The Ghosts Of Rosewell And Maple Syrup..

The Ruins Of Rosewell


Rosewell Plantation, Gloucester Virginia.

For those of you who have never heard of The Rosewell Plantation (link) It is considered one of the best structures built during the colonial times. Started in 1725, or earlier depending on which story you read, and home to the Page family for over a century. What is left today is what would be called the ruins of the structure, with four chimneys, a wine cellar and enough of the structure to give a glimpse of It's one time majesty.

My son Travis and I decided to travel to the Rosewell Plantation on what we thought would be a recon mission to just check out the area and see if It was possible to be on the property at night to do research into the numerous ghost stories associated with the grounds, and then come back at a later date with equipment and more people. We had no idea that what we considered an exploratory journey would turn into a very memorable trip with some very memorable paranormal aspects.

Our drive to the ruins was enjoyable as we rode along country roads with a house here and there along the roads, the fields of corn and wheat were like blankets on the land and the area was beautiful to behold. We traveled along a blacktop road till we hit a gravel road, the signs along the way point to our destination. Following the signs we arrived at the visitors center and entered the building and spoke with the very nice lady at the desk. A brief conversation would be important to something that occurred later in the day. I mentioned to the lady that we were interested in seeing the grounds and then we would be going to the Abingdon Chapel to view the tombs that had been removed from the plantation, when I mentioned this I also mentioned that I had read that the bodies and the tombs had been moved, the lady told me the bodies had "not" been moved, only the tombs.

A retired couple from Florida was also visiting that day and were inside the visitor center with us, this made a total of four visitors on the grounds, the lady from Florida said they had just been to the Abingdon Chapel and a man was at the chapel and had let them inside. Little did this lady realize this brief encounter with me by her and her husband, would most likely be one her and her husband would never forget.

We paid the $4 fee to go back to the ruins and got in my van and drove back the dirt road to the ruins. on both sides of the gravel road you will see large fields of wheat and then you drive into a a heavily wooded area and on your right you see the ruins sitting in the middle of a large open area that is surrounded by trees and thick brush into the woods. The area around the ruins is surrounded by fields of corn, and when you first get out and look at the ruins you find yourself pausing and thinking what this all must have been like many years ago and also thinking who had lived here and walked here.

It was a beautiful early afternoon and my son and I started walking toward the ruins, we walked between huge old trees in the direction of the front steps, my son stopped and said "Dad? do you smell that?", I stopped and smelled the air and looked at him and said "What is that? is that maple syrup?". We both stood there and were just baffled by the overwhelming smell. This was not a whiff of a scent, It was an extremely strong smell. We checked every tree, every shrub, bush in the area, we rubbed our fingers on the leaves of the bushes and we even checked the roots of trees for the source of this smell, the smell was only in an area that was about 20 ft by 20 ft. If you walked out of this area, the smell was gone.

We had no answer to where this strong smell was coming from so we moved on to look over the ruins. Visitors are given a map of the grounds and the map shows the areas of interest on the grounds. We looked over the ruins and then moved on to the back of the structure and then to the first path into the lush woods to the "Brick Ice House", we walked through the woods and found the large round brick lined hole in the ground and then we walked back out and found the path to the "Ancient Boxwood Tree". While at the Boxwood tree site I had the feeling that I was being watched, this happened several times as we stood and looked at the Boxwood tree. We ventured on into the woods, where we were not supposed to go, and followed a very small path into the dense brush. We came to the river banks and we stood and talked about how this was most likely the way the explorers had come to the area. We headed back and I took some photos and we turned to walk back out the path, as we did I thought I saw some-kind of movement to our left, I asked my son if he saw something move to our left in the brush-line and he said no.


Ancient Boxwood Tree




When we got back out into the open area around the ruins the retired couple from Florida had arrived and were walking around the ruins, we talked for a few minutes and I mentioned to them why we were there and told them that many strange stories have been told over the years about this place, a young girl is seen walking down the steps in the late evening and the sounds of slaves coming back from the fields have been also reported, I also asked them if they had smelled the maple syrup smell in the area we had smelled the smell, they said no but they came up on the other side.

They then walked on to check out the Boxwood tree and the cemetery and the ice house, my son and I walked around the ruins more and I took more photos and then we decided to leave, but this would not be our last encounter with the retired couple from Florida.

When we reached the end of the gravel road I decided to turn left instead of right to check out where the blacktop road led to. This area of the blacktop road was surrounded by fields of wheat, and as we drove along my eye caught something to my left in the wheat field, I stopped and looked and then told my son to look and see what he thought I was seeing. Jokingly I said "I think that is a crop circle". I drove down the road and turned around and came back to the spot where we saw the disturbance in the field, I stopped and we got out and stood and looked at the disturbed area out in the field. I will let everyone judge for themselves what this is, however, this certainly looks like other images of a so called crop circle to me. My son stood on the back bumper of my van to take some pictures and also try and see if an entrance path to the disturbed area could be seen, he could see none. I was not going to walk out into this field as It was someones crop and also, I'm sure, private property.


