THE ABANDONED CHURCH
Rural Oklahoma
This location is probably one of the most intense places I mention in this book. While it is not the most popular or largest haunted site, it is the one of the most threatening and intimidating sites I have ever investigated. Due to some conflicts with an author disclosing information about this building and concerns from the property owner, the name and location of this building must remain a secret. I can only offer the details that surrounded my experiences there.
Little is known about this single-story abandoned building. It sits across from a cemetery hidden in the back roads of rural Western Oklahoma. Very little research can be done on this site, but I have learned it was once an African-American church in the 1950s. I heard about the church through another team that had investigated the site about a year prior to our meeting.
First Investigation: Leave or Die
The problem with setting up an investigation with the site was not that no one wanted to go but that no one knew where to go. The team members could not remember how to get there and we couldn’t get any of the locals to tell us where it was. A few months later, one of our investigators, Frankie, found the site while on a routine job run in the area. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at first, but once I learned he was accurate in his discovery, I set up an investigation.
I made my first trip to the church a few days later with investigators Frankie and Ferron to explore the old church. We traveled down the empty dirt road, waiting for the church to appear from out of the darkness ahead. When we arrived, we took the equipment out of the trunk and proceeded into the building. We made our way around the first floor and eventually into the basement. The first floor was one single room with debris all over, from trash to burned out fragments of the building. There was no glass in the windows, so everything was open. Graffiti covered all the walls inside, from satanic words to explicit images. There is a small staircase leading down to the basement area. The basement is very small with small glassless windows looking up to the outside. More graffiti is spread throughout the basement and a small opening in the back leading to the outside of the back of the church.
Our audio recorder was running for EVP, and I took several photographs throughout. While on the chancel, I noticed a dark shadow passing in front of the doorway. I looked outside to see anyone had snuck up and tried to scare us, but no one was outside. We finished our investigation and started back home.
Ferron started listening to the EVP in the car on the way home and made a startling discovery. During the sweep, we walked through the basement entrance at four minutes and thirty seconds into the recording. At that time, a male voice whispered, “You shouldn’t be here.”
We were still sweeping the basement, and at nine minutes into the recording (exactly four minutes and thirty seconds after the first whisper) and with us in the exact same location, the same voice said, “You shouldn’t be here, or you’re going to die.” While we didn’t have too many personal experiences, this EVP alone was enough evidence to warrant another investigation.
Second Investigation:
The Assault of the Basement Entity
A few weeks later I returned to the church with Phillip and investigators Chris, Claudia, Tree, and Christina. The ride up to the church was interesting enough with six people crammed into my car. As we approached the church, my investigators started freaking out on me. Claudia said she had a bad feeling about the investigation and started crying and screaming hysterically. We all got out of the car and headed toward the building when Chris began throwing up. He walked off the church grounds and back to the car. After a moment, he said he was feeling better, so he started back toward the church. Once he stepped back on church grounds, he was throwing up again.
“It’s a good idea to stay in the car with Claudia,” I told him. Leaving the two of them in my car, the other four of us covered the entire first floor. Two investigators proceeded up to the area around the altar, which left me and Phillip on the main floor. I then heard scuffling from the area of the basement, as if someone were dragging their shoes across the floor, and I could also hear what I perceived to be a low-toned mumbling. I walked toward the entrance to the basement and shined my flashlight down inside. I didn’t see anything but continued to hear sounds. I was concerned that, given the church’s backwoods location, there might be an animal down there that would attack us.
A minute or so had passed when a large gust of wind—along with something else—came up from the basement and pushed me back with enough force that my feet literally left the ground, and I landed about six feet from where I was standing.
“Phillip, did you see what happened?” I called.
“Yes! Are you okay to continue?” he asked.
Together we headed down to the basement. We walked down to find nothing noticeable inside. We headed back upstairs and continued our walk-through of the first-floor area. I approached one of the broken-out windows and looked across the street at the cemetery. The brightness from the dome light in my car grabbed my attention. I looked over and focused on the inside of the car. What are they doing in there? I thought. I then spotted a dark figure peering in the driver’s side window at them.
The figure was about as tall as the side mirror on the car and was curiously looking in the window to see what they were doing. I adjusted my eyes and moved my head to make sure I wasn’t seeing a shadow from a tree or something else. The figure then turned its head around toward me. It had no eyes or distinct features. Once it made the connection that I could see it, it zoomed away down the road.
