Investigated by Agent Justin and the crew from 307Paranormal, a Cody, Wyoming-based group.
October 6-7, 2012.

First we must start with some history on the Historic Sheridan Inn. In 1892, the railroad came to Sheridan, Wyoming. The Sheridan Land Company began construction of the Inn in 1892. Construction was completed six short months later. It was reported to have cost a mere $25,000 to construct.

William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, a world renowned showman purchased the Inn shortly after it opened, as a part of his W.F. Cody Hotel company. Buffalo Bill frequented the Inn, holding auditions for his world famous Wild West Show on the front lawn. He also stayed in the same room at the south end of the 2nd floor. The room offers a view of the train tracks, and Bill could see folks coming and going from his room. The Inn was the first building in Sheridan to have electric lights.

Come the 20th Century, the Inn's popularity began to fade, and it faced financial burdens which continue to this day. The six month construction time meant that the Inn's condition began to deteriorate over the decades, and the building went through several owners. It closed its doors in 1965, even after being designated as a National Historic Landmark. Rumors of the Inn's demolition and bankruptcy circulated throughout Sheridan (strangely enough, the same thing would happen in 2011 and 2012).

In 1967, Neltje, a well known resident of Sheridan, located to the town from New York City, and purchased the Inn. She became known as "the woman who saved the Inn". She undertook the task of renovating and updating the Inn. The Inn's Saloon was re-opened in 1968, and the dining room followed in 1969, followed by the Wyoming Room (an addition which we'll discuss later). This also meant a new kitchen and other significant improvements as well. Neltje owned the Inn for nearly two decades. In 1986, the Inn unfortunately closed its doors for a second time, following financial struggles yet again. In 1990, the Sheridan Heritage Center (the Inn's current owner) purchased the facility. Once again, following financial struggles combined with a down economy (from 2008 onward), the Inn was forced to close its doors on October 1st, 2012. *A majority of the above comes from the Sheridan Inn's website here.

On October 6th, the Inn decided to allow a group to investigate the Inn, and find out if the past hasn't died there. This is one of the first times in nearly 30 years that a paranormal investigation team was allowed to spend several hours alone in the building. Intermountain Paranormal Society Investigator Justin Wolffing was allowed to join the group and produced his own investigation while assisting 307Paranormal with theirs.

The investigation began with a walk through on October 6th. With two folks heavily involved in the Inn, who are Jake and Edre in the video you can find below, we learned additional history of the Inn, and about some of the potential spirits who walk its halls. This includes Horton Boal, who was said to have committed suicide in one of the rooms on the 2nd floor on October 27, 1902. There is some speculation as to whether the suicide was actually murder, and evidence captured on this investigation sheds some light on that subject as you can see below. The other spirits include Miss Kate, who was at the Inn from 1901 up until her death in the 1960s. She was considered the "mother" of the Inn, helping with daily operations. Her ashes are interned in a wall on the 3rd floor. Other spirit possibilities include Buffalo Bill himself and unexplained children on the second and third floor.

During the walk through that afternoon, we began hearing noises in the Inn, from footsteps to strange bangs. I should mention at this time, that the investigators I was there with are Jared, Anna, and Logan. As you'll see in the episode produced by 307Paranomral, the activity began very early into the investigation, even during the walk through.

The main investigation began at about 8:30 pm, as we were locked in by Jake, who told us to call if anything serious happened, or when we were ready to leave for the night. He had also informed the police department that we would be at the Inn since they frequently received calls that someone was there, even if there was nobody present.

We first noticed a cold spot at the top of the second floor, which didn't change or move throughout the night. The four of us headed to one of two actual completed hotel rooms in the Inn, both on the second floor. Setting up to film some shots, we heard a loud breath noise, which wasn't captured on any of our recorders. Immediately following the breath, I had my recorder running and caught what sounds like a breath again and a voice saying "it's cold".

Audio clip one:
Sitting Bull Voice (MP3) - The original clip is first, followed by a repeat with amplified audio. The EVP comes right after Jared says "here Anna do you want to get on that". It is repeated again, and then the audio in question is repeated twice after that, with hiss reduction applied.

