7 Haunted Places in Wyoming
Wyoming is renowned for its wild beauty and rugged train. It’s also home to a host of spirits. From an entombed laborer to a headless bride, here are seven of The Cowboy State’s most infamous ghosts.
Old Faithful Inn – Yellowstone National Park
A number of chilling tales surround Yellowstone’s Old Faithful Inn, but the most famous involves a headless bride who lingers in the crow’s nest.
The story goes that in 1915 a rich young woman rebelled against her parents and married a household servant. The newlyweds traveled to Old Faithful Inn for their honeymoon, but quarreled repeatedly over money. After an especially loud fight, the new groom stormed out of the hotel and was never seen again. When staff went to check on the bride, they found her headless body in the bathtub. Days later, a foul odor led to the woman’s head in the crow’s nest.
Now, the headless bride roams the hotel’s upper reaches in a white dress, sobbing and cradling her bloodied head. Some think she’s searching for the man who betrayed her. Others think she’s out for revenge.
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church – Cheyenne
Built in the late 1800s, St. Mark’s is a historic church in Wyoming’s capital city. It’s also the site of a chilling tale.
According to local legend, two mason workers traveled from Sweden to complete the bell tower. Strangely, the men disappeared before the project was complete. Puzzled and annoyed, church officials hired replacements, and the men were unnerved to hearing banging and whispering coming from inside the tower walls.
Years later, an unnamed man came forward and claimed that one of the Swedish laborers had fallen to his death while working on the church. Terrified of being blamed, the other laborer entombed his fallen friend in the tower wall and fled town.
Today, stories of ghostly whispers and clanging bells surround the old church. Tales posted online claim that discordant organ notes ring throughout the tower, though officials removed the instrument long ago.
Heart Mountain Relocation Center – Powell
After the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government forced more than 100,000 Japanese Americans to live in internment camps. One of these camps was Wyoming’s Heart Mountain Relocation Center, and nearly 14,000 passed people through the facility during its three years of operation. The center closed in 1945.
Today, Heart Mountain is a museum with a haunted reputation. Legend has it a friendly spirit follows visitors during the day. At night, shadows roam the grounds. Around 180 people died at the relocation center. Perhaps the spirits just want to return home.
Wyoming Frontier Prison – Rawlins
For 80 years, the Wyoming Frontier Prison housed some of the state’s most notorious criminals, including a woman who poisoned who her father’s pie and a train robber known as the gentleman bandit. Hundreds of inmates died at the old prison, and rumor has it many of them are still around.
Paranormal activity at the former jail includes strange lights, disembodied voices, and shadowy figures. The Ghost Adventures crew explored the site in 2013 and encountered everything from mysterious balls of light to an apparition in an old cell block.
Sweetwater County Library – Casper
Casper’s Sweetwater County Library sits atop a former graveyard dating back to the 1860s. Most of the graves were relocated long before the library opened in 1980. However, human remains, and even a coffin, have turned up, indicating not all of the graves made the move. Are the abandoned occupants responsible for the strange activity at the library?
Eerie events at Sweetwater include lights that switch on and off, doors that slam close, and whispers from empty rooms. The spirits’ favorite trick, however, is typing staff members’ names on typewriters, computers, or whatever technology is available. The paranormal activity is so prevalent, the library keeps a ghost log so patrons and staff can chronicle their spooky experiences.
Historic Occidental Hotel – Buffalo
Founded in 1880, Occidental Hotel has housed a number of famous (and infamous) guests, including Teddy Roosevelt and Butch Cassidy. Now, the historic hotel is reportedly home to Emily, a long-dead child that refuses to leave.
Though there’s no historical record of Emily, legend has it she was the daughter of a prostitute and died from cholera. Today, the spunky spirit enjoys playing pranks and spends her afterlife tapping on visitors’ shoulders or tugging at their clothing. At times, she appears in the Bordello Suite, startling guests by appearing at the foot of the bed.
Platte River
Since 1862, residents near the Platte River have spotted a phantom vessel known as The Ship of Death. And those who’ve seen it dearly wished they hadn’t.
Legend says a white mist forms on the river then thickens to fog before an eerie gray ship emerges from the gloom. Terrified witnesses report seeing a ghostly crew manning the vessel, and to their horror, a loved one laying silently on deck. In the first Death Ship sighting, a man saw his fiance. In another, it was a good friend. No matter the relationship, The Ship of Death is so named because the loved one spotted aboard dies a day or two later.
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