HGB Ep. 505 - Haunted Lincoln, Nebraska

Moment in Oddity - Cookiecutter Shark (suggested by: Jannae McCabe)

When most people visualize a shark in their mind, the picture imagined is typically a large toothy fish that many of us would not like to encounter while swimming in the ocean. With over 500 species of sharks in the world there are quite a few variations ranging from dwarf lantern sharks measuring at around 7 inches to the whale shark which can be 60 feet in length. Although the whale shark feeds on plankton, its mouth can measure up to four feet wide. One species of shark is rather unique in its feeding habits. This is the cookiecutter shark. Now, this guy isn't blue in color, nor does he say om-nom-nom-nom while he eats cookies, but the size and shape of his meals ARE reminiscent of the treats many of us keep hidden in the pantry (I'm looking at you Diane). The creature typically measures between 1 1/2 to 2 feet in length and can be found in warm ocean waters usually around islands. They are long and cylindrical with a blunt nose and large eyes. What is most unique about them however is their mouth. They utilize their suction type lips to attach themselves to the bodies of their meal tickets and then use their lower teeth to extract a circular shaped chunk of flesh. Kind of like those protein cookies, right Diane? The cookiecutter sharks are known to sometimes travel in schools and although there have been recorded bites on humans they are not considered a threat to us. There has even been recorded evidence of the species leaving its cookiecutter calling card on submarines and undersea cables. There are many mysterious creatures in the oceans depths, but a shark that creates cookie carved craters in its meals of choice, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Chia Pets Creation

In the month of September, on the 8th, in 1977, the first Chia Pet was created. Today, most of us are familiar with the quirky gift's commercial jingle Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia. Joseph Podett came upon the unusual items at a Chicago housewares tradeshow. They were imported by Walter Houston from Oaxaca, Mexico and they sprouted the marketing ideas of Podett. Once the rights were negotiated from Houston and trademarked in October, 1977, Podett's San Francisco company, Joseph Enterprises Inc., began production. Chia Pets' popularity rose through the 1980s and by the year 2000, there was even one placed inside the New York Times time capsule which is set to be opened in the year 3000. Over the years there have been many variations of the original Chia Pet with different animals, cartoon characters and even some modeled after real people like painter Bob Ross. The original type of seeds used on the Chia head back in 1977 are still the ones being marketed with the product today. The microgreens are edible and provide nutrients and antioxidants when added to salads or sandwiches. The Chia greens are said to have a nutty, somewhat spicy flavor. There are many fad gifts that come and go, but the Chia Pet is one that has continued on for 46 years. 

Lincoln, Nebraska (Suggested by: Dan)

Lincoln, Nebraska is the home of the Cornhuskers and its also the state's capitol city. The Sower stands atop the tower of the Capitol Building, preparing to toss some seeds to businesses and neighborhoods below. Some refer to the area as fly over country and describe the landscape as boring. But for us, if you throw ghosts in the mix, a city becomes suddenly exciting. And a quick drive through the nearby rural areas certainly inspires visions of Children of the Corn. Join us as we share the history and hauntings of Lincoln, Nebraska.

The 1984 film "Children of the Corn" was set in a fictitious town in Nebraska. Nebraska and corn fields are synonymous. Agriculture always has been a key part of the state. Indigenous people had been here since at least 8,000 BC. In the 19th century, the Plains Indians lived near and hunted around Salt Creek, which is near the modern day city of Lincoln. The salt here was very important to them and to future settlers who eventually came to extract salt from the wild salt flats of the creek. Westward expansion brought more pioneers to live. The Nebraska Territory was created by the Nebraska-Kansas Act that was signed into law by President Franklin Pierce in 1854. A village was founded in 1856 and named Lancaster and when Nebraska was granted statehood in 1867, Lancaster became the capital of Nebraska. The village of Lancaster would become Lincoln, named after Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was incorporated in 1869 with a capitol building being built a year previously. And that is our first haunted location in the Star City, the Capitol Building.

