The Sallie House
Atchison, Kansas
August 12, 2017
Website
We leave Topeka, KS and journey about an hour northeast to Atchison, KS to spend the night (and our 6th anniversary) at the notorious paranormal hotspot, The Sallie House. I heard about this place back in the 1990's from some show on Travel Channel, not the episode of Sightings that I would see years later. It's been on various paranormal shows and all the stories and experiences are almost always a little outside of the lines of the believable. I'm always wary of people whose experiences inevitably include being slapped, scratched, seeing levitating objects, or hearing demons yell "Get Out!", because from the paranormal shows, that's all they know how to say. Now our night was definitely active but nothing to the extent of the ridiculous. With that in mind, of all the places we have stayed at, this is in the top tier of activity.
Arriving at the train yard and checking in with the tourism lady, we get directions to the Sallie House and make the quick drive there. We are met by Eric Enzbrenner and he give us a quick tour and history. We already know the bullet points on the house so we basically ask about hot spots. Definitely the nursery upstairs and the basement, and not so much the upstairs back bedroom with the elevated closets. We chit-chat a bit about other places we've stayed at and he wished us a good investigation...but first we needed some lunch and Eric recommended Chuck & Hanks down on the Missouri River. Because of the activity reported in the nursery, I went upstairs and set up some stuffed animals in a circle. Allegedly they get knocked over or moved around. We shall see.
After eating at Chuck & Hanks River Shack and wandering the riverfront, we return a couple hours later. First things first, check the stuffed animals. Nothing. They were still sitting in a circle. This was only the start of the night, so we're not disappointed. The night is still young, maybe 7:00 pm at this point.
Even before we begin our investigation, things started happening. I'm on the couch in the living room getting equipment ready, loading batteries and so forth. Nikki is in the dining room sitting in a chair that faces the kitchen, which is where "Sallie" has been said to appear. She then hears a knock where the china cabinet is and asks me if I heard it too. Even though I'm not that far from her, I did not. Then she hears a knock from the downstairs bathroom door, which is in the kitchen, and as she looks, she said she saw it suddenly open about 4 inches. Looks like our night has begun. We close the bathroom door and try everything we can think of to get it to open, and it does not. Did an EVP session in the kitchen and got a couple things. One sounds like a quick laugh. Not a loud boisterous laughter, but more of a quick snicker. The other was just a quick..."A Sue" or "A Soup". Well, this was in the kitchen so maybe someone was hungry for some Campbell's...hehe
After spending time in a room and before going to the next we would go out on the back patio to take a break and have an adult beverage. Now before you say that because we had a few beers throughout the night, that would account to why we think we got activity...even drinking a case a beer each would not explain us both experiencing the same thing at the same time what would occur later.
Figuring we would start downstairs and work our way up, we get ready to do the living room. Before that, I was trying to figure out what light switches by the front door turned on what lights. One of them was the porch light and when in the on position it actually turns on a motion sensor for the porch light. Initially it didn't turn on, but when I opened the front door it did and a few minutes later it turned off. I left it "on" so that if anyone walked up to the house it would come on and we would know someone or group of someones is nosing around. This was a little before 9:00 pm and I'm glad I set the motion sensor because as we are about to start doing an EVP session in the living room, the porch light lit up and we could hear people talking outside. We did have the blinds closed but could hear them walking around and could see them trying to look in the front window. Apparently they thought they could wander on in, because they kept jiggling the door handle trying to open the front door. Hey assholes, pay $200 for your own overnight visit!
We go upstairs to the master bedroom which is toward the front of the house. We got a couple interesting EVPs here. Nikki mentioned that I am in the closet, about a 4'x4' area, and if there's anything they want to say about that. There are three syllables that sound like a gravelly throated "You the man", "Who the man?" followed by a knock. The more I listened to the sound file I started to hear, "That fooking man" as in someone in a pissed off Irish accent saying "That fucking man" and since a number of Finney's lived here, and they were Irish, that would make since. Another time Nikki mentioned giving me some devices to be communicated with, and in the middle of her sentence there is a preemptive, "I know", as in whatever is in the Sallie House has had this happen before and they know the routine on how to communicate.
Also while in the master bedroom, we had out the Ovilus app. Now I'm not sold on this because the developers of this app could simply preprogram spooky words and they come out randomly, but the following ominous words did come out: Legion, Telepathy, Prayer, Husband, Threat, Fear, and Strange. Not sure how much to make of that but one of the words was "Knit", and my wife was wearing a top with a knit border. Coincidence? Probably but was an interesting response nonetheless.
We take another break and head up to the nursery around 11:00 pm. Up until this point, we have not had listened for EVPs or anything like that. We have set out a REM-POD in random places near where we were investigating and it has not gone off. So we are still just doing our thing without knowing we have gotten EVPs. We set the REM-POD in the middle of the circle of stuffed animals we set up earlier that day. We turn on the Ovilus app and continue.
Ok, remember we are in the nursery, one of the more reportedly active rooms. On the Ovilus app, we get Child, Object, Measure, See, Ghost, Snow, Happen, Consider, Vern, Both, Tag, Inform, Next, Astral, Thus, Mistake, Quilt, Sail, Bacon, Phantom, Lamp, and Afraid. So read into that what you will. To me the one that stands out in the bunch is Child because we were in the nursery. The rest could be simply generic "spooky" words.
We did get a couple EVPs here. The first one, Nikki said I am goofy looking and if they want to play with him, meaning me. She accented the word "him" and before she even said that, once again there is a voice that preemptively says, "Him". About half an hour in we hear a little girl's laugh. This was not an EVP, we both heard this. At first we marked it on the digital recorder as being noise from outside, but I went to the master bedroom and looked out the window. The porch light was not on, which means that no one was in significant range of the house laughing to activate the motion sensor, and I highly doubt a little girl would be out front on the sidewalk in the middle of the night laughing, so whatever we heard most likely came from inside the house. Before winding down, I set up a toy tambourine to see if "Sallie" would knock it over. Nothing.
After finishing up in the nursery, we turn off the equipment which at this point we had started using the camera to video while we were in the room. I didn't figure out how to use the night vision, so I just put it on a chair or something with a flashlight shining forward. We turn everything off and head down the stairs to take a break when as I am about half way down the stairs and Nikki is right behind me, we heard the tambourine fall over by the sound of the little clinking cymbals. After a collective, "Was that the tambourine?" we head back to the nursery and sure enough the tambourine was on its side. So as it happens, we had the camera turned off and the digital recorder turned off, and when we leave that happened. I turn the camera and recorder back on. I set the tambourine upright again. This time instead of using the Ovilus, we start the SB7 Spirit Box, which I am not a big fan of. One, it is too noisy and covers up possible EVP and simple things like footsteps, knocks, or voices. Two, let us not forget that it is actually quick snippets of radio stations, so yeah you may hear a voice or two.
This time with the camera recording, we get about 10 minutes in and Nikki asks for "Sallie" to knock it over again and right on command, you guessed it, the tambourine falls over. I'm sitting two feet from the thing and Nikki is next to me on my left. It totally startled both of us. We did have quite the reaction, see YouTube video, but didn't have a "DUDE, RUN!" moment running away screaming about evil entities. It is quite startling when an object falls over on command right in front of your eyes. When this happened, the hairs on my arm were standing on end for a couple minutes. That never happens to me. Again, it wasn't a scary or spooky occurrence, it just took us by surprise is all. I even tried debunking this by setting up the tambourine later and walking around to see if it would fall over. If you have been to the Sallie House or have seen it on a television show, you will notice the nursery is carpeted. However it is not big poofy or shag carpeting that make the tambourine unstable and would fall over eventually. It is that short, hard carpeting so it does not fall over. I ran around the room, jumped up and down as high and hard as I could right next to and around the tambourine, but it would not fall over. I'm 6'1" and around 250 lbs., so if I'm not shaking or rattling the floor, nothing is except maybe a Mack truck. Before taking one of our breaks, I set it up and came back after quite a while and it was still upright. It only fell over twice. The first time when we left the room, and the second time we caught on video when asked to knock it over. I think that is pretty good paranormal evidence.
