Wyoming's Haunted Hotspots

The following is a working list of places that are alleged to be haunted in the state of Wyoming.  As the paranormal is experienced differently from person to person, please let us know if you have had any experiences so we can update our page.  For pictures, click names, and for local maps, click addresses.  All authors notes will be in green.

Bighorn

Bighorn Medicine Wheel - map to Ranger Station in Kane

One of North America's most sacred places is located here, but no one knows who constructed it.  The 80-foot-diameter medicine wheel has been used as a site of worship for hundreds of years.  Crow Indians say it was built "before light came."  Shoshone legend says it's at least 12,000 years old and attributed to a race of "Little People" (See Pedro Mountains, Wyoming and Pryor Mountains, Montana).  The state of Wyoming calls it their most baffling unsolved mystery.  The wheel is made up of hundreds of limestone slabs and boulders laid out in a circle with 28 spokes, which is the number of ribs in a buffalo and the number of days in a lunar cycle.  Buffalo skulls on the projecting slabs face the rising sun.  Five holy cairns that once stood over six-feet tall and are said to reach down into bedrock mark the center and four directions of the wheel.  A sixth cairn located just outside the circle is intended for sacred ceremonies and rituals.  Indians throughout North America make pilgrimages here, and all tribes have equal access.  The Indian tribes fast for vision quests and leave offerings of meat and jewelry at the wheel.  Today the wire fence surrounding the wheel is littered with scraps of brightly colored cloths and offerings of tobacco and other personal objects that carry the prayers of the Indians who placed them there.  Spirits are said to appear to those who fast for 4 days near the circle.

Hot Springs Park - map to Ranger Station in Kane

Shoshone Indians believe these springs are sacred and contain supernatural healing powers.  Before a battle, it was believed that the first warrior to bathe here would have the most endurance.  Some babies were dipped into the springs to ensure a long life, and the sick traveled to the springs seeking cures.

Byron

Rocky Mountain High School - map of Byron

This combination elementary and high school building, located on Main Street, has been haunted by an unidentified presence in 1952.  Custodians, students, teachers, and even superintendents have reported strange happenings near the former library, which is now the weight and wrestling room.  Putrid odors, intense cold spots, moving mists, disembodied footsteps, lights turning off and on, and appliances working even when they are not plugged in are just a few of the unexplainable events.  The superintendent at the time, Harold Hopkinson remembers hearing and feeling a presence walk past him in the hall and head up the short stairway to the old library, and then heard the door open and close.  No one can remember a tragedy occurring and the school and the manifestations remain unexplained.

Casper

Ivy House Inn Bed and Breakfast - 815 South Ash St.

Around 2:30 every night the spirit of a man sets off car alarms in the parking lot.  The spirit of a former owner is seen going from room to room and small cat like animals are seen running down the halls and up the stairs from time to time.  All through the house pictures seem to change and cold spots can develop.

Natrona County High School - 930 South Elm St.

A student who died at the school in the 1940s haunts the auditorium.  There are many stories as to how she died, the most common being that she forgot her bag and tried to crawl in through a window to get it and fell to her death in her attempts.  There are many different manifestations of here spirit.  The most eerie is that the chair in the center of the front row is always down.  The chair has been replaced many times and the springs have been replaced but in the end, this chair always goes back down.  She has also been known to lock doors, laugh and observe performances from the lighting booth.

Rattlesnake Range - map of Casper

The ghost of a white stallion, that once protected herds of wild mustangs from attacking cowboys trying to rope them, still roams the deserted prairies here.  The stallion was called White Devil by ranchers and used to bite and kick anyone attempted to round up the wild horses.

Salt Creek Oil Field - 20 miles North of Casper

Ghost lights have been seen hovering over this land since 1900.  The Salt Creek Light is said to be the spirit of an Irishman named O'Rourke, who used to farm here.  The light is said to be from a spectral lantern just like the one he carried many late nights when he crossed his fields.  The phenomenon occurs most often on cool, clear nights. 

Cheyenne

Deming School - 316 Lexington Ave.