Strange Circle In Field



We got back in the van and we just sitting and talking about the circle when we noticed the retired couple coming out of the gravel road from the ruins, instead of going right to leave they turned left and drove in our direction. They pulled up and stopped and I noticed they seemed kind of excited. They both started talking and telling what had happened to them.

The ancient Boxwood tree in in an area approximately 20 x20 ft and is surrounded by dense brush, the lady was standing by the tree and her husband was taking a picture of her. She was leaning forward in the truck and telling the story and her face showed she was truly shaken. Her husband took a picture of her standing by the Boxwood tree and she said just as he did, they both saw the brush to their left part, just as if someone had walked out of the brush. She said she asked her husband if he saw that? He replied yes and they both started walking out as fast as they could.

There was no wind that day and the brush around the Boxwood tree is extremely dense and It would most likely take someone with a machete to cut through the brush to even attempt to walk through it.

The husband then began talking and he said as they were leaving they walked through the area where my son and I had smelled the maple syrup smell, he said with a wide-eyed look on his face that they had smelled it also and that he had checked out everything around that area and nothing had the smell or was emitting that smell. They were just as bewildered as my son and I as to what was making this smell and they were shaken by what they had seen in the woods.

We spoke a few more minutes and then a truck came along and we had to move long, this was the last we saw of the retired couple from Florida, but I am sure my son and I and the husband and wife will always remember our time at the Plantation. Four strangers in the middle of no-where having an event that would always be remembered.


We drove out of the this strange but beautiful area and back onto route 17 to the Abingdon Chapel, the connection with Rosewell and the chapel is the tombs of the Page family were moved from the cemetery on the Rosewell property to the cemetery on the grounds of the chapel. Upon arrival we walked to the chapel and entered the front door, a man was inside cleaning and told us to come on in and look around. He was as nice a person as anyone could want to meet and told us all about the church. He was a long time member and sang in the choir and also helped out with maintenance of the grounds.

One of the graves at the chapel is of a young girl, could this be the young girl who has been reported seen walking down the steps at Rosewell? As I stood looking down on this child's grave, I had a vision of this child coming down the steps to go play in the yard.

I told the man we had been to the Rosewell ruins and I mentioned we were at the church to take photos of the tombs, I also asked why the tombs were moved yet the bodies were left at the Rosewell property. He said "Oh the bodies are here, they were moved when the tombs were moved". I never mentioned that the lady at the visitors center had told me the bodies were "not" moved, they were still on the property, hmmm? so where are the bodies of the Page family?


Tombs Of The Page Family At Abingdon Church



Our trip turned into a very memorable trip, even though the nice lady at the visitor center said that coming in at night to film and do audio recording would not be possible, I still have not given up on trying to do this. The maple syrup smell could be from a natural source, however, as I stood smelling the air, I instantly thought of years ago as a child when I would stand and watch people make molasses with a team of mules and how that smell had this "old time" aroma to it, just as this maple syrup smell did. What ever that source is, It is not near the 20 foot area where it can be smelled, the event that happened to the retired couple, I believe, happened and they saw something that is unexplainable at this time. The crop circle in the field could have been made by some-kind of natural event, however, It was very strange to see and at this time I have no idea how It formed in the field. We will be returning to Rosewell and hopefully at night, I am convinced there is much going on at Rosewell, much going on of the paranormal type.

American Indian Festival Hampton Virginia, Saturday Sept. 18th 2010

Danville Kentucky Cave Of Mystery..1906?

DANVILLE, Ky., Feb. 10. -- Enthusiastic over the beauties of a newly discovered cave found by Irvin E. Parks five miles from Danville and two miles east of Perryville, Parks, Eugene Carpenter, George and Joseph Godbey, and John Mitchell returned this evening, bearing geological curiosities and five opossums and five coons..

Read Article Here

You can read this article about what was found in a Danville Kentucky cave many years ago at the link above. The New York Times article is dated 1906 and one day after the article apparently was posted somewhere. The actual source is not stated but perhaps it is The New York Times.

The article is in .pdf form and I also have included a image for those who cannot see a .pdf file.

See article as an image here

As to to the validity of this article I have no proof of anything. I have had this for many years and thought I would share this story. I have heard some very wild stories of the caves in the area surrounding Danville and the Jessamine County areas, I have always wondered if this story is a real story or another tall tale from the beautiful hills of Ole Kantuck..

Blobsquatchery! It is! no Its not!!!

