Black Diamond History:

http://www.historylink.org/ess.....s/printer_...fm?file_id=3304

Address: Cemetery Hill Road, Black Diamond. This community cemetery was established in the 1880s on a hilltop site at the edge of the thriving mining town of Black Diamond, then the biggest settlement in King County outside of Seattle. The cemetery is a complex cultural landscape, capturing the tremendous ethnic diversity of the town's early history, in the surnames of those buried there, as well as in the languages, religious and fraternal organization affiliations, and styles of the grave markers.

The cultural traditions and legacies of the area's early immigrants, including Welsh, English, Italian, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Austrian, German, Greek, Lithuanian, Montenegrin, Serbian, Polish, Russian, and others represented here as they are in few if any other sites still preserved in the town, with the loss of fraternal and social halls, and other community facilities once associated with these groups, and with Black Diamond's early social history.

Claims of Haunting at the Cemetery

These are the reports from over the years. A man with a lantern, from the Coal Miner's era, is seen on foggy nights walking and swinging his lantern. A horse, and sometimes horse with carriage, is seen moving from south to the north of the cemetery. Strange lights have been seen, whistling has been heard.

Our Investigation:

Our team arrived at the cemetery 11:30pm. Weather was mostly clear with a few clouds, Partly cloudy, with a low around 47. Northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming east. Note: weather cold enough to see breathe, rule out breath "ecto" shots. Nonviable evidence.

Team Present: Vinnie, Regan, Shane, Joe, Sandie, Spike, and Steve.

Note: While pulling gear out of car, another two cars pulled up with our individuals who are novice investigators. Because we have permissions from the city, and police department, we have to be conscientious about our team and representation. They were courteous, honest and showed a legitimate interest versus thrill seeking on a Saturday night. We invited them to be guests of ours and hosted an excursion with them. The individuals told Vinnie and Regan about their experience a couple weekends ago. "They had seen what they best could describe as a green "glow stick shape" fling across the cemetery in the back half."

After the EVP session, the team decided to walk the cemetery as one larger team. Nothing interesting happened in the beginning until the team went back to the back half of the cemetery. While in the back half of the cemetery, our team kept seeing small glimpses of flashing light. Our state does not have lightening bugs. The colors varied from white, green, and red. We also heard cracking and branch breaking like someone was pacing. Note: The back half of the cemetery is surrounding by a thick forest, with a ravine drop behind it. There is no feasible way for someone to be traipsing through the woods without us seeing them. To be hidden far enough back, they'd have to be floating above the ravine.

Possible theories: Is this the lantern people are seeing? If it is the "lantern" people are seeing. Our mind likes to relate what we're seeing to something that fits or makes sense. Since we do not have lightening bugs, and there are not houses or streetlamps back there, what is it that we're seeing?

Ignis Fatuus: A wavering luminous appearance frequently observed in cemeteries, meadows and marshy places, around most any popular superstitions. Some folk names are, Will O'the Wisp or Jack O'Lantern, these suggest a country fellow bearing a lantern or straw torch (wisp). As the stories go these lights were supposed to haunt desolate bogs & land, that back then was of little use sometimes called moors. The stories were for the purpose of misleading travelers and drawing them to their death, (Spooky). Another superstition says that they are the spirits of those who have been drowned in the bogs, and yet another says that they are the souls of unbaptized infants. Science now attributes these ignes fatui to gaseous exhalations from moist ground or, more rarely, to night-flying insects.

They are also known as

Corpse Lights: Phosphorescent lights seen floating in mid air, especially at night. They can be white, red or blue primarily or other colors and can be seen indoors or outdoors. They have been reported to hug the ground, float in air, hover over roofs, or even over the bodies of persons who are dying or may soon die. Other names for this phenomenon include: Corpse Candles, Jack-O'-Lanterns, corposant, fetch candles or fetch lights. They may be naturally forming as a byproduct of decomposition in marshes (swamp gas) or as some other form of naturally occurring phenomena which we do not yet understand having to do with atmospheric conditions.