Proving - or disproving - the paranormal in Sidney

Introduces 'Rails and Tales' series

SIDNEY (October 30, 2024) -- It started as a question, a survey of sorts, and developed into what will be an all-night adventure.

Staff of 987 The Big Boy will be doing its own ghost adventure Wednesday night, spending the night locked in the Elk's Lodge. Some say it's haunted. Others: "Pfft! No way!" The truth might be in the experience, and so it will be Halloween eve.

"Well, it all started with Hunter's 'You Make the Call' poll question: 'Do you believe in ghosts?' And my answer was no. And then, Marva's was yes. So then it started going into 'alright, what if you stayed in the jail cell?' I was like 'I'll sleep in the jail cell. I have no problem sleeping in there," said Cooper White, account representative at The Big Boy. 

As the discussion was taking place, Rob Kuhns entered the discussion. 

"And then, Rob Kuhns came walking through, and we asked him if we could do it, and he's like, 'Wow! That's kind of a good idea,'" Marva Ellwanger said. 

The "what-if" drew client interest, which led to a plan.

"So it turned into a whole radio promotion, a whole gimmick that we were going to go and spend the night there and Chris Sauder from Sauders Automotive is going to come with us. He says he's a skeptic," said Chris Gutierrez, Director of Sales West, Flood Communications. 

Ellwanger says everybody has doubts about the existence of ghosts.

"I think everybody is a skeptic at heart. I mean, for me when I hear a ghost story I try to disprove it right away. Like, is this true or could this be something else? Could it be the wind blowing through a building? Could it be ... whatever," she said.

The project has moved in a direction staff likely didn't expect.

"It evolved from just Cooper, Facebook Live, sleeping in the jail cell, and investigating a noise, to the three of us, and Chris Sauder, doing a full-on paranormal investigation of the whole building," Gutierrez said.

He said the goal is to make the investigation as authentic as possible. The point is to prove to White ghosts are real. Gutierrez said Ellwanger is an experienced ghost hunter and will be applying some of her tools of the trade tonight. She said the Elks building has a history of unexplained activity.

Facebook Live reporting is scheduled to start about 10 p.m. from the Elks building. Lights will go off at about 10:30 with the team relying on flashlights throughout the night, and the four participants will be locked in until 6 a.m. Thursday.

Tonight also introduces a series called "Rails and Tales."

"Brandy Stone with Economic Development is sponsoring 'Rails and Tales.' That will be telling the history of our downtown and the buildings in it. And so this is the kickoff of that. We're going to do this one first, and then we'll take each one of those buildings. People drive downtown or you're walking around downtown and you notice the name on those buildings, and you wonder who that person is. We're going to delve into that," Ellwanger said.