Location Description and History

Old Tucson Studios is southern Arizona's premier outdoor entertainment venue with a full array of live shows, legendary gunfights, thrilling stunts, saloon musicals and stagecoach adventures, plus a variety of rides, food, shopping and fun for the whole family. From western movie heroes like John Wayne to current box-office stars such as Harrison Ford, many of Hollywood's legends have walked these rugged streets, the setting for hundreds of major motion pictures. We invite you to be a part of the more than 350,000 guests who visit the park each year to retrace the footsteps of their favorite stars and spend a day in the life of an 1880's western town. Old Tucson Studios came to life in 1939 when Columbia Pictures chose a Pima County-owned site on which to build a replica of 1860's Tucson for the movie Arizona . The $2.5 million film, starring William Holden and Jean Arthur, set a new standard of realism for Hollywood westerns, initiating the move away from studio backdrop movies to outdoor epics.

After the filming of Arizona, Old Tucson Studios lay dormant under the desert sun. The studio was revived only briefly for the films The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. Hollywood then began taking notice of Old Tucson Studios, which soon became a favorite filming location. Hence, "Hollywood in the Desert." In 1947, Gene Autrey starred in The Last Roundup , followed in 1950 by Jimmy Stewart in Winchester '73, and Ronald Reagan in The Last Outpost.

During the 1950's, the Western movie era was in full swing nationwide.

In the fifties alone, such western classics as Gunfight at the OK Corral (1956) with Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1957), and Cimarron (1959) with Glenn Ford were filmed at Old Tucson Studios.

Old Tucson offers a complete western town with 75 buildings including 32 practical buildings. The 320 acre location sets within the Tucson Mountain Park in the Sonoran Desert.

Although there are several areas around the studios that are allegedly haunted, our major focus was on the Grand Palace Hotel and Saloon.

The exterior is a two story building with a balcony on three sides. Interior features a bar with a staircase capping the left side. Three mirrors are located behind the bar. The staircase leads up to an interior balcony and three hotel rooms (unfinished). The balcony also features several opera boxes looking down onto a performance stage located at the front of the saloon. Also on this floor is the control room for the audio system that runs throughout the park.

Paranormal phenomena has been reported in several areas of the studios by security guards. The first is the Grand palace saloon. Several ghosts, including one of a little girl, have been spotted throughout the building. The little girl is often spotted on the stairs leading to the second floor. Adjoining the saloon is Rosa's Cafe. The apparition of a young woman has been seen here and reports of unusual noises and moving objects are common place.

The most active location within the studios is the Arizona Theater, also called "The Story teller's. This is a small underground theater that many believe is haunted by a malevolent spirit.

Although there are a few exceptions, the ghost mainly makes it presence known to women. When women enter the theater alone and sit in the back row of the theater in the dark, they began to hear noises on the stage which resemble footsteps. The footsteps then "jump" down off the stage and move towards the women at the rear of the theater. Suddenly, the subtle light coming from the theater's exit lights are blocked as if someone is standing before them. This is following by either a tapping sound or heavy breathing. Usually the women turn on a flash light at this point, revealing that no one is there.

On occasion, the ghost makes its presence known to men. This has only happened to male security guards that the "ghost" doesn't like. They often end up quitting their jobs and the few that have not refuse to enter the theater alone.

The school house is another studio building that has unusual phenomena associated with it. Security guards hear the sound of children and the lights go on and off by themselves. The door also seems to unlock itself, much to the display of the security guards.

The hauntings are not limited to specific buildings however. The ghost of a cowboy has been seen and heard walking about the town's streets. Security guards have heard the sound of footsteps and spurs moving down the streets surrounding the saloon and town hall. One security guard actually saw the "cowboy" walk right past her and through the locked door of one of the studio's shops.

Another phenomena that occurs through the studios is called "Shadow man" by employees. Basically it appears like a dark human figure that seems to follow (or stalk) security guards and visitors.

Other unusual activities that occur are the random turning on of building lights around the studios.

This was a continuing investigation of Old Tucson Studios with a focus on several areas. These areas included the Storyteller's building, the High Chaparral set, Town Hall and the Grand Palace Saloon. we also sweeped the area around the studios for unusual EM fields. Lightning was a definite problem during the investigation as it interfered with the operation of our Trifield meter. SGHA was accompanied by members of Old Tucson's Security and members of SGHA in Arizona. EVP was conducted at the Storyteller's building , the Grand Palace Saloon and Rosa's Restaurant, a facility that adjoins the Saloon. Left: An interesting "orb" captured on camera while an moving EM field of 4 milligauss was present.

