Do you want something more adventurous than just hearing tales and taking pictures of downtown's ghosts? Do you watch Ghost Hunters or Ghost Adventures and wish that were you? Well, it can be! Chattanooga Ghost Tours, Inc is proud to be the first ghost tour in the country to offer a ghost HUNT featuring the cutting edge, TALKING Ovilus X. The Ovilus has been seen on both Paranormal States and Ghost Adventures. To see the Ovilus in action, click: PS S2Ep6 or CGTI. Our equipment also includes Ghost Meter Pro EMF detectors, temperature gun, and a KII meter (including the latest technology, a KII meter with audible tone changes for temperature drops). Come investigate with us!
   
Ghost hunts will take place each Friday & Saturday at 9:30 pm, and other times by reservation. The hunt meets at the sidewalk in front of Patten Chapel, approximately 615 McCallie Avenue, and will traverse the UTC campus, down to the Citizen's Cemetery, and return to the point of origin. There is free parking along McCallie Avenue. We will investigate outside Patten Chapel, Hooper Hall, Brock Hall, and the cemetery, telling you about the ghosts of the campus along the way. We will also point out some of the most historic graves in Citizen's Cemetery.
For families with children, those on a tight budget, and others who prefer a tour rather an investigation, check our nightly ghost tour.WE HAVE ALSO JUST STARTED A DOWNTOWN GHOST HUNT WITH HOPE, THAT WILL ON OCCASION BE OPEN TO AGES 10+.
 
 

 

Ghost Hunts cost $20.00 per person. Sorry, no children are allowed on the cemetery ghost hunt, due to manufacturer's restrictions, although they will occasionally be allowed on the downtown hunt with Hope. {On those occasions, the talkbox will be substituted for the Ovilus X.} DONALD KITCHENS and JOHN HOLLOWAY will be guiding our cemetery ghost hunts. These tours are limited in size, so make your reservation today!
Our Ovilus X has often called people by name, often given names when asked its name, responded with emotions like "pissed" when asked how it was doing, commented on a room it was in {"small kitchen"), said, "food," and when asked as a follow up what kind of food it liked, responded, "(po)tato wedges," counted our groups, told people their occupations, & said many many other pertinent things.

  
 

 

(May 14 tour) The day before the first hunt, when we were experimenting with the Ovilus near the cemetery, in addition to several other comments, it called one of our guides a VERY rude name when he was laughing about the ghost. On our first ghost hunt, the Ovilus answered lots of questions, and at one point even got very bossy. ("Here. Turn around. Sit. Talk.") It also instructed us to bring coffee for it to smell next time. Temperature dropped at the Patten Chapel bell tower from around 68, to 27, then down to ZERO! This was right after Jeromie had mentioned he could have sworn he saw someone moving up near the bell- although that was impossible at that part of the locked tower, which appears at that height to require a ladder for access. Some folks got great photos, as well, including a rare red orb (which we hope they'll send in). Comment from that tour- "it was awesome I was there !!!"- THG. We look forward to having you join us for a hunt soon!

  

 

 

(May 28 hunt) We appear to have established that the name of the female ghost at Patten Chapel is Anna or Annie, as she has given that name at that location on multiple locations. We suspect this is the jilted bride who committed suicide, as she said, "man," and when asked, "what about the man?" her IMMEDIATE reply was, "cheat." She went on to to say several things that indicated she was remorseful about her suicide, including, "sin," "priest," "tragedy," and "sorry," in pretty rapid succession. She got irritated when our guide Donnie repeatedly talked over her, in an effort to finish conveying her story, and stopped talking, and she seems to respond better to women than men. At the bell tower, we again got temperature anomalies, with the temperature at the portion of the tower near the bell fluctuating wildly from 50s or higher, down to 20s. I left the tour to Donnie at that point, and anxiously await hearing his report on what else occurred.
Comment from 5/28 tour- "Awesome!! We have some pics we want to send you as soon as we download them! Interesting!!! Donny was great!!"- JH.
The photos at left were taken by Jeff Stephens on that tour at the cemetery (which has no source of light). There was nothing visible to cause the lights, no flash was used, and a picture taken with the same camera between these two at that exact spot was perfectly normal, with no lights or fog.

 

(June 11 tour) A couple of reports have come in from our June 11 ghost tour already. When standing near the Lattner grave (the same family who owned the house taken over by Grant during the Civil War, which is discussed on the ghost tour), an EMF detector that was inadvertently left on went off at a very high level, despite the fact there were no power sources anywhere around. When standing right outside the cemetery, the Ovilus gave the names, "Fred," and "Ellen," and when they subsequently went into the cemetery, they passed a grave that had both those names. At the Shakespeare Garden at Patten Chapel, when one guest was asking about the difference between a demon and a poltergeist, and inquired what a poltergeist was, the Ovilus immediately interrupted Jeromie's explanation to say, "Demon." Apparently "Anna" believes them to be one and the same. It also reportedly again cussed Jeromie near the graveyard. SOMEBODY there clearly doesn't like him! Many other things were said, as well.

