High Spirits: The Ghost Log Blog

Haunted Halloween with AAPI

I am proud to announce that the Sweetwater County Library will be hosting a Haunted Halloween program on October 25th 6pm to 9 pm.

The guest speakers will be AAPI (American Association of Paranormal Investigators) of Aurora, Colorado. The members of AAPI are Ghost Hunters.

Please come by and join us for a great night of the Paranormal Kind!

AAPI October 25, 2008

Ghost Log 2001 and 2002

2001

1/03/2001 to 1/06/1001   Several times the “smell” that the ghosts leave, was smelt in the back by the Moose Room, the Circ Desk and the Multi-Purpose room.  No reason for the smell was found.  1/27/2001 H.H. (Staff)   Cash register stated making noises as if someone was ringing up a sale.   2/20/2001 MM (Staff)   Cash register started clicking.  No one touch it.  Several times the security gate has gone off by itself, when no one was even close.  The Children’s Department Librarians computer will drop programs and not work correctly with no explanation.  A new computer was installed and the problems persisted.  Occasionally a very bad smell will be found and we can not find the source.  

2002

7/2002   A husband and wife came in to use the computers.  The wife went to the restroom (lady’s room).  While in there she heard a “mournful cry” by a woman.  She felt sorry for the woman, but did not want to intrude.  After a time the crying stopped.  No one came out.  She checked under the stall doors and saw no one was there.  The crying stated again so she left the restroom.  She told no one for a time and later when she did, said she would ask a woman staff member to accompany her on her next trip into the ladies restroom.  

 9/2002 Micki (Staff)   Stated into the ladies room and I heard a sound like the toilet lid dropping.  I figured someone else was in the room.  I went about my business and it happened again while I was in the first stall.   It sounded like it came from the second or third stall from me.  I went to leave I noticed no one came out.  I looked under stalls, there was no one there.  I heard it one more time so I left.   Heard crying from a stall in the ladies room, but no one was there.  10/22/2002 A. F. (Patron)   Two weeks ago as I was checking out and ready to leave, the gate swung open ahead of me and the alarm went off.  The librarians and I checked everything and it wasn’t me or my books.  I went on my way.  As I have been driving around town after dark, every street light I’d go under shuts off!  Is the ghost in the car with me?  I hope that it has enjoyed it’s time away and is happy to be home!  We will see!  11/07/2002 C.H.(Staff)   I was alone downstairs reading the paper when I heard someone coming from the moose room toward the Circ desk.  It sounded like swishing skirts and got louder the closer it came.  Then the swishing stopped and the gate went off.    11/2002 Staff   A staff member was in the building alone and heard the sound of the cutting boards being used.  They know there was no one else was in the building, but the sounds continued for a half and hour.  The unnerved the staff member so they left the building.  ( They later said they actually saw the cutting arm on the cutting board moving).   11/20/2002 Micki (Staff)  11 am.    Heard whispering voices in the ladies room.     11/27/2002 S.G. (Staff)   She was in the ladies room, second stall.  She had checked to see if anyone was in the other stall and there was not.  As she was sitting, the lid to another toilet fell.  She checked to see if anyone else had come in and they had not.  She left auickly.

Curiousity

It is normal to want to know more after you have had an encounter of one type or another.  Humans are curious creatures.  Once something spurs our imagination we just need more answers.  It seems as hard as we try the “curiosity” seems to nag at us.  Looking in other places that are reported to be haunted or trying to find others that have had the same or similar experiences are the most common responses. 

Lets face it, it is a bit unnerving to see a “person” that isn’t really a person.  Or to hear your name whispered in your ear and there is “no one” where someone supposedly had just been.  I have a little experience with this.  When shadows are seen just out of the corner of your eye, you wonder “Is it just my eyes playing tricks on me or is there something really there?”

