FAIRFIELD -- Ghost hunters think there is indeed something funny going on at Lori Higgins' Jack & Jill Hair Fashions on Main Street.

It gives the customers something more to smile about, anyway.

While exploring the building, at the invitation of its owner, founders of the Maine Ghost Hunters Society say they found what they call "an extensive amount of evidence indicating high amounts of paranormal activity."

Digital photos exhibited by South Gardiner ghost hunters Julie Velez and Robin Coleman show what they call "orbs" floating in a room.

They claim that digital-sound recordings taken from the salon, and posted on the group's Web site www.maineghosts.org, capture an unearthly voice asking for help.

When Velez and Coleman posed a question to the air, asking what year it was, they say a voice answered "1791." They posted what they call a recording of that response on the Society's Web site.

But there's more.

Another voice was recorded as saying "We like it here," the ghost hunters say.

Unexplained activity began occurring at the 150 Main St. location in August 2004, Higgins said, when she began remodeling the store front in the brick Masonic building.

Loud squeals, moving furniture, unintelligible sounds and mysteriously moving objects were experienced by Higgins and her customers, she said.

After seeing a 2006 Morning Sentinel article online about Higgins' claims, Velez and Colman contacted Higgins for permission to poke around.

The Society, currently with seven members, was founded last year. The group has posted its adventures in what they call haunted homes in Gardiner and in Monmouth, as well as the Fairfield location.

Society members said they used "electromagnetic field detectors" to reveal the presence of an entity perhaps trying to materialize for them. They also said they detected unexplained noises, movements and temperature drops.

As for the 1791 date, Mark McPheters of the Fairfield Historical Society said the brick structure where Jack & Jill is located on the ground floor -- the Masonic Building -- was constructed circa 1900.

"Before that, there were wooden stores side-by-side from when the town was built," McPheters said. "Fairfield was founded in 1788. Buildings were put along the street, shoe stores, harnesses and a hardware store at the corner, whatever people needed."

Velez and Coleman "were really very impressed in what we got," Velez said. "We would like to come back to do some further investigating."