GOODING, Idaho (AP) — It was just before midnight when Kelsey Robbins led Beau Beaucher and Tammy Blair through the gutted halls and rooms of the old tuberculosis hospital. The air, heavy with fine sawdust, was frigid, and it clawed through thick layers of clothing to chill flesh and bone.
In some rooms, ancient windows let through the yellow pall of a street light or the brief red-and-blue pulse from a passing police car, but a palpable darkness sealed the old building until it was sliced by the beam of a flashlight or torn by the burst of a camera flash.
The tiny group tried to avoid injury from nails and shards of glass from shattered windows as they scanned an array of devices, recording the temperature, groping for electromagnetic spikes and taking photographs.
In quiet places they sank to the cold hardwood floor to reassure the dead.
"This is a cozy place," Beaucher began. "Is there anybody else in here that would like to talk to us?"
Silence.
"Can you tell us your name?" he continued. "My name is Beau."
Nothing.
"Can you tell me why you stay here?" Robbins then asked.
Still nothing.
This time.
Robbins is a lead investigator with Idaho Spirit Seekers, a Nampa-based all-volunteer group that is searching for evidence of life after death. The ISS, headed by Marie Cuff, uses modern technology — electromagnetic detectors, infrared cameras and digital recorders — to investigate reported hauntings, all in hope of answering life's ultimate question.
This scientific, hard facts-based approach, which is as much about disproving supernatural stories as proving them, has earned the group credibility as investigators of the paranormal, as well as an affiliation with the SciFi Channel's popular "Ghost Hunters" show.
Earlier this month, from 9:30 p.m. until 3 a.m., ISS investigators and guests such as Beaucher and Blair — self-described believers from Mountain Home and Boise — roamed the four floors of the old tuberculosis hospital, now known as the Get Inn, a bed-and-breakfast.
An unfinished portion of the old building is an "ongoing investigation" location.
Other sites on the ISS investigation list include the communications building at Boise State University, Fort Boise Military Cemetery, the Old Armory in Boise and Pete's Tavern in Nampa, though most are private residences. The group respects its clients' right to privacy and usually offers information only if the clients are willing to share. Get Inn's owners are more than willing to allow the public to visit.
For people such as Robbins, Beaucher and Blair, interest in the paranormal grows from a desire to know what lies beyond and how it fits their own religious beliefs.
So far, the search has provided few answers.
"Once I started," Robbins said, "I had more questions than before."
Beaucher and Blair graduated from the audience of the SciFi Channel ghost show to an in-person visit to the Fort Boise Military Cemetery on Thanksgiving. They took two dozen pictures, one catching the image of a man with a handlebar mustache within a haze or fog. Captivated, they bought another digital camera and found the ISS through its Web site. They're eager to learn and excited to explore, but there are some lines they won't cross.
"I don't like (electronic voice phenomena)," Blair said of the recording of supposed spirit communication. "I believe it's a sin to talk to dead people. There's a lot I don't think we're meant to understand, but I'm still curious."
For Get Inn owner Tony Woodford, allowing the ISS to investigate and to invite in the public is as good for business as it gets. Ghost stories attract guests.
Woodford and his wife, Elisha, along with a partner, Gary Hannon, acquired the property in the fall of 2004 from Ron Adams, whose family bought it from the state in the late 1970s. The inn's name is actually an acronym for the names of the owners, Gary, Elisha and Tony. Initially, they weren't sure what to do with the building.
"We always had decided it would be a gathering place, but we weren't really sure," Woodford said. "The part we're in now was already semi-remodeled. We rewired some, brought the fire exits up to code and replaced the plumbing. The rest has more extensive work to be done."
Woodford said he expects the project to take another three to five years. The plan includes 16 finished guest rooms, two ballrooms, two lounges and a restaurant. Right now, only eight rooms are rentable.
ISS began investigating more than a year ago, and has offered information about the history of the building. According to the ISS's research, it was originally built as part of the Gooding College campus.
The college was established in 1917 by the Methodist Episcopal Church and failed in 1938. The state took over the property in the early 1940s for use as a tuberculosis hospital for up to 150 patients, but personnel and material shortages during World War II postponed the opening until 1947.
The site also intersects with another grim bit of Idaho history. After the Minidoka Relocation Center closed at the end of the war, some of its buildings and equipment were moved to the hospital grounds in 1948, increasing the number of beds to 90. The hospital closed for good in 1976, leaving behind a rundown 19,000-square-foot building with more than 45 rooms.
ISS says there have been reports of footsteps heard in vacant halls, unexplained whispers and apparitions of a woman and a young girl together, and an older man in a white coat alone.
"I've not seen anything walking down the halls, but we've heard some noises and had suspicious," Woodford said of the decision to invite ISS to poke around. "All old buildings make noise. Some are explainable and some are not. After four years of living here, you know what sounds may be a door creaking and you know what sounds aren't familiar."
Whether the ISS team can prove or disprove the alleged haunting remains to be seen. Cuff said that a few audio files have captured electronic voice phenomenon recordings and in September the group captured a video of a mysterious shape in the basement. The video is posted on the group's Web site.
"History can't be denied," Woodford said. "People were born and died in this building. To what extent, we don't know."
Meanwhile, the ISS will make the most of a chance to continually study and research, Woodford will take the attention and enthusiasts like Beaucher will live up the idea of capturing a sense of history. And perhaps an apparition, as well.
"I'm tickled to death to stay here. It's like going back in time to that era," Beaucher said. "It's something I'll always remember, and I'll probably come back."
Information from: The Times-News, www.magicvalley.com