Capitol Building 

Nebraska has had three capitol buildings. The first was designed by Chicago architect John Morris in 1867, but the limestone used to construct the building started deteriorating almost immediately. The second capitol was completed in 1888 and was designed by William H. Willcox and was done in the Renaissance Revival style. After a couple of decades, this building began to suffer structural issues. The current Capitol is hard to miss with its gold capped domed central tower that rises 400 feet high above the other buildings around it. There is actually a rule that no building can be built in Lincoln that is taller than the Capitol. This is the second highest capitol in America with Louisiana's capitol beating it out by 50 feet. The Capitol is located on the southern edge of downtown Lincoln at the intersections of 15th and K Street. The Nebraska legislature is unique in that it is unicameral, which means there is only one house or assembly that votes as one. It is the only one like that in the United States. The offices for the legislature are housed in the square base of the tower. The design of the building reflects three styles: Art Deco, Neo-Byzantine and Gothic Revival. The building is a work of art like most state capitols with vaulted polychrome tile ceilings, marble mosaic floors, murals, stone carvings and a 19-foot bronze figure atop the dome called "The Sower."

New Yorker Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was a classically trained architect who began his career in 1884. He specialized in Gothic styling imbued with modern iconography. He entered the competition for the designing of the third Nebraska State Capitol and he won. This would be the pinnacle of his career. Construction began in 1922 and was finished in 1932 and Indiana limestone was the material used. Professor of Philosophy Hartley Burr Alexander came up with the inscriptions for the interior and exterior of the building. The inscription over the main entrance was inspired by his father and reads, "The Salvation of the State is Watchfulness in the Citizen." Other inscriptions were drawn from philosophers, Plain Indian lore from the Navaho, Pawnee and Sioux and his life experiences. Tiles and mosaics on the floors and ceilings of the Capitol were done by artist Hildreth Meiere. This artwork tells the story of Nebraska's place in civilization and Hildreth proclaimed them her crowning achievement. Architectural sculptor Lee Lawrie designed the exterior sculptures of the building, which showcased his unique style. Lawrie liked to make his figures part of the building, rather than separate and free standing.

The haunting here is connected to someone falling and who that person is, depends on who is telling the story. Some claim a workman was changing a light bulb when he fell to his death, others claim a workman had a heart attack and fell while putting up Christmas lights on the dome and others say that a visitor to the building fell over the dome's spiral staircase railing. Whatever is the cause, the apparition of a person falling and screaming has been seen many times. The basement may be haunted as well. It's a dark and dank place where few venture. This sits in the footprint of the former capitol building, but even before that, the Native Americans considered this a sacred center. Some of their spirits are thought to lurk here.

C.C. White Building

Probably the most well known ghost story in Lincoln is connected to the C.C. White Building that was part of the Wesleyan University campus. That building was demolished in 1973. It was built in 1906 and was named for a leading Methodist in the city. This held the Conservatory of Music and the rest of the Music Department. The ghost story here is connected to a woman who worked in the music department at the school. Her name was Urania Clara Mills and she taught piano and ear training, which is a music theory where musicians learn to identify chords, rhythms, pitches and other elements of music just by listening. Mills taught at the university for 28 years, working her way up to head of the Department of Music Theory. Tragically, her life came to an end in 1940. She was found dead in her office on April 12, 1940 of an apparent heart attack. Some claimed she died of fright. Whatever caused her death, her spirit remains at the school and was first reported in October of 1963. 

