SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — For over two decades, the former Sheboygan Asylum has remained empty.
But if you ask the Fox Valley Ghost Hunters, they will tell you a much different story.
“Hello, Mike. Are you down here?” asked Craig Nehring as he was attempting to communicate with spirits using an audio analyzer.
He and Melissa Clevenger are the Fox Valley Ghost Hunters. They host ghost tours from August to November every year at the Sheboygan Asylum.
“I have always been into the paranormal,” Clevenger said. “Growing up, I had experiences and as an adult I missed that feeling.”
Now, they want to share that feeling with others: that feeling of the unknown.
“There is a height chart in the commons area, these were actual people and their heights,” she said. “A lot of the names that are on this chart we get on the ghost box.”
The Sheboygan County Comprehensive Health Care Center, often referred to as the Sheboygan Asylum, closed its doors in 2002.
When it was open, it was a self-sustaining asylum. It had a water tower, water treatment plant and fields to grow food.
Since it closed, the two have done thousands of tours in the building, recounting terrifying experiences.
“We sat down and were asking questions and all of the sudden down this hallway we heard a loud scraping sound and then a loud woman’s scream,” Clevenger said.
The facility also has a series of underground tunnels where Nehring believes workers would take breaks.
“On our very first investigation, we had asked what the ghosts like to do while they are down [in the tunnels] and they said they like to drink and they like to smoke cigarettes,” he said.
The paranormal experience offered by the duo stretches far beyond the asylum.
They also offer tours at the old Glenbeulah school. That’s where Haunted Midwest Ghost Tours will host the Great Lakes Paranormal Conference from Sept. 22-24.