
When Sharon and I went to Kirkland in 2012 to spend a night
at the hotel attached to the steakhouse and bar, we had no idea what to
expect. I had friends who went there and
talked about their paranormal experiences.
We were curious, so we booked a room.
It was in the winter, so the air was chilly. When we got there, we met with the bartender
who worked and stayed there four days out of the week.
She showed us around and pointed out all the interesting stories of the
place. Some of the stories included
robbing the safe, murder and other scandels.
After showing us around, we went to our room. Room number 6 was the biggest room, but not
the best. In fact I felt very
uncomfortable in the room because it was extremely rustic and unfinished. We ended up having a couple of beers and
visited with the bartender before going to bed.
The only weird thing that happened to us that time was that we both
heard an old-time piano playing in the bar in the middle of the night. The thing is there was no piano in the
building anywhere. After that experience,
we wanted to get a team together and investigate the entire place.
It took almost 4 years later, but we finally got the team on
board to investigate the Kirkland Steakhouse and Bar. We picked a Thursday when we figured not many
patrons would be at the bar. We had to
book all the rooms so no one else would bother us. The weather was prime, stormy, and rainy with
dark clouds. Sharon and I went up with
another investigator early to meet up with the owners. Last time we never met them.
When we walked into the bar, we saw a man sitting at the bar
with his head down. He jumped when he
saw us and told us he was Herb, the owner.
He didn’t remember talking with me but luckily his wife did. Barbara found our reservations, I paid the
money, and she gave me the keys to each room.
We dropped our things off in the back room and proceeded to take
pictures around the place. We asked if
it would be possible to go into the basement because we felt there might be
some activity down there. He said that
as soon as everyone in the group got there, he would take us down. We decided to have something to eat while
waiting for the rest of our team.
After everyone showed up and put their things in a room,
Herb took us down to the basement. It
was very dusty and loaded with antiques, old items, cobwebs, and bugs. He walked us around and told stories of the
place. One area was very dark with low
ceilings. I did feel a bit
claustrophobic. We decided to start
there with an EVP session. After that
area, we did another session by the stairs.
The basement was creepy and some did hear a grunt and other noises
coming from a corner.
 |
The narrow wood stairs that lead down to the basement. The boards were not level so it felt weird walking up and down them. |
 |
Many of the items left in the basement. |
 |
A hole dug in the wall to hide something... (gold, money?) |
 |
An old cash register was back in the dark area. |
 |
The dark back area of the basement. |
 |
The narrow passage way to the dark area had low ceilings. It was a bit claustrophobic. |
After spending time in the basement, we went upstairs to get
our equipment put into place. There was
one problem. We were at a bar and Herb
planned to shut it down at 9. We were not
allowed in that area if he wasn’t with us.
Apparently it is the law that a bartender had to remain in the bar if
others are to be there. Wow, what a
blow. When I talked with him, he said
that we would have the entire place to ourselves. I didn’t think that meant the rooms only. Note:
When investigating a bar, see if the bartender or owner will be present. We had to form another game plan for our
investigation. A couple of the team
members were not happy and decided to leave.
I am sure plans change once in a while, so you need to go with the flow and
adapt to the changes.
The rest of us set up equipment in each room. It was hard to do solo sessions or EVP
group sessions while the bar was still open.
We had to wait until the patrons left and Herb locked the doors. It ended up being after 11 pm. Finally, we could start the investigation.
 |
The red room where some have seen the dark cowboy. |
 |
Room 3 is where the grumpy old ghost man was seen on the couch. |
We started with solo sessions in the “red room” where some
have seen a shadow figure of a man with a cowboy hat on. When we first walked into that room, the air
felt heavy. Sharon started the ball
rolling by sitting in there first. We
only did 15 minute sessions. I went in
next and then Dave. After that, we
decided to do a silent EVP session in room 3.
We picked that room because two of our investigators saw a man sitting
on the couch, smoking a cigarette, and glaring at them with a scowl on his face
as if the say, “What the hell do you
want?” Sharon felt like he was
missing a leg. (I will have to look into this interesting story and see if I can find
out who he is.) For the silent EVP
session, Sharon wrote down 8 questions to give each of us. We were to only think these questions at the
same time. She would let us know when to
go to the next question. It was an
interesting experiment and we are still waiting to see if it got results. James actually checked his recorder right
afterwards and we all thought we heard a voice.
He will listen to it again at home on better equipment. After that, James put recorders in each room
and we did another EVP session. We
waited a short time afterwards and then we all went to bed. We each took a room and tried to sleep. The beds were uncomfortable and squeaky. Sharon told us the next day that when she
went to the restroom sometime after 3 am, she saw a dark male figure wearing a
hat and standing by the door to the bar.
She thought it was another investigator until she got closer. She didn’t approach the figure because she
got a bad feeling from it. Wow, this
figure was right outside my door. The
only thing I experienced during the night was a faint sound of a piano
playing. I hope James got it on his
recorder.
 |
The door where Sharon saw the dark cowboy. |
awesome!
ReplyDeleteWow! What a place! You got some really great photos here. I love that second one with the sign - very dramatic. And that last one with the shadowy hallway and doors! How scary. There seems to be the potential for ghosts here. The place is creepy enough anyway. It will be interesting to find out if you guys captured any EVPs!
ReplyDeleteWe can't wait to find out if we got anything on the recorders too. That place was a bit eerie and had an interesting history. We were not alone.
Delete