High Spirits: The Ghost Log Blog

Just Thinking

I am sitting here thinking. Today a man asked me “Is the library really haunted?” We have a standard answer we give, “Some think it is and some think it is not. We have unexlained happenings here, but we have no real proof.” This got me to thinking…..just what will it take to make someone believe?

In many religions there are recordings of miracles and amazing events. There is not always proof, but the true believer beleives.

Mainly my take is that until it happens to you and you see a ghost or hear a disembodied voice, people are just very sceptical.

Tell me what you think.

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

Part II The Library Built over a Cemetery (continued)“People leaving the library have to pass through a gate,” Helen explained, “and if a book isn’t checked out properly, an alarm goes off. There is, however, a bypass which allows people in wheelchairs to leave without going through the gate. The bypass is a little higher than waist level, and it’s made of wrought iron. Obviously it can’t be too heavy if a wheelchair has to pass through it, but it wouldn’t blow in the breeze, either.

“One night two of my staff were the only ones left in the building, and at ten minutes to nine, they were getting ready to close up. Each one was at least fifteen feet away from this bypass, but all of a sudden, it slammed as hard as it could, swung open again, and then oscillated back and forth for several seconds until it came to a stop! It acted as if someone had smashed into it as hard as he could, but nobody was even near it.

“That was the first I’d heard about any unexplained phenomena,” Helen continued, “and the two women were so upset that they didn’t want to talk about it. But afterwards, I started hearing about other weird thing that had happened.”

Many of these involved unexplained electrical disturbances. Women staff members on several occasions reported turning off the lights in the multi-purpose room, only to find them on again ten minutes later, with the switch controlling them still in the “off” position. Maintenance men Marlin Dillard and Don Leasor experienced similar disturbances in the same room and on the stairwell, and each time they could determine only that nothing was causing a short.

Ed Johnson was no more successful in finding the cause of mysterious behavior in a vacuum cleaner. “One night after the library had closed, I was running the sweeper back and forth between the book stacks,” he said. “Once I moved too far and pulled the plug out of the wall. Naturally, the vacuum quit working, so I turned the switch off and went back down the stacks to plug in the fifty-foot cord. But before I had walked back to turn the switch on again, the vacuum started by itself!”

Ed is positive that the switch was off when the machine came to life. “The next thing I did was to unplug it, wind up the cord, and say to whoever was there, “Okay guys, the buildings yours. I’m going home! Lots of times I’d had feeling that I was being watched, but nothing like this had ever happened before.”

Nearly everyone I interviewed reported the same sensation of being watched, especially in the multi-purpose room. A custodian was vacuuming there one day when she happened to glance up at an adjoining stage. The curtains were open and the stage was set for some upcoming event. The woman thought to herself how nice it looked and went back to her sweeping. When she glanced up again a short while later, the drapes were closed. Because they were operated by an electric opening and closing mechanism, the woman reasoned that one of the control switches must be at the circulation desk, and that the staff there were playing tricks on her. Upon confronting them, however, she discovered that the only switch for the curtains was the one in the multi-purpose room itself.

Maintenance man Don Leasor had another eerie experience while vacuuming, when he heard what sounded like someone “rattling the heck out of a keychain.”

“Whatever was making the noise was in the same room with me,” he explained. “And whenever I’d shut the vacuum off, the noise would stop, too.”

Don has probably experience more unnerving incidents that anyone else. Several times since he began working in April 1986, he has seen mysterious glowing lights inside the building.

“The first time,” he said, “I was getting ready to walk out the door, so I turned off the lights in the front room. About five seconds later, I saw small glowing lights moving over the wall, right above the entry way, just as if someone were shining little flashlights with eight-inch diameters of illumination. The glowing would appear and disappear every three or four seconds.”

Don is certain that he was not seeing reflections from passing automobiles. “I’ve seen car lights shining from the street and into the library, but these looked nothing like that.”

Even more upsetting was the experience shared by Don and former custodian Marlin Dillard. “We were upstairs, in a different part of the library, but we could hear distinctly what sounded like somebody latching the doors to the multi-purpose room,” said Marlin. “Then when we went down to look, nobody else was anywhere in the building.” Strangest of all was the fact that the doors were not even pulled shut when the two men came to inspect them!