A man was killed in the furnace room here.  If you look out the window at night, you will see your own reflection and that of his spirit standing next to you.  If you listen closely, you can hear distant clanking and you can see lights flickering in other rooms.

Francis E. Warren Air Force Base - 7405 Marine Loop

In the last fifty years there have been over 100 supernatural incidents reported here.  The modern military installation was originally a cavalry outpost established in 1867, and the ghosts of those soldiers haunt the base to this day.  The apparitions have been encounters in the quaint brick houses of the Officers Quarters, one of which is called Ghost House because of the frequency of sightings there.  The Security Police Building is home to a cavalryman ghost who is apt to respond with "Howdy"  if you say hello to him.  The building once served as the base hospital and is believed to be home to the spirit of a doctor who worked there in the 1960s.  A phantom soldier can sometimes be seen standing at attention in front of the Old Russell Guardhouse, and the ghost of an Indian woman haunts the White Crow Creek, where she was raped and murdered by a group of soldiers in the 1890s.  Female staff members are often accosted be the spirits of lecherous soldiers.

Plains Hotel - 1600 Central Ave.

Several ghosts are seen here regularly, including that of someone who was murdered by being pushed out of a fourth floor window.  Feelings of dread, being watched, and being choked or strangled are often felt.  Also, doors opening and closing on thier own are common here.

St. Mark's Episcopal Church - 1908 Central Ave.

There is a special room in the bell tower built for the exclusive use of a ghost.  The church was built in 1868, and work on a large bell tower addition started in 1886.  However, the two Swedish stonemasons working on the project mysteriously dissapeared, and work on the tower was not continued until 1926.  At that time, construction was halted several times by the appearance of a ghostly figure that frightened workers away.  The pragmatic construction crews asked for permission to build an isolted room in the tower for the sole ue of the ghost, so that it might be placated and leave the workers alone.  The Reverence Charles Bennett agreed.  The hidden room is only accessible for the basement by an 85 foot spiral staircase.  In 1966, one of the Swedish stonemasons confessed that his partner had fallen to his death while working on the bell tower.  His friend panicked, thinking he would be accused of murder, and place the body in an open part of the foundation.  The corpse lies to this day encased in a four-foot-wide section of concrete.  Of course, the Swede's ghost also has a private suite in the tower.

Cody

Cedar "Spirit" Mountain - map of Cody

Cedar Mountain used to be called Spirit Mountain because people have been lost and never found in the caves that honeycomb this mountain and the surrounding area.  The caves were closed to public access except for those who register with the forest service to explore the caves.  Even the canyon that runs alongside the mountain is considered haunted.  People have heard footsteps behind them, but when they turn around, no one is there.  Also, some of the long time residents claim the mountain is occupied by little people.

Irma Hotel - 1192 Sheridan Ave.

Irma, the original owner of the hotel was Buffalo Bill's daughter.  She can still be spotted roaming the halls of the second floor near the suites and rooms wearing a long white gown.  A second, more aggressive, presence has been spotted in the kitchen.  There have also been sightings of a soldier dressed in an 1800's style uniform in the main dining hall near the cherry wood bar.   Also, Buffalo Bill himself has been said to still be a ghostly patron of the hotel.

Devil's Tower

Devil's Tower National Monument - map of Devil's Tower

The name Devil's Tower was given to this geologic wonder by white men in 1875.  It was declared America's first national monument by Teddy Roosevelt in 1906.  To Native Americans, it is God's Tower, a sacred site shared by all tribes.  A variety of ghostly spirits are said to inhabit the top of the 865 foot column.  Sioux call it "Mateo Tipi," or "Lodge of the Great Bear," and say that the giant Thunderbird beats its drums from the summit.  Chief Sitting Bull came here to gather supernatural power.  Kiowa legends relate how the Pleiades Star Cluster was formed when seven young girls climbed to the top of the rock and were whisked away into the heavens by superior beings.  Oddly, only six of the stars in the cluster are visible to the naked eye.  Perhaps the role played by the mysterious mountain in Close Encounters of the Third Kind was closer to fact than fiction.

