HGB Ep. 495 - Haunted Schools

Moment in Oddity - Tunguska Event

Most of us have seen the movie Armageddon about an asteroid that is threatening to collide with Earth. It's estimated by scientists that asteroids hit the Earth once every 500,000 years. Meteors, on the other hand are very prevalent at approximately 17,000 impacts per year. There was an event back in 1908 that occurred in a remote area of Siberia called the Tunguska Event. It occurred on June 30, just after 7 a.m. in what is now believed to have been a meteoric air burst. 80 million trees were flattened, some were burned and people 60 kilometers away were knocked off their feet. Eyewitnesses described a fireball in the sky. The stony asteroid of about 160-200 feet in size approached the Earth at what was estimated to be approximately 60,000 mph. Although it is classified as an impact event, the asteroid is believed to have exploded around 3 to 6 miles above the Earth, leaving no impact crater. The Tunguska event is the largest impact event in recorded history. Although there was no impact crater, the impact zone was approximately 5 miles across where trees had been scorched and stripped of their branches yet still remained upright. However, trees that were further away from ground zero had been partially scorched and knocked down in directions facing away from the center, thus creating a circular pattern of downed trees. The information of the event that I provided tends to be a common opinion, however there are some who believe Tunguska could be related to extraterrestrial activity. Regardless of origin, the Tunguska event certainly is odd.

This Month in History - The Death of Billy the Kid (Suggested by: Sarah Silver)

In the month of July, on the 14th, in 1881, 'Billy the Kid' was shot and killed. As the story goes, Billy showed up at his friend's house at 12:30 a.m.. Unfortunately, his friend was being questioned by Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett, at the time. Both Billy and Garrett drew their weapons, but the sheriff shot first, killing 'Billy the Kid'. However over the years other theories have emerged. Some believed that the sheriff shot the wrong man and Billy got away. To add to the mystery decades later, two separate men came to light which many believed to be the famous outlaw. The first man was John Miller, who lived in a small village in New Mexico. When he died, there was found in his possession a pistol with 21 notches on the grip, the same count of deaths attributed to 'Billy the Kid'. The second was a resident of Hico, Texas. His name was Ollie "Brushy Bill" Roberts. 'Brushy Bill' secured an audience with the governor of New Mexico in 1950. He sought a pardon for Billy's murders which failed and Roberts died soon afterwards. These tales are not surprising or unusual given the fact that we have heard similar stories about famous figures some believe to not actually dead. Elvis Presley or Adolf Hitler anyone? Actual literature of the time seemed to centralize around sensationalized newspaper articles and books hammered out quickly to cash in on the event. Researcher and author Jim Montavalli seems to believe that the 1882 biography written by sheriff Garrett, is the most trustworthy account of 'Billy the Kids' death, noting that Garrett deemed the shooting a lucky break. According to Garrett, he and his deputies traveled to Maxwell's ranch and upon arrival, saw some men camped out. They heard one man speaking fluent Spanish (which Billy was known for) and this man started walking towards Maxwell's home. Garrett quietly entered the house and questioned Maxwell who had been sleeping. Maxwell confirmed to the sheriff that Billy had been around the property. Suddenly a man came into view holding a gun and knife asking in Spanish "Who's that?". Sheriff Garrett raised his weapon and shot twice, killing the outlaw. According to the account, a Coroner's Jury held an inquest and determined that indeed, the body was that of 'Billy the Kid'. Unfortunately we will never know for certain if indeed the body was correctly identified. A flood in September of 1904 washed away the grave markers in Fort Sumner's Old Military Cemetery leaving the definitive location of the outlaws body a mystery. 

Haunted Schools

School is scary enough without having ghosts running around the halls. There's all that social pressure and expectation of good grades. A haunted school means that you don't just have to skirt the visible bullies, but the shadow figures lurking in the corners. Join us as we explore these reputedly haunted schools from around the world!

Riverside Park School

We're going to start with a doozie right here in Florida in Jacksonville. This originally was known as Riverside Park School, but today has been dubbed the Devil's School. The original school was just a tiny place built from wood in 1891. After being deemed a fire hazard, it was rebuilt in 1917 out of brick and renamed Riverside Grammar School. It was designed by Rutledge Holmes and was the county's fourth public school. There was an auditorium, offices and a large cafeteria with a fireplace on the first floor and classrooms on the second floor. The school changed names again in 1950 to Annie Lytle Public School in honor of the principal Annie Lytle Housh. The construction of two major interstates, 95 and 10, isolated the school and by 1960, it was closed. For the next ten years it was used as storage and office space. The property was sold in 1980 with a plan to turn it into senior apartments, but that never came to fruition and the building fell into disrepair. A fire in 1995 caved in the auditorium roof. Another effort was made in 1999 to turn the property into condominiums, but public outcry over its historical significance shut that down and it is today a historic landmark. One that was marked with graffiti and dogged with tales of hauntings and satanic worship.

Renovations have been attempted at the school with paint being applied to graffiti and broken windows being replaced. But that doesn't fix the legends connected to the school. Stories claim that a principal of the school had been a cannibal. The principal would call students up to his office and they would never be seen again according to these tales. The details got even darker with claims that the principal had converted a closet into a meat locker and he would hang the children up in there. There are versions that claim that multiple staff members were in on the cannibalism. There is a alternate version with the principal just going berserk and murdering a bunch of kids. 

There was a bad janitor here too who would take students down to the boiler room and boil them alive. One kidnapped student managed to escape when the boiler room exploded. Sounds inspired by Freddie Krueger. There was a fire and several students were killed and these students ghosts haunted the school after that. Then there are stories of Satanic rituals taking place on the school grounds. And that possibly may be the only bit of truth in these legends as much of the graffiti in the school is of Satanic iconography. There are some who believe the fire that happened in 1995 was caused by candles used during one of these rituals. The truth is that the building became a dangerous place when it was abandoned. Whether there are ghosts there or not, its definitely not a place for children anymore.

Tonk Upper Primary Government School

This school is located in India and was established in 1999. It's a co-educational school that teaches in Hindi and provides an upper primary level education. In 2014, three students at the school claimed that they saw the spirit of a young girl in the restroom and that she tried to push them down into the toilets. All three had passed out in the restroom and that is what they claimed caused them to faint. All the students were told to stay home for a week while the school was cleansed of evil spirits. The story claimed that 300 people took part in the cleansing and one of them was a villager that was said to be possessed by the deity Tejaji. The villager said that since it had been two months since a puja had been conducted at the school, the spirit came in. The villagers then agreed to be sure to perform a puja ceremony at least every two months to prevent spirits at the school. A Puja ceremony ranges from a brief daily ritual to an elaborate temple ritual and is observed in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

Lee William’s High School

This school is located in Kingman, Arizona. The high school opened in August of 2012 and is named for Richard Lee Williams who was a former school principal and firefighter who died while fighting the Doxol Disaster in 1973. Eleven firefighters perished in this blaze that is also known as the Kingman Explosion, which happened during a propane transfer from a Doxol railroad car to a storage tank. A hairline crack allowed the propane to leak and static electricity ignited the gas leading to the explosion. The original Kingman High School opened in 1917. In 1993, a north campus was built for upper classmen, while freshman continued at the original old school. Eventually the new north campus became the high school for all students and the old campus was converted into a middle school. The old school was gutted in 2010 to update it and make it a second high school. The only original part remaining besides the outer walls is the gymnasium, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A new auxiliary gym was built. Something else preserved during the renovation was the "Mohave County Union High School 1917" monument sign. 

