HGB Ep. 375 - Wyoming Frontier Prison

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Moment in Oddity - Potong Gigi (Tooth Filing Ceremony) Suggested by: Scott Booker

We're  not sure if Bali has an obsession with vampires or if they really think that canine teeth just look prettier when they are filed down, but they've created a pretty bizarre ceremony around this practice. The Tooth Filing Ceremony or Potong Gigi as people from Bali call it, is observed when a young person comes of age. This is considered a beautiful and sacred ritual in the country. The ceremony has taken place for hundreds of years and is considered the last duty of a parent when preparing a child for the move to adulthood. Early ones were conducted in private at home, but today are an elaborate affair. These ceremonies take place in a temple with lots of prayers, chants and incense and a priest or priestess does the filing. The canine teeth are sharp and thought to represent the animal side of humans that usually presents as aggressive or evil behavior. These could be vices that need to be controlled. Filing down the points of the canines is a symbolic gesture of removing the evil from the fangs. Now these young adults can be thought of as angels on the right path versus demons prone to following the lusts of the heart. The fact that smooth canine teeth symbolizes goodness, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - The Boston Massacre

In the month of March, on the 5th, in 1770, the Boston Massacre occurred beginning the road to the American Revolution. Tensions were running high between American colonists and the British when a group of Bostonians started protesting against a small group of British soldiers guarding the Boston Customs House. The colonists soon were hurling insults and snowballs. The soldiers were under orders not to shoot, but they fired into the crowd anyway. The first man struck was an African American sailor named Crispus Attucks. He would be considered the first hero of the American Revolution. Crispus had been working on whaling ships for 20 years after escaping slavery. Four other colonists were shot and killed, but their identities are lost to history. Paul Revere made a famous engraving depicting the event. British Captain Thomas Preston and eight of his troops were arrested and charged with murder. John Adams was a lawyer at the time and he defended the British. The Captain and six soldiers were acquitted, while two others were found guilty of manslaughter and punished with branding before being released. What started as a small event, made martyrs of the protesters and united the colonies in a desire for freedom from British tyranny.

Wyoming Frontier Prison (Suggested by Sandtrooper Mick)

Wyoming can be a beautiful state, but it can also be harsh, particularly in the winter. The Wyoming Frontier Prison was a brutal place with no heat during the savage winters and if a prisoner could manage to survive that, there were other threats to their life. Hundreds lost their lives via murder, suicide and execution. Enough men suffered and died here that a spiritual residue has built up and there are many ghost stories connected to the prison. Join us as we explore the history and haunts of the Wyoming Frontier Prison!

The city of Rawlins is where the frontier prison is located. Rawlins is located in the southern part of Wyoming and was originally part of an area that was called Carbon County that covered the entire width of the Wyoming Territory. The term carbon reflected the coal deposits found here. Every trail leading west crossed through here from the Oregon Trail to the Mormon Trail and even the Union Pacific Railroad. General John A. Rawlins was the chief of staff of the U.S. Army when he brought a group of his troops through to protect the surveyors laying out the first trans-continental route in 1867. It must have been hot because Rawlins kept wishing for a cold drink of water. A couple of scouts from his group went out and stumbled upon a natural spring with cool drinkable water. They brought some back for General Rawlins and he declared that the water was the most refreshing drink he had ever tasted. He then said, "If anything is ever named after me, I hope it will be a spring of water." And so the spring became Rawlins Springs and that is what the community that built up around it was known as until 1886, when the city was incorporated and the name was shortened to just Rawlins.

The land where the prison was built was bought from the railroad in 1888 and the cornerstone was laid that same year. The weather that we mentioned in the intro was so bad after construction on the prison started, that it took thirteen years to complete. Economic issues also factored in as funding was hard to come by from the state. Local granite stone was used as the construction material. The design was by Salt Lake City architect Warren E. Ware and is in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. There are two castle-like turrets with conical roofs on either side of the main structure that rises three and a half levels. The main building has a main entrance topped by a wide, semicircular arch with radiating voussoirs, which are tapered stones. The upper-story windows have similar decorative archways above them. Stepping inside the entrance, there is a massive iron-bar gate that shields the front door, sidelights, and transom. There is also a small, decorated, gabled dormer on the roof. This main building was the Administration Building that originally housed offices on the first floor, an infirmary and a few cells for women on the second floor, and a chapel on the third floor. There were women at this prison, but very few and only for a few years.

Annie Bruce was one of the women who did time here. Annie liked baking pies and on March 20, 1907, she baked five delicious pies. Well, maybe that one tasted a little different. And it should have because she poured a full bottle of Strychnine into that pie. Annie then put the pie in her father's lunch and after about three bites, he crumpled over in horrendous pain. His co-workers got him medical care, but it was too late and James Bruce died with enough poison in his body to kill five men. They traced it back to Annie and she was convicted of manslaughter, the first time a woman had been convicted of any degree of murder in Wyoming. Annie was also just fourteen years of age. She told the court, "While I was in the act of making the pies, a feeling or a wish came over me to kill someone and this feeling, I could not resist." She was sentenced to four years, but served only one of them at the Wyoming Frontier Prison. She was moved to the Colorado State Penitentiary by request of her family. She was the last woman to serve time at the Wyoming Frontier Prison.

Another female prisoner here was also named Annie, Annie Groves. She had worked in a nearby town as a lady of the evening and developed a bad relationship with one of her customers. His name was James Passwater and Annie blamed him for giving her a venereal disease. After a sore destroyed her lower lip, she decided to exact revenge and she got herself a gun. Annie's got a gun! She walked into the saloon where Passwater was sitting and she aimed for the back of his head. She missed, just grazing his hat and hitting another man in the shoulder. Annie was arrested and sentenced to a year hard labor at the jail. Her, uh husband...yes, Annie was married, got her a pardon after six months and the couple left the state.

The prison finally opened in December of 1901 and was originally known as the Wyoming State Penitentiary. This was Wyoming's first state prison. There was only the main Administration Building and Cell Block A that featured 104 cells at that time and there was no running water, no electricity and no heat. This jail was built to take some of the pressure off the federal prison in nearby Laramie and so the first prisoners brought in came from that facility. Work on expanding the jail started almost immediately as more room was needed. These additions would include guard quarters, water tower, boiler and pump houses, horse barn, warden's house,  storage buildings, a commissary and garages. Most continued the Romanesque style, but a view incorporated Mission style. Cell Block A didn't get running hot water until 1978. Overcrowding would always be an issue and in the eighty years that the prison was open 13,500 people would pass through its doors including eleven women. No women would be housed at the prison after 1909.