Fort Bridger

Fort Bridger Cemetery - map of Fort Bridger

The apparition of a tall, elderly man wearing a white cowboy hat first appeared here in June 1987.  The ghost followed caretaker Ramon Arthur around the grounds and even seemed to help him on a few occasions.  Arthur finally recognized the man, whose widow still lived in Fort Bridger.  The ghost vanished forever in May 1988, the same month the man's widow died.  The caretaker believed that the lonely spirit was simply biding its time until his loved one joined him. 

Green River

Sweetwater County Courthouse - 300 North 1st St.

On the morning watch shift in the Sheriffs Office, you may see a tall figure walk past the windows in between the offices.  You expect someone to walk into the dispatch center, but no one does.  The same tall figure has also been seen following people in and out of the building.  On rare occasions, you can feel someone touch your hand, or you may hear a voice.  Also, in the jail kitchen, pots of coffee spill by themselves and mixing bowls fall off the counter.  In other offices in the building,  people have reported a hand touching their shoulder and general feelings of uneasiness.  No matter where you are in the Courthouse Building, around 3am chances are the hair on the back of your neck will stand up.

Sweetwater County Library - 300 North 1st St.

Paranormal phenomena have occurred since the day this building opened in 1980.  Lights and electrical appliances go on and off for no reason, books fall off shelves at night, and unexplainable voices and strange flapping sounds reverberate through the building at night.  Library director Patricia Lefaivre says her staff has seen balls of light dancing around in the closed art gallery room.  At least two typewriters have been observed typing on their own, and once, a spring-steel gate at the entrance to the library started spinning wildly with no one near it.  Several times a recorder in the conference room has begun recording on its own.  Even if the room is quiet, several unexplained clicks could be heard on the recording.  Upon listening to it further, the sound of someone breathing loudly was heard.  Most frightening of all, the other side of the tape is filled with silence, except for one part half way through the tape where a girl is heard screaming "Hello!"  Maintenance workers have reported a ghost sitting in the Multipurpose Room late at night.  One night, one of them looked directly at the ghost, and the phantom shot into the air and made a loud popping sound when it hit the ceiling.
The most widely accepted reason for the occurrences here is that the library was built on top of a cemetery that dates back to the 1860s.  The graves were moved in the 1920s, but unearthed bodies started turning up on the property in the 1940s.  In 1983, three more unrecorded graves were discovered during the construction of a retaining wall.  In 1985, during work on the foundation, the coffin of a small child was found.  It is thought that several more corpses remain undiscovered.

Greybull

Old Nazarene Church - off Main St.

This former church, dating from the early 1900s, became one of the largest homes in Greybull.  During the renovations in the 1960s, many ghostly phenomena manifested.  The persistent sounds of organ music often accompanied by the sounds of a crying baby, were heard throughout the building throughout all hours of the day and night.   The owners even tore up the old stage to see if the noises were coming from under the boxed-in area.  Family members felt as if they were being watched by an unseen presence.  Also, an old wooden rocker left at the site would rock back and forth when no one was sitting in it.  The effects seemed to lessen as the renovations were completed.

Laramie

Barnes House - 808 East Park Ave.

This old stone house is haunted by the friendly spirit of a cavalry officer.  The slender, bearded ghost appears to be about twenty-five years old and wears a dark blue uniform.  Carol and Cynthia Barnes have lived with the phantom, whom they call Luther, since 1983.  The house stands on the site of old Fort Sanders, a military outpost abandoned in the 1880s. 

Fort Laramie - map of Fort Laramie

This fort was active from 1834 to 1890 and served as a key stopover point in America's westward expansion.  Today, the preserved fort is haunted by a number of ghosts seen by visitors, watchmen, and guides at the facility.  The captain's quarters, Quarters A, has been the site of many strange events, such as doors opening by themselves and eerie footsteps.  Late at night, after the staff goes home, there have also been reports of bright lights coming from inside the facility.  The presence has been nicknamed George by employees.  The apparition of a cavalry officer walks the halls of another building, known as Old Bedlam, and admonishes people to "Be quiet!"  The sounds of heavy boots can sometimes be heard treading over the boardwalk in front of the two-story cavalry barracks, as ghostly troops answer reveille in the early morning hours.