Professor Dr. Sam Dahl's secretary, Coleen Buterbaugh, was sent to find a guest lecturer who had wandered off. She was on the second floor of the C.C. White Building and had entered an office suite that once belonged to Clara Mills at the north end when she detected a strong musty odor. The air was stale and she felt as though she wasn't alone. The noisy hall outside had gotten strangely quiet. This all struck her as weird since all the windows in the room were open. She recalled what happened next saying, "I looked up and just for what must have been a few seconds, I saw the figure of a woman standing with her back to me at a cabinet in an inner office. She was reaching up into one of the drawers. I felt the presence of a man sitting at the desk to my left, but as I turned around, there was no one there." The apparition of the woman was tall and had black hair up in a bun. She was wearing a brown skirt. Even stranger than that, Buterbaugh noticed that the view outside the windows of the office was quite different, as though it were from a different time era. Willard Sorority, which was right across campus, wasn't there. There were no streets. Buterbaugh ran from the room, quite disturbed. 

She told her boss, Dr. Dahl, about the experience and she was so shaken that he believed her and took her to other staff members to tell the story. One of the other professors had an old yearbook that they pulled out and Buterbaugh identified Miss Mills as the spirit. Buterbaugh eventually quit and even moved from Lincoln. But that isn't where this strange story ends. The visiting lecturer was a man named Thomas McCourt who had come over from Scotland. He had heard Buterbaugh's story and told her that he was very familkiar with ghosts since Scotland had so many stories about them. He returned home and the following April, on the 12th, he was found dead in his office in Scotland. Just like Clara Mills, same circumstances and same date. Psychics have claimed that Mills is indeed in the building and while many of them also feel the strong presence of a male ghost, none of them have been able to identify him and he has never been seen visually.

There were many paranormal incidents in the building. Music students had trouble with amplifiers and broadcast equipment, mainly with volume control. One student decided to catch the culprit by spreading baby powder around the equipment. When he returned, he found that the sound equipment had been turned down, but there were no footprints in the powder. Lights turned themselves on in the middle of the night and disembodied footsteps were heard in the hallway, especially on the second floor. Piano music was heard coming from a small theater in the basement and it stopped abruptly when someone entered. Faint disembodied laughter was heard and cold spots were felt. 

The administration building that was built to replace the C.C. White Building hasn't reported any activity, but Miss Mills still seems to be on the campus and has even been spotted outside her former apartment. That happened on an April evening in 1985 when a tall woman in a brown skirt with her black hair in a bun was seen walking past the front of the building. A young girl saw what she described as a woman in an "old-fashioned" dress standing outside of the Vance Rodgers Art Center on campus. She actually tried to talk to the woman who didn't respond to her and when the young girl brought her mother to see the woman, she was gone. The young girl seemed quite scared of the area and wouldn't return to the area unless accompanied by someone.

Antelope Park

Antelope Park covers 92 acres and features a Strolling Garden, the Sunken Gardens, Veterans Memorial Garden, Hamann Rose Garden, Elks Baseball Field, Ager Golf Course, the Rock Island Trail, Billy Wolff Trail and rental facilities. The park was founded in 1905 on 31 acres, but grew through the years due to land donations from residents, one of whom was William Jennings Bryan. Lincoln banker W.T. Auld gave 15 acres and in thanks, the Lincoln Parks and Recreation Department created a stone gateway to Antelope Park and the Auld Pavilion in the 1920s. Auld's Pavilion remains a premiere ballroom dance hall. The field behind the caretaker's house at Antelope Park is said to harbor spirits that walk across the field and disappear into the woods on the other side. Two teenagers were walking through the park one chilly evening when they saw the figure of a woman. She was running, but her feet weren't on the ground. She was about 20 yards away from them, but they could see her because she gave off a faint glow. Then she just disappeared.

Robber's Cave 

Robber's Cave is Lincoln's oldest tourist attraction. This is a 5,000 square foot cavern formed out of the Dakota brown sandstone by groundwater. There are many stories and uses connected to the cave. A brewery operated in the cave starting in 1869, but folded four years later. Some claim that this was a place of refuge for Jesse James in 1874, although no evidence of that has ever been found. It is the tales of criminals hiding out here that inspired the name. A structure that once existed above the cave was thought to be a brothel. Excavations were done in order to build a mushroom garden in the cave in 1906. Today, Blue Blood Brewing sits atop the cave and offers tours of the cave. There are also several spaces here for events like weddings.

