The Ringling Estate (Sarasota, Florida)
Although circuses tend to not emphasize their more morbid aspects, for fear of being seen as un-PC, you still can’t help but avoid the general all-around freakiness of the history of circuses. Sandy wrote me to share an interesting story about this museum:
“I have some info on the Ringling Circus Fire in Hartford you might be interested in. I belong to a paranormal investigations group (also known as ghost hunters to our friends) here in St. Petersburg, Florida called the S.P.I.R.I.T.S. of St. Petersburg and last summer we did an investigation down at the Ringling Musuem in Sarasota. We really hadn’t been picking up any EMF or temperature readings out of the normal… no odd feelings or sensations of any type. We were really starting to feel like we had a bust for the hunt. Until one of our team members came upon Circus Wagon #5. At the rear of the wagon she felt the sensation of heat and had tears flowing down her face. She was so shook up by the sensations she recieved that she had to walk away. After making a sweep of the building we returned and she reported the same feelings of heat and the tears. We talked to a gentleman who is a security there and he said that it had been involved in a fire and afterword had been remodeled/restored to be put back in service. We asked if it was the Hartford and he said yes. We then asked if any one had died or been hurt and he said he couldn’t talk about it, the circus would frown on it. They really don’t like talking about those type of things. We spent days on the Net doing research to try and confirm if this Wagon was actually involved but came up with nothing.”
It’s worth checking out the wagon just in case, as far as I’m concerned!