  

 

 

(June 29) Our ghost hunt on June 29 was especially creepy. We believe it was the monk who repeatedly gave warnings- "Run!", "It's coming!", "Turn left," and "It's here!" among others. It also called one of our guests, "Cayla," by name, and seemed to be addressing these warnings to her. At the time of one of these warnings, our temperature gun gave a reading of 107 right next to her. It was warm that night, but not THAT hot! It is the only time we have gotten any alarming messages on the hunt.
The photo at left (taken by Jeff Stephens) is the Patten Chapel Shakespeare Garden where Anna or Annie did alot of talking. (We have moved this stop for security reasons, but the new stop is where the remarks to "Lou," described below, occurred.) Note the rare green orb at top right.

 

Oct 2011- Sorry we have not updated info on the hunt in a while. The Ovilus and other equipment is still very active- often the reports I get are enthusiastic statements like, "You won't believe what it did tonight!" without a lot of details. However, this past weekend, on one of the hunts, the group was going around giving their names, and the Ovilus did not respond until it got to Lou. At that time, it said, "Hey, Lou," and proceeded to address and respond only to Lou the rest of the night. The temperature gun also gave at least one extremely low reading, despite the fact it was not cold out. The next night, it growled at one of our guests (something it has only done once before), and became very erratic, so we replaced it with our new Ovilus, which began talking so much and so fast, they had a hard time keeping up with what it was saying.
This photo was taken by Sunny Bingham at the cemetery. I believe the pole shown is the flagpole marking the grave of the Union soldiers buried in the Confederate cemetery. Perhaps that accounts for the numerous orbs guarding it. Her comment- "UTC Campus...Had a great time would highly recommand the Ghost Hunt..The Ovilus X box was alot of Fun!!" Thanks, Sunny!

  

 

 

(Mar 2012) We have continued to have lots of activity on the ghost hunt. Lately, the Ovilus has been very sweet to some of the women on the tour, telling them how nice and pretty and kind they are, while simultaneously picking on some of the guys. Earlier this week, it was doing this to one couple in particular, telling the guy (when the lady had just told him not to fall on the stairs because she couldn't catch him), that he was "too heavy," among many other things. It has said "Don't know," when a woman asked jokingly why she married her husband. It has not limited its comments to our hunts, either. Last night, after being unable to find some recently purchased medicine anywhere in the house, in desperation, I finally turned on the Ovilus and demanded to know where it was. It replied, "Under (the) damn johnny," and a few moments later, added. "sink." In truth, under the bathroom sink was where I thought I had put it, but after another search there, it still didn't show up. When I returned to the Ovilus and said in disgust that it wasn't there, what was its reply? "Laugh." : / Everyone's a joker.
The photo to the left, of a shadow figure that appears to be holding a rifle, was taken on a hunt by Becca Sproat in August, and she says no one was there when this was taken.

 

August 2012- Hunts & tours have been super active lately! On almost all of Donnie's hunts recently, people have seen a shadow figure darting through the cemetery, & the Patten Chapel jilted bride has not only chatted a good bit; she has also made a few appearances. On one recent hunt, the entire tour saw a bride with glowing white eyes through the window, & some saw a shadow figure running after her when she left the window. They also heard a very loud bang come from the door, one they couldn't recreate. Thinking it was perhaps a prankster who'd snuck inside, our group reported it to security. After thoroughly searching the chapel, the guard emerged red-faced and irritated, thinking we were messing with him, because there was absolutely no one inside! At least one person got a photo of the bride in the window, though they haven't yet sent it in. We'll be sure to post it upon receipt!
On a March hunt, Neal Anderson took this fabulous orb photo. He said, "I just wanted to say Donnie did a great job on our ghost hunt. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for a great hunt!"
We did an interview with Shock Theatre recently, and in the course of it, were demonstrating the Ovilus, with the DTD reader hooked up so we could make sure we knew what it was saying. Hope asked what the spirit's name was, and it replied, "Paul." Immediately after, he said, "travelled," and when Hope asked where he travelled from, the reply was "Light"! You can view the video here. Paul's discourse occurs at about 13:50."> You can see more conversation with the Ovilus, as well as our other equipment, on youtube.The equipment demo begins at about 4:45.