The Haunting at Hale's Bar

I love the paranormal and the paranormal loves me. I not only search for spirits but I seem to attract them. My friends request my leadership when they want to experience the paranormal. I have many photos and experiences to share. This particular photo represents a spirit that I saw in an abandoned Hale's Bar Dam Powerhouse. I will write about the photo after I describe the building.

The building was completed in the early 1900s but would never work properly. Many bad accidents happened during the building of the dam. Many deaths occurred in the building. There were two men that died inside a wall during repairs. One was unexplained and the other was due to a heart attack. There were accidents or near accidents in the generator room of the powerhouse. Many felt that someone was pushing them into the generator’s motor. Two men met their demise by falling in the water and being crushed by the propellers of the machine. If you ask the people in the small community about the building. They will tell you to stay away. Everyone seems to think that the building is haunted and or evil lurks there. The reason that I and others think that this fact is true will be found at the end of the story. I do not make up stories to get folks attention. I just state the facts. This, of course, is things that I have encountered and experienced by sight, feel, and or a knowing. There are 16 rooms in the building and there was a feeling of presence in each room that was accessible. Some rooms were barred off, while others were packed with building supplies. The building contains 5 floors (counting an underground tunnel). The first room that you see as you walk in the building is as large as two football fields. The room is filled with Vintage cars and boats. Each vehicle is heavily coated with dust and dirt. -Three cars and one truck contained marked outlines of a person on the driver’s seat. Each seat and some windows had dark stains or splatters. Faded caution tape was inside or surrounding each vehicle. My first thoughts or knowing was that people had been killed or committed suicide in these vehicles. The thought did not bring fright to my mind. Instead, it created a curiosity. One would think that this would be the time to turn around and head out of the building, but this was not so. I needed to explore the rest of the building. As I was headed up the stairs, I noticed the infamous tunnel that was hidden by a manhole cover. The tunnel was access for children to get to their school that was located on the other side of the river. I went to the manhole cover and lifted the heavy lid. The first thing I saw was an elaborate metal spiral staircase. I could not view the stairs past two spirals because the rest of the stairs and the tunnel was filled with water. I will have to say that this gave me an eerie feeling. I placed the manhole cover back into its place and headed up the stairs. While taking photos, I kept in mind that the whole building was filled with dust. I knew the dust might create orbs in my photos, but one thing was for sure. The dust could not create the touches and feeling of presence that I felt in each room. I found each experience to be interesting but at times, I felt that I was not wanted in the building. I told the spirits that I would look around and then I will leave. I assured them that I meant no harm and was just curious about the building and all those that dwelled there.

The 3rd floor had 4 empty rooms that did not contain any items. The only thing I found interesting was a nook in the wall that contained a big heavy black phone and a sign above it that had the words “Emergency Only”. I stood wondering how many times that the phone was used and was interrupted of my thoughts when I heard what sounded like a loud drawn out muffled voice that stated “go”. For an instance, I wondered if I was hearing things. I decided to listen to my inner or the outer voice and head upstairs. The photo took place at the first stairwell that I came to.

The stairwell was made of heavy metal and had no handle or side on the right-hand side. The left contained a wall and the stairs ended at a wall. It was obvious that there used to be an entrance into the next floor at this spot, but someone bricked in the entrance. I had a feeling of urgency at this spot and could not figure out my feelings. I decided to take some photos of the stairs. I do not usually take photos of stairs unless they are uniquely beautiful, but I felt that I needed to take some photos. I took the photos and wrote down the description to remind myself of why the need and what surrounded the area. The main reason that I wrote down the information is because, sometimes I get home and think I have taken a photo of an area by mistake and will delete it. I walked until I found another staircase that would lead me up to the 3rd floor. I climbed the stairs and what I found, astounded me. The first room was a large office that looked (aside from the piles of dust) as if it was still in use. All the old furniture (mostly metal) was still in its place. There was a map of the whole building that hung on the wall. The staircase that was bricked up had a large x on the map. I walked to the location. I found that the stairs led to a room, but the room was closed off by bricks. The barred off room and stairs has left an unanswered question that remains in my mind. No one seems to know the answer for the weird renovation. I finished my search of all the floors and concluded without a shadow of doubt, that many spirits dwelled in the whole building. The reason why I and others think that the building is full of spirits and encountered many deaths during construction is that the dam was built on top of an old sacred Native American village and grave site.

The photo depicts stairs that led to a walled up and or blocked entrance way in the dam’s power building. There were no other human beings in the building or on the stairs. There were no windows in the room that had the stairs. As you can see in the photo, it looks like someone heading up the stairs. It also looks like a window or reflections of a window on the wall. It also looks like there was a balcony at the site of the ghost window. There was no balcony on the walled area. This was only one of the many photos I took that contained a spirit form. I also have a photo of a spirit person in the back of one of the vehicles of death.