A Little Bit of Heaven in Kentucky Camp
Combining the skills of two intuitives with the skills of a pendulum dowser required time, experience, patience, a willingness to experiment, and a desire to face the unknown. The transcript of one of our earliest investigations shows how this process evolved and was tried, tested, and refined to our current approach. We traveled to an abandoned but well-preserved ranch site near Sonoita, Arizona, called Kentucky Camp, where we encountered an interesting relationship between two spirits and were faced with a serious question about the nature of our work and the ethical questions that work inevitably brings up.
Dwight and Rhonda stand outside
of the bunkhouse at Kentucky Camp.
The interior of
Kentucky Camp’s bunkhouse.
Dan is near some of the ruins
at Kentucky Camp.
Arizona is known as “the Copper State,” but it is gold that first attracted explorers, adventurers, miners, settlers, and the rough-and-tumble times that followed. One of the sources of that wealth is the Santa Rita Mountains located today in the Coronado National Forest.
The Santa Rita Water and Mining Co. built Kentucky Camp in 1904. The idea was to channel water through a pipeline seven miles from the mountains for use in hydraulic mining. A water cannon was used to blast away the rock and dirt so the miners could get to the gold within. The venture lasted only two years. Problems with the water supply, combined with the mysterious death of the chief engineer in 1905, caused a shut-down in 1906.
For the next 50 years the facility served as the headquarters for a cattle ranch, but was later sold to a mining firm. The Coronado National Forest acquired the property in 1989 and it is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The ten-room headquarters house, where we conducted our research, is one of the largest surviving adobe structures of its era. Four other adobe buildings are also on the site. People who want to get a small taste of what ranch life was like can even rent a three-room adobe building for an overnight stay. One of the original hydraulic cannons is on display near the old gold processing building—the metal slowly rusting and joining the elements of the mountains it tried to destroy.
Kentucky Camp is located in a beautiful area surrounded by rolling hills and nearby mountains. We parked at the top of a hill and walked the old road down into the camp hoping for contact, but not quite expecting the results we got. We toured the site and enjoyed touching history before settling into comfortable chairs in the headquarters.
The interaction that occurred during this session reinforced the concept that spirits aren’t just spooks waiting around to shout “boo!” at some unsuspecting visitor. They’re people who experience the full run of human emotions. Sometimes, as in human relations on this side, those emotions can be in conflict. People who disagree in life can still disagree in life after death. The realm of the spirit world would prove to be much more complex than traditional thought would have us believe. The encounter at Kentucky Camp was just the first of many eye-opening experiences.
Dwight began the session. My references to “that’s a yes” or “I’m getting a no” and so on are in response to pendulum movements.
D: EVP Session One. We are at Kentucky Camp. We are in what I guess is the headquarters building. It is April 9, 2016 at approximately 3:28 p.m. And currently we are in one of the small rooms off the main hallway.
DB: Are there any departed spirits here?
That’s a pretty good yes.
D: Yep.
DB: Are you willing to communicate with us?
Kind of a weak yes.
R: Were you miners here at the camp?
DB: yes.
R: Did you find a lot of gold?
DB: Yes.
R: Did you die here? Did you pass at the camp?
DB: You need to ask that another way. “Are there more—”
R: Are there more than one of you?
DB: Yes.
R: Okay.
DB: You can’t get a yes or no on a multiple choice question.
R: Right.
Are there about five of you here?
DB: Yes. A strong yes. You need to address one of them.
R: Did any of you pass at the camp? Die at the camp? Any of you?
DB: Yes.
R: Okay.
(Commentary: We are just beginning to learn to format questions in a way that enhances each set of skills. Use of a pendulum requires asking yes/no or either/or questions.)
D: I would like to ask if there are any people here with us. We are doing a pendulum session so you can manipulate that for yes or no answers. Also I would like to ask if you could call out your names. If any of you are here could you call out your names so we can record it? My name is Dwight. That is my wife, Rhonda. And that is our very good friend Dan. So you know who we are. We’d like to know who you are. So anytime during this session just come up to us and say your name very loudly and clearly and we can understand you on this little box here. It’s called a recorder. That would be great.
Are there any females here?
(Commentary: Dwight’s intuitive skills had already picked up something. He asked a question in such a way so as to prevent influencing Dan’s use of the pendulum. Notice he didn’t say “I sense a female.” At this point we were learning how to fact-check each other’s responses.)
DB: I’m getting a yes.
D: If there are females here I’d like to welcome you. Are there females here under the age of twenty?
DB: I’m getting a yes.
R: Did you live here with your parents? Did the females that were under twenty?
DB: That’s a yes.
D: Okay, to the female here, I always like to know why you’re here. Are you here just because you liked it here?
DB: Yes.
D: I can understand. It’s a very quiet, very nice location.
DB: Are you here now because you like it here—in this timeframe?
That’s a yes.
I can’t say that I blame them. It’s a wonderful place.
D: If you’re going to be someplace this is the place to be.
R: Absolutely pretty.
D: For anybody here, males or females, was this building used for any purpose other than as a company building? For management? Let me phrase the question again. To your knowledge was this building ever used for anything other than management?
