Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, the production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky listener. Discretion is advised. Hey, gang,
Speaker 1: this is just a quick reminder that I have a
Speaker 1: massive fall tour coming up starting in September, and so
Speaker 1: if you want to head to my website Amy dash
Speaker 1: Brunei dot net and click on the appearances page, you
Speaker 1: can see if I will be anywhere near you. A
Speaker 1: lot of these do have meet and great options too,
Speaker 1: So if you want to get a photo of me
Speaker 1: or ask me a question personally, this is your chance.
Speaker 1: I can see just looking at my schedule, I'm going
Speaker 1: to be in California, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas,
Speaker 1: Louisiana and more. So please check it out and hopefully
Speaker 1: we will get to meet in person and talk about
Speaker 1: spooky things my favorite. Recently, I was fortunate enough to
Speaker 1: visit the city of law Corunia, Spain. High on my
Speaker 1: list of spots to see in town was the Tower
Speaker 1: of Hercules, the oldest lighthouse in operation today. Historians believe
Speaker 1: it was built over two thousand years ago by the Romans.
Speaker 1: As I stared at the ancient tower. I couldn't help
Speaker 1: but think of all the lore and fascination around lighthouses.
Speaker 1: After all, one cannot undermine their importance in the maritime world,
Speaker 1: and before the age of electric lights, pressure and importance
Speaker 1: placed on the keepers who tended to them. This particular
Speaker 1: lighthouse has a major legend associated with it, involving Hercules,
Speaker 1: hence the name. Legend has it that the legendary Greek
Speaker 1: hero came in search of the giant Garion, who ruled
Speaker 1: over the lands between the Doro and the Tagas, to
Speaker 1: free the people from his unbridled power. Their struggle lasted
Speaker 1: three days and nights, after which time Hercules defeated the giant,
Speaker 1: beheaded him, and buried his head by the sea. To
Speaker 1: celebrate his victory, he built over a burial mound a
Speaker 1: tower lighthouse, and in the vicinity of it he founded
Speaker 1: a city he named Kruna or law Coruna, after the
Speaker 1: first woman who inhabited this place and with whom the
Speaker 1: hero fell in love. Certainly a legend, but definitely a
Speaker 1: reflection of lighthouses and the mystique they seem to hold
Speaker 1: over us. We don't have any two thousand year old
Speaker 1: lighthouses with heads of giants buried beneath them here in
Speaker 1: the States. But we do have a lot of haunted ones,
Speaker 1: and I've investigated a ton of them, But one holds
Speaker 1: true to its very well known reputation as being the
Speaker 1: most haunted lighthouse in America in my opinion anyway, And that,
Speaker 1: my friends, is the St. Augustine Lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida.
Speaker 1: Let's head there shall we. I'm Amy Brunei, and welcome
Speaker 1: to haunted road. High above the Florida coastline, a light
Speaker 1: shines across the darkened seas, guiding ships into port. In
Speaker 1: some ways, the lighthouse in St. Augustine is a beacon
Speaker 1: of safety. But the centuries old structure in America's oldest
Speaker 1: city is full of history, some of it unspeakably tragic,
Speaker 1: and today it's one of the most haunted locations in
Speaker 1: the country. It's certainly one of the most haunted locations
Speaker 1: I've ever visited, which is why I go back again
Speaker 1: and again to discover St. Augustine lighthouses secrets. But it
Speaker 1: wasn't always full of ghosts. In fact, for a long
Speaker 1: time it was full of families living their lives as
Speaker 1: keepers of the Light and protectors of the coastline. First
Speaker 1: founded in fifteen sixty five by Spanish explorer Pedro Melendez, St. Augustine, Florida,
Speaker 1: is the first place in North America to be colonized
Speaker 1: by Europeans, beating the British settlement of Roanoke by two years.
Speaker 1: Melenda's named the city after St. Augustine because the sailors
Speaker 1: on his expedition first spotted the land on that Saint's
Speaker 1: feast day August. At the time Melenda's colonized St. August
Speaker 1: seen about forty miles south of present day Jacksonville. The
Speaker 1: land had long been occupied by the Temuqua tribe, whose
Speaker 1: land stretched from what's now southern Georgia to central Florida.
Speaker 1: Historians estimate that there were as many as two hundred
Speaker 1: thousand members of the Temuqua tribe in Florida at the time. However,
Speaker 1: disease introduced by the Europeans decimated them so much that
Speaker 1: within two hundred years, fewer than one hundred Temuko were
Speaker 1: left alive. There were also French forces present in the area,
Speaker 1: whom Melenda's and his explorers defeated to claim the land
Speaker 1: for Spain. Today, St. Augustine is a city of about
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand people and is a popular tourist town in Florida,
Speaker 1: not just for its forty two miles of pristine Atlantic beaches,
Speaker 1: but for its history, haunted and otherwise. If you've watched
Speaker 1: Kindred Spirits, you might remember seeing an episode about the
Speaker 1: old St. Augustine Jail, where Adam and I made contact
Speaker 1: with spirits of the former warden and prisoners who had
Speaker 1: been executed there. In fact, St. Augustine is home to
Speaker 1: what some claim is the real Fountain of Youth, rumored
Speaker 1: to have been discovered by Ponts. Dally On in fifteen
Speaker 1: thirteen in his Explorations of Florida's coast. You can visit
Speaker 1: it today at the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, though
Speaker 1: no promises about whether you'll actually feel younger afterwards. But
Speaker 1: I can promise you, though, is that the water coming
Speaker 1: from the fountain tastes heavily of sulfur, So shoot it
Speaker 1: like a shot of bad tequila and hope for the best. Though.
