America Haunting’s Entry #1: Minnesota
Every week the staff here at TPG will be posting paranormal cases and locations. These cases will concentrate over specific regions in both North and South America. For the first entry we’ll start out with my very own state of Minnesota.
I’m a strong believer when it comes to anything related to the paranormal and in fact just writing this piece gets my body all shaken up and jittery with the goosebumps. Could I say that I’ve seen a ghost? Times before I have thought that I’ve seen floating bodies and the dead roaming outside, but whether these were all real events or just vivid dreams, I’ll never know for sure.
I live in Minnesota as many of you might know, and while I do live in the suburbs, I do commute a lot through big cities like Minneapolis and Saint Paul. It was one night though when I was driving through the U of M campus I came across a bridge. Even though I didn’t see anything I did feel discomfort in this particular area. There were no cars or people on the bridge, so I was the only one driving through. The following day I went on through with one of my buddy. He told me as we passed the bridge “You know this bridge is haunted right?”. I didn’t believe him at first, but after doing some research I learned that there may be truth behind this.
I didn’t know that Minnesota had such a history when it came to ghosts. Every year thousands of new reports come in claiming that there are ghosts or supernatural occurrences happening. I decided to do a little research on some of these locations that the reports are coming in so here they are.
Anoka, MN Haunted Tunnels:
Not many people know of Anoka State Hospital’s (Metro Regional Treatment Center) dark past. In the the late 1930’s it was known as Anoka State Asylum, which housed many insane and incurable patients. Its main purpose was to house and treat transfer patients who where coming from other treatment centers that have become to overcrowded. While it’s not known how the patients were treated there at the time, we can assume that it ran pretty much like any other facility, meaning cruel and neglectful treatments were used on the patients.
This all sounds like your typical asylum, because from the outside and mostly inside it was. However, underneath this fortress lies a complex network of tunnels.Patients that could no longer take the treatments anymore ran away into these tunnels to try and escape the facility. It’s said that these tunnels are so complex that often the patients that attempted to escape would end up committing suicide by hanging themselves from the large lines of pipes running down the tunnels. Since the closing of the tunnels, reports have been coming in saying that there are strange sounds and that they hear screams and footsteps when there’s nobody to be found. These tunnels are currently only accessible by the security guards, though even they have reported strange activities going on in those tunnels.
University of Minnesota
Most of the haunting’s seem to take place near the various locations of the U of M. Just a few blocks down from the Minneapolis campus lies the Washington Avenue Bridge. In the day the bridge is used by thousands of U of M students traveling from their dorms to their classes.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQpnui9ROQg
However, come night time things are much different. Many students have talked about this bridge and several reports have claimed that when you walk on this bridge at night you’ll hear screaming and following footsteps. Upon turning around the noise stops; but continue traveling and they eventually return.
This bridge is most famous for all its ghost stories and the reason why many believe this bridge is haunted is because over the past decades there has been numerous suicides that have taken place on this bridge. There also used to be flags that were lined upon the bridge, but every single night these flags would be torn off their posts. There were absolutely no explanation as to how this has happened and according to Shadowlands, these flags would be under surveillance and an unknown force would tear them down.
U of M located in Duluth:
This is the first story of a haunting that I have heard. I remember my older brother telling me that the faculty closed off one of the bathrooms because of loud screaming coming from the faucet sinks. I did a little more research to find out more about this screaming and as it turns out, when the College opened during its first year, two students died in the bathroom stalls by alcohol poisoning. It’s said that you can smell the stench of alcohol and hear the moaning and puking sounds of the two victims.
Caves
There are several caves located all over Minnesota that have been reported to have shown unexplainable activities. I wouldn’t really consider caves being an ideal place to go into considering that they can be very dangerous, so I warn you to stay away from them unless they are accompanied by a tour guide, which means that they are safe.
The Wabasha Street Caves, St. Paul: These caves do offer a tour guide on Saturdays at the admission price of $5. For nearly 150 years these caves would be used for bootlegging and gangs activities. Speculation has it that ghosts of dead ones murdered by the gangsters roam the caves and the restaurant that was once there. In the recent years many death have occurred due to cave collapses and other unknown reasons. In one case, five teenagers mysteriously disappeared within the caves never to be found. The city has decided to close all entrances to the cave to avoid anymore deaths.
Though much of the town isn’t to fond of the idea, workers at the tour have claimed to see ghosts roaming the premises. As mentioned, the caves were once used by gangsters to smuggle alcohol. It’s said that somewhere in the caves there are three dead gangsters buried deep within the ground. From time to time their ghosts come out. One of the apparitions was seen pouring himself some alcohol, while some have claimed to see unexplainable mist appear randomly in the cave.
Grey Cloud Island:
The island is said to have the highest concentration of burial mounds in the whole country. Stories of ghosts and other paranormal activities occurring here are very common to hear. One of the most common one is the story of the white truck that drives itself. The truck always begins at the same spot and it follows people around until they leave. People claim that there is no driver and that the truck is driving itself. While it may be true, a more plausible reason is that it’s one of the locals as they don’t take kindly to wanderers in this region.
The Green Lantern: This is another ghost tale. Sometimes during the day and night a small green orb could be seen moving throughout the island. There is no absolute source where this orb is coming from as it seems to randomly appear and disappear.The Green Lantern is said to be the person who the island is named after.
So yeah, these are pretty much the hot spots here in Minnesota. What are your guys thought’s?
Next week we’ll be covering a different part of North America, if you feel like you know a worthy spot leave it the comment section below, till then see you all next week.
Cory Miller
September 28, 2012 @ 10:27 am
Hey I was just doing some research for a meeting I have with the Township of Grey Cloud to get Authorized access to the cemetery for an Authorized Night time investigation. I have read A Lot of different things on this Haunting, And TCPRI is finally going t get to see if these claims are true or if they are just the residents chasing people off. Have you ever been downthere and walked around the place? I would like to hear your personal experiences if you have any to share? And if you have any other info you may have heard abou the cemetery between the time you wrote this and now we would luv to hear back from you!
Thanks a ton,
Cory
Director TCPRI
Jack
October 18, 2013 @ 11:56 am
Hi Cory,
Did you ever get permission to go down to Grey Cloud?
Jack
Whitenite
October 19, 2013 @ 10:14 pm
Jack
The township never did allow TCPRI access to investigate. See the recap at http://tcpri.webs.com/apps/blog/show/19382893. I drove around the island for the first time today. I have lived in the Twin Cities for 15 years and never heard of GCI until today. It was very eerie and I could feel a sense of paranormal in the area.
Jack
October 18, 2013 @ 11:57 am
If not let me know, my e-mail is wintersj987@gmail.com