My Visit To Haunted Grounds and My Spirit Bird

Do you believe in ghosts, spirits, etc.....?

I do-- but the average person doesn't, only because they have never experianced a paranormal experiance like what I did this past weekend. It happened in front of many witnesses....who were left speechless and shocked, some got scared and actually left the building and went outside. *giggle*

You see I visited the TIPPECANOE BATTLEFIELD AND MUSEUM, located in Battleground, Indiana, which is right outside of West Lafayette, Indiana....this is where the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe, took place between General William Henry Harrison and his soldiers against the Potawatomi Indians, who are members of the Algonquian Tribe which formally lived in the Lake Michigan area now known as Chicago.

Rumor has it that the grounds are haunted and that spirits will apear even in daylight, many paranormal groups go to this place at night to test their equipment or simply to do whatever it is paranormal groups do, and they all say it has much spiritual activitiy......ahhhh you think?!

Much blood was shed on this ground, from both Harrisons men and from the Indians, there are tombstones erected to honor the men lost in battle on the Harrison side but NONE to honor the Indians who died defending land that was rightfully theirs first. Many records dating way back state that the "Indians were left to rot where they fell" so needless to say their bones are out there as well as their blood screaming for justice and peace, a peace that will never come and a justice that comes too late to save their lost lives....if they ever get any "justice" period.

Many employees of the museum have journals of "strange" experiances that have occurred to them while on duty alone at the place from the time the park opened back in the early 1900's. I have seen them and will tell you more about them later, and you'll see why I waited.

Becuase of these "experiances" employees have had every imaginable "Holy Man" like a Priest, Bishop, Reverand, etc...out there to bless the place and pacify the spirits.  They have even had an "exorcism" to try to rid the place and grounds of the paranormal activities.....all to no avail.

And if truth be known--that place will NEVER know peace until those Indian bones are dug up and buried properly BY Native American Indians, preferably from their own tribe......but that would take too much work and force the closing of the museum and have the ground "torn up" so they won't do it and it will never see peace.  The very least they should do is have a Shaman or Holy Man from the Native Americans come and do a cleansing....but no that would draw attention away from the soldiers who are reverred and honored there....so they will continue to suffer.

Anyway as I walked along the grounds toward the entrance to the actual battlefield and before I entered I spoke outloud "I Come In Peace My Brothers", my husband looked at me like I was nuts but that's ok, he's a non-believer so he doesn't count....LOL.   And I entered...but as he [hubby] entered [you have to step over a small rail and gate]  hubby tripped and almost fell, I just laughed at him and said "See what you get for being disrespectful and entering with the attitude that they don't exist" and he just silently smerked at me as I continued walking on ahead.

I felt such a sense of sadness that I couldn't stay on the actual battlefield grounds for longer then 10 minutes so I told my husband we needed to leave and as we headed for the car he noticed that a small nature center was open and suggested we go see what was inside....I agreed and we entered the small cabin-like building.

Inside was every single animal native to Indiana--stuffed for our entertainment purposes--looking as alive as they use to be before they were killed either by accident, sickness or humans. they all looked so real that I took many pictures of them.....then I entered a back room that held more glass cabinets filled with animals and at the end of this room was a huge plateglass window wheer they had put a bench in front of so visitors could sit and look out into the backyard where they had built a small bird sancuary/feeding park.

I glanced that way as I took several shots of the stuffed animals and saw  several stumps scattered around and their tops overflowing with bird seed of every kind and many birds and many squrrels eating the seeds too......thinking it would make a great shot I walked toward the glass and as I neared it out of the blue a female cardnial flew at me through the glass and banged real hard into it, and she proceeded to flutter in mid-air in front of me chirping loud and urgent, ocassionally landing on the window sill and staring up at me as if to say "can't you hear me", then she would flutter in mid-air in a direct line to me and chip away loudly....this continued for about three minutes then I walked away from the window thinking silly bird...and resumed my pictures taking of the stuffed animals.

