The Haunting of Gibraltar Island - A Personal and True Story

The Haunting of Gibraltar Island

This is a true story.

In the Fall of 1990, I was working for a cleaning
company in my little hometown of Port Clinton, Ohio.
This company won a bid to clean the facilities for the
Franz Theodore Stone Laboratory on Gibraltar Island
located in the Put-in-Bay harbor. The Theodore
Stone Laboratory is the nation's oldest freshwater
biological field station and is the Island Campus of
Ohio State University. Our responsibility was to
clean two houses, which were living quarters, a
cafeteria building as well as the old Cook Castle, a
large mansion that overlooks the Put-in-Bay harbor.

We were given a week to do all the cleaning and were
allowed to stay on the Island, staying in one of the
two houses of which we were cleaning. We divided
into groups and began our work. I was fascinated with
the old Cook Castle and began working there. The
faculty working in the OSU laboratory would come to
visit us while we cleaned and we would talk about the
island and the castle. One of the faculty members
remarked that the the castle was haunted which of
course peaked everyones interest. They explained that
the third floor and the tower in particular was
haunted, so we began to joke around about it and went
about our work. I personally did not believe the
"ghost stories" and began cleaning in the high tower.
As I began cleaning, one of the other members called
my name and I came down the tower in answer to the
call, but no one had called me. I knew that they had
to be playing with me because we were all kidding
round about the place being haunted. As I continued
sweeping the floor I had the strangest feeling that
there was someone watching me, as if standing behind
me. Turning around I saw nothing. This sensation
grew and grew and before I knew it I was sweeping
while looking over my back. It was the strangest
feeling. I felt silly knowing that I had just spooked
myself about the place being haunted and was making
this all up in my mind. Yet I couldn't stand it any
longer and left the tower to clean somewhere else. I
traveled down to the second floor and began cleaning
with my sister who was working with us. Several hours
later I was talking to my sister in the main hallway
and in my peripheral vision I saw a large dark mist
float past the doorway which we were standing next to.
After it went out of view I immediately checked and
there was no one in the room. The room was bare. My
sister didn't see anything and I chalked it up to my
mind continuing to play tricks on me.

We finished up that night and had a cookout and party
and went to sleep without a hitch. The next evening
we were cleaning one of the houses on the island.
Everyone, including the OSU faculty had left the
island except for a handful of us who wanted to stay
the night. I was cleaning one of the bedrooms and was
standing right next to the window when someone
knocked on the window from outside. I just laughed
and continued on working and conversing with the
others. About five minutes later it happened again
and I ran out of the room, ran out of the house as
fast as I could to catch the prankster, but no one was
there. I went back into the the house and there were
all five of my co-workers. They had not left the
house. I told them what happened and we all took a
look outside. It was very dark and their was no one
else on the Island. Once the boat leaves in the
evening no one could come over to the Island and no
one could leave. We all got a little spooked by it,
not so much that someone or something knocked on the
window, but by the realization that we could not get
off the Island if we wanted to.

The next day we were finishing up the cleaning in that
same house and I looked at the window where the
knocking had occured. I was shocked. I ran out of
the house to look at the window from the outside.
There was about a four inch gap between the window and
the window screen and the window screen was painted
shut, which meant that the only way anyone could knock
on the window pane was from the inside! I showed this
to several others and they were spooked, because they
heard the knocking on the window as well from the
previous night. I went back into the room to
investigate further and the shower was turned on in
the bathroom off of that room. No one else was in the
house. I turned off the shower and left in a hurry.

Later that day my boss, who was also my sister's
boyfriend, gave me instructions to go down in the
basement located in the cafeteria to get something
that he had left there. In the basement there were
three floor freezers (like refrigerators laying on the
floor) and one large walk-in freezer. When I arrived
in the basement all of the freezer doors were wide
open. I shut all the doors and grabbed the item he
wanted and returned and told him about the freezers.
He looked at me in astonishment because he had just
come from the basement and everything had been fine.
We walked back down and I showed him how all the
doors were opened and we both said nothing. We didn't
know what to think.