(to be continued)

Ghost Log 1994

1994

2/14/1994 J.M. (Staff)

The printer on the public computer went off and on. Computer by Judy’s desk went on and off. Judy heard her name called. Front Circ computer screen went “black”.

2/25/1994 Micki (Staff)

The printer by Judy’s desk turned off.

9/1994 J.H.(Staff)

Joyce has been hearing keys rattle and doors shutting. She saw movement from her side. She has heard them a lot lately.

11/10/1994 J.M. (Staff)

Judy reported answering machine messing up on Thursday.

11/12/1994 J.M. (Staff)

Judy found laminator on when we opened. It could not have been on very long. Thank goodness. Also computer in backroom by Judy’s desk kept messing up.

Please note: Not all years will have alot of reports or entries. This may be due to lack or reports or the staffs unwillingness to log the reports.

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

Part I

The Library Built over a Cemetery

If you think that ghosts inhabit only old, run-down buildings, think again. The Sweetwater County Library in Green River was opened as recently as 1980, yet it appears to be one of the most haunted spots in Wyoming. And no wonder, when you consider that it was constructed on top of the city’s oldest cemetery.

Many of Green River’s earliest citizens rested peacefully but anonymously in unmarked graves until 1926. When the grounds were needed for town expansion, however, the bodies were all supposed to be exhumed and moved up the hill to the current cemetery.

Marna Grubb, now the mayor/secretary of Green River, was one of the many curious children who came to watch the gruesome procedure. “Some of the kids on their way to school actually took rings and other thing right off the corpses!” she said and shuddered. “I saw only one of the bodies myself, but that was enough. He was just a skeleton, wearing an old western-style, fringed leather jacket. And what was strange was that he still had a red beard.”

When housing for veterans was constructed in the area during WWII, it soon became obvious that not all the bodies had been exhumed in 1926. As more remains were discovered, they, too, were re-interred in the new cemetery. After the veterans’ residences were no longer needed, the old cemetery grounds were left alone until 1978, when the library purchased them for the site of its new building. As soon as the groundbreaking began, however, workers made yet another grisly discovery: according to architect Neal Stowe of Salt Lake City, from eight to twelve more bodies were found in unmarked graves!

“A heavy caterpillar was going back and forth, loosening and moving the soil,” he explained. “I walked right through the middle of the site, where something that looked like a deteriorated coconut was sitting on top of some freshly churned dirt. I picked the thing up, turned it around, and recognized it as part of a skull. Little tufts of dark brown hair were still clinging to it.”

“I stopped the construction immediately and told the contractor that there might be other remains in the area, too. We met with various city representatives to try to determine the extent of the bodies still on the site. Any marking that may have been on the graves had long since been destroyed, and the records of the burials had apparently been misplaced, so it was next to impossible to determine what remains belonged to whom. We walked through the site and stated probing with hand shovels, uncovering bits and pieces of wood as well as a variety of decayed bones,” the architect said. “The remains were typically buried in old wooden caskets that had deteriorated because of soil conditions.”

When the new group of bodies was taken from the site and reburied in a common grave on top of the hill, old bits of hearsay resurfaced. Remembering the Oriental-looking scraps of cloth that had been found in one of the earlier excavations, some people theorized that the cemetery was in fact a Chinese graveyard, even though at least one of the corpses had red hair. Another revived rumor held that the bones were those of smallpox victims and that the town was again endangered by their exposed remains. This conjecture proved as groundless as the other, as a July 12, 1978 article in the Green River Star explained. For while Green River’s railroad workers had indeed experienced a smallpox epidemic between the 1860’s and the 1890’s, the victims had all been buried at the far end of the old cemetery and their graves had never been disturbed.

What was disturbed, however, was the new library built upon the twice-excavated grounds. Almost from the outset, those who worked there described it as a spooky place, and former maintenance man Ed Johnson confirms that there are still bodies underneath.

“In the spring of 1983, I helped with the landscaping,” he said. “One day the contractors working in front of the main doors dug up a bunch of wood. At first I thought it was old construction debris, but then I saw the bones!

“They called the corner and stated pulling the skeletons out,” he recalled. “But then they ran into a problem. Some of the bones were underneath the sidewalk and couldn’t be removed without tearing up the concrete. Since the landscapers didn’t want to do that, they dug up only parts of those bodies.

“As I remember, first they dug out three adults-actually I should say two and a half-because on one body they just pulled out the legs and pelvic girdle and left the rest. They also found one infant grave, and I believe they were able to take only the foot and shin bones from it.

“In 1985 and “86, more structural work was necessary, since the building had begun to sink,” Ed continued. “While the construction workers were drilling into the foundation, one said that they found a whole, small coffin with the body of another child inside. This corpse was almost perfectly preserved. The flesh was like gelatin, but otherwise, everything was intact.”

In spite of these newest ghastly finds under the building, the library employees never lost their sense of humor. “When the contraction workers drilled holes in the slab to inject some grout, the staff did one really goofy thing,” said library director Helen Higby. “They bought one of those paper skeletons and suspended it so that one arm was sticking out of a hole!”

But the employees were not so amused by the strange actions of the security system one evening in the late summer or early autumn of 1986.

(to be continued)

What do you think?

For some time now the curious have visited the Library. They look for ghosts and shadows and listen for strange noises. They come in slowly with expectant looks on their faces. They walk around with anticipation. They walk through, you know, just to see if a “ghosts” will jump out at them. And almost always, there is nothing to be seen. And they leave disappointed, BUT not always.

On occasion someone does come forward with an experience. Usually, they will come right up to the front desk and say, “I heard something” or “I saw something”. We try to stop and listen and document all reports. I must stress, we have never felt in danger or had anyone hurt. There are not books flying through the air as some have reported, that did not come from us. Also we do not have ghosts walking around the library at all times (that we know of or see). Do Not Believe All The Stories That Are Told!

You must remember “spirits” do not show up on command or at least they do not here. I do not think it works that way. Some people have experiences and some people do not. Many factors may play a part in each separate event or sighting.

The ultimate question is “Is the Library really haunted?” Well in truth, we just don’t have proof one way or the other. We have things happen. One staff member and a few patrons say they have seen a person or what looks like a person. And sometime we hear voices or whispers. There are the unexplained smells, like cigars or cologne and there is what sounds like “swishy skirts”, you know, like the old crinoline skirts making noise as a woman would walk.

There are visitors that are themselves “Story Tellers of the Haunted Kind” with stories of incredible ghosts and hauntings. I must say, some or truly unbelievable. Sometimes I feel like the bar tender in the movies, that listens to all the customers’ stories. People just want to vent and be heard. They want to know that they are not crazy or at least not alone.

Remember these are unexplained events. No one really can say what is happening. We have ideas, we think we know, but we do not have proof.

What do you think?

Ghost Log 1993

The “Ghost Log” was started in 1993, just after I started working for the library. I had heard the staff telling stories of the unexplained events happening in the library. It occured to me that I should ask, “Are you writing any of this down?” It turns out nothing had been officially documented. So with permission from the Head Librarian and Library Director, we started the “Ghost Log”.

The following are a portion of the official “Ghost Log” entries:

1993

During the summer the answering machine turned on and off several times.

August:

Also in August, not sure which day, I heard Morse code back by isle 1 & 2.

9/17/1993: J. F. (Staff)

I heard my name being whispered in the production room.

9/24/1993: Micki (Staff)

Typewriter at the Circulation desk kept flipping to different functions. When I was typing it would turn off and on. They don’t want me typing!

No Date: J. K. (Staff)

I have heard my name whispered before on occasion-I also heard the bathroom door open and shut in the staff lounge and no one was there except me.

No Date: D. L. (Staff)

Vicki and I were talking in the workroom one morning and something flipped the switch out at the circ desk and made the speakers in the workroom make a noise. I went out to circ and the switch was turned on. I knew it was turned off prior because I was cleaning around it.

2/2/1993: C. F. (Staff)

Gate at the doors swung open. No one was there.

2/4/1993 Micki (Staff) 6pm

Old stereo equipment turned on. No volume, just the power and lights on panel came on.

2/9/1993 J. (Staff) 6:45am

The gate alarm went off while J was vacuuming. She turned it off and it went back on again.

2/11/1993 J. (Staff) 8:10am

Whistling in multipurpose room before opening.

2/12/1993 L. S. (Staff) 8:30 pm

Heard a dog barking while upstairs when all enclosed, even with the door shut.

2/17/1993 D. (Staff)

Don Heard noises like some one was wrestling around about 6 am.

3/03/1993 Micki (Staff)

I heard my name whispered several times, but no one was asking for me. When I told MD (Staff) about it, she said she had heard her name whispered many times in the last two days and no one was there.

4/2/1993 Micki (Staff)

I heard paper being crumpled in stall of the Ladies Room. When it was opened no one was there.

4/09/1993 All Staff 9:30am

Answering machine was turned off. We went upstairs to have cake for KM and phone rang it was back on.

9/8/1993 K. M. (Staff) Evening Shift

Turned off back hall light-shut door-turned off workroom lights-hall lights were back on.

9/17/1993 J. (Staff)

Judy heard her name whispered while sitting at circ desk.

12/15/1993 J. & D. (Staff)

Cover to Bookmobile printer was found on the floor broken. Joyce & Don investigated lids being broken, they heard loud noise in front and came running to see what it was. There was nothing.

History of the Haunted Library

The site, at 300 North 1st East, Green River, Wyoming, had previously been the city cemetery, which had been established in 1892. In 1926, a federal CWA project moved the bodies and old grave markers to the Riverview Cemetery just up the hill. In 1930 the town used the site as a park.

During 1944 a Veteran’s Housing Site was built on the site, due to the return of the veterans. During the construction, several remains were found and re-interned at the now current Riverview Cemetery. The identity of the remains was unknown.

In 1978, during the construction of the new facility, twelve unknown graves were found. Again in 1983 during landscaping of the grounds revealed more graves and remains. This renewed the fear of a historic epidemic of smallpox and the re-introduction of the disease.
Since 1985 unexplained occurrences have been reported at the library. The Green River Library is listed on the famous list of the ghost and haunted places in Wyoming.

In 1989 “Ghosts on the Range: Eerie True Tales of Wyoming” by Debra D. Munn was published. Included in her book was the story of the Sweetwater County Library, titled “The Library Built over a Cemetery”. Ms. Munn was good enough to come to the library the following Halloween and do a reading from her book. Story has it that several loud noises were heard from the stage area and eager listeners reportedly wondered out-loud if the “ghosts” were upset about the reading.

In 1993 a “Ghost Log” was started to record the unusual happenings. As something unexplained happened it was written in the log. The log is available at the Circulation desk, but is not available for check out.

Charlie Love, from Western Wyoming Community College, examines a skull found in front of the Sweetwater County Library.

During pipeline construction in August of 1996 remains were unearthed just outside the library by the lower parking lot. Sweetwater County Coroner Dale S. Majhanovich said wood chips were found Tuesday by construction workers digging under North First East. Charlie Love, of the Western Wyoming Community College Archaeological Services Department, examined the find and determined that the bones were of two people. Two wooden coffins and their contents were within a couple feet of the pipeline that was being worked on and one coffin had actually been nicked when the line first went in. At least one of the wooden coffins was covered in felt with a small window. A brass plaque indicated the coffin was purchased a Beeman and Cashin Mercantile Co. of Evanston. No date was inscribed. It was determined one was a male about 45 years old and the other a female of about the same age. Both were in good health, at least one was Caucasian and both were about the same height The bodies were re-interred at the Riverview Cemetery.

This log is still currently being used.

Welcome!

Welcome!

High Spirits is a forum and tales from the official “Ghost Log” from

the Sweetwater County Library in Green River, Wyoming.

We welcome comments and true reports of unexplained activity.

Please note:
We ask that reporting of activity be truthful and we strongly discourage any erroneous reports. Suspicious reports will be marked as such or deleted.