" Yes, a picture of Bigfoot! Proof! You do see it don’t you? what? What the hell do you mean it is blurry? This is a picture of Bigfoot and this proves Bigfoot is real!!! I can see Bigfoot in this photo! Look at the coned head which proves it is Bigfoot! Look at the long arms and if it were moving you would see this is Bigfoot as it has a rise and fall to its gait from its mid tarsal joint! Also its eyes would be glowing because Bigfoot’s eyes glow but not right now!"

The above paragraph is depictive of numerous exchanges online between individuals concerning the infamous Blobsquatch videos/images.
I would like to welcome everyone to the wild and deranged would of Blobsquatches!!! A Blobsquatch is what you see in images and videos that are out of focus and blurry and just so bad you cannot tell what is in the image. The number of blurry out of focus bouncing vibrating videos and images one can find online with people proclaiming they are Bigfoot is enormous. However the vast majority are just hoaxes and not done as a malicious act it is just people doing what people do and in their minds and others they are just messing around and having fun.

But then again we have some people who actually believe they are capturing images of Bigfoot in these horrible images and videos and they become instantly outraged and insanely defensive when someone nicely points out they see nothing in the images and they are blurry and out of focus. Of course this does not mean there are not images that are out of focus and extremely blurry or video that is so shaky it is impossible to see what is in the video, that just might, maybe , could be an actual image capture of Bigfoot.

We also have self described analysts who break down these images and videos with very descriptive language and overlays of arrows and outlines and they proclaim what they are seeing and speaking to proves the subject in the video/image is Bigfoot. How bizarre! How strange, do they have no basic understanding of photographic analysis or video analysis? Do they have a clue that the images online are compressed with in many cases, different codec’s that degrade the image and only add to the distortion? Do they not realize you must have the raw data to make the best possible analysis of these images/videos?
I personally have no real issue with most of the people who post Blobsquatches but as for those who are just posting bullshit and wasting peoples time that are truly trying to do serious research, I would hope over time these individuals are not given a public platform to spread their crap.

We need all the information we can get to solve this amazing mystery and we need the community to work together as a unit to share information and hopefully one day soon we will all b able to fully understand this amazing creature that walks through our dreams and seems embedded in our souls..

Oh and BTW,the image at the top is nothing more than a picture I took of a wooded area, there is nothing there other than a bush , but then again? :-)

"This post was inspired by Todd Prescott and his diligent pursuit of common sense where none can be found!"

Looking for Ignis Fatuus in East Texas

A friend of mine and I went to look for the famous (famous in my neck of the woods anyway) Bragg Road Ghost Light a few days ago. For those of you not "in the know", Bragg Road is a road deep down in the forests of East Texas near a little town called Saratoga. Formerly a railroad line, the road is straight as an arrow and travels due north. Years after the railroad was dismantled and the county put the dirt road in, stories began to pop up about the ghost light. It seems that when traveling down this road, many people have experienced a strange light approaching their cars (or come up from behind) and speed right past them or over them. Some people have seen "nothing really" and others were so impressed (or disturbed) by the sighting that they've said it's made them rethink their perspective on reality. A friend of the person who went with me said that he couldn't stop thinking about it for two weeks.

The legend goes that it's the lantern of a railway brakeman who lost his head after the train rolled over him. I'm sure you know the rest. Yep, the light is him looking for his head. Other legends range from the light being that of a phantom hunter lost in the woods, murdered Mexican workers who were killed by their foreman for their money (there's supposed to be a small Mexican cemetery off of this road), the spirits of the Caddo Indians who once made this area home, and others...

No one's discovered what the light really is yet, so the thing is still a mystery today. In addition to this mysterious light, other strange phenomena has been experienced on this road. These things include missing time, disorientation, compasses spinning wildly, eerie silence when there should be crickets and other swamp critters heard, and even sightings of ol' Bigfoot himself.

Probably a mile after we entered the eight mile long dirt road, we see our first light. After a little ways up the road, we discover that it's just a car load of teenagers. Further down the road, another light pops up behind us. We suspected it was the teenagers behind us, so we didn't bother stopping to wait for the light to zoom past us like it's supposed to. Even further down, another light. This one turned out to be someone on a four-wheeler who thought he'd park beyond the treeline next to the road so we wouldn't see him. Once almost to the end of the road, yet another light appeared behind us. Again, we suspect the four-wheeler or more teenagers. We arrived to the end of the road, turned around, and headed back. Yep, there were the last set of "lights": a group of teens standing around their truck in one of the many pull-off spots on the road made so people could park and wait for the light while listening to the sounds of the Big Thicket. As we began to make our way out, we see one last light almost at the halfway point down the road.