Following recording for a little while longer in the Sitting Bull Room, we ventured down the hall, still on the 2nd floor, to Horton's Room. This is the room where Horton Boal supposedly committed suicide. There are varying accounts of what actually happened, but generally it is known that he wrote a suicide note. The note stated that Horton couldn't kill himself with a gun because the only gun he had was that of his wife's and he didn't want to use it. Horton put chloroform in his shoes and was found dead after that. During his "solo" in this room, Jared was able to confirm via EVP that Horton's spirit was present, and that what actually happened may have been murder. I had my laptop set up in this room, and it was recording audio throughout the night. I was also recording video via motion capture feature on my web cam, but it failed to catch anything but myself setting the system up. I also had Microsoft Word open and was hoping the spirit would press a key and type a message. Nothing like that happened. No evidence was captured on my audio off of the computer, however as I mentioned, 307Paranormal caught a string of EVPs in this room which can be viewed in their episode. I also captured a distant woman's voice on my recorder.

Audio clip two:
Horton's Room Distant Woman - The original clip features Jared asking the question "can you tell us why you killed yourself". During the silence, two noises can be heard, what sounds like a lower feminine voice, almost in sorrow, and another brief feminine voice. In this clip, the original comes first, followed by an amplified version. Following the amplified version, a noise reduction is applied, and the final clip is the voice by itself with noise reduction applied. Note: This one is a bit difficult to hear.

After the brief session in Horton's room, we left for Buffalo Bill's room on the opposite side (southern wing) of the 2nd floor. All of us felt cold spots, and Jared and Logan reported feeling uneasy. Once we were settled in where Bill's room was, we began another EVP session. This is where it is said that voices of children are reported. Nothing was happening and it became very quiet for several minutes. Jared played a recording on his laptop of the song that was played at Buffalo Bill's funeral, in hopes of producing activity, but nothing emerged. As we were leaving the second floor, we began hearing footsteps on the floor above us. Jared and Logan went to the third floor, leaving Anna and I on the second floor. Both of us heard the footsteps on either floor, but neither could hear them at the same time. Anna and I heard a distinct dragging noise on the second floor which none of our recorders were able to capture. On the third floor, Jared and Logan decided to move farther down from where they originally were sitting. Jared caught a black shape near Miss Kate's room on his camera, and it can be viewed in the episode linked below. Now up on the third floor, we continued to hear distant bangs and footsteps, some of which appeared on my recorder. Keep in mind, we were the only ones in the building, and it was probably close to 10 pm.

Audio clip three:
Distant Bangs and Footsteps on Third Floor - The original clip is played first. About 12 seconds into the original, you can clearly hear a strange noise that is definitely closer than the bangs. The original is followed by an amplified version, which in turn, is followed by that same amplified version with noise reduction applied. Note, I do not believe the noise you first hear in the noise reduction segment is paranormal. Fifth street (directly outside) was fairly active that night, and this could have been traffic. The strange noise almost sounds like a bit of talking, almost two words. I am unable to determine what, if anything, it is saying.

After investigating the third floor, we headed down to the basement, which is mostly original, except for the portion that exists underneath the 1960s addition. The basement had a very unsettling heavy feeling, and none of us wanted to stay down there for an extended amount of time. When we were doing our walk through earlier in the afternoon, a fire alarm was going off and had to be manually shut off. It was going off again as we headed down the stairs. Jake had shown me how to shut it off, and I did so, so it wouldn't taint our audio. The basement consists of four areas, and is one part of the Inn I had never been, before that day. The farthest south point of the basement is used for storage. There are also water heater/HVAC rooms down there, like one would expect, and a laundry room. The middle section of the basement sits directly under the kitchen, and is a large open room. Next to this open room is where the original basement begins. It is dirt, like most buildings built at the time. There are several other nooks and crannies that we didn't investigate, and they go back farther than I would have liked to have gone to begin with. On the northern side of the basement is where most of the foundation work had to be done, as the building was sinking. This ate up a big chunk of the renovation costs. Also on that side of the basement, is the equipment room for the elevator. We didn't spend much time over there, mostly concentrating on the southern side of the basement. While down there, in a storage room that seemingly goes on for at least 20 feet, I caught one of the clearest EVPs I have ever captured since 2004. It was used in the episode, and is a man whispering "I'mma kill me". The recorder was very near me at the time, as I was setting up my camera to take a 30 second exposure.

Audio clip four:
I'mma Kill Me - The EVP comes right after the first question, with Jared and Logan talking. Since it is so clear, the original is repeated twice. I then clip it down to just the EVP, and finally apply noise reduction to it. This is what I would consider a class A EVP. None of us said "I'mma Kill Me" and you can hear me busy with my camera. Nobody was whispering during this time either. Right after this, I felt something nudge my camera (as you can see in the episode), and then touch me on the left ear.

