Fort Duffield Investigations and Tour Information

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Fort Duffield

AfterDark was granted permission to conduct a paranormal investigation at Fort Duffield a Historic Fort located in Westpoint,Ky.

You must have permission from the Fort Duffield Historical Society.(Please be nice and give a donation to help with the upkeep).

Afterdark is now conducting paranormal tours at Fort Duffield, if you would like to schedule your group for an investigation there please contact us at afterdarkinvgs@aol.com

Six hour Tours are now being scheduled for the last Saturday of every month from 8pm until 2am est.

Excluding Memorial day and Labor day weekends,during those weekends the tours will be held on the third Saturday of that month.

Cost: $10.00 per person- money is due upon arrival Money goes to the "Friends of Fort Duffield Historical Society"

Rules:1. Everyone MUST be 18 or over "NO EXCEPTIONS" MUST HAVE ID AVAILABLE

2. No drinking of alcoholic beverages of any kind

3. Everyone must behave in an orderly fashion,anyone being unruley,failing to stay in their assigned areas or failure to follow guides and park rules will be asked to leave and escorted off the property.

4. Bathrooms are located at top of hill, this is the ONLY one in the Fort Area.

5. You are responsible for bringing and care of your own equipment.

6. Fort is located at the top of a steep hill,please have an appropiate vehicle or park personnel can provide transportation to the top.

7. Respect Fort Duffield it is one of only a few earthen Forts left.

Dates for 2008 tours: April 26, May24, June28, July26, Aug.30, Sept.27, Oct.25, and Nov.29

Fort Duffields History

The Union garrison at Elizabethtown was astride the L&N railroad, the main north south rail link for both the Union army at Louisville and Albert Sidney Johnston's Confederates at Bowling Green. The troops at this Hardin County post were assigned to protect this vital rail link and be prepared to move south to meet any Confederate threat. In order to insure the success of his overall plan Sherman needed a reliable supply line. West Point's location made it the ideal choice, not only could it supply Elizabethtown via the Salt but it in turn could be supplied via the Ohio River. In order to protect the supply depot Sherman ordered that a fortification be constructed on Pearman Hill. Pearman Hill commands West Point and the rivers. The fortification of this area would help secure the Federal supply line and Union troops would have defensible position to fall back upon in case of a military set back.

By November 1861 the fortification of Pearman Hill had begun. Construction of the earthworks that would be named Fort Duffield was initiated on Sunday November 3, 1861 by engineers of the 9th Michigan Infantry. Ten pieces of artillery were eventually placed within the fort. By December, in addition to the fort, soldiers were constructing log structures for their quarters just outside of the earthworks. By January 1, 1862 the cabins and the fort was finished. The Federal army had some 950 troops stationed at Ft. Duffield. The supply line was secure. By the end of January 1862 the fort would be abandoned as the troops their were needed elsewhere. The war moved south, as the Federal forces took the offensive against the Confederate perimeter. The formidable fortress would not see duty again, except for a brief emergency duty in the fall of 1862.

Information courtesy of Sandy Berding

Awesome Video Captured When A Spirit Led Us To A Certain Area

Click On Page To Watch Video

Investigation Report

AfterDarks Team performed a two night investigation at Fort Duffield. The first nights investigation consisted of the earthen mounds and cabin areas of the Fort. The second nights investigation finished up the Fort and the memorial graveyard by the overllook and the original graveyard.

Some interesting video was evps were captured:

Picture Captured by Investigator in original graveyard. There are no headstones,just rocks to mark the actual graves

Our team had a lot of personal experiences as well as the whole team watching as a soldier came out of the trees and walked along the treeline on the earthen fort around 1:30 am. He seemed to have some kind of lantern appearing and then disappearing.

Letter from former visitor to Foet Duffield:

I am so glad that someone has conducted a paranormal investigation on this very haunted place.

It was about Sept. 9, 2006 when I was there - I live NW of Chicago. I was there to see my son graduate from Basic Training on Sept. 10 at Ft. Knox. I had a little time on my hands and decided to go site seeing. I ended up at Ft. Duffield. I was by myself and climbed up the parking lot side of the hill, through the forest. Boy that is an eerie place. And, let me tell you - it doesn't need to be night to have a haunted experience there. Mine was in broad daylight!

I'm getting too old to be climbing up the backs of steep hills so when I got to the top I needed to take quite a bit of time relaxing before starting down. I spent time wondering around the fort. I found the marker where it stated the soldiers had died from hunger and disease and said a prayer. I looked out through the forest to the river area. I found it particularly weird that the entire time I was there there were no birds, squirrels, nothing rustling through the forest, no wind, not even a fly or mesquito. I'd never been in a place so devoid of life at the end of summer. All there were were trees and ground cover. It was getting late and I'd recovered from my climb and decided to take the easy way down, the asphalt path. There were no dead leaves on the path, yet as I walked down the steep incline I could hear footsteps in the leaves beside the path and behind me. It was as if I was being escorted from the grounds. I turned suddenly in the direction of the sound and saw a small dead twig of a tree (no more than 4' tall) about a foot from the path switch violently back and forth as if I'd startled whatever was following me - but nobody was there. For the remainder of my hike down the hill, I spoke kindly to the spirit (or whatever) assuring them that I would leave them in peace. Then I heard no more footsteps for the rest of my trip.

When I got home, I looked Ft. Duffield up on the internet and could find nothing that stated it was haunted. Probably a year ago now, then I recently tried looking it up again and found your investigation. Thank you.

Margie Prezioso

Cary, IL

We call this the Overlook Girl above.She is dressed in 70 's type clothes You decide what you see.We are all here to share and learn

Evps captured during two night investigation:

Whoa Thats A Casket

Marching Footsteps

You Bitch

Get Yall Go

CLASS "A" EVP BELOW PLEASE LISTEN!!!

Two weeks later we visited the graveyard there and captured this awesome evp right before we left. We had called out all the soldiers names who had headstones and then we said Robert Hendershot we know you dont have a headstone here but we know you were the youngest Civil War soldier on record,10 years old. The first one is uncleaned,the second one is cleaned up and slowed down.

Actually Your Still At Fort Duffield