But something was disturbed during the renovation. There was a pioneer cemetery here with eleven graves, seven coffins and several artifacts. But even before that, the land itself was witness to conflict between pioneers and the indigenous people. The haunting activity was so pronounced that the principal, Steve Elwood, spoke to the Los Angeles Times in 2013. Principal Elwood shared that ghosts of women and men in period clothing from pioneer prairie times have appeared at graduation events on the football field. Students claim to have seen a spirit wearing a bowler hat and long coat lurking in the hallways. There are reports of disembodied footsteps, alarms that go off on their own, lights that flicker and hand dryers that go off on their own too. The spirit of a little girl calls out that she wants to play. The school janitor has probably had the most experiences as the ghosts seem most active at night when he is there alone. He often hears voices in classrooms when no one is in them. He told the LA Times, "Some nights I hear footsteps. Last fall, I was [cleaning] in the girls’ bathroom and I heard someone going into the boys’ lavatory. I hear voices coming from some rooms, little kids mumbling. I can’t really hear what they’re saying. It’s kind of freaky, but it really doesn’t bother me. I just tell them all to go home."

El Paso High School

El Paso High School is the oldest operating high school in El Paso, Texas and is nicknamed "The Lady on the Hill." It was built in 1916 by the Trost & Trost architectural firm in the Greco-Roman style and features a Corinthian porch. Because of the time that it was built, this is a fancy school. The bathrooms and shower rooms are made from marble and porcelain. The main corridor floor is from marble and classroom floors were laid from hard maple. A bronze tablet above the front doors reads, "A Cultivated Mind is the Genius of Democracy: It is the Only Dictator that Free Men Acknowledge and the Only Security that Free Men Desire." The school became a national historic landmark in 1980.

The school is said to be haunted because it was used as an overflow morgue during the Spanish Flu of 1918. Then it served as a hospital for casualties from World War II. The most well known ghost story told about the school involves a picture. This is a class picture taken in 1985 that sits in a trophy case. A woman in white is seen in the center of the picture, somewhat blurry and students and staff claim that this was no one who went to the school or worked there. No one was actually standing in the spot when the picture was taken. And since this was from 1985, it couldn't have been photoshopped. People think this is the spirit of a female student who committed suicide many years ago when she jumped off one of the school’s balconies. Sometimes that spirit appears as a residual haunting jumping from the balcony. A strange mist sometimes fills the halls as well. Sometimes noise is heard as though a group of people are playing basketball in the gym, but there is nobody in there when people check.

West High School

West High School is located in Anchorage , Alaska. The school was established in 1953 on Romig Hill. For a time, Anchorage Community College held classes at the school until they had a campus built in the early 1970s. An earthquake in 1964 destroyed most of the school's second floor and damaged part of the first floor. All that survived on the second floor is the band and choir rooms and nothing else was rebuilt. A science wing was added in 1996 and the school underwent a major renovation in 1998. The auditotium is the largest of any high school in Alaska and holds 2,000 people. It was constructed in 1954. Many rock concerts were hosted here featuring Ozzy Osbourne, Steppenwolf, Ted Nugent, Johnny Cash and the Bee Gees.

A woman in white haunts the auditorium. The theater teacher named David Block told the Anchorage Daily News in 2017, "I've never, ever seen a ghost in there -- I can't say I even believe in ghosts. I haven't ever seen her, but enough people have seen her that I have to believe that something is going on." Block also said that two assistant principals and a security guard saw something white flash through a corridor behind the balcony and that one of those principals was so rattled that he won't talk about the incident. Block continued, "Even I don't like going into the passage behind the balcony." The spirit has been seen among the seats, sometimes walking a hallway, sometimes hiding backstage or down in the basement. People also claim that a former janitor haunts the school still doing his cleaning job. Disembodied footsteps are heard and doors slam.

Mgotjane Primary School 

This primary school is located in Swaziland. It's always the girls' restroom isn't it? Three girls went to the bathroom together and while one of them stood outside of the stall, the other two entered a stall. They both heard a voice screaming at them from down in the toilet that they should stop peeing on it. The girl waiting outside also heard the voice also and asked who was in the stall with the girls. The voice in the toilet got louder and louder and the three girls ran back to their class and reported what happened to a teacher. The teacher was skeptical, as were the parents of the girls. And then other girls in the junior class started reporting the same phenomenon. And that wasn't all. A female teacher left the school in 2013 and refused to return because she claimed that evil spirits had attacked her in the school. Another teacher soon followed, claiming that he felt unsafe at the school.

A teacher named Thulani Dlamini said, "At times it comes as an evil spirit or in the form of a person. One night in June, I was in my room when I overheard footsteps of people approaching my quarters.  My colleagues had once told me of how their sleep was interrupted by a strange spirit and that got me thinking. I immediately reached for my bible and started reading it. As I read my bible I heard one of my colleagues shouting that he was being attacked by four short men who were trying to strangle him. The time was after midnight if I recall correctly. Late that same night, at around 2am the ‘four men’ came to my house. Two entered through the back door and the other two through the main door. Upon entering, two stood at the edge of my bed and the other was by the headboard. They kicked me on my back after they could not sit on me or strangle me. They also tried to press me face down so I couldn’t breathe but they couldn’t. Just before the crack of dawn Mduduzi came knocking pleading to come and spend the night in my room." The school was closed for a few days and a prayer session was held with parents, teachers and students. We're not sure if it did the trick or not, but there haven't been any more recent reports of hauntings.

Majiji Primary School

There is another haunted primary school in Africa. Majiji Primary School is located in Zimbabwe. In 2022, reports came out of this school of paranormal activity. These reports claimed that a goblin was attacking students and staff. The school closed for a while and then a prophetess named Sithembiso Moyo came to the school to conduct a cleansing ceremony. She claimed the goblin was caused by the spirit of a late teacher. Moyo said, "There is a spirit of a male teacher who died at the school. The family of the long deceased teacher failed to perform traditional rituals to cleanse his spirit from the school and his spirit is now troubled. It is today that we get rid of it and make sure that the spirit of the late teacher will be exorcised and tamed so that he rests in peace." We're not sure if it worked or not.

