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Best 'Unknown' Ghost Photograph

iwant2believe2

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Aug 10, 2017
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Years ago, I had an opportunity to go ghost hunting at a site in rural Kentucky. The site included a historic grist mill, saw mill, blacksmith cabin and partially torn down workers' house that had originally been the grist mill owner's personal home until he moved his family further away from the mill itself. The grist mill sat on side of a wide stream and the saw mill sat on the other side. The cabin was located directly across the gravel road and beyond that a large open field. The field was surrounded by thick woods and, along a path winding through the woods, concealed from view, stood the remains of the workers' house.

Though on the historic registry, the entire site lay on private land. It had a long local reputation for being haunted. However, few people ventured there as the grounds were also reputed to be a gathering site for the KKK. They didn't take well to snoopers. My friends and I were all deputies at the time, though, and felt safe in assuming that no one would stop to harass us. The subject of this thread isn't my experience there, however, but what I found when researching the site.

The operation was built around 1850 by William Guyn. It operated until about 1920. During this era, Kentucky was still largely rural. The first permanent settlement occurred in 1774. Fur trapping was a main source of income for many Kentucky pioneers. Those familiar with early pioneers may well recognize the French trapper garb made famous by Daniel Boone. This is exactly the dress that would have been common place at Guyn's Mill. I have included a representation of a fur trappers garb that would have been worn in 1850 rural Kentucky.

The site remained unchanged and preserved in its original state. In 1980, a survey was conducted for the historic registry. The photographs taken were numbered and entered into the US Library of Congress. You can be certain that these photographs were taken for survey purposes and unaltered. If you look closely in the photograph that I posted, you can see a man standing toward the side of the grist mill. He is wearing fur trapper garb customary to the day. You can make out the pouch on his side, the fur cap and long, fur lined coat. He is holding a long object that I presume is a long musket or perhaps oar. Long oars were used to push rafts or logs down the stream. This man is not standing on anything but is, in fact, suspended in air. Having been to the location, I know exactly where he is standing in the photograph. On the other side of the mill and less visible is a small child on a swing. The child is wearing a white dress that girls and young boys of the time wore. The child's knees are together and the feet are crossed as a child on a swing will do. The rope of the swing is partially visible. The mill was a family operation. W. Guyn had children and its likely that they would have played in the area.

Have a close look. Remember, these are survey photos taken for the Library of Congress. They are neither staged nor altered. FrenchCanadianTrapper.gif
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The man is not reflected in the water. The child looks quite large in that picture.
Just my observations.
 
The man is not reflected in the water. The child looks quite large in that picture.
Just my observations.

I think there's no reflection because the figure is a tree in the far background, too far back to make one. You can tell by the taller tree that is reflected directly over it. I suspect the other figure is an optical illusion in the same way. Tricky things, trees!
 
I think there's no reflection because the figure is a tree in the far background, too far back to make one. You can tell by the taller tree that is reflected directly over it. I suspect the other figure is an optical illusion in the same way. Tricky things, trees!
I think the child may be pareidolia, but the man looks real enough to be there.
 
I think the child may be pareidolia ...

The child is definitely a simulacrum / pareidolia. If you go to the LOC site and check the additional photos (taken at the same time) you'll see that the child-figure is actually a negative space through which you can see the lighter-toned open area and driveway behind the building (opposite the stream side).
 
This is the view looking east, ie face on towards the wall closest to where the potentially anomalous "trapper" figure in the OP appears. I cannot see an obvious candidate from this angle. My pareidolic response is off the scale, though, what with all the faces I can see in the foliage and rubble, especially when I zoom in...

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And this is the view looking south. Curiously, at first glance, there is a figure on the cylindrical object, but I am fairly confident that this is in fact a simulacrum caused by a lighter-coloured branch (which can be traced further down past the cylinder) highlighted against a darker tree trunk, creating the impression of two legs. Not to mention that, if this was a person, s/he is not at all tall.

But, again, there's nothing I can see there that obviously explains away the figure in the OP. I remain intrigued.

070385pv.jpg
 
The trapper simulacrum is not located next to the grist mill on its western side (cf. post #8).

It's located across the road / drive, to the northeast of the blacksmith's shop.

In the big TIFF version of the original photo (above, from the southwest) it appears to me the trapper figure is a simulacrum caused by two dark tree trunks which from the given viewing angle appear to be closely side-by-side. In the big TIFF I see what appears to be a mere sliver of light / space between them.

I'll refer to these as the 'Trapper Trees'. Neither of these is the tree located at the southeast corner of the blacksmith's shop (clearly visible in the LOC photos for that building).

If you look above the Trapper Trees' trunks you can make out two sets of foliage (these trees' crowns) - further supporting the two trees hypothesis. It appears to me there's a shorter one more or less in front of a taller one.

I found a site map at:

https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/4f3bba39-d205-46b7-91b8-947acc48530d

... in an online copy of the 1983 application to have Guyn's Mill added to the National Register.

Here is an annotated version of the document's site map:

GuynsMill-Map-2.jpg


The BLUE line represents the approximate line of sight / viewing angle in the first photo above.
The GREEN box delineates the general area where the 'Trapper Trees' are located.

The Trapper Trees do not appear in the photo of the grist mill's north side, because they are out of frame left and behind the camera. They are out of frame left in the photo of the grist mill's west wall. They are out of frame in all the LOC blacksmith shop photos.
 
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