There are many ways you can find at least partial answers.  There are books and online site which offer advice.  I myself have not tried the on-line sites, so I can not give a first hand review.  I would however advise you to do your research.  Check to see what they offer.  Not all internet sites are there to help you.  Many are there to just “make a buck”. 

If you have had your own experience or are just curious in nature, you might try the following:

“Historic Haunted America” by Michael Norman & Beth Scott

     Heralded in newspapers and magazines everywhere, including the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The Florida Living Magazine, The Denver Post, and The Baltimore Sun, Haunted America has attracted enormous attention all over the country. 

     Continuing with the success of the nationally acclaimed Haunted America and Haunted Heartland, Historic Haunted America is a further investigation into North American ghost legends, a comprehensive compendium documenting yesterday and today’s most shocking hauntings in the United States and Canada….scores of shocking stories.

     From the ghost-ridden forts in Old Tucson to the “Inn of the 17 Ghosts” near Philadelphia, from the haunted plantations of Louisiana and Georgia to a haunted community playhouse in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Michael Norman and Beth Scott tell stories of the past and present so terrifyingly real that even the most skeptical reader will believe.

“A Ghosthunter’s Guide” by Arthur Myers

     Veteran ghost investigator Arthur Myers takes you on a coat-to-coast tour of the most haunted public places in North America in the collection of nerve-tingling tales featuring poltergeist of all shapes and sizes.  Restaurants, parks, hotels, offices, and museums are just some of the twenty-four favorite haunts of the restless souls, described in A Ghosthunter’s Guide.  You’ll be spirited off to places such as:

*The Gorman School in Forman, California, where the little specter Harriet adds her own ornament to a classroom’s Christmas tree.

*The Bird Cage Theater in Tombstone, Arizona, where a gentleman ghost leaves his handcrafted cigarette lighters.

*The Catfish Plantation Restaurant in Waxahachie, Texas, where a hospitable ghost makes coffee.

*The Johnson County Industrial Airport in Olathe, Kansas, where the ghost of a young Navy pilot prowls the hangar where his plane crashed.

*Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, where Melissa, the lovelorn Southern belle, searches hopelessly for the man she led into the cave and abandoned.

If you have had your own experience, share with us.  We are curious too!

Is It A Ghost?

In May of 2007, a woman came to the library. She introduced herself as Linda and she had come from California. It was her goal to take a solitaire journey in search of the unexplained. Linda was a very nice woman with strong beliefs in ghosts and the unexplained. Fellow-staff member Ellie and I were working that evening and we agreed to answer her questions about the library. We had a lengthy conversation about the Ghost Log and the history of the library being built on the site of the former City Cemetery. We allowed her to take pictures around the library (excluding patrons of course.) We exchanged contact information and she went on her way.

************************************************
From: Linda
To: Sweetwater County Library
Date: Mon, 21 May 2007

Subject: Linda from Torrance, CA

Hi Ellie and Micki,

Thank you both so much for your hospitality during my visit to your library on 5/8 and 5/9. I really enjoyed your stories and greatly appreciate the time you spent with me. I got my photos developed and found just one very strange picture! I was very careful not to get stray people in the shots, so I was very unnerved to find a man in one of the photos. It is rather comical, this figure. Please let me know if there is perhaps a cardboard cut-out of a man at desk-level, as you are facing the moose head, with the white sofa back to your left, and facing the table with the blue chairs. I don’t know how I could possibly have missed seeing such a bizarre cut-out. The head of the man is life-sized, by the way.

I eagerly await your
reply!

Linda
************************************************

To: Sweetwater County Library Date: Wed, 23 May 2007
Subject: Re: Linda from Torrance, CA

Micki and Ellie,

Yeah, too bad I didn’t get one ghostly image on film, but when a friend of mine put together that the image looked like Jack Black, and I saw a picture of Nacho Libre, I laughed my head off !!! It still cracks me up!

The weather worked out great, and the whole
solo trip was awesome. Can’t wait to do the next one!