Speaker 1: The lighthouse that shines over St. Augustine's water is on
Speaker 1: the site of what's described by local tourism organizations as
Speaker 1: the oldest permanent navigation aid in North America. Today's lighthouse
Speaker 1: isn't the original structure. Spanish settlers first built a wooden
Speaker 1: watch tower at the northern end of Anastasia Island in
Speaker 1: fifteen eighty nine. According to the St. Augustine Lighthouse a
Speaker 1: Maritime Museum, the watch towers were erected by the Spanish
Speaker 1: crown during the building of the Castillo da San Marcos
Speaker 1: to keep enemy ships from taking Anastasia Island. While the
Speaker 1: height of that original watch tower is unknown, the second
Speaker 1: watch tower, built in the early seventeen hundreds, was thirty
Speaker 1: feet tall. That structure built of kakuina, which is a
Speaker 1: shell rock, and would lasted for almost one hundred forty years,
Speaker 1: according to the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum. After
Speaker 1: the French and Indian War made Florida a part of
Speaker 1: the British Empire, the Brits added thirty feet of wooden
Speaker 1: construction to the existing structure in seventeen sixty three. It's
Speaker 1: at that time that the structure first became a lighthouse,
Speaker 1: with the intention of protecting incoming ships from the dangerous
Speaker 1: sandbars in the inlet at the northern end of the island.
Speaker 1: Sometimes called the Crazy Banks. When Spain regained control of
Speaker 1: Florida in seventeen eighty three, the Spaniards tore down the
Speaker 1: British additions to the tower, making it just a watch
Speaker 1: tower and not a lighthouse again. Then in eighteen twenty one,
Speaker 1: the United States gained possession of Florida and the tower
Speaker 1: was once again converted into a lighthouse in eighteen twenty four.
Speaker 1: According to these St. Augustine Lighthouses records, Juan Andreu, a minorcan,
Speaker 1: was paid three hundred fifty dollars a year to care
Speaker 1: for the lighthouse and ten the ten oil lamps set
Speaker 1: in silver bowl shaped reflectors. One Andrea who served as
Speaker 1: the lighthousekeeper until his death in eighteen forty nine, and
Speaker 1: members of the Andrea family would keep the light until
Speaker 1: the Civil War. In eighteen fifty four, the lighthouse saw
Speaker 1: a major upgrade the installation of a fourth order revolving
Speaker 1: fresnel lens that measured nine feet high inside the more
Speaker 1: than fifty foot tall tower, which the lighthouse keeper would
Speaker 1: have had to climb inside to light the whale oil lamps.
Speaker 1: As the Lighthouse Museum describes, the jewel like lens was
Speaker 1: handmade just for St. Augustine in Paris, France, by the
Speaker 1: company of Solder and Lemonaire. It represented the height of
Speaker 1: Victorian engineering and technology and cast its being much farther
Speaker 1: out to sea than its predecessor. The new light now
Speaker 1: demonstrated three fixed flashes from three bulls eye panels that
Speaker 1: could be seen from up to nineteen to twenty four
Speaker 1: nautical miles, depending on atmospheric conditions. In eighteen fifty nine,
Speaker 1: lighthouse keeper Joe's of Andrea, Juan's cousin, fell sixty feet
Speaker 1: to his death at the lighthouse. As Eleanor Dwyer describes
Speaker 1: it in her Guide to Florida Lighthouses, Andrea fell when
Speaker 1: a faulty support on the scaffolding had given way as
Speaker 1: he was whitewashing the tower, which was one of his
Speaker 1: job duties. In an issue of Spyglass, Kelsey Lloyd quotes
Speaker 1: Andrea's obituary, which paints a horrifying picture of his fall.
Speaker 1: He first struck the roof of the oil room about
Speaker 1: thirty feet below. Once he glanced off and struck the
Speaker 1: stone wall which encloses the lighthouse, and thence to the
Speaker 1: ground a stone parapet. After Joseph's death, his widow, Maria Andrew,
Speaker 1: became the lighthouse keeper. She was the first female lighthousekeeper
Speaker 1: in Florida and the first Hispanic American in the United
Speaker 1: States Lighthouse Service. In an article for the Lighthouse Museum
Speaker 1: about Maria, Kimberly King writes, tradition has it that Maria
Speaker 1: went to the top of the lighthouse to call out,
Speaker 1: what shall I do? Reportedly, she heard her husband's voice
Speaker 1: on the wind tell her to tend to the light.
Speaker 1: During the Civil War, Confederate sympathizers removed the lens from
Speaker 1: the lighthouse, hiding it away for the duration of the
Speaker 1: war with the intention of blocking shipping to the North
Speaker 1: and supplies to the Union troops. During the Civil War,
Speaker 1: Confederate sympathizers removed the lens from the lighthouse, hiding it
Speaker 1: away for the duration of the war with the intention
Speaker 1: of blocking shipping to the North and supplies to Union troops.
Speaker 1: Maria was on duty at the time. Some sources claim
Speaker 1: that she shot and injured a Confederate soldier named Joseph
Speaker 1: Pasetti as he tried to smash the lens. Others, however,
Speaker 1: believe that Maria must have known of the plan and
Speaker 1: provided access to the lens room. When the U. S.
