NORWALK — For all that is known about the Gallaher Estate — once home to inventor and industrialist Edward B. Gallaher and now the crown jewel of Cranbury Park — many questions remain unanswered.

For starters, who haunts the 80-year-old Tudor Revival mansion?

“We’ve heard legends of how either people hear stuff, or it’s spooky, or they thought they saw something,” said Todd Harrington of the Norwalk Paranormal Research Group. “I think I’ve heard enough stories that hopefully we can get something and hopefully verify some of that, but at the same time kind of tell the history of this place.”

On Saturday night, Todd and his wife, Lisa, along with a half-dozen other members of the Paranormal Research Group, will set up their detection equipment inside the mansion and outside on the grounds in search of spirits, which according to many accounts, still haunt the place.

The Harringtons will bring video cameras with infrared-light sensors, an Ovilus X spirit talker which produces words of spirits if they are present, digital voice recorders capable of capturing exposure to ghosts, electro-magnetic field detectors and a multi-beam laser to shine against the walls of the mansion.

The researchers don’t charge for their work. But what’s learned from Saturday night’s research could generate interest in Cranbury Park, according to Director of Recreation and Parks Michael A. Mocciae.

“I think it’s a neat way to bring history to some of the properties we have in the parks,” Mocciae said. “I think (the Harringtons) want to present history in a fun way.”

The Harringtons have a head start thanks to archaeologist Holly Cuzzone and Friends of Cranbury Park President Celia Maddox, who researched the history of the Gallaher Estate as part of applying to have the property placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Cuzzone, an archaeologist with a scientist’s approach to understanding things, said she doesn’t believe in the paranormal. But she acknowledges that some things can’t explained.

Read more.