Ghost tales of a college town
Students looking for a fright on All Hallow’s Eve won’t have to look much farther than campus.
There are enough tales of paranormal activity around CU to keep even the most ambitious ghost hunter busy Halloween night.
Here are some of the more famous rumors:
–Elaura Jaquette, murdered in Macky by Joseph Morse, a former custodian at CU, is rumored to haunt the auditorium’s west tower where she was beaten and killed.
According to Haunted Boulder, by Roz Brown and Ann Alexander Leggett, in the summer of 1966, Elaura’s body was found naked and battered in the organ practice room of the west tower. Police reports described the walls as being smeared with blood.
After the murder, students claimed to still see blood on the walls, or that the keys on the organ remained stained. Perhaps strangest of all, rumor has it that you can hear screams and soft organ music playing from Macky late at night-even though the organ has been removed from the room.
–Banjo Billy, a tour guide in Boulder, said, “In 1995, Kristen Dunn, CU student and member of Pi Beta Phi, as well as a passionate piano player, died unexpectedly. It is said that sorority girls still hear her playing the piano.”
–Asking around, you might hear that Clare Small used to be a hospital, or that Sewall was used as a morgue to store bodies infected with tuberculosis. Others will tell you that Carlson Gym was formerly a morgue. Either way, CU is home to some creepy old buildings.
–Kristen Grebenik, a junior management major, said, “I’ve heard a rumor that in Farrand Hall, a foreign student killed herself over Christmas break in a storage room. Supposedly, you can see her reflection in certain mirrors in the building.”
–“In 1918, during a flu outbreak, Woodbury was used as a hospital. It is said that the people that died in their beds in Woodbury can be seen walking around in that area of campus,” said Callie Colberg, a junior English major and student ambassador.
–Haunted Boulder also reports a ghost at the Spanish Towers (apartments that are popular for CU students). Supposedly, Sid Wells, a CU student, was killed by a shotgun blast to the back of his head in 1983. In the 1990’s, students who experienced unexplained noises and flickering lights called a local psychic. The psychic felt that there was a spirit in the apartment of a young man who died a violent death; only later did the students and the psychic find out about what happened to Sid Wells.