My husband entered the room and said, "What was that tapping noise I heard coming from in here?"  [he'd been in the front room talking to the park guide] I said "Oh a silly female cardnial was trying to tell me something but I couldn't figure it out, so I walked away so she would leave and not hurt herself pounding on the glass." He looked at me like I was nuts [again] and said; "Yeah sure, auha right". and he walked over to the window and looked out and saw just the usual animals already there but no female cardnial, so he turned to me and said, "I think you're imagining things-there's no female cardnial anywhere." I turned back to him and said "Well there was! Next time i'll take a picture of her so you'll see for yourself" and he walked over to me and smiled and started reading the placards attached to the animals in the cases.

Angry that he doubted me...I walked over to the window and out of the blue came the female cardnial and started all over again, her fluttering in mid-air at me and chirping real loud...I turned to my husband and said "Look she's here again!" he quickly came to the window and saw her himself, and said "What does she want? Why is she doing that? and Why just to you and not me too?"  I just smerked at him and said "She's trying to tell me something but I don't know what" and he again said "that's stupid, and she's just a stupid bird" then he grabbed my camera from me and took several shots of her standing on the ledge next to me in the corner away from him and she continued staring AT ME the whole time he was taking pictures of her.....he took four and I said "Give me that camera, I want to take her picture too"  [becuase he's a bad shot so I thought this would be my chance to get some great ones of her now that she was standing on the window sill resting] and so I took the camera and as I aimed it at her, my hubby was looking over my shoulder and said "Now aim right"---- and I clicked.........when I reviewed the picture----get this-----the bird was NOT there, it was an empty window sill. 

Shocked we both looked at each other, and I said "You see her don't you and he said "of course I did!" and I said "and you saw her in the picture frame before I shot right?" and he said "Yah, but I think you moved the camera and missed her on purpose" angry I said "NO I DIDN"T......you idiot.....she has been right there the whole time and YOU saw her in the frame and you also saw that she is now in the [reviewing] frame---gone----invisiable,  in the shot!!  Hubby turned to me and said "this is too creepy for me I'm out of here" and he left the room quickly.  I stood there and took several more shots of the female cardnial and in each and every frame I PERSONALLY TOOK, the pictures turned out blank, she was invisible in all of them.

I walked away from the window and she instantly flew off, disappeared.  I walked out into the outer room and saw that my husband was standing outside smoking a cigertte in the fashion he does when he's stressed or concerned, which told me the experiance scared him. The guide was sitting at the table reading something and I walked up to him and said "Do you believe in ghost?".  The guide [who was a grown man of about mid 40's and 6-2, 250 lbs] paused and stared at me and then said "Honestly? No. I have heard many stories about things happening out here, and the museum keeps a journal to record things , but I have never had anything happen to me or around myself personally, so I would say the answer to your question is NO, I don't. Why?" I said "Come here I want to show you something."

As he stood up to follow me I stopped at the threshold of the back room and said "First do me a favor and look into the room and tell me if you see a female cardnial in the window.  He looked puzzled at me and say "ok" then leaned in and looked and stood back and said "Nope, I don't see any cardnials, let alone a female one, why?"  I said "Follow me at a distance, and watch this.  As I entered the room nothing happened and so he followed closer as I neared the window I held up my hand for him to stop, and he did then, I walked towards the window and touched the glass and instantly there was the female cardnial fluttering up and down in front of me chirping her head off.  The guide walked closer and said "Wow, that was amazing, she wasn't even there and yet the minute you walked up to the window she suddenly appeared out of no where" I just smiled and said "cool huh" and he said; "Yeah strange and cool" and I said "it gets better-- watch this" and so I told him "I'm going to take a picture of her and I want you to stand behind me, and watch the film window of the camera to make sure she is in the frame, when YOU see her squarely in the middle of the frame, tell me and I will snap her picture ok?"....puzzled he said "ok, and came and stood behind me and watched over my shoulder the picture window frame of my camera.....all the while the cardnial is still fluttering, in mid-air,trying to get my attention.