"Maybe this is it", we hoped. So we stopped our car and began looking, watching it closely. It moved! Not forward, but side to side. Maybe the four-wheeler guy is playing tricks on us by driving all over the road? Hehehe.. We'll just turn our lights off and drive a little closer to play with him. "He's gonna sh*t bricks when we turn our lights back on and we're a couple hundred yards closer". When I turned the lights off though, the light we were looking at was gone.

We knew what that normally meant. The "light" that we spotted was not giving off light, but reflecting ours. "It's something reflective that someone put out there to catch wind and move and fool people", we figured. So we turned our lights on and kept driving slowly. We're gonna solve this particular mystery. We'd stop every now and then and watch it. Still, it would move around and even get closer. When killing the lights, it again disappeared. After driving slowly for almost a quarter of a mile, this light turns into two lights. Green ones. Then we start to see a form around it. Something/someone is there! It's time to roll the windows up. After getting a little closer, our strange shape with two reflectors made itself known. It turned out to be a very large bobcat walking around in the road. A bobcat that we started seeing from about a quarter of a mile away.

We never saw the famous ghost light of Bragg Road, but that doesn't mean it's not there. I'm sure that if a die-hard skeptic were with us, the mystery would have been solved. "Well, that's it. It's just animals or people in vehicles", they would proudly proclaim. And then I would proclaim how it's a little hard for animals or vehicles to zoom past you or over the roof of your car while wearing nothing but a bluish light, as many credible witnesses have reported.

This story doesn't have anything to do with cryptozoology (though it does mention Bigfoot). It's just a little true tale written up to show that sometimes all is not what it seems. Philip's blog page is titled "Strange is normal". But sometimes, normal can be pretty strange too.

Sasquatch Can You Hear Me?

How does Sasquatch remain so elusive? After all these years and after all the people who chase the illusive one come up empty handed, how could this creature remain un-captured? We have very sophisticated equipment for detecting biological forms from their heat signature. We have the ability to not be within miles of the target subject. All these magical tools and Ole Sas still remains untouched and studied hands on.

From countless reports we have what seems to be a consensus that Sasquatch is not inclined to seek out humans and try to hug them or shake their hands, is this a creature of curiosity? Absolutely, have interactions taken place between humans and Sasquatch, absolutely. But overall the data would seem to say that in most cases Sasquatch just seems to vanish into the brush and is gone. How does anything be so elusive? Could it be that like other creatures it has senses that let it know we are near and using them it just slips away and moves on?

Ethology is the study of animal behavior. And in most cases those who study this field focus on animal processes rather than the animal itself. Many of you might have heard the story of Oscar the cat. Oscar would wander through a facility for dementia patients and when someone was in the process of dying, Oscar would get on their bed and sit and purr until they passed and then he would leave the room. What sense does Oscar have that tells him this person is dying? What of the many cases of animals somehow getting separated from their families by thousands of miles and somehow finding their way home? And when we talk about animals amazing sense of smell we can only try to understand just how important it is in their very existence. Some say Oscar uses his sense of smell to detect something that a dying body produces, or he uses his hearing to actually hear organs shutting down, or could it be that Oscar and other animals are tuned to life itself? Can they feel and sense the very being of life? I have a friend who is a hospice nurse and she has mentioned how a persons pet acts at the time of passing, without question, animals can sense when a person is dying.
It has been speculated that humans once had senses much more keen and powerful than we do now and we could sense events before they happened but we have lost these abilities and we have evolved into the creature we are today, dumbed down and our senses numbed by our propensity to be chemically enhanced even when we do not know we are.

I often have thought about the reports of people walking up on Sasquatch and being very close in encounters and if Sasquatch is also becoming less sensitive to its surrounding due to the poisoning of our water and air and food.

So how does this all relate to our friend Sasquatch, it relates on every level when trying to understand the illusiveness of this grand animal. Hyper smell? Hyper hearing? An unusual super sense of vibration? We do not know the answer to these questions but we do know that Like Oscar, animals have abilities in their senses that are far beyond what we have. But when discussing Sasquatch’s seemingly amazing ability to be out of sight where we think it should be in sight, maybe it is as simple as it is just a creature who can just do so..

NiteCallers Radio Show 7/1/10

Tonight, Sunday August 1st, I will be the guest on the radio show “NiteCallers”. This will be a two hour show starting at 7 PM EST.
The chat room will be available to use during the show and maybe even a few calls to ask questions. I look forward to this show and everyone will have a great time as we discuss Sasquatch and all things Squatch..

I look forward to seeing everyone and having a great discussion..

The link below will take you to the website for the show tonight at 7 PM EST:

Blogtalkradio.com/NiteCallers

You can visit the links below to view the promo for tonight’s show:

YouTube NiteCallers
MySpace Nitecallers