Speaker 1: Navy recaptured St. Augustine, the lens was found and reinstalled,
Speaker 1: but not without some difficulty. In a museum article, Paul's
Speaker 1: Lensky writes that Northern troops arrested Paul are now the
Speaker 1: mayor of St. Augustine, and sequestered him on the Union
Speaker 1: gun boat Isaac Smith until he revealed the location of
Speaker 1: the lighting mechanisms for the St. Augustine Light and other
Speaker 1: lighthouses in the area, including Cape Canaveral. The lighthouse was
Speaker 1: re lit in eighteen sixty seven, but at that time
Speaker 1: was showing serious signs of erosion. According to lighthouse friends.
Speaker 1: On July one, eighteen seventy the distance from the keeper's
Speaker 1: dwelling to the high water mark was seventy feet, but
Speaker 1: by November the distance had shrunk to just forty feet.
Speaker 1: The lighthouse board determined that a new lighthouse was needed,
Speaker 1: and a five acre tract located a half mile inland
Speaker 1: was acquired. After old Spanish land grants and claims of
Speaker 1: settlers were straightened out. Construction began on the new lighthouse
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy one, but tragedy soon struck Hezekiah Pitty,
Speaker 1: the superintendent of lighthouse construction, lived on site with his
Speaker 1: wife Mary and their children, Mary, Adelaide, Eliza, Edward and Carrie.
Speaker 1: During the construction, workers used a railway cart to move
Speaker 1: supplies from supply ships to the building site, which the
Speaker 1: children used to play and when it wasn't in use.
Speaker 1: In a Lighthouse Museum article Kelsey Lloyd right, they used
Speaker 1: the cart as a Victorian era roller coaster, riding the
Speaker 1: cart to the water and bringing it back up to
Speaker 1: the site to write again. Only a wooden board at
Speaker 1: the end of the rails stopped the cart from tipping
Speaker 1: over into the water. On July tenth, eighteen seventy three, Mary, Eliza,
Speaker 1: and carry Pitty, along with a ten year old African
Speaker 1: American girl whose name isn't known. We're playing with the cart,
Speaker 1: not realizing that the board wasn't in place to stop
Speaker 1: the cart. When it reached the end of the track,
Speaker 1: the cart flipped over, landing in the water and trapping
Speaker 1: the four girls underneath. While a worker named Dance Sessions
Speaker 1: saw the event take place and race to dive into
Speaker 1: the water to rescue the girls, he was too late.
Speaker 1: Three of the four girls drowned. Only four year old
Speaker 1: carry Pitty survived. According to reports, the whole town shut
Speaker 1: down to observe the funeral. More than a year later,
Speaker 1: in October eighteen seventy four, the new lighthouse became operational.
Speaker 1: Three keepers kept the light going in eight hour watches,
Speaker 1: which required carrying a thirty pound can of lard oil
Speaker 1: up the two hundred fourteen stairs of the tower and
Speaker 1: winding the two hundred seventy five pound weight that made
Speaker 1: the lens move. The lightkeepers would also sometimes be called
Speaker 1: upon to rescue sailors whose ships had founded on the
Speaker 1: nearby sandbar. In eighteen seventy five, a new keeper's house
Speaker 1: was built on the site to accommodate the number of
Speaker 1: men needed to keep the lighthouse operational. Five years later,
Speaker 1: the old tower fell into the ocean. In eighteen ninety four,
Speaker 1: keeper Joseph Frantia's wife Mary, died on the property. Things
Speaker 1: got much easier for the lightkeepers in nineteen thirty six
Speaker 1: when the tower was wired for electricity. In nineteen fifty five,
Speaker 1: the keepers were replaced by a lamplighter who turned the
Speaker 1: light on and off in between. The lighthouse served an
Speaker 1: important role in World War two, when the US Coast
Speaker 1: Guard was stationed at the lighthouse around the clock on
Speaker 1: the lookout for German boats. With lightkeepers no longer needed
Speaker 1: on the property of the keeper's house was boarded up.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seven, it burned down under mysterious circumstances and
Speaker 1: was restored from four to nine eight. Today the lighthouse
Speaker 1: operates as a nonprofit and has restored the structure to
Speaker 1: how it appeared in eight with a spiraling black and
Speaker 1: white pattern and a red roof. At one sixty five
Speaker 1: feet tall, it is St. Augustine's oldest surviving brick structure.
Speaker 1: While it's still an operating lighthouse, it's also open for tours.
Speaker 1: People come to see the gorgeous, serene landscape and the
Speaker 1: pristine shores of St. Augustine. They also come looking for ghosts,
Speaker 1: and there are a lot of ghosts to be found nowadays.
Speaker 1: The St. Augustine Lighthouse is famous around the world for
Speaker 1: the remarkable paranormal activity that staff and visitors witnessed there
Speaker 1: in the keeper's house. A relief lighthouse keeper in the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties reported hearing footsteps on the second floor, but
Speaker 1: couldn't find anyone when he went looking for the source
Speaker 1: of the sound. James Pippen, the last keeper to live
Speaker 1: on site, Sir from nineteen fifty three to nineteen fifty five.
Speaker 1: He first lived in the keeper's house, but eventually moved
Speaker 1: to a much smaller building on the property, saying that
Speaker 1: the big house was haunted and he would not stay
Speaker 1: another night in it. During renovations to the house when
Speaker 1: it was being restored in the nineteen eighties, many people
Speaker 1: reported unexplained incidents on the site, especially in the basement,
Speaker 1: which had not burned in the fire. In that basement,
Speaker 1: people have reported seeing the shadow figure of a man
Speaker 1: and feeling a column of chilly air as you might expect.
