Welcome to Mysteries over Martinis! This blog is a mix of unexplained phenomena and personal encounters served up with a mystery-themed cocktail. It’s a recipe for intrigue!

Madison’s Mint Julep

Leaves from 4-5 mint sprigs

2 sugar cubes or ½ oz simple syrup

2.5 oz bourbon whiskey

Mint sprig for garnish

Directions:

Place the mint and sugar or simple syrup into a glass. Muddle well to dissolve sugar and to release the oil and aroma of the mint. Add the bourbon. Fill with crushed ice and stir well. Garnish with the mint sprig.

Happy Hour with Michelle Darnell (9/29/14)

This week, Michelle Darnell joins me for “Happy Hour!” Michelle and her husband Brett are the business owners/innkeepers of Belle Grove Plantation at Port Conway. In 2010, Michelle wanted to find a way to combine her passion for cooking with her love of history. She knew the most logical avenue would be to operate a historic Bed and Breakfast. It couldn’t be just any home, though. It needed to have historic importance as well as a good location. Her search began and in July of 2011, she and her husband Brett discovered Belle Grove Plantation in King George, VA. This is the birthplace of President James Madison. Almost immediately, they realized they would be sharing the space with those who departed the physical world long ago. They have worked tirelessly to research the history and transform the 694 acre plantation into a world class destination. They have opened up the historic plantation to the public for the first time and offer tours as well as paranormal-themed events. It is their dream that others will come to see the beauty and historic importance of this grand Southern Plantation, but be prepared to encounter some of the residents who never left.

Could you start with the history of Belle Grove Plantation?

Belle Grove is 344 years old. The house itself was built in 1791. There was a house here prior to that which was part of the Conway family complex. The Conway family lived here from 1670 to 1790. That is the family that James Madison’s mother (Nelly) is from. She was a Conway. She was born here, she was raised here and she met James Madison Sr. here when he came to ship tobacco. Then, she returned here to her mother’s home to have James Madison Jr. President Madison was in fact born right here on the property. There were two houses here and the foundations still exist today. They are buried underground and we are hoping to get an archaeological dig done sometime. The center section of the current home was built in 1791 for a young girl named Fannie Hipkins. She got married at age 14, she had 4 children and she died here in 1801. She and a number of her family members are buried in my front yard. The house transferred to many different people. One of the people who made the biggest impact on the house was Carolinus Turner. He came in 1839 and died in 1876 but his family owned it until 1894. They were here during the Civil War. In fact, the Union Army came here and forced the family out of the house. They took the house and the livestock but the Army allowed their 9 year old son George to keep his horse. I personally don’t think it was a horse, I think it was a pony because they would have kept a horse. The Union Army did hold the house as a headquarters during the Civil War. The last people to own it prior to the current owner was the Hooker family. They were here from 1930 to 1987. The last resident lived in the house in 1981 when she passed away upstairs. Then, the house fell into disrepair. The house was bought by the current family who are from Vienna, Austria and they actually restored it in 1997. They put $3.5 million into the house to restore it completely. The house is completely original with the exception of the plaster and the colors on the wall. The house was completed in 2003 and stood vacant until 2013 when I moved in. I moved in April 1^st, 2013…what a fool.

When you moved in and started to prepare the house as a bed and breakfast, were you aware of any reports of it being haunted?

There were no real reports. In fact, when I first got here in 2011 the only thing known about the property is that James Madison was born here. I spent thousands of hours researching and I still continue to research to uncover the history of this plantation. Prior to us opening, if you had asked anybody where James Madison was born, they would tell you Montpelier. Most people don’t know he was born here. Montpelier was his father’s home.

What were some of your encounters at Belle Grove that made you think something strange was going on?

I’ve known it since the day I walked in the door. I was with my husband, my daughter and the property manager who had only been on the job for two weeks. My daughter wanted to go check out the river and I wanted to walk through and take pictures of the house. The property manager went with me through the first floor and the second floor. My husband went outside with my daughter. When I got ready to go to the basement, I asked him if he wanted to come with me, he said, “No, I’ll just go outside with Brett.” As I went through the second room of the basement, I heard a door slam. I thought it was the property manager coming down. I called out to him and said, “Keith, I’m down here.” He didn’t answer so I went back and the door was closed, which it was closed when I went down. I went back upstairs, peeked out the window and saw all three of them outside on the lawn. There was no one in the house but me, so I knew immediately there was somebody there. I will also tell you that I’ve been sensitive since I was 4 years old so I tend to hear and see things more than most people do. I got a very good sense when I came in. I know they’ve always been here. I’ve had encounters with ghosts many, many times.