People who tour the cave find many names and designs carved into the walls. There is Fat Man's Misery, which is a narrow opening between walls, so people have to turn sideways and scrape through to get to the next room. A small crevice that twists and widens back on itself is called the Question Mark. There is also the chamber dubbed Robber's Roost, which is a square shaped room with a thick blanket of powdery red sand on the floor. This was where people claim the bad guys would hide out. There are those who think this might have been a spot on the Underground Railroad too. The sounds of Native American drums and chants have been heard in the cave. Disembodied voices and whispers are common. And there are even sometimes screams.

Lake Street Lake

Lake Street Lake is located in Rudge Memorial Park, a neighborhood park next to Bryan West Hospital. This was named for former prominent Lincoln residents Charles and Caroline Rudge. They had co-owned the Rudge & Guenzel Department Store. The park was originally named Harrison Street Lake & Park, but even before that, this was a farmstead where dairy cows were raised. Towns folks would ice skate on the lake here at that time too. One day, a group of boys ganged up on another boy and started bullying him. He fought back and ended up stabbed and bleeding on the icy pond. That lake was eventually drained and all that remains of the former farm is a tree. That tree gives people a creepy feeling. On cold winter nights the ghostly form of a boy is seen skating where the lake had once been. And when fog covers the area, dark shapes are seen.

Pen Field 

Pen Field is located just south of the Nebraska State Penitentiary, which is the oldest state correctional facility in Nebraska, having opened in 1869. The field is located on the north side of a road that leads to Wilderness Park. In 1888, a terrible blizzard hit Lincoln, dropping the temperature to forty below zero. This was known as the Schoolhouse Blizzard and hit the entire Great Plains, leaving 235 people dead. This would be the 10th deadliest winter storm on record. There is even a reminder of an event that took place in Nebraska during the storm that is portrayed in the Nebraska State Capitol. This is a Venetian glass mural that portrays school teacher Minnie Freeman leading her 13 students from the schoolhouse to her home - a distance of one and a half miles. In Lincoln, the children were all kept at the school, but one little girl's father didn't know that and he was worried when she didn't come home. He went out into the storm to find her. The next morning, the father's unattended horse returned to the homestead after the young girl got home. They found his body five months later. He was in the fetal position in Pen Field.

In the 1940s, a cruel guard who mistreated the prisoners at the penitentiary was universally hated and one night, he was murdered. His body was torn apart and some of it was never found. In the 1950s, a pale white UFO was seen hovering over Pen Field. Most people claim to get a bad feeling from the field. A high school couple parked at the field in the mid-1960s for a little make-out session. Suddenly, the girl got nervous and felt as though they weren't alone. Then there was a strong sulfur smell. A silver-blue light cut through the darkness before them and traveled past their car and through the field and then disappeared. Southwest High school now sits near the field and many students through the years have claimed to see strange shadows cross the field. 

Temple Theater

Ground was broken for the Temple Theater in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1904 at the corner of 12th and R Streets with the help of funds from John Rockefeller. The Theater was designed in the Franco-Italian style with a rectangular shape and was made from brick with a red tile roof. The entrance has 4 Italian marble pillars across it. On top of the pillars sits a rectangular slab of marble, which is engraved with the name "Temple" and is the foundation for the little patio which is attached to the fourth floor. The original purpose was to serve as a theater and activity center for students at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Apparently, building a theater as part of a university at that time was controversial. Rockefeller had stipulated when gifting his money that the building had to contain a theater. People looked down on theater arts at the time and a fight ensued. The compromise that came after 2 years of fighting was to locate the Temple building just off campus. Alice Howell was the first theater director and the first production was George Bernard Shaw's "You Never Can Tell." This made UNL the fourth university in the country to have a functioning theater program.

