Did They Catch Ghosts in Shepherdstown, West Virginia? A Skeptic Reviews the Evidence

Hello, spooky cats!

Today we’re heading somewhere very familiar to me: Shepherdstown, West Virginia, a tiny historic college town with a surprisingly large collection of ghost stories.

Instead of doing the investigating myself this time, I’m reviewing an older paranormal investigation from the YouTube channel Society of the Supernatural. When I recorded my reaction, their Shepherdstown investigation was one of the most-viewed independent ghost-hunting videos I could find from the town.

That immediately made me curious.

Did they capture anything genuinely unexplained?

Did their spirit box produce convincing communication?

Did their equipment actually react to something?

And perhaps most importantly, did the mysterious smell of horse manure turn out to be their strongest paranormal evidence?

Welcome to ghost hunting.

Why Shepherdstown Is Perfect for a Ghost Hunt

Shepherdstown is one of the oldest communities in West Virginia and is frequently described as one of the most haunted towns in the region.

It has certainly collected enough ghost stories.

There are tales of Revolutionary War and Civil War spirits, a mysterious woman in white, the ghost of a man killed in a duel, and strange figures reportedly appearing in historic buildings.

Even Shepherd University has its stories.

I went to college in Shepherdstown, so I’m pretty familiar with the town. That's one reason I'm especially interested whenever I find paranormal videos filmed there.

I've walked these streets.

I've been around these buildings.

And despite all those years in the area, I've never personally encountered the level of supernatural chaos portrayed in some paranormal television shows.

That doesn't mean nothing strange ever happens there.

In fact, when we conducted our own investigations in Shepherdstown, we captured an interesting EVP during each of two visits.

They weren't proof of ghosts, but they were interesting enough that I still haven't completely explained them.

So I was curious to see what Society of the Supernatural found.

Ghost Hunting in an Old Shepherdstown Cemetery

The investigation began inside a historic cemetery that looked very much like one we have visited ourselves.

Some of the graves in Shepherdstown date back centuries, including graves connected to the Revolutionary War era.

It's an appropriately spooky setting.

It's also important to remember something: a cemetery being old doesn't automatically make it haunted.

That's one of the assumptions ghost hunters make surprisingly often.

Dead people are buried there, therefore ghosts must be there.

Maybe.

But I've never seen evidence showing that ghosts—assuming they exist—have any particular reason to remain beside their graves.

In fact, we've generally had very little activity during our own cemetery investigations.

My completely unscientific theory?

Maybe people who received a proper burial are perfectly happy and don't feel like talking to ghost hunters.

I'd ignore us too.

The Spirit Box Session Begins

Much of the Society of the Supernatural investigation involved a spirit box.

For anyone unfamiliar with these devices, a traditional spirit box rapidly scans through radio frequencies, producing short fragments of radio broadcasts mixed with static.

Some paranormal investigators believe spirits can manipulate those fragments to form words or sentences.

That's where I have a problem.

Throughout the investigation, the team heard responses that sounded like words such as:

“Yeah.”

“Light.”

“Hold on.”

“Listen.”

“Yes.”

Some responses seemed to match the questions being asked.

But were they actually ghosts answering?

I wasn't convinced.

Is It a Ghost—or Just the Radio?

This is one of my biggest problems with spirit boxes.

When recognizable voices come directly from radio stations, how do we distinguish a paranormal response from a completely ordinary piece of a broadcast?

Personally, I want something more convincing.

If a ghost is supposedly communicating through the device, I'd much rather hear a voice that sounds separate from the radio broadcasts instead of a conveniently timed fragment from a DJ, advertisement, song, or caller.

That doesn't mean the spirit-box theory is impossible.

It means we need a better way to test it.

And that's exactly why I've been experimenting with a Faraday cage.

My Faraday Cage Spirit Box Experiment

I constructed a simple Faraday cage using multiple layers of aluminum foil.

The idea is straightforward.

If we block outside radio signals and the spirit box can no longer receive ordinary broadcasts, what happens to the alleged ghost voices?

My hypothesis is pretty simple:

The voices will disappear.

If that happens, it would strongly suggest that the “responses” ghost hunters hear are coming from ordinary radio transmissions.

But what if voices continue appearing after those signals are blocked?

Now that would get my attention.

That's the type of paranormal experiment I find much more useful than simply asking a spirit box twenty questions and counting every vaguely appropriate word as a ghost response.

