John C. Evanoff was born in Reno in 1947. He attended and graduated Reno High School, the University of Nevada and later, Truckee Meadows Community College. He has won awards for his writing and has written for international, national and local publications. John published a book of poems entitled HeartJazz and is working on a book of short stories, a novel/screenplay and another book of poems. He and his wife Sharon of 23 years are avid outdoor adventurers, golfers, photographers and explorers of Nevada/California history and geography. He has been a member of many charitable organizations and several associations in the region. He writes these columns about the area he's known and loved so that you can get a better appreciation of the land, its history and its people. If you'd like to contact John with questions or comments, please use the "Contact Us" link in the navigation bar above.

John recently provided information to author Westen Charles for a magazine article about The Willows Resort. That article has been published in "Casino Collectible News" brought to you by The Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collectors Club, Inc. Visitreno.com has been granted permission by the publisher to post the article here. You'll find it a very interesting read.

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March, 2013
by John Evanoff

This column relates to a piece I wrote last year in July on some odd ghostly things going on in Robb Canyon in west Reno. Things like this interest us because so many people have encountered activity like this before, especially in certain areas of the Truckee Meadows. What is about to be detailed below by a reader who found my column interesting, fits the descriptions of those who have also viewed the same and many more events throughout the last four decades in Robb Canyon. In Reno and Northern Nevada, you only have to go a few steps to find a lot of history and many interesting things have transpired to create a lot of excitement in certain quarters when it comes to things we’ve heard of or seen before.

At any rate, below is the actual journal of Don S. who with the help of his girlfriend Rhiannon and other friends put together a study group designed to find out whether there were really paranormal activities going on in certain areas of Reno and Northern Nevada. What they found with a lot of scientific tools and patience ended up being quite an adventure for them and what investigations they have concluded will leave you with goose-bumps or at the least, leave more for you to wonder about. They also included a few pictures you may find unsettling or at least a bit surprising.

To set this up, I will start with a paragraph from my article last year and then move directly into Don’s written journal. You can read more of my original article by going to this link: http://visitreno.com/evanoff/july-12.php

Tales of the bodies of three men and a woman being discovered in Robb Canyon in west Reno in the early 1970’s led to reports years later of ghosts trying to coax people to feel their pain and discover their murderers. The murders were to some accounts never made public or at never solved. The entire canyon site and the nearby city park named Rainbow Ridge Park have become somewhat famous for haunting reports, sightings, disturbing noises including blood curdling screams and strange lights. Paranormal activity in the area has been investigated by experts and scientists for many years up and down Robb Canyon and the surrounding hills and all have come away with personal accounts of frightening events including many narratives of overwhelming dread upon entering the canyon at night. Reports still come from residents in the area and a few reality television shows have spent time in the area, all coming away with chronicles of actual sightings including some of the so called Shadow People.

Don S. begins his Journal:

When we first heard of Robb Canyon, it was through word of mouth… we, my girlfriend / investigating partner Rhiannon and I, decided that we would go by and see if there was anything to the story. We really had no clue what we were doing nor had any idea about the proper ‘stuff’ to have on an adventure such as this…

As a brief background, I have been into ‘ghosts’ all my life. I am NOT a ghost hunter, tracker, or the like. Perhaps a Forensic Paranormal Researcher / Investigator / Consultant sounds better, albeit a bit wordy… I consider myself a “Survivor man / Long Island Medium / Ghost Adventurer / Dead Files” person all rolled into one…

Although I have never used any equipment to track, ‘hunt’ or otherwise verify the existence of the paranormal, I have always been very aware of their presence around me. I have never had the need to ‘verify’ the existence of the paranormal with any devices since I could relate to the people around me too many specific details to question my abilities / gift / talent… what have you

Our first excursion was, as I stated, essentially blind deaf and dumb. We had no clue (with this equipment) what we were doing, where we were going and even how to do ‘investigate’. (besides it was Rhiannons very first adventure with the paranormal) It was a cold October evening, about ten at night, when we arrived at Robb Canyon. We made our way down to the bottom of the canyon via the path through the park. We took out our (professional ghost hunting) digital devices, A recorder and A camera, and proceeded to capture every bush, tree, and bunny rabbit and bump in the night that we could. All we were missing were cool jumpsuits and plasma backpacks…
Our first night was fairly uneventful. We heard some things… thought we had captured some pictures on the digital camera, but that was about it. Turned out we had some fantastic pictures… of orbs! (read DUST) We poured over our evidence again hoping that we had actually caught something… little did we know that on our first outing we did get something… a strange figure manifesting in the pathway ahead of us. Upon closer examination, a couple of those ‘orbs’ looked like they had faces in them… were our minds playing tricks? Weird…

