MACOMB, ILL. -- You've probably seen it on TV - ghost hunters trying to get in touch with the paranormal.
You have a chance to do just that in Macomb this month.
Macomb Ghost Tours' "A Midwest Haunting" will meet every Friday and Saturday beginning this weekend.
The event includes a paranormal investigational tour of the McDonough County Courthouse, Old Lamoine Hotel, the original Masonic Temple and even Oakwood Cemetery.
KHQA's Rajah Maples headed up to Macomb earlier this week to test our ghost-hunting skills.
This is the Old Lamoine Hotel located above the Macomb Journal. We're told the hotel hasn't been used for more than 20 years, by the living anyway. The Macomb Ghost Tours provides these tools - divining rods, electromagnetic field detectors and temperature gauges - to help detect the slightest activity. Co-owner Tim Weaver says his tour groups have seen some pretty weird stuff in years past. This is what he told us happened when we went on the tour with him 2 years ago.
Tim Weaver said, "We've had several occurrences. So far, one person at the Bailey house, his arm turned blue and started shaking uncontrollably. Last night, we had a girl trembling and crying. She felt someone had grabbed her."
The Bailey House isn't included in this year's tour. But Weaver and the rest of the tour group say there won't be any shortage of paranormal activity.
Weaver said, "The LaMoine Hotel is the hot spot for people's sensations going crazy; being watched, people feeling like someone's breathing down their neck, goose bumps on only one side of the body."
In fact, these divining rods had quite a bit of activity when we were there Tuesday night. Macomb Ghost Tours encourages people to bring their digital cameras to help pick up images invisible to the naked eye. Macomb's Haunted Ghost Tour leaders hope to bring out both believers and skeptics alike to ensure a fun, seasonal activity, which will also educate you about Macomb's past.
The Haunted Tours take place every Friday and Saturday nights beginning at 7 p.m. for a brief opener at Sullivan Taylor Coffee House
Private tours are also available for groups of 25 or more.
For more information, log on to www.amidweshaunting.com.
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