Ghost Hunters, Incorporated is a paranormal adventuring team that formed in northeastern Pennsylvania during the late 90's. Since it's inception, it has grown to become an international organization with outposts in Washington, Pennsylvania, and Ontario. The current incarnation of the group is made up of six diverse members, each bringing their own unique character traits to the team. While the group, as the name suggests, has primarily focused on the area of ghosts and hauntings over the years, they have more recently been branching into every facet of the paranormal in an effort to encompass a full spectrum of supernaturally tinged adventures.
Over the past 10 years, GHI has been out on literally hundreds of these adventures to visit locations or meet with interesting people known for their connections to subjects such as hauntings, cults and occult activity, demonic possession, UFO's and crop circles, crytozoology, and just about anything that can be lumped into the category of "strange". The purpose of these adventures is to document and share these accounts with the world via written summaries, video releases, public interaction, and various other methods of circulation.
While the group has taken it's fair share of flack over the years for their humorous, and often tongue-in-cheek look at the subject of the supernatural, the bulk of the disapproval comes from many of the larger groups in the field primarily concerned with the poor light in which they are deservingly portrayed. And by a group of "kids", no less. The general public, however, seems to be more keen on the contemporary take on the age-old topic of the unexplained, thus assisting GHI in chiseling out a substantial niche in the paranormal community. A niche that is only growing larger as the team grows older, more experienced, and reaches substantially more viewers.
GHI adheres to our own set of beliefs; conclusions reached after a decade of involvement in the field or paranormal research and investigation. While many groups would have you believe that there is a set of standard protocol for this kind of thing, we can assure you that they are full of crap. There is no such thing as one right way to explore and investigate the world of the unexplained, we only offer our opinions based on our collective experience.
We aggree that we exist to present the subject of the paranormal to the public in a manner that is at the same time interesting, informative, and humorous. There is a terrible amount of "holier-than-thou" attitudes in the paranormal community, and we aim to be a balance to the idea of "our way or the highway" by approaching the world of the unexplained in a lighthearted yet passionate manner. We want to offer an alternative to mega-groups and "big names" seeking only to cash in on the unwitting and impressionable with their hollow lectures, books, and various media-seeking cries for attention.
We consider ourselves to be ambassadors to the general public. We aim to attract the normal public that would generally steer clear of the topic of the supernatural due to the social stigmas attached to people who become involved. We can thank the incredible amount of bat-shit crazy groups and individuals who represent the paranormal world at present for these kind of stereotypes. We aim to break that barrier by being one of the few groups to remain sane, approachable, and completely independent. If this means making enemies with every other "ghost hunter", "psychic", or "cryptozoologist" then so be it. With us, there are no grey areas. You are either a positive influence by encouraging change, individuality, and a healthy dose of skepticism in the field, or you are a negative influence by attempting to suppress those ideas.
When it comes right down to it, we want to make the paranormal approachable, a subject that "normal" people aren't afraid to dive into, get their hands dirty, and enjoy the quest for answers in the world of the weird and unexplained. That said, we also aim to be an unforgiving burden to anyone who is making or has made that goal a difficult one to reach. That means you, fat "psychics", self-righteous "ghost hunters", bullshit paranormal authors, and every one of your scum-sucking, attention seeking kind. We are your worst enemies.
The group unofficially got it's start in the fall of 1998 under the guise of "Conspiracy of Three"
formed by friends Greg Newkirk, Nick Foust, and Matt Ulkins. The primary focus of the group was to
create humorous short films set within the realm of the paranormal. The interest in the unexplained
soon culminated in a prank dreamed up during a high school gym class with the intended purpose of
scaring the absolute bejeezuz out of Nick. This prank would take place in the fall of 1999 and
officially ignite the spark that formed a full-fledged paranormal investigation team.
A few weeks after the prank in the Springfield Cemetery on the outskirts of Columbia Cross Roads,
Pennsylvania, Greg, Matt, and Nick decided to head out in search of a supposedly haunted church in
the mountains of Bradford County. While the search for the church turned up empty, the guys made
an important discovery in the history of GHI : they stumbled haphazardly accross the Barclay
Mountain Cemetery. Later that month, the newly formed group by the name of "Hunters, Incorporated"
would venture into the mountains in the dead of night for their very first paranormal investigation.
At the time, all but three members were only 13 years of age.
The Hunters, Inc. team consisted of Greg Newkirk, Nick Foust, Matt Ulkins, Bill Angove, Beau Garrison, Jason Gowin, Brody Selleck, and "Chicken".
With no other expectations than to let Barclay's atmosphere freak us out, the team was in for a surprise when we discovered first-hand that this was one of the area's most haunted cemeteries. After a hasty, adrenaline-fueled retreat, it was quickly decided that this was the beginning of a new hobby.
As the group continued seeking out more interesting haunted locations to investigate, a website was created in order to document and showcase the team's growing list of adventures. As the website surprisingly grew in popularity, we noticed more and more people mistakenly visiting the website under the impression that it had something to do with big game hunting. While we might have considered spooks and spectres pretty big game at the time, most hardened Cabella's shoopers did not. Rather than try to combat a bunch of disappointed rednecks, the word "ghost" was added to the group name from that point on in order to curb any future confusion.
In the year 2000, the newly renamed team began to gain more speed in it's growth. More experimentation
with different methods of investigation were taking place and the results were showing in the form of
gradual increases in activity during the outings.