Speaker 1: The lighthouse itself has many reports of paranormal activity. Staff
Speaker 1: report that they will bolt a door before leaving for
Speaker 1: the night, only to find it wide open in the morning.
Speaker 1: Even doors that are supposed to trigger an alarm. Music
Speaker 1: boxes in the gift shop are said to start playing
Speaker 1: on their own. Disembodied children's laughter has been reported throughout
Speaker 1: the lighthouse, and some people say they've heard a woman's
Speaker 1: voice calling for help. Guides claim that they have been
Speaker 1: touched by spectral presences in the middle of tours. One
Speaker 1: guide Matt Laddick told a reporter rather recently, I had
Speaker 1: my ankle grabbed. That was pretty amusing since it was
Speaker 1: in the middle of my tour, so it looked like
Speaker 1: I just randomly tripped over air. A ghost has also
Speaker 1: been blamed for a visitor who found her shoeley suddenly
Speaker 1: tied to the lighthouse stairs. People have reported seeing a
Speaker 1: shadowy figure peering down over the railing of the staircase.
Speaker 1: One guest has claimed to take a photograph of a
Speaker 1: woman standing on the gallery deck near the top of
Speaker 1: the lighthouse when no one was there. Some have speculated
Speaker 1: that this is the ghost of Maria Andrea, who sometimes
Speaker 1: seen on the gallery deck in a white dress, her
Speaker 1: long dark hair blowing in the ocean breeze. Some think
Speaker 1: it's one of the girls who died in the railway
Speaker 1: car accident. The girls, it's believed, appear more frequently in
Speaker 1: bad weather. Ghosts of the girls, commonly believed to be
Speaker 1: playful spirits, have been reported over the years in and
Speaker 1: around the lighthouse. They have been blamed for the gigglings
Speaker 1: sometimes heard in the tower, as well as mysterious child
Speaker 1: sized footprints that have shown up when no children were
Speaker 1: present in the area. An employees stated that one such
Speaker 1: footprint resisted his attempts to clean it for several weeks,
Speaker 1: only to vanish from the floor as suddenly as it
Speaker 1: had appeared. A group of paranormal investigators using an E
Speaker 1: MF meter in the basement of the keeper's house asked
Speaker 1: if the girls wanted to play hide and seek, only
Speaker 1: to see a spike in the meters. A woman in
Speaker 1: the group wandered the basement with the meter. When she'd
Speaker 1: see a spike. She'd asked the girls if they wanted
Speaker 1: to play again, only to search the basement for their
Speaker 1: next hiding spot. The girls have been seen as full
Speaker 1: bodied apparitions in and around the lighthouse over the years,
Speaker 1: often said to be wearing blue velvet dresses. Once, a
Speaker 1: young girl in a Victorian outfit was seen sitting on
Speaker 1: a bench reading a book. According to paranormal tour group
Speaker 1: Old City Ghosts, visitors to the lighthouse described catching flashes
Speaker 1: of a young girl dressed in old air of clothing,
Speaker 1: gazing out from the lighthouse door or standing by the
Speaker 1: upstairs window. The ghost of this young lady is rather
Speaker 1: pleasant and rarely interacts with visitors, as Kelsey Lloyd writes
Speaker 1: a woman on a ghost tour approached another woman to
Speaker 1: compliment her daughter's behavior on the tour. Confused, the woman
Speaker 1: said she had no daughter. The other woman then told
Speaker 1: her that a little girl had been standing by her
Speaker 1: side most of the evening. There were no children on
Speaker 1: the tour that evening. Another common apparition is a menacing man,
Speaker 1: sometimes believed to be Joseph Andrew, the lighthouse keeper who
Speaker 1: died from the sixty footfall, known as the man in Blue,
Speaker 1: he wears overalls or a suit in his namesake color,
Speaker 1: and is said to terrorize workers, chasing them up and
Speaker 1: down the stairs of the lighthouse. One worker was so
Speaker 1: frightened that he quit his job over the activity. People
Speaker 1: claim to hear the disembodied screaming of a man whose
Speaker 1: somebelieve is a lighthousekeeper who hanged himself in the basement,
Speaker 1: though there is no historical record of a hanging suicide
Speaker 1: on the property. A construction worker on the keeper's house
Speaker 1: restoration project in the nineteen eighties claimed to have seen
Speaker 1: a spectral hanging man Enjoyce Elson Moore's book Haunted Hunter's
Speaker 1: Guide to Florida, She writes of the construction workers experiences.
Speaker 1: According to Moore's book, he said he was told by
Speaker 1: a local who had talked with David Swain, the assistant
Speaker 1: keeper from nineteen thirty three to nineteen forty four and
Speaker 1: lamplighter from nineteen fifty five to nineteen sixty eight, that
Speaker 1: Swain said a visitor from the sea had hanged himself
Speaker 1: in the building in the nineteen thirties, and that Swain
Speaker 1: claimed a man's footsteps would follow him from the house
Speaker 1: to the tower. The workers had so many accidents occurred
Speaker 1: on the job there that he and some fellow tradesmen
Speaker 1: quit after six months. The mysterious smell of cigar smoke
Speaker 1: and the sound of heavy boots on the lighthouse stairs
Speaker 1: have been blamed on the man in blue. Some also
Speaker 1: associate the cigar smoke with the ghost of Peter Rasmussen,
Speaker 1: the lighthouse keeper from nineteen o one to nineteen twenty four.