Suddenly as if she knew what was going to happen next, she stopped and landed on the sill right in front of me and looked up squarely in my eye.......I aimed and then whispered "Is she in the frame? Can YOU SEE HER?" and he "Yeah, she's right there in the middle" and I said "Ok keep watching her in the frame,"  and I quickly snapped the shot.  I turned to him and said "Now watch this"....and I rewound the frames to that exact shot and the frame was empty, showing just the window sill......I said "Do you see her now?" and he goes "OMG, she's invisiable....but I SAW HER in the frame, how could that be?!" and I said  "Becuase she isn't a real bird, she is a spirit bird and is trying to tell me something but I don't know what?  And with a sigh I said, "So what do you say now?" And he [still with a look of shock on his face] said "I have never ever, experianced anything like this before, this is freaky, and spooky." I said "well now, when someone asks you if you believe in ghosts or if anything has ever happened to you out here, what will you say?" and he gave a nervious laugh and said "Well I can't say nothing anymore can I, and I saw it with my own eyes!!"......and he scratched his head and looked confused---poor soul *giggle*.

And as I walked away from the window, and the cardnial flew off and disappeared, and the guide said "Look the minute you got near the window she appeared, but the minute you leave the window she leaves too, very strange"  I just smiled at him as we walked out into the front room . In the front room the guide almost falls into his chair and says; "Wow, that was an experiance I'll never forget" and as I laughed, my hubby stuck his head back in the open doorway, and rolled his eyes at us and then leaves again.  The guide puzzled, looked at me and I smiled and said "He hates supernatural things and so he always leaves becuase he doesn't want to hear about them....and the guide laughed too. Then with a curious look on his face he said,  "Would you mind signing our guest book so I can record this in the journal?"  I smiled and said "No not at all," and I signed my name and thanked him, as he thanked me, and I said "take care" as I started walking out the door.

The guide suddenly says "Could you explain to me something? Why would that bird do that just to you?", I said, "I don't know, other then maybe becuase I'm Native American from the Apache tribe, and we believe in spirit animals" and the guide broke out into a smile and said "Yup, that explains it, thank you." and I smiling walked out the door. 

[Don't get bored now....it gets even better so keep reading....]

As I got into the car, hubby was already in it and ready to get the h e double ll out of there when I said "I want to go see The Prophets Rock", and he said "I don't know where it's at, go back in and ask him [the guide]",  and I said "ok"...and walked back to the nature cabin.  As I entered, I spooked the guide and he jumped, but I pretended not to notice although inside, I was giggling to myself...poor guy, will probably be jumpy the rest of his life when he's out here now, because of me *giggle*.

When he looked up I said "Hi, I forgot to ask you a question"  and he said nerviously "Sure, what is it?" and I said "Can you tell us where The Prophets Rock is?" and he gave me the directions, and as I turned to leave thanking him again, he quickly said "Can I show you something, real quick?" and he held out a book he was holding, and I said "Sure", and he said "After you left, I took down the journals and was flipping through them to see if anyone had ever recorded a female cardnial acting strange like this one did....and look what I found."...as he handed me the book.  I looked at the old, yellowed pages and saw that it was full of notations from different guides throughout the years, and he pointed to one and said "This one, read this one...it's the only one I can find of someone reporting a female cardnial acting strange". So I bent down to read the faded penciled in writing, and read:

"Today a female cardnial came to the window and started chirping at me, silly bird, she did that the entire time I was in the back room which was about 90 minutes as I had to clean and dust everything, then just as suddenly she disappeared. Strange."                                                         

 It was simply signed:  "Linda - May 1985".

In shock I looked up at the guide and said "1985!!!" birds don't live THAT long!" and he said "I know that's why I had to show it to you, the last time that happened was in 1985, and Linda was also a Native American, strange huh.   And I said "No not really", and smiling a knowing smile at him , I said "Bye" and walked out the door. 

KLH2008

Post Script: The following pictures are of the ones my hubby took of the female Cardinal and then what will appear like nothing in the next shots are actually the window sills of the pictures I took of the Female Cardinal----although you will not see her, I swear "AS GOD IS MY WITNESS"  she is there---somewhere.

KLH2008