- I'm Mickey.

- And I'm Ryan.

- And this is Hiseerie.

- This is Hiseerie.

(somber music) - [Mickey] We grew up watching paranormal investigators like Zach Bagans on Ghost Adventures, Ryan and Shane on Buzzfeed Unsolved in Ghost Files, and Sam and Colby on YouTube.

The semi-casual investigations, people just trying to connect with those who are no longer around or something we just can't understand and diving deep into true crime cases.

All throughout history, different cultures have believed in the paranormal, divine gods, spirits, aliens, shaman and witchcraft just to name a few.

Supernatural occurrences are reported all over the world and have become ingrained into pop culture.

Since the beginning of humanity, people have been questioning the bigger picture of existence.

What's really out there?

Aliens?

Ghosts?

Bigfoot?

Well, we wanna try it ourselves in our own backyard.

So come with us and explore the paranormal and macabre side of the great Midwest.

- Tonight we're exploring Farrar Elementary School in Maxwell, Iowa.

- We're from Pioneer PBS in Granite Falls, Minnesota, and share a fascination with all things paranormal and the more macabre side of history.

- There's a rich supernatural history around the Midwest and we are lucky enough we get to share it with you.

- If you like this episode and wanna see more behind the scenes content and full length investigations, be sure to check out our Patreon at patreon.com/hiseerie.

(ominous music) Farrar Elementary School was built around 1920 in Farrar, Iowa.

It was built on six acres of rural farmland that was donated by local farmer Clark Gamble Geddes.

The school opened in 1922 and worked as a replacement for all of the one room schoolhouses in the region.

- The building costs $100,000, which is roughly $1.5 million today.

It spans about 17,000 feet and is by far one of the bigger buildings that still stand there today.

- The school is built with electronic lights, boiler heating and indoor bathrooms.

Many townspeople thought that it was too lavish and a waste of taxpayer money, but the investment was justified because there was belief that Farrar would turn into a bustling city, which never actually happened and the population never went over a few hundred.

- Sometime before the year 2000, Farrar was unincorporated as a town.

They now reside in Maxwell, Iowa and today's population is somewhere in the thirties.

- The school was officially closed in 2002 and left untouched, making it essentially a time capsule for the early 2000s.

For the next four years, the school remained abandoned until 2006 when Jim and Nancy Oliver purchased the building.

- Even while the school was in operation, there were strange occurrences happening around the building.

After the Oliver's took ownership of the building, they started to keep a record.

They experienced disembodied voices, shadow people, and poltergeist activity.

- Now the building is owned by popular paranormal investigators, Sam and Colby, who purchased the building after they found out that the historic location was going to be demolished.

- They're now trying to save money to refurbish the building, to keep paranormal investigators active as well as retain history of the region.

- Now the weird thing about Farrar Elementary is no one's really sure why it's haunted, but for the better part of the last two decades, investigators have come from all around the world and they can all agree on one thing, that it's an extremely active location, maybe even one of the most active in the world.

I decided to go on a deep dive about the building and the area to see if I could find any clues of why there might be so much paranormal activity and didn't come up with much.

But I started with the man who donated the land, Mr.

Geddes.

The only real things of note I could find about Mr.

Geddes is that he was a local farmer, a debate champion for the local county club and that he died unexpectedly while acting as a juror in the murder trial of Dr.

Ada Fuller, who was on trial for a 1924 illegal abortion, which led to the woman's untimely death.

There was also an unsolved murder in 1975 near the location of Farrar Elementary.

Some believed that the victim's spirit could be trapped there Terry Lee Vanden Hull was found in April of 1975 with his throat slashed at a local farm.

I couldn't locate the precise location because it wasn't recorded anywhere.

It was a pretty low profile crime and he was seen as a drifter and someone who had drug abuse problems so they kind of just wrote it off and it was never truly investigated.

But the only location I could find is that it was listed as a farm that no longer exists, which was two and a half miles southeast of Maxwell, Iowa, which would put it near Farrar, but not exactly there.

