Cozmic Cafe
Placerville, CA

Location: 594 Main Street, Placerville CA 95667 - currently closed

Investigation: May 25, 2007

History: This is a fascinating location with an incredible history. The original structure on the site burned down in the destructive Placerville fire of 1850. The John Pearson Soda Works Building is considered to be the oldest restored building in Placerville. It was built in 1859 by John Pearson. Pearson was a Scottish ice merchant who purchased the land that extended to a mine shaft. The temperatures inside the mine shaft were cold enough to refrigerate year round naturally, so Pearson stored ice in there as well as other perishables to sell. He made the walls downstairs 22" thick to assure a cool temperature. Because of this, the funeral home across the street approached John with a proposition. The ground in the winter was simply too hard to dig a grave. They needed a place to house the corpses. It was arranged to store the bodies of those that passed away in the harsh winter months with the ice.

In 1897 Mr. Pearson added a second story and began manufacturing soda.

Reason for Investigation: We had heard rumors about this establishment for years. The current owners wanted us to come out and conduct an investigation to see if the claims of activity could be verified.

Preliminary Interview: Once our standard pre-investigation questions were completed. The over 2,000 foot, 2 story investigation was going to require a lot of planning. There was a vast network of ventilation pipes in the building and hillside around the tunnel. We learned early on that sound carried in unimaginable ways. To monitor noise, we would have team members on the outside of the building during the investigation logging any city noise variables. There were three distinctly different types of structure to account for as well.

The upstairs and downstairs reports of paranormal events were hugely different. This made more sense, once we learned that the upstairs was not constructed until later. The tunnel area and cafe area had a mixture of Gold Rush era events and sightings. The upstairs had reports of a Vietnam era soldier.

The Investigation: The team arrived at the establishment around 11 p.m. We waited for the rest of the customers to file out of the building. After everyone was out, we brought out our equipment and conducted the scientific portion of the investigation. We utilized the temperature and EMF meters to obtain baseline information. Due to the building’s size and the mine shaft that extends from the back of the store, readings were highly variable. We set up cameras to record activity and Ann conducted EVP and dowsing sessions in several locations. (See the results below) Another investigator heard a whistle from her right side while upstairs. Multiple investigators saw a black shadow moving in the kitchen area.

The team sensitive arrived at the building around 1 a.m. As the assigned sensitive for the evening, he did not receive any information about the investigation. During his reading of the tunnel entrance, his pendulum was forcefully yanked out of his hand and shattered. This had never happened while dowsing on an investigation. The team completed their walk through with the sensitive throughout the building as well as in the mine shaft.

Once those initial impressions were obtained, the team decided to conduct a séance in an attempt to make contact with the entities in the building. Our sensitive led the séance, using a glass on the table. While the team conducted this session, the glass moved freely over the table as they made contact. Once the team concluded the investigation, we packed up our equipment, and locked up the building.