By: Lisa Hare
lisa.hare@yankton.net
Halloween may not have officially arrived, but for one Yankton house, spooks and haunts don't seem to know the difference.
Thursday, the Great Plains Video, Inc. film crew, contracted out of Sioux Falls by "The Montel Williams Show," video-recorded footage of a "portal" inside Colleen Meyers' two-story, Victorian-style house in Yankton -- a home long-rumored to be haunted. The film will be used in a clip on an episode of the syndicated show scheduled to air later this month.
The portal, as explained to Meyers by a psychic from Sioux Falls, is a passage-way between dimensions which spirits use to cross over into the physical world.
"I've never seen any (ghosts)," Meyers said, adding that several other strange things have happened in the 15 years she resided in the house.
Copies of photographs Meyers sent to the producers of the show depict fog-like clouds hovering around one of Meyers' cats, and in another, a "ghost cat" sits under an outdoor bench.
"I don't see things and take pictures of them, I take pictures and then see these things in the pictures," Meyers said.
Meyers listed her haunted house for sale on eBay in 2004. It was that listing which caught the attention of one of the producers from the show.
Though no one has placed any bids to purchase her home yet, Meyers said she hoped the exposure from being on television would help. She said she believes there are plenty of people who would like to own a haunted house.
Meyers isn't the only one who has experienced strange things within the walls of the old house.
"This isn't just me," she said. "Other people who have lived here have things that have happened to them, too."
Meyers said a previous owner of the house had claimed that pictures would be removed from walls and piled in the center of the room, and boxes set out on the curb for garbage collection would mysteriously be back in the basement the next day. In one particular area of the house -- right next to the portal -- a strong scent, which smells like cooking bacon and eggs, could sometimes be detected.
"I get a lot of comments from the older people in town," Meyers said. