Ghost stories and rumors of haunted places exist all over the country. Colorado is no exception to the list of supposedly haunted location. There are several locations within Colorado that are rumored to be haunted.
Third Bridge #2, in Aurora, off of Smokey Hill Road, is one of these allegedly haunted places. High school students died there in an accident, and it is rumored to be the site of an Indian massacre. Some have heard drums or seen fog roll in, as well as see a man on horseback.
In the 1960s a janitor raped and killed a performer in Boulder’s Macky Auditorium. Late at night some have heard a mysterious organ playing, even when no one else was around to play it. Bloodstains are still present on the floor, in what is now a professor’s office.
Central City, an old mining town, is full of ghost stories. In a bar on the main street, there is a mysterious painting of a woman. The painting is on the floor. Allegedly a miner went into the bar and got drunk, then painted the picture of his recently deceased wife on the floor. After he finished the painting, he went to sleep and never woke up. Rumor has it that on the anniversary of his death you can hear the couple speak to each other through the painting.
In the 1880s, the Denver Children’s Home served as an orphanage. In 1888 a fire in the third floor killed several children. Apparitions of children and ghostly children’s voices are regularly witnessed. The apparition of a woman in a wedding gown can also be seen on the third floor steps. A fifth exorcism was performed on the building in 1999 and some unexplained occurrences remain.
The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park is famous – it inspired Stephen King to write “The Shining. Several rooms are haunted. Room 407 is haunted by Lord Dunraven, who was run out of town after attempting to defraud locals. Dunraven’s favorite trick is apparently to turn the lights on and off many times.
University of Northern Colorado, in Greeley, is also rumored to be haunted. Wilson Hall is haunted by Edith, a former dorm mother. The girls used to torture Edith with pranks, and she eventually hung herself in her room. She now returns the pranks – she changes television channels, turn lights on and off, and move furniture. Turner Hall is also supposedly haunted. A widely circulating rumor states that someone once committed suicide by jumping out of their 11th floor window. This is supposedly why the windows above the fifth floor no longer open. A fire once happened in the building also, and some insist that some students were trapped and died as a result.
I lived in one room on the 13th floor of this building, for two years, and found it to be a bit creepy. I had an occasional clanking noise in the wall and a lamp that would randomly flicker and buzz loudly. Interestingly, if I told the lamp to stop it did. I and others also saw elevators open several times with no one in them, but all of this could be explained rationally (such as faulty wiring, or the computers controlling the elevators malfunctioning). Some residents have had televisions turn on and off, and lights be turned on or off.