Has your family experienced paranormal activity there as well?

Yes. First, I must tell you that the ghosts here love to play with electronics. Anything that’s electronic, they are attracted to. My daughter was a little skittish about coming up here. I told her about my experiences. The first night she came to stay, she brought an electric toothbrush. She put it on the counter and turned around to put her things away and it turned on and fell off the sink. She picked it up and set it down, then it turned on and fell off the sink again. It did this a few times. She said, “Mom, they’re messing with it.” I told her to tell them to stop messing with it. She did and it stopped.

Now that you have guests staying there, are they reporting experiences as well?

Yes, we have journals in all the rooms. We ask our guests to write down any experiences they have. We’ve gotten several entries where they’ve heard things. We’ve only had a couple of guests say they’ve seen something. There’s so many things that happen, it’s hard to keep up with all of them. We had one woman who had a baby not too long ago. This was a little break for her anniversary. She basically slept through most the day. She was lying in bed and happened to look up and there was a lady sitting in the chair next to her in modern dress. Which we know is probably Mrs. Hooker. She was the last lady in the house before me. She absolutely adored the house, it was her pride and joy. For her not to leave, isn’t surprising. I’ve actually seen her.

Really? Do you think the apparition of Mrs. Hooker is a residual haunting or do you think she’s aware of your presence?

I think she’s aware that I’m here. When I saw her, I was actually in the Turner bathroom. The Turner room tends to be more active than most the rooms upstairs. I was home alone that day. I was flipping the rooms and I was in the bathroom cleaning after one of the guests had left. The bathroom is set up in two sections with a little alcove that walks into the main bathroom. The sink is in one part and the toilet & bathtub are in the other. I walked from the tub back to the sink to wash the mirror and as I looked up into the mirror, I saw her standing in the doorway behind me. She was wearing a modern blue shirt and her hair was black. It was up in like a beehive and I could see some gray in her hair. When I saw her, I said, “Oh shoot, Mrs. Hooker, don’t do that!” I know she was just standing there watching me. I’ve not seen a very good picture of her, but I know she had black hair so I assumed this was her based on how she was dressed.

Do you have any idea approximately how many people have died on the property?

There’s no way to tell of the number of figures that would have been here. In 1850 there were 72 slaves here and in 1860 there were 92 slaves. Then you add on the Civil War, the Revolutionary War, then you add the Native Americans prior to that. We have artifacts that date back 5000 years. We go ALL the way back. The thing about Belle Grove is that despite the fact that we have as many ghosts as we do, it’s not a bad feeling here. It’s very peaceful. It’s really kinda strange because it almost draws you back. I know when I first found the property, before I had a lease on it, I would come up and visit. I would spend 2.5 hours on the road just to get here. I would do it once a month until we got the lease. I’ve had guests who stay one or two nights and as they walk out the door they turn around and say, “I don’t want to leave.” It’s a very warm, very peaceful, very calm area. It’s not tragic like you might feel if you went to Gettysburg or some of the other locations. We’ve actually had two separate mediums here. They told me the exact same thing when we asked how many spirits were here. They don’t know each other and there was no connection whatsoever. It’s not information I put up on Facebook or anything like that. We have approximately 80 ghosts here including inside and out. This includes humans and animals. I have personally seen 9 ghosts. I’m talking full body. I could see them solid like I see a person. We actually had a horse ghost and they talked about that on the episode of “Ghost Hunters” that was filmed here. They talked about the horse going down the bluff. Before I moved in here, I was videotaping the house and I was walking from the grand hallway into the parlor. As I was passing the back door, I saw a horse galloping down the bluff. It was a chestnut horse with a long black tail. I only caught the hind end of the horse, I didn’t see the rider. I stepped out to see who was riding the horse and it wasn’t there. That was one of the things they tried to disprove on “Ghost Hunters.” They said the horse ran down the terrace but if a horse had run down the terrace, I promise you I would have known it. The funny thing is a Civil War re-enactor brought a letter to my attention a couple months ago. It was long since I’d seen this horse. We were trying to prove that this was a headquarters in the Civil War. The letter that we found was from a confederate soldier from the opposite side of the river, on the west bank of the upper Rappahannock, and he talked about seeing the artillery located on this property as well as the cavalry running up and down the bluff on horses.

