Reported poltergeist activity at the Provincetown Inn, Cape Cod
An unidentified caller tells Art Bell a family story about the Provincetown Inn at the tip of Cape Cod. The caller says their uncle, a former California contractor, took a caretaker job at the inn about twenty years earlier. They say the uncle and his wife reported a thrown wooden spoon, footsteps upstairs with nobody there, and an empty stairwell after the uncle stood waiting with a gun. The caller adds that they and their brother later visited with cameras. They also say their uncle's research linked the building to lumber salvaged from an 1870s whaling wreck. The host cuts this part of the broadcast off for time before the caller can give more detail.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 1993.mp3”, starting at 15:18). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller tells Art Bell that roughly twenty years earlier their uncle, a former California contractor, took a caretaker job at a building called the Provincetown Inn at the tip of Cape Cod. The uncle lived there rent-free to carry out restoration. The caller describes their uncle as a man who watched hockey and [quote withheld] Over time, the caller says, the uncle and his wife began to report [quote withheld] The host asks about [quote withheld] In answer, the caller describes a wooden spoon left in a pot of spaghetti sauce. The caller says it was heard clattering in the kitchen and then found across the room, with sauce [quote withheld] They also heard footsteps on the upper floor at all hours and would rush up to find nobody, since it was the off-season and there were no guests. Once, the uncle took a gun from the rack above the hearth and had his wife open the stairwell door when the footsteps reached the bottom. The doorway was empty. The caller adds that they and their brother later visited with cameras to try to photograph ghosts. At the time, the two lived near Springfield, Massachusetts, and were interested in a television program about the paranormal. The caller says they had [quote withheld] and the caller mentions watching the uncle and his wife use a Ouija board. The caller says the uncle's research in Boston archives indicated that in the 1870s a whaling vessel ran aground off Provincetown in a storm, that people were killed, and that salvaged lumber was used to build the inn. The caller agrees with the host that such stories come back to violent or unexpected death. The caller says the story gets [quote withheld] but the host ends this part of the broadcast for time before the caller can go on.
Reported events, in order
- 0:18
Roughly twenty years before the broadcast, the caller's uncle, a former California contractor, takes a caretaker job at the Provincetown Inn while doing restoration work.
- 0:54
The uncle and his wife live there and begin to report [quote withheld]
- 1:13
A wooden spoon left in a pot of spaghetti sauce is reportedly found across the kitchen, with sauce all over the place.
- 1:24
Footsteps are reportedly heard on the upper floor at all hours. When they go upstairs, they find no one.
- 2:08
The uncle takes a gun and has his wife open the stairwell door as the footsteps reach the bottom. The doorway is empty.
- 2:27
The caller and their brother, then living near Springfield, Massachusetts, visit the inn with cameras to try to photograph ghosts.
- 2:51
During the visit, the caller watches their uncle and their uncle's wife use a Ouija board.
- 3:21
The uncle's research in the archives is said to have found that lumber from a wrecked 1870s whaling vessel was used to build the inn.
- 4:16
The host ends this part of the broadcast for time, and the caller never gives the further detail they promised.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 1:13
The caller says their uncle and their uncle's wife heard a clatter in the kitchen after she left a wooden spoon in a pot of spaghetti sauce. The caller says the spoon was found across the room and sauce was [quote withheld]
- observation· 1:24
The caller says they heard footsteps on the upper floor of the inn at all hours.
- observation· 1:42
The caller says that when they rushed upstairs, no one was ever there. The caller says this was in the off-season, with no paying guests.
- observation· 2:08
The caller says their uncle took a gun from the rack above the hearth and had his wife open the stairwell door at the moment the footsteps reached the bottom.
- observation· 2:17
The caller says that when the door was opened, no one was there.
- observation· 2:47
The caller says that they and their brother went to the inn with cameras to try to photograph ghosts and that they [quote withheld] These experiences are not described before the interview is cut off.
- observation· 2:51
The caller says their uncle and their uncle's wife were using a Ouija board during the weekend of their visit.
- hearsay· 3:21
The caller says their uncle's research in archives in Boston suggested that in the 1870s a whaling vessel ran aground off Provincetown in a storm, people were killed, and salvaged lumber was used to build the Provincetown Inn.
- interpretation· 3:51
The caller agrees with the host's suggested link between such stories and violent or unexpected death.
- host statement· 3:54
The host says there is a recurring pattern linking these stories to violent or unexpected death or strong emotion.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
This is a mostly secondhand family story, but it is detailed and hangs together. It names a specific building and a specific sequence of events. Ordinary explanations for noises in an old building are not addressed. The person telling the story is not the main witness, so the score is capped as secondhand.
