I visited Skillman July 16, 2004 with Rob and Amanda. It was really eerie to see this huge place, every building abadoned. We managed to visit a majority of the buildings, excluding the ones that we couldn't find a way to get into.
While we were there we did have some unusual experiences. We opened a door to find another room, not very different from the others. Amanda closed it and we both heard the distinct jingle of keys. Since we both have keys from Elizabeth General Medical Center we opened the door again to take these ones as a souvenir only to find nothing. After looking closely we shut the door again only to hear nothing. After a couple more tries we gave up.
Another occurence was after we had visited the firehouse. Rob and I were a bit tired so we stayed outside of a building while Amanda explored. All the sudden Amanda Came running out of a side door with a yelp. She had felt cold and had seen a black thing, possibly a figure. Needless to say she was very spooked, which was unusual for Amanda. After calming her down the three of us ventured back in to where she had seen this "thing". I took a picture of the location but didn't find anything unusual. We went back outside but Amanda had refused to come. Not long after that Rob and I distinctly heard her saying "Stop it! No!" We ran inside to find her standing in the back calmly just snapping some pictures. She denies ever saying that and was puzzled when we told her. Perhaps she just doesn't remember it, you can never know with Amanda. But she did believe that she had seen something again. We walked in, Rob with his arms around me (we we're both a little spooked by this time) to see that Amanda was standing near the huge refrigerator rooms... A morgue? It was deffinitly odd.Rob later told us that it was where they kept meat and we wrote it off as a "cow spirit". Now that I'm home I find it hard to believe the refrigerator rooms where used to keep meat. What does a developmental center need with huge rooms of meat? From other explorers I've heard that there deffinitly is a morgue. Since we covered almost every building why would we have missed it? We were all a little more cautious after that experience.
It started to rain towards the end of the night and the sky looked really dark and stormy, adding a cool effect to the abandoned surroundings. We decided to call it quits but we didn't leave without Souvenirs!! Pictures coming soon of my chalkboard used to record patients and their treatments, Employee cards and ankle restraints... Amanda took a fire extinguisher... hmm.
-Shawna M. Kelly |
