Tracking Ft. Totten Ghosts

The overgrown entrance of Ft. Totten’s Building 323.

By Matt Hampton

Fort Totten, the new state park planted like a protuberance on the northeast tip of Queens, can be a spooky place given the right circumstances. To capitalize, the park is hosting a tour of the allegedly haunted fort on Saturday, Oct. 28. Before the crowds are set to arrive, and hundreds of Queens residents stampede over the foreboding grounds, the site was given a once-over by a pair of experts.

Joseph Flammer and Diane Hill of Rocky Point, Long Island have been investigating paranormal phenomena for six years. As the Paranormal Adventurers, they’ve gone to the graveyards of Salem, Mass., the haunted caves of Adams, Tenn., and even the battlefield at Gettysburg.

“If you put a penny on a railroad track and flatten it, so that it’s not a penny anymore? What we do is, we try to get inside the penny,” Flammer said. “We seek the mechanism that turns ghosts on.”

Holding an 8-megapixel camera with an intimidating zoom lens, Flammer has photographically blanketed the area. The camera flickered at least 30 times in the first 10 minutes of his investigation. The focal point of the shots was two large, ominous buildings, boarded up and overgrown.

While Flammer operated the camera, Diane Hill worked with less mechanical instruments, namely two Dowsing Rods and her gut.

Joe Flammer photographs the entrance of Building 323. Photo by Catherine Hunter

Dowsing Rods, which work on the same principal as a Divining Rod, are copper sticks, thinner than a cigarette and about a foot long, that Diane said can detect energy in a room or specific location. For the purposes of her investigation, however, it was far too windy to get a reaction she trusted.

Flammer and Hill spent a few minutes bouncing theories off one another, eyeing the buildings, then walking their separate ways and letting the area speak to them.

A paranormal investigation is similar to an insurance claim or the inspection of a crime scene. By examining the present state of a location, be it a house or street, investigators can determine the past, or at least find a clue that speaks volumes. For claims investigators or cops, the clue must be a physical representation of what occurred. For paranormal investigators, the traces are nothing so firm.

“We look for a sick, hollow feeling in our chest.” Flammer said. “We have to pay attention.”

A mysterious light anomaly, and the same room seconds later

It’s an attention to detail that yields results for the Paranormal Adventurers. From the outset of an investigation, they carpet an area with photography, taking panoramic views of anything that interests them or elicits the desired feelings. Often Hill will walk to an area that she’s attracted to and direct Flammer’s photography.

In order to elicit photographs that can be suitably studied, Flammer says that the Paranormal Adventurers have to enter what’s called an “entreaty” with spirits inhabiting a space.

“Whenever we have an entreaty, we’ll hold hands and we’ll talk,” Flammer said. “We commune with the spirits, and we ask them to be photographed.”

From there, Flammer analyzes the photos, looking for anomalies, orbs, strange light configurations, shapes – anything that might represent the presence of a living energy in a photograph. Flammer scrutinizes only the photographs that catch his eye, and if enough is present within, he’ll spend an extended period of time with it. One such photo, of foliage along supposedly specter-filled Sweet Hollow Road on Long Island, has been the subject of an 18-month examination.

Diane Hill demonstrates the Dowsing Rods.

“I’m trying to understand what took place,” he said. According to Flammer, the photograph contains at least three figures and changes depending on how it is viewed.

“Make sure you get those windows,” Hill directed Flammer. “I’m really attracted to the windows.” The buildings themselves were completely inaccessible. There was a sign painted in the front entryway warning of unsafe conditions inside.

“Feel the air coming out of there,” Flammer said, holding his spread fingers over a one inch gap in the doorway. “It’s cold air coming out, Diane.”

A drastic drop in air temperature, or a dramatic shift either direction, is one of the signs investigators look for when studying an area. According to Hill, it can indicate a presence.

The buildings, one of which was designated number 323, were two-story red brick offices. Most of the windows were broken or boarded up, and opportunistic plants and ivy had grown past the second floor.

After spending roughly an hour perusing the buildings, the Paranormal Adventurers were more than satisfied.

“I could definitely come back here,” Hill said as she took a long glance back at the imposing structure blending in to the cloudy night sky.

The EMS Academy at Fort Totten currently owns the buildings, though no one in their offices could be reached to comment on what purpose precisely the buildings had served.

Flammer, however, after investigating his photos, did make one determination.

“A preliminary visit to 323 tells us yes, building 323 is haunted! There is reason to believe there is spirit activity in the building.”

The Paranormal Adventurers will be talking about their experiences, and asking audiences to talk about theirs, Oct. 26 at the Sunnyside Community Library, and Oct. 27 at the Flushing Library.