The Haunted Mill Store

Since 2004, the Mill Store on Elm Street has sat vacant and still. However, there have been rumors the last several years of paranormal activity. School children from nearby Union elementary School have reported seeing ghostly faces in the windows of the closed mill. Other stories tell the strange sounds of cows mooing near the property.

Barry Dillinger is a man of many hats, husband, father of two young children, restaurant manager, professional screenwriter and ghost hunter. Of all these occupations, it is the ghost hunter role that has given the founder of the website creepyconnecticut.net his biggest notoriety. Dillinger has gone all over Connecticut and to other states to investigate paranormal activity. Dillinger states that people in his organization "are skeptics first and believers second." His website lists many of the places that they have investigated. He claims that on most of his outings, he and his team have found no solid proof or evidence of a haunting. There are only a handful of investigations that he has said that there was conclusive proof. There is one however, that he is not sure of though, The Mill Store in Farmington. According to Dillinger, the Mill was built in 1867 and closed in 2004. Dillinger cites information on his website citing that the owners of the mill were being fined millions of dollars due to environmental pollution to the nearby soil and ground water. Since the mill has been closed, schoolchildren from Union Elementary school on School Street have said that they have seen human like faces in the windows of the old mill as well as hearing the sounds of cows. In 2008, Dillinger and a fellow member of his team received permission to investigate the site.

"The property is on private land," Dillinger stated. "The police will arrest trespassers here because it is dangerous to walk in there. When we did our research there, we received permission and were assured that we would be the only ones on the site"

The facility consists of three floors and a basement, numerous corridors and bathrooms. Many items were left in place from the last days of operation for the mill.

"It was as if people just got up and left and never came back," Dillinger said. "We saw books on shelves, vending machines still inside."

At one point they found a large pile of empty cat food cans but no sign of any cats or cat droppings. Dillinger theorized that at one point there were several cats living there and that someone was feeding them.

"It is quite likely that the faces that they [schoolchildren] were seeing were nothing more than some feral cats," Dillinger replied. "This is a possible explanation for these alleged sightings."

Dillinger and his fellow teammate got lost a few times during the investigation and at one point heard the sound of a door with a hinge slowly creaking. Dillinger and his team went to investigate but could only find one door in the whole facility that had a hinge on it.

"My fellow team member was ready to bolt but we decided to investigate," Dillinger stated. "All the doors were operated by chains. Only one bathroom door was on a hinge and when we opened it, it did not have the same sound that we had heard. We tried to find the source of the noise but could not."

When they completed their investigation, they could not find any evidence of any paranormal activity on video or audio. Despite the sound of the creaky door, Dillinger doesn't believe that the Mill is haunted. But he states that the Mill is scary for another reason.

"The Mill was abandoned because of contamination to the soil and ground water by a chemical called dieldrin," Dillinger said "It was used as a dye for textiles. When we went into a room in the basement, our eyes started to tear up and we saw some white powder on the floor. We assumed it was the dieldrin."

Dillinger and his team from Creepy Connecticut have no plans to go back and investigate the mill further. As far as future ghost hunts go, the group is always looking for new places to venture and explore but are backlogged for several months. If you know of any haunted places that you would like to see investigated, please visit the website, www.creepyconnecticut.net.