Cell Block B was added in 1950 and with this came solitary confinement cells. A plus would be that a heating system was a part of this cell block, along with hot running water. In 1966, Cell Block C was added, which included 36 cells that were set aside for inmates who were discipline issues. The roughest of the rough would be housed between these two cell blocks and this prison was not about rehabilitation. This place dished out the punishment. Solitary confinement was always full and there were various varieties of these. And there was a punishment pole. Men would be handcuffed to this and then whipped with rubber hoses. Security was not great for many years and there were many escapes. James Williams was an inmate who was killed while trying to escape. There were also suicides, mostly from men throwing themselves from upper floors. One guard that worked in Tower 9 was so stressed out that he also committed suicide. Two men died from freezing to death in cells that had no heat.

The Death House was added in 1916 for those who were sentenced to death. There were six cells and executions would take place inside as well. First there were hangings and then the gas chamber was added. The worst part of this prison probably would have to be the Julien Gallows. We've never heard of anything like this. Inmates were executed using this device from 1912 to 1933. This invention forced the inmates to kill themselves. What the inmate would do is step out onto a trap door and a stream of water was started that would eventually open the trap door, and the prisoner would drop through. The only problem with that was that the drop was not far enough to break the man's neck and they would then take several minutes to strangle. Nine men met their fate on the Julien Gallows. One has to wonder why this issue was never fixed. The gas chamber was added in 1936 when the state of Wyoming chose this as their new execution method. Hydrocyanic acid gas was used as the death agent. Five men would die in the gas chamber that had windows around it, so people could watch. In all, fourteen men were executed here. 

One of the more heinous events connected to the prison occurred in 1912. Details of inmate Frank Wigfall's biography are hard to trace. He died at the prison at either the age of 39 or 49. He was born in South Carolina and came to Wyoming when he was twenty-four. In 1901, Wigfall was arrested in Cheyenne on the charge of assault with intent to kill. He had gotten into a fight in a saloon and stabbed  Ollie Buckley who survived. Wigfall was arrested, convicted and sentenced to serve 18 months at the prison in Rawlins. When he was released, he moved to Laramie where he shared a room with a man who had a lady friend named Mrs. Kruppa. This woman had a twelve year old daughter named Helen and before long, Wigfall had been arrested for attempted rape of Helen. Wigfall plead guilty to avoid a trial and begged to be sent off to jail quickly because he feared lynching. He was sentenced to fourteen years. During his time in the jail, an older woman whom all the prisoners called Granny Higgins would bring fresh baked cookies for the prisoners. They all loved her. 

When Wigfall was released he went to Granny Higgins house and sexually assaulted her after breaking her door down with an ax. He ran away, but a posse tracked him down. Now while he had been put in jail before to protect him from lynching, this time the inmates would be the danger. John Neale was the Cell House guard and he was doing morning inspections of cells on Tier 3 when a group of forty inmates overtook him and locked him in a cell. This group then grabbed Wigfall and put a rope around his neck and marched him up the stairs to the top floor. They then threw him over the rail and hanged him. Newspapers across the nation reported, "Convicts Keep Secret Pact – Full details of Lynching May Never be Known." It was rumored that the inmates had threatened that anyone who squealed would be the next to hang.

Prisoners did have work at the Wyoming Frontier Prison. The prison produced brooms over a period of sixteen years, but this ended in 1917 when inmates burned down the broom factory during a riot. The building was rebuilt and became a shirt factory, which brought in a ton of revenue for the state. This was closed in 1934 and transformed into a woolen mill in 1935. The mill won the “Navy E” in 1942 for the superior quality blankets they produced during World War II for the military. After the war, production switched over to license plates and this would continue until the jail closed in 1981. The property was abandoned after closing until 1987, when it was used as a film location for a low budget movie titled "Prison" starring Viggo Mortensen. Since the prison had not been set aside as a historic site, it wasn't protected and the film production caused some major damage. This got preservationists involved and a joint powers board was formed. They renamed the jail "The Wyoming Frontier Prison" and reopened it as a museum. The prison got its listing on The National Registry of Historic Places, and now offers daily tours. Approximately 15,000 visitors pass through the doors annually.

One of the inmates here was Bill Carlisle, who was dubbed the gentleman bandit. He was nicknamed this because he never shot anyone and didn't take money from women, children or servicemen. He started his criminal life in 1916 by robbing his first train, a Union Pacific passenger train. Carlisle put on a white mask and pulled out a gun, ordering a sleeping porter to collect money from the male passengers. The gun he used was actually a glass gun that had been filled with candy. He escaped the train by jumping off the top of one of the cars and rolling away into the brush. A posse went out after him, but he eluded them. He then went after the Overland Limited on April 4, 1916. He got away from that train too and went on to rob another train later that month. This time, Carlisle was captured and he was sentenced to life in prison. He was a model prisoner at the Wyoming Frontier Prison until he escaped. He worked in the shirt factory and hid himself in a packing crate full of shirts. Carlisle got out of the box, boarded a train and proceeding to rob the men. A posse was already after him and knew he was on the train. When he jumped from the train, he was shot in the wrist, but still managed to make a run for it. The posse caught up with him two weeks later and he had a bad infection from his bullet wound. He was returned to prison on December 18, 1919. He was paroled on good behavior in 1936 and married the nurse who took care of his bullet wound. They opened a hotel together in Laramie and eventually moved to Pennsylvania where he died of cancer at the age of 74.

Al Biscaro entered the prison in 1920 on charges of grand larceny. He went by several names. Charles Nichols and William Morgan were a couple of his other names. He was a lifelong criminal who had already served three prison terms and was considered a really violent guy. He did, however; prove to be a model prisoner...until he decided to escape and he did this in a huge way. Four months after he was put in the prison, he developed appendicitis. The doctor in the prison was Dr. Barber and he did an emergency appendectomy on Biscaro who stayed in the infirmary for nearly a month. Biscaro asked for a meeting with the Warden who was named Hadsell or with the Deputy Warden named Kiefer. Both said they were too busy and this seemed to set Biscaro off. 

A man named Rich Magor came into the prison to do some handyman work. Dr. Barber had told him that he would give him a ride back to ton and so when he was finished, he went to the infirmary to wait for the doctor to get off work. Neither Dr. Barber or Magor knew that Biscaro's wife had somehow gotten a gun to him. He pulled out this revolver and everyone in the infirmary at gunpoint. This included Magor, Dr. Barber, a guard and seven other convicts. He told the guard to take his demands to the Warden. He wanted a car brought to the infirmary door with four women inside and for all the guards to be removed. If these demands were not met, he said he would kill the doctor - who had saved his life - and Magor. Dr. Barber and Magor offered themselves in place of the women, so Biscaro agreed to take them hostage instead. The doctor also offered his own car, which was near the infirmary. The Warden agreed to have the guards stand down until Biscaro was two blocks away. Biscaro loaded up his hostages and held a gun to Dr. Barber's head as he ordered him to drive. 

