- Hello, I'm Mickey.

- And I'm Ryan.

- [Both] And this is "Hiseerie."

(eerie music) - [Mickey] We grew up watching paranormal investigators like Zak Bagans on "Ghost Adventures," Ryan and Shane on "Unsolved" or "Ghost Files," and Sam and Colby on YouTube.

It gave us a curiosity or a need to know what it was really like, to understand the world that we can't see.

The semi-casual investigations, people just trying to connect to those who are no longer around or something we just can't understand yet.

All throughout history, different cultures have believed in the paranormal, divine gods, spirits, aliens, shaman, witchcraft, and divination, just to name a few.

Supernatural occurrences are reported all around the world and have become ingrained into pop culture.

Since the beginning of humanity, people have been questioning the bigger picture of existence.

What is really out there?

Where do we go when we die?

Are there aliens, ghosts, Bigfoot?

- Tonight we're staying at the historic Thayer Hotel in Annandale, Minnesota.

- We're from different departments at Pioneer PBS, but share a fascination with the world of the paranormal.

I grew up loving to hear about the macabre subjects and getting to learn different perspectives of life, death, and everything in between.

- There's such a rich history of the supernatural around the Midwest, and we're so lucky to be able to share that with you.

- If you like this episode, please like, subscribe and comment down below where you want us to go next.

(eerie music) - I mean, every room has a story to it, like this great history here in and of itself.

But when you add on the haunted history, I mean, it's a storyline that never ends.

- I've never seen a ghost, but you hear all sorts of strange noises, but it is like, you know, over 130 years old.

So it's, some of the things are hard to explain though.

I mean, you look for explanations and like, I don't really have a good one for what just happened.

(Brian chuckles) - Alrighty, so tonight we're sleeping over in the Thayer House in Annandale, Minnesota, which is about an hour drive from the Twin Cities.

In the late 1800s, the town was founded as a popular stop on the Minnesota Railroad as a central town between St.

Cloud and Buffalo.

- The original hotel in the town, the Charles Hotel, burned down in 1894.

With a need for a new hotel, the railroad company and Albert Augustus Thayer funded the building of the new hotel in 1895.

- But the Thayer was operated as a railroad hotel boasting 22 guest rooms while the restaurant and lounge were quite extravagant for the time, each guest room was really small, having only enough space for a bed and maybe a dresser.

- The Thayer Hotel was more technologically advanced than most buildings and businesses at the time in Annandale area.

It was the first building to have gas lights and then electricity, which came in 1905.

- The Thayer was so respected that when Al Capone couldn't make it to his Clearwater Lake for his hideout, he would rent out the entire third floor of the Thayer for him and his men.

- By 1976, the shutdown of the railway system took its toll on the town of Annandale and the hotel was left vacant and had plans to be demolished for a highway to be widened.

- In a battle to preserve the building, which was led in part by Miss Julia Barkley, the building was put on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1978, effectively preserving it as a historic structure from being destroyed.

- After that, a group of community members would buy the building for $1 and then put $550,000 in the 1980s to renovate and restore the building, converting the 22 rooms into 12 with more space and private baths.

The building would switch hands numerous times from the late '80s until 1993 when the hotel was bought by Sharon Gammell.

- Gammell ran the Thayer as a world of its own.

She started strong with the Hawaiian luau, but then started to clash with some of the townsfolk after hosting a male exotic dancing group, the Chippendales in town.

After the clash, Gammell closed the doors to the public and ran the hotel as a bed and breakfast only available by reservation.

She was the first person to really dive into the paranormal at the Thayer, hosting many seances, tarot card readings, and other paranormal events.

- Now, the premier chef of the Annandale area, Robert Krebsbach, has brought back the historical location with his family.

- My parents work here, my sisters, and both my brothers and even my niece at times.

So there's all of us are here.

It's funny, we moved here in 1985 for this place.

We all came back in 2018 to do this place.

- The Thayer has tours led by Russ and Mark who have been investigating the hotel for years now.

We joined them for one of their tours this evening to get some more of the history and information about the spirits staying at the hotel.

Now enjoy as we explore the Thayer.

(Ryan clicks tongue) - That was cool timing.

- Okay.

It's supposed to do that.

Perfect.