Roy High School

The high school is located in Roy, Utah and was built in 1965. It soon became the county's largest high school and was ranked in the top ten of schools in the nation. And its also one of the most haunted schools in America. There is a female spirit that hangs out in the theater named Mable. Students claim that she moves props and plays with the lighting. There is also the spirit of a floating head that students have claimed watches them when they are in the school alone. There are people who think the head belongs to a boy who was hit by a train when he was walking to school. Another spirit who likes to wear a purple hat has been seen and this spectre tries to get students to follow her. She gives off a malevolent feeling. 

Sophi B. Wright Middle School

It really isn't shocking to hear that a school is haunted in New Orleans. That is where Sophi B. Wright Middle School is located. Middle schools are always scary, but this one even frightened the National Guard. The school was the first all-girls school in the city and was built in 1912 by local architect E.A. Christy in the “Collegiate Gothic” style. Sophie B. Wright spent her life working in education and this started at the age of fourteen when she opened a day school for girls in a spare room at her family's home in 1880. Right before she died in 1912, the Sophie B. Wright High School was opened and named for her. In 2007, the school became a charter school catering to grades 6 to 12. It underwent major renovations in 2016. 

During Hurricane Katrina, the school was evacuated and the National Guard used it as living quarters. They were the first to report strange things happening at the school. Sergeant Robin Hairston reported that she saw the apparition of a girl in a doorway. Specialist Rosales Leanor claimed to see the shadow of a young woman when she was in the bathroom and she ran out in terror. Once these stories came out, staff from the school told stories about paranormal experiences that they had endured as well. One said he opened a closet to find a little girl ghost giggling at him. After the National Guard vacated the school, a chaplain was called in to cleanse the school and apparently it worked.

Yanagawa High School

Yanagawa is a private high school in Japan that was established over 80 years ago. It made news in Japan Today in 2014 when videos from inside the school started going viral. These featured dozens of girls collapsing and it was claimed that a vengeful spirit was causing the issue. One girl started the frenzy when she yelled that she couldn't move her body. Girls near here started yelling that they were paralyzed too. Some screamed, “kill me” or “die.” This behavior continued for a couple of hours. Apparently the girls had gone on a field trip to Mt. Hiko and the Aburagi Dam area, where a headless ghost is said to wander. People thought the girls had somehow brought the ghost back with them. Maybe one of them had been possessed. The school closed for the rest of the day when the frenzy started and students were sent home. It remained closed the following day while authorities investigated. It was eventually blamed on some kind of group hysterics. But many still believe there was a ghost involved, maybe even Hanako-san, a spirit that haunts bathrooms in Japanese schools. 

Parker Roads Elementary

Diane has several family members who live in Florissant, Missouri and this town is home to our next haunted school, Parker Roads Elementary. Apparently, this school was built over an old burying ground. Before the school was built in the 1950s, the state of Missouri ordered Leaf Brown Cemetery to dig up all the bodies in the cemetery and move them to another cemetery, but as usually happens, at least one body was left behind. This is a spirit that is seen only by the children. They claim that she is a blonde woman wearing a black dress with no eyes. She usually hangs out in...you guessed it, the bathrooms.

Westall High School

This school in Melbourne, Australia isn't exactly haunted, but it did experience a weird UFO visit. It was around 11 am on Wednesday April 6, 1966 that students and a teacher from Westall High School reported seeing a UFO. They claimed that it appeared to be saucer-shaped and was a silvery-green color. The craft was twice the size of a standard car at the time and descended, then flew over the school. It then headed to a stand of trees where it disappeared. The stunned students claimed that the UFO reappeared around 20 minutes later and then sped up and flew to the north-west.

Farrar Schoolhouse

The Farrar Schoolhouse is located in Maxwell, Iowa and was dedicated in 1922. A man named C.G. Geddes donated six acres of his farm for the Washington Township Consolidated School District. This school building would combine all the one-room schoolhouses in the area to one building. Some people in the district were not happy with the new schoolhouse because it cost $100,000 and had the modern amenities of electric lights, indoor bathrooms and boiler heating. The school was named for the town of Farrar, which eventually became part of Maxwell. The school closed down in 2002 and sat abandoned for five years. Jim and Nancy Oliver bought the schoolhouse in 2006 and quickly noticed that things were off. They were told when they asked around about hauntings that students had experienced unexplained stuff for years before the school closed. They would watch doors slam themselves and saw shadow figures. Former janitor Bill Webb would find the gym lights on all the time after he would shut them off. He would also hear disembodied footsteps when he was in the school alone.

Nancy Oliver herself saw the ghost of a young boy near the gym. She also heard the giggle of a little girl and looked in a classroom where she heard it coming from and saw the figure of a girl with a long, frilly dress and curly hair. Steven Tracy founded Iowa Paranormal and he said that his team once saw a full-bodied apparition on the third floor near the principal's office. His group thinks that a former principal might be haunting the building even though nobody died on the property. Other experiences had by people investigating the building include balls rolling by themselves in a classroom on the third floor, music has been heard coming from the gym, the spirit of a boy was seen coming out of Room 206 and a nine-foot tall shadow figure was seen on the third floor.

The schoolhouse has been featured on Discovery Channels "My Ghost Story" and "Ghost Stalkers" and been investigated by a number of paranormal celebrities like Johnny Houser, David Rountree and Christopher Booth. John E. L. Tenney said of Farrar, "Farrar flummoxed me, and in doing so, I fell in love with it. It was quiet and loud, inactive and hyperactive. It was cold and hot and warm and spoke and sang and laughed all while standing mute. Lockers slammed, ethereal footsteps ran down hallways, and yet, for all the multitude of experiences and non-experiences, the one thing I came to learn was that this school could teach me something."

Pocatello High School

We covered Pocatello High School in Ep. 49 back in 2015. Pocatello High School is located in Idaho and the city of Pocatello is known as the Gateway to the Northwest. It was founded in 1889. Many of the historic buildings from Pocatello's earliest days still exist today. One of those buildings is Pocatello High School. The school was built in 1892 and named West Side School. The building featured a belfry, gables and arched windows. All grades attended classes in the school. The school was a matter of pride for the city and because of this, two presidents spoke at the school. Those presidents were Theodore Roosevelt in 1902 and William Howard Taft in 1908. The school thrived until 1914, when a fire broke out. A boiler had apparently started the fire. Students and teachers rushed to save what they could and the fire department arrived on horse drawn carriages. It was no use. The school was completely destroyed, burned to the ground. The town decided to rebuild the school in the former's footprint. Students met on the lawn and in churches while they waited for the new school to be built. That new school was finished in 1917. The school was expanded in 1939 and a gymnasium was added. Major renovations were done in 1996 and a new gymnasium was completed in 2006. The school would seem to be a typical high school, until one hears about the supernatural occurrences that have been experienced within the school.

