GHOST.... GHOSTFACERS!!!

"Stay in the kitchen when the kitchen gets hot!"

Hi there guys and ghouls (wow let the cheesy lines begin), we are The Pittsburgh Ghost Squad. (Informally also known as The GhostFacers, but since we aren't sure if the TV show Supernatural has that name copyrighted, we decided to be original for a change and come up with our own name. Yeah, I googled it and "Pittsburgh Ghost Squad" is not already a claimed paranormal investigation team.) And I, the author of this, and probably all the other entries in this already AWESOMELY awesome blog, am Michael Dynamite (my self appointed code name), AKA the Admiral AKA Mike Eyes AKA Mike Hives #inside jokes, #Hashtags. We have a lot of aliases. Deal with it.

I guess I'll start this thing off with a kind of mission statement. Ehrm-

The Pittsburgh Ghost Squad's Mission Statement:

The PGS's mission is simple. To travel around to various reputably haunted locations in and around the southwestern Pennsylvania region to find out for ourselves whether or not said places are actually haunted or host to any "paranormal activity." We currently don't have any fancy video equipment or scientific ghost hunter tools (though we might get real serious real soon, and order a kit off of the BIO channel or something). What we do have are our personal experiences and our pledges to "stay in the kitchen when the kitchen gets hot." We will not run screaming out of the cemetery at the first sounds of a twig snapping. We will not succumb to "bad" feelings that we are being followed, watched or aren't wanted wherever we are. We will not automatically cry "three-headed Hell dog!!!" when we hear a bark in the distance.

We start out with a healthy dose of optimistic skepticism. We want more than anything to believe in ghosts and spirits and non-human entities and "the paranormal," but we can't take other people's words for it. We believe that seeing and hearing is believing, and we want very much to see and to hear and to believe.

Our group is new, but our interest in these things is not. We have been causally exploring supposedly haunted places individually for quite some time, and just recently decided to band together and give ourselves an official name because, well, it seemed like the cool thing to do!

The Purpose of This Blog:

We intend to use this blog as a means to keep track of the various places we visit, and to keep track of what we experience at these locations.

It is also our hope that this blog (if anyone happens to ever stumble upon it and follow it) can act as a place for people to discuss their own successes and failures in casual and/or serious Ghost Hunting. A place to hear about and discuss locations that are worth a visit and ones that aren't worth the time. Are we the only ones who are sick of hearing about a haunted place, going online to search more about it or where exactly to find it, and every freaking link in the search engine either takes us to Shadowlands or another place that has just flat out copied and pasted the same 2 sentence descriptions from Shadowlands? Don't get us wrong, it's a great starting resource, but it just frustrates us a tad when we just want a little more information and there is none to be found anywhere. We know there are people out there going to these places late at night, having experiences, just like us, and for some reason it's so hard to find anywhere on these world wide interwebs where people are talking about this stuff in any amount of detail and specifics.

So it is our hope that people see this and have comments to add and stories to share. If you have stories or pictures or you know, the EVP to end all EVPs, that you want to share, e-mail them to me and I will gladly get them on this blog and give you the credit. If you have an interest in this stuff- if the idea of driving out to an old unmaintained cemetery 45 minutes away in the middle of nowhere to poke around in the dark sounds fun to you, and you aren't a total weirdo (better yet, if you're a really hot chick) hit me up and maybe you can join the Squad!

Lastly, I feel the need to briefly introduce the other major players...

PGS's Other Founding Members:

D. , AKA The Captain: Our registered Atheist, Realist, the really logical one.

The First Mate AKA the Old Dude Magnet (haha okay we really don't call him that... to his face): Our biggest "believer", the young gun, the one that spends too much time at the gym. The closest thing we have to a Zak Bagans in PGS. Except a Zak Bagans that you don't want to punch in the throat.

Okay, I'll be honest I haven't really talked to either of these guys about how they want to describe themselves. So I'll have to flesh out their profiles in future posts after they have some input. You already have probably figured out more about me than I could comfortably describe about myself based on the last 10 paragraphs you've valiantly sat through.

What's Next?:

Well now that I've got this rambling introduction post out of the way here is what you can look forward to in the near future- Awesomely detailed descriptions of our first few hunts which include:
1) Quaker Church Cemetery
2) Dead Man's Hollow (a valiant attempt, anyway)
3) Taylor Cemetery, Forward, PA
4) Johnson (Johnston?) Road, Pitcairn, PA
5) Fairview Cemetery
6) Restland Memorial Park

Yup, we've been to each of those places and we live to tell the tales. Click on those links and you'll see that I've gotten Google maps as close as I can to each of the locations for you, since it's always such a bitch trying to find exactly where these places are. Any suggestions on where we should go next, hit me up!

Now I leave you with photographic proof of PGS's Badass-itude. We're so legit, that J.C. showed up at our latest hunt to give us the thumbs up and let us know he endorses our mission. As you can see, I too was shocked by his appearance.

Oh, and before someone starts saying there are orbs or something floating behind my right arm... Get a clue, those are just little lights that marked some of the gravestones.

-The Admiral

"Spin the tires and light the fires!"