Evidence for and against
- A concrete, named setting: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld] (0:15:22, 0:15:47).
- A concrete sequence and detail: a wooden spoon left in a pot, sauce [quote withheld] footsteps heard from above, the uncle's gun, and the wife opening the door (0:16:31–0:17:35).
- The caller hedges their label, saying [quote withheld] (0:16:13).
- The caller tells the uncle's events secondhand. Neither of the reported witnesses tells them.
- The caller never explains why an ordinary source (an empty old building, off-season noises, a person in the building) is unlikely.
- The caller's own claimed “frightening experiences” are never described before this part of the broadcast ends.
- The story is cut off before the caller's own experiences are described.
- The uncle's archival research is mentioned but not shown or examined.
- Names of the uncle, his wife, and the caller are not given.
- 0:04
- 1:13
- 2:17
- 4:16
What the model inferred (not said on air): The parts of the score for how close the source is to the events and for other explanations are my judgment, based only on the transcript. The judgment that the story hangs together rests on the lack of contradictions and on answers that fit the host's questions.
The story gives a place and a rough date that could be checked, and it claims several witnesses. But nothing was examined, and no second witness speaks on air. The score falls in the scoring guide's range for checkable details that were given but not checked.
Evidence for and against
- A named location that can be checked: the Provincetown Inn, Provincetown, Massachusetts (0:15:47).
- A named time for the claimed events: [quote withheld] (0:15:36).
- Several claimed witnesses: the uncle, his wife, and later the caller and their brother (0:16:31, 0:18:21).
- No photograph, recording, document, or physical trace is described or examined on air.
- The witnesses to the main events do not speak on air.
- The line [quote withheld] (0:18:05) is never explained.
- The story does not say whether any photographs were taken or kept.
- 0:18
- 2:47
What the model inferred (not said on air): Where the score falls is my reading of the scoring guide against the transcript. No outside check was done.
An unresolved haunting that keeps growing in a home, with a gun and an empty doorway, creates moderate, steady unease. Nothing graphic or threatening is described.
Evidence for and against
- Intrusion into the caretakers' living space, including the kitchen where the wife was cooking (0:16:22).
- A man fetching a gun to confront footsteps coming down a staircase, and the door opening onto nobody (0:17:26–0:17:35).
- The caller says the story [quote withheld] (0:19:27).
- No injury, physical contact, or ill will toward anyone is described.
- This part of the broadcast is cut off before the promised escalation, and the host's closing is conversational.
- The kitchen incident is mildly comic in outline (a wooden spoon and spilled sauce).
- The most frightening part, which the caller promises, is never told.
- 2:08
- 4:09
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is a judgment about the story's effect on a listener, not about whether anything happened.
Familiar poltergeist elements with one distinctive historical hook: the shipwreck timber. The score is provisional, since the comparison with the rest of the archive carries little weight in the pilot.
Evidence for and against
- The specific claim that salvaged lumber from a wrecked 1870s whaling vessel was used to build the inn is an unusual connecting detail (0:19:02).
- A hotel caretaker couple living rent-free during off-season restoration is a distinctive situation (0:15:54).
- The gun-and-door ambush at the foot of the stairs is a specific, planned detail (0:17:26).
- Thrown household objects and unexplained footsteps in an old building are stock poltergeist elements.
- The “skeptic relative” framing and the seance or Ouija board element are familiar.
- The whaling-wreck origin story follows a common [quote withheld] shape.
- The distinctive details come secondhand and are not verified.
- 3:44
- 1:13
What the model inferred (not said on air): The originality score is a provisional editorial estimate based on content alone. It will be recomputed later, compared with the rest of the archive.
Scoring confidence 0.65 · analysis confidence 0.68 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: the caller's secondhand story about their uncle and the uncle's wife; the caller's claim of a firsthand experience at the inn, not described; claimed use of cameras, and any photographs, not described or examined on air; claimed archival research credited to the uncle, not examined. The originality score blends the model's score (48) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- Noises in an old, mostly empty wooden building (settling, wind, plumbing, or sound carried through a stairwell) could sound like footsteps upstairs. That would fit the report that no one was ever found when the caretakers went to look. This possibility concerns only the reported sounds. It says nothing about the caller's character or whether any presence was real. · reported_event
- The caller says the events happened [quote withheld] A person or animal moving through an otherwise empty building is one possible source of the noises taken for footsteps. This is unverified. The story mentions no search of the building beyond going upstairs. · reported_event
What stands out
The story ties familiar poltergeist events to a specific, named inn. It also ties them to a historical claim that the building was made from timber salvaged from a deadly 1870s whaling wreck. The planned stairwell confrontation is a relatively concrete detail: a man waits with a gun as his wife opens the door on the footsteps coming down.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.