A peculiarity of this high school is that a real skeleton was used in science classes. Obviously, the school decided this was not a good idea and they switched to using a plastic skeleton. Apparently, the spirit behind the skeleton was not happy about this switch. Science teachers started finding bones from the real skeleton tucked inside cabinets and in other places within the science department. It was in the 40s or 50s when two girls at the school decided that life for them was over. They made a pact with each other that they would commit suicide. Only one of the girls went through with the plan because the other chickened out. The girl who followed through with the horrible plan, hung herself from her locker. She wore a distinctive perfume that is smelled in the hallways to this day. The most intense scent came from her original locker. It got so bad that her locker was finally removed. Custodial staff sees a young girl's apparition in the hallways at night.

On several occasions, the tinkling of piano keys has been heard coming from the music room at night. When someone goes to investigate, there is never anybody found playing the piano. Toilets flush on their own when no one is in the restrooms. The same thing happens with the lights. They are repeatedly turned on and off and it gets so intense that police are called.  Whispers are heard throughout the school and no one is found in the areas from which the whispering originates.

In 2014, a dark, shadowy figure was captured on a security camera moving from a bench into a bathroom. The lights also flickered in the video and the security alarm went off. The video was widely circulated online and on TV. Some people have debunked the video claiming it is a cobweb or string that has caused the weird anomaly walking around in the video, but that doesn't explain the lights. They have investigated the school several times over seven years and John Brian said that they were doing investigating near the bathroom where the security footage was shot and they had equipment go missing there. A janitor found it in a stairwell up in a window well out of reach of most people. He had gone up there to dust and saw the equipment. Don Contant was a principal at the school and he claimed to witness several paranormal things and heard many stories. He would hear banging on the floor and go over and bang back on the floor and tell the ghosts to stop banging because he had work to do. When A&E brought Ghost Hunters back in 2019, they visited the high school.  

Milton Schoolhouse

The Milton Schoolhouse was covered by us in 2015 on episode 90. In 1904, the Milton Schoolhouse was built. The original parts of the school consisted of four classrooms, restrooms on the ground floor and a boiler room. Two new additions were made to the school in 1930 and 1937. This construction saw the addition of eighteen new classrooms, a gymnasium, and a cafeteria. The school served elementary students and was the main schoolhouse for Alton from 1904 until it was closed in 1986. The Milton School sat abandoned for 4 years after that. In 1990, a man named Gary Levi purchased the building. A warehouse was added to the building in 1993 and he operated the Intaglio/Levay Glass and Giftware company from it until 1998. After the glass company was shut down the building sat dormant again, this time for eleven years. In 2009, it was purchased by Meredith Elston who rented out space in the school to small local businesses. Those businesses included a coffee shop, massage parlor, an aromatherapy store, three photography studios, a pet groomer, an electrician and a party bus company. Doug Mattingly bought the school before the pandemic in 2020. He is renovating the building and attempting to rejuvenate it. They have built out and rented a couple of apartments in the north wing and the south wing is becoming commercial studios. The gym is being set up as a place to host weddings, concerts and receptions. Some commercial tenants have carried over from previous years, including Maeva's Coffee.

What is most commonly associated with the school building; however, is the hauntings. Over the years, there have been reports of many kinds of activities in the schoolhouse. These vary and include footsteps, shadowy figures in a basement stairwell, a shadow seen peeking out of a second floor window, strange noises in the boiler room and other odd things. Patrick Keller mentioned on his Big Seance Podcast featuring this location that the cellar was very creepy. Exploding boilers killed many people. Did someone lose their life here? Or did something happen on the land? The most commonly reported occurrence of activity over the last 60 years revolves around the haunting of the school by a young girl supposedly named Mary and possibly also the spirit of the twisted man who would be her killer. 

According to legend, school had dismissed for the day on a fall afternoon. Everyone had gone home except for a girl who was working on a seasonal bulletin board for her class. A janitor took advantage of the opportunity and dragged her away to a locker room where she was found assaulted and deceased. A few days after this, the body of the janitor was found hanging in the school with a note scrawled near him which simply stated "I did it." The story has no evidence to support it, so it more than likely never happened. But there are things happening here that lend credence to a young girl ghost being in the school. For years following this, children claimed to have encounters with strange figures, hear sounds all around the school and the name Mary floated through the halls like a secret word on the tips of everyone's tongue. When Intaglio Design took over the building, employees claimed to see the apparition of a small girl while working there. They claimed to find glass items shattered near a specific shower stall in the previous locker room. 

There was even one employee who claimed the apparition of the young girl became very attached to her. Her office was located by a stair well outside of the gymnasium. An apparition of a young girl was often seen in her office, out of the corner of her eye in other rooms, and was even reported to have typed on the computer when no one else could have possibly been in her office. Little X's and O's were left behind on the screen. This employee grew attached to the spirit of the little girl. Over the years, she claimed another spirit was in the school as well. This one, she said, was threatening. Other employees felt short of breath and panicked in the area surrounding the girls shower room and even supported the story that they had seen the office employee terrorized by a spirit in a hallway. The woman eventually left her job and refused to return to the building. A few years later, it was shut down again, until the purchase in 2009. Ghost Hunters investigated the property in 2010. They experienced lights turning on and off by themselves and heard disembodied footsteps. They also heard a disembodied voice shush them.

Poasttown Elementary

We covered Poasttown Elementary on episode 228 in 2017. Poasttown started off as a town in Ohio named West Liberty and was platted by Peter Post in 1818. There was another town in Ohio with that name, so in 1848 it was decided to change the name in honor of the founder. Poasttown Elementary got its start on August 18, 1936, when the voters of Madison Township passed a bond issue for a consolidated elementary school at Poasttown to replace the township's one-room school. On September 7, 1937, the new school on Franklin-Trenton Road opened although not all the construction was completed. The school wouldn't be officially dedicated until April 15, 1938. Pupils were assigned to the new school from Upper and Lower Browns Run, Dubbs, Pike and old Poasttown. There were 200 students at that time.The schoolhouse has a history that is relatively peaceful. There is a story that a young girl, named Sarah, fell three floors down a stairwell and was killed by a serious head injury. There doesn't seem to be any evidence backing that story though. The school eventually closed in 2000 and the building is now owned and operated by Darrell and Brenda Whisman. Darrell had attended the elementary school in the 1960s. He soon figured out the school was haunted. Poasttown Elementary’s official motto has become "When you leave, you believe."

