style bunkhouse, along a poker room located in the 3rd floor turret area.
There is also an exterior staircase on the rear of the hotel with access to the 3rd floor so that persons could come and go late at night without distrubing the other guests of the hotel. The late 1800’s and early 1900’s were a tumultuous time for the people of Oklahoma. Coming from being an Indian Territory into an official state, This hotel has its share of history, and perhaps more than meets the eye.
The Investigation – It was a hectic morning getting all the necessary preparations in order for our weekend getaway, but it all worked out as Andy had to finish up his day shift anyhow. We picked up Andy in Shawnee and headed north. We used the long drive time to discuss theories and ideas. I could tell we were all excited; this would be our first non-residential investigation since the relaunch. Before we knew it we, had arrived in Dewey, Oklahoma shortly after 7pm.
Driving through historic downtown Dewey, then pulling up at this great looking building, we could definitely get a feel for the days of the western era in this small town. As we got out of the car Vickie from TGI came over to greet us with a warm “old friend” welcome. We met the remainder of her team and the lady from the historical society, who was gracious enough to host us for the evening. Without hesitation, TGI offered a helping hand to drag our multitude of equipment cases inside, which would have taken us multiple trips to the vehicle otherwise. It was much appreciated.
After Andy prepared the steady-cam, TGI took us on a tour of the building. Each room was explained along with the history known. After the group headed up to the Third floor, Laura had stayed back in the west hallway on the second floor to shoot some photos. When she caught back up with us she asked if we had whispered or had heard the whispering. We had not, but sounded like a positive way to start the night. On a couple of occasions, Andy reported hearing live EVP through the Audio monitor from the steady-cam rig; we noted to verify this during audio review.
After the tour, Andy prepared the Flir for a thermal scan of the building. This site would surely offer its share of oddities for thermal, but we did not expect the internal wall paint itself to have such a high heat reflectivity. While Andy scanned the 3rd floor, Laura and I scouted a room for sit-down. We decided on the Room attached to the Poker turret. We placed 6 EMf arrays and 1 magnii EMf array at various places around the room. The remaining EMF arrays were placed in various other rooms that would also be monitored during sit-down. The Zoom H2 would be used for Audio data and the FLIR used in hand-held manner for thermal variations.
Besides a small unusual but also unchanging heat anomaly on a nearby saddle in the room, all other anomalies during the first sit-down seemed to occur just outside the doorway near the third floor stairwell landing, and some of the audible anomalies did appear to be in response to questions being asked. At that point I knew we would need to setup video surveillance in this area during next sit-down. After slightly over an hour, we concluded the first sit-down and began to retool for the second.
While the others prepared for the sit-down on the second floor, Andy and I setup the video recorders on the 3rd floor. We had planned to hit the third floor stairwell landing with UV and record using the the full-spectrum video camera, but the black-light bulb decided to break and become unusable. So we decided to use standard lighting in conjunction with the laser grid. While the IR sony was at the west end of the hallway facing the FS cam.
The second sitdown of the night would occur on the second floor. Basically the OKCGC team monitored the East-West hall while the TGI team took the North-South hall. We used 10 EMF array and the Geophone lining both sides of the hallway. At one point during the sit-down I’d heard a voice from a room behind us, but couldn’t be sure that it hadn’t been external. After a rather quiet hour, we decided to wrap it up and find us a hotel to crash in for a few hours before driving back.
Many thanks to the Tulsa Ghost Investigators (TGI) Team for extending a friendly paranormal research offering, it won’t be forgotten!.
To visit the TGI site : http://www.tulsaghostok.com/
The Data -
Full Spectrum Video Anomalies Using Laser Grid and Standard Lighting – Thrid Floor Stairway Landing.
Weather Conditions –
Temperature:
Mean Temperature 52 °F -
Max Temperature 66 °F 78 °F 92 °F (1962)
Min Temperature 37 °F 54 °F 38 °F (1976)
Degree Days:
Heating Degree Days 14
Growing Degree Days 2 (Base 50)
Moisture:
Dew Point 37 °F
Average Humidity 58
Maximum Humidity 86
Minimum Humidity 30
Precipitation:
Precipitation 0.00 in - – ()
Sea Level Pressure:
Sea Level Pressure 30.33 in
Wind:
Wind Speed 2 mph (NNE)
Max Wind Speed 10 mph
Max Gust Speed 17 mph
Visibility 10 miles
