Traveling, eating good food, drinking awesome liquor and beer, and exploring the paranormal world, all at the same time, seems like a great fit to me!
My qualifications on the paranormal you ask? Well, I had 31 years of investigative experience: criminal, civil, administrative and general incidents. I had many unexplained cases that could be categorized as paranormal. Those cases went into my “WTF” file, much like the X-files!
It doesn’t matter what you investigate because investigating has a foundation of basic steps to use: 1. Seek the truth. 2. Collect evidence (circumstantial or conclusive). 3. Separate fact from fiction. 4. Corroborate information. And 5. Be Curious. You have to be curious enough to have the ability to investigate from all angles.
Credibility and integrity are the most important characteristics of a person working in criminal justice. Your ethics is everything. Once you lose that you are worthless in the justice system. Never to be trusted again.
I state this because when investigating the unexplained or the paranormal…all you have is your credibility and integrity as a person. During my career I didn’t embellish stories, I didn’t fabricate information and I didn’t lie to make information fit into an investigation.
Growing up as a child and in my professional career in law enforcement, I had many unexplained encounters with the paranormal. I have seen, heard and felt things that are hard to explain. But my drive to seek the truth kept me on the path to discover as much as I could about the paranormal world.
Besides the food and drink, I’m going talk about my investigation of the Clown Motel and Tonopah Cemetery and all of its activity.
The Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventure TV show was one of many paranormal investigative teams to investigate the activity at the Clown Motel and Cemetery. Some teams produced evidence while other teams did not.
Traveling to Tonopah, Nevada was a long day. Had I known I wasn’t going to be able to drive through Yosemite to get to my destination, I would have flown to Las Vegas or Reno to shorten the hours on the road. What should have been 7 hours turned into 11 hours. My team and I were stopped at the Yosemite entrance kiosk and told the road to Nevada was closed due to Covid 19. I had to have a reservation for Yosemite Park in order to drive through. Since I wasn’t going to stay in the park, I had no reservation! Thus, I was turned around and put on an alternate route.
Okay, I get it, once inside the park and on the road to Tonopah, the park system had no way of controlling where I actually might go. In fact, once in the park, I could have stopped and hiked a trail or visited many areas of the park before heading out to Tonopah. Hey Yosemite, how about you set up an interior park kiosk at the fork in the road to control it! Just saying…
The Clown Motel, Tonopah, Nevada
Tonopah, located in Nye County, Nevada, came into existence in 1900 with the discovery of silver rich ore. By 1910, gold production was falling and by 1920, the town of Tonopah had less than half the population it did several years earlier. The town sits above 6,000 feet sea level along U.S. Routes 6 and 95, between Reno and Las Vegas.
Today Tonopah has a population of about 2,500 people. That’s smaller than the population at my high school in the 1980’s era. Tonopah is an old mining town that should have folded up after the mines closed, but like the dead, it kept on living.
The moment we arrived at the Clown Motel you could feel the energy of the place. Creepy as heck! The motel, by the way, is in worse condition than most Motel 6’s! But, the haunted charm of the place and the fact that you really won’t be sleeping well anyways, who cares if the place needs a major overhaul! We checked in at the motel, put all our luggage and equipment into the room and headed out to find food.
Tonopah Brewing Company
The main road that goes through town is almost 2 miles long. We noticed a lot of buildings closed up or abandoned. We did find one gem of a restaurant. The Tonopah Brewing Company.
Their beers were tasty! The food was good. I had the combo plate which included brisket, pork ribs, pulled pork and smoked turkey. My sides were corn bread, potato salad and mac and cheese.
The place had a nice atmosphere to it. The town folk and employees were very friendly.
The Bug Bar
Surprisingly, the Bug Bar was nice, clean and had a good vibe to it. The motel that it sits next to was dark, dubious, and rundown. It’s main tenants were truckers and construction workers who live there weekly.
Fortunately for us, the bartender was friendly and the drinks were cold! It was all we needed.
The Investigation
Room 214
Room 214, had the most activity with the spirit box and EMF meter.
Prior to the investigation we conducted a “walk through” of room 210 and 214. As you can see (above video) our EMF meter was active in this room (214). This was about 9pm. The room had a heavy feeling, the tension was thick, and we had this feeling of uneasiness.
Spirit Box
I’m not 100% sold on phone spirit box apps! In fact, I have doubts with anything preprogrammed in the app; such as random words or voices that might come through the device, especially if you are not asking any questions. This app, made by Weasel, comes with a dictionary of preloaded words.
In room 214, we asked several questions and received immediate related and/or direct answers to our questions. It led me to believe, that perhaps, this app works as intended. The EMF meter was near my phone and spirit box app. It corroborated the app’s activity.
I asked: is there anyone in the room with us? The names “Dylan” and “Walter” showed up on the screen of the spirit box app. I asked: do you live in this room? The word “floor” appeared in the app. I said: I will be visiting the cemetery where you are buried. The word “headstone” appeared. In the first 10 minutes of the investigation both video camera batteries were drained, along with my EVP recorder. My phone’s charge had reduced from 97% to 20%. We ended the investigation and went to retrieve more batteries and recharge our phones and EVP recorder.
