Ft. Brooke Parking Garage, Tampa.
Oct. 7, 2007
Once again, I spoke at the Necronomicon Sci Fi/Horror convention held in downtown Tampa. This year, however, tired of troubles parking in downtown Tampa (they have Meter Maid Nazis who just wait to ticket cars at any chance they can get) I opted to park at the Fort Brooke parking garage. Sure, it's $7 for 4 hours, but it beats a $30 parking fine.
I had heard that the garage was haunted. Initially, I believed that the story related to an African American cemetary where, allegedly, not all of the bodies were moved before the city built the large parking structure on top of it. I was also told at the convention that the garage sits atop a Native American burial ground instead (rumor also has it that that is why the city gave a bit of land to the local Seminole tribe in return for building on this spot).
Either way, I decided that I would check the garage out before I vacated from Necronomicon this year. Since I did this investigation alone, I am posting it to my private ghost page.
When I returned to my beloved Sugar (my car), I took out my EMF meter and digital camera. I attempted to gather no additional attention to myself as I strolled through the second and third levels of the garage dressed in all black, sporting a floor-length black cape and wearing a skeleton groom pin on my lapel, taking picutres of the garage. I feared I would be picked up for casing out cars! It might not have helped matters that I had my trifield meter with me and I was trying to very quietly ask that if anyone was present, they could indicate themselves by being in my pictures or making the needle on my EMF meter spike. As a non-sensitive, it's the best that I can do.
I asked if there were any Native American spirits in the garage. I also asked if there were any African American spirits in the area. I got no real response in most parts of the structure; one area had heavy EMF which I presume came from wires running between the floors. However, I did get to one staircase leading to the exit outside, and since spirits are said to like stairs, I repeated my questions there. I did get a spike on "African American" which I could not explain as natural. I repeated the question and again got a spike. I took the following series of pictures: 2 shots of the stairwell (first image below) before I asked the questions, and the garage pictures (3 shots, 2 shown below) afterwards. The three shots of the garage I snapped in a row, with a few seconds falling between each one. I did get only this one orb image.
Note: The camera is new. I have field tested it 4 times and it has not produced any bright orbs; the only orbs that I have gotten are very faint and also fairly rare (only two pictures out of all of those taken prior to today). Today I took a total of 20 shots and only the one has orbs in it. The shot came after the EMF spike, but the two test shots afterwards came up blank.
Also, the garage is open to the outside, so the orbs well could be environmental. However, I thought this might be interesting enough to post to see what folks thought.
As I left, I did ask the cashier at the exit if the garage was haunted. I don't know how well he understood my question (I had to ask three or four times). He shook his head "no", but I couldn't understand what he told me in reply, either.
The stairs where I asked the questions. Turning immediately around to the left, the images were snapped below.
From email. Rec'd permission to post on 9-15-11.
Excellent investigation! I have never been inside the Ft Brooke parking Garage, but I know a bit about he history. It was a Seminole burial ground; it was also a final resting place for soldiers of the Seminole war(s) and victims of yellow fever. When the garage was built, the City unearthed several bodies. They verified that a majority of the bodies were Seminoles, but some were soldiers and victims of yellow fever. The City offered the Seminole tribe a piece of land in east Tampa for having built over sacred ground (Hard Rock Casino). The bodies were removed and placed either in the custody of the Seminole tribe or buried at Oaklawn Cemetery (downtown Tampa across from Marion Transit Center). I was fuzzy on the history at the time we saw the Dove lady. A few weeks later I returned and noticed the history marker. It was placed within a few feet of where I saw her. I frequently see "ghost tour" groups stopped at the spot where we saw her, but I don't know what the tour guide is saying about it; likely just referencing the Garage itself. We were there Sunday evening and heard what sounded like two children crying inside of the garage. It was loud and lasted for about 10 minutes. Once it stopped, we expected to hear a car starting, but nothing. Likely a coincidence! Just took about an hour to browse through the SPIRITS investigations, I really like what you all do! Anyway, I will keep you posted on any additional thoughts on historic locales in Tampa..