- Many people's best guess would be the town cemetery, which is right across the street.

There's more than 150 grave sites and that's more than five times the town's population.

- My personal theory of why the school is haunted is what I like to call the lighthouse theory.

That so many good things happened in the school.

It was a church for a time when the church was being rebuilt, served as a wedding venue, several parties, dances, the annual Labor Day picnic was here in the school.

It was the center of the community.

And students here also had some great experiences going to school.

It's an amazing location and it has such a big impact on the community and I think that because of that, it's like a beacon of light for other spirits, that they see this lighthouse and want to come towards it because of the amount of energy that's been put in this space.

And I believe we have what I like to call travelers or spirits that travel to different spaces.

So we'll have interactions with somebody and, then never hear from them again.

I think that's also part of the reason why we have such shifting energy in this space as well.

- Now, there's one room in the school that is seen as the safe room where for some reason there's like no paranormal activity.

It was in here that we got to chat with Ivy, the paranormal investigator and general manager of the property.

- Sam and Colby visited Savannah, Georgia a couple years ago and that's where my team met his team or their team.

And, ever since then, we kept in touch.

When they purchased the building, they asked us to come in and help them run the operations here in the building.

And, I moved up here from Georgia so that I could do that.

And I think it was an amazing opportunity and I'm glad that I'm able to do something that I love.

Like how many people can say that they hunt ghosts for a living?

Yeah, it was a lot but I love it here.

Because of the amount of time I've spent here, I'm just super comfortable.

This is like my second home.

There are a few places that a few other investigators won't go.

Mr.

Wouter's classroom on the second floor is one of them, super weird vibes, and everybody says when they walk in they smell something but it's always different.

Like one person will smell burnt popcorn, and someone else will say it smells more like a campfire, and then someone else will say, no, it smells sweet like a burning marshmallow.

I really want more information on it 'cause I wanna know like what it is that's causing this or if it's just like a psychological response to the energy in the space or if there really is something that is trying to interact with people and that's just how they sense it.

I don't know.

I think it's insane and everybody said they... Everybody smells something different.

Like that's paranormal.

(Ivy chuckles) (ominous music) Some of the most popular spirits I would say is the janitor and the principal.

There's a theory that when the school closed, it didn't want to shut down, it wanted to continue running so the school itself conjured three spirits, a principal, a librarian, and a janitor.

And those are the spirits that kind of ran the school when nobody was actually attending school.

The principal likes to hang out on the third floor and the janitor down in the gym and the boiler room area.

And more often than not, those are the interactions that people tell me about during their tours or what's the most notable during tours that I'm leading as well.

(ominous music) - First we explored the second floor.

The second floor is known to have kids spirits and sometimes they tend to be tricksters.

- The most active rooms on this floor are rooms 206 and 205 or Mrs.

Martin's room.

After trying various tools and techniques, we just didn't really get anything on this floor, which happens.

- But the thing with that is, not every location is gonna be active or we might not be able to catch things on camera.

- As the night went on, there was a pretty noticeable pattern where we'd feel drawn to a room or feel the energy of a room.

But as soon as we would go in and actually settle in and like get ready to start, it was like the energy would just run away.

- There were a lot of rooms we would go in and you could feel an energy in the room, but it feels like it would move farther and farther from you.

Definitely something or we felt something was there, but again, not capturable, but definitely an energy.

- Completely intangible.

But like you could feel it.

- Mm-hmm.

- Like it was... It's hard to explain if you've never done it.

But, yeah... (ominous music) (upbeat music) - Time for darkness.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - After that, we walked around almost the entire school throughout the night.

- We did spend some time in the boiler room, which is known for its negative activity.

Some paranormal investigators believe there is a portal there.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - We are now in the boiler room, which is right next to the gymnasium.

(upbeat music continues) - The third floor of the school is the most active and where the principal's office is located, the principal and a nine foot shadow man tender roam here.