The Temple underwent a major renovation in 1954. The theater now houses all theatre classes as well as the administrative offices and performance spaces of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre & Film and the Nebraska Repertory Theatre. University Theatre produces four major events and four Theatrix productions each year in the facility’s three theatres, Howell, Studio, and Lab Theatres. The Howell Theatre is on the first floor and has been recently renovated with 317 seats and is named for UNL theatre founder H. Alice Howell. The Studio Theatre is also on the first floor and is a new, state-of-the-art 160-200-seat flexible black box theatre and the Lab Theatre is a 120-200-seat black box theatre located on the third floor.

Hauntings date back to the construction of the theater. People claimed to see dancing lights and they heard weird noises. The lights in the theater are the most common occurrence reported. Possibilities for spirits here in the theater include a student who lost his life in the 1940’s when he fell from the overhead in the main theatre and succumbed to his injuries. He was performing in the Shakespeare play MacBeth and so, reputedly, his spirit shows up during Shakespeare productions. Dallas Williams was a flamboyant professor and served as Theatre Department Chairman from 1944-1971 and was known to throw chairs and such at sleeping students. His spirit is said to still chuck chairs about. There was also a construction worker who had an accident that killed him that dates back to 1906 when the theater was being built. He had been working on the theater with his father and brothers and they watched him fall from the rafters. Shortly after that, his brothers thought they heard him calling out to them. Tools would go missing or get moved. In the 1970s, an entity was noticed in the east basement studios of KUON-TV, located in The Temple Building.

Julie Hagemeier, theater department general manager, said in a 2000 Daily Nebraskan article that a girl haunts the prop attic. When a show crew took apart various dolls in the prop shop to make the type of prop they needed, they left the attic messy. "When the crew returned to the locked attic … someone had aligned the dolls' parts and placed the matching heads with the bodies." An investigator for the Nebraska Paranormal Society named Laura reported, "During our investigation of the Temple Building, I had the following personal experiences.  Upon walking into the main theater, I noticed a change in the atmosphere.  The air seemed heavier with a kind of charged energy to it.  When we set up our equipment in the attic, where all of the props are stored, things seemed very different.  Almost immediately I began to hear voices.  There were no windows in the attic except the small 6"x6" glass blocks in the roof. The team members in the theater below us were men.  The voices I heard were that of a female although I could not understand what she was saying.  Some were louder than others.  The voices were also heard on the audio recorder.  The temperature in the attic was 85 degrees and very humid.  Circulating air would have been welcomed but was not the case.  I had many experiences of feeling cold chills and would get goose bumps for no apparent reason.  There was severe thunderstorms while we were in the attic.  Rain and thunder were very strong at one point.  I cannot justify the voices I heard as being someone outside, 4 stories down while sounds of the rain and thunder and hail was muffled." 

An interesting story is related in the book "A Guide to the Ghosts of Lincoln" by Alan Boye. The experience was told by Tom Bell and it happened to him in 1987. It was night and he was all alone in the theater. Or at least he thought so. He was practicing his tap dancing for a final. He really needed a perfect routine to pass the class. Tom finished his final step and heard a clap come from the balcony. He squinted and looked up at the balcony. The clapping continued, but he couldn't see anybody. He called out, "Hey, what's happening?" Hopping down from the stage, Tom made his way to the back of the theater. Surely, someone was playing with him. He saw no one and when he got to the back of the theater, the clapping stopped. Then he heard tap dancing coming from the stage. He spun around and saw that the stage was empty. He ran towards the stage and when he reached it, the tap dancing stopped. Tom never did figure out what happened that night. 

A student was in the attic and he was painting chairs, a dozen of them. He had finished the first chair and walked across the attic to retrieve another chair. When he turned around, he saw that the first chair had been moved. The student hadn't heard any sounds and even more strange was that the wet paint was unblemished. It scared him so bad that he ran from the room, from the theater and never returned.

Nebraska may be thought of as a place full of corn, but clearly, there are some spirits there too. Is the city of Lincoln in Nebraska haunted? That is for you to decide!