Gay City State Park

---

November 21, 2009

Location: Gay City State Park, Route 85, Hebron, Ct.

History: Located on the Hebron-Bolton town line, Gay City's 1,569 acres of parkland offer swimming, picnicking and an almost endless opportunity for exploration. The name "Gay City" derives from a now-extinct mill town that once occupied the site. Today only some tumbling stone foundations, several grass-filled cellar holes and a few silent tombstones suggest its former existence.Gay City was first settled in 1796 by a religious sect led by Elijah Andrus and later by Rev. Henry P. Sumner. The Gays soon comprised the majority of the 25 or more families who then lived in the community. The residents kept strictly to themselves, existing as distinctly separate from the neighboring communities. They built a sawmill along the Black Ledge River and erected homes from the lumber.
 

Gay City's fate changed with the successes and failures of several commercial enterprises. A woolen mill on the site 1/4 mile below the present pond was a successful business until extreme pressures caused by the various blockades during the War of 1812 brought its closing. Once revived, the mill burned to the ground in 1830, beginning the town's decline with the exodus of many people to urban factory jobs. Rev. Sumner's son built a paper mill which again revived the town somewhat until the Civil War, when many of the town's younger men were killed in battle. Soon after, the mill burned down, triggering the final demise of Gay City and nature's reclaiming of the land

Present: 4 members of Ct Ghost Seekers and 3 guests

Summarization: We arrived at 8:45 pm on a clear night with just a sliver of a moon present. The average temperature for the evening was 40 degrees F. We proceeded to the cemetery which is located just down the main entrance road to your right. Here you will find buried the founders of Gay City. We stopped to record temperatures and take digital photos as well as use the camcorder. There were no significant changes in temperature at this location and we did not see anything on the digital pictures or camcorder. From there we proceeded to the old mill site passing along the way the youth campsite where people were camping for the night. At the old mill foundation we stopped to take pictures, record the area with the camcorder and do temperatures readings. We also had with us a K2 meter and digital tape recorder, both of which were on. We did not get any fluctuations with the K2 meter or the thermometer at this location. Two of the members and the three guests proceeded to investigate the stone foundations above the old mill site. Presumably the foundation is left over from a house that was built when the city was populated. As the evening progressed we changed location to an area across from the old stone mill foundation. There is a small foot bridge crossing the stream that leads to one of the trails. As we walked up the hill we came upon an old stone wall and stopped to see if we could find any other stone foundations as this is where the town was presumably built. We did not encounter any other foundations, but did hear coyotes in the distance, so made the decision to head back down the trail and leave the park. We stopped at the foot bridge to take pictures and record temperature fluctuations. That was when the batteries went dead on the IR meter and the digital camera at the same time. Flashlights, K2 meter, and digital recorder were still functional. We decided at that time to leave as it was 11pm. As we were walking out I turned to see who was behind me having felt a presence, only to find out that there was no one there. Bob asked me what I was looking for and I responded that I thought someone was walking behind me. He also had felt a presence. We unfortunately did not get any fluctuations with the thermometer or with the K2 meter, however. Having experienced very little we put this down to our imaginations, However, on listening to the digital tape recorder we did find three separate voices that were definitely a child’s voice. Please listen to the EVPs and see what you hear.

As I was relating our investigation to another person that is interested in the paranormal, she explained to me that there have been drownings at Gay City State Park. I am unsure of the year and having researched the internet and not finding anything I will presume that it was in the 1980’s according to the account of my friend.

After listening to the digital tape recording, Bob and I decided that we need to make a return trip to Gay City State Park for a second investigation. We are not willing to say that this park has paranormal activity having obtained no other evidence than the EVPs. There were no fluctuations in temperature, no digital photos of evidence, no fluctuations in the EMF field, as evidenced by the K2 meter and no evidence on the camcorder on review. Although, I can say that there were no children with us on this investigation, the youngest person being of 18 years of age.