A posse set off almost immediately and Biscaro told Magor to tell the Warden if they continued their pursuit, he would kill the doctor and then he kicked Magor out of the car while it was traveling at 45 mph. Magor managed to survive the tumble without much injury and relaid the message, but the Warden wouldn't have to worry about the doctor for long. Dr. Barber knew he was a dead man and so he did a brave thing throwing his weight behind the wheel and wrecking his car on purpose. The doctor made his way out of the wreckage and ran, nearly being shot as Biscaro opened fire. Biscaro ran into a nearby ravine to hide. The posse began searching for him and heard three shots. When they followed the direction of the shots, they found Biscaro dead with self-inflicted wounds to his heart and head. The third bullet was never found. Biscaro’s wife, Grace Nichols, later confessed to providing the gun for her husband saying, "I’d do it again." When she was allowed to see Biscaro's body she said to him, "Well, Old Scout, guess I will finish your sentence."

There are many ghosts stories connected to this site. Many visitors and staff have seen the spirit of a black cat roaming about the cells and there is a good reason for that. The staff needed to test the mixer for the gas chamber and most times they would use a pig, but on this occasion they found a stray black cat and put it in the gas chamber. A tour guide named Erin was in A Block and she came out of a cell when a black cat darted out in front of her. He went around the corner and another tour guide named Molly was standing there and she saw the cat and then it just disappeared. Solitary Confinement or the Dungeon House or the Black Hole - names used by all the inmates - has a lot of activity. A malevolent spirit resides here and threatens anyone who ventures here. 

There are those who call the whole prison a death house. More than 200 prisoners died here. Some of their spirits remain. Ted Ford was a former tour guide at the museum and he claimed to see the figure of a man one day. He was standing in a doorway, so Ted approached him and he disappeared. Another tour guide named Kaitlyn saw a similar figure. She too saw him in a doorway after turning around and she was shocked to see him there. She thought somebody had broken in, so she shouted "hello" to let him know that she saw him. She walked towards him shouting "hey!" and he backed away in a room and when she got to the doorway, he was nowhere in the room. The interesting backstory is that both of these guides saw this man in the same doorway and this was near where a guard was beaten and stabbed to death by two inmates. They were drunk on some prison hooch. They dragged him down some stairs that lead into the room where the ghost disappeared. Was this shadow man the murdered guard?

A full-bodied apparition of a man wearing a brimmed hat has been seen in the Death House where inmates were hanged. Most apparitions are seen out of the corner of the eye. And back to the story about Wigfall, when conditions are right his lynching is played over as if on a loop. The Destination Mystery Team investigated the jail in July of 2020 and they believe they captured an apparition in the upstairs area of the chapel. It's an interesting capture. We'll share a still photo an Instagram and you can see what you think. Tina Hill was Museum Director back in 2001. She claimed to hear booted footsteps outside the public bathroom. When she walked over to the area, no one was there. This had once been the guards' kitchen. Another former tour guide named Becky Munsinger once saw a dark-haired man wearing a gray shirt and gray pants while walking a cell block one day.

(Warning) Andrew Pixley was one of the most notorious prisoners. A family from Chicago was in Jackson Hole on a ski vacation and he raped and killed the two young daughters, 11 and 12. The beating was horrible and there was evidence of cannibalism. While he was in his cell, he carved the faces of his female victims on the walls of the cell and referred to them as his guardian angels. Those carvings are still visible in the cell. He was killed in the gas chamber in 1965 and he took longer to die than any other man in the Death House. Most inmates took 3 minutes to die in the chamber. Pixley took a full six minutes. A tour guide named Mike calls this cell the scariest one in the Death House and he liked to tell guests on his tours that it took longer to kill Pixley because it is harder to kill evil. He had a chilling experience one day. He was recording the dates all the executions in the prison and he went up to the hanging room to verify some dates because they have them posted on the wall up there. It was dark and he needed a flashlight. The minute the beam fell upon the black eyes of Pixley in his mug shots, Mike heard the sobbing of little girls. The sound was coming from the gas chamber. He was scared to death. Especially when he realized the date. It was the same day that Pixley had been executed. They light a candle in there during tours and it flares brighter all the time. Another tour guide named Susie says the hair on the back of her neck always stands up when she is in that cell and talking about this prisoner.

Ghost Adventures investigated the prison in 2013. They captured a lot of unexplained noises on their audio recorder. To us it sounded like banging on the cell bars. They had a camera spin out in a shower room and fall down by itself and they all heard a male voice audibly. They checked the prison to make sure nobody was in there with them and they were the only ones. Billy was sitting in a cell block by himself and saw a light. He described it being as if a guard was walking the block with a flashlight, but he was alone in that area. The guys felt like they got some good evidence. It was definitely interesting.

The Wyoming Frontier Prison was a harsh and cruel place that became the final home for some 200 inmates who would not leave this location alive. Is it possible that some of their spirits are still here, trapped or otherwise? Is the Wyoming Frontier Prison haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 327 - Yellowstone National Park

Moment in Oddity - Wooldridge Monuments
Suggested by: Kim Gasiorowski

There is a very unusual monument in Mayfield, Kentucky. This monument is named the Wooldridge Monuments and is named for Henry Wooldridge who was a lifelong bachelor and eccentric horse breeder. Henry must have spent a lot of time thinking about his death and how he wanted to be honored with his burial. He decided to commission 18 life-sized statues to be erected within the boundaries of his 17 x 33 square foot plot in Maplewood Cemetery. That's already really unusual, but even stranger, all of the monuments face east and include family members and animals. Statues represent his two brothers, three sisters, mother and two nieces. He also made sure to include two of his dogs and a horse. He also commissioned two monuments for himself, one of which has him astride the aforementioned horse and the other standing next to a lectern. The latter was crafted from marble in Italy while the rest of the works were made from limestone. Legends claim that all of the people represented were dead and that sculptors just had to wing it because Henry provided them with no pictures. The statues were put in place before Henry died in 1899 at the age of 77. His marble vault has a double-barreled shotgun carved into it. This procession of statues in a graveyard, certainly is odd!

This Month in History - Diphtheria Serum Arrives Via Sled Dog in Nome, Alaska

In the month of February, on the 2nd, in 1925, Norwegian Gunnar Kaasen, and his lead dog Balto, brought the life-saving diphtheria serum into Nome, Alaska. A major outbreak of diphtheria threatened the young people of Nome, Alaska in early 1925. The only serum was in Anchorage and a major storm with temperatures reaching down into the -70F level was raging. There was only one aircraft that was available to get the serum through, but the cold weather had frozen the engine. Officials knew their only chance was to use sled dogs. This would not be an easy trip and while Balto and Kaasen have gotten most of the glory, a group of mushers and sled dogs got the serum through. The worst stretch that was also the longest was covered by Norwegian Leonhard Seppala and his dog Togo. But Balto managed to follow the trail in whiteout conditions and in the dark. All of these men and dogs were heroes. There is a statue of Balto in Central Park, New York. The plaque on it reads, "Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the Winter of 1925. Endurance · Fidelity · Intelligence"

Yellowstone National Park (Suggested by Carren Sanders)

Yellowstone National Park has some real bragging rights. This was the first ever American National Park. The park stretches over three states and two million acres. There are geothermal wonders, wild animals that can readily be seen, rustic architecture and hundreds of ghost stories. Yellowstone is probably the most haunted national park in America. Join us as we share the history and haunts of Yellowstone National Park!