One reason that there might be hauntings here could be because the town has known tragedy. There were two train crashes about a mile away from the property, one in 1895 and the other in 1910. Interestingly, both happened on July 4. The 1910 crash was a head-on collision of a passenger train and a freight train that was the worst railroad crash in Butler County’s history. The crash killed 24 people and injured at least 35 and the area where the school would eventually be built was used as a triage area. There was also a great flood in 1913 and six people were killed. Whisman noticed the haunting activity almost immediately after he bought the building in 2004. He said, "We’ll hear a desk being drug across the floor above us. We’ll hear little kids’ footsteps. I’ve heard voices with my own ears when nobody is here but me and my wife. I just can’t explain it."

He had a friend doing construction work one day who let out a loud scream from the top floor. Darrel said, "He runs down to me. He can’t catch his breath and he’s saying, ‘There’s something up there.' I thought maybe a dog or possum got inside. But then he says, 'Dude, it’s a ghost.'" Dozens of paranormal investigators have done ghost hunts at the school. Paranormal investigator Mike Palmer founded the Paranormal Investigators of Northern Kentucky and they have investigated the school twice. Palmer said, "It’s very rare for our instruments to simultaneously go off and do so on command. This place is definitely active." One of his team members has become nauseous when inside the school. The team also captured an EVP of an older man saying, "Russ will eat it." This was after an investigator commented that she felt a critter run past her feet. 

Our listener Angela wrote us, "I am with Big Country Paranormal and we have seen full bodied apparitions, (7 foot tall) a door to the roof open and slam shut,  black floating masses, white mists, voices, strange glowing lights floating through the rooms, and even a gremlin-like creature! It was built on the ground once used to temporarily lay the dead from a fatal train accident. The janitor died in a fire and it is said  a child had a fatal fall near the stairs.  There is so much more to tell you and even an episode of Ghost Brothers was filmed there. I saw a full bodied apparition and a goblin like creature while on my first visit!"

All of these schools have been places for learning. Is it possible that some of the children that were once there as students have returned in the afterlife? Are schools attractive to other spirits? Are these school haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 406 - Haunted Fellsmere

Moment in Oddity - Giant Octopuses of the Narrows Bridge Ruins (Suggested by: John Michaels)

Octopuses are amazing creatures and we must admit that we have a soft spot for the legendary Kraken. There was a legend about a Kraken connected to Tacoma, Washington and while that really is just a legend, there is a fascinatingly weird thing going on here with octopuses at the Tacoma Narrows. The giant pacific octopus is the largest known species of octopus and they can get up to 50 pounds. They are highly intelligent and recognize human faces. They can even taste you and identify you with their tentacles. A legend claimed that a King Octopus weighing 600 pounds lived under the Galloping Gertie Bridge in Tacoma. This was actually the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, but people gave it this nickname because the suspension bridge would move when the wind blew. Those winds finally took the bridge down on November 7, 1940. Those ruins still are down in the water and they provide hiding places for the Pacific Octopus because octopuses can squeeze themselves through any opening at least the size of their beak and that, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Reno Brothers Conduct First Moving Train Robbery

In the month of October, on the 6th, in 1866, the Reno Brothers carry out the first train robbery of a moving train in U.S. history. Previous train robberies had been of stationary trains. Trains often times were carrying very valuable things. Not only were there people on board with money and valuables, but trains transported precious minerals, cash and sometimes even gold and silver. The Reno Brothers started a bad thing when they figured out that if they stopped a moving train in a sparsely polulated area, they wouldn't have to worry about the authorities interfering. When word got out that the Reno Brothers got away with $13,000, this method got very popular. The brothers hit an Ohio and Mississippi Railroad train while it was traveling through Jackson County, Indiana. Soon the railroads got smart and started putting valuables in massive safes with armed guards watching over them and they even sometimes carried a boxcar of guards and horses. By the late 19th century, train robberies were a thing of the past.

Haunted Fellsmere

Larry Lawson is the founder of The Florida Bureau of Paranormal Investigation and runs Indian River Hauntings, which hosted this event. He introduced himself and his team: Mark, who is Vice President of the Indian River Historical Society, and his wife Val; Candace and Tina and her husband Spanky, who is Larry's right-hand man. We spent most of our evening investigating with Spanky. The thing we really liked about Larry is that he is a retired cop, which gives more credence to his investigations. He was a detective in Fellsmere before he retired, so he knows this city. And like us, he understands the importance of knowing the history in order to understand the hauntings. He comes at this from a scientific and open-minded skeptic base and he investigates with respect. Larry shares some of his personal experiences. (Fellsmere 1)

The town of Fellsmere is named for Nelson Fell who founded the town in 1911. The "smere" part means watery, swampy place. He had come up from New Zealand during the first Florida land boom of the 1880s. He had been educated in England as a mining engineer. Fell bought a large parcel of land known as Cinncinatus that had been owed by a newspaper magnet. His goal was to make Fellsmere a county seat and a hub for farming. This was to be the gateway to the south. Fellsmere was officially incorporated in 1915 and two years later, Fell left and never returned to his namesake town. This was the first town in the area to have a power plant, electricity and phone service. And fun fact, this was the first town in the south to allow a woman to vote, which happened in 1915. There were some men who heard about it and demanded that her vote be nullified, but the townspeople took up for her and the vote remained. And even with that, Fellsmere slid backward in prosperity after huge rains in 1915 flooded the whole area. Muck farming and growing sugar cane were the main industries with the first sugar refinery in Florida being built in Fellsmere around 1932. Citrus would become the main form of agriculture here though.

Since Fellsmere was down and out and yet a stop on the way to the south, this became a place for never-do-wells and it was a rough place for a while. The town of Fellsmere is today around 80% Hispanic and they brought many of their customs with them. This is a very spiritual town. With many haunted locations. We got to investigate two locations on this evening, but before that, Larry shared some of the haunted places with us. 

Ditch 13 Gallery and Gifts

Nikki Rouge owns this business at 46 N. Broadway Street, which looks like a cute little building next door to the restaurant where we met up for the event. This is a local Artisan's gift shop featuring offerings by talented locals such as Homemade jellies and jams, Ceramics, Intarsia Wood Crafting, Stained Glass, Carvings, Jewelry, fine art and more. The owner claims to have paranormal activity here with things moving around.

Larry's son seems to be sensitive and he tells a story about a property where the oldest house in Fellsmere once stood. (Fellsmere 2)

Fellsmere Inn

Fellsmere Inn, located at 107 N. Broadway Street, is the oldest hotel in town and was built by Fell in 1910 and has 11 bedrooms, six full baths and three half baths. The barons of industry in the local area would meet here and enjoy drinks and cigars while discussing business. And Sunday nights would find cars lined up down the street with folks coming for Sunday dinner. Fred Vandeveer bought the property in 2005 and he restored and renovated it. I found many listings through the years for the inn being up for sale. Right now it appears to be a private residence. The owner has experienced some strange things here and he had wanted Larry to come investigate, but his wife put the kibosh on that. 