RETURN TRIP TO GAY CITY STATE PARK

3-20-2010

The weather is finally warmer and we are ready to investigate again. On our return trip to Gay City State Park there were 6 members and two guests. You might think this is a large number of people to investigate a small state park, but there are a lot of areas to cover. We split the group into 2 groups of 4 and we each had our designated spots to investigate. The weather was fairly warm, about fifty degrees when we set out on a clear, moonlit night. It was a quarter moon so not enough to illuminate the landscape or interfere with pictures. 

The first group went to the still standing chimney of a long ago house or maybe blacksmith shop. The second group set out for the mill and surrounding areas to investigate.

On our walk to the chimney we had a hit on the K2 meter. The lights fully illuminated but there were no fluctuations in temperature readings at this time. Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures. At the site of the still standing chimney we had minor fluctuations in temperature readings as well as another illumination of the K2 meter. At this time, we also have a mist picture. The mist picture is the only one that we were able to get that night and was in direct response to an EVP session. During the EVP session, we caught a low voice on the tape recorder. After review of the tape most members thought it said “I didn’t mean to kill him.” We believe that this is in reference to the story of the smithy that killed a young boy that worked for him. Is this fact or passed down legend? It is said that the young boy can be seen running through the woods with his head in his hands. 

When we completed our investigation at this site we walked down to the original mill site and joined the other team. We then proceeded to take the path leading to the pond as this is where we experienced paranormal activity on our last trip. Just above the bridge leading over the stream several members experienced “hearing voices”. Temperature readings with the ambient thermometer were dropping down into the low 30’s. There were steady fluctuations in the temperature as well as another hit on the K2. On approaching the pond we could hear the “peepers”. The sound of the “peepers” stopped and all was silent for a few seconds. All of the members were quiet at this point when all of us heard a very loud splash in the pond. On investigation there were no ripples to be seen in the pond and on reviewing the tape recorders we found that we had not caught the sound of the splash. Just prior to the splash one of the guests stated that her flashlight was not working and another member asked “What’s that smell?” During our walk to the pond two of the members also experienced onset of a sudden headache which dissipated as we progressed up the hill and then returned without warning. On review of the tape recordings we heard “Oh, Jesus”. Could the splash have been the girl that reportedly drowned at this site or an animal that no one saw? 

We plan to reinvestigate this site as we believe that there is paranormal activity here.

RETURN TO GAY CITY STATE PARK, APRIL 3RD, 2010

PRESENT: 3 members and one guest

HISTORY: see previous investigations

Once again, we went back to Gay City due to obtaining what we believe to be paranormal activity on our last two investigations. On a cloudy, moonless night we returned to reinvestigate 3 areas of Gay City, the fire pit/youth camping area, chimney site and cemetery. It was unusually dark at times during the evening, partly due to the clouds with an average temperature of 50 degrees.

We started at the fire pit/youth camping area with an EVP session and we were able to get a direct response to a question. We did not audibly hear the EVP but heard it the next day on review of the tape recorder. We were also experiencing slight fluctuations in the K2 meter with ranges from 0.1 to 0.8. Let me just say, that there is no electricity present in any of the areas of Gay City to have caused this. There were, at times, feelings of “people” being present and observing you when there was not. There were no fluctuations in the temperature. On review of the digital pictures there were a few “orbs”, but again, these could have been numerous things such as dust or bugs. 

We left the youth camping area to go to the chimney site as this is where we had experienced an EVP on our last investigation. We stayed at this site for approximately 45 minutes to an hour. During this timeframe one of the investigators experienced a headache which persisted until we left this spot and also experienced a “slap” on her back. Her reaction was quite surprised making her jump back from the area where she had been slapped and exclaiming. I won’t put the exact words in, you can imagine. She did not have any visible marks on her back and did not experience a burning sensation. I don’t feel that there is anything demonic in this experience, just someone trying to get our attention. Again, there were slight fluctuations in the K2 meter, the highest reading being 0.9 and there was a picture of 3 of the investigators with a shadow looming in the background. Was it something paranormal or digital photography? However, we had a full reaction with the EMF meter with all of the lights lighting at once as we were preparing to leave. 

We then moved on to the cemetery. Unfortunately, we did not have any experiences here. All in all, I think we have investigated Gay City State Park thoroughly and will not be returning. We have had a few experiences here but is it enough to say that the state park is haunted?