Ghost Hunting Flashaholic

This past weekend a friend and I hit the Mansfield State Reformatory in Mansfield Ohio. Hours from 8P-6A. Once a short tour is given, lights go out and you are cut loose. To describe this place as large is an understatement, as there were approximately 150 attending, and you can walk quite a while without seeing a soul (at least a live one). The prison was built in 1878. It is attached to the :house, which is more like a castle.
Search for MSRP.ORG for reference. Anyway...
I perceived a need for 1. A very bright light for panic use, 2. A general floody walking light, 3. A lower level light for being discreet.
I lent my Fenix L2T and an Eternalight to my friend to cover the bases. All was good except I could not get the low level to work (again!) on the L2T. It was a great light in the high power mode, but we did change batteries twice. I carried my Peak McKinley Ultra (2AA tube), Peak Pacific Super Ultra (2AAA tube) around my neck, Peak Kilmanjaro High Power, and the same in cyan but Ultra Power.
Anyone that thinks the 5mm LED is dead needs to get a McKinley. The combination of flood and throw was perfect in this enviroment, broad and very illuminating. I used the Kilmanjaro at times I felt less threatened, and the Pacific Super Ultra to get the throw down the loooong rows of creepy cells. At times, I had the McKinley throwing off to my left, illuminating the cells, and the Pacific scorching a path straight ahead at the same time. It was DARK.
So I would say, if I had to go in again with only one of these lights, it would be the McKinley with out a doubt. I changed the Duracell 2650's just at 3:30 am before we departed. I think I'll buy another.

Wow. Now that sounds like it was loads of fun, and exactly the kind of thing most of us would love to do. I should see if there are any places like that in the NYC area. Thanks for sharing!

sounds like a blast - was this a haloween thing or all year round?

Dude, that's freakin' awesome. If I'm not mistaken, Mansfield was the filming site for the Shawshank Redemption. If I'd known they did tours and allowed you to wander around at night, I would've made the trip when I was in Cleveland during College.

Check out this site, it's a great resource for "haunted" and abandoned sites all over Ohio. There's even a section devoted to just ghost towns.

They do this (almost) year round. It's done until March (probably due to weather), but then 2-3 Sats. a month. Yes, on the Shaw Shank flick amongst others. A few props are still there which is cool.

Most of all, we had some very freaky things happen. My friend ran into an entity face to face. It's a wicked tale for another time. I'm going back again for sure.

xring said:

Most of all, we had some very freaky things happen. My friend ran into an entity face to face. It's a wicked tale for another time. I'm going back again for sure.

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An "entity?" Please elaborate!

Long story & I'm working now...if I tell it again, I'll get creeped out, and I have to go out in the dark...

xring, a buddy of mine went there a couple years ago. He took tons of pictures. It was really neat to see. They filmed Shawshank Redemption there, I think.

I eagerly await hearing more . . . .


Exactly the sorta' thing CPF'ers would flock to !


Should collect a State-by-State reference of available sites
where this is permitted.


Heck, it should be *sponsored* by SureFire or Energizer !

bring a tape recorder, tape some of the spirits, evp

Sounds cool. Great place fro CPFers but you couldn't have a CPF meet there because the place would be lit up like a xmas tree!

First rule of thumb before embarking on a ghost hunt is to watch Celebrity Paranormal on VH-1 first off, and then, make sure you DON'T use whatever flashlights they are getting supplied with. Awful, awful beams that are full of holes and artifacts. I cringe everytime I watch that show and they illuminate a wall with them. Very poor selection.

Burgess said:

Should collect a State-by-State reference of available sites
where this is permitted.

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Not sure if all these places are permitted, but here's a state by state guide along with some other countries too:

http://theshadowlands.net/places/

Lit Up said:

First rule of thumb before embarking on a ghost hunt is to watch Celebrity Paranormal on VH-1 first off, and then, make sure you DON'T use whatever flashlights they are getting supplied with. Awful, awful beams that are full of holes and artifacts. I cringe everytime I watch that show and they illuminate a wall with them. Very poor selection.

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Here in the UK - Living TV's 'Most Haunted' used to use rubbish plastic 2AA's and such. They've graduated to 3 and 4D Mags and the sound man has a INOVA T2 (my Hero!!). Also 'Dead Famous' use Mags and the Psychic Medium has an INOVA X5 or a Xenon Tactical of some description.

