Portland Sick House
Portland Sick House
May 30, 2010
Investigation of Portland Sick House
Location: Portland state forest, located between Portland and South Glastonbury
History: Difficult to find history of this site on the web, but hearsay states that this was a home for terminally ill people whose families could not care for them. Many investigations have been done on this area all with positive results, many people complaining of feelings of nausea and illness.
Findings: This investigation took 2 attempts due to the difficulty in finding the correct site. The area is well overgrown with bushes and trees and difficult to navigate as there are few landmarks. There are 2 landmarks that assist with finding the correct area, those being a stone wall and a very old, large tree, so you can imagine the difficulty we had in locating the correct place. If you decide to go, please make sure that you have enough daylight to walk in. It takes about 15 minutes to navigate the area and find the correct foundation. The directions that we were given were to find a stone wall and follow that to a large tree and turn right. Sounds easy, right? The first evening we spent 2 hours lost in the state forest. Not a comforting feeling! The second evening we went early and were able to find the stone foundation with relative ease. Make sure that you mark your entrance with something so that you can find your way out again!
After arriving at the site we set up a base camp. What is left of the sick house is a stone foundation with several scattered smaller stone foundations. There is a grove of pine trees to the left of the foundation and another stone wall that looks like it probably led back to the original road. The stone foundation is about 4-5 feet in height at some areas and as low as 1-2 feet in other areas. It encompasses a rather large area, being built in the late 1700’s as legend goes. As you can imagine there is a lot of wildlife in the area, including deer and an overpopulation of mosquitoes! Bug spray does not deter these blood-sucking pests! Be prepared with protection and to discard pictures of “orbs” in these types of areas.
It was still light enough when we arrived that we were able to investigate the outlying area. The first interesting find that we came upon was a set of bones at the outer edge of the lower foundation. It was determined that these were animal bones and had been there for quite some time as there was no marrow left in the bones. My best guess is that these were probably deer leg bones. However, on review of the digital recorder we heard an EVP that says “my bones”. That put us in a quandary as to whether we should report our findings to the police. Whenever you come across findings like this you have the responsibility of reporting it regardless of the fact that it may have been animal.
There were 5 members of the group and one guest on this investigation. We stayed together as a whole that evening due to the location and the presence of wildlife. The only protection that we carry is mace in case of an attack by coyotes or other large animals. The temperature was quite balmy being about 66 degrees F. at the lowest point of the evening. We used digital cameras, digital recorders and our K2 to record evidence. Several EVP sessions were done at various points throughout the evening. Please see findings. One of the members did experience feelings of unease, illness, and an overwhelming sense of someone asking for help. At the same time, another member was getting a “hit” on the K2. It was difficult to determine whether there were any “shadow” presences due to the overgrowth of bushes and trees. Your eyes can play tricks in areas such as these, but nevertheless you can experience a sense of being watched, maybe also due to the area.
We spent approximately 4 hours investigating and felt that we came away with no evidence, however on review of the digital recorders we did get a few EVPs. Are we certain this area is truly haunted? No.