Speaker 1: Rasmussen was the longest serving keeper of the lighthouse, who
Speaker 1: was a smoker and who also deeply disliked tourists visiting
Speaker 1: the lighthouse. Some claimed to hear the ghost of keeper
Speaker 1: William Harn, who served from eighteen seventy five to eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine, Harn died of tibur ulosis contracted during his
Speaker 1: Union Army service. In some say you can still hear
Speaker 1: him coughing in the parlor of the keeper's house. So,
Speaker 1: since we've started digging into the spooky side of the lighthouse,
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring someone on who has investigated with
Speaker 1: me there numerous times and has had lots of crazy
Speaker 1: experiences there as well. Up next in his Haunted Road debut. Finally,
Speaker 1: we will be chatting with none other than psychic medium
Speaker 1: Chip Coffee. That is coming up after the break. All right,
Speaker 1: I am sitting here with my dear friend, Chip Coffee.
Speaker 1: I really wanted to talk to you about the lighthouse
Speaker 1: because one, I've been wanting to get you on Haunted
Speaker 1: Road for a long time, and to you and I
Speaker 1: have investigated it together on a number of occasions, and
Speaker 1: so we've had a lot of really wild experiences there,
Speaker 1: and I think you also have kind of the interesting
Speaker 1: perspective of coming at it from a psychic medium standpoint,
Speaker 1: which I find very interesting too. And so the reason
Speaker 1: why the lighthouse, I believe, is so popular as far
Speaker 1: as being haunted, I mean, I think that locals knew
Speaker 1: it was haunted for a very long time. But what
Speaker 1: happened was Ghost Hunters was filming there in season two.
Speaker 1: So the show ghost Hunters was insane Augustine, and they
Speaker 1: had filmed at the Old City Jail and or the
Speaker 1: Old Jail, I should say, and they were supposed to
Speaker 1: film somewhere else, but it fell through, and a number
Speaker 1: of people told them they needed to investigate at the lighthouse,
Speaker 1: and somehow it came to be, and so they end
Speaker 1: up investigating there and they got what I think is
Speaker 1: probably one of the most compelling pieces of evidence ever
Speaker 1: captured and shown on paranormal television. Basically, what happened is
Speaker 1: they got a really great e VP of someone saying
Speaker 1: help me in the lighthouse, and then they got to
Speaker 1: video captures of a shadow figure when you look up
Speaker 1: that kind of spiral staircase. One was kind of a
Speaker 1: brief look down and then darted away really fast, and
Speaker 1: then the second one was you literally see that head
Speaker 1: kind of look over down at them and then back up,
Speaker 1: and it has become kind of this iconic photo from
Speaker 1: the lighthouse. People take that still all the time and
Speaker 1: we've seen that shadow. You've experienced that shadow, right, Chip,
Speaker 1: I have, I have one of the times that was
Speaker 1: there with Strange Escapes, I was actually with a group
Speaker 1: and we were looking up into the up into the
Speaker 1: top of the lighthouse and we saw something leaned over
Speaker 1: the banister and look down at us. It was very creepy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's he's seen a lot. I'm assuming it's a heat.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but you know, he has seen quite
Speaker 1: a bit. And it's interesting because lighthouses they do have
Speaker 1: this really strong residual energy, and I feel like that's
Speaker 1: kind of what's fueling the shadow gear. And you have
Speaker 1: to be very careful when you're investigating the lighthouse because
Speaker 1: it is very echoy It is almost pitch black, and
Speaker 1: they're like, you know, obviously it's very tall. As we know,
Speaker 1: we've both walked up it a couple of times, almost
Speaker 1: to our deaths going up there. Because by the time
Speaker 1: you get up there, I don't care how fit you are,
Speaker 1: you are huffing and puffing and you just think, oh
Speaker 1: my god, now I've got to go back down. And
Speaker 1: then I feel like a jerk, because you know, like
Speaker 1: these lighthouse keepers, it was literally their job to go
Speaker 1: up there multiple times a day. Better them than us, right,
Speaker 1: I guess that's one way to stay healthy. You're like,
Speaker 1: I just climb a lighthouse four or five times a day. No,
Speaker 1: thank you. I think it's the original StairMaster or something.
Speaker 1: You know, you keep keep on going. I wish they had,
Speaker 1: like I think we talked about this before, like some
Speaker 1: sort of like pulley system where you could just slowly
Speaker 1: lower yourself back down. I said, like a fireman's pole
Speaker 1: or like a slide and a kid's I had to
Speaker 1: go up there again. They have to rig a voice
Speaker 1: to get me up to the top of this lighthouse.
Speaker 1: So well, that being said, there was so much space
Speaker 1: between the bottom and the top, and I feel like
Speaker 1: there are maybe a couple of little windows, but it's
Speaker 1: very dark. Other than that light kind of coming from
Speaker 1: the very top. Even at night, there is that kind
Speaker 1: of ambient light which you can see if there's something
Speaker 1: up there. You do have kind of a background you
Speaker 1: can see. But it's easy for that to kind of
Speaker 1: play tricks on you as well, like that different lighting
Speaker 1: in the shadows and everything. And then, like I was saying,
Speaker 1: the sounds bounce around a lot, but if you're very
Speaker 1: still and you sit at the bottom with that lighthouse
Speaker 1: and you have a you know a few people in
Speaker 1: there looking up very quietly. You will hear footsteps, you
Speaker 1: will hear voices, and if you're lucky, you will see
Speaker 1: that shadow. And we heard whistling, whistling. You know, we
Speaker 1: whistled a couple of times and we got whistled back at.