Observations / Events

1. While sitting outside on the steps of the saloon, Cody and Ross heard a gate open across the street. When they got up to investigate, they both heard footsteps walking away from the saloon and down the street. No explanation could be found to explain the footsteps.

2. Unexplainable footsteps were heard again by all members of the team later at the same location. Cody and Letty were on the upstairs balcony of the saloon while Ross was sitting on the steps directly beneath them. The footsteps started out faint and gradually got louder as the approach down the street. After awhile they completely stopped and resumed again, getting fainter as the unseen source of the steps went back the way they came.

3. Many strange occurrences have been reported at the Storyteller's building. Often the security guards go down into the air conditioned basement, which is a theater, and sit at the back row in the dark . The only source of light is the two exit signs above the entry ways. At first they hear the sound of footsteps walking across the stage. Shortly thereafter an unseen presence jumps off the stage and moves up towards the rear of the theater, blocking out the light from the exit signs. They then hear the sound of heavy breathing or sometimes whispering in close proximity.

During our investigation we were able to hear the footsteps walking around on the stage but the phenomena would not move down off the stage. Assuming that the phenomena may only react to women, we left the theater and after an hour we had our only female member return with one of the female security guards. Both women experienced the unusual reported experiences.

4. A possible orb in the visible spectrum was seen heading towards the High Chaparral set. Further inquiry into this phenomena produced no results.

5. On multiple occasions the fire alarms went off throughout the site. Oddly, this only occurred when members of the team were investigating Rosa's Restaurant, which adjoined the Grand Palace Saloon. Although the alarm system is outdated, different buildings are on different sensors and the sounding of the alarms did not fit into a definable pattern.

6. During electrostatic tests in the Grand Palace Saloon, the discharge ball was knocked out of balance by an unseen force. We are fairly certain that it could not have been a person as the ball was fully charged with 10,000 watts and the emitter was filmed by a placed video camera. The camera did record a possible orb flying through before this event occurred.

7. Many of the areas that were active during previous visits were still active. The north room of the Town Hall had moving EM fields of 4 milligauss that also showed orbs in photographs taken during the event.

8. the lights in the Town Hall museum came on by themselves. the doors were locked and the only set of keys were with the security guard that was with us. After moving in to investigate, we acquired a unusual EM field that was accompanied with three unusual photographs, taken in sequence.

9. Activity in general seemed to increase as thunderstorms approached the site.

Photographs

Click on the thumbnail to view the larger photo  

Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) 

Several questions were asked at each location. The only answers that were recorded are listed below.

Location	Question		Possible Answer	Listen
Story Teller's Building	Are you friendly?	Sounds like "We will kill you"
Story Teller's Building	What do you want?		Sounds like "power"
Rosa's Restaurant	Are you here?		Sounds like "Leave me".
Grand Palace Saloon	How many of you are in here?		Unidentifiable

	The three most interesting photographs taken during the investigation are pictured on the left and are thumbnailed. The pictures were taken in sequence in the "Town Hall" museum. We moved into the Town Hall after seeing that the lights had been turned on and the security guard noted that she had the only set of keys to open the doors, which were locked. In the first photo, Ross acquired a strong EM field that held steady.The field had a steady measurement of 4 milligauss. Prompted by the meter reading, a photo was taken. It shows an unusual light gray "haze" to the left of Ross. Just after the photograph was taken, the EM field was not locatable. Ross moved to his left after being told that an anomalous image was located in that position in the photograph. the EM field was reacquired and held steady for three more seconds before it was lost again. The second photo was taken just before the field vanished. the photo here shows a very bright and solid "orb". The object appears to be in motion and lacks diffraction rings that are typical with dust contaminants and other airborne particles in false positives. Ross moves to his left as the third photograph is taken. This image shows a very unusual splash of light and blurring in the photo. Ross briefly acquired an EM Spike on the meter but the EM field that was in the area previously could not be located. Our first hypothesis was that the images were caused by flashback of the camera's flash on the reflective surfaces in the photographs. Attempts were made with three different cameras, including the one that took the original photos, to replicate this effect with no avail. while there was some areas of flash back, none of the photos taken resemble the blurring and "splash" of the ones taken when the EM field was present. Investigators and security guards in the area had the feeling that they were being watched and that "something" was in the room just before and during the measurement of the EM field.

Electronic voice phenomena samples were not really that interesting due to the fact that they were non-location specific. However, the answers to the questions asked due seem to give a suitable answer.