Asking the Ghosts About War

Since Shepherdstown has connections to both the Revolutionary War and Civil War, the investigators asked whether the spirits remembered the wars.

They also asked about horses, occupations, families, and other subjects connected to people who might have lived in the area centuries ago.

At times, the spirit box appeared to provide appropriate answers.

But again, the problem was the same.

The voices sounded like radio voices.

If I'm hearing words that could naturally occur during radio scanning, I can't eliminate the radio itself as the explanation.

And if we haven't eliminated the ordinary source, I'm not ready to introduce a ghost.

Testing Another Ghost-Hunting Device

The investigators also used what appeared to be an electronic meter that displayed changing numerical readings.

At one point, the reading reportedly jumped from around 0.1 to 3.2.

The team encouraged the supposed spirit to approach the device and make the numbers increase.

Later, they repeatedly asked it to touch the meter on command.

This is where repeatability becomes important.

If I say:

“Touch this device when I count to three.”

And the device activates on three...

Interesting.

If I repeat the experiment ten times and it responds correctly eight or nine times?

Very interesting.

If it randomly fluctuates once and then refuses to respond again despite repeated requests?

That's considerably less impressive.

And that's essentially what happened here.

The investigators kept trying to get the phenomenon to repeat.

It didn't cooperate.

Welcome to basically every ghost hunt I've ever conducted.

Why Are Ghost Hunters Always Filming Themselves?

Watching this investigation also reminded me of one of my complaints about paranormal videos—including some of my own early videos.

Why are we constantly pointing the camera at ourselves?

I understand showing the investigators occasionally. You need context, reactions, introductions, and explanations.

But if you're hunting for a full-bodied apparition, shadow figure, woman in white, Civil War soldier, or mysterious figure walking through the cemetery, shouldn't the camera be pointed at the place where the ghost might appear?

Early on, I made the same mistake because that's how most paranormal channels filmed their investigations.

Eventually I realized something.

I want to film the ghost. Not myself looking for the ghost.

Now I try to keep cameras aimed toward rooms, hallways, doorways, staircases, and other locations where something might actually appear.

If an apparition walks behind me while my face fills 80 percent of the frame, congratulations.

I've successfully blocked my own paranormal evidence.

Was the Night Vision Actually Night Vision?

Another thing that caught my attention was the green appearance of some of the footage.

At first, I questioned whether the investigators were really using night vision or simply applying a green effect.

Later, I heard what sounded like the infrared mechanism activating, so they may indeed have been using genuine night-vision equipment.

Still, fake night vision is something I've noticed in paranormal videos.

I've never completely understood why.

Maybe green footage simply feels more like ghost hunting because decades of paranormal television have trained us to associate that glowing green look with investigations.

My own night-vision camera produces a pinkish image, which I don't particularly like, so I usually convert it to black and white.

The important thing isn't the spooky color.

It's whether the camera is actually capturing information we couldn't otherwise see.

The Ghosts of Shepherdstown

While watching the investigation, I started thinking about the many spirits associated with Shepherdstown.

Stories around town include Revolutionary War and Civil War ghosts, a mysterious woman in white, a man reportedly killed in a duel, and strange figures around historic buildings.

There is also Captain George, a ghost associated with the Shepherdstown Sweet Shop.

And yes, if you visit Shepherdstown, go to the sweet shop.

I used to stop there before college classes.

Paranormal activity or not, the baked goods are worth investigating.

Captain George is reportedly one of the spirits associated with the building and is sometimes credited with unusual activity around the bakery.

That is one ghost I wouldn't mind meeting.

Any spirit willing to help with baked goods has my support.

Then Came the Horse

The investigators eventually noticed something that genuinely interested me.

They smelled horse manure.

Not vaguely.

According to them, the smell was extremely strong, almost as though a horse had just passed nearby.

Then it disappeared.

They didn't actually see a horse.

Could this have been paranormal?

Maybe.

Could someone nearby have horses?

Absolutely.

Shepherdstown is surrounded by rural areas. Horses exist. Manure exists. Wind exists.

A smell alone isn't enough to demonstrate paranormal activity.

But I don't automatically dismiss unusual smells either.

Phantom Smells During Paranormal Investigations

Smell is interesting because we've experienced something similar ourselves.

