Skeptics and believers, mediums, mystics, healers and scientists descended upon Port Gamble from Nov. 16-18 for the 2018 Port Gamble Ghost Conference.

Once the proverbial company town, Port Gamble was built around the Pope and Talbot Mill. The town was almost exclusively populated by the mill’s workforce, but with those days long gone, some believe Port Gamble’s past continues to live on within the walls of its historical buildings.

Pete Orbea operates Port Gamble Paranormal, which offers ghost walk tours and paranormal investigations inside some of Port Gamble’s more “active” locations, namely the Walker-Ames house. In addition to the regular tours and investigations, Orbea organizes the annual ghost conference, which welcomes speakers, teachers and other paranormal experts from all over the western U.S.

The three-day-long conference features classes like intuitive tarot reading, ghost hunting on a budget, paranormal journaling and using psychic abilities in haunted locations. William Becker spoke about traveling to ancient locations and interacting with the spirit world. Vivien Powell — who made the trip to Port Gamble from England — spoke on the various hauntings she had identified and elaborated on characteristics of each.

On Saturday, during Becker’s presentation, “Ancient Places, Ancient Spirits,” those in attendance included Michael White, Casey Goodwin, Neil McNeill and Jay Verburg.

The group of friends said they have been working to produce a documentary on paranormal activity at the Old Wheeler Hotel in Oregon. So far, the group has spent more than two years studying the hotel, and they intend to continue until they have developed a three-year study of the paranormal hot spot.

During the conference, White said, each of the friends would be speaking on some topic related to the paranormal. White has taken to filling the group’s role of the resident skeptic.

“I’m giving a class later on tonight on critical thinking and the paranormal, which isn’t something that is normally done,” he said.

Of the group of friends, none were strangers to the Port Gamble Ghost Conference, with McNeill being the most seasoned veteran at nine years. According to McNeill, numerous paranormal investigations of the Walker-Ames house have yielded a series of testimonies describing instances of people seeing or interacting with apparitions in the house. The sheer number of paranormal experiences hosted within the Walker-Ames house, McNeill said, made the location something of a ghost-hunting gem.

“There’s a reason why I’ve called it the most haunted house in western Washington,” he said.

Later that night, within the Walker-Ames house, visitors tried their best to make contact with those who may exist on another plane than the living.

The kitchen was turned into a sort of command center with a large monitor showing live feeds from the numerous cameras stationed throughout the house.

Scott Power orchestrated the rotation of the visitors throughout the house using a radio. Around 7 p.m. on Saturday, Power said his feeds had yet to catch anything significant. Watching the monitor beside Power were Mike and Tambi Corey, and Andrea Carter.

In the frigid basement of the sprawling Victorian house, a group of visitors listened intently to an instrument known colloquially as a ghost box. The device is purportedly used to communicate with spirits via electronic voice phenomenon, or EVP. The group stood in the basement, listening intently to the static of the ghost box, occasionally asking questions.

It was not a clearly discernible voice, but two visitors appeared to sift a word or two from the static. From their conversation, it was suggested that they were not welcome in the house.

“Do you want us to leave?” one of the visitors asked, but a reply would not come before it was time for the group to rotate to another room.

According to Mike Corey, the attic of the house is one of the more paranormally active parts, with many investigators and visitors reporting hearing voices, tapping on walls and on occasion the spine-tingling giggle of a child.

In the attic, Sheila Pickering held two dousing rods in her hands as Mike Corey worked to coax the ghost of a child to move them. Pickering noted that the rods had been moving apart slightly and then back together but this did not appear to satisfy Corey, who continued to ask the ghost to move the rods.

On that night, those hoping to catch a glimpse of some ethereal form revealing itself from the great beyond would have to wait. Ghost hunting, much like fishing, requires no small amount of patience.

— Nick Twietmeyer is a reporter with Kitsap News Group. Nick can be reached at ntwietmeyer@soundpublishing.com.

The infra-red flash of a full-spectrum camera illuminates a group of visitors to the Walker-Ames house as they attempt to have a conversation with spirits through EVP. Nick Twietmeyer | Kitsap News Group.

William Becker speaks at the 2018 Port Gamble Ghost Conference. The title of Becker’s presentation was ‘Ancient Places, Ancient Spirits.’ Nick Twietmeyer | Kitsap News Group.

A series of Ouija boards were up for sale during the conference, on offer from one of the numerous vendors in attendance. Nick Twietmeyer | Kitsap News Group.

Various vendors offered their wares at the conference as well. Nick Twietmeyer | Kitsap News Group.