Speaker 1: And that's a common thing with you know, all what
Speaker 1: that are goes hunting or investigating, they will often whistle.
Speaker 1: And you've mentioned that, you get it, and we've gotten
Speaker 1: results with that. One of us knows why. I don't
Speaker 1: think the whistling thing is always interesting to me because
Speaker 1: I have done a few cases where you know, we
Speaker 1: would whistle and get a response. I remember one time
Speaker 1: we were whistling Yankee Doodle and I remember that, yeah,
Speaker 1: and something finished it for us. And so it's kind
Speaker 1: of that, you know how we always do that shave
Speaker 1: and a haircut knock, And there are just certain things
Speaker 1: from certain time periods that everyone relates to and they
Speaker 1: can't help but finish it, Like you can't leave Yankee
Speaker 1: Doodle Dandy hanging. You've got to finish that. And so
Speaker 1: maybe I mean, I'm completely guessing here, but if I
Speaker 1: were a lighthousekeeper, and you're trudging up those steps day
Speaker 1: after day, probably by yourself a lot of the time,
Speaker 1: even though their families were there. You're probably whistling, you're
Speaker 1: probably humming, you know, probably doing anything to kind of
Speaker 1: keep yourself busy, because that is such a job that
Speaker 1: involves routine, mean and times, like you're doing things at
Speaker 1: the exact same time every day. You're doing the exact
Speaker 1: same thing every day. And while those activities might seem mundane,
Speaker 1: they are literally life or death in the maritime industry.
Speaker 1: Like you had to do that, And so I feel
Speaker 1: like those lighthouse keepers probably took their jobs very, very serious,
Speaker 1: and it's probably why they're haunted. Do you think that
Speaker 1: maybe they just kind of feel this sense of having
Speaker 1: to return or having to kind of keep up at
Speaker 1: the job and make sure it's being taken care of.
Speaker 1: I think it's duty and responsibility, and beyond that, you
Speaker 1: have to be very committed to do a lighthousekeeper job.
Speaker 1: You have to make that commitment just say that I'm
Speaker 1: going to do this every day. I'm going to take
Speaker 1: this responsibility very seriously and honestly saying that. You really
Speaker 1: almost have to love that job. It has to be
Speaker 1: something that you really really love doing because many times
Speaker 1: you've got your family there with you and a relatively
Speaker 1: small amount of space, So you gotta love what you do.
Speaker 1: And so from a psychic medium standpoint, because you have
Speaker 1: that ability, I do not have that ability. I think
Speaker 1: you've got some intuitive abilities, Bruny, I really do. I
Speaker 1: think that you can sense things when you go into things.
Speaker 1: But beyond that, and we'll talk about what it's like
Speaker 1: to have a psychic medium friend in a moment. Like
Speaker 1: you've been into many lighthouses, I take it right, Is
Speaker 1: there like a different energy in them? Do you sense
Speaker 1: something different in a lighthouse than you do in other locations?
Speaker 1: I think I sense just what we've talked about. I
Speaker 1: sense that the people that are there have this affection
Speaker 1: for where they're at. They've grown to love that location.
Speaker 1: And I'm not surprised that in death, if you go
Speaker 1: back looking for them, that you're going to find them.
Speaker 1: They're gonna stay there. I mean, think of Rose Island
Speaker 1: Lighthouse and the history there also, not only at St. Augustine,
Speaker 1: but at Rose Island, the keeper was still there and
Speaker 1: other people re encountered other people at the lighthouse. A
Speaker 1: little boy if I remember correctly. At Rose Island, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not uncommon for families to really imprint on those locations.
Speaker 1: So that's what I think I feel is that not
Speaker 1: only that interactive energy that's there with us that often
Speaker 1: pops up and gives us what we want as far
Speaker 1: as interaction with us, but also that residual energy that
Speaker 1: they left behind because of all the time that they
Speaker 1: spent and shared there. I do think it's that kind
Speaker 1: of that imprint of their routine and their duty. But
Speaker 1: then there's also sometimes more intelligent hauntings. I found both
Speaker 1: there where you have someone who will actually interact and
Speaker 1: then you also have someone who just is kind of
Speaker 1: going about their day, you know. And that's like even
Speaker 1: at Rose Island, which I'm sure we'll cover on Haunted
Speaker 1: Road eventually, but we triggered that ghost by making the
Speaker 1: sound of the cannon fire, because the cannon fire was
Speaker 1: his queue to go up and light the light, and
Speaker 1: so we played cannon fire and next thing you know,
Speaker 1: you hear these footsteps going the tower. And I think
Speaker 1: it's kind of similar at St. Augustine. But there is
Speaker 1: so much other history there as well, and a lot
Speaker 1: of it involved families like there were the deaths of
Speaker 1: some little girls nearby, and people hear those girls all
Speaker 1: the time, not just in the lighthouse, but in the
Speaker 1: keeper's quarters and on the grounds itself. Did you sense
Speaker 1: them at all or have any experiences with them? I did,
Speaker 1: and it was in the exterior part of the of
Speaker 1: the property that I kind of felt them. I didn't
Speaker 1: even know the history of the lighthouse where I went there.
Speaker 1: Sometimes if you're going to a famous place and you
Speaker 1: know you're going to go there, you might know the
Speaker 1: history of the location. But I didn't. I had not
Speaker 1: researched it. And when I first went there with you
Speaker 1: and the Strange Escapes Company, I you nothing, and I
Speaker 1: sensed these kids, and that was a little confusing to me.