- We also then went to the principal's office who's known as one of the powerful entities in the school.

He's known to be stern with the guests of the school and kind of an authority figure for the other spirits in the building.

He's been known to physically throw investigators into lockers and walls throughout the building and slam doors.

He's most like a poltergeist out of all the spirits.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) The third floor also houses the auditorium, which houses a lot of the kids spirits and it's where you're most likely to interact with them.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) After exploring all these locations in the building and more, we just still didn't have much.

And so we started to wrap up and go pick up our equipment that we had left around the building.

One of the rooms that we hadn't went into earlier in the night was the doll room, mostly because I have a big aversion to dolls.

- I second that.

- Yeah, like we we're just not very... We're not doll people.

(Mickey and Ryan chuckles) And so we just didn't think that it would be a nice place to go into.

But it was the end of the night, I was feeling pretty confident because of the lack of anything really disturbing happening yet.

So we marched on in there.

(footsteps tapping) - [Ryan] This should be the doll room.

Hello again.

- I just saw a shadow walk in front of the principal's office.

- I felt something over there and I'm not kidding you.

- Hello.

Hello.

We wanted to end our night in here with y'all.

Y'all lovely dolls.

- It doesn't necessarily feel negative, but I do feel like an energy in here.

- Yeah.

When we went in we were both drawn to one specific doll.

It was like, at least for me it was so individualistic or unique, like I'd never really seen... There's just something about it that stood out.

- There was one thing that stood out to me and its eyes are just such a unique color for dolls and the only other place I've seen that is Boyd House.

So that's kind of why we decided that doll.

- Yeah, if you remember our first episode ever, it was at the Boyd House, which is the first place that we really got a lot of activity, almost to the point of it being overwhelming.

- Not knowing what to expect.

- Yeah, but so we were like, let's take a photo with the doll.

Like it would be good, you know, for social media stuff like, you know, sometimes you wanna take a picture with the doll.

And as soon as we went over to the doll, there was just a shift in the room and Ryan got a little queasy.

So we took a pause and as you'll see we paused to ask if it would be okay, you know, to ask permission because that is the best way to go around haunted objects.

So we stopped, asked and were given a strong negative and decided it would probably be best to skip it.

Thank you for letting us film y'all.

It's very kind of you.

- [Videographer] Can I pull right of you, both of you doing that?

- Yeah.

Should we go with our girl doll?

- [Ryan] The one in the corner?

- She's so beautiful and like she's so individ... Like I've never seen a doll like this.

She's very unique, isn't she?

- [Ryan] She kind of reminds me of the one in Boyd because of her eyes.

- Yeah.

- Yep.

- Hi, can we take a photo with you?

Do you think that's a yes?

- I hope that.

I hope so.

I hope this is okay.

- Should we try a pendulum first (indistinct).

- We can.

- We're gonna... Well, that's not the best side.

- I'm almost getting sick to my stomach right now.

- It's kind of weird.

- Like the air.

The air's just weird.

- I also feel nauseous.

- I'm really nauseous.

- [Videographer] Could be like mold too.

- Okay, I'm gonna ask a few questions.

Are we welcome in this room?

No.

- Oh.

- We'll go.

Thank you for being honest.

It just like feels... Like this is the first time that it's felt worse after we were in here, but we were fine.

It felt fine here.

- Yeah, like I am really sick to my stomach in here.

- Alright, can we just get our stuff from the auditorium then head down?

- Auditorium in the classroom.

- I don't see why not.

- Right?

- Yeah, the classroom's on the second floor though.

And there I do want to take like another (indistinct).

- I need a second.

I am not... I'm really nauseous.

Stomach's just really tight.

- [Videographer] Oops.

Sorry.

- That's okay.

That was me.

- [Videographer] You wanna go back downstairs for a minute?

- No, I'll be good, if we're just grabbing stuff, I'll be okay.

- [Mickey] We are just gonna do snatch and grab.

- Oh, God dang it, my stomach's just getting tight.