That night my boss and I were on the Island with a
couple of attractive girls who also worked for the
business and we were drinking beer and having fun. My
boss made a bet with me that I could not go into the
castle, all the way up to the high tower and back down
again for an extra $50. Being in the presence of two
attractive girls I could not refuse the opportunity to
be courageous and cool, as well as earn an extra $50,
so I agreed. All the doors on the castle were locked
and my boss/friend unlocked the rear door and opened
it. Looking down the blackened hallway he handed me a
lighter and said that they will be watching me from
the outside through the windows and I had to approach
a window on each floor so they knew that I actually
completed the bet. He patted me on the back and I
began the long walk down the black hallway to enter
the main house. As I was about a quarter of the way
down the hallway with my lighter in hand I could hear
my boss/friend behind me say in a deep voice, "I'm
going to get you John...." I just laughed and yelled
out "very funny!" and continued down the hall. I
entered the main floor of the castle and it was
extremely frightening. I felt a coldness and an
aloneness that I can't explain to this day. The
darkness of the castle was almost unbearable. I had
to walk slowly because at one point the flame went out
on the lighter and I almost panicked. My friends
outside were shining a flashlight into the castle
which gave me little comfort at the time.

I slowly began my ascent up the stairs to the second
floor. I remembered the strange black mist I saw
earlier that week on the second floor. I was not
about to look out around me lest I see something, so I
looked straight down at my feet as I walked. I
cleared the second floor and ascended the third. I
could hear my friends outside calling my name and
flashing their lights through the windows. As I
continued down the hallway on the third floor I became
aware of an almost overwhelming feeling of being
watched, almost like someone or something was walking
next to me, staring at me.

I finally came to the entrance of the high tower,
which was right next to a window. I paused, looking
out the window at my friends and they cheered when
they saw me.

I turned to walk up the stairs to the tower and
something stopped me. I couldn't go any further. The
darkness seemed almost too dark. There was something
there in front of me. Something that somehow told me
that if I continued up the stairs I would die. An
unworldly fear engulfed me and I was paralyzed. Right
at that moment the little flint roller on the lighter
popped off and the flame went out. In that moment of
terror I fell back against the wall and slid down
huddling in the corner right next to the window. All
I could do was look down because I knew something was
there staring at me and if I looked up...well, that
would be the end of me. I went into a state of shock.
I heard my friends outside and could tell that they
were shining their lights through the window. I
reached up and placed my hand on the window and they
saw my hand and started calling out to me. Time
seemed to stand still. All I remember next was that
my boss and an another co-worker came up into the
castle to the third floor calling my name. I couldn't
answer, the fear had gripped me so hard. When they
found me they stood there shocked for a moment and
quickly grabbed me lifting me up. I was able to
muster a "get me the f out of here" and they basically
carried me out of the castle, but instead of going out
the back door we went out the front, double doors and
out onto the lawn.

I remember shaking so badly that I had trouble talking
or walking. They picked me up and carried me to one
of the houses and wrapped me up in blankets. After
about an hour and some hot tea I was able to talk.
They told me that they thought I was playing a trick
on them because shortly after they saw me in the third
floor window the two double front doors opened up in
front of them. I looked at them in amazement. I told
them that I had been on the third floor the whole time
and couldn't move. They looked at each other in
astonishment. The only way that the double doors
could have been opened was from the inside and there
was a 2x6 beam that kept the doors from being opened,
which was propped up next to the doors, as if someone
had placed it there after opening them.

I then told my boss that I didn't appreciate what he
said to me when I began my walk into the castle. He
looked over at the two girls and back at me and said,
"I never said anything to you after I patted you on
the back. I immediately went back to the girls and
began watching you through the windows." Needless to
say everyone was in a state of bewilderment and fear.

When the sun finally rose that morning and the rest of
the crew arrived I left the Island never to return
again. I later learned that several other people had
experienced strange things while working there as
well, such as window blinds being rattled, people
hearing their names being called, and a full-sized
painting of one of the houses being constantly turned
upside down without explanation.

John Blatt