OLD JENSEN LIGHTHOUSE
Location: Not to be confused with River Heights, Ohio, River Heights is a shipping community fifteen miles from Baltimore, Maryland on Highway 151 in Baltimore County. Standing on a hill over the peaceful and idyllic town, the Old Jensen Lighthouse is perched on a plot of land overlooking Patapasco Bay. No trespassing is allowed.
Description of Place: The white six-story lighthouse rests on cliffs above a beach with recurring tides. At full tide, the water level reaches halfway up the hundred foot high exposed and rocky cliff side. The remains of a cave, present only at low tide, still exists, leading up into the foundation of the lighthouse, but because of the dangerous risk of the tide, entry and exploration is not advisable. The lighthouse has been abandoned since the 1950s, and is in a state of dilapidation.
Ghostly Manifestations: Bright lights, a figure in gray, mysterious cries of distress from the sea... These are the elements of a supernatural romance story, but they are also examples of a lonely structure on a windswept peak over the bay near Baltimore. The nearby residents know the lighthouse exists for in fact it can be seen from nearly ever vantage spot in town, but if you ask anyone about the supposed ghosts that allegedly exist up there, they will likely just grin and turn away. The small town has another more prominent call to fame; it is the hometown of a young would-be female detective from Ohio named Nancy Drew whom Edward Stratemeyer immortalized in the pages of a series of popular 1930s short stories. That young lady has since grown up and moved away, but her namesake and predecessor still lives here both amused and in awe of the legacy of her great-aunt.
"Do you believe in ghosts?" She asks vivaciously and effervescently as she walks up the hill to the lighthouse where she once had the honor of participating in a 1977 paranormal investigation. She has the poise and beauty of an actress from a primetime soap opera; time has slowed her down little and she still looks remarkably like the young girl she once was.
"I was seventeen when Professor Jack Wald came to research the old lighthouse, but I think he was actually more of a treasure hunter because he spent more time looking for treasure than he did looking for ghosts." She admits while careful to withhold some facts. "Unfortunately for him, legal issues prevented him from fully claiming anything he found, but it was still one of the most exciting events of my life. Because of him, I learned for the first time about the ghosts at our little lighthouse."
According to faded newspaper accounts, there were a number of strange events here from the 1900s to the 1930s that seemed to border on the supernatural. Despite being shut down in 1937, the top of the lighthouse seemed to remain alive over the years. The light up top would often be found once more burning brightly. It has reportedly been seen burning a total of sixty-three times from Patapsco Bay by numerous individuals including Navy lieutenants, charter captains, boaters and even the coast guard. Nancy even saw it burning once during a boating excursion in 1977.
"It was definitely not the light of the moon." Nancy dismisses the thought. "It was burning brightly and everyone with me saw it too."
Seen a bit more often than the light, several witnesses have seen the sign of a figure wandering the ramparts of the lighthouse close to the cliffs. The local police even have a file on this phantom trespasser. Every time the figure "suddenly vanishes," well-meaning witnesses call the police to report someone having fallen off the cliffs, but, of course, no one is ever found. The figure sometimes wanders out from beyond a tree into the road. Seven motorists in fifteen years coming around the turn have reported nearly hitting the figure in gray.
"I don't know who the ghost is, but he definitely has a eye for protecting the property from certain people." Nancy continues. "Several people often picnic up there or visit the property without seeing him, but there's definitely a few photos supposedly of him that bare varying interpretation. In 1999, the state police were looking for a traveling meth lab in the area and found the van in question deserted near town. A run down search of the deserted structures in the area ended up at the lighthouse where they found evidence leading to the perpetrators. Now, no one knows this for sure, but the local rumor is that the gray man caught these criminals trying to move into his lighthouse and frightened them off, sans their illegal chemicals and equipment."
If one doesn't see the gray ghost, they are more apt to hearing it. Sounds resembling human cries have been heard, but they have actually been purported to be the wind whistling through the caves or the cries of sea gulls and pelicans of which there are several. The cries of help come up from the bay whenever the tide comes in, but even more amazingly, the voices sometimes call witnesses by name.
"Last summer, there was a film crew using the lighthouse to film a music video," Nancy is quick to recall. "From what I understand, one of the singers heard someone calling him by his real name instead of his music persona." Nancy grins knowingly. "Weird, isn't it?"
History: Formerly known as the River Heights Lighthouse, the lighthouse was built in 1855 and fortified in 1911 by the U.S. Navy Corp of Engineers on the site of a stone perch watching over the entrance to Washington D.C. The location was chosen because the caves could be used to move and store goods and supplies easily up to the lighthouse. It fell out of use in the 1930s and became private property afterward. Seamus Jensen owned it between 1939 to 1977 when he sold it to Professor Wald, who donated it to River Heights in 1983. It has been used as the backdrop of several town festivals and gatherings ever since.
Identity of Ghosts: According to legend, pirates used to conceal treasure as well as goods in the caves and later smugglers used the enclosed cove as a hiding place from the Navy. At oft times, the cove has been nick-named Smuggler's Bay and Pirate's Cove. One of the most notorious in the area during the Early Eighteenth Century was Captain Eduardo Vasquez who supposedly sealed up four mutinous crewmen in the bowels of the cliff during high tide. Their ghosts are supposed to haunt the cliffs.
Investigations: With the permission of Michael Haines of the River Heights Town Council, the lighthouse has had two separate investigations in 1993 and 1998. The 1993 investigation was carried out by members of the Baltimore Paranormal Society and headed by Jason Spears and Kristin Lohan. Rigging the lighthouse for sound, they caught a few EVPs of voices, "Sounds above.." and "Up top it goes..." and had several personal experiences involving sounds and shadows they failed to catch on tape. Spears and BPS member Adam Clarkson photographed several orbs that night as Lohan staked out the basement during an EVP session, but when she came up to begin wrapping their investigation, the camera in the basement moved by itself about a foot less than a minute after she turned to leave. Spears tried to debunk it as a vibration coming through the floor but his recreation doesn't match the aforementioned footage.
In 1998, the Collinsport Ghost Society pulled a more in-depth investigation joined by Adam Clarkson and psychic medium Greg Nakumara of the Bay Area Paranormal Society from California. During their investigation, CGS placed cameras, sound gear and proximity detectors through the lighthouse and basement for a full night investigation. They also ran a robot probe through a hole in the foundation that reportedly linked up to the caves below in the cliff but was only about to get so far as the cliffs filled with seawater at high tide. During the night, Greg failed to feel any spirits, but he did read the energies of a former lighthouse keeper who once ran the post and had stressed that the light was not kept maintained. Whether it is his spirit returning is unrevealed. Although the proximity sensors in the basement kept going off, no one investigating the lighthouse that night ever caught up with what was setting them off. However, the camera filming the overhead shot of the lighthouse caught what looks like a shadow that looks over the top of the staircase and then pops back and emerges again higher up toward the light. Although this shape could be the digital process of the camera adjusting for the darkness, it was not enough to suggest it was paranormal activity.
Source/Comments: Nancy Drew/Hardy Boy Mysteries (1977-1979) - Episode: The Mystery of Pirate's Cove. Hauntings based on those which have occurred at Race Rock Lighthouse and Ledge Lighthouse in New London, Connecticut, St. Simon Lighthouse in St. Simon, Georgia, Hecata Head Lighthouse in Florence, Oregon and the St. Augustine Lighthouse in Florida.