Right away, I told Phillip what I had experienced, and we wrapped up the investigation shortly after. We drove down the road away from the church, but Tree and Claudia claimed they felt like whatever was inside the church was following us down the road. Once we passed the first intersection, the feeling was gone. I felt whatever it was just wanted to make sure we were headed in the right direction and not coming back, which is typically what a guardian does. A guardian is a spiritual protector that watches over a location to keep evil spirits and intruders out. There can be good or evil guardians in place over locations.
Third Investigation: Covered in Darkness
After that experience, we returned multiple times to the church for further investigations. On one particular case Brandon was with me. We entered the church and made a walk-through of the building. As we walked, we saw shadows outside, passing the windows and circling the church. I asked Brandon if he could see the phenomenon and he said yes. We decided to stand still for a few minutes to monitor the activity. We leaned against the wall of the main entrance of the church. Other than the soft wind blowing outside, the room was silent. We continued to watch the shadows pass.
Out of nowhere Brandon jumped back and looked down at the floor.
“What happened?”
“Something was tugging on my pant leg!” I could tell he was shaken by it, and he kept looking around. I stood back and watched the altar from where we were standing.
“If there is anyone present, can you make yourself known?” I asked. A strong vibration come over me. It was very heavy and almost paralyzing. I looked up to see a black mass starting to fill the roof of the church and creep in our direction. It was so black and dense that the hole in the roof through which you could usually see the moon was completely covered. I could see through the windows that the shadows were passing ten times faster until the outside light was almost darkened. It was a very negative and very angry feeling. It felt like the walls of hell were closing in on us.
Brandon didn’t move. “Is it time to leave?”
Still watching the events unfold, I simply said yes, and away we went.
A strange pink light (above time stamp) was captured on film during an investigation at the church.
Fourth Investigation: Heed the Warning
On a separate occasion, I decided against my better judgment to take a few guests to the church. They were Mike and Karen, the couple I met at the Stone Lion Inn the first time I spent the night there. One of the stories I told them was about the experiences I had at the church, and they seemed genuinely interested. I explained that if they went out, it was at their own risk, and I wouldn’t be responsible for anything that happened to them or their property.
They agreed, and we met at a gas station in Guthrie on the night of the investigation. I thought it would be in both our best interests if we took our own vehicles so we could leave whenever we wanted to. They followed me to the church, and I took them on a tour of the structure and told them the accounts of what had happened so far. They expressed an uncomfortable feeling about being there, but at the time I could not concur.
We headed down into the basement, only to hear noises coming from outside as if someone were in the bushes walking around. Again, with this being an abandoned location in the middle of nowhere, it would be easy for someone to sneak up on us. Concerned for the guests, I went outside to check for people, but no one was there. I walked back inside and looked around, immediately taking notice of something through the windows. I could see several shadows outside passing the open windows. The feeling of extreme hostility was setting in.
“It’s time to go,” I told my guests. I felt there was something waiting for us both inside and out. They didn’t want to go just yet, but I told them it would be in our best interests for us to leave. They finally agreed, and we started for the cars. I looked back at the church and saw what looked to me like a figure above the main entrance looking down at us. I hurried in my car and started out the driveway. I looked back to see the couple was taking some time to pull out and leave. I was concerned that they would wait for me to leave and go back into the church. They eventually left and followed me to the gas station in Guthrie.
I had not yet exited my car when the husband came up to my car window. I rolled the window down and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“There’s something you have to see,” he said.
The reason he took so much time leaving was that the moment they started to pull out there was an unseen force throwing things from the back of their SUV. They said the tossing continued down the street until they turned onto the road leading to the highway. It was a bit strange, but it made sense. It was obvious something didn’t want us there, as if we were interfering. I could see the tossing as a warning to get the hell away and never come back.
The next detail was perhaps the most threatening. Starting at the driver’s side window, there were claw marks in mud that appeared to go down to the bottom of the door. They were not finger marks, but it looked as if something sharp scratched down the window to where the glass meets the door. Not only did they have insufficient time to do this themselves, but I didn’t think they would want to risk scratching up their new vehicle just to impress me. Additionally, the door was very warm—not scalding hot, but warmer than I thought it should be.