Regards,
Linda
************************************************
Sweetwater Co Library wrote;

Linda,
Yes we do have a cut-out of Jack Black as “Nacho Libre”.
Sorry. I hope your trip was a good one.

Micki
************************************************

Well to quote Paul Harvey “Here is the Rest of the Story”. Some time back one of the staff brought in a cardboard cut-out of “Nacho Libre”, aka Jack Black. It had been placed in the Young Adult area. This was what she had spied peaking out over the table. Linda, Ellie and I sure had a good laugh over this one.

Hello Linda, Thanks for sharing this with us. Stop back by anytime.
We are still having some activity.

Pictures are worth a thousand words….

Let me know what you think.

Books, Newspapers, and Radio

The Sweetwater County Library has been the subject of several books, newspaper articles and radio shows. The Green River Star newspaper usually runs a little something about reported “Haunted Library” at least once a year around Halloween. Ghost stories always seem to be of great interest.

In 1989 Debra Dunn wrote Ghosts on the Range, which has an excerpt about the library. The books fly off the shelves (not literally). As a librarian, I have notice that the copies we have never stay on the shelves long. Unfortunately we have several copies that are missing and a couple that have never been returned. This is very upsetting. There are so many people out there that want to read this book. We try hard to have multiple copies able, but the book is now out of print.
Ghosts on the Range: Eerie True Tales of Wyoming by Debra D. Munn (Paperback - Aug 1989)

There is a bit of good news. Debra Munn has revised her book and the new version is called Wyoming Ghost Stories. This is a reconstructed version, slightly different than her first. I previously included the excerpts from her first book and hope you will take the time to read either of the versions. That’s to Ms. Munn for her work.

Another book which includes briefly the hauntings at the Sweetwater County Library is Wyoming Curiosities by Dina Mishev. Ms. Mishev writes about all types of odd and interesting things around and about Wyoming.
Wyoming Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Curiosities Series) by Dina Mishev (Paperback - Jul 1, 2007)

In 2007 I received a phone call from the Jackson Hole, Wyoming radio station KZ95 KZJH Jackson Hole Radio. I spoke with Brain Karre, who has his own radio show Brian Karre Morning. The radio station did a Halloween bit on the top 10 haunted places in Wyoming. Take a listen:

http://www.briankarreonline.com/favorite.htm and click on

 Clip D The Sweetwater County Library - Green River

Thanks to Brian Karre and Jackson Hole Radio. We appreciate their interest.I hope that the media continues to report on the happenings at the library. I find that as long as people are curious and there is something to be reported, the interest will be there. If you have any questions or would like to report a sighting, please contact me at :
mgilmore@will.state.wy.us or leave a comment.

Ghost Log 2000

2000

3/2/2000 Unidentified Staff

This person was here early. She smelled breakfast food & heard voices from the Bookmobile room. When she went back to see who was here, no one was there. The Bookmobile people did not come in for 1 hour after.

3/20/2000 S.C., R.D., M.M., K.S. (Staff)

The strong “fish smell” was going on most of the evening. There has been a lot of snow today. It is suspected that is related somehow. Snow melts and water gets into pockets of “whatever” and the smell is around.

5/17/2000 Micki (Staff)

I was in the ladies room and heard the stall next to me close. When I came out there was no one in the room but me. I had not passed anyone going in either.

8/11/2000 JM (Staff)

I heard my name called several times while out shelving. When she came up no one had called for her.

8/14/2000 Micki (Staff)

I was working out in the stacks shelving and I heard Ruth’s voice call my name. I came to the front desk and she said she had not called.

8/17/2000 C.H. (Staff)

I was in the ladies room when I heard what sounded like someone tapping their shoe. I knew there was no one else in there, so I tapped mine 3 times. There was maybe a 15 second pause and I heard 3 taps in response. I tried again, but nothing happened.

9/22/2000 Staff

Security gate went off, no one was around.

