Group to search for ghosts at Harvey House

BARSTOW • It’s been nearly four decades since the Harvey House welcomed and housed travelers, but some say many of its visitors haven’t left.

Stories have trickled into the ears of Jeri Justus, executive director of the Barstow Area Chamber of Commerce, who works at the Harvey House: Rumors of orbs of light floating in mid-air, a little girl playing peek-a-boo in the foyer, an old man with a handlebar mustache standing at the top of the stairs.

Justus herself says that although she hasn’t seen anything, or anyone, she has felt their presence. She’s felt a sudden drop in temperature on a warm day, the movement of unseen bodies swaying to music.

“Definitely there are spirits there,” she said, adding that people have seen many apparitions during the Haunted Barstow tours the chamber holds in October. “I don’t believe or not believe, (but) I know these feelings that I get.”

One group — the High Desert Paranormal Society — won’t wait until October to unearth evidence that the Harvey House is a paranormal paradise. Founders Craig Case and Dave Meyer, a Barstow resident and an Apple Valley resident respectively, and their members will lock themselves up in the Harvey House starting at 8 p.m. Friday and will search the building until 2 a.m. Saturday.

Members of the High Desert Paranormal Society, a 10-year-old group with 40 participants, will have video cameras and motion sensors set up and a command station ready to catch anything out of the ordinary. Teams of two to three people will also sweep the area continuously with night-vision cameras, electromagnetic field detectors, digital voice recorders and thermometers, Case said.

“We’ve heard lots of reports coming out of the Harvey House, particularly in the basement and upstairs,” he said. “(People) seeing white apparitions and hearing strange noises. That’s what we’re looking for.”

Evidence of paranormal activity include a spot of really cold air  in the middle of a room. This is a classic sign of paranormal activity and is obvious on a hot day, Chase said. People will be listening for voices, looking for orbs and watching for spikes in the electromagnetism in the room.

Between 30 and 35 reports have reached the group of strange phenomena at the Harvey House, Chase said. About five years ago, the paranormal society investigated the outside of the building, but this will be the first time they have entered the building.

Case said the group will be turning over a copy of their evidence to the city and may be accompanied by Laura Moraco, the city’s film permit coordinator, on Friday. They will also air their findings on their new show “Mysteries of the Unknown,” which premiers on Desert West Media next month.

Case also plans to air paranormal searches his group has conducted at Linda Vista Hospital in Los Angeles and the Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley, both of which are famous haunt sites, he said.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or jcejnar@desertdispatch.com