Herondon Home - 816 Mitchell Street and 1417 Bonneville St.

Wyoming's most famous ancestral ghost was encountered in houses lived in by Herodon family members.  The family ghost, known as the Lady in Gray, followed descendants from England to America three hundred years ago.  She is thought to be young Catherine, niece of Lord Herondon, and is said to appear to every other generation of the family.  Dr. Catherine Wiegand and her family were visited by the "Herondon Heritage" when she lived in Laramie in the 1960s.  Other family members in Iowa and Texas reported seeing the ghost during the same period.

Lovell

Shoshone Bar - 159 East Main St.

This sity-year-old tavern is one of the most haunted places in Wyoming.  Employees and patrons have reported a bewildering variety of strange voice, loud banging sounds, weird electrical problems, floating money, and ghostly forms.  Sometimes the apparitions of former owners are seen, accompanied by sounds such as footsteps outside the office, a key being inserted into an unlocked door, or the spinning of the tumblers on the combination safe.  One of the more famous  ghosts here is Ted Louie, a cigarette and candy salesman who was the subject of a nationwide manhunt in the 1940s.  The Shoshone Bar was where he spent his last night on earth.  He had complained of feeling a little strange, and the bartender dropped him off in front of his hotel around midnight.  But he never spend the night there.  In fact, he was never seen again.  Search parties combed the highways, prairies, and rivers for miles around, and the FBI questioned everyone in town.  No trace of the man was ever found, at least not until his ghost started appearing at the bar.  For some reason, people continue to sense his presence in the basement.

Platte River

Ship of Death - 6 miles southeast of Guernsey

A phantom ship that rises out of a strange mist on the Platte River is a harbinger of death.  The old sailing vessel emerges from a gigantic rolling ball of fog, with its sails and masts covered with frost.  A ghostly crew is seen huddled around a corpse lying on a canvas sheet on deck.  Everyone is covered with frost.  Slowly the crew steps back to reveal the identity of the corpse.  It is always a person known by the witness, someone who will die that same day.  In 1862, trapper Leon Weber saw the form of his fiancée on the ship.  In 1887, cattleman Gene Wilson saw the body of his wife laid out on the canvas.  in 1903, Victor Heibe was chopping down a tree on his riverfront property when he saw the ship.  On deck he saw the body of a close friend.  In all cases, the person seen on the deck of the phantom ship died that same day, and all the encounters took place in late autumn..

Powell

Northwest Community College - 231 W. 6th St.

Strange things have been reported in the auditorium of this college since the 1970s.  Mysterious cold spots hover in the middle of the stage, and during performances an invisible presence occupies a front-row seat (third from the left in the middle section).  During one rehearsal, a sinister black cloud formed over seats in the left-rear auditorium.  Odd noises, objects moving by themselves, and lighting controls overridden by ghosts are just a fe of the weird things that go on.  Once, a student writing jokes on the blackboard in the greenroom, turned around to see the apparition of a woman smiling at him.  That ghost apparently had a sense of humor.  The janitors have also reported that the fold up seats have been down, and when they tried to put them back up, they were heavy, and would not go back.

Rawlins

Dean/Summer House - private residence on Spruce St.

This innocent-looking duplex was the scene of a terrifying haunting in the 1970s.  The families of Lois Dean and Diantha Summer first noticed odd scratching sounds coming from outside the house.  When lights started going on and off randomly they had the whole house rewired, but that did not solve the problem.  Both families living in the house started sensing a sinister presence at the back of the building near the garage.  Once, fourteen-year-old Mike Summer was picked up and thrown five feet by the Garage Witch, as they came to call it.  When Lois and Diantha cornered a dark female shape inside the garage, "something black and cold started coming out of it, like strands or ribbons."  The strange tentacles grabbed Diantha and paralyzed her, until Lois pushed her free.  The families tried to bless the house, which seemed to lessen the attacks, although they still felt the overpowering presence of the witch.  Research uncovered some unusal facts about the house.  In the early 1900s, a small church graveyard was on the property.  Most of the corpses were exhumed and moved to Rawlings Cemetery, but two were unaccounted for and are presumed still buried in the area under the garage.

