Paranormal Investigator Corbyn Bentley gives haunted tours of Birdsell Mansion
What started as curiosity turned into a career.
Elkhart native Corbyn Bentley says he had an inkling of learning more about the paranormal world. He documented his experiences at abandoned locations on Tik Tok and went viral. Four years later, he is currently working on different TV projects and an upcoming documentary.
Bentley's friend connected him with the owner of the Birdsell Mansion. The two met, and he says as soon as he stepped foot in it, he fell in love with it as he now gives haunted tours of the building.
“I wanted to bring people to these events because when I first experienced these sorts of things, I was like ‘people love this as much as I do.’ There’s nothing like this around the Michiana area. I was happy to bring people in. I've taken hundreds around this house. Hundreds have had experience in this house. It's been a fun, really interesting year,” Bentley said.
“I wanted to bring people to these events because when I first experienced these sorts of things, I was like ‘people love this as much as I do.’ There’s nothing like this around the Michiana area. I was happy to bring people in. I've taken hundreds around this house. Hundreds have had experience in this house. It's been a fun, really interesting year,” Bentley said.
JB Birdsell was a successful industrial titan, who built innovative machines for farmers. When he moved to South Bend, the mansion was built in 1898 to hold his family. Since then, it has been used a law firm, a daycare and an art exhibit.
Now it's been vacant for more than a decade but Bentley says it's still occupied by the paranormal.
While cleaning the mansion, he stumbled across a doll who was in the nursey room. According to Bentley, he says when he grabbed her, the house had a crazy reaction. He asked through his spirit box what her name was, and it said Lucy.
“Lucy has actually been a blessing. She's been life changing to me ever since I discovered her. From celebrities to the attention she grabs from people, everybody just wants to look at her. I don’t even know what’s attached to her but I do know there’s five spirits attached to her. Her number one rule is that you can’t touch her. If you touch her, you have bad dreams. I've had it before. I can’t say she’s good, I can’t say she’s bad, but she doesn’t bother me. She stays at my house. She's her own person,” Bentley said.
He says the beauty of the paranormal is that you never know what to expect and he says that’s what makes the ghost tours so interesting.
“You don’t typically get to experience these things with an actual ghost hunter in this area that has experience and has learned from different people in this industry. You can’t plan what’s going to happen if you book a tour. We can only hope something happens. There's been tours where it’s been blown out with people leaving like ‘what’. And there’s days where it’s slower. You just never know and that’s the beauty part of it. It's paranormal, you never know what will happen.”
Tickets are $40 and tour dates are Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
To sign up for tours, head to the Haunted Birdsell Mansion Facebook page and click on their events tab.