October 31, 2023 |
Photo – Carbon County Museum in Rawlins – Bigfoot99 file photo
Ghostly noises and apparitions were detected in the Carbon County Museum.
On October 14th and 21st, the Carbon County Museum, in Rawlins, held two ghost hunting events in the building. Museum Director Tom Mensik said people enjoyed the two ghost hunts. Mensik said participants encountered some unexplainable phenomena around a specific macabre artifact.
The dead basket is a wicker box used by embalmers in Encampment to transport bodies to be fitted for a coffin by an undertaker. Mensik said the basket and a mirror triggered his ghost hunting equipment. The museum director said mirrors are said to have a special connection to the afterlife.
Mensik said the museum’s military display room also set off his ghost hunting equipment. Mensik said whatever presence was in the room appeared to be specifically drawn to former service members.
The Carbon County Museum has a 1919 Essex Speedster on display in its garage. The vehicle is known for going 100 miles per hour during a race in 1922. Mensik said during the October 14th ghost hunting event, an attendee supposedly communicated with the person responsible for the car’s construction.
Mensik said during the second ghost hunt, on October 21st, a participant was using a REM pod to allegedly communicate with a spirit. A REM pod radiates a magnetic field into the environment and sounds an alarm if anything breaks the field. Mensik said he checked the museum’s security cameras to see if they caught anything unusual. The museum director said the cameras appeared to show a shocking event.
Mensik said strange noises were also heard in Museum Curator Andrew Webster’s office.
Not only did Mensik provide ghost hunting equipment, such as REM pods, but he also provided several items not on public display for participants to interact with during the ghost hunts. The museum director said the death mask of “Big Nose” George Parrot is especially unsettling.
Mensik said a mummified Roman foot was also popular during the museum’s ghost hunting tours. The museum director said Governor John Osborne, the man responsible for turning “Big Nose” George into a pair of shoes, purchased what he thought was a piece of a mummified Egyptian. Mensik said DNA testing in the 2000’s showed that the foot belonged to a Roman who died two millennia ago.
Mensik said he intends to make the ghost hunting tours a part of the museum’s regular schedule of October events. The museum director said he may include other buildings on the museum grounds, such as the administration building and schoolhouse, in the future.
