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jazzforthecaptain:

On Saturday evening my girlfriend and I made the trip to the Bartonville Asylum for the incurably insane (bear in mind that this is an early 1900’s term and the asylum has been closed since the 70’s). This was my second trip. The building is badly in need of donors to keep it even reasonably healthy – fix the roof, specifically – and I don’t mind contributing to help out because it’s become pretty important to me, pretty quickly. The owners and staff curating the building put on afternoon 45-minute informational tours and evening paranormal tours that last 2.5 hours, as well as occasional overnight ghosthunting expeditions for the exceptionally adventurous. I recommend doing the 45-minute tour prior to any paranormal work, because information on the place is scarce on the Internet and the staff doing the info tours are both knowledgeable and not inclined to embellish for ‘scare’ factor. In fact, they don’t tell the ghost stories at all – unless you ask.

Bartonville Asylum is active. Active, active. You don’t need to be sensitive, and this isn’t like whale-watching – prayers and luck really aren’t necessary. Going in the summer for an early evening tour is great because the light makes it much simpler to see shadows moving across the hallways, and they’re there in force and pretty much all you need to do is stand still and be patient for a minute or two. It’s best to get in with a small group if you can; while last time my buddy and I weren’t so lucky and got a few really obnoxious folks in our group, this time my girlfriend and I only had one other young woman with us besides our two tour guides.

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