Date: Friday September 18, 1998

Time: Started around 4:30 PM and ended around 7:00 AM.

Location: Fort Mifflin, Philadelphia Pa.

Weather: While it was still light out, the temperature was 82 degrees and with the onset of night, the temperature dropped down into the low 60's. It was a clear day and night with no rain, mist, or fog.

Equipment: Maxim 300si 35mm camera with auto-focus/auto-flash and strap removed, Keystone Easy Shot 500x with fixed 38mm lens, Kodak Gold 400 speed color film, E.L.F.-Zone EMF meter, Sony mini recorder, flashlight, Cyclops Compact Night vision Scope.

History: Fort Mifflin is a fort from the Revolutionary War that saw action into and past the Civil War. For a more complete history on the fort, please visit the website of Fort Mifflin. As for the ghostly history, please refer to Charlie Adam's "Ghosts of Philadelphia" book.

Those Present: Bob R., Lew G., Sharon G., Danny S., Nancy S., Jen J., Kenny B., Donna B., Rachel G., Andy K., and Diane (a worker at the Fort), and six Civil War reenactors.

Report: I showed up at the Fort around 3:30 with Kenny, Donna, Lew, Sharon, and Andy. We were able to go into the Fort at around 4:30. The rest of the group showed up at 8:00. It was going to be an overnight investigation and to say the least; I was very excited to be there. In an effort to make this report as clear as possible, I will outline my night on the basis of places like Sharon has done in her previous reports on the Fort.

Casemates/Dungeons: This was the area of the Fort where we stored our gear and was to be our meeting place and area to sleep. This was the first area that I walked into and I was in awe of the size of the rooms and the fact that it was in the side of a hill. I felt almost transported back to an earlier time.

At first nothing happened and I had no impressions of the area. It was probably around 5:00 when Donna and I went into the first casemate to get some of our gear. I was in one part of the room and Donna was about 20 feet away from me and farther in the room. We both heard what seemed to be a child's voice. We determined this based on the pitch of the voice. I heard it say "Hi, Bob" and Donna heard "Hi, mom". I believe that the discrepancy in what we heard was due to the fact that all my life I have been conditioned to hear my name, which happens to be Bob.

We check around to see if it could possibly be anyone else, but no one was even in the area. If it weren't for Donna also hearing something, I would have thought I was just hearing things.

Torpedo Room: This was a very small room that was east of the casemates. I placed my tape recorder in this room for a couple of hours. It was a small room with a hole in the floor that led to the river. It was used for defense of the Fort. I felt a little uneasy in this room, but I feel it was because of the extreme echo and the fact that it was rather small. I did not get anything on the recordings.

The Yellow Building: I call this the yellow building, because I didn't have the common sense to pick up a brochure on Fort Mifflin to find out what it really was called. This was a room that had a cannon and some barrels in it. I did not experience anything here or around this building.

Blacksmith's Shop: This is a little building that is located towards the back corner of the fort. I visited this building several times during the investigation. The only experience of note that I had was that I could not focus my camera in the corner of the room. This happened during daylight hours, so I don't think that it can be attributed to a lack of light. Nothing came up on the photos that I took in here.

Officer's Quarters: I had no experiences in these buildings. We did try flashing our lights in the windows of the buildings to see if the infamous lamp lighter of the Fort would come out for a visit. Some members did see stuff, but I was not fortunate enough to be one of them.

Kitchen: At about 3:00 in the morning, the entire group paid a visit to this area. We did this based on a story that one of the reenactors told us about when he lived there. He said that around three in the morning something would knock on the door and wake him up. We stayed there for about a half of an hour and did not experience anything.

Soldiers Quarters: We walked past this area several times and had no experiences.

Sallyports: I did visit the sallyports a few times. I did not feel comfortable at all in them and tried not to stay long each time I was there. I was even challenged by a fellow member to spend the night in one.

At first it didn't seem like a bad idea. The more I stuck around the more I did not like it. At one point in the evening, Jen, Nancy, and I thought we heard someone walking around, but we couldn't be positive.

Powder Magazine: This is the part of the report that I know my fellow investigators are waiting for. To say the least, I have never experienced anything like that night. It started off simple enough. I was sitting on top of the walls of the fort relaxing and talking to Donna. We were waiting for the sun to go down before starting the investigation full force. We were wondering where Kenny had wandered off to. It was shortly after that that we saw Kenny emerge from the Powder Magazine and approach Donna and I. When Kenny got close to us, we could see that he was really shaken up. I have never seen Kenny look like this so I knew something major must have happened. I will let him tell you that story in his report.