(Diane) Kelly, I went to Yellowstone with my family when I was a teenager. I had wanted to be a Forest Ranger when I grew up and I love animals, so this was a dream! I got pictures of buffaloes and elk and a momma and baby moose. I'm a birder, so seeing Trumpeter Swans, which are the largest wild waterfowl in America, was amazing. And the hot springs and geysers! There is nothing like them in the world. This is a place of wonders, but also danger. Fall into one of those hot springs and well, you probably will die.

(Kelly) That's right! Ever heard of hot potting? This isn't some form of cooking in the kitchen. There are people who make it a sport to travel around and find these hot springs that are untouched by humanity and still very much in their natural state. The Gnarly Science Blog by Dr. C.M. Helm-Clark has some great stuff on this and isn't that the best name of a blog? Bathing in water over 110 degrees Fahrenheit is unsafe and many hot springs run about 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Dr. Helm-Clark writes, "The mecca of acidic hot springs, at least in North America, is the Yellowstone volcanic caldera.  There have been more than 20 documented deaths at Yellowstone associated with hot springs. Many of these are described in detail to rival any good horror movie in Lee Whittlesey’s Death in Yellowstone (1995, Robert Rinehart Publishers, ISBN 978-1-57098-021-3). Almost all of them are gut-turners." Several bodies of those who have fallen in have never been recovered because they completely dissolved. Some date back to the early 1900s, while one story is as recent as 2015 where a brother and sister left the boardwalk to go hot potting where it was prohibited and the brother fell in and was dissolved. One story Dr. Helm-Clark shares demonstrates just how ludicrous decency beliefs were back in the day, "One woman from Washington DC was on a tour of Yellowstone in 1905, before boardwalks were built for the safety of visitors. In Upper Geyser Basin, home to Old Faithful, she took off her glasses to wipe the moisture off them. Without thinking, she stepped backward, not looking where she was going and fell hip deep into the pool of a boiling water hot spring. She was wearing thick petticoats and these got soaked with the spring water; their presence next to her burned legs kept inflicting a deeper level of burn since they were not removed right away. Apparently, decency was more important than good first aid in those days. In relentless pain, the poor woman lingered for three weeks in a local hotel before she died."

And if those statistics and stories aren't enough, listener Carren Sanders who requested this location wrote to us, "From the time it was made a national park up till 1995, there had been over 300 deaths. 16 murders, 15 suicides, 87 drownings.....the list goes on. I’m sure there are many more now. People taking selfies on cliffs and such." So there are many reasons to have ghosts here. Add to that that there are a couple of cemeteries too. Carren told us, "Up on the hill back behind the general store in mammoth (north of old Faithful in the north entrance of the park ) is the very first cemetery. There are 15 graves, all of them are unmarked except one. Mary Foster I believe her name is. So my husband being the good sport that he is, hiked up there with me and we combed the hillside for quite some time looking for this grave marker. He found a piece of cement with some metal in it that we don’t know what that is. I’m not sure if that would have been part of the marker or something else. So as I was walking, being the crazy lady that I am, I said 'OK Mary if you’re here please show me where you are so I can take a picture and remember you.' Just then this beautiful bluebird landed on a rock close to me. I’m a bird watcher and I was grateful that this beautiful bird made an appearance. Is this a sign that we found her grave? Of course , that is for you to decide."

This is Yellowstone's Kite Hill Cemetery and it was founded in 1883. This had originally been called Sepulcher Hill, but was changed to kite because so many people go there to fly kites. Only one monument remains and it does indeed belong to Mary Foster who appears to be the first burial in 1883. She died at the age of 33 and had probably worked at the Mammoth Hotel near where she was buried. Another woman is buried next to her who died from natural causes in 1887. There are also people buried here who died from suicide, an avalanche and murder, according to the "Death in Yellowstone" book. Fort Yellowstone Army Cemetery is also here and then there is a lone grave near the Nez Perce Picnic Area that belongs to Mattie S. Culver, who was the wife of E. C. Culver who was the caretaker at the Firehole Hotel from 1888 to 1889. The Culvers had come here hoping to help Mattie with her TB that she suffered from, but she eventually died on March 2, 1889. The ground was too frozen to bury her so she was placed inside two pickle barrels and buried in a snowdrift until the spring thaw.

We've talked a lot of death. Perhaps we should get into the history behind the formation of Yellowstone National Park. The park is named after the Yellowstone River, which was named by French trappers in the 18th century. The French name is Roche Jaune. Paleo Indians of the Clovis Culture were here long before the French though. Possibly living in the region 11,000 years ago. They were followed eventually by the Shoshone, Nez Perce and Crow. Stories about Yellowstone in the early 1800s were thought to just be myths. When trappers and mountain men reported that they had seen rivers with steam rising from them, mjud that boiled and trees that were petrified, people thought they were making up stories and even called the place Colter's Hell after one of the men who had spent time in the area called it a place of fire and brimstone.

The Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition of 1869 was the first to survey the Yellowstone area and this was followed by the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition in 1870. This expedition not only surveyed the land, but collected specimens and one of the members, Cornelius Hedges, championed the idea that the Yellowstone area be set aside as some kind of national park. More people would join the cause and finally Congress was petitioned to "pass a bill reserving the Great Geyser Basin as a public park forever." Things would finally move forward and President Ulysses S. Grant would sign The Act of Dedication law that created Yellowstone National Park on March 1, 1872. Nathaniel Langford was Yellowstone's first superintendent. But Langford was given no federal funding and poachers and other raiders took full advantage with nearly 3,000 animals being killed between 1874 and 1875. Eventually funding came and crude roads were built and then the train came and people used stagecoaches and horses to access the park.

The US Army would take over the management of Yellowstone from 1886 through 1918. The National Park Service was created in 1916 and that same year, horse-drawn wagons were no longer allowed on park roads. This would usher in the automobile and people would start pouring into the park. But this was not without issues as many cars would get stuck on old wagon roads, so the park service started paving roads. In 1929, the park's boundaries were adjusted. Officials would continue to develop the park and make changes throughout the years to help protect animals, restore wolves to the park and manage the land better.

But lost in all this history is what happened to the Native Americans who had lived here and hunted here. They eventually were mostly excluded and the only year round tribe were the Eastern Shoshone who were known as the "Sheepeaters." They thought that a treaty had promised them the right to hunt in Yellowstone if they ceded their lands there. The treaty was never ratified and the Sheepeaters would be denied. There would be skirmishes with Chief Joseph's Nez Perce band as well. Eventually, there would be peace and one of the most beautiful areas in the country would be saved from development.

