The Ghost in the Barn

There are many connections and synchronicities in our lives, the meaning of which we sometimes do not fully understand. In the late 1980s, Curtis P. experienced a terrifying haunting that led to the revelation of an astonishing coincidence. Events, perhaps, that were meant to be. This is Curtis's true story.

WHEN I WAS 10 years old, my parents moved to a house in the country near a little town called Rose Hill, Kansas. In the garage was a lot of stuff packed in boxes that was owned by the previous occupants: old 78 records, mostly big band, personal papers and books. I also remember boy scout manuals. After perusing the contents of these boxes, I became aware that the previous owners were a family consisting of a mother and father and two sons. I lived in the house until I was 19, and during this time had several interesting experiences. Once, when I was 12 or so, I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom when the water suddenly gushed from the faucet for a minute or so, then stopped abruptly. Another time, I awoke in the night to what sounded like big band music coming from somewhere, seemingly from above me, though I'm not sure.

I relate these early events because they have an incredible connection to the frightening phenomena that occurred another time and another place.

15 Years Later

In November, 1986, my girlfriend Suz and I rented an isolated old farmhouse that was built in 1912 near Augusta in Butler County, Kansas. We were broke as hell, as I was struggling to make a living as an artist.

There was a huge barn that served as refuge for the landlord's cattle, but he agreed that I could have one room in the barn to use as a studio. The only catch was that I had to clean out this room, which was filled to the door with all kinds of furniture, boxes and miscellaneous junk. Prior to this, I had been using the upstairs room of the house to work in.

So began the cleaning. One day in May, 1987, I busied myself with this task. And that's when the disturbances started.

Later that night, around 2 a.m., Suz and I were awakened to tremendously loud crashes that seemed to come from the upstairs room. It was so loud that it sounded like someone was throwing furniture through the walls. Needless to say, we were scared beyond words. This went on intermittently for several hours. I didn't sleep anymore that night. We both were horrified and too frightened to investigate.

The next day, Suz and I talked about the disturbance and decided - absurdly - that it must have been squirrels, or maybe an opossum or raccoon that had somehow invaded the upstairs room. It seemed so unreal and laughable in the light of day. I went upstairs to take a look around... and everything seemed to be in its place. There was absolutely noevidence of the destructive noises we had heard the night before.

I spent that day continuing to clean out the room in the barn. It was a Friday; I remember specifically because Suz didn't have to work the next day, so we stayed up late watching movies. Sometime around 1 a.m. Saturday, it all started again. Loud crashing sounds boomed from the upstairs room. Too frightened to look ourselves, we decided to send our dogs upstairs to check it out.

Page Two > The Dogs Sense It