On October 1, 2016 TIP returned to Farrar Elementary in Farrar, Iowa. We had previously investigated the site with another paranormal team in September 2014. Due to family event conflicts, only Paul and Brandon were able to attend the investigation. Farrar Elementary was dedicated in 1922 and closed in 2002. The large 17,000 square foot schoolhouse looks out of place in the small town of Farrar, Iowa. Farrar’s population of no more than 30 people has been slowly shrinking for many years. The only growing population is in the 150 year-old cemetery across from the schoolhouse. Built on six acres of rural farmland, its old walls are beginning to crumble. Over the decades employees and students reported hearing voices, slamming doors and sightings of unnatural figures walking the halls. Allegedly, adults and children who have passed on have returned and re-live their experiences, good and bad, in the old school. There is no record of anyone actually dying at the school though.
The boiler room is known for EVPs and a creepy shadow person that crawls on the ceiling. People claim to hear a phantom basketball game complete with cheering in the gym. The stairs leading up from the gym is where the apparition of a little boy has appeared. The third floor is known for shadow people and a “sad boy” in the stage area. There’s an art room where a shadow person hides in the closet. An apparition is claimed to be seen looking out the window of the small room next to the principal’s office. Lastly, a lunch lady is said to haunt the small cafeteria of the building.
After setting up our cameras we began to investigate. The TIP team began in the boiler room where we hoped to make contact with the shadow person that haunts the area. We conducted an EVP session in the boiler-room but did not get any sense that anything was active. Paul spent time alone in the room too and did not sense any spirits. He left a recorder there the rest of the night. We proceeded to do EVP sessions in almost every room of the school. We also did a ghost box session in the boiler room and the stage but did not get any responses. We broke down our equipment and spent the night on site in the base camp room trying not to think about the giant wolf spider Paul had killed right before bedding down.
Upon reviewing the audio evidence Paul discovered that the recorder he left in the boiler-room had captured some interesting sounds. More than one time there were sounds of something moving around the boiler-room when the team was not in there or anywhere near. A sample of recordings can be found on the Evidence-EVP tab.