Old Faithful Inn

There are nine lodging options in Yellowstone National Park and probably the most famous is the Old Faithful Inn. What makes this the most popular hotel in the park is the fact that it is right next to the geyser for which it is named, Old Faithful. The geyser was named Old Faithful because of its constant regularity. It erupts every 35 to 120 minutes and the eruption last from 1 1/2 to 5 minutes. The burst of steam and water can rise as high as 184 feet. The steam hits around 204 degrees Fahrenheit at the vent. The Upper Geyser Basin Hotel had stood here originally, but it burned down. The Old Faithful Inn was designed by architect Robert Reamer and built between 1903 and 1904 using local logs and stone and rises four stories. This makes it the largest log structure in the world. The inside is wonderful to behold with decorative wood and wrought iron, a massive stone fireplace and a hand-crafted clock made of copper. There are 327 rooms and...at least one ghost.

The Old Faithful Inn features the ghost story of the headless bride. The story dates back to 1915 and follows the same features as so many ghost stories involving star-crossed lovers. It's a wonder that it took so long for parents to come around to just letting their kids love who they love. In this case, we have the daughter of a wealthy shipping magnate in New York. Her parents had picked out the son of a wealthy friend to be her husband and arranged everything. But their daughter had fallen in love with one of the household servants who also happened to be a much older man. The daughter eloped with the servant. Her parents were humiliated and her father wanted to get the couple out of town, so he offered them a large sum of money - her dowry - to leave New York and never come back. The couple agreed and they headed for Wyoming. They decided to honeymoon at Yellowstone and they booked a room at the Old Faithful Inn.

Now the young woman had followed her heart, but maybe not her brain because she hadn't chosen very well when it came to her husband. He took the large sum of money that was her dowry and decided to do some gambling. He also bought the finest food and drank the best liquor. A month into the honeymoon and the couple was broke. The husband told her she should call her dad for more money and you can probably guess what the answer was, a solid "no." The couple quarreled and it was so loud that many staff and guests heard the argument. The husband left the room, slamming the door hard behind him and was never seen again. After a couple of days, the staff became worried because they hadn't seen either member of the couple. They entered the room and found a grisly scene. The bride was in the bathroom, with blood everywhere and her head was missing. This was eventually found in the Crow's Nest, where the band played. The young woman is now reputedly seen in her spirit form, wearing white, descending from the Crow's Nest with her head tucked under her arm.

Is there any truth to this tale? There doesn't seem to be and the story goes that a bell captain at the inn named George Bornemann had made the whole story up and now everybody tells the story. But there is another ghost tale connected to the inn. A woman staying at the hotel in Room 2 years ago claimed that she saw a woman wearing Victorian era clothing floating at the foot of her bed at night. She woke her husband up, but he did not see the apparition. Now, we would typically question this since the inn was built in 1904 and Victorian dresses were probably out of style by that time, but could this be a ghost from the earlier hotel that was here?

There is one more ghostly tale connected to the hotel. This one is from an employee who had a really weird experience. A housekeeper claimed to watch a fire extinguisher that was hanging on the wall, lift itself up, do a 90-degree turn and then drop back to its original position. This was up on the 300 wing and the only time that anyone saw this extinguisher do its acrobatics. The National Parks Traveler Blog had the following comment, "As an employee of TWServices during the summers of 1986 and 1987 at the Old Faithful Inn location, I can verify some of the stories from the Inn. I worked as a line cook at OFI. I became friends with the security guards because I would get off work late and then hang around in front of the fire place or go to the second floor to write letters from the small tables in the public area. I marveled at the Inn and the geyser basin at night because I got to roam it without thousands of tourists interrupting. It was the summer of '86 that my experiences began with the unrested souls. On a routine watch with one of the guards we walked the halls of the 3rd floor something called my first name. I kept walking and continued to hear it several times until I asked her if she had heard anything. She said yes and that "they" do it to her quite often. Later that night we made it down to the 300 wing. It was the newer part of the hotel. I was told it was built on 2 unmarked graves. I pretty much shrugged it off, but thought it to be odd. In the months following several odd things occurred, many that took my nerve resulting in me running away. The 300 wing was intersected by 4 hallways and and a refreshment closet. I saw the fire extinguisher mentioned above. I saw the fire hose wheel turn and fill up the hose. I saw the short stairwell steps flatten causing my friend to stumble. I felt the unrested souls pass by me in the hallways. A sweet fragrance was present. I felt my hand squeezed. I saw the ice machine fill up then dump ice on the floor."

Lake Yellowstone Hotel

Lake Yellowstone Hotel was built in 1891 and has 296 rooms. This is the oldest standing hotel at Yellowstone and the decor is reminiscent of the 1920s with colonial architectural styling on the outside featuring yellow clapboard. It is named for Yellowstone Lake because it sits on its shores. The sunroom and lounge have massive windows providing a great view of this lake. One can sit in here or out on the porch, sipping some tea and listening to the tinkling of the keys from a live piano player. The hotel was originally designed by architect R.R. Cummins and was relatively plain. He had been hired by the Northern Pacific Railway to build the hotel, as one of three the railway was building in the park. As more and more people came to Yellowstone, upgrades were made. The architect of the Old Faithful Inn, Robert Reamer, was hired to renovate. The hotel has undergone many renovations through the years with 2014 being the most recent.

There are several spirits reported to be here. One of them is said to be President Calvin Coolidge. Like so many of our presidents, he visited Yellowstone and loved it and was particularly fond of this hotel. So they say that he occasionally turns up as though he is taking a vacation from the afterlife at a place he where he once liked to vacation in life. He is generally seen sitting in a rocker in the lounge. Being that the hotel is on a lake, one can imagine that a few people have drowned here either while swimming or in boating accidents. There are two drownings that have ghosts connected to them. A young boy was visiting with his family and drowned here. People see his apparition near the lake and in the hotel. One employee claimed to see him gazing out from the attic, which is kept locked at all times. He is said to always be wearing a dress shirt and has brown hair. He likes to play in the public men's restroom too.

Al Brindza tells of an experience he had on the Am Ghost Hunters Blog, "At this time I decided to head for the men's restroom located past the main desk down the hallway on the first floor. Upon entering through a heavy wooden door that made a squeaking noise like these type of doors often do, I discovered I was the only one there or so I thought. Within a few seconds I felt the familiar jag of a headache that I usually get when something paranormal is near. Next I heard some footsteps and a little boy giggling and laughing and I was surprised to see him peeking under the stall door. I believe I said 'Hey' and then he was gone. Total silence, I heard no more footsteps or the opening or closing of the door. Now I'm thinking OK, what just happened? I didn't see much of the little boy just his face and his light brown or blondish hair, wearing a white dress up kind of shirt. Afterwards I returned and explained my experience to my wife and to our son Eric and his wife Chrissy. Later after we finished our meal and were leaving I just had to ask the lady at the main desk if there were any ghost stories associated with this place. At first I got the usual stare as her mind processed what I had asked. Then she said, 'There are some stories of a little boy that has been seen by some of our guests!'"