Marian Fell Library

The Marian Fell Library was started by Nelson Fell's daughter Marian. The building was constructed in 1915 and is a quaint little place. Activity reported includes orbs appearing in photographs, temperature drops and disembodied footsteps in empty rooms. Larry used to be able to investigate here and one night they saw something pretty creepy. There was this homemade crafty cloth doll thing that people put over brooms or mops in the library. One night while investigating someone saw it move and they ran out of the building. Paranormal investigator Brian Cano has also investigated here and he tried a tulpa experiment inside where he had everybody focus on a word. That word was banana. They thought about the smell of bananas and the taste of bananas and the word banana. They did an EVP session after that and they all heard the word banana. *Seven Sisters Inn and the word bird.*

Fellsmere Cemetery

Fellsmere Cemetery is host to the spirits of a woman and child. One evening a police officer was there about fifteen years ago to lock it up. He saw a woman and a child walking in the cemetery. He starts to walk towards them and they disappear. A deputy sheriff pulled up and upon seeing the look on the other officer's face he said, "You've seen them haven't you?" A medium that was part of Larry's team had been in the cemetery and she said she felt that there was a woman there with a child who was not her's, but she was taking care of the child.

Old School House/City Hall

The Old School House was built in the early 1900s and opened in 1917. This is the oldest masonry building in all of Indian River County. School closed in 1980. Stayed empty for a while and then became city hall and then the police department. The police department moved out into another building, so this is now just city hall. They offer classes there and the Boys and Girls Club is in the basement.

Larry said of the hauntings here, "We don’t know why ghosts of children seem to inhabit the school. There were no deaths or tragedies documented in this building. One of the theories is that when people die, they go back to where they were happiest. One night when I was locking up here, in front of me I saw an arm in a flannel shirt. Just the arm. I can’t explain it but I know that it happened." They have seen lights coming out of the walls and they've seen shadows.   

So Larry brought us into the Old School and explained the layout. Our first stop was going to be in the small theater auditorium, but we ended up with our first unexplained experience. (Fellsmere 3) A police officer unlocked everything before we got there and Larry had to call him back. Larry shares some of the experiences from their previous investigations here. (Fellsmere 4) You here me mention in there that a woman's EMF was going off. It did several times, as did the meter of the woman behind her. And Larry heard a loud bang in the elevator and no one was in the elevator. Here is the EVP he mentioned. (Fellsmere EVP) (Fellsmere EVP 2) Larry left and Spanky handed out dowsing rods. We've never used the rods as a large group with one question being asked and several sets of rods answering. It seemed to work okay with the rods all answering the same, including pointing in the same directions when we asked where the spirit was located. 

Then Spanky fired up a spirit box. (Fellsmere 5) I heard a yes after he asked if there were any kids there. Sounded like an older kid. Larry joined us again as we headed to the basement and he told us another quick story about the building. (Fellsmere 6) The basement has a lot of activity relating to children. The elevator is fairly active. (Fellsmere 7) We haven't ever had much luck with Rem Pods on any investigation we've been a part of, but here in the basement, the Rem Pod went crazy. Larry checked the batteries just to make sure they were fresh because it was so crazy it seemed to be spazzing out. And then it went off again. (Fellsmere 8) It felt like the kids left. Later, Larry would tell us that there is an adult - maybe a teacher - who seems to have some control over the kids. The Rem Pod went crazy again when we went up to the first floor and we were envisioning the kids playing and running to touch the Rem Pod before the teacher would stop them and things would go silent. (Fellsmere 9)

Larry then told us a story about using a DR60. For those of who listen to Astonshing Legends and heard their series on the Sallie House in Kansas, you heard them play an EVP of a creepy scream. DR60s are notorious for playing back really creepy things. Some in the field don't think they are reliable for that reason, but others swear by them and think they are more able to pick up stuff. We've never used one. Here's what happened here at the Old School. (Fellsmere 10) Kelly and I didn't hear anything above us, but Larry and another guest did apparently. There were 5 of us that went into the council chambers and it would be in here that two of the women would get a small scent of lilac and it was like it blew in their faces. And then Kelly and Sparky smelled it too. I didn't smell anything, but I was off in a farther part of the room that was dark and I was focusing on a closet. (Fellsmere 11) We didn't find any kind of air freshener dispenser.

Marsh Landing Restaurant

We met up with the group at the Marsh Landing Restaurant. Originally built in 1926 for the Fellsmere Estates Corporation and then it became the headquarters for the Florida Crystal Sugar Company, which was here through the early 1960’s. City Council meetings were held in the large main room and the police department occupied the North end of the building and some prisoners were held here awaiting transportation to the jail. A concrete vault held important documents for the corporation. The building was sold, boarded up and given to the city back in the 1980’s and sat empty until October 1995, when Fran Adams bought the building at public auction. She refurbished and opened Marsh Landing Restaurant in November of 2002. Much of the building is still original. The wood windows and door frames were made from cypress trees that were logged locally and cut in nearby lumber camps. The wainscot around the interior walls has a nice golden hue and is the original tongue and groove ceiling. Most of the doors are original. 

Staff have reported seeing the apparition of a woman wearing a white dress walking across the restaurant in a residual manner and they have also seen her staring into the street when they close up for the night. They have also seen shadow figures and watched chairs move on their own. The blinds have rolled up and down by themselves. The owner of the restaurant, Fran, saw some weird stuff when they were renovating. She witnessed the woman in white float from one wall to another wall and then disappear. Fran has tried to talk to the woman with no luck, which is why they think this is residual. Larry himself saw the woman in white. He said, "A deputy sheriff was here taking a photo in the same spot, and I looked up and saw a woman in white standing in the doorway. The sheriff did not see the woman I saw. I know what I saw – I saw a woman standing there and then she was gone. I went and got the security camera footage and there was no sign of the woman." A woman in purple was snapped standing in the doorway of the women's restroom.