The claw marks made me think. The figure peering into my car during my previous visit was looking into the driver’s side window. Could there have been something in the car the entity wanted? Or was it yet another message to stay away from the church? I saw a connection between the times we had been out there: the entities seemed to pick on or focus on the new people we brought out. If they were not recognized, something always happened.
The question then becomes, who is haunting the church? Most people believe the church is haunted by demons due to the satanic graffiti and rituals that have been said to take place out there. I have yet to find a sacrifice but would not be surprised if I did someday.
Fifth Investigation: Running through the Cemetery
Some of you may be asking, “Has anything else physically attacked you there?” Not that I can remember, but I did go there one time with two other investigators and witnessed more strange phenomena.
I arrived sometime shortly after Memorial Day 2006 with Chris and Jerico. After entering the church and making our sweep, we took a seat near the altar. I sat between the other two investigators, and we focused our attention on the main entryway of the church. We heard a few sounds as we were walking around, and most of them were generated near the front doorway.
It wasn’t long before I was hit in the back with a rock. I turned around to see if there was anyone in the direction of where the rock came from. At first I thought it could have fallen from the ceiling, but the rock came at me horizontally, not in a falling motion. There was an open area behind us where a window once was, so I thought someone could have been hiding outside. I quickly verified there was not anyone around and continued the sit-down.
A strange light appeared in the corner of the room. The light was small and round, about the diameter of a quarter, and was very dim. It appeared for about five seconds and just disappeared. We could not get any responses after several attempts at communication.
I suddenly got the feeling that we were in the wrong place. I knew we had to go across the street to the cemetery. Before this night, we really had not gotten any significant data from the cemetery, but we decided to check it out anyway.
We entered the cemetery from the main gate and started toward the back. As we walked, we noticed a small black form near one of the back headstones and a tree. At first glance I thought it was a dog. I told Jerico, who was a few steps ahead of us, to watch out for the wild animal ahead. He looked and confirmed the shadow.
He then started running toward it at full speed. Several of the graves had plastic American flags and other military decorations for Memorial Day on them. As Jerico ran past, each one snapped as if someone had broken it in half. Once he got near the grave, the shadow darted straight up the nearby tree. We did not move until we witnessed the form take flight.
I was compelled to attend to Jerico but also to check the flags that snapped.
“Are you okay?” I asked him, and he confirmed he was. I shined my flashlight down at each grave, inspecting the flags. None of them were damaged or moved.
Chris was preoccupied looking for the form behind nearby gravestones. The three of us walked through the cemetery toward the main gate. I shined my flashlight around at the other headstones and noticed it started to flicker as if it were going to go out. I felt a small breeze blow past me very gently, which I thought was odd since there was zero wind that night. I turned around and did not see anything.
As I looked all the way up the tree next to me, the light on my flashlight started going out; when I looked at the branches, the light died. I found myself looking directly at the black form that was taunting us. I took a huge step back into one of my investigators. I never took my eyes off the form, and as I backed up, it flew out of the tree and directly across to another tree. After a few seconds, it shot straight up into the night and disappeared. The sound was very loud and the tree shook.
“What’s going on?” the others inquired. They thought a flock of birds had flown out of the tree. I explained what was going on, and we again searched the ground and sky for the form.
We did not see or hear anything else that night related to the previous events. We packed up and headed home.
Final Thoughts on the Abandoned Church
I have been back to the church a handful of times after the last major incident and about fifty times in total over the past eight years. At times, it appeared that there was something there, but human threats were the major concern. While most of the church’s regulars are kids partying and drinking, I feel there are other problems present at times. I don’t know if some people are going out there conjuring up spirits or if there is other reasoning behind what we feel while we are there. I do know that the place is not safe at times. One of the other threats out here is wild animals. Coyotes and mountain lions are the biggest local sightings. Sometimes there is nothing at all out there and it is very quiet. However, it is not worth the risk of your safety or your life.
I also urge all readers not to attempt to find this location. The owners of the property do not want anyone there and will call the police if they detect any visitors. It is not worth going to jail or getting killed. I can’t say I won’t ever go back to the abandoned church, but I don’t know when I will return either. I don’t know if the building is active anymore because I haven’t been there in quite a while, but I do know that in the past the building and its dark occupants loved to raise hell.