9/28/2000 Micki (Staff)

While in the ladies room, first stall, I heard a tapping from the sink area. When I came out there was no one to be seen.

9/29/2000 Micki (Staff)

I was working in the bookmobile room at my desk around 10:30am, across the room I heard noises from up by the ceiling (a vent was there). I looked around and it stopped. I assumed it was coming from the vent. About 45 minutes later I heard the same noise, but it sounded like it was coming from the floor area. I looked and saw nothing. I was getting nervous, so I went out from and found busy work for a while. Later around 11:30am when I went back I heard noises in the garage just out the door and into the back of the garage. I looked and there was nothing.

10/4/2000 All

Alarm gates went off again, no one was around.

10/16/2000 Micki (Staff)

I heard a slight noise while in stall #1. Then the toilet paper “dropped” into place in the holder in stall #2.

10/28/2000 All

Alarm gate went off 2 times before 10-am. No one was around.

11/9/2000 All

Front gates went off 7 times in a row.

11/16/2000 All

Front gate went off again.

11/18/2000 Micki (Staff)

As I came in, 9:45am, the security gates were sounding off. I came in and cleared the gate with the clicker. The gate went off again. I turned around and said “oh just stop it!” and it did not go off again.

11/2000 Staff

In November on a Saturday several employees came in to work, about 10 am. The security gate was sounding off. Once they came in the security gates began flipping open & closed. Also the front doors opened as it “someone” had pushed the handicapped buttons. At the end of the day (5pm) they were walking out back hall and heard the gates sound off again. They left.

Is the Library Haunted?

The term “haunted” is used most often to define unexplained happenings.  It seems there are skeptics and believers, but there is very little hard evidence.  Ghosts or spirits can not be caught in a jar and shown to your friends or framed for display on your fireplace mantle.  There are so many varying stories of hauntings and yet there is rarely any proof.  So what should we make of this? 

I have worked in what is thought to be a “Haunted Library” for 15 years.  Many people staff and patrons alike, tell tales of unexplained happenings.  Yet there are some staff members that have worked in this building since it was built and are not convinced.  Many of the staff have smelt an unusual smell, like dead fish from time to time.  Cigar smoke and flowery cologne also has been smelt.  Soft whimpering or crying has been heard in the ladies room and “she” is sometimes referred to as “Moaning Myrtle” from Harry Potter fame. But is it a haunting or is it just unexplained phenomena?

Why is it some of us seem to have these experiences more often and others do not.

A friend and co-worker of mine thinks it is because some of us are more sensitive to spirits or energy around us.  It does seem to be the case here.  As you read the Ghost Log, you will notice that the same names do come up more than others. There is one person that has said that she does see a female shape and a male in a top hat and a “funeral coat” from time to time. 

I have a theory that there is a thin veil between the world of the dead and ours.  It seems that from time to time someone from their side and someone from ours collide.  We are asked often “where are the ghosts?”  Well as I have often heard said on one of my favorite TV shows “Ghost Hunters” on the SciFi Channel, quote “Ghosts do not appear on queue.”  The encounters are random at best and do not seem to have a pattern or plan to the sightings. I agree with the members of “Ghost Hunters”.  I have never seen a recordable pattern of happenings that could give reason for the happenings. 

The official answer to the question, “Is the Library Haunted?” is……….

“We know unexplained things happen here, but we can not prove the library is haunted.  I must say, I hope in time we will be able to show proof, but for now, we just keep making reports in the Ghost Log as they happen.” 

 Tell me your thoughts on the subject.

Ghost Log 1999

1999 2/25/1999 J.H. (Staff) About 6:50am Joyce was standing by front desk computers and the security gate alarm went off. 2/4/1999 All Staff Answering machine kept going off by itself. 9/17/1999 J.H. (Staff) Joyce was shampooing carpets. She felt like someone was watching her. 9/24/1999 J.W. (Staff) The “strange smell” was back. Jo smelt it out in the stacks. 10/16/1999 Patron & staff A patron had gone through the security gates and set off the alarm. After resetting it, the alarm went off continually for about 5 minutes. We had a time getting it to shut off.

