Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Members of the Iron County-based Michigan Advanced Paranormal Society (MAPS) gave a presentation Friday evening in the Calumet Theatre of their findings from a March, 2022 investigation of the theater and the ballroom. Their findings only refreshed the decades-old question: Is the Calumet Theatre really haunted?

CALUMET — The Calumet Theatre and the adjacent ballroom were the subject of a paranormal investigation in March, 2022, conducted by the Michigan Advanced Paranormal Society (MAPS). Friday evening, they were back to share their findings with the public.

The Calumet Theatre has long been claimed to be haunted, with many local residents reporting having experienced paranormal happenings while in the building.

“Typically, when we come into a place, we like to have more than a day or so,” said Kyle, who did not provide his last name, “but we were only able to come in here for a day, so we were really hoping to get some evidence.”

Jamie, another member, does not believe in things paranormal, as he admitted when he said:

“I am the skeptic of the group. I don’t believe in this crap.”

Jamie said one of his jobs is to go through buildings before an investigation with an Electromagnetic Field (EMF meter).

Electromagnetic fields occur in nature and from human-made sources. Natural examples include electrical charges from thunderstorms or the Earth’s magnetic field. X-Rays, TV antennas, electrical wiring, and electrical appliances are well-known industrial sources for EMF detections.

Jamie said in the basement of the Calumet Theatre there is a spot that registers an unusually degree of electromagnetic force, and areas with high EMF readings can actually effect people physically, mentally and in other ways.

Spending an extended amount of time within an EMF can cause auditory and visual hallucinations, heart palpitations, cold chills and can make the hair on people’s arms stand up. In short, he said, all those things that when someone is exposed to them, cause them to exclaim, “Oh, my God! A ghost!”

Those places that have no registrable EMF, gas leaks, dripping water, or other situations that can contaminate a digital recording, are those places that warrant deeper investigation, he explained.

For more extensive investigation, in addition to an EMF meter, Jamie said his favorite modern scientific device is a digit recorder, such as those on most cell phones.

They are used to seek what paranormal enthusiasts call EVPs, or electronic voice phenomenon — voices, footsteps, other sounds the recorder will capture, but are not heard by the human ear.

But while Jamie does not believe in the paranormal, there were five distinct EVPs captured during the investigation that he cannot explain or “debunk.” The EVPs were played for the audience.

The first one was captured on stage, while members of the team were talking. During the discussion, in the background, there is suddenly a blood-curdling scream.

Kyle said that the scream is what they determined to be residual, which is not a current haunting by an intelligent spirit, but rather energy remaining from a past event involving intense emotion.

The scream, said Kyle, could either be residual from a past play production on the stage of the theater, or was the scream from a murder that had occurred long ago in the alley behind the theater.

Another EVP captured, again during a discussion among team members. In the recording, the discussion can be plainly heard, when suddenly the recorder also picked up a woman humming a tune.

Kyle said there was one EVP that disturbed him in ways the others did not. That one occurred in the Theatre Ballroom, directly above the town hall’s garage that houses the firetrucks. That garage is where the bodies were laid on the night of Dec. 24, 1913, whose lives were lost when someone falsely yelled “fire” during a children’s Christmas Party. Seventy-three people were killed in the panic for the door that resulted from the false cry.

“Robert and I were getting to do an EVP session up in the ballroom,” said Kyle. Two EVPs were captured, one immediately after the other. The first one was a question, which Kyle believes was intelligent, and asks: “Do you know her?”

Immediately after that question, a second voice, which sounds like that of a young female, asks: “Can you save us?”

Kyle said hearing that second question gave him chills, “just because of where we were at,” immediately above the garage, which the team had not been allowed to investigate.

“I don’t think I’ve ever encountered one with two separate voices in the same EVP, like that close,” said Kyle. The first voice sounds like a male. “That was really weird to me.”

The third one was captured in the theatre when a team member, Logan, dropped the flashlight he was holding.

First, the flashlight can be heard landing on the floor, then the EVP, “Flashlight?” is heard, followed by Logan saying he dropped his flashlight.

Kyle said he could not remember where the fourth EVP occurred, but it can be plainly heard saying, “Get out.”

The fifth EVP occurred in a passage behind the stage, where a recorder was intentionally left on. A team member, when walking toward it, says: “Coming through.” Immediately following is a very clear response, a female voice, singing the word “HI!”

Enthusiasts consider EVP to be a form of paranormal phenomenon often found in recordings with static or other background noise. Scientists regard EVP as a form of auditory pareidolia (interpreting random sounds as voices in one’s own language) and a pseudoscience promulgated by popular culture.

So, while several distinct and audible digital recordings of voices other than those of the investigation team were captured, and played for the audience, it is up to the individual to accept or dismiss the EVPs as paranormal.

But as Rhonda, one of the team members said, “There is nothing here to be afraid of.”