The Store

The store was an intriguing investigation that had actually been investigated by another paranormal research group before the CRPIS had been invited to visit. Reports of a fire, a mysterious headstone of a female and a tragic story of a life lived and lost surrounded the property which was located outside of La Crosse county in the community of Sparta, Wisconsin.

Along with its history came the eyewitness reports of spectral phantoms, voices heard when nobody was to be found, sounds of objects moving and the ever present cold spots and other various things associated with haunting phenomena. With a review like that, the CRPIS field team couldn't resist the opportunity to check it out and two trips were made to the site.

During the second and last trip to the site, a woman who purported to be a psychic accompanied the CRPIS team to the site for her own reasons which also served a purpose for the CRPIS field team as well. We were curious to see if anything could be discerned from the environment by the psychic that could give us insights into the headstone that was found and the woman to whom it belonged. At the end of the evening, we had to conclude that the "psychic" was of no use to our investigation in that she provided no new evidence or information and in fact contributed nothing to our investigation that could be corraborated by historical references or other histories of the site.

One thing that cannot be overlooked though is that something was encountered at the site and we thought that with more investigation, we might be able to find out more but sadly, the business has closed its doors and the building is now for sale. We doubt that the new owners, whomever that might be, will be as generous and as open to the possibility of our conducting investigations and experiments in the building.

There can be no doubt that something is in the building. From the muffled and distant voices that could be heard but not discerned to the moving cold spots and the distinct smell of burning, wet wood. Trace memories of a fire tragedy from years past? What of the headstone that was found on the property from the earlier 1800's? Does the ghost of the woman still wander the building? We seem to have more questions than answers but we stop short of calling this case a haunting because we simply do not have enough evidence to make a determination.

You can read the investigation log here.