We would end our evening of investigating here. A small group of us headed to the bar area where the holding cell had once been and did a spirit box session. (Fellsmere 12) Then we just let the box go for a while without asking anything and we got this. (Fellsmere 13) Sounded like, "There's a monster." Then we went into another room where three Spanish women are reputedly hanging out in the afterlife. One of the women with us spoke Spanish so she asked some questions. (Fellsmere 14)

We had a lot of fun and met some more interesting people in this field. Are these locations in Fellsmere haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 179 - UC Berkeley

 
Moment in Oddity - Centralia
Suggested by: Teresa Slaven

Centralia was once a small coal mining town found in Pennsylvania. Today, it is a wasteland that is nearly a ghost town with less than a dozen residents. What chased these people away is not a mystery, but it is a strange thing. In 1962, a heap of trash was set ablaze in an abandoned mine pit. This was the town's landfill and there had not been a problem with this practice. But on this particular day, a vein of anthracite coal was exposed and the fire ignited that vein. The surface flames were quickly extinguished, but unfortunately, this was a vein that crawled its way through the Earth and the fire fighters were unaware that the fire continued to burn underground. The fire burned into the coal mines and holes were drilled into the ground to figure out where the fire was burning and to determine temperature. These holes provided oxygen, and as you can imagine, the fire was fueled further. For years, residents and others tried different methods to put out the fire. They flushed the mines with water and excavated as much coal as they could. The fire continued for 20 years and then something else started to happen. The Earth started opening up with sinkholes. One young boy was almost killed. Experts believe that the only way to fix the issue would be a massive trenching operation that would cost $660 million. So the government opted to relocate the residents. The fire continues to burn under 400 acres of surface area and it continues to grow. Estimates claim that it could burn for 250 years. The town is a virtual ghost town that people are detoured around and modern maps do not include the town anymore. The fact that a city was destroyed by a fire that has continued to burn for decades below the earth, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Galileo Discovers Jupiter's Moons

In the month of January, on the 7th, in1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered four moons orbiting the planet Jupiter using a telescope he had made himself. On first observation, he thought that the planets were just a group of stars. After he watched the star cluster for a while, he realized that they were moving in a regular pattern and that movement was against the laws of nature as Galileo understood them at that time. The direction was wrong as far he was concerned. After a few weeks, he surmised that these objects were not stars, but moons that were in orbit with Jupiter. This discovery was further evidence of the Copernican theory on the universe, which stated that everything in the universe did NOT orbit the Earth. This would launch the world into modern astronomy. Today, we know Jupiter's satellites as Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto and they are referred to as the Galilean Moons in honor of their discoverer.

University of California, Berkeley (Suggested by and research assistance from Kat)

The University of California, Berkeley is a research university at its heart. Many discoveries and innovations have their origins at this university. From earthquake detection devices to nutrition to deep sea diving chemicals to prevent the bends to the Atomic Bomb to biotech and biofuels, all of these inventions were developed at UC Berkeley. The university was founded back in the 1800s and has played witness to decades of history. It is one of the top schools in America and in the world. The university has known its share of controversy and although the university most certainly does not embrace this, it is quite haunted as well. Join us as we discuss the history and hauntings of UC Berkeley.

The city of Berkeley was the territory of the Chochenyo/Huchiun band of the Ohlone people originally. They left behind shellmounds and pits in rock formations. They lived mostly along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay at the mouth of Strawberry Creek. The first Europeans to arrive and settle came with the De Anza Expedition in 1776. This expedition led to the founding of the Spanish Presidio of San Francisco at the entrance to San Francisco Bay. One of the soldiers at the Presidio was Luis Peralta. The King of Spain granted him a vast stretch of land on the east shore of San Francisco Bay for a ranch, much of which is today's City of Berkeley. The city is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley.

The California Gold Rush began in 1848 and brought hundreds of thousands of people to California. Henry Durant was born in Massachusetts and studied for the ministry at Yale College. He became an ordained minister, but also a headmaster. He eventually came to Oakland, California and in 1853 he founded the Contra Costa Academy, a private school for boys. Two years later, the school was chartered as the College of California. Another school known as the Agricultural, Mining and Mechanical Arts College merged with the College of California in 1868 and the University of California was founded. Durant was elected the first president of the University of California. The University's beginnings were modest to say the least. Initially there were only 10 faculty members and 40 students.

By 1873, the University had 200 students and there was a need to move to another campus at this time. They moved to a new campus in Berkeley on land adjoining Strawberry Creek. In 1882, UC Berkeley’s first sports team was established on campus and it was a rugby team. Beginning in 1891, Phoebe Apperson Hearst took the University under her wing and started funding a number of programs and buildings. Phoebe had married George Hearst, her distant cousin who was 22 years older, and gave birth to their only son, William Randolph Hearst in 1863. She also sponsored an international competition in Antwerp, Belgium in 1898 for a campus master plan. French architect Émile Bénard submitted the winning design, which was called Roma.

The backstory here is an interesting one about two powerful and rich families in the Bay area competing against each other. The Stanford Family had founded Stanford University and the Hearst Family responded by adopting the fledgling University of California and guiding it to become a world-class institute. It was a classic one-upmanship move. Emile Bénard didn't like the culture of San Francisco and he refused to revise his plan to fit the University, so he was replaced by fourth-place winner John Galen Howard. Howard became UC Berkeley's resident campus architect. He built in the Beaux-Arts Classical Style. Characteristics include flat roofs, statuary and sculptures, arched windows and doors and decorative garlands, balustrades and pilasters.

Howard designed much of the classic historic buildings on campus and most of them are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. These included the Hearst Greek Theatre, the Hearst Memorial Mining Building, Doe Memorial Library, California Hall, Wheeler Hall, Le Conte Hall, Gilman Hall, Haviland Hall, Wellman Hall, Sather Gate, the Sather Tower - which was inspired by St Mark's Campanile (CAM-PA-NEE-LEE) in Venice - North Gate Hall, Dwinelle Annex, and Stephens Hall. In 1919, a southern branch of the University of California was opened in Los Angeles, which began the expansion of the University in a statewide system that now includes 10 campuses across California.

Berkeley faculty started something new on the campus in the1920s by establishing an Academic Senate, which gave them an unprecedented role in the governance of the Berkeley campus. It was described as a faculty revolt, but it is a tradition that has kept the faculty independent and outspoken. The 1930s was another time of diversity and expansion with the opening of International House. John D. Rockefeller Jr. funded the construction and soon thereafter the University of California enrolled nearly 10 percent of all international students in the United States. This was the first coeducational residence west of the Mississippi and housed men, women, foreigners, blacks and whites under one roof. It was not a popular move and many objected.

By 1942, the American Council on Education ranked UC Berkeley second only to Harvard University in the number of distinguished departments. The innovation coming out of UC Berkeley was amazing. A device to create cleaner smokestack emissions that is still used today was developed in 1907. Vitamin E was discovered in 1922. Berkeley Chemist Joel H. Hildebrand formulated a mixture of helium and oxygen for deep-sea diving that would enable divers to explore deeper than ever before without experiencing "the bends” in 1924. Using iodine to diagnose and treat hyperthyroidism was developed here as well. Nutrition Science got its start here and speaking of food, fruit cocktail was created at UC Berkeley by William Cruess. There was also the flu vaccine, plutonium produced for first time, the Atomic Bomb was developed, wetsuits were invented, the first cancer causing gene was discovered, biofuels were developed and the list goes on and on.

