This beautiful farm is located outside Shannon IL. The house was built
by David Holmes and his bride Mary Boardman in 1985. This full working
farm stayed in the family until the 1980's. The land was purchased by Al
Kelchner in 2007 and he changed the name from the Zier Farm to Willow
Creek Farm. The farm is amazing. And knowing that Josh and Amy were also making the trip with us, could this get any better!
We really want to tell you a little bit about Al. He works in Chicago, which is located approximately 200 miles to the east. He stays in Chicago during the
week. and then he comes home on the weekend. There is always so much work to do,
but he still invites some paranormal groups to enjoy his home, and without charging a
fee. He is always so pleasant and loves to tell stories about the house
and the spirits that stay here.
There are several entities that they have found to be still residing here. Sara is the mother, and there are 2 young
children, Mary and Lily. Robert is a young boy that can be found in the
doctor's room upstairs. Big Mike seems to be a worker on the farm that can
often be seen in the kitchen and garage. The land was also inhabited by
Indians, and they can often be seen looking down from the ridge.
Since we came early, we helped Al finish up some of the work for the day,
and he took us on a tour of some of the small towns in the area, and then took us to
dinner in Clinton, Illinois, to this wonderful restaurant on the river. We had a
awesome dinner and were able to catch up on some new stories.
While we were gone to dinner, we left recorders running, with the hope of catching some activity
while the house was empty. We were please to find that we did catch the sounds of footsteps running up the steps,
similar to what we captured last year. Otherwise, the house was rather quiet compared to our previous investigation. Al did say that they had had a team in the night before, and that the spirits were really
active for them. We often wonder just what impact back-to-back investigations have on the entities. This is something we plan to continue to evaluate. We did hear someone following us out in the garage and
around the old barn. Maybe Mike was out there with us, to see what we were
doing. We spent the night in the living room and it was noted that the recorder in that room had
shut off, and it was noted that the batteries were still full, and there was plenty of space still left on the recorder.
Al is cutting back on teams that get to come in so he can spend more
time relaxing, and he wants to turn this place back into a working farm. We hope to
return in 2016 and will keep you posted if we are able to do so.