Upon return to 214, we made contact again via the spirit box and resumed our questioning. During that time my EVP recorder and camera batteries drained again. Myself and the other investigator, simultaneously had throbbing headaches, goose bumps on our arms and an electric feeling down our spins. I lost my balance and had to catch my fall before I hit the ground. It was a sensation of nausea. Our headaches lasted another 12 hours. We felt drained of energy, winded and tired. We felt, that what ever presence was with us in the room, attempted to drain our energy in order to manifest itself or to try and keep communicating with us beyond the life of the batteries.
Equipment Test
I tested this spirit box app and EMF meter, at home, a few days before going to Tonopah. I had no activity from the app. One test, I said nothing. I just let the app run its course. I also had the EMF meter next to my phone while the app was running. Both devices had no activity. On the second test, at home, I asked one question: is there anyone here with me in this room? No activity on either device and no answers from the spirit box app (Sorry the above video is grainy).
EMF Meter Test
If you put the EMF meter right on top of your phone while the screen is on…It will light up like a Christmas tree! It will do the same if you turn on your microwave oven and put the meter right up against the microwave. This is just to give you a frame of reference to the device.
Next Morning Meter Test
The next morning, about 10am, I returned to room 214 and conducted another EMF sweep. This time the meter had no activity (above video). The room felt comfortable with no feelings of uneasiness or tension.
Room 210
During our “walk through” of room 210, our EMF meter had no activity and the room felt comfortable. There was no tension or uneasiness in the room.
I set a static camera in room 210 on infrared mode. Within the first 2 minutes several orbs were caught on video. The orbs moved with purpose and direction (as seen in the video above). It wasn’t dust floating aimlessly in the air. And, it did not move about like a flying insect would. This video clip is about 1 minute and 19 seconds long.
I had a fully charged battery in the cam. That battery should have lasted 6 hours or more. At 29 minutes the cam turned off. Later a new file was created on the SD card, meaning, the cam reactivated in order to create the new file. We are guessing there was not enough juice in the battery to start video recording, just enough juice to create the file.
In anticipation of battery failure, because it’s a common occurrence during paranormal investigations, I reloaded the cam with a fully charged spare battery and moved the cam to room 214.
I did not bring the remote control for the camera to Tonopah. I had locked the room door and was the only person with a key to that room other than motel staff. If an employee had entered to turn off the camera and turn it back on, we would have seen that person turning off the camera on video. The camera would have picked up any noise, such as someone opening the door and walking in. The camera it self would have shaken or moved, on video, if someone attempted to turn off the switch on the cam.
Tonopah Cemetery Investigation
The cemetery investigation, which occurred at about 2:30am, was almost anticlimactic after experiencing room 214. There was some activity, but not nearly as much as the rooms.
I did ask: is there anyone here with us? The spirit box responded with the word “building” “spirit in pain” “Brian” “Parker” and “Adam”.
Other ghost hunting teams (You Tube Channels) had reported that rocks and chairs had been thrown at various team members while in the cemetery. We did not experience any of that. Our EMF meter had a few spikes in certain areas of the cemetery, but very little contact was made.
At 3:30am we called it a night and ended our investigation.
Next Morning Follow-up
The next morning, about 10am, we conducted follow-up in room 210 and 214, as mentioned above. But we also talked to an employee who provided us information we did not know prior to the investigation. And we did not tell her about our findings from the investigation at all.
The following information by the employee has not been verified or corroborated as of this writing:
The employee told us she grew up in a trailer park next to the cemetery we investigated. She said she was a long time employee at the Clown Motel and had seen many unexplained paranormal activity over the decades.
She told us the motel was built in 1985, on top of a section of the original cemetery. She said many years prior, flooding occurred that destroyed grave sites and headstones. She said some of the recovered headstones and caskets were moved over to another section of the cemetery next to where she lived, but she thinks some caskets or bodies remained under the motel. She said many headstones were never recovered after the floods and were considered missing.
Suddenly, the word “floor” and “headstone” made sense from our room 214 investigation with Dylan and Walter. They were possibly telling us they are under the motel floor and their headstones either missing or at the current cemetery.
And our session in the cemetery with Brian, Parker and Adam referring to “building” and “spirit in pain” made sense as well. They were possibly telling us the building was where they reside and are in pain because the building sits on top of their grave sites.
I looked through the on-line registry of two Tonopah cemeteries that are within 1 mile of each other. The cemetery we investigated had 6 Walters, 1 F.B. Parker and 1 William O’ Brian.
The new cemetery, 1 mile down the road, had 2 Adams, 1 Dylan and 18 Walters.
Conclusions
There is no doubt in my mind that the Clown Motel is haunted. The things I experienced in Tonopah are consistent with paranormal phenomena I have experienced my whole life.
Of course, I have more questions than I do answers…I plan to return to the Clown Motel and cemetery to conduct further investigative follow-up about the town’s history, the paranormal activity at the motel and cemetery, and to bring more equipment, such as an actual spirit box that is not an app on a phone, and to interview more people in Tonopah about the town’s haunted history and floods in the area.
Whether you believe in ghosts or the after life or not, the travel here, the food, the booze and the fun in discovering the unknown, I hope was, at the very least, entertaining for you.
Until next time on Foodie Booze Explorer…
Video footage/clips was provided by Moniquette K. and PTash.
Very interesting exploration of the clown motel and the cemetery! I hope you do more of those investigations!
Thank you Dominique! I will definitely do more.
That was among the best Explorer episodes.
Thank you Craig. It was a fun exploration!
Very interesting and informative.Thank you Paul!
Thank you Kevin!