We also have ghost cats here. We’ve heard them meow several times and a couple times they actually jumped up on the bed. One particular time, I was lying in bed. It was winter time and I was watching TV just being lazy. You know how you feel an animal jump on the bed? I sat there quiet for a moment and thought, “Okay, did I feel that?” The next thing I know, it’s jumping back and forth across my legs. Back in April, we did a Civil War event. We had several photographers here. I was dressed in period attire and I wanted my “Gone with the Wind” picture taken on the bluff behind the house. So they took a picture of me on the bluff looking very Scarlett O’Hara. When I got the picture back, they had aged it to make it look old. I started looking at it because I thought, “God, I look pregnant!” I started blowing up the picture to see how bad I looked and that’s when I noticed there were two cats in the window. We have no cats, we don’t have any animals in the house. It was very good confirmation that the meows we’ve been hearing in the house was them. We have stuff happen here all the time, I mean ALL the time. Going back to the cats, we had a couple who stayed here in June. The woman called to book a reservation for our paranormal event at the end of October. She said, “Oh, by the way, I meant to tell you that before I left the plantation I went to your room to tell you goodbye and my husband and I happened to see your cat standing next to the door. We wanted to thank you for not letting it run through the house because I’m allergic to cats.” I said, “What cat?” She said, “The yellow and white tabby was inside your door. My husband and I both saw it.” I told her, “I don’t have a cat.” She said, “Oh no! No!” I told her she saw our ghost cat.

As you mentioned, TAPS from the Syfy channel’s “Ghost Hunters” investigated Belle Grove. Have you had other teams investigate and if so, does it seem to have an effect on the activity?

We’ve had Southeast Virginia Paranormal Investigations from Newport News, VA investigate several times. They were dumbfounded by all the evidence they caught here. Usually it’s about the same. It’s almost as if the spirits know the teams are coming. Weeks prior, we have an increase in activity.

Are there any ghost hunting techniques or devices you don’t allow?

We don’t allow séances or Ouija boards. We do make sure that whenever they investigate, we tell the investigators point blank, “You are not to provoke them. You are to treat them with respect. You are not to cuss at them because they would find that extremely offensive.” We try to make ground rules as if they are real people. It’s really kinda funny. After doing all the investigating I’ve done as far as research and stuff, I’ve become very close to the families that were here. I almost feel as if I’m a steward of their history and I’ve become very protective of it. I don’t let you do anything that’s going to harm them in any way or shed them in a bad light.

With Halloween approaching, I know you have some events planned. What do you have in store?

October 3rd, 4th and 5^th we have a medium coming. She’s been here before and she’s gotten a lot of good results. She will be here doing private events, group sessions and overnight investigations for anyone who wants to do that. On October 24^th and 25^th and October 31^st and November 1^st, we will have Southeast Virginia Paranormal Investigations (SVPI) hosting our Halloween event. They will have all the bells and whistles, all the equipment you would see at any investigation. They will take you out just like you’re a ghost hunter and teach you how to look for ghosts. Very rarely have we had someone leave without having at least one experience, if not multiple. We also have some long term events planned. We have James Madison’s birthplace celebration in March, a Civil War event and “Titanic Afternoon Tea” in April. We do a lot of other things besides ghost hunting. We are on Facebook (Belle Grove Plantation at Port Conway) which lists upcoming events. Otherwise, you can visit www.bellegroveplantation.com.

Thank you for joining me for Happy Hour with special guest Michelle Darnell! Be sure to check out Belle Grove Plantation at Port Conway on Facebook and click the ‘like’ button!

If you’ve had a mysterious encounter you’d like to share, please e-mail me and be sure to like the Mysteries over Martinis Facebook page. Weirdness is always welcome!