By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — Although there are no documented murders, suicides or other untimely deaths in the Slater Mill archives, it stands to reason that in over 200 years of history, there might be a few things that go bump in the night.
For that reason, plus the suggestions of a few visiting tourists, a cast and crew of the SciFi channel’s popular “Ghost Hunters” TV series camped out at the Pawtucket landmark earlier this week to film an upcoming episode.

The show’s stars, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, are two Rhode Island-based plumbers by day, who channeled their interest in haunted happenings and other mysterious phenomena into a part-time job.
The pair co-founded The Atlantic Paranormal Society, otherwise knows as T.A.P.S., and they travel the country, and sometimes overseas, as paranormal researchers.
Janice Kissinger, chief operating officer for circa-1793 Slater Mill museum site, said that she and other staff members were sworn to secrecy about the “Ghost Hunters” filming.
She did allow that Hawes, Wilson and the rest of the cast and crew spent several nights inside the old Slater Mill and the nearby Wilkinson Mill, bringing in their usual range of sound-measuring devices and other paranormal tools of the trade.
They used the smaller Sylvanus Brown House as their “base camp”for the filming, she added.
“We just got a call from them about three weeks ago asking if they could do some surveillance here,” said Kissinger. All they told us is that some visitors (to Slater Mill) had contacted them with their experiences.”
Kissinger said that while she, personally, has not experienced anything along the lines of “seeing a ghost,” she said she has heard the occasional visitor to the centuries-old mill site talk about feeling a “presence” while walking amidst the old looms and spinning machinery.
Chandler said that he has had “various senses and feelings” at certain times throughout the property, and both he and Kissinger agreed that the old machine chop located in the Wilkinson Mill gives off a “tense” and “heavy” vibe to those who enter.
Kissinger, along with Cheryl Santos, Slater Mill’s director of operations, Andrian Paquette, the site’s curator, and Chandler (who just uses his first name), director of development, took turns accompanying the spirit-chasing team in their nocturnal pursuits. The crew also spent time interviewing Kissinger, Santos, Chandler, Francine Murphy Brillon, the site’s historian, and Richard Danforth, a senior historical interpreter.
The sets were closed to the newsmedia, and Hawes and Wilson were not granting any interviews, according to a spokesman for the SciFi network. On Thursday, they filmed their “resolution” episode which reveals their findings.
Coincidentally, Kissinger said that Slater Mill has scheduled a series of “Ghost Tours” that will be held on Friday nights in September through Halloween. Called “Paranormal Pawtucket--A Walk in the Night,” the tours will take visitors on a nighttime stroll through the Slater Mill site and down the street past the Pawtucket Armory and around some other nearby mill properties.
In another twist of fate, two brothers who also work as historical interpreters at Slater Mill, Carl and Keith Johnson, also spent two years with the “Ghost Hunters” team. They have since founded their own paranormal research group called New England Anomolies Research.
Kissinger said she and the staff were excited about playing host to T.A.P.S and the “Ghost Hunters” film crew, and noted that a little “ghost-lore” can be good for the tourism bottom line. She said that in a Florida town she once lived in, which had a reputation for haunted happenings, trolleys offering “ghost tours” were a popular attraction.