The Setting
West-Central Oklahoma, El Reno
The OKCGC/PRG was invited to investigate historic Fort Reno along with PROS and MIST groups. PROS met at the site around 7pm to conduct a tour of the facility and explain some of the paranormal activity that was picked up. Ed and Jeremy went separately in their own vehicle. Erik, Laura, and Logan rode together in the blazer. Although it took us a few hours more that we expected due to circumstances beyond our control, we arrived at Fort Reno at 9:30pm. Jeremy and Ed were waiting in the visitors center for us to arrive. We talked briefly to see who was there and where they were. Jeremy explained they were still on the tour and would arrive back shortly. I briefly explained the layout of the fort and which buildings we would/wouldn't have access to. The building layout was as follows:
Building 1 - Visitors Center
Building 2 - Officers Quarters
Building 3 - Commanding Officers Quarters
Building 4 - Victorian Officers Quarters
Building 5 - Adjuntant's Office
Building 6 - Chapel
Building 7 & 8 - Mess Hall/Kitchen Quarters (No Access)
Building 9 - Guard House
Building 10 - Commissary Building
The Cemetery
The History
A military camp in 1874 was established as a military post in 1875. Construction of permanant buildings began in 1876. The fort's purpose was to help keep peace, and ease the transition from Indian Territory to Individual farms and ranches. Troops from the fort help oversee the great land run of 1889.
During World War II a POW camp was established on the eastern edge of the fort. More than 1000 Germans captured in Northern Africa were housed at the camp, and hired out as laborers.
The Team
Erik & Laura (OKCGC)
Ed & Jeremy (OKCGC)
Logan (OKCGC)
Ron & Lisa (PROS)
James (PROS)
Michelle and Lindsey (MIST)
The Equipment
DCR-TRV520 Sony Digital Nightshot camcorder
Sony Digital Nightshot camcorder
Sony Hi8 Nightshot camcorder
Digital audio recorders
Analog audio recorders
Hp318 Digital Still camera
Digital Still cameras
2 Gaussmaster EMF meters
Magnometer EMF meters
GhostMeter EMF meters
IR non contact Thermal
PT100 Temp probe
1 EMF array meters
Data
Once all teams were present and accounted for we talked briefly and then had a short meeting to discuss teams and how we were going to conduct the sweeps. Basically we agreed that there would be 3 teams. Team 1 was OKCGC (Erik, Logan, Laura, Jeremy, and Ed) Team 2 and Team 3 had a mix of PRO/MIST folks. It was agreed that team 1 would start and go down in order of number then another team would follow shortly after and then the third. We (Team 1) prepared for our sweeps by getting our equipment together. We headed off to our first building (2) and swept the bottom and top floors for EMF and Temperature.
We then headed off to our next building (3). When we arrived though the basement, some members felt a little uncomfortable about the basement. We then headed upstairs to the first floor. Logan noticed what appeared to be flashes in the windows like someone was taking pictures. Logan radioed the teams to see if anyone was outside. It appeared that one team (Team 3) decided to get out of sequential order and jump ahead of the buffet line. With that mystery cleared up, we proceeded.
As we looked around, we couldn’t believe what we saw. The floor in almost every room was covered in Bones! They appeared to be bird bones from the carcass remains of birds we found throughout the house along with an armadillo and owl that lay dead on the floor. We couldn’t understand what could have killed all of these birds. A toxic? A poison? We were very careful about what we touched incase there was a trace of it still there.
We stepped through the bones on the first and second floor sweeping for Temps and EMF. We made our way back into the basement to have one last look around. The basement again had an uncomfortable atmosphere to it. We decided it was time to proceed to the next house. Team 3 was still in the building so Logan took it upon himself to radio headquarters and instructs them not to send anyone in the building until we completed the sweep. Until then we skipped building 4 and went to building 5. We conducted the sweep of the building with no anomalies.
