Paranormal Activity at Old Fort Mifflin

I know many of you have either seen or heard of Ghost Hunters' visit to Fort Mifflin (aired March 6th, 2008 on SciFi) ... and it was the first time we became aware of the existence of this place.  As many of you know from prior articles and comments, my son has seen a few "friends" in our home and can be very sensitive to others in other locations.  We went to Eastern State but didn't get to go on a tour due to the lateness of our arrival, but we will be going back.  After he saw this on TV, he really wanted to go ... and since he's 12 now, we didn't see any harm in it.  He's not afraid, calls them all "friends", and believes that if they wanted to harm him, they would have already.

The first place he got "the feeling" (which he says is similar to a low level electric field that settles on the back of his neck and can also make him feel light-headed and/or slightly sick) was in the bakery, which opens up into the wall of the fort and is directly next to the tunnel to the casemates where prisoners were housed.  Wesaid hello, we said we were respectful visitors, and that we appreciated their service.  My son stopped suddenly and whispered, "Mom, I feel it. Snap one."  So I did.

The Bakery at Fort Mifflin (Philadelphia, PA)

When I saw that I'd gotten orbs, I excitedly took a few more pictures, but I didn't get anymore. :(

After we got home, I got to play with the images a bit.  I magnified the orbs themselves to see if they were dust (which is unlikely since the floor was damp, the air cold and moist, and we were about twelve feet back from where the orb was located).

Magnified image of larger orb in the above photo image

When I first decided to magnify it, I did so because I thought I saw a face within it. Once I'd magnified it, I realized that what I was seeing was the texture of the floor and the wetness of parts of the floor behind the orb. The floor is packed dirt and some embedded rocks. As you can see, there are moist areas of the floor as well as dry areas. At the bottom left of the orb, you can see some of the wet earth behind it while at the upper right you can see a slender strip of the same coming in from the floor on the right.

  Small orb in the bakery magnified 200%

This is the smaller orb at the ceiling in the bakery shot. You can see the rough texture of the ceiling behind the orb. There is also what appears to be a raised edge to it on the left side of the orb.

We then decided to go further into the casements by heading down to Casemate 5...

The famous Casemate 5 where Ghost Hunters caught some interesting footage on thermal.

This is where things get a bit more interesting. Casemate 5 has had a good number of sightings. If you saw Ghost Hunters, you know that things do happen in casemate 5. When we entered, John told me he felt the feeling but still set off with Dad to check things out at the far end of the cell. As they got to the end of the room, I felt something brush my back, like someone was walking behind me to leave the room, but I didn't remember any other visitors coming in after us. Keep in mind it is pretty dark in there, so dark that you tap your foot in front of you to get your footing (the floor is uneven in spots as well). I turned around to make sure no one was there and then went the extra steps to go into the hallway to confirm that no one had left. I wrote it off as being weird, but I then went back into the casemate to assume the "mommy" role.  Oddly, I remember saying, "Oh, look at mommy's prisoners" and snapped this next photo. You can see a bright orb to the upper right, mid-way up, on the shot I took. At that point my son came back to me and said, "Mom, I don't feel too good in this place" and so we left to return to the open yard outdoors.

Casemate 5 ... Mommy's little prisoners ... and friend in upper right?

In this picture, you can see the darker part of the wall through the center of the orb.  I will post a magnification below, but it is so pixelated, it's hard to see this and you also can't see the exterior "shell" of the orb, which is similar to a cellular wall as in one of the earlier orbs.  Maybe if you stand back from your screen a little ways you'll be able to see it.

Extremely pixelated magnification of a small, bright orb caught in Casemate 5.

Hey - I have a treat just for you Ghost Hunters fans, though...

Here's the pic of William H. Howe's inscription on the archway in Casemate 11 ... the one in which Grant saw the face of the prisoner, presumably William H. Howe (the one that was executed on the grounds) AND in which they caught an EVP of a man asking for water when the cameraman took a drink of his water.

ALSO - one of the teenage volunteer groundskeepers related a story to me that was interesting.  He said that one day they were working in the yard behind one of the buildings, trimming grass before mowing.  He was wearing a hoodie while he worked.  He said that his hood was thrown up from his back to his head, as if a strong wind had whipped up and blew it on top of his head, but there was no wind.  He turned around, expecting that it was another of the volunteers messing with him, but no one else was there.  A few moments later he said he was shoved a little, enough to push him off balance, needing to regain his footing.  At that point he said he went to the other side of the building to continue working and became a believer in the ghost stories.  He said there was no way to explain what had happened there that day, even while in daylight.