And there is the spirit of a young woman wearing a flapper's dress that is seen. People say that her name is Mathilda and that she likes to haunt a room on the second floor in the back with a view of the forest that was probably her room at one time. Mathilda will sometimes walk the second floor hallway and she has touched people on occasion. She enjoys staff more than guests. There had been a group of musicians who would play at the hotel and they apparently still like to play in the afterlife. A former porter at the hotel has returned in spirit form and people see him in the lobby before he just disappears. He often appears out of nowhere and offers to help guests with their luggage and provides information on the trails one can hike at Yellowstone.

S.E. Schlosser wrote the book "Haunted Yellowstone" and tells a story about the bellman in there, "About halfway down, a compassionate bellman overtook me and claimed my heavy bag.  Relieved, I hitched my handbag over my shoulder and followed the bellman.  We chattered about my trip all the way up the elevator, and the bellman had some great suggestions for hikes we might take along the lakeshore, and where we might see wildlife. The elevator let us off on the fourth floor, and we walked to the end of a long, rather spooky hallway.  I shivered a bit, feeling uncomfortable and not understanding why this was so.  But the friendly bellman distracted me with his gentle conversation.  He left me in front of the open door with my bag, bowing slightly like an old-fashioned gentleman in a movie.  I fumbled in my handbag, looking for my wallet, then realized I'd given it to my husband so he could check us in.'Wait a moment,' I told the friendly bellman and hurried inside the room, calling to my husband.  Frank was locked in the bathroom, but my wallet was on the bedside table.  Pulling out some money, I hurried to the door, only to find that the friendly bellman had vanished." The woman tells her husband about the bellman and they agree to leave a tip at the bell desk later. When they get to the desk, the woman explains to a young man there what happened. Schlosser continues the story, "'Do you know his name?' the young man asked. 'I'm sorry, I don't,' I said.  Then I spied the picture on the desk, showing a group of bellmen. 'That's him,' I said, pointing. The young man's smile slipped a bit. 'That is an historic picture, taken many years ago,' he said cautiously. 'None of those men work here now.' 'Really?  That's strange,' I said, feeling cold again. 'The bellman who helped me looks just like this man.' 'That man was the bell captain,' the young man said. 'He’s since passed away.'  Face devoid of expression, he added: 'I'm sorry, I don't know who it was that helped you today.' 'Oh well, maybe I will see him again,' I said with an uneasy glance at the photo on the desk.  Strange that the man who helped me looked exactly like the former bell captain. I shuddered and hurried over to my husband, who was examining some of the lovely photographs displayed round the lobby. 'All done?' he asked, taking my hand and leading me toward the dining room. 'Not really,' I said uneasily, and told him about picture. 'So you’re saying a ghost helped you with your luggage?' Frank asked when I finished. Hearing it put that way sent cold shudders down my spine. 'Pretty much,' I said. 'I’m not sure I want to spend the night at this hotel. What if the ghost comes back?'

Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel

The Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel was built in 1883, but eventually demolished in 1936 and rebuilt, although the north wing is the same as the one added in 1911. The new version of the hotel opened in 1937. Ghost stories are plentiful here. A storage room is used to keep extra beds and chairs and furniture often moves in here of its own accord. Maintenance workers will report that chairs that they have neatly stacked against one wall will have been either unstacked or the entire stack has moved over to another wall. A maintenance supervisor had an unsettling experience reported on the Stormy Night Tales Blog, "Once, the head maintenance supervisor had retrieved a box of light bulbs for his men to replace several which had burned out. He locked the door when he left. He received a call on his walkie-talkie for some other item almost immediately so he turned back, opened the locked door and found something was on the other side. He pushed it open to find an unopened case of toilet paper had been pushed against the door. The cases of toilet paper are kept against the far wall in the back and there is only the one door through which to enter."

A similar experience happened to a maid cleaning a room. She stepped out into the hall to get some more towels and the door slammed behind her. She tried the door and while the knob would turn, she couldn't get it opened. She pushed and pushed with no luck. The room had an adjoining room so she went in through there and found that the door wouldn't open because a dresser had been pushed up against it.  Frightened, she ran to get her supervisor. When she returned with the supervisor, they found the door wide open and the dresser back where it belonged six feet away. The housekeeper quit on the spot. The supervisor figured the woman was lying, but upon inspection, she found deep scratches on the floor from the dresser being pushed across the floor. But imagine how quickly that dresser had to move across the floor.

Disembodied footsteps are heard in many parts of the hotel and the giggling of a little girl when there are no children around has also been heard. This is usually in the hallway on the fourth floor and her little running feet are sometimes heard as well. Psychics claim the little girl is Emily and there is a grave for an Emily Seivert in the Fort Yellowstone Cemetery. She was not quite two-years-old.

Uncle John Yancey

John F. Yancey was a gold prospector and Civil War veteran who decided to set down roots at Yellowstone. People called him "Uncle John" and he built a hotel here in the 1870s that was named Yancey's Hole. It was near the present-day Roosevelt Lodge and served the stagecoach running between Mammoth Hot Springs and the mining camps in Cooke City. Rooms were $2 per day and there were five of them that could hold twenty guests. In 1903, Uncle John went to Gardiner, Montana to hear President Teddy Roosevelt speak at the dedication of the Roosevelt Arch. He caught a cold while there that turned into pneumonia and he died when he was 77 years-old. They buried him in the old Tinker’s Cemetery near Mammoth. But his spirit is not at rest and he seems to have made the Roosevelt Lodge his new home since his old hotel no longer stands. He is a poltergeist-like ghost blamed for hiding things and he was known to unsaddle horses.  Park staff claim that he bangs a tin cup on the walls of the staff quarters at three a.m.

E.C. Waters

A man named E. C. Waters found that running cruises on Yellowstone Lake could be a lucrative business, but he was a horrible businessman and an angry man. He had bought the Yellowstone Boat Company in 1897, which consisted of rowboats and a passenger boat named the Zillah. Waters had a hard time keeping the boats in repair and he started charging really high prices. Then he came up with the idea to charge people when they first got on the boat and then when they got to the other shore, he charged them so they could get off the boat. Then this guy decided to open his own zoo on Dot Island in Yellowstone Lake and brought in elk and buffalo. The animals were poorly cared for and malnourished. Eventually, Waters decided to buy a bigger boat, so he could make more money, but officials at Yellowstone would not certify the vessel to carry more than 125 people and this outraged Waters who had planned to carry far more. In his rage, he docked this new shipped that he had named after himself, the E. C. Waters, on the eastern side of Stevenson Island and filled the boat full of holes so it wouldn't float. He still continued to run the boat tours for a couple more years, but things got so bad that President Roosevelt himself expelled Waters from the park. He moved back to Wisconsin where he was from and eventually ended up in an insane asylum and died. But his anger and need to hold onto his Yellowstone glory days seems to have brought his spirit back to his old stomping grounds. His ghost has been seen hanging around the dilapidated boat and his disembodied voice is heard cursing his fate on the shores of Yellowstone Lake. A ghostly fire has been seen on Stevenson Island and visitors claim that Waters spirit is the one who sets the fire.

