The three boys must’ve noted the woman’s outgoing nature, or maybe she just plain looked official.

Because as soon as they entered the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge’s historic Samuel Burton Strait house last Saturday afternoon, they began picking her brain on the topic of history.

Kathy Machowski, a Jordan resident and a founding member of a team of paranormal investigators that calls itself Beyond The Veil, held an open house for members of the online group Ghost Story Central. (Go to www.jordannews.com and click the Groups button.)

A sign saying the house was open last weekend enticed about two dozen passersby to stop into the 1855 limestone two-story along Park Boulevard in St. Lawrence Township.
She told the group of boys more about the background of the Strait house, which had been a model home for the failed city of St. Lawrence. For a decade or so, Strait and as many as 14 others had lived in three bedrooms in the structure. Machowski’s been to the house twice to hunt for ghosts, and each time, her hunt yielded surprising results. The open house was her third hunt there, but she was talking more than she was hunting that day.

WHAT SHE FOUND

In the two previous hunts, Machowski said, she believes spirits were visiting the site. Electronic voice phenomenon (EVPs) turned up on her tape recorder, which she listens to immediately upon returning to her home after a ghost hunt.

The first time she visited, a ghost said “repent,” Machowski told the boys.

What’s that mean? one of them asked.

Machowski had to answer, but she didn’t want to scare them, either.

“Change your ways or you’re going to go to … hell, right?” Machowski said, looking at me. I nodded, and she turned back to the boys. “Change your ways.”

The answer was a little straightforward but also nothing the boys wouldn’t hear in church.
The boys’ questioning of Machowski continued for about a half-hour. Their quizzing was quite welcome.

- How’d you get the tape recording? they asked. Machowski said she listens to the tapes and clearly hears ghosts’ voices.

- Can I hear it? they asked. Sorry, the tape is at home, Machowski said, but you can read my blogs, see pictures, and listen to EVPs at www.jordannews.com.

- How do you know the recording is a real ghost? a boy asked. (He’s seen “Myth Busters,” he added, implying that he didn’t really believer her.) Machowski said she got the evidence herself, so she knows it’s true.

- Did the ghosts say anything else? Sure, Machowski said, detailing an incident during which she asked the ghost out loud who is the president. On her tape from the ghost hunt, a voice said, “Andrew Jackson.” Strait would’ve been about 21 years old at the time of President Jackson’s election, Machowski figured.

- Is this the tape recorder – the one on the windowsill? Yep.

- Are the voices that said “repent” and “Andrew Jackson” still on the tape in this tape recorder? Nope.

- Are you a spiritualist or something? I’m a ghost hunter.

- Do you get paid to hunt for ghosts? No, I do it for free.

- Are you recording right now? Yep, everything we’ve said. And anything said by anybody else – spirits included.

- Could my house be haunted? Machowski said that if your house is haunted, you’d know within a month.

KNOWING IT’S HAUNTED

It takes time for a ghost hunter to know if a place is truly haunted. They might feel a draft where there shouldn’t be a breeze, or they might get the eerie feeling that someone they don’t see is nearby.

But to Machowski, who is working on writing a book about real ghosts, there ought to be proof before a ghost hunter says that a place is haunted.

Orbs, blotches of light that show in photos – even photos taken without a flash – do not prove that ghosts are present. She is looking at photos for shadows of people who’ve passed on and sound recordings of voices that ghost hunters can’t hear unless they are on tape.
Lately, she’s been to the Landmark Center in St. Paul. Haunted.

According to her blog, on which she goes by the name Kathy Ghost Hunter, the rumors about the third-floor bathroom being haunted are true. EVPs were picked up in that room and others, including in what was formerly used as a courtroom.

The interactive recordings – when she asks a question and a ghost apparently answers her on tape – are the best, Machowski said.

During the past year, Beyond The Veil has also been to Faribault, Shakopee, Apple Valley, Hutchinson, St. Paul, Mendota Heights, Granite Falls, Worthington, New Ulm, Minneapolis, and others. The team is focusing on Minnesota.
Several hunts for haunts have been done in Jordan and the surrounding area, but some of the owners have asked not to be identified in public.

WHERE BODIES ARE

Last month, she took two other Beyond The Veil members and me to a dilapidated barn that is rumored to be a murder site for victims of gangsters. Also haunted.

Linda Blaylock, a psychic in training, of Louisville Township and Pat Theisen of Apple Valley went with Machowski and me to a site near the state park in Sand Creek Township. It was at the dead-end of a rutty, muddy road. We waded through high weeds to get to the barn.

Right away, Blaylock had a feeling of “heaviness,” she said. “You know, like in a rock concert, and there’s people all over here.”

Machowski paused to explain the rumor that had circulated about the site. During the 1920s and 1930s, gangsters frequented St. Paul and surrounding towns.

“They needed some people to disappear,” she said.

A couple of years ago, Machowski shot a photo of a shadow that looked like a man in the window of the barn. In the photo, two men were standing behind him, she said.

Last month, Beyond The Veil investigated whether or not the barn and its yard were haunted. The barn door was open, and Marlboros and an atlas had been thrown at the edge of a fire that had long since been put out. Highway traffic hummed over a soft breeze. It was a brisk afternoon.

Theisen shot video, Machowski digital photos. Blaylock tried to talk to dead people.

Blaylock described spirits who spoke to her, but some of them weren’t probably from the time of the gangsters.

“1864 mean anything?” she said.

Blaylock talked about males and females, one of which was a man who said he worked for some men but he “did it wrong.”

That man is dead, possibly shot in the back of the head, Blaylock said.

The jury is still out on any rumors.

THE NEXT HUNT

Luckily, on the day of the open house at the Strait house, Machowski had gone to look at a gravesite in the state park, and on her way home, she drove past the historic house again.
At the last minute, just after the doors were closed, descendents of Samuel B. Strait showed up.

Machowski invited them back for a ghost hunt at night. So the story isn’t over yet.