DB: Yes. Pretty good yes.
(Commentary: The references to “strong” or “good” or similar modifiers throughout this book refers to the strength of the pendulum swing.)
R: It looks like a lot of rooms. Did people sleep here? Like the miners?
DB: Yes. Yes. Yes.
R: Did you stay here?
DB: Is there more than—
R: Right. Did any of you stay here in this room when you were alive?
DB: Yes.
R: Okay.
D: Let me ask this question of anybody who is here—was this building ever used at one time as a hospital or infirmary?
DB: Yes.
D: I’m getting a strong sense now, and have been, that there were sick people here.
R: Right. It’s more like a hospital.
DB: It makes sense. You’d obviously bring them here.
R: Right.
D: I’m seeing sick people?
R: TB?
D: Or something like that. I’m seeing non-mine related diseases. The female comes across to me that she was here. She was in this building and she was sick.
To the female who was here, to the female who was sick. Were you here because you weren’t feeling well?
DB: That’s a yes.
D: I imagine because of the type and size of the building it was used for many purposes.
DB: Probably a catchall building.
D: An everything building.
R: To the female who is here, did you pass due to a contagious disease?
DB: Yes.
R: Okay.
DB: Did you pass here, at this location?
Yes.
I’m curious. Is there anyone here now who is unhappy to be here now?
No.
D: Yep. That’s exactly … that’s the first thing that came into my head—no.
DB: I’m not even getting a no.
R: You got a nothing.
DB: Null (movement). What are you guys getting?
R: Is there anybody here not happy in this place?
DB: That’s a yes.
For some reason I asked the question wrong.
R: Is there anybody here who needs help in crossing over?
DB: That’s a yes.
Was that person a female?
Again, yes
I was thinking no, but I got a yes. What are ya’ll picking up?
D: I’m not picking up a stuck situation.
R: Maybe she’s confused and not stuck.
Do you need help or are you trying to help someone else?
DB: One at a time. One question at a time. No two-part questions.
R: Sorry. To the female, do you need help? Okay, I’m going to rephrase that.
DB: It’s swinging … It’s swinging no.
R: Are you trying to help someone else who is here who is a female?
Okay. (Responding to a “yes” comment from the spirit.)
DB: That’s a yes.
R: Is this person a man that you’re trying to help?
DB: Yes.
(Commentary: Again, Rhonda’s intuition led to questions that were validated by an independent source.)
R: Is the male stuck here?
DB: Yes.
Is the man who is stuck here happy anyway?
Yes. He’s happy with it.
R: So maybe he doesn’t need help, but she wants him to go. Is that—
DB: Swinging yes.
R: Has the male already been into the light and crossed over?
DB: Yes.
R: Yeah.
R: He just likes it here. He wants to stay here and you don’t like it here and don’t want to stay here.
DB: Say that again. Say it in—
R: Right. So, as I understand it, you would like him to leave this place.
DB: Yes. That’s swinging yes right away.
R: [It’s like she’s saying] Enough already, we’ve been there/done that, let’s do something else.
DB: Is he hesitant to move on?
That’s a strong yes.
R: Then he’s crossed over, but he just likes it here.
DB: Likes it here.
R: Okay.
D: Nothing we can do with that.
R: You’re just going to have to work a little harder on that—work it out between you two. I didn’t pick up anything that anybody had not crossed.
DB: That’s why I asked if anybody was unhappy because I don’t feel unhappiness here.
D: Oh, there’s not … I don’t feel unhappiness here.
R: It’s just that she’s not unhappy here but she wants him to go with her.
DB: And he’s saying, “We’ve got a pretty good deal here.”
D: I’m not picking up that it’s her daddy. I’m not even picking up that it’s a relation.
R: No. I don’t think so.
D: I think it just might be somebody she knew.
DB: Is he a friend?
D: I’m picking up that he’s older by quite a bit actually.
DB: Is the male we are discussing older than the female?
Big yes.
Are you related by blood?
That’s a no.
R: Well you can just get along if you want.
D: You can’t make somebody go.
DB: Do we have the right to insist that someone move on? No, we don’t.
D: No.
R: No.
D: If he’s happy and he’s where he wants to be …
DB: This falls into “none of our business.”
R: That’s between you and him.
If he hadn’t crossed over that would be a different story.
DB: Is it true that he has crossed over, but has returned because he likes it here?
That’s a strong yes.
D: Yes.
R: It’s a beautiful place.
DB: Essentially our work is done. I don’t think we should—
D: I don’t think we should push the issue.
DB: That’s not our job.
R: You’re going to have to work it out between you guys. Once you cross over that’s something you have to figure out—where you’re going to be, what you’re going to do.
DB: They’re obviously not in a bad place.
R: If he’s happy being here, so be it.
Shoot, I’d love to live here …
It’s a little piece of Heaven.
Our goal in this area of paranormal work is to find and help spirits in whatever ways they may need help. We’re not in the business of collecting EVPs and storing them in a computer file for later playback. In those cases in which we find a spirit content to remain where he or she is, we don’t push the issue. The rights of privacy and personal choice extend beyond the grave.