Beyond all of these stories is the fact that Native Americans and animals have been displaced in an effort to conserve the land. Seems kinda ironic, but we also know that displacing the spirit of the land can cause issues. Are there Native American spirits wandering among the geysers? How about animal spirits? There are some who claim that the spirit of a grizzly bear guards Death Gulch. He has been named Wahb and has silver tipped fur.  

Carren had her own "spooky" story she shared, "I was visited by something during the night at the Inn that we paid $200 a night to stay in. We were laying in bed with all the lights off, my husband was next to me sound asleep CPAP and all haha! I was listening to your podcast and playing solitaire on my phone. I heard something going through my things. I sat up and it stopped. I laid back down and started listening to the podcast again and then I heard it even louder. So I got brave and I turned on my flashlight and looked at the end of my bed, on my suitcase was a mouse eating my brownies for heaven sake!!! Little monster was so loud!! So I did get a little spook after all!"

Yellowstone is well worth the visit for just the natural wonders and animals alone. But with the possibility of ghosts, it is all the better. Is Yellowstone National Park haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 132 - Occidental Hotel

 
Moment in Oddity - The Williamson Tunnels
by: Bob Sherfield

In the Edge Hill area of Liverpool in England, lie a series of tunnels named for the man who created them, eccentric Victorian business man Joseph Williamson. Williamson had made his money in tobacco and snuff and now he had bought an area of Liverpool that was an undeveloped area of sandstone. He planned to build eccentric homes of "the strangest description” and without seemingly any rational planning behind them. The land was on a slope and in order to provide good size gardens, because of the slope and the quarrying, arches and terraces were constructed. Williamson was a strange cookie who had his workers do busy work like moving rocks from one area to another and then having them move the rocks back. He then had them build the Williamson Tunnels, a labyrinth of brick lined tunnels through out the sandstone, running in various directions and over different lengths. The tunnels seemed to have no point. In 1867, a local newspaper, the Liverpool Porcupine, ran an article in which it described the tunnels as a nuisance that seemed to only act as drains creating a cess pool 15 ft deep. Over the years the tunnels became filled with debris and despite a series of excavations by the West Lancashire Territorial forces in the early 20th century, a 1995 study by Liverpool University using a micro gravity study, and a further private investigation, no one could figure out the length of the tunnels. What has been discovered and cleared includes an area known as “The banqueting hall”, which is 70 feet long and 25 feet wide and 20 high, a double tunnel, and a triple decker tunnel. To this day, no one knows why Williamson ordered the building of the tunnels. He was by his nature secretive, and it has been speculated that his motivations may have been driven by the fact that he was a member of an extremist religious sect and the tunnels were his way of providing a means of shelter during the Apocalypse he believed was coming. Williamson claimed that he was simply providing work. Spending the money and energy to build tunnels with no purpose, certainly is odd!

This Day in History - The Winnie Mae Starts Round World Trip
by: April Rogers-Krick

On this day, June 23rd, in 1931, Wiley Post and navigator Harold Gatty took off for a Round the World flight in the Winnie Mae, a single engine airplane owned by Oklahoma oil baron F.C. Hall. Wiley Post, one of the most celebrated pilots in aviation history, predicted that he could complete the first ever round the world trip in an airplane, in just ten days. He enlisted the help of Australian navigator Harold Gatty. While Gatty plotted a route, Post made several changes to the Winnie Mae. He improved the instrument panel, installed adjustable seats, and added a special navigation station. On June 23, Post and Gatty took off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York with a flight plan that would take them around the world. During their trip, Post and Gatty faced some serious challenges, which included getting bogged down in a muddy field and a bent propeller they hammered back into place. They made several stops along the way in many countries before landing at Roosevelt Field. On July 1, 1931, in just 8 days, 15 hours, and 51 minutes Post and Gatty completed the trip round the world. The reception they received everywhere they went was huge. They had lunch at the White House on July 6, rode in a ticker tape parade the next day in New York City, and were honored at a banquet given by the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce of America at the Hotel Astor. After the flight, Wiley Post was able to purchase the Winnie Mae from F.C. Hall. Post and Gatty published an account of their journey in a book titled Around the World in Eight Days. The book included an introduction by Post best friend, Will Rogers.

Occidental Hotel (Suggested by listener Sarah Gunther, Research Assistant Steven Pappas)

The Occidental Hotel is a historic hotel in the town of Buffalo, Wyoming. The area is a place that has seen gold diggers come through during the Gold Rush and people making their way West on the Oregon Trail. Outlaws have been through as well as heroes of the American West. And a well known battle of class warfare took place here during the days of cattlemen. The town is also the setting for A & E's drama "Longmire." The Occidental Hotel was in the middle of much history, but after a steady decline for the town, it almost was lost to the wrecking ball. Today, it has been restored to a grand hotel once again, giving guests a chance to go back in time to the old west. And just like so many tales of the West, this one has a ghosts story or two. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Occidental Hotel!

The state of Wyoming was the home of several nomadic Plains tribes. The fondness European men had for beaver felt hats brought trappers to the state. Soon the Gold Rush would bring people coming through Wyoming on the Oregon Trail and forts were needed for protection. Settlers came and in 1869 the Wyoming Territory was established. The territory began petitioning for statehood in 1888 and in 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed Wyoming into statehood and it became the 44th state. Many listeners probably know this, but women got the vote for the first time in Wyoming. Women's suffrage was established in 1869 in Wyoming and the first vote was cast by Mrs. Louisa Swain in Laramie. *Fun fact: Diane lived in Wyoming for four months.*

The Big Horn Mountains stretch from the Great Basin and plains of Wyoming north into Montana. At the base of those mountains sits the town of Buffalo, Wyoming. It's the county seat for Johnson County where the Johnson County War occurred. The bulk of this war took place in 1892. Wyoming was basically public domain and people were flocking there to homestead. The larger farmers and ranchers ruled the area with a system called Prior Appropriation. Large cattle companies did not like having competition from small ranchers that were homesteading and they started monopolizing the land. These larger ranchers even hired gunmen to wipe out the competition. The smaller ranchers joined forces with some of Wyoming's lawmen and formed a posse. There was a long standoff and finally the United States Cavalry came in and ended the war. This was one of the most well known range wars of the Wild West.

The Occidental Hotel sat at the foot of the Bighorn Mountains and was located not too far off of the Bozeman Trail. This allowed for many travelers to visit and stay at the hotel on their journeys through the west. John Jacobs and John Bozeman decided that they wanted to create a trail that would make travel from the Oregon Trail to Montana easier. Their trail went through Wyoming up into Montana and was shorter. There was more water along the trail and it was very attractive to covered wagons. The trail was named for John Bozeman. There was one issue with the trail and that was the fact that it traveled through land that the Cheyenne and Lakota hunted buffalo upon. There were a few issues and the government tried to make motions for some kind of peace treaty, which went horribly wrong when Col. Henry Carrington came to construct three forts along the trail. He was joined by Capt. William Fetterman. In 1866, he took a force to engage with the Lakota tribe headed by Red Cloud after a group of woodcutters were attacked. Red Cloud ambushed the military group with several other tribes and the group of 80 were killed. People were terrified and the forts were abandoned. Red Cloud signed a treaty and never fought the white people again. But the Bozeman Trail was closed.

