Per My Brother:
Wandering around the ScareFest dealer and autograph room, I was intrigued by the banner of CCPI. Located in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Calhoun County Paranormal Investigators was founded by brothers Seth and Jesse Alne in 2005. One of their featured destinations is the Farrar, an old elementary school with a dark history, which unofficially serves as the home base to CCPI. Manning the booth was Seth Alne, Jesse Alne, DJ Erkenbrack.

Unofficially, the Alne brothers started visiting haunted locations in 2001 with some friends. What started as a spooky visit to a cemetary late one night, followed by the sighting of a ghostly little girl, running among the graves, led to the creation of CCPI. Now based in the greater Des Moines area, CCPI consists of 10 full-time investigators and four part-timers. Summer months usually include many investigations, but ordinarily, the group has two to three monthly hunts. Its focus lies with the larger locations, but every once in a while, they’ll visit residential locations.

CCPI has recently created a documentary DVD, titled Haunted Iowa. Seth Alne gives some insight:
“We’re filmmakers at heart. We were doing film before we started ghost hunting. We kind of joined them together… that’s why we’ve got the documentary. The TV shows show all these other states, we wanted to show them Iowa was haunted too. There’s so many other sweet places. We hit, like, seven places, and showcased the four best, on our movie. We’re actually in the process of making a second and a third one.”

What’s some of the best paranormal evidence CCPI has found?
Jesse says, “At the American Theater in Cherokee, Iowa, we caught a full apparition walking into the projection room. It was directly after our buddy Dirk asked, ‘If the Projection Master is here, can you go in the projection room and turn on a movie for us to watch?’ And we got a guy walking, clear, into the room. Other things that have happened are some amazing EVPs… The Farrar school has a history of sexual assault and rape. And we actually got a young lady (on EVP) saying, ‘The baby, I’m saving,’ almost like she was raped, impregnated and was refusing to give up the child.”

Seth elaborates about the experiences at the Farrar:
“On our first investigation, which is on the documentary, we were doing a Ghost Box session and we knew none of the history, I mean NONE of it. We started getting these weird feelings throughout the night, like really sick to our stomach. I even cried at one point. I didn’t know why. So, we asked, ‘What happened in this school?’ And this guy comes over and says, ‘Rape.’ Who did you do it to? ‘Two girls.’ Found out one month later that this all happened. We got the evidence first — with speculation. A month later, it was all validated. The Farrar owners knew, but they were keeping it under wraps. So, now, we’ve talked to the victims. And it’s really weird, a lot of the bad guys that have been associated with the school… you can’t find anything about them. No records. Nothing. There’s no information. We feel like this (action) was spread, throughout the years. We feel it’s been an ongoing cycle, throughout the years this school was in session. That negative cycle was consistently going.”

The Farrar school was built and finished in 1921, open for classes in 1922. It offered first-grade classes through 12th grade up until 1960. In 1961, the school downsized to only first through seventh grades until the year 2002, when the school was permanently closed. The group members have a theory about the Farrar’s dark history:

“We kind of have the feeling that the school was built on sour ground. So much sad history that’s gone there and it’s continuted through the almost 100 years it’s been open,” notes Seth.

When asked about paranormal events happening during investigating the Farrar, Jesse speaks:
“We actually had an experience a couple of months ago. We were doing a tour and leaving. We were maybe a couple of blocks down the road, and I could just feel that someone was in the car with us. And so we pulled over, and I said, ‘Hey, can you get out of the car, please?’ It wouldn’t get out. The feeling was still there, so we turned around and drove back to the school. I opened up the car door, jumped out and said, ‘Please go back to the school.’ I looked in the car, and looked out, and a little girl was running back to the school. I got back in the car and the feeling was completely gone. It was so overwhelming, I just knew someone was there. There is some sort of want to get away from the school. The Principal of the school, who we believe was part of the (attacks), has haunted our female investigators after they’ve left, in their dreams. They feel like they’ve had personal experiences with this guy at their homes.”

For more information on CCPI and their documentary, Haunted Iowa:
– http://www.calhouncountypi.com/
– http://hauntingatfarrar.com