investigations and events August 2020 - OCTOBER 18, 2020

The Riverside Iowa Paranormal team had the honor of being a guest speaker/presenter at the Haunted October at the Hopkinton Library Event at the Hopkinton Community Center in Hopkinton, Iowa.  

We spoke for an awesome, attentive audience.  

Our Kansas City and Texas Chapter had an event at the McInteer Villa in Atchison, Kansas.  

John McInteer built this beautiful villa in 1889/1890 for his wife Alice.  In addition to being a private residence, it was also a boarding house for 25 years. 

Events at the Villa never disappoint and are always full of activity!!

The Iowa Junior Crew visited and held a small session with one of the team Psychic Mediums.  It was an experience all in attendance will remember.

On February 3, 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J.P. Richardson were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa,  together with pilot Roger Peterson. The event later became known as "The Day the Music Died", 

Our Indiana chapter had the distinct honor of being the first paranormal team to do an investigation at the Adam's County Historical Society (Dugan Mansion).

The Charles Dugan House, also known as the Adams County Historical Society Museum, is a historic home located at Decatur, Adams County, Indiana. It was designed by the prominent architectural firm of Wing & Mahurin and built in 1902. It is a two-story, Classical Revival style yellow brick dwelling with a hipped roof. The house features a semicircular portico, Doric order corner pilasters, and porte cochere. Also on the property is a contributing frame garage.

It has been said that strange happenings  have been occurring within its walls and that maybe ghosts or otherworldly  beings have taken up residence here.

Our Vaile Mansion Event was a part of the World's Largest Ghost Hunt 2020!!!

After being closed to investigations for over a decade, we were allowed to investigate a location recently featured on the Travel Channels "Haunted Towns." 

When the Vaile Mansion was built in 1881 by Col. Harvey Merrick and Sophia Vaile, the Kansas City Times called the mansion “The most princely house and most comfortable home in the entire west.” Soon after the, the Vailes had a mural painted on their master bedroom ceiling that featured a topless female and were shunned by the local Victorian community.

We investigated the most haunted location in the most haunted small town in the U.S., as featured on Ghost Adventures. 

Once an elegant hotel and spa the history of the Mineral Springs Hotel is filled with tragedy, murder, suicide and natural and accidental deaths.

In 1909 pork butchers August and Herman Luer planned on opening an ice storage plant at the location. However while building the storage plant, they discovered a natural spring. Because the water had a strong smell they had it tested by a chemist. The chemist consulted determined it had “healing properties” and recommended building a spa rather than ice storage plant. (The water actually had a high sulfur content)

In 1913 construction on the hotel began, which opened in 1914. The hotel was very luxurious containing 5 floors, marble staircases, artistic glass, and custom floors. The most impressive feature was the pools. It was said one of the hotel pools was the largest pools in the state of Illinois.

We investigated the oldest and most “grand” of the 16 legitimate theaters built in Dubuque, Iowa prior to 1900.   The Grand Opera House built in 1889/1890 cost $65,000 to build and had a seating capacity of 1,100 people, including 2 balconies and 8 boxes. There was originally a tunnel to a house next door which was used for people to change costumes. 

The Grand Opera House opened on August 14, 1890, with more than 800 people in attendance who paid $5 to view Bizet’s “Carmen”.  Ben Hur was the most elaborate production which brought horses and chariots on stage. The Garden of Allah featured a large cast including an Arabian orchestra, camels, donkeys and a sandstorm created on stage. 

Over the next 40 years there were over 2,600 live performances.  Several well knows stars performed at the Grand including: Jack Benny, Ethel Barrymore, George M. Coham, Sarah Bernhardt, Lillian Russell, Al Jolson, Ed Wynn, James Corbett, and legendary Pianist Paderewski and the Boston Opera Company. One of the most notable stars was Henry Fonda who fondly remembered his performance in Hamlet in 1923.

Known as “One of the Most Haunted Locations in the Mid-West”, the Haunted Castle House was featured on the Travel Channel’s hit show Dead Files episode titled: Night Terrors, Brumley, MO (Season 11, Episode 2).

The Haunted Castle House has a unique, at times terrifying historic past. Amy Allan of Dead Files referred to it as a “Pit Stop for the dead.” Not only is there a pioneer graveyard, and mass grave behind the house, after ground-penetrating radar was completed just months ago, it is believed that a Civil War camp is also on the property.

Our guests were a part of our live show Into the Dark with Riverside Iowa Paranormal on the Spirit Realm Network with guest host/investigator Aaron G. Thompson of Ghost Talk