Needless to say, based on what Kenny had to say I raced down and grabbed a bunch of my equipment and Andy. We both went into the Power Magazine. Instantly, I felt that we weren't alone. I unplugged the only light that shined into this room and went to night vision. Instantly in the right corner of the room, I saw two orbs come up out of the floor. They seemed to be just floating there. I think it was at this point that the orbs knew we were there. The orbs proceeded to fly straight for me. Boy, was I ever excited. I think Andy could hear my voice cracking as I was telling him what I saw. The orbs just would fly up to me and then fly to the back of the room. This happened about three or four times. I then handed Andy the night vision and the same thing started to happen to him. By this time we were both excited. We kept handing the scope from one to another and the orbs would follow. This lasted for a while. We talked to the orbs and in the night vision, you could almost see them respond. They would either stop when we spoke or they would fly up to the person speaking. After a little while of this, I don't know if it was the excitement at what we were seeing or what, but I began to feel uncomfortable. So we left for a little while.

It was after leaving that we searched out Lew and Sharon. I was so excited I wanted everyone to experience this. Lew, Sharon, Andy, and myself went back into the Powder Mag. I could still see the orb in my night vision, but Lew did not see it. After a few moments, Sharon left to change the tape in their video camera. After a minute or two the orb disappeared and nothing happened for a while. Lew decided to go outside and take a look to see if the orb may have left the Powder Mag. After a couple minutes, Andy and I were sitting on the floor when we heard footsteps walk up the hallway of the Powder Magazine only to stop in between Andy and me. I thought it was Lew coming back. So I said, "Lew?" There was no answer. I then said "Sharon?" Well, there was no answer. Andy turned on a flashlight and we found that we were alone in here. The sounds that we heard were not generated by anyone in the magazine. I was frightened because I had never experienced something like this on an investigation before. It was at this point that we decided to search out Lew and Sharon. When we found Lew, he denied going near the Powder Magazine and said that he didn't see anyone go near it either.

After a short while, Sharon caught up with Andy and me. We went back into the Powder Magazine and I almost instantly saw the two orbs in the left-hand corner of the room. I told Sharon to take a picture and she did.

I was amazed later when she showed me the picture and it was a color version of what I had seen in the night vision. Again, after a period of time, the three of us had started to get that uncomfortable feeling again and we exited the Powder Magazine.

We were standing around outside, when we heard a sound like metal on stone. Needless to say that I got very excited. I put my night vision scope up to my face and I could see the shape of a person standing in the doorway of the Powder Magazine. I told the others what I saw. I put the scope back up to my eye and saw an orb that was above the door go shooting into the Powder Mag. I again told Andy and Sharon what I saw. They decided to go inside the Powder Magazine and I watched their progress with the night vision. It must have been about 20 seconds or so that they were in when Sharon came running out of the Powder Magazine. I was not totally surprised when I saw Andy close on her heels. What did surprise me was that an orb was hovering about a foot or so from Andy's head. He was starting to fall down and the orb was right there. It then shot off towards the sky and I lowered my night vision to see what had happened.

Andy told me that as they were walking into the Powder Magazine, he saw the upper half of a man in front of him. What really had me amazed though was after telling my story to Andy and Sharon, Kenny came down and told them almost word for word the same thing I had told them that I had seen. It was truly and amazing turn of events.

I only had one other experience when I was in the Powder Magazine. I was in there with Nancy and Jen. First we had heard almost what sounded like someone walking on stone with boots. We wrote this off to the fact that one of the reenactors was walking around. Not too much later, all three of us heard a scream. It sounded like it came from a woman but from a great distance away. We then went out and asked everyone outside who had screamed. It was then that we found out that we were the only ones who had heard the scream.

Much to my dismay, the rest of the night was pretty uneventful. In the morning, we packed up and called it a night.

Impressions: This was my first trip to Fort Mifflin, but I am eagerly looking forward to spending another night sometime if I am ever presented with the opportunity. I do believe that there is a lot going on here. I think with prolonged exposure to this place our experiences can only get better. We are having auditory occurrences as well as seeing what can only be termed apparitions. I would like to thank Dori and Diane for this wonderful experience and their openness to our work. It is people like them who may help us one day get the evidence that we so greatly desire.

Thank you.

Bob R.
PGHA member
October 24, 1998

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