After spending a limited time in the basement, we headed back to base camp, a floor above in the Wyoming Room. Jared, Logan, and Anna decided it was time to do their "solos" in which one of them would go to a hotspot of the Inn and spend several minutes by themselves. We would then review the evidence live. Anna was in Miss Kate's room, and experienced strange scratching noises. Jared was in Horton's room. He captured Horton's full name, as well as an admission that Horton may not have committed suicide, but was murdered. He also captured what I believe is a woman or man telling Horton not to kill himself, saying "Horton don't" which adds to the mystery. Logan was in Buffalo Bill's room and heard children's voices just as we were told about earlier. The only possible explanation I can provide for this one is that Rails, a bar, is right across the street from the Inn. It could have been some patrons having a bit too much fun, but the direction where the voices came from and their clarity lead me to believe otherwise.

During the first solo, which was Anna's, I was on the third floor, not too far away. I did not experience anything at that time, and nothing was captured on my recorder or camera.
After the solos were complete, Anna, Jared, and Logan prepared for what they called "Ripple in Time" which is basically another way to spark activity. It involves re-creating an event from the past to see if it increases activity. The Ripple in Time at the Sheridan Inn was recreating Horton's apparent suicide. While they were preparing for that event, I went and investigated Miss Kate's room, to see if I could hear the same scratching noises Anna did earlier. By myself, I sat on the floor across from the wall where her ashes are interned. I did hear some strange noises, but nothing I would call scratching. I then decided to play the "flashlight game" which involves unscrewing a flashlight just enough to make it possible for an entity to lightly touch it and turn it on. The flashlight turned on and off as I asked it questions, but I determined it wasn't Miss Kate controlling it, unless she was lying. I caught the flashlight turning on and off on video, and will be putting it on Youtube shortly. During this time, I also captured two EVPs, one calling my name.

Audio clip five:
Justin - Miss Kate's Room - This EVP was recorded on my older Olympus recorder, and you can notice a definite sound quality difference. The original plays with boosted audio just before the EVP can be heard. At first, it sounds like just a bang, but when the noise reduction (in Cool Edit Pro) was applied, you can hear what sounds like a male voice saying "Justin", my name. Something of note here, the black recorder (Sony, which captured the EVPs above) did not record this EVP. I attribute this to the noise/audio quality difference between the two recorders. Since the Sony is newer, and offers 192kps quality audio, it likely can't hear things that appear in the noisier recording off of the Olympus. I brought both of the recorders to test this theory, and it appears you can catch a voice on one and not on the other, even if they are less than a foot away from each other.
I continued playing the flashlight game, and recorded a second EVP.

Audio clip six:
Picture in that Direction - This one is brief. It overlaps what I am saying. You hear me say "I'm going to be taking a picture in that direction..." and as I finish, you hear "NO". It is repeated several times and has noise reduction applied to it.

We kept hearing a girl on the stairs throughout the whole night, and it was always at the bottom of the first floor. You can hear it in this clip.

Audio clip seven:
Girl on Stairs - You will hear chatter between Logan and Anna, and they ask me if I heard it. This was a live EVP session, meaning I had headphones plugged in and could hear live audio off of the recorder. I hear it right after it happens. The clip is looped several times with noise reduction added. It is difficult to hear.

I caught up with the group as they were just finishing up their Ripple in Time sequence, which produced some good results, as well as producing a weird feeling out in the hallway where I was standing, waiting for them to finish. I can best describe the feeling as being watched from behind.
The investigation was starting to wind down at this point, as we had pretty much covered everywhere we could. The restaurant did not seem to be haunted by anything, although there was a report from a former employee about a specific table. Things would not stand still on the table, often getting knocked off by unseen forces. We were unable to replicate anything in there. The kitchen, full of noises due to still-powered equipment, did not produce anything of note.

One more thing must be noted. The Inn is facing financial issues at the time of this writing. If it is not saved, it could face foreclosure and be sold. If that is the case, the Inn falls out of local hands. Thankfully, it cannot be torn down. The Inn is so close to raising the amount of funds it needs to re-open, and needs a final push. If you would like to help out, donate via the Sheridan Inn website here: http://www.sheridaninn.com/donate

A big thanks goes to Jake, Jared, Anna, Logan, Michael, and others who made this investigation possible. I look forward to a time when the Inn is a full service hotel, able to stay open for decades to come.

All audio/visual (unless otherwise stated) is copyright by Ubstudios Inter-Mountain Paranormal Society. No unauthorized reproduction of these files is allowed.

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