When I go exploring in the dark (Not quite plucked up the courage to go to too many Haunted sites yet!!) I always take floody lights for gen : IE ARC AAA-P, ARC LS1 CYAN and White editions, Gerber LX3 etc. And something bright and throwy for panic : KL3, Mag with 3W Diamond etc.

Good fun indeed.

Be lucky...

xring said:

This past weekend a friend and I hit the Mansfield State Reformatory in Mansfield Ohio...

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Hey xring, my brother & his family checked it out as well. Some security guard confiscated his Nuwai .5 watt 2AAA light. My brother knows he messed up letting the SG take it! He knew better! He said he wasn't abusing it and didn't want to make a scene, just wanted to see into one of the cells better and the SG played Barney Fife I guess?!

Anyway, he called the SG company up and they sent it back to him. I realize it didn't cost that much, it was the principle though (besides it was a gift from his big bro!).

So back to the reformatory - I heard it was really worth visiting! Unfortunately it's a little far for me to drive from Alaska just for that! Maybe next time I'm "in town" I'll hit it up!

Ref. Shawshank - great flick!

I live about two hours away from the Mansfield State Reformatory and two two of the three day tours offered back in september. We wanted to take the night (ghost) tours but they were sold out for the rest of the year. If intesrested in taking the ghost tours there is a form that needs filled out amd belive it cost $50 a night to explore, check their website as for the info and dates, they do fill up fast and sell out very quickly from what we were told. I'm hoping to try it and experiance something myself next year.

Their is a TV show from the SCI-FI channel called GhostHunters that did a segement from Mansfield State Prision, and was interesting to watch. You can goto their website Ghosthunters.com or the Sci-fi channel website and type in ghosthunters to watch past shows on their site, I think the episode was done the fist season, it give a descrition of each episode next to the numbers just look for the Mansfield prision.

They also recently done a segment in Moundsville WV that suppost to be a real spooky place to explore, i'm hoping to check it out next year as well.

I love to hear more of your story and experiance when you get the chance

Dang! That sounds like lots and lots of fun, please share when you have time and hopefully you took a camera with you.

AlexGT

Have been to the new mansfield correctional inst and drove by the old one. It sure does look creepy. Would love to go sometime and I'm not too far!! Neat story....thanks for sharing. You probably felt like your were in the tv show "scariest places on earth".

I have had the chance to go into two abandoned buildings here in Townsville.

First was the main abattoir which was being slowly dismanteled. We went in there to remove old light fitting's for sale/scrapping. The place was in darkness as the light circuits had been isolated and there were only a few work lamps dotted around the site.
The place stank with the smell of dried blood and there were still a few stains on the walls and floors. I remember the sound of other workers slowly fading away and the light diminishing as we went further into the rear of the site where there were some cold rooms with old weather proof fitting's we needed to salvage.
As we neared the entrance to where we had to work, there was a loud crash from around the corner (Heart tried to come out of my mouth) where a coldroom wall had been smashed away from the rest of the unit and it had landed on the ground with a great deal of force. Of course we only had one torch between us and it was very average to say the least. The tradesman I was with went to investigate and said to wait there (In complete darkness!). I was not keen on this idea and tailed him to where we found some other fellows who had been working on one of the other units. They started laughing when they saw the look on our faces. They promissed they wouldn't start dismanteling the coldroom we had to work in until we were finished (what a relief).
So we carried on with our job of removing the old light fittings in the still intact but dark and smelly coldroom. Even the old stainless steel meat hooks were still hanging from the rails in the ceiling, which just made the place even creapier.
I worked very fast that day and made sure we were out of there as soon as possible. I look back now and think what an excellent place to have been able to explore but at the time I just wanted to leave.
Anyway all I can say is that I wish I had been a flashaholic back then and that I had some decent illumination tools on me. Maybe it would not have been so bad if we could actually see what we were doing!

Great true story there guys. I guess we get all excited from the mystery aspect while in the dark. Boy with their torches. It reminded me of the good old day when we were young and there was frequent blackout nights. The fun we have at that time with just candle lights. I believe that environment give birth to flashaholism.