What would end up to be the final location of the night would be the basement. And around 3:00 in the morning, no less...the ominous yet nonsensical Devil's Hour. Yes, the location of the infamous pentagram on the floor where one of the former tenants allegedly did animal sacrifices and Satanic rituals. Would the Dark Lord poke his horned visage through the wall? Would we be scratched by the popular three-clawed demon that apparently leaves marks on people? Uhhhh, no. With that in mind, here is what did happen. To start with, yes it is a bit creepy in the tiny basement barely large enough to fit an A/C and furnace. So to get our senses heightened, we went totally dark doing an EVP session. About 20 minutes in, we're deciding to call it quits so we ask if there's anything "they" would like to say since we are leaving in a few hours. In the 8 hours of us being there, having the REM-POD going in all the rooms we were in, not once did it go off. Just to make sure it worked, I would touch the antenna and it would go off. So it was working all night, but the only time it went off and lit up was when we said we were about to leave, did they have anything to say....*BBBBEEEEPBUUUZZZZZZ* *flashylightsflashylights* for about 20 seconds nonstop. Nikki said she got shivers down her neck and was that whatever was down there, and we get an EVP that says, "Yes", which we didn't hear at the time. Finally Nikki asks if they want us to go upstairs and leave them alone in the basement. Immediately, the REM-POD started going off nonstop. After a few seconds, I grabbed it and turned it off. It was either a big coincidence that all night we got no response from the REM-POD, only until we ask questions about us leaving and leaving them alone, and it goes crazy....or, heck I don't have an explanation why it started buzzing and flashing. Yes we were next to electrical devices, the A/C and Furnace, but we turned those off at the beginning of the night to avoid noise contamination. The A/C did not kick on and send EMF or electric charges to the REM-POD.
So in keeping our word, we did go back upstairs and chilled for the next hour before getting a couple hours of sleep in the living room. We had a good experience there. I believe something happened to Tony and Debra Pickman back in the 90's. There does seem to be the spirit of a little girl there, after all we did hear a little girl laugh and we asked her to knock over the tambourine which happened. There may be something in the basement, because that is the only time the REM-POD went off when asked if they wanted us to leave them alone. No scratches. No random fires. No apparitions of little girls in dresses. I believe most people that have stayed here, hmmm...shall we say, exaggerate the experience and try to find demons around every corner because that is the reputation of the Sallie House. We got some pretty good evidence, but was in no way scary or evil. The Sallie House is well worth an overnight stay.
EVPs
The EVPs below are best listened to with headphones or earbuds. I have increased the volume on the section containing the EVP.
Quick laughNot the best by any means, but sounds like quick laugh in the kitchen. |
"Soup"This was in the kitchen. If it saying "soup", that would be appropriate. |
"That Fucking Man"Said with an Irish accent that the Finney's may have had. Follows up with a knock like they're pissed and hit a wall. |
"I Know"Given what was being said at the time, they must know how to communicate, and they're bored with explanations on how to do so. |
"Him"A bit preemptive or predictive, since my wifes accents the word "HIM" in the next sentence after this is said. |
Little Girl LaughNot technically an EVP, since we both heard this when in the nursery. Thought this was from outside initially, but nobody was around the house and sensors did not turn outside lights on. This came from inside the house. I shit you not. |
SighWe are talking about not having any bacon, and apparently whatever is at the Sallie House likes bacon and is saddened at our lack of pork products. |
"Yes"This is in the basement. After REM-POD goes nuts, wife gets shivers down her neck and asks if that was them/they/whatever, and we got this. |
REM-POD Activity
REM-POD in the Basement
We had no activity on the REM-POD all night in any of the rooms we investigated. We even double checked by touching the antenna and it would go off. That means batteries work, and it is working like it is supposed to. We were in the basement quite a while and nothing happens. When we're kinda wrapping up for night (3:40 AM), this happens.
