Happy Halloween, everyone! To get into the spirit of Halloween, I thought I would share a little about Cheyenne, Wyoming and how haunted it actually is. Cheyenne is known as the Old West, names after the Cheyenne tribe. Cheyenne is an old railroad town when it officially become the capital of Wyoming in 1867, making it the oldest town in Wyoming, as well! There is bound to be ghost stories that come with being an old railroad town brings people from all over to these plains. In fact, Cheyenne has many tours of haunted places around town, not just during this time of year, but all year long. I guess ghosts and their hauntings don’t take time off! Here are a few of the stories of what is haunted in Cheyenne.

First, and probably the most popular, The Plains Hotel in downtown, Cheyenne. This hotel opened for business in 1911 and is rumored to house four distinctive ghosts who haunt the halls. The story goes that there was a double-murder-suicide that happened there years ago. They say that some newlyweds were staying at the hotel when the husband decided to go down to the bar one night and picked up another woman. His wife found out. The wife followed them to the mistress room and shot them both, and then herself. Some say they hear cries and laughter from that room. If this doesn’t remind one of “The Shinning,” I don’t know what would, but perhaps the actually Stanley Hotel just about two hours from Cheyenne in Estes Park, CO, where Stephan King stayed and gained inspiration for the famous navel and movie, “The Shinning.” I am not sure what it is about hotels, but they seem to always be haunted!

There are many other buildings in Cheyenne, mostly downtown, that are over 100 years old and who are home to many ghosts, no realtor needed. A building on Pioneer Ave that was once the city’s fire department, is now offices and, you guessed it, haunted! When the building was the fire depo, it is allegedly known that a fireman become frustrated and shot a man walking by the building. Ever since then, there have been reported sightings of a man walking around the upper floor. Even the court house on Capital Ave, constructed in 1937, has had reports of unexplained footsteps sounds, lights turning on and off, and books suddenly being knocked off shelves without any apparent cause. Employees at the court house have a theory for these phenomena. They state that an old supreme court justice who once worked at the building for many years, died, naturally, and then these abnormalities started to happen. They think it is him.

This is just a nibble of haunted places, stories, and maybe even homes that Cheyenne has. I would highly recommend, even if you have lived in Cheyenne forever, to take the haunted trolley tour they offer at the Depo and get one of the many books written on Cheyenne and its haunted places! I also want to mentioned as well, that despite the scary stories I just mentioned, and their history, Cheyenne today is a very low crime and beautiful place to live. The only thing someone has to worry about here are perhaps these hauntings, and you trying to find a home without a realtor!