By 2001 the majority of the team had reached the age of 16, meaning that everyone now had a driver's
license. This resulted in significantly more freedom for the team which, in turn, meant more
adventures and less relying on the older members for transportation.
This year also brought a lot of tension to the team. As the popularity of the group continued to
grow, there began to be a few conflicting ideas in how the team should be run, and a temporary
rift brought two new members into the fold as well as the departure of one. Enter : Brandon
Stroup and Mick Kalada. Exit: Matt Ulkins. We were also introduced by a group of charismatic
young ladies by the name of the Kitchener-Waterloo Paranormal Research Society with whom we went
on to become good friends and subsequent enemies with. They went on to rechristen themselves
the Girly Ghosthunters and gain popularity with a Canadian television show
of the same name, but they'll come into greater importance in GHI's history much, much later.
Some of the more popular adventures took place during this time period including the now infamous trip to the 7 Gates of Hell. If we had a dollar for every time someone asked us directions to that place, we'd actually be able to pay Milton for hosting this website.
By the following year most of the problems had been patched up and the group began going back out on a regular basis. It was this season that the group's antics attracted the attention of Seattle, WA based independent film company NewGil Pictures. After a few initial telephone meetings, we decided to go ahead with a film project.
In the spring of 2003 we shot the feature length film titled "Ghost Hunters, Inc. Presents: The Graveyard Shift". The resulting press proved to be good news for the group, and we not only had our first radio interview, but amassed a good deal of printed press as well.
While the press worked wonders for GHI's popularity, the grueling shooting schedule coupled with the tension of final exams during our senior year of high school proved to be too much pressure. The group essentially shut down for the remainder of the year.
Upon the reinvigorating event of a second violent enounter during a fluke visit to the Church of the Damned, we gave the group a fresh start and invited two more members to the team in an effort to make it a little less of a sausage fest : Lindsay Gonzales and Adelyn Stroup. Beau left the team at this point and ended up forming a group that we unaffectionatly nicknamed "Beau's Haunted Tours". Nick and Lindsay didn't really get along very well, so she was a pretty short lived addition. Addy stuck around as a recurring character for years to come.
Things remained pretty active right up through the release of "The Graveyard Shift" in 2005. The film gained mild popularity and garnered some decent reviews. Every so often a random person would come up to us and start discussing the film with us. Since a couple years had gone by since filming, our methods had changed considerably and this was genrally an embarrassing situation. By this point we were experimenting with EVP recordings and provocation, two things that we discovered we were pretty darned awesome at, as far as results are concerned. Two new staples were added to the arsenal : a can of kosher salt and a water gun named "Father Merrin" which we filled with holy water. As much ridicule as we received for the use of Merrin, nothing changed the fact that he worked, and well at that. This year also saw Milton Clark join the team under the guise of "Enjoy". He graciously offered to host and design a new website for GHI so that we didn't have to deal with low bandwidth and ads.
2006 was the year that we really started going to town with the video content. Several video short films were shot during the winter months with the intention of being released on a regular basis at a later date. When Gowin leaked a few of the unfinished products onto YouTube, that idea got scrapped, but the videos took off and the result was less time spent on the website and more time editing video. This, essentially, is when the written adventures began to dwindle in favor of video adventures. Unfortunately, we still didn't update the website at all for years to come, with the exception of basic news blurbs.
On the plus side, we created our most popular video to date : "GHI vs Bigfoot". The filming of this feature-length film introduced us to a local bigfoot hunter by the name of Mr. Tim Holmes. This video would prove to shape the direction that the team would take from that point on: less of a focus on ghosts, and more emphasis on an all-encompassing paranormal/general strangeness theme.
2007 ended up being the most tumultuous year for the team thus far. Greg moved to Seattle, and while still remaining a member, left the direction of the team in the hands of the remaining three members : Nick, Bill, and Gow. While the group kept breathing life into GHI through visits to conventions on the East coast, Greg continued to research the supernatural and hone his skills by taking advantage of The Seattle Museum of the Mysteries - the only paranormal library and museum on the West coast.
When disaggreements arose about the future of the team and it's purpose, the amicable decision was made to close the group for good after it's ten year run. This way each member could pursue their own particular interests without fear of fallout. Greg began to discuss the possibility of working with an old friend from way back : Dana Matthews of Girly Ghosthunters fame. A few ideas were spitballed back and forth for quite some time, and eventually the concept for a more advanced adventuring group by the name of Adventures, Inc. was set into play. This group would include both Greg and Dana as well as Nick, Milton, Tim, and newcomer Glen Richards.
Upon making the news of GHI's demise public on Paranormal Interest Radio in October, we were bombarded with personal phone calls and emails begging the group to retain it's open status. After a long heartfelt discussion between the potential members of Adventures, Inc, it became clear that the core members of GHI had worked too hard and had too much invested in the name and repuation of the group to let it all get flushed down the drain. Instead of killing the group, the problems would be rooted out and it would be allowed to grow and evolve into the force that it has been straining to be for years. Rather than bow out, we decided to reinvent.
So that pretty much brings us here, dear viewer, and what a fantastic trip it's been. Ten years of late nights, ghosts, graveyards, injuries, bigfoot, crop circles, general weirdness, and meeting and interacting with some of the most... interesting people you could ever hope to run into. If growing up like that isn't preparation for another decade of absolute insanity, I don't know what is. We may not know what the future holds, but we do know that we don't plan on going away anytime soon. Stay tuned, friends, because the best is yet to come.