By Rachel Gallegos
When Brandon Cochran leads tours of the Johnson County Poor Farm and asylum, people often ask him if there are ghosts at the 153-year-old site.
Cochran is museum operations assistant for the Historical Society, which intends to ask the county board of supervisors today thur to allow a paranormal investigation at the facility on Melrose Avenue.
``It's taking a different approach to historical sites,'' Cochran said.
While there are no reported or historical accounts of ghost at the county poor farm, having a paranormal team come in could help provide a more concrete answer to people's questions, he said.
The Johnson County Historical Society is asking to bring in - free - the Carroll Area Paranormal Team. The group would do a professional investigation of the area and provide a report on whether there is paranormal activity at the site, Cochran said.
He likens the report to a census record or topographical survey as ``a different facet of information about a site.''
``It's something that'll add to the mystique of the Johnson County Poor Farm and asylum,'' Cochran said.
Paranormal research, something Cochran said he is interested in personally, started on the East Coast and has become increasingly popular through shows such as ``Ghost Hunters'' on the Sci Fi channel.
The remaining wing still standing at the Johnson County Poor Farm and asylum was built in 1855 and housed mentally ill patients who, at the time, were deemed insane, Cochran said.
The 10 cells each accommodated four to five patients who were deemed wards of the state or committed by their family, he said.
``They were heavily occupied,'' he said.
The 160-acre plot was an independent, self-sufficient space for those who lived there, with the residents farming corn, potatoes, wheat, hay and tobacco, Cochran said.
The County Poor Farm became the county home and is now the location of Chatham Oaks.
``Technically, it's never left. It's just changed names,'' he said.
http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs. ... 26003/1079
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