Speaker 1: I figured maybe there were kids there at some point
Speaker 1: in time, but I picked up that there were little girls.
Speaker 1: And later I was informed that there had been a
Speaker 1: tragic accident where some girls were playing in a cart
Speaker 1: of some sort and the cart went over the side
Speaker 1: of a cliff or something and they plunged into the water,
Speaker 1: and several of them I think were killed in that accent. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there were four of them, and three of them passed away.
Speaker 1: And I mean it was a huge deal in the town.
Speaker 1: There was a big funeral and they all mourned, and
Speaker 1: you know, it was just it was a major tragedy
Speaker 1: and something you wouldn't expect at a lighthouse per se.
Speaker 1: So it's interesting that you picked that up. The other
Speaker 1: thing I've encountered there is now this is something I
Speaker 1: didn't know actually until I went through the history for
Speaker 1: this episode. What's interesting is that the basement is the
Speaker 1: one original part of the house, so they have redone
Speaker 1: everything else, and so the basement is the only like
Speaker 1: original original part of the Keeper's quarters. So it's so
Speaker 1: strange that we see the shadow down there all the time.
Speaker 1: But going back to that, I did have a group
Speaker 1: down there that I was investigating with one night and
Speaker 1: I just got a feeling like something felt off and
Speaker 1: kind of unnatural. And I'd been looking at this group
Speaker 1: and the dark as we did an e VP session
Speaker 1: for a number of minutes at this point, but something changed,
Speaker 1: and I'm just looking at them and it's pitch dark,
Speaker 1: but i can see their outlines because there's a little
Speaker 1: ambient light from a window up in the corner, and
Speaker 1: it dawned. I mean, I'm like, I don't think I
Speaker 1: remember that man sitting there, And there's these two women
Speaker 1: sitting and there's this man in between them, and all
Speaker 1: I can see is their shadow and their outlines, and
Speaker 1: so I'm like, let me count my group, because I
Speaker 1: knew how many people were in the group, So I
Speaker 1: started at the end and I'm like, let me count here, one, two, three,
Speaker 1: And I get back to where this man was and
Speaker 1: he is not there anymore. And I look at the
Speaker 1: two women in the dark, and I'm just like, um,
Speaker 1: excuse me, and like I put my flash shight on
Speaker 1: and like I shine at the floor. I never like
Speaker 1: to shine in people's eyes because one makes them feel
Speaker 1: like they're being arrested, and two, it's like there they
Speaker 1: lose their night vision instantly, So I always put down
Speaker 1: at the floor just to get a little light. And
Speaker 1: I look at them and I'm like, was there just
Speaker 1: just a man sitting in between you? And these two
Speaker 1: women just went like wide eyed, like what are you
Speaker 1: talking about. I'm like, oh, well, there was a man
Speaker 1: sitting there a moment ago. I'm lucky those two didn't
Speaker 1: go running out of there. I probably would have would
Speaker 1: have been a little freaked out. By that. But you know,
Speaker 1: even in that location when we were there, I was
Speaker 1: there with you and Adam at one point in time
Speaker 1: in that that area, and you know, it was we
Speaker 1: got a few EPs of remember correctly, and you know,
Speaker 1: maybe some of the other equipment went off, but we
Speaker 1: were definitely getting interactive energy when we were in that
Speaker 1: basement here. Oh yeah, And I even saw a shadow
Speaker 1: in the other room at one point. And I think
Speaker 1: this was maybe like the next year that we went.
Speaker 1: So if you don't know, I own a company called
Speaker 1: Strange Escapes and we go to say in Augustine Lighthouse
Speaker 1: almost every year, and so we're going again this September,
Speaker 1: so next month, and it was I was sitting and
Speaker 1: I remember just seeing a shadow figure just walk right
Speaker 1: past the doorway and the other room in the basement.
Speaker 1: So I don't know who this shadow is. And yes,
Speaker 1: we have gotten of wild E vps there as well.
Speaker 1: Adam and I actually recently just filmed at a lighthouse
Speaker 1: for another TV show. We did a crossover and that
Speaker 1: one was even taller than Saying Augustine And when you
Speaker 1: get up to the top, your legs are like shaking,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, am I terrified? Or am I exhausted?
Speaker 1: What is happening here? I remember that Greta, my travelers
Speaker 1: sistant in BFF, and I went to an event once
Speaker 1: when we were in Enzicola, Florida, at the naval station,
Speaker 1: and there's a lighthouse there and when you walk up
Speaker 1: the steps, the stairs are not solid, they're like webbed
Speaker 1: and you can see down through it. And I'm afraid
Speaker 1: of heights anyway, and I'm like, oh no, this is
Speaker 1: not good. And it was rainy and windy, and we
Speaker 1: got to the top and I'm standing up there and
Speaker 1: I'm like, why did I do this? I'm like having
Speaker 1: vertigo and I'm going to pass out or something. And
Speaker 1: Greta and a couple of other people that had gone
Speaker 1: up with us, they were out on the on the
Speaker 1: on the outside of the lighthouse, walking around and the
Speaker 1: wind is ripping in the rain is ripping. They're like,
Speaker 1: come on out, and I'm like, no, thanks, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna do this. Not happening. And then I realized, oh crap,
Speaker 1: I've got to go back down those stairs that I
Speaker 1: can look down again at and I'm like, why did
Speaker 1: I ever do this? But I fear you, you know,
Speaker 1: you're dead by the time practically did you get to
Speaker 1: the top. But it's worth it. Let me get back
Speaker 1: to that. It's worth doing just once. Yeah, And actually
Speaker 1: that is the lighthouse that Adam and I were at filming,
Speaker 1: so I can't say who we were with yet. And
Speaker 1: it was slippery. Adam was like trying to hold onto
Speaker 1: the wall. I've actually not ever seen him so afraid
Speaker 1: in the lighthouse. I also one time was in the
Speaker 1: Absecon Lighthouse, which is in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and
Speaker 1: I was in that in the middle of a storm
Speaker 1: filming ghost hunters. That lighthouse was swaying in the wind
Speaker 1: and I was like, what, this doesn't seem normal, and
Speaker 1: you know, you're up there filming and it's literally moving,
Speaker 1: and they said it was designed to do that, and
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I am designed not to be
Speaker 1: in this lighthouse right now, so us like goodbye. No,
Speaker 1: I would have that would have been yet for me.
