Spring Break
The macabre side of Macomb
Sarah Zeeck
Issue date: 10/30/09 Section: News
A homicidal lunatic on a train, police officers killed in their line of duty and a flipped house. What do these have in common?
They are all regaled on Macomb's own "A Midwest Haunting," an experience set to chill the bones of tour attendees while informing them of the dense history Macomb has to offer.
Led by tour guide Dan Patterson, chief paranormal investigator of the tour, the event takes place every Friday and Saturday through the month of October, as it has since 2001.
"Garrett Loughlin started the tours," Patterson said. "He ran them by himself the first year, then brought me in as a tour guide the next year."
According to Patterson, Tim Weaver managed the tour after Loughlin and later handed it to Patterson.
This year's tour begins at Sullivan Taylor Coffee House and attendees travel across Macomb's Square to four locations. Moving to the historic McDonough County Courthouse to Lil' Stitches, then the Bailey House, and finally winding up in the Western Illinois Arts Center, Patterson spices the tour with bits of history from Macomb's distant and recent past.
In past years the locations have varied. Patterson said past
locations have included Top of the Town, Old Memorial Hotel, St. George's Episcopal Church, the rooms above Magnolia's and The Forum.
The tour is not just historically grounded, though. Because the tour is haunted, many different tools are used, such as divining rods, pendulums with hematite stones, Electromagnetic field (EMF), Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) detectors and a different form of EMF detector, a K2 meters.
"While we don't get to do much work with them, my personal favorite part of doing the tours is to get to do EVP work in the locations we investigate," said another tour guide, Joe Rickard.
"Normally, people wouldn't get to investigate places like this because they would get in trouble; I enjoy being able to investigate these locations and enjoy seeing those who come on the tours having a good time getting to do something they wouldn't normally get to do," Rickard added.
They are all regaled on Macomb's own "A Midwest Haunting," an experience set to chill the bones of tour attendees while informing them of the dense history Macomb has to offer.
Led by tour guide Dan Patterson, chief paranormal investigator of the tour, the event takes place every Friday and Saturday through the month of October, as it has since 2001.
"Garrett Loughlin started the tours," Patterson said. "He ran them by himself the first year, then brought me in as a tour guide the next year."
According to Patterson, Tim Weaver managed the tour after Loughlin and later handed it to Patterson.
This year's tour begins at Sullivan Taylor Coffee House and attendees travel across Macomb's Square to four locations. Moving to the historic McDonough County Courthouse to Lil' Stitches, then the Bailey House, and finally winding up in the Western Illinois Arts Center, Patterson spices the tour with bits of history from Macomb's distant and recent past.
In past years the locations have varied. Patterson said past
locations have included Top of the Town, Old Memorial Hotel, St. George's Episcopal Church, the rooms above Magnolia's and The Forum.
The tour is not just historically grounded, though. Because the tour is haunted, many different tools are used, such as divining rods, pendulums with hematite stones, Electromagnetic field (EMF), Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) detectors and a different form of EMF detector, a K2 meters.
"While we don't get to do much work with them, my personal favorite part of doing the tours is to get to do EVP work in the locations we investigate," said another tour guide, Joe Rickard.
"Normally, people wouldn't get to investigate places like this because they would get in trouble; I enjoy being able to investigate these locations and enjoy seeing those who come on the tours having a good time getting to do something they wouldn't normally get to do," Rickard added.
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