Ferris Mansion - 607 West Maple

The ghost of a woman is seen watering nonexistent plants here, and the ghosts of two little boys are said are said to inhabit an old playroom.  The house was built by copper magnate George Ferris, but before it was completed in 1903 he was thrown from a carriage and died instantly.  A worker fell from the roof to his death during construction, and in 1904, nine-year-old Ceil Ferris was playing with a loaded gun when it went off and killed him.  In all, Julia Ferris lost four out of her sever children in freak accidents.  At this time it is a bed and breakfast, where guests still report sightings and noises in the night.

Old Wyoming State Penitentiary - map of Rawlins

The Old Pen, as it is affectionately called by citizens of Rawlins, was put out of use in the early 1980's.  Now the Old Pen is a tourist attraction, a historical site, and the subject of many tales of paranormal activity.  Members of tour groups often report hearing strange voices in cells, seeing people disappear around corners, and feeling hostile or tense presences.  Employees have also reported apparitions and sounds.  There was recently an investigation by a group of paranormal experts, but specifics were not revealed except in vague terms.  There were several hotbeds of activity in the prison, including the showers, Death Row, the Gas Chamber, and the Hold (isolation area), and certain specific cells, including one filled with the artwork of an inmate.  Only recently restored were the Chapel and women's facility, also suspected of paranormal activity.  Public functions are now held in the prison, including bazaars and Halloween "haunted house" tours.  During the bazaars, the booths were set up on ground level, near the shower area.  The shower area was always inexplicable cold, with a sense of malice.  Many inmates were attacked in the shower area.  There are also tales of an inmate being unsuccessfully hanged a first time by fellow prisoners, and having to be thrown off the rails again to finally die.

Rawlins Middle School - 1500 Harshman St.

Some employees of this school believe it is haunted by a lady in white.  Custodians have seen her floating near the windows in the science room, walking into the boy's locker room, and standing in a corner in the music room.  A policeman investigating disturbances at the schools shined his flashlight on the ghost, only to see her fade before his eyes.  One janitor quit his job rather than work nights in the haunted building.  Rumors suggest the area around the school was a pioneer graveyard, but no physical evidence has been found to confirm this.

Riverton

Acme Theater - 312 E Main St.

A man often felt but rarely seen, often likes to be in the balcony during the late evening shows.  When he is seen he is most often wearing clothes that would be related to the costuming of the vaudeville era of performance theater.  It is thought by those that have seen him that he probably performed in the theater at that time in it's history.

Sheridan

Sheridan Inn - 856 Broadyway

This inn is haunted by the spirit of Miss Kate Arnold, a housekeeper who lived her for sixty-five years.  The inn opened in 1893 and was once owned by Buffalo Bill Cody.  Miss Kate's presence is felt most strongly in her former room on the third floor, near the front downstairs windows, or in the ballroom.  Sometimes, she is detected as a moving cold spot; at other times only her soft footsteps are heard.  The owners have preserved her room just as she left it and interred her ashes in the wall above her favorite chair.

Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park - map of Yellowstone

Crow Indians considered the mud pots and geysers around Yellowstone Lake to be possessed by evil spirits.  They heard the voices of malevolent earth energies being released from the hissing water and stayed away.  The Crow believe the mountains at the head of this river to be the edge of the world.  If they climbed up and looked over the mountains, they could see into the next world.  When white settlers came, soldiers massacred many of the Indians and drove them back to the great canyon of the Yellowstone River.  Rather than be slaughtered by the white man's rifles, a band of surviving Crow built a giant raft and floated over the Lower Falls to their death.  Just as they went over the edge, the defiant band turned to face their pursuers and chanted a mournful dirge.  It is said that their death chant can still be heard rising us from the mists and white foam below the falls.