Last night brought me into back into Philly for an activity that is starting to become familiar – a ghost tour. I swear, this isn’t becoming a habit. This particular ghost tour ended up being entirely different than the other ghost tours that I have gone on and posted about. This particular tour took place at Fort Mifflin, a military fort established in 1772 that was used to prevent the British navy from having free reign of the Delaware river during the Revolutionary War. The fort was only actively utilized for military action during the Revolutionary War, however during the Civil War it was used to contain Confederate soldiers who had been captured, as well as Union soldiers and civilian prisoners. The fort is in remarkable condition considering the age of the structure, and it is still in use by the United States Army Corp of Engineers, making it the oldest active military base in the country. Fort Mifflin has been visited by many ghost hunters over the years and has even been featured on various shows.
Fort Mifflin is a stones throw away from Philadelphia International Airport, and there is a runway directly across the street from the entrance. As you drive towards Fort Mifflin, planes are constantly landing directly overtop of you, which makes for some impressive sights, especially as the sun is setting.
As you approach the fort, age of the structure becomes blatant. The walkway on top of the fort is overgrown with grass and weeds in some spots, and the brick walls look like if they could talk, they would have plenty of stories to tell. Despite the apparent age of the fort, as you enter it still manages to feel rather intimidating. It’s hard to tell by the picture, but the walls that outline the fort are huge and tower over you as you approach.
You enter the fort through the tunnel shown above. Entering during the day was intimidating, and leaving at night was downright scary, as the tunnel is very dimly lit and looks like it was pulled straight from a horror movie, with small, dark rooms off to the sides of the entrance.
The structure shown above was the Commandant’s house, which caught fire in the 70s. Despite all of the windows being boarded up, the building was still quite impressive, and it is easy to imagine how beautiful it must have been when it was in working condition. The inside of the house still holds an impressive fireplace, and the front of the house, which isn’t pictured above, has a lovely screened in porch.
Fort Mifflin has it’s own flag, which flies proudly above the fort near the casemates.
I know that this photo isn’t the greatest of quality, but there is something that I like about it nonetheless. This is the view of the airport from the top of the wall of the fort. From where I was standing, the airport was actually more illuminated than the part of Philadelphia that we could see. Fort Mifflin is interesting because it is smack dab in between Philly and the airport, so when you look up at the sky you can see the brightest stars directly above you, but on the edges of the sky towards the airport and the city you can’t see any stars at all because both are so well lit.
The actual ghost tour itself was interesting, but I had worked all morning and was too exhausted to be enthusiastic at the thought of being up all night as well. The tour featured a lot of sitting in the dark waiting for something to happen, and an unbelievable amount of bugs. For whatever reason, regardless of where I go, I get bitten horribly by bugs. As I’m writing this I’m covered in bug bites, most of which have swollen up to appalling sizes, and I have a tube of After-Bite by my side. I had gotten out of work a lot later than I anticipated and had to leave as soon as I got home in order to be on time for the tour, and running around frantically to not be late resulted in me forgetting bug spray. Needless to say, I suffered quite a bit. It actually amazed me that even being in the fourth largest city in the United States, I still managed to get bug bites all over me.
The tour was structured as an actual paranormal investigation, and we were all separated into small groups to tour the property and look for evidence that it was haunted. There has been enough evidence accumulated over the years to support that the property is haunted, so I didn’t go into the tour as it being imperative to prove a point, and instead went into it as an opportunity to take photos of a gorgeous historical property and explore the property at night. Some moments of the tour were interesting, and other moments were incredibly dull and boring. One of the group leaders said, “tonight will consist mostly of the part that you don’t see on tv; sitting in the dark talking to yourself,” and she couldn’t have been more right. As a whole, the tour was an interesting and unique experience, and Fort Mifflin is a beautiful, historic property that I am glad to have gotten to explore.
ineffable wanderlust 