We made subsequent trips, about every two weeks due to conflicting schedules, to gather more evidence and hopefully capture something! We were a bit zealous and full of ambition (and hot cocoa… it was COLD in that canyon.) Our follow up excursions continued to provided tidbits of tantalizing information. We had an Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) here and there, a picture of a shadow / mist / something occasionally… just enough to keep us intrigued and coming back for more…but it wasn’t until late December that we had our ‘big break’ We returned to our specific spot along the path that seemed to produce the most interesting results. It was at this place that we captured (the specific paranormal terminology) our first real picture. This picture appeared to have FOUR spirits in a blue-ish mist. (Has there ever been a picture with four spirits captured in it? EVER?) Upon close examination, it appeared to be three male spirits and one female. During our research and according to the Robb Canyon legend, there were (mutilated) remains of three male and one female found in this area back in the 70’s.

We were hooked!

We went on the net and found various implements of investigation… IR Camera, another digital camera, another digital recorder… learned all we could about Robb Canyon and different methods for taking better ‘ghost’ pictures and EVP’s… All of the sudden we became a “paranormal investigating crew (of two) and decided our name would incorporate the acronym of TIME, Timeless Investigations Memories Explored. Timelessinvestigations.com. (our decision was based on the terminology of paranormal investigators and ghost hunters being WAY overdone…) We gathered all of our new tools of the trade and went to Virginia City where we attempted to gather even more evidence with pictures and EVP’s… (one of our best EVP’s was recorded in Room 11 of the Silver Queen. Miss Rose, the prostitute who reportedly committed suicide in the bathtub, clearly states “Think of me, Trust Camera” when I asked if she was there… (We were actually laying in bed at home when I was listening to the recording for the first time… I literally jumped out of bed when I heard that voice!) We have numerous EVP’s from that night at the hotel and while at the Old Washoe Club. Absolutely incredible to try and wrap my mind around the fact that we had recorded voices from the other side… There are also voices of a male and female discussing how to explain to us that they are ghosts… a lady from the Washoe Club answering me as I ‘talked’ to her and she continues to explain how lonely she is… We were really getting into our new found hobby with these incredible pieces of evidence. But who would believe us? We kept quiet about what we were doing until January when we had gathered numerous EVP’s and photographs and decided to create a website to share what we had discovered with other people… (our current collection stands at approx 30 hours of EVP’s and approx 2000 photos gathered since Oct.) Even then we were hesitant because of the ‘ghost adventures’ ‘paranormal investigator’ ‘dead files’ stigmata and the potential of “non-believers” and “de-bunkers” who would certainly do all they could to disprove our evidence…

Our desire to continue these investigations have led us back to Robb Canyon and Virginia City (we are members of the Old Washoe Club) and the Old Hilltop Cemetery / Old Guard of the Republic Cemetery in Reno numerous times. We have a few interesting pictures the Hilltop Cemetery as well… (I have another great EVP from the Old Guard cemetery where I explain that I am a veteran and a voice responds that he will “inform the General”. Our last (impromptu) investigation led us to Donner Park, where the famed Donner Party camped near Truckee, where we not only took a self portrait with some unexplained figure in the back ground but also two fairly clear EVP’s stating “I’ll kill you” and (when I asked for proof of someone being there with me) “…why don’t we eat you…” Yes, I have that EVP…
Timeless Investigations will continue to explore various locations in our area; invitations to your location are welcome by the way, and we will let you know who shows up…

http://timelessinvestigations.com/index.html
generalinfo@timelessinvestigations.com

Respectfully, yours in TIME,
Don and Rhiannon

The photos below were taken by Don S. and have not been retouched or altered in any way. Click on an image to enlarge.
The first picture appears to be a person sitting with legs stretched out in front, leaning on his right arm against something like a wheel well... or fender shaped object	The second picture shows two figures along the right side in the mist. There are two torsos with skeletal faces. You may also notice other figures in the picture but I was amazed when I saw those two particular faces / torsos.
The third is what I call "little creepy guy" There is a body, a face of sorts, and a clear claw / hand that is reaching out...	The fourth shows something on the right, but if you look closely you can see a 'person' kneeling in the pathway. I can see a hand with fingers, an arm, torso, and face. It seems to be looking at whatever is on the right side.