Wellington, Kansas - A second group of ghost hunters is taking a closer look at Wellington’s Chisholm Trail Museum after they claim to have found evidence of paranormal activity.

Wichita League of Paranormal Investigators Jan Cohee of Wellington and Brendan Brannan converged on the museum, Friday night, setting up night vision cameras, voice recorders and electronic field radiation testers to see if their ghostly lightning might strike twice.

About a year ago, the group was in the museum and says they captured voices, thumps, heaving breathing and responses to questions.

“We had a lot of personal experiences,” said Cohee. “When I was down in the basement, I had my camera in my lap and my legs crossed and it was picked up and put on the other side of my leg,” said Cohee.

“We heard footsteps,” said Brannan. “but it was kind of a cat and mouse game. You’d go in one room and hear it on the other end,”

The two investigators aren’t the only ones who have felt something odd in the museum.

Patty Hatcher, a regular volunteer at the museum claims she saw a man appear in a doorway and then suddenly he was gone.

“I started to say hello and then he was gone - he was just like a tall gentleman,” said Hatcher. “I can hear little footsteps upstairs,”

The two were hoping not only for sounds, but for more visual evidence of spirits in the museum.

As Cohee started her journey into the depths of the basement, she told of her first time in the museum’s lowest level. Traveling to the right of the staircase, Cohee said she not only heard a ghost, but saw one.

“I turned to the right and I had seen something peek around this wall at me and then when I was walking up to it, I heard two taps and I was telling one of the other investigators to come here, that I had seen something around the corner at me and when I went back to listen to the recording, there was a ‘help me’,” said Cohee. “The tapping was a ‘look here’ and you can clearly hear the ‘help me’ - it was a white-looking mass - but you could see the facial features. You could see the eyes and nose, the mouth.”

Feelings of electricity or soft touches are common, Cohee says, and she says she’s experienced some before in the museum, but mostly the spirits come through audio capture.

Brannan related his story from last years hunt as he traveled to the third floor - the former surgical area of the former hospital - in search of ghosts. Near a room filled with old toys, the Wichita man said he got responses to a question asked in the dark.

“I said, is the fire truck your favorite toy, if it is could you please knock loudly twice and then there were two loud bangs in here,” said Brannan. “I was just talking with the people downstairs and they said the guy that owned the santa suit (which is on display in the toy room) was a firefighter, so it’s all coming together now,”

The two ghost hunters traveled in the darkened rooms, asking questions and waiting for responses, all as voice recorders and camera equipment rolled. The two still have to go over footage to make sure they didn’t miss anything, but say more than likely that they will be back.

Museum volunteer Richard Gilfillan of Wellington has seen groups of ghost hunters come to the museum before, but says he wants solid answers.

“People are curious and so am I,” said Gilfillan. “I want to see something, seriously. I want to see something concrete. I want solid evidence that they are here.” - Teresa Lee