Eventually, Berkeley would become a scene for campus protests against the Vietnam War, but the military once had a huge influence at the University. Military training was compulsory for male undergraduates and Berkeley housed an armory for that purpose. The ROTC program was established in 1917 and the School of Military Aeronautics trained future pilots that included Jimmy Doolittle. In 1926, future fleet admiral Chester W. Nimitz established the first Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps unit at Berkeley. The military increased its presence on campus during World War II.

During the McCarthy era in 1949, the Board of Regents adopted an anti-communist loyalty oath. They required that all the faculty and student employees declare in writing that they were not members of the Communist Party. Many of the faculty formed a resistance movement and they were dismissed. The regents eventually rescinded the oath and the California Supreme Court sided with those employees who refused to sign. They were reinstated with back pay. In 1952, the University of California became an entity separate from the Berkeley campus. Each University of California campus was given autonomy and its own Chancellor. Then-president Sproul assumed presidency of the entire University of California system, and Clark Kerr became the first Chancellor of UC Berkeley.

While the University has been known for its innovations and protests, many may not know that the University harbors many spirits. Several locations are haunted. The first is the Faculty Club. These were the dorms that housed the faculty when the University first opened. The dorm is now an on-campus hotel. One of the professors, Henry Morse Stephens, lived at the Faculty Club for 20 years until his death in 1919. Supposedly, he still haunts his room because he loved the University so much. Guests report things being moved to a place where they did NOT put it when staying in that room. His apparition has been seen sitting in his favorite chair and reciting poetry. Cold spots have been felt and people see indentations on the bed by something unseen. There might be more than just a love of the school here. Stephens' life’s work was collecting more than 800 individual accounts of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. He was going to create a complete archive and give it to the Bancroft Library. He died before that happened and today, his work has been lost. Could this be why he is still around in the afterlife? Maybe he feels his work is not finished or he is upset that it is lost.

The Daily Cal reported, "In 1974, the Berkeley Daily Gazette ran an article in which Noriyuki Tokuda, a visiting Japanese scholar, reported seeing Stephens’ ghost. After waking from a nap, Tokuda saw a well-dressed gentleman sitting in the chair opposite him. Then, much to Tokuda’s surprise, the man flew across the room and disappeared. The Gazette reported Tokuda as saying, 'I opened my eyes then and saw a funny picture — two heads with a body passing out of my sight and disappearing.' Later, when shown a photograph of Stephens, Tokuda confirmed a striking resemblance." Psychic Charles Peden claims that the captain of the 1920s football team is the one haunting the Faculty Club. He died of pneumonia apparently. Peden wrote of his encounter with this ghost, "In a matter of moments, I felt the energy in the room shift and I felt the presence of a spirit from the other side. After speaking with him for a moment I determined that they were connected with the 1920 football team. I thought that it was most likely the captain of the team. He informed us that he had passed due to pneumonia and then he spoke about the football team of this time period and how they were a bunch of sissies having to wear all the extra protective gear and face masks on the helmets. Even though he ripped the team a bit, he ended up the interview with a hearty 'Go Bears!”'"

Kroeber Hall houses the Anthropology Department. We can already imagine that this place would have some weird stuff going on just based on the types of artifacts housed in the building. The Hearst Museum of Anthropology is located here as well. Kat told us, "This was a story from one of my friends, and this involves her professor. While she was taking an Anthro class, the class had a chance to go into the basement level of the Anthro museum, which is normally off-limits to students who aren't working there. Before the professor went down the stairs, she was apparently praying this weird spell. One of the students asked her why, and she replied, 'Oh, I was pushed down the stairs when I was alone. When I spoke with a Native American elder, he told me to wear this necklace and say this prayer. It's to appease the spirits of Native Americans that are attached to the artifacts here.'"
One of Kat's friends had a friend that worked in the museum and she claimed that she saw dark shadows in the corners of the basement lurking and shifting around and felt cold spots when she was working there alone.

Barrington Hall is privately operated student housing, but initially it was a student housing cooperative when it opened in 1935. During the sixties, it got a reputation as a drug den and eventually riots in regards to the building caused it to shut down in September 1990. It was reopened as the privately owned student housing and residents claim that the building is haunted. Some claim that there is a spirit of a student who hung himself in the hall, now haunting it. A weird shadow figure has been seen climbing the stairs up to the third floor. This figure enters each room and stares for a bit as though checking on the students. This has led to the theory that the spirit belongs to a former third floor resident. During the riots of 1990, Juan Mendoza, a 20 year old student and resident of Barrington Hall, fell off the roof of the building and sadly died. Could he be one of the spirits as well?

Evans Hall is the Math and Stat Department building and it is one of the tallest on campus. A junior majoring in math had a very low GPA. This can be a common occurrence at Berkeley because of grade deflation. Kat said that most of the kids who go to UC Berkeley were valedictorians or top of their classes in high school and the transition into Berkeley academics can be tough. It was for this kid and he ended up committing suicide over that low GPA. When you are studying math on the basement floor of Evans Hall alone, in one of the classrooms and if you get a problem wrong, you will hear an insult that will tell you that you got the answer wrong and it will tell you the correct answer. Of course, when the student turns around to thank them/insult them back, no one is there.

The Hearst Gym is a location where Kat has felt weird and uneasy. The reason could be that in the 1960s, the remains of about 12,000 Native Americans were dug up on campus and stored in Hearst Gym under the swimming pool. The basement apparently has cabinets and drawers full of these Native American bones. The building has haunting experiences that range from flickering lights to feelings of unease to strange tapping noises. The University has tried to return the bones to their tribes of origin, but the process has been slow and arduous and it is felt that the spirits of the natives that are at unrest will be sticking around.

Then there is Sather Tower, which resembles the Campanile (CAM-PA-NEE-LEE) in Venice. This is the most famous structure on campus and has been a spot for suicide. At least until the anti-suicide bars were put up. Inside the tower are 61 bells that make up a full concert carillon with bells ranging in size from nineteen pounds to a 10,500 pound one called the Great Bear Bell. The Great Bear Bell has carvings of bears as well as the constellation of Ursa Major. It is rung once an hour. Sather Tower is the third tallest bell and clock tower in the world standing at 307 feet. It was built in 1914 and opened in 1917. The observation deck at the top is where two people committed suicide by jumping. Richard Saphir was the first to jump in 1958. He was a retired attorney who had relocated from Chicago. Instead of going to his psychiatry appointment, he climbed the tower and leapt to his death.
The other was a man named John Patterson who was a 19 year-old sophmore at the University. He jumped in 1961. It is Patterson's ghost that people claim haunts the tower. His apparition has been seen in the tower and around the grounds. In fact, a legend claims that a photographer was taking a picture of the lawn and captured a ghostly hand reaching out of the ground.

Are the spirits of former students and professors still roving the halls and campus of UC Berkeley? Is UC Berkeley haunted? That is for you to decide!