INTERVIEW: New paranormal show investigates ‘Ghosts of Devil’s Perch’

Photo: Ghosts of Devil’s Perch features, from left, K.D. Stafford, Cindy Kaza and Dave Schrader. Photo courtesy of Discovery / Provided by press site with permission.

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Ghosts of Devil’s Perch, a new paranormal investigation show premiering tonight, Aug. 21, at 9 p.m. on Travel Channel, features ghost experts K.D. Stafford, Cindy Kaza and Dave Schrader as they look into the spirited history of Butte, Montana. The historic mining town, which sometimes has the nickname “The Devil’s Perch,” falls under the paranormal microscope for eight episodes, according to press notes. Fans can check out the ghostly adventures either on Travel Channel or the streaming network discovery+.

“I’m familiar with some of that Wild West history, and there’s been some great programs and documentaries about it,” Schrader said in a recent phone interview. “But I had no idea the depth of what really took place there. You forget just how much blood, sweat and tears were poured into the making of this town and the eventual collapse of this town and how many souls were lost in making this one of the most bustling communities for quite a long time. And then when it went silent, the ghosts mainly were forgotten, so Cindy, K.D. and myself going in to reinvestigate this, it was really a shock to me to see how loud the spirits really were.”

The team heads into the town and asks questions of residents, business owners and local leaders, some of whom believe there is paranormal activity within their Montana town. In order to fill in the blanks, Schrader, Kaza and Stafford try to piece together Butte’s unique history to see how it might be impacting the present.

“I knew nothing about Butte before going there, and it’s just really an interesting place to investigate because, as Dave was saying, there’s just so much history there and a lot of tragedy,” said Kaza, who said she is a psychic medium. “Even when I first got there and put my feet on the ground there, it was super-overwhelming because there’s so much energy, so much history. It’s palpable.”

Ghosts of Devil’s Perch is unique amongst other paranormal TV programming because the team didn’t investigate one building or property, and then move on to the next location. Instead, they set up camp in Butte and stayed for the entire season. It’s rare for a team to stay in one town for eight episodes. That’s a lot of ghost-hunting.

“It wasn’t just a one-off story, one person’s house or one historic building,” said Schrader, host of the podcast The Paranormal 60 With Dave Schrader. “I don’t want to speak for Cindy, but it really felt like one story was really leading us into the next chapter of a much bigger project that we had gotten ourselves involved in.”

Kaza, whose biography lists her first encounter with the paranormal occurring at the age of 10, said Butte ranks high for its ghostly messaging. She reported being able to connect with the spirit world many times, and those scenes will be on full display in Ghosts of Devil’s Perch.

“As a medium, it was really, really interesting for me to be in Butte because so many things have happened in Butte, [and] I was able to pick up on all these different timelines,” she said. “It took the entire time of us being there for me as a medium to really figure out what the heck is happening here. That’s what was so great about being able to make this show is that we had eight episodes to try to figure out what was going on, so we weren’t just going to one location, then leaving and then going to the next. We were trying to figure out what was really happening in this town, and we did.”

Schrader, an alumnus of TV’s Ghost Adventures, Paranormal Challenge, Paranormal State, Fright Club and The Holzer Files, said Kaza had the toughest part to play on the team.

“You’ve got to feel for Cindy doing this because … Cindy is opening up,” he said. “Just imagine a Stephen King book coming to life. Every page has something screaming at her and wanting her attention, and she’s got to keep peeling page by page back until she gets to Pennywise, the creature, whatever the paranormal activity is, to understand what’s creating all of this around us. And I give her a lot of credit because there’s no way I could stay in that mental and spiritual environment and not just lose my brain. She does an amazing job and then helps give those spirits a voice again so that they can be heard and we can take the investigation to the next level.”

Schrader describes himself as a history buff. He actually finds the real stories behind some of these spirited happenings interesting and fascinating to behold. Much of the paranormal programming on TV, including Ghosts of Devil’s Perch, is centered on finding historical clues to understand some odd things that go bump in the night in the present. That means skeptics can watch for the history lessons, even if they still walk away as non-believers.

“When you go in thinking you know something, and then have it unravel, and then you realize the real story is even more compelling, more heartbreaking and getting to that truth, that’s fascinating,” Schrader said. “I think the people who really love the paranormal love all different aspects of it. They want to know why and understand how it got to this point, and that’s why we bring in these different elements, me doing the interviews, K.D. the mad scientist for the paranormal creating the equipment and trying to bridge that gap so that he and I can hear the things Cindy is experiencing, and then having Cindy be there tapping in and pulling the spirits forward and letting them speak so that we know what’s going on. It lends itself to understanding the history in a bigger, broader way.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Ghosts of Devil’s Perch premieres tonight, Aug. 21 at 9 p.m. on Travel Channel. The show also streams on discovery+. Click here for more information.