We headed back to the Victorian house (4) just as team 3 was exiting the building. Talk about awkward…we had to climb in the window just to get in the building due to issues with the door. Once inside we started our sweep. Amazing old house this was. There were 4 levels including the attic and basement. We went though every floor and finally the basement. The smell of the basement was so bad some members could not go down there. A deceased skunk was in the bottom of the basement. The few that headed down there could not stay over 5 minutes before they headed back up.
When we exited the building, we headed to our next location which was building 6. Upon entering the chapel, a few members decided to rest for a minute while Logan and Erik went downstairs in the basement area which was used as a meeting area. A sweep was performed and all was normal. They then headed up and decided to head to the next location.
Building 9 or the guard house was the first real anomalies we experienced on the investigation. Jeremy and Logan were conducting EMF and Temp sweeps in one of the rooms and got spikes of 8 on the Gaussmaster. Temperature was normal for the most part. When the sweeps were completed in that building, we headed to the final building which was the commissary building. Another building with 4 levels only this one was MUCH wider. We conducted sweeps of the first and second floor with nothing out of the norm. When we went into the small area of the 3rd floor, we again experienced EMF spikes at different locations. We also heard strange noises from inside the room. The room had an uncomfortable feel to it. We decided that this is the area where we wanted to conduct a sitdown session.
Once we had finished, we met up with everyone back at the visitor’s center to discuss sitdowns.
We told everyone of where we were planning on conducting the sitdown. As we setup the Array, Camera, and Audio Recorder for sitdown, our guide (Raymond) had to step out for a few. Everyone was ready to begin. The session was for the most part quiet. There was nothing significant to report.
We met back up one final time with everyone when the sitdown sessions were over. We indicated we would like to take a tour of the cemetery. Raymond agreed to follow us out there for a short while. Everyone else decided to leave at that point. We arrived at the cemetery shortly after. Logan had about 20 more minutes on his camcorder and wanted to get some footage of the cemetery. After about 3 minutes his battery died for no reason. We spent about another 10 minutes in the cemetery and decided to call it a night. Everyone said their goodbyes at the visitor's center.
We then headed out from what was another great OKCGC investigation
Sweep Data
Officer's Quaters
64F
0 EMF
Commanding Officer's Quaters
59.5F
0 EMF
Brief radio activation, unknown cause
Adjuntant's Office
62.5F - 64.2F
0 EMF
Chapel
60F
0 EMF
2 Seperate Digital Cameras Malfunction
Guard House
58.6F
0 Ambient EMF
2 EMF spike on Gaussmaster to 8 mg - time: 0045
Commissary
63.5F
0 EMF
5 EMF spikes on Gaussmater from 6-9 mg in 3rd floor room.
Fort Reno Second Visit - March 11th, 2006
Members Present
Erik
Laura
Logan
Case Details
We were invited to reinvestigate Fort Reno by Ron from PROS. He invited MIST and PRG team members as well. The PRG did not show so we split into two teams. We made sweeps of the buildings we could and during the Victorian House sweep (Building 4) we did encounter some paranormal activity. Logan was using the Array as a EMF detector and it picked up in one of the hallways of the house. The spikes ranged up to 3 mil and disappeared mysteriously. Laura also seen a figure of someone standing near her. This all occurred shortly after Raymond heard movment in the room we walked into.
In the Officers Quarters (Building 3) we did have a few more things happen in the basement. We heard a dragging sound across the floor. In the Chapel (Building 5), there was a very uneasy feeling in the basement. We heard movement coming from upstairs. Stairwell was very creepy.
We did not encounter too much more than that. In the distant future, we will be revisiting Fort Reno for more data.
Movies
Fort Reno Investigation Video
Photos
Fort Reno Commisary
El Edwardo
Officer's Quaters
Dead Pigeons in C.O. Quarters
Victorian Officer's Quaters
Chapel
Guard House
Photo Anomalies
Face in Window