(laughs) (eerie music) - Our team is called Search4Spirits.

We've been around for quite a long time now.

I think dating back to around 2011 or '12.

And we started out, eh, as a lot of teams do, we were just kind of experimenting in the paranormal field.

But several of my members had had experiences in the paranormal dating way, way back.

You know, I would say my experiences start maybe when I was about six, seven, eight, somewhere in there I realized that I was having paranormal experiences and those kind of came and went.

But the key is I didn't really understand what that all meant to me until I was older.

And actually I probably was watching "Ghost Hunters" on TV and it just like, clicked in my head.

I'm like, wait, that's like me.

That's who I am.

That's what I should be doing.

And because I've lived with it my life and experienced it in so many different ways, I knew that I wanted to follow that path and so I created the team.

In 2012, I founded the team and we have gathered members from all over the state of Minnesota.

So the first time that we came to the hotel was in 2019.

And it wasn't just too long after Bob and Colleen had purchased the place and we knew a mutual person that invited us here.

So it really worked out good and we just kind of stepped into our visit here and our investigation of the place via a friend of the family that we each knew.

We came here at the time, a lot of different types of paranormal shows were doing the 48 hour lockdowns that was getting quite popular.

And so we decided to do a 48 hour lockdown here, where we had a weird experience with something physical dissolving from a physical state, moving, and then re-becoming physical again.

In this case, we had gotten a room and put our stuff in it.

And then we commenced to putting out the equipment.

And on the second floor, it was where our room was on the far end and Mark was staying in that room.

And while I was working on the third floor way in the front of the building here, and I had been putting this camera up, the tripod, all this business, getting the wires hooked up, all of a sudden I realized I was standing on something and I lifted my foot up and I looked down and I saw what looked like a necklace.

I picked it up and I realized that I had a rosary in my hands.

And I said, well, I don't know where this came from all of a sudden.

I thought maybe I just didn't realize it was there.

So I had one of the investigators take that rosary downstairs to where Mark was interviewing Colleen at the time.

And I said just get this into lost and found, because if somebody loses a rosary, they're gonna come back to get it.

So that investigator is handing that to Colleen to put the lost and found, my lead investigator, Mark, sees it and says, "Where did you get that?"

And she says, "Well, Russ found it "on the third floor up in the front "of the building there in the hallway."

And he says, "Well, that sure looks a lot like mine."

We all, like five of us, we're all like, bop, bop, bop, up to the second floor, down the hallway all the way to the end of the hotel.

He takes his key out and opens the door 'cause the door was locked.

We go inside, he's got a little rucksack there, opens the zipper on the top, and inside of that there's another zipper he opens.

He reaches inside that pocket and there's no rosary in there.

- Where are we going, Mickey?

- Honeymoon suite.

Oh, okay.

So we're about to go to the honeymoon suite and hear some stories down there.

- [Mark] With this one.

- Sometimes the batteries are just goofy.

- Or sometimes things just be messing with it.

(eerie music) - Well, this room in particular had some unusual activity after the new owners purchased it and placed some of this furniture in here.

It came to their attention that it's called the honeymoon suite, you know?

And so a lot of times it'd be young couples or even older couples, whatever, that would stay here.

And on frequent occasion, they would hear them arguing in here or they would get in such an argument that they would leave the hotel, they wouldn't stay the night.

And that was kind of concerning to the owners.

So the first time Mark and I came here, we were asked if we would take a look and see if we could figure out why this room was so troublesome.

- Together.

- It just said together.

- Together?

Nice.

(group laughing) And so long story short, Mark and I came in here and we did run across a very distressed spirit that was in this room.

And we asked that spirit to cross because we said, hey, you'll be a lot more at peace if you get away from the energy of the earth here and cross into the light.

And after talking for a bit, it seemed like the energy started lifting, the meters started changing, you know, the temperature and everything started changing in here and things calmed down and we gave the room a blessing.

And there hasn't been, To their knowledge, a fight in this room ever since.

That's been quite a few years now.

So, but there are, based on the EVPs, the electronic voice phenomena, the strange voices we pick up in this room, there's a variety of spirits that come in and out and will utilize this room.

- So one of my favorite things that happened in this room, it's been quite a few months now, but I was standing right here and my tour group was in this room and this door slammed right in my face.

