The ones they left behind

It was a cold rainy day when I pull up in front of the old jail annex building in Mudbaden, just outside of Jordan. I haven’t been feeling well in the past few weeks and the gloomy weather hadn’t picked up my spirits very much.

As I sat in my car over looking the building I was reminded of the e mails I received about this building. I even was stopped at the store and was told about this building and the activities that went on. As I observed the building the strongest impression was that of an old person.

I sat in my car and waited a short time. Mathias Baden, the editor of the Jordan Independent was to meet me here after his assignment. I decided to bring in my equipment and meet the manager of the building, Mike Briese. As I waited for Mathias we chatted a little about the building and I explained to him about ghost hunting and the e mails I had received about the building. When Mathias joined us Mike started to tell us about the history of the building.

The building had started its life out as a health spa. The sulfur rich mud that was dredged from the Minnesota River was used to help people with arthritis and rumatisum. When the spas polarity declined, the building was sold to an order of Monks from Notre Dame to use for a retreat. From there Lynnville took it over for their drug and alcohol treatment center. I could see why each of these places chose this location. The beauty of the wilds of the Minnesota River bottom surrounds the area making it a very relaxing place where one could recuperate and regenerate the soul.

Scott County took the building over and it was an annex for the jail for minor offenses up until 4 years ago. There was a need for a regional training center and Scott County was going to build a new building, but after they realized that this building could be remodeled for this purpose. The committee carefully planed the remodeling of the building. There are classrooms throughout the building, some with simulators so law enforcers, jail guards and transit officials, could use. This is like a laser tag room as realistic as possible; it will even shoot back at the student. They also have a fireing range for handguns and rifles, which they are hoping to open it up in the fall for hunters to practice. There is also a tackle building across the street for fire fighters and law enforcers to practice their skills. The class rooms will be offered for not only law enforcers and fire fighters, but they will also open their doors for corporate to have safety training at these locations.

As Mike talked about the plans they have for the building you can hear the pride in his voice. He should be proud indeed. The plans for what the building will be used for have been carefully planned out and have been updated fully. They even have open plans for improvements, as they need it. I looked at Mathias and I smiled, this would be a wonderful story for the paper. This building will be bringing some business to Jordan, law enforcers, and firemen would be needing a place to stay and the Nicolet B&B is right in town as well as the motel off 169.

As we started to tour the building, Mike introduced me to Tim who is in charge of the maintenance. Tim has worked in the building for 11 years. I asked Tim if he had heard rumors of any spiritual activity in the building, he had, but through all his years he has never experienced any. He looked for logical explanations for some unusual activities, such as pipes making noises and the old elevator starting up on it’s own. Tim had repeated some of the things that I had been told, such as hearing doors open and close, and that the inmates would also claim the their doors would open and close during the nigh. I also have heard of shadows being seen in the hallways.

As we continued the toured of the building, I felt an old person once again. But I also felt someone following us. The feeling was so strong that I kept taking photos of the halls as Mike was explaining the classrooms to us. As we toured the building I carried a tape recorder with me and I also left a recorder on the 3rd floor.

I was very impressed with what they did with the building and their plans for the future. I wondered if there was any spirits still lingering in the building. I felt at least 2 spirits, an old person and someone following us around the building. Were there more? Had they tried to talk to us as we walked around? I wouldn’t know until I listened to the tapes and looked at the photos.

On the 3rd floor lounge area, I picked up this voice of a man whispering next to me saying mam http://media.putfile.com/mam-51

In the basement where the vats were in the floor I picked up this man calling my name http://media.putfile.com/old-jail-man-saying-kathy

After we talked to Tim and continued out tour, a woman voice called out to us to come back

http://media.putfile.com/woman-saying-come-back