Conkle's Hollow

Horse Head Grotto. . .I would call it "wicked scary" in the dark and when you are alone because that's where we (Members of the HIT team and junior helpers) were five minutes after we had brought in the equipment and were waiting for the group to arrive when our tiki torch decided it did not want to stay lit. We went from this above to. . .

It was a very long half hour wait.

Here is some of the evidence we pulled from the Haunted Hocking - Conkle's Hollow program. There were approximately 83 people aiding in the investigation.

The group was led along the lower region of the Conkle's Hollow Trail to Horse Head Grotto (there is an upper trail that follows along the cliff edge and lower trail that runs along the bottom of the gorge) at dark-9:00 pm at night. Horse Head Grotto is a small recess cave.

One hundred and forty-four photographs were taken of Horse Head Grotto with an infrared converted Canon Digital Rebel. This enables pictures to be taken in the dark.

Conkle's Hollow - Hocking Hills

Haunted Place-Conkle's Hollow in Ohio's Hocking Hills-

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Area Investigated: Conkle's Hollow in southeastern Ohio-The Hocking Hills

The Legends:

Shawnee paddleboat robbers are said to have been hung here.

William Conkle is said to still watch over his hollow.

Investigation: Legends and journal records.

Investigation included exploring the recess cave and area around it.

Types of Equipment Used:

1 Cell Sensor EMF Meter
1 Electrosensor EMF meter
1 Sony EMC-F Omni directional Microphone
1 LED micro light red light flashlight
1 Pocket infrared non contact thermometer
Digital Camera
Dowsing Rod
Crystal
Digital Recorder
Geiger Counter
Infrared digital camera

Types of Evidence Found:

EMF spikes outside recess cave
orb-like balls on pictures
EMF and Dousing Rods reacted in same location
Cold spots
Some evidence is still being looked into.

Haunted Ohio-The Hocking Hills Region

Dousing rods were used. At the left side of the cave about 10 steps from the entrance, the dousing rods move in full circular motion for at least 4 investigators. The EMF spiked in the area also. A temperature drop of 10 degrees occurred once here.

Hocking Hills State Park Naturalist Patrick Quackenbush explained some natural causes for the sights and sounds experienced. A Screech Owl's shrill cry is often confused with a scream or wail and can echo with frightening clarity in a recess cave. The naturalist did call in actual Barred Owls who gave off eerie and very human-like cackles that sounded like ghosts in the trees!

There are also certain types of fungus growing on trees (armillaria mushrooms) which glow in the dark when they release their spores. We did get to see a pancake-size area of a dead log glowing an eerie pale green from the fungi.

Orbs were photographed and sent in from one of the guest investigators in the recess cave itself.
Orbs are thought to be energy occurring and are said to appear like a cottonball with a small tail flitting across a picture and some of which could be paranormal activity. However, when the flash from a camera hits a bug or dust, it can bounce off the particles making it appear like an orb to the viewer.

Tabby sent this in from the Haunted Hocking - Conkle's Hollow at Horse Head Grotto. Note the orbs and strange swirls of fog above the crowd. At the time, the girl on the left is using dousing rods. One of the team noticed faces in the swirls...

This picture was submitted by Denny and Brenda Saunders, taken 1/22/06 , 2:54 pm, at the Horse Head Grotto.

We have actually seen several pictures at Horse Head Grotto with the same foggy haze hovering over a person in the picture. We tried to debunk the haze as nothing more than dust rising in the air and shimmering off rays of light. We tried shuffling around the dusty floor of the recess cave during daylight and darkness. We also thought it might be heat rising from folks' bodies or even the breath of the picture taker hovering near the lens. However, we could not emulate any of these speculations.

There have been several deaths in this particular area due to falls from the cliff edges.