The Occidental was an interesting hotel in its time as it was fashioned from several log buildings connected to each other. It appeared to be a large barn with several out-buildings. The upstairs of the main building had six rooms. There was a lobby, a restaurant and a saloon as well as stables and kitchens. This original structure would be outgrown and a larger wooden building was built that connected to the log buildings. By the 1920s, the wood would be gone, replaced by a brick building. As the years passed, it became a "grand" hotel. The decor was replaced and the volume of visitors increased. Throughout all the decades, even back to the early log structures, the hotel was known for its hospitality and good food. And many people came to stay at the Occidental, some of them infamous.

The most infamous guests were Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid who rode to the hotel from their Hole-in-the-Wall hideout, which was nearby. The hideout was about 45 miles south of Buffalo. It's in a remote and secluded area and was used not only by the Wild Bunch, but Jesse James as well from the 1860s to 1910. The Hole-in-the-Wall was named for the pass that is there and it was an ideal location because the narrow pass was easy to defend. A creek ran through the canyon that the outlaws used to water their rustled cattle. At one time, a few cabins had sat here to help endure the cold Wyoming winters. Today, a working cattle ranch called Willow Creek Ranch is here.

There were many famous visitors to the hotel during its heyday in the late 1800s. Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane were frequenters of the establishment and it also received visits from General Phil Sheridan, President Theodore Roosevelt and Pinkerton Tom Horn. Famous lawmen like Frank Canton frequented the bar. He had once been sheriff of Johnson County and was a member of the Regulators who were on the side of the big cattlemen during the Johnson County War. But Frank Canton was not his real name because he had changed it from Josiah Horner when he decided to stop being an outlaw. He once was a bank robber, cattle rustler and gunfighter who was pursued by the Texas Rangers.

The hotel boasted an air of hospitality, so it is no wonder that many weary travelers chose it as the place they preferred to rest their heads. According to the official Occidental Hotel Website: "Early in its existence, the Occidental established a reputation for hospitality and fine food. Owen Wister, author of The Virginian, spent many happy hours in the Occidental lobby and saloon, and based characters in his celebrated novel on cowboys and gunslingers that he observed there. Many historians believe that the shoot-out at the climax of the book — the first "walk down" in Western literature — took place in front of the Occidental."

The great depression hit the area hard. Wyoming was a dry climate and as environmental issues affected the land, finances tightened for those living there. To put it simply, people just stopped spending on the luxuries they had enjoyed just years earlier.  As the spending decreased, so did the attendance at the Occidental Hotel. By the mid-1930s, the owners were struggling just to keep the doors open. This is a struggle that lasted years and took a major toll on the owners. The hotel saw a brief spike in guest attendance during WWII, but following the war, business declined again. As people traveled west, they began to prefer cheaper motels to the luxurious hotels of the turn of the century. By the 1970s and 1980s, business had all but ceased, with the majority of the guest rooms being transitioned into apartments for retirees.

Finally, after years of low business, the Occidental Hotel closed its doors in 1986. Some shops continued to occupy their spaces on the ground floor, but with little money coming in, the building fell even deeper into disrepair. In 1997, as preparations were made to demolish the once great building, Dawn and John Wexo bought the building and they co-run the hotel with David and Jackie Stewart. They dedicated their time and funds to a 10 year remodeling of the building and returned it to its once great form. They have remodeled the building to look much like it did 100 years ago and it has become frequented by tourists and spenders once again. It has been featured on hotel shows, as well as multiple ghost-hunting shows. Joan Rivers featured it on her show "Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best?"

And it is no wonder that with all of the luxury of the hotel, some of the guests would not want to leave even after death. There have been many reports of people seeing strange lights floating around on the upper floors and feeling cold spots throughout the hotel. Guests have also reported hearing strange voices communicating with them, and bouts of eerie ghostly laughter in the halls of the hotel. Casper Wyoming Ghosthunters have recorded some interesting EVPs at the Occidental. Travel Channel's "Dead Files" visited the Occidental and reported that a negative entity lived at the property. Steve interviewed a former employee who claimed to have numerous weird experiences. Another employee quit her job over the hauntings. Justin who was the guy in charge of security when Dead Files came through, claimed he was so frightened that he didn't like working at the hotel.

Perhaps, the most widely acknowledged spirit we find is that of the Ghost Girl of the Occidental. Run ins with this spirit have been reported by numerous patrons over the years. At one time in its vast history, the hotel briefly served as a brothel. Evidence of a porch that once overlooked the dusty street below can be seen and one can imagine the ladies plying their wears from that porch. One of the prostitutes who was working there at the time had a daughter who passed away on the upper floor. People in the hotel report her having dark hair and, you guessed it, a WHITE DRESS! Either her ghost or some other spirit has been known to move guests' luggage and tap people on the shoulder. We surmise that this must be an older spirit since shoulders are a tad high for little girls. Or it could be something that occasionally masquerades as a little girl. The owner Dawn tells her story about the girl everyone calls Emily:

“There was a prostitute who had a daughter who died of cholera in the the NW wing where the brothel was, she was just a child. Some times people can feel her tapping her fingers on their backs, but one guest really got to meet her. He gave me the creeps as soon as he walked in. I've never felt creeped out by any guests, only him. His hunting party was snowed in, down in Denver so he was the first and only one to arrive. The whole northwest wing was empty except for him because the other rooms were held for those stuck in Denver. He was the guide, a mountain man, so when he called up screaming around 3am I knew why. He said that something was trying to pull his covers off the bed and they were throwing things around the room. I went upstairs, found his covers on the floor and the stuff on the dresser on the floor too. The little girl ghost picked up something about him, maybe he was a wife beater or a pedophile. A prostitutes daughter wouldn't of had a good life, so she saw fit to attack the poor man."

 Mary reported on the In Wild Wyoming blog:

"I just stumbled upon your post about the ghost girl. I saw her in the room you have pictured here (the room with the brick wall). I was staying in that room about 6 years ago and I was really sick myself. I found out later that I had West Nile Virus. I woke up around 3AM and saw a girl, about age 10, crawling on the floor towards my bed from the corner where the TV is. She had long dark hair that looked wet and a white nightgown that looked damp. She looked feverish. I figured that I saw her because I was sick too, and would end up very ill. She didn't scare me and she didn't seem 'bad' in any way. I've stayed in that room since and had no activity other than that one night."

Are the strange happenings at the Occidental related to paranormal activity? Are these just figments of people's imaginations as they travel back to an earlier time through their visit at the hotel? Is the Occidental Hotel haunted? That is for you to decide!