- Oh.

- And so the great thing about that was, (door clicks shut) so it slammed like really loud.

And, but the funny thing is, the guy that was standing right by the door was trying to get out and he's, like, rattling the doorknob and he's getting, like, more and more frantic because it doesn't open easily.

(door rattling) Even now.

- Yeah it still is.

(laughs) - But when, when I opened the door, all their faces were like, huh!

And I'm like, you know what the bummer about that was I didn't get to see her face when it happened.

(group laughing) But the entire time we've been here, we jammed the door up here and it never, never shuts.

You know, it's pretty, pretty solid.

(eerie music) - [Mickey] Tools of the trade.

Spirit box, scans radio frequencies for spirits to communicate through the white noise and words.

- Alright, so we've introduced ourselves once already, and we are here tonight to potentially have conversations with some of the deceased spirits that are at this location.

Has anybody- - [Spirit Box] I am.

- [Mark] Joined us in this room?

Has anybody- - [Spirit Box] I am.

- [Mark] Joined us in this room?

(spirit box crackling) - Colleen.

- Colleen?

(spirit box crackling) - [Spirit Box] That's me.

- [Spirit Box] Colleen.

- Colleen?

- [Spirit Box] And me.

- I just heard Colleen's name.

(spirit box crackling) - [Spirit Box] ?

??

We ask for attention.

- We're desperate?

Why are you desperate?

- [Spirit Box] It hurts.

It hurts.

- It hurts?

- [Spirit Box] Yes.

- What happened?

(spirit box crackling) What got you here?

What got you here?

- [Spirit Box] Kinds of toxic, O2.

- It's really cooking.

We are getting a little mix of radio.

I'm gonna try with the antenna off a little bit.

Let's see if that calms things down.

That might be too much, but we'll see.

Alright, with the antenna off, can anybody communicate with us?

Alright, we'll try it with the antenna down.

The antenna on but down.

We definitely had some communication utilizing.

- [Spirit Box] I'm here.

I'm here.

(spirit box crackling) - Do you remember us?

- [Spirit Box] Kind of.

Kind of.

(spirit box crackling) - Russ, you hear that?

(spirit box crackling) Hopefully your memory of us is a good memory.

- [Spirit Box] Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

- We're recording.

- How's it going?

How's it going?

- How's it going?

It's going good.

How are you doing?

- [Spirit Box] Not terrible.

- Terrible?

- I'm terrible.

- Are you terrible because why?

Is there something you're waiting for?

(spirit box crackling) - [Spirit Box] I'm sick.

(spirit box crackling) - I'm gonna take it down just another notch.

Maybe we can... - [Spirit Box] We can't.

- We can't?

- Maybe.

- Maybe?

- Mickey?

- No maybe not Mickey.

(laughs) - I hope not - I think its saying Mickey.

- Is there a particular room you want us to sleep in?

(spirit box crackling) - Here?

- Here.

- [Mickey] In here?

In here.

- In here?

- Uh-huh.

- [Mickey] I heard, "Uh-huh."

"In here, uh-huh."

- I slept in this room before.

Do you remember?

(spirit box crackling) What's the name of the fella that visited with me the last time I was here?

(spirit box crackling) - That sucks.

(laughs) - We're gonna be doing some filming tonight.

(spirit box crackling) Alright.

You have a room you'd like us to go to?

(spirit box crackling) Do you want us to stay on the second floor?

- [Spirit Box] Okay.

- Alright, we're gonna let this go for now.

(spirit box crackling) We're gonna try a couple devices tonight and we welcome you to communicate to any of the devices we use.

So I'm not saying goodbye, I'm just pausing this one machine.

- [Spirit Box] A farm.

- A farm?

(spirit box crackling) I keep hearing like female giggling on there too.

Well, we're gonna just close this off for now.

Shut this down.

No, we're gonna keep talking.

Shutting down in three, two, one.

So yeah, being closer to cities and all these radio channels, I mean we get quite a fluctuation of voices and vocals.

But that being said, I mean I've definitely heard some potential responses coming out of there.

(eerie music) - [Mickey] Tools of the trade, EVP.

Electronic voice phenomena.

