For the five weeks leading up to Halloween, WBSM's resident paranormal researcher Tim Weisberg will feature five of the SouthCoast's most haunted locations, including some that you can explore for yourself.

Photo courtesy of Frank C. Grace/Trig Photography
Photo courtesy of Frank C. Grace/Trig Photography
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I've lived in Wareham for just about 25 years now, and I'm convinced that the Fearing Tavern is not only the most haunted places in town, but it's one of the most haunted on the SouthCoast.

I was lucky enough to be one of the first people to investigate the Tavern, which was built in 1690 and had additions tacked on in 1765 and 1820. The original portion was built by the miller Isaac Bump and his family. Israel Fearing later took ownership and added another portion to the building in 1765, and it remained in his family for hundreds of years.

During its long history, the sixteen-room Fearing Tavern has served as a tavern, courthouse, town hall, post office, private residence and is now a museum housing a collection of antiques from the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

During our first ever investigation of the Tavern, we brought along fellow investigator Andrew Lake and Electronic Voice Phenomena (or EVP) expert Mike Markowicz. EVP is the theory that spirits can manifest enough energy to imprint their voices on our recordings, and Mike caught this incredible example in the basement of the Tavern:

Andrew, meanwhile, was focusing on video documentation, and he too captured something unexplained with a strange light that has since been dubbed "Tinkerbelle:"

Over the years, we've conducted many investigations and held numerous events at the Fearing Tavern, as well as the three other historic haunts the Wareham Historical Society operates right in the vicinity of the Tavern. Our most recent was on Saturday, October 3 and once again we had some interesting experiences.

For me, one of the most profound things that happened all night took place in a room where a young girl on a school field trip once reported a ghostly woman sitting and knitting in a rocking chair. We were attempting to make contact with that woman's spirit, when the door to a "secret room" that was rumored to have once housed British soldiers during the American Revolution by the Loyalist family that lived in the house popped open on its own. Now, I know for sure that I firmly latched the door, and there was no way air pressure or settling wood would have popped the heavy latch.

Another even stranger event happened when my Spooky Southcoast co-host Matt Moniz was escorting a newspaper reporter through the Tavern on Saturday night and discussing the paranormal with her for her story. All night, they had been encountering strange shadows creeping around them, but they were blown away when they saw a gray misty figure not only manifest across the house from them, but then immediately come toward them--stopping to rest its ghostly arms on the door frame and peering into the Tavern room where Matt and the reporter stood.

The Fearing Tavern never seems to disappoint when it comes to paranormal activity, but what I like even more about it is that the ghost stories have led to a "bump" (pun intended) of tourism for the Tavern and the Wareham Historical Society. In fact, if you Google "Fearing Tavern" the first page of hits are all paranormal related.

To get a good look inside the Tavern, check out this episode of 30 Odd Minutes:

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