It's not gonna get any better.

So... And as we were deciding to leave, the energy in the room just felt not necessarily violent or angry, but it was definitely like, it's your time to leave.

You don't need to be here anymore.

And I can't remember if we fought it a little bit or not, but the moment I got outside that door, I thought I was gonna feel relief and it felt like someone was grabbing a hold of my stomach, like I needed to throw up and I didn't have anywhere to do it.

So I did my best to hold my guts.

- Needless to say, we left after that.

(Mickey and Ryan chuckle) After we left for the night, we ended up coming back the next day during daylight hours to get some B-roll, you know, establishing shots for this episode.

And, I was feeling way braver than I normally do.

I never go anywhere alone.

Ryan is much braver at going into locations alone and like seeing what he can experience that way, which is great.

And then I sit outside and panic, so it's his thing.

But this time I just... I had this burst of courage and I was like, I really wanna go take photos.

Like I just wanna go take pictures, like see the space.

And I went up to the third floor by myself as Ryan and our videographer went downstairs to the basement.

So I paused on the stairs leading up to the third floor and took a photo of the hallway downstairs, which I'll put over Ryan's face right now so you can see it.

And, I remember taking that photo and then I finished going up the stairs, turned into the auditorium, which the door is right by the staircase And snapped another photo of the stage, you know, just for the memories.

And I didn't think about it again.

I just went on, I know I panicked a little bit going back downstairs 'cause I realized I was alone in a haunted building.

But that was it, we wrapped up, got all the shots we needed and got in the car to head back to Granite Falls.

And I was scrolling through my photos and for some reason those two, there was another photo in between them.

I was completely alone.

I was wearing a tank top, nothing with long sleeves or anything.

And there was no windows and no mirrors between those two locations and I do not know what this was.

- I don't think anyone knows what it is.

- Yeah, like I... I sent it to Ivy after we had left and was like, hey, just thought you might wanna see this.

And she was like, "Never seen that before", which is really cool.

I don't know how it happened, it's just too... Like the hands of it are too clear to not be hands.

Like I genuinely, I don't know, but I'm so scared.

I'm so scared of that photo and I'm too scared to like delete it.

But I also don't look at it very often, but it's just sitting in my phone.

- You can't delete it.

- It's so scary.

(ominous music) - Oh, I was in the military and when I was stationed at Fort Bliss in Texas in El Paso, Texas.

My brother and I were sharing an apartment, just rent is expensive.

And there was one evening before we even had our furniture, so I was sitting on a lawn chair in the living room and he was in his room reading a book or playing on a video game or something like that.

And I heard a knock on the door, so I go and I answer the door because he didn't move.

So I was like, all right, it's not for him, so, let's go see what's up.

And, what I saw on the other side of the door was what looked like melting skin.

It was just blood and skin.

I don't know how else to describe it other than melting.

Almost like wolverine went ham on somebody's face.

You couldn't tell that there was eyes or nose there at all.

It was just skin and blood.

And, I came to about five minutes later on my butt, like 10 feet from the door.

I don't know, I have absolutely no idea what happened.

What I think is I fell backwards and kind of like did a little scoot to get away from the door as much as possible.

Some people believe... Some people that I've told the story to believe that if it was a demon and it had the power to like manipulate its space, it definitely pushed you, it pushed you back.

But I don't... I don't know if it did 'cause I didn't have like any bruises or any scratches or anything.

But that was... That was what started the whole journey into like different spiritualities, and the paranormal, and learning more about cryptids, and stuff like that.

That was back in 2013.

So it's been a long journey.

- [Mickey] That's pretty harsh like welcoming.

- Yeah, yeah, it's like, hi, by the way, you now believe.

- Yeah.

- You have no choice.

- Thank you for watching this episode of his Hiseerie.

If you enjoyed and wanna see more like behind the scenes content and full uncut sessions, be sure to check out our Patreon at patreon.com/hiseerie.

- If you enjoyed this episode, please like, comment and subscribe below.

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