Sounds of spirits picked up on electronic audio recorder, KM class system, class one, direct response, class two general restatement, class three, sound.

- So one night we were sitting in the other room and years ago when we first started coming here, there was these big black leather chairs out there and we would sit out there till late at night, you know, and Colleen and Mark and I, and I don't know who else was there, but Mark was a little curious because there's a story that Al Capone used to rent the entire third floor and do business.

Maybe have some ladies up there.

I don't know what they all did, but so Mark's like, you know, we've never asked.

We should ask.

So we ended up asking, is Al Capone here?

And if you listen real carefully, I'm gonna play a little EVP for you about what sounds like a man saying, "Yes I am."

And the interesting and more interesting part about it after that is another spirit says, "You're sitting on him."

And that's kinda, kinda funny, you know?

We could actually measure the energy, the EMF in these chairs.

Alright, I'm gonna play it for you once.

- [Mark] Wouldn't it be something if we had Al Capone?

- [Russ] Is Al Capone out there?

- [Mysterious Voice] Yes I am.

You're sitting on him.

- [Mysterious Voice] Yes I am.

You're sitting on him.

- Wow.

- Oh my God.

- [Mark] Wouldn't it be something if we had Al Capone?

- [Russ] Is Al Capone out there?

- [Mysterious Voice] Yes I am.

You're sitting on him.

- That's crazy.

- Crazy.

(Russ chuckles) - What?

The you're sitting on him, it has like the dialect of- - Exactly.

- [Mickey] It sounds like what you would think a mobster would say.

- You don't know who was sitting on him.

- Well yeah, and earlier that day we- - Had one of the investigators sitting in a chair and one of the things that was common at this location was to get the temple headache.

We all got it back in those years.

I haven't had it now.

So whoever was passing that along, I don't think is here anymore, but at the time we used to get that quite frequently.

And she was sitting in a chair and she says, "Boy, I really got that headache going."

And I took out my millimeter and I measured the chairs and the chair next to her measured like zero.

And the chair she was in was like two point something.

And I said, "Well, of course you got a headache, "you're sitting on somebody, "you know, you're a little bit, "the proximity to a spirit is not a positive thing."

So, and she moved chairs and she felt better after a bit.

So there definitely is something to it.

Like I say, I don't think we'll have all the answers, but some of the answers we can figure out as we go.

(eerie music) Now, do I believe?

I believe in the fact that they have been working with me for several years.

I do have deceased people that come to me for information as far as they feel stuck, they wanna move on.

That's why I feel they come to me and I just say, you know, can you cross into the light?

Is that an option?

Can you reconcile?

Is there a path there for you?

I'll say a prayer for you.

And I work the whole aspect because like I said, we are a Christian team and so when we do this, we call it a healing.

So when we're working with the souls to reconcile them and find them a place to cross over and get to where they can be, find peace, 'cause we want the human being on earth and the soul, the spirit to both be at peace.

- So have I had any experiences here at the Thayer?

Like ghost experiences?

I would say yes.

I'm a little bit more skeptical of this sort of thing, but there are things that I just can't really explain.

One of the first things that really pops out to me, one of the scariest ones early on, we had operated a restaurant on the first floor and the second and third floor we had operated as office space.

Or they were trying to rent out as office space.

So when we first moved here, they had all the rooms open to the public to kind of explore, to try to kind of get them to come in and rent out those spaces.

And we had done our checkout.

Checkout would be, we'd walk through the rooms, make sure they were empty.

One person would stand in the hallway, they wouldn't walk into the room just to make sure there weren't people like, you know, running around.

And I was here late that night doing some paperwork and this was probably like 2:30 in the morning and we had done our checkout long ago.

So I knew the building was empty and as I was leaving I heard voices talking and it was pitch black up here 'cause all the lights were off.

And I knew I heard something talking, but I couldn't make out what was being said.

And it was one of those things like, I wasn't gonna go explore because if it was a ghost or if it was people, there was nothing I was gonna be able to do about it.

So I just left.

(laughs) That would be the scariest thing, but.

- We hope you enjoyed this episode.

And if you wanna support us and our station, you can see more behind the scenes content and full length uncut sessions on our Patreon at patreon.com/hiseerie.

(intense music) (intense music continues)