Excerpt from “Ghosts on the Range” by Debra Munn Part III

Part III The Library Built over a Cemetery 

Another time Don heard strains of “something that sounded like Beethoven” coming from the piano in this same multi-purpose room.  “I heard just a little of it, but then it stopped.  And there was absolutely no one else around,” he said.  “What made this even creepier was that it happened the same night that the gate swung back and forth by itself.”

Perhaps his scariest experience was hearing voices, however.  “One night when I was carrying out the trash, I thought I heard people talking” he said.  “So I set the trash outside and closed the door as if I’d already left.  Apparently, whatever was in the building thought I had.  But then I sneaked back inside and heard the voices coming from the multi-purpose room.  It sounded like a man and a woman yelling and arguing, although the words were muffled so I couldn’t tell what they were saying.  And since I had just come through that part of the library before taking out the trash, I knew no one was there.

“I even checked to make sure that the noise wasn’t coming from outdoors,” Don said.  “But finally, I gathered up my nerve and opened the door to that room.  As soon as I did, the voices immediately stopped!”

Don Leasor was not the only staff member to hear the strange voices.  A former maintenance assistant who was too terrified to be interviewed claimed that she often heard them when she worked alone from eight until ten at night.

Since so many frightening things were taking place late in the evening, library director Helen Higby rearranged schedules and made it a rule that no one worked alone.

“Even if it turns out that there’s nothing there,” she pointed out, “if someone were to get nervous and imagine something, then trip and fall down the stairs, we might not find them until the next day.  And we’ve got enough ghosts already!”

Not long after the new policy took effect, the business manager came in to do some work on a holiday, and mindful of the new rule, she brought her Doberman pinscher along. “After she had been in her office for a while,” Helen said, “the dog suddenly went over to the door and cocked its head as if someone were outside.  Then it came back and sat down in the middle of the room, but it continued to stare at the door, fully alert.  That’s all that happened, but it gave everybody the creeps, because dogs, unlike people, don’t imagine things.

“At one of the staff meetings,” Helen continued, “I told everyone, “Listen, I know how to deal with budget cuts; I know how to deal with all kinds of normal problems.  But I don’t know how to deal about having a priest come and bless the building, but some of the employees didn’t want that.  In their minds, that gave credence to something they didn’t want to thin about.”

Apparently nothing out of the ordinary had been reported for a year or so at the time of my interviews in February 1988, but it is unknown whether the phenomena have stopped or are just not as noticeable now that workers are forbidden to be alone in the building.  Skeptics might conclude that the new rule provides less opportunity for overactive imaginations to concoct spooky stories, but with so much evidence from so many people, it seems clear that something of an unusual nature was occurring.  Even former librarian Grace Gasson, who attribute the disturbances to the building’s structural defects and the susceptible imaginations of the living, admits that she has no explanation for such things as the wildly oscillating security gate.

If the troublesome manifestations at the Sweetwater County Library were indeed of a paranormal nature, what caused them?  Do the spirits of the dead really return to wreak havoc when their resting place is disturbed?  No on I interviewed believed that the spirits were of a malicious nature.  As Helen Higby observed, “Whatever is going on, if it’s some kind of being, apparently it’s benign, because it hasn’t done anything destructive or harmful.  And in a library, you could make a big mess in a hurry if you wanted to by through the books on the floor or dumping the card catalogues.”

Whatever caused the strange events at the library, most of the staff are less inclined to scoff at the supernatural these days.  And even without the new rule, the odds are that you’d have a hard time finding anyone willing to spend the night there alone!  

Special Thanks to Debra Munn and her publisher for allowing the copying of this article.