During an investigation at the Apollo Civic Theatre in Martinsburg, we entered the green room and immediately smelled cigar smoke.

That's especially interesting because one of the reported spirits at the Apollo is associated with the smell of cigars.

Did a ghost create the smell?

I don't know.

Someone could have smoked a cigar in or near the building. The smell could have remained in furniture, fabric, walls, ventilation, or another surface.

Old buildings hold smells extremely well.

But it was still an interesting coincidence.

The horse-manure smell in the Shepherdstown cemetery falls into the same category for me.

I believe the investigators smelled something.

What caused that smell is another question.

And that's the distinction that matters.

A Smell Isn't Evidence Until We Eliminate the Alternatives

This is where paranormal investigations often go wrong.

Someone smells perfume.

Therefore: Victorian woman ghost.

Someone smells tobacco.

Therefore: Civil War soldier.

Someone smells horse manure.

Therefore: spectral cavalry.

That's jumping several steps ahead.

Before blaming a ghost, I'd want to know:

Was there a farm nearby?

Were horses being kept anywhere around the town?

Which direction was the wind moving?

Could the smell have traveled from another property?

Was manure being used as fertilizer?

Did everyone smell it independently?

How long did it last?

Could we recreate the conditions?

If all those possibilities were eliminated and the smell repeatedly appeared under specific circumstances, then things would become much more interesting.

As it stands, the mystery horse remains...

Well...

A mystery horse.

Did Society of the Supernatural Capture a Ghost?

After watching the complete investigation, I didn't see anything that convinced me they captured paranormal evidence.

The spirit-box responses sounded like fragments of radio broadcasts.

The electronic meter produced some changes but didn't reliably respond when challenged to repeat them.

No apparition appeared.

No shadow person wandered through the cemetery.

And the mysterious smell of horse manure had several perfectly ordinary possible explanations.

That doesn't make the investigation bad.

Actually, it makes it fairly realistic.

Real ghost hunting involves an enormous amount of waiting around while absolutely nothing happens.

The paranormal television version—where something knocks every seven minutes, a demon appears before the commercial break, and somebody gets dragged down a hallway—isn't anything like most investigations I've experienced.

Sometimes you spend hours in a haunted location and your biggest event is:

“Did that meter just go to 0.1?”

Yep.

That's ghost hunting.

My Biggest Problem With the Evidence

For me, the weakest part of the investigation was relying so heavily on the spirit box.

When almost every apparent communication is already coming through a device designed to receive radio broadcasts, it's extremely difficult to determine whether anything paranormal is happening.

That's why I want controlled experiments.

Block the radio signals.

Run multiple recorders.

Compare haunted locations with non-haunted control locations.

Ask the same questions.

Record how often meaningful answers occur.

And most importantly, count the misses as well as the hits.

If you ask twenty questions and receive one word that seems appropriate, that single response might feel amazing in the moment.

But statistically, it may not be amazing at all.

Shepherdstown Still Deserves Another Investigation

Despite being unconvinced by this particular video, I absolutely think Shepherdstown deserves more paranormal investigations.

We've already investigated there ourselves and captured two EVPs that I still find interesting.

I also want to return and explore additional locations.

The town has historic buildings, extremely old cemeteries, ghost stories connected to several different periods of American history, and plenty of places that rarely appear on the big paranormal YouTube channels.

And that's one reason I find it so interesting.

Gettysburg gets investigated constantly.

Shepherdstown?

Not nearly as much.

That means there are still plenty of stories and locations waiting to be examined without thousands of paranormal videos already telling us what we're supposed to experience.

Final Verdict: Interesting Investigation, but No Ghost Yet

So did Society of the Supernatural find proof that Shepherdstown is haunted?

For me, no.

The investigation was entertaining, and I enjoyed seeing another team's experience in a town I'm familiar with.

But I didn't hear convincing spirit-box evidence.

I didn't see reliable interaction with the electronic equipment.

And although the sudden horse-manure smell was interesting, there are too many normal possibilities to declare it paranormal.

So Shepherdstown keeps its mysteries for another day.

And that's okay.

I'd rather finish an investigation saying “I don't know” than force ordinary events into a ghost story.

Because if we ever do capture something that survives all the ordinary explanations, I want it to actually mean something.

Until then, we'll keep investigating, testing the equipment, questioning the evidence, and occasionally standing in very old cemeteries listening to radio static.

Stay spooky, cats.