Date: October 12-13, 2008
Time: 5:00pm (Oct. 12) through 2:00pm (Oct. 13)
Conditions: Clear and cool.

Background: Fort Mifflin was built in 1772 along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, PA. The Fort - known as "The Fort That Saved America," was critical in impeding the northern movement of British soldiers during the Revolutionary War. During the Civil War, Fort Mifflin was primarily used to hold prisoners (both Confederate and Union) in the casemates.

One of their more famous prisoners was William Howe, who was held for a time in casemate 11 (he carved his name into one of the walls, which is now preserved behind lucite). Part of the story is that William Howe was being held for desertion from the Union Army and murder, escaped from casemate 11 - through what is now the ventilator shaft - was recaptured, held for a time at Eastern State Penitentiary, and eventually hanged at Fort Mifflin. However, further research indicates that perhaps his was more a case of self-preservation (he was extremely ill and unable to get medical treatment) and self-defense. At the very least, William Howe's story is more complex than one might suspect.

There is a lot of interesting history to Fort Mifflin and we recommend visiting their official web site for additional information. If you're in the Philadelphia area, it's definitely worth a visit. The staff is really friendly and the tour guides (in period costume!) are very knowledgeable about the Fort and the living conditions during the wars; make sure you take the tour.

Investigation Notes: There were several investigative groups taking part in the overnight event. Generally, we were divided into several sections and each section was allotted an hour to spend in an assigned location. As it was an overnight investigation, groups were permitted to determine their own break schedules.

As mentioned in the pages for our previous investigations at Fort Mifflin (June 2008 and August 2008), the Fort is located, literally, next to the airport. So every few minutes, a plane coming in for a landing passed overhead. This made getting EVPs difficult (and horrible to listen to later). The frequency of the planes did decrease from about midnight to 6am.

Personal Experiences: 

• Torpedo Pit: A dark shadow was briefly noticed moving in the torpedo pit.
• Blacksmith's Shop: All team members smelled a sweet floral perfume-like odor. It was primarily concentrated in one corner of the room, but then appeared to move about the room. Team members would no longer smell it, but then take a few steps and walk into it again. A sweet, fresh tobacco odor was smelled on and off throughout our time in the building; it was located mostly in the area of the furnace.
• Powder Magazine: A team member felt significantly colder on one side of her body. A surface temperature scan was done and it was noted that her left side was 8 to 10 degrees colder than her right (and colder than the air temperature of the room).
• Officers' Quarters (Upstairs): Cigarette smoke odor was noticed in the large room at the beginning of the investigation; the odor dissipated. The team moved into the very small room in the back. One member who sat in a chair by the fireplace began shivering uncontrollably. The team member found the shivering/shaking to be so violent that it was hard to walk away. After moving away from the chair, the member stopped shaking. We checked for a draft from the fireplace, window, and door, but none was found.
• Outside Torpedo Pit: Glancing toward the Commandant's Quarters, a team member saw a dark figure dart across the front of the building. Looking immediately back at the building, the figure was gone. We acknowledge that it is possible that it may have been someone from another group.
• Casemate 11: While inside the first cell, a team member heard footsteps in the hallway walking towards the cell. The team member looked into the hallway to see who was approaching, but no one was there.
  
  A flashlight placed in the middle of casemate 11 - between the two cells - turned on by itself when a team member asked if any presence in the room could do it. (The flashlight had been sitting untouched for a few minutes before we asked if anyone could turn it on.) It then went off when we asked if the presence could turn the flashlight off. We were able to successfully repeat the flashlight turning on experiment two more times. [Note: There were no vibrations or movement to otherwise turn on the flashlight at any time during the flashlight experiments. When a team member picked up the flashlight the second time, it was noticed that the flashlight was ice cold. It is possible that the flashlight may have absorbed the cold from the stone/concrete step; however, the flashlight was repeatedly handled by a team member in resetting it each time. The room itself was very humid and felt warm and the stone did not feel especially cold. (Base air temperature was about 60 degrees.)]
• Officer's Quarters: (Far right room used for investigators to sleep in) A team member was sleeping and was awakened by someone poking her on the right shoulder several times. She was alone in the room.
• Officer's Quarters (Downstairs): There was a faint floral odor that seemed to pass by one investigator several times.

Evidence:

EVPs: We have only a few EVPs here for review as most of them are either too quiet or very difficult to understand when played over the computer (it's much easier to hear them played directly from the recorder and while wearing headphones). We also got a lot of whispering EVPs, but are unintelligible, so we are not posting them here.

Click the graphic or the quote to hear the EVP in WAV format. It will open in a new window and you're going to have to turn up the sound.

EVP - PLEASE CHECK BACK...
COMING SOON!

Summary: Every team member had at least one personal experience during this overnight investigation and we were able to capture several EVPs, although most were not loud or clear enough to post in the evidence section. It is our opinion that Fort Mifflin has quite a bit of paranormal activity.