by Mike Ricksecker:
It’s been an Army training camp, a prisoner of war camp, a refugee camp, and the camp where Elvis Presley received his first military hair cut. Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, originally Camp Chaffee, has had a colorful history over the years, including being the site of three movies that were filmed there.
In 1980 the fort captured the national spotlight when Cuban refuges at a resettlement center established at the old World War II German POW housing rioted and burned down two buildings. Tear gas was used by state troopers to subdue the rioters and 84 Cubans were jailed. Conditions at the small prison where they were kept quickly went south and became rampant with sexual attacks, stabbings, and a suicide.
Beginning in 1987, functionality of Fort Chaffee started to be transferred to other installations around the country, and by 1997 complete command was transferred from the U.S. Army to the Arkansas Army National Guard with over 6,000 acres turned over to the state.
Today, two locations at Fort Chaffee are known to be rife with paranormal activity and were featured on an episode of the television show Ghost Adventures. One was the old medical complex which contained 128 buildings all interconnected with long hallways and included its own bowling alley, theater, and post exchange. The other was the notorious Cuban refugee prison.
Very few paranormal teams had investigated the old medical complex, but those that had reported female voices in the OB/GYN clinic, shadow people in the high security section of the mental health ward, odd cold spots throughout the very hot compound, and the apparition of an arm. The Ghost Adventures Crew also experienced the cold spots, captured a ball of light on video, and captured EVPs such as, “It’s getting hot in here,” and, “Come and get me.” One of the very last teams to investigate the old Fort Chaffee medical complex, Society of the Haunted, recorded a video of a ball of light dancing toward the cameraman just moments after hearing a growl from an adjacent room. Unfortunately, the medical complex burned to the ground in a fire on August 4, 2011.
The buildings that formed the Cuban refugee prison are in a different part of Fort Chaffee and were not touched by the fire. Perhaps the first ghostly tale from these buildings originates when it was still in use as a prison. One day in the general population building one of the inmates had to be restrained to the ground by several others as he suddenly started shaking and convulsing. Rumor had it that the inmate had become possessed by a demon. Today, EVPs are often captured in the general population building that reference the living conditions there more than 30 years ago. The maximum security facility where the very violent had been imprisoned has been turned into a haunted house, but it has real hauntings as well with spectral voices that tell visitors to get out.
DarkMedia contributor Mike Ricksecker is currently featured on DarkMediaCity, a free social network for those who like it Dark. Whether it be literature or film, music or art, horror or sci-fi, paranormal romance or paranormal investigation, we’ve got something for you. www.DarkMediaCity.com
Mike is also the author of Ghosts and Legends of Oklahoma, Ghosts of Maryland, and Deadly Heirs, a Chase Michael DeBarlo mystery novel.
He has appeared on Animal Planet’s The Haunted television show, is currently a paranormal investigator and “ghostorian” with Society of the Haunted, and regularly speaks about the paranormal and writing. He can be followed on his website at http://www.mikericksecker.com or on Twitter at @MikeRicksecker.
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