Speaker 1: I would have lost all control of my body functions
Speaker 1: and died on the spot. Thankfully, saying Augustine does not sway.
Speaker 1: But I do think St. Augustine is probably the most
Speaker 1: active lighthouse I have been to. It is very reliable
Speaker 1: in the sense that like, if you walk in there,
Speaker 1: especially at night, and you're quiet and you take the time,
Speaker 1: you are going to have an experience, and not just
Speaker 1: in there, but in the keeper's quarters or on the
Speaker 1: grounds itself, Like something will happen for you as long
Speaker 1: as you are patient and quiet, Like I don't think
Speaker 1: I've ever not had something happened there, and the times
Speaker 1: that I've been there, you're absolutely right there, totally willing
Speaker 1: to come out and interact. Yeah, well, we're having a
Speaker 1: Strange Escapes there in September. If you're listening to this
Speaker 1: before September two, you should come join us. We are
Speaker 1: going to be investigating there and the old jail and
Speaker 1: saying Augustine. Saying Agustine is one of my favorite towns.
Speaker 1: It is just so much fun to visit. There's that
Speaker 1: really cool old fort there. There is the Fountain of Youth,
Speaker 1: like it is the definition of tourist town, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like it. It's a great place to visit.
Speaker 1: So if you want to come with us, please do.
Speaker 1: You can visit the website at Strange dash Escapes dot com.
Speaker 1: That is my haunted travel company. I have not yet
Speaker 1: convinced Chip Coffee to join us, but you never know.
Speaker 1: And now that you've brought up Strange Escapes, let me
Speaker 1: put my two cents worth it about Strange Escapes. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of companies that do this kind of event,
Speaker 1: or a number of companies, let's put it that way,
Speaker 1: And there's some very large events, but Amy's events are
Speaker 1: more intimate. You can really spend time with the people
Speaker 1: that are the speakers and the talent that are there.
Speaker 1: You can interact with them, and you get a lot
Speaker 1: of that personal time to share with us when we're there.
Speaker 1: You put your all into making it a really positive
Speaker 1: experience for the people that attend. I congratulate you for that.
Speaker 1: You've you've done a great job. Well, thank you. I
Speaker 1: appreciate that very much. And I always tell people when
Speaker 1: they come out, I'm like, you going to be sick
Speaker 1: of us by the end of this weekend. Yes you are.
Speaker 1: We're pretty we're pretty available to the people that Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fun. So but regardless, even if
Speaker 1: you're not coming to Strange Escapes, I hope everybody enjoyed
Speaker 1: hearing about the lighthouse and chatting with Chip and I
Speaker 1: really appreciate you taking the time to join me. It's
Speaker 1: been a long time coming. I really have wanted you
Speaker 1: to talk to come onto the podcast, so finally I'm like, yes,
Speaker 1: this is the perfect place. So I really appreciate you
Speaker 1: taking the time. Thank you. You know, there's just about
Speaker 1: nothing you could ask me to do that I wouldn't
Speaker 1: do for you. Well, thank you all. I love you
Speaker 1: very much. I love you. I will hopefully see you
Speaker 1: very soon. I'm going to predict that you will see
Speaker 1: me very soon. We can't say anything more than that,
Speaker 1: but I will see you in a few days. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you, Darling. When I
Speaker 1: was growing up, my grand father had an intense love
Speaker 1: for lighthouses. It was probably to his detriment because then
Speaker 1: everyone just kept giving him lighthouse themed gifts for the
Speaker 1: rest of his life, which he always graciously accepted, of course,
Speaker 1: But I do remember losing count of them when we
Speaker 1: were cleaning his office after he passed. I don't think
Speaker 1: I fully understood the infatuation a sailor like him would
Speaker 1: have with them until I started investigating and researching them myself.
Speaker 1: Not only do I now understand why they still act
Speaker 1: as beacons for so many on land and by sea,
Speaker 1: but I can comprehend why they would be filled with
Speaker 1: energy and ghosts. There's a reason I've been called to
Speaker 1: so many to investigate, and I guarantee I will be
Speaker 1: visiting many more and probably covering more of them here
Speaker 1: on Haunted Road. Until then, I will leave you with this.
Speaker 1: Don't ever forget that, just maybe you are the lighthouse
Speaker 1: in someone's storm. I'm Amy Brunei, and this was Haunted Road. YEA.
Speaker 1: Haunted Road is a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Haunted Road is hosted
Speaker 1: and written by me Amy Bruney, additional research by Taylor Haggerdorn.
Speaker 1: The show is edited and produced by rema El Kali
Speaker 1: and supervising producer Josh Thing and executive producers Aaron Mankey,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.