Note:Findings are still being reviewed so check back for more updates:

March 2008. During this investigation, we not only investigated the museum but also conducted an experiment of the "Ghost Box" during EVP collection. During the course of the investigation we would also use some control objects in areas with purported activity. Lastly a video cam would monitor a parlor area where previous activity had been noted by other groups.

March 2008. We met at the Museum 5:00pm on Saturday along with the rest of the ARPA team. After meeting the Curator, Wayne and doing a short information review we started the Investigation at 8pm. See the link on the page for those findings.

August 2008. We met at the Museum 5:00pm on Saturday along with the rest of the ARPA team. We met with the new Curator, Shelley and went over some of the latest activity that had been occurring. After dinner we began our investigation at 8pm.

BACKGROUND

The museum is housed in the Rush-Gates Home, built in 1907 by Dr. James Oddy Rush. Born in Missouri, he moved to Arkansas in April 1896, began practicing at Colt then moved to Forrest City in 1900. In addition to building his home/office in Forrest City, Dr. Rush over the years collected more than 3,700 Indian relics which make it one of the largest collections in the state. The Museum houses both Indian artifacts as well as vintage medical equipment from Dr. Rush and that time period. The property had been referred to as the typical Southern Plantation and at one point comprised approximately 600 acres, main house, overseer residence, two-story servants' quarters and ten tenant houses. The property itself had been referred to as "Rushmore". Dr. Rush conducted the full range of medical services there from delivering babies to mortuary procedures.

Purportedly, there has been a history of displaced/relocated objects, auditory experiences and some sightings of apparitions. There were reports of an office copier coming on by itself. Several doors purportedly closed and found opened the next morning.

Aug 2008. Additional activity started occurring a month after our last investigation. In April a 911 call was placed after hours from within the locked administration office. The call was investigated and purportedly the operator heard something. Construction on a lot across the street began 1st of June. This was probably part of the original property. Rearrangement of administrative office the week of July 14th and some exhibit areas were redone. An iron barred door was received July 25th. It was part of the old police drunk tank. When it was exposed during construction some human (leg bone so far) remains were found. The remains are not at the Museum. The rolling chairs in the locked administration office are being moved. The lock in the pottery room was changed the week of July 28th and it was one of the doors involved in the opening incidents. On a desk in this same office there is a cup of pencils and they are disappearing.

EXPERIMENTS March 2008

Experiment One: Field Test of the Ghost Box where previous EVPs had been captured. See Ghost Box page for explanation of purpose. So far three different members have noted multiple captures while using this device. Besides general questions specific questions were asked in the hope that the Curator would be able to provide validation based upon his records and research. A review of the audio and video is still in progress.

Experiment Two: Use of Kinetic Ball Toy as a control object in area where previous object displacements occurred. Timed photo captures still under review.

OBSERVATIONS/PERSONAL EXPERIENCES:

March 2008. There were a couple of people in the group that had personal experiences like hearing their name and/or a light touch.

August 2008. A couple of different investigators in the group experienced extreme cold. Several auditory experiences. During an EVP gathering session one team asked specifically about the activities involving the copier. Shortly afterwards while still in the collection session, it came on startling the team.

Note: Bloodstain on floor in Dr.'s Office debunked by one of the investigators who was former law enforcement. He keenly and quickly noted that the stain was red where in reality it should have been black.