Paranormal Activity at the Titanic Museum in Branson

Branson, Missouri is a great family vacation destination. Amid such attractions as the theme park Silver Dollar City, Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede Dinner Theater, and plenty of live music, there sits a unique museum along 76 Country BLVD.

The Titanic Museum is any history buff’s dream location. Opening in 2006, the museum itself is a smaller version of the actual ship. The inside is packed with over 400 artifacts, some belonging to survivors of the Titanic sinking in 2012, and some actually from the Titanic shipwreck debris field.  The Museum is owned by John Joslyn, who led a 1987 expedition of the Titanic wreckage, and is one of two of his Titanic Museums, the other being located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

However, it is the Branson location that has really obtained a reputation for being haunted! In 2009, the Wichita Paranormal Research Society, led by Shane Elliot, conducted a paranormal investigation of the museum after staff and visitors alike began having experiences.

Museum character actor Jamie Terrell, said in a November 8, 2009 interview with Ozarks First that many people have reported the smell of cigar smoke around the area of the First Class elevators and that staff members routinely hear their names being called by phantom voices in the area of the Third Class corridor.  She also goes on to say that she has personally witnessed the apparition of a man in a black suit.

These claims of activity, including full-bodied apparitions, drew the attention of Zak and his gang, and the museum became the focus of Episode 12, Season 15 of Ghost Adventures.

During the pre-investigation walk-through, Zak met with Jamie Terrell in the Grand Staircase, built based on actual blueprints of the original Titanic Grand Staircase.  Jamie once again tells of seeing a man’s apparition.  He is seen near the top of the Grand Staircase, near the private quarters of First Class passenger, John Jacob Astor. She believes the apparition to be the wealthy businessman, who perished in the sinking.

Jaime also mentions to Zak that visitors to the museum are often overcome with emotion, some to the point of uncontrollable sobbing, stating that they can actually hear the screams recorded in time of that fateful night of April 14th, 2012 when the Unsinkable Ship struck an iceberg and began to go down.

After Zak’s interview with Jamie, he meets in the Musician’s Gallery with another Tour Guide/Character Actor named Alexis. Before Alexis can even tell HER story to Zak, Zak starts freaking out and asking everyone if they “can feel that?” Zak, Alexis, and even Jamie all confirm that they do feel something that can only be described as a child-sized pocket of ice cold energy. Alexis then shares that her story for this room is that she has actually experienced a child’s ghost here.

The child ghost(s) has also been experienced in other parts of the boat. Alexis leads Zak to the Captain’s Bridge and Promenade Deck where the child has also been known to frequent. While showing the area to him, Zak notices that there are child’s hand prints on the class—a common occurrence witnessed in this area. Alexis confirms that the glass was cleaned just prior to the Ghost Adventures crew coming  aboard, and it even seems as if some of the hand prints seem to materialize right then and there!

The Ghost Adventures crew returns the next night for the actual investigation, and they are not disappointed by the level of activity. Things start off sort of mundanely, with a simple light anomaly being observed over the piano keys of the Musician’s Gallery’s piano.  However, the child ghosts of the museum quickly show up, possibly lured by candy, cookies, and several toys. While in the Captain’s Bridge area, a child-sized figure shows up twice on the structured light sensor (SLS) camera before the figure can be seen jumping THROUGH the glass window. When the window is inspected, tiny hand prints can be seen.

Back in the Musician’s Gallery, the Ovilus is giving information that the ghost is possibly a 6 year old female who likes to eat cookies!  But, the fun isn’t over yet.  Later on, Zak claims to see the apparition of a chubby-cheeked boy with dirty blonde hair and a life preserver standing in a doorway. The doorway happens to be the entryway to where the memorial for the children lost on the Titanic is located. Soon after, what appears to be a non-heat producing figure of a child is seen on the Thermal Imaging Camera, peeking around a corner.

With so many actual artifacts that were on the Titanic being on display here, combined with the fact that both the outside and the inside of the museum are built to closely resemble the real deal, it is theorized that all ghosts on site are directly related to (as in being passengers on) the Titanic disaster. Has their energy somehow imprinted itself on these objects, only to replay their final night, over and over…or are these sentient beings attached to their last possessions? It would seem that at least some of the ghosts of the Titanic Museum are intelligent hauntings.

Well, I didn’t mean for this blog to be a re-cap of Ghost Adventures! However, much of the information about the Branson, Missouri Titanic Museum that I was able to find came from this episode! If you’ve had an experience here and want to share, I’d love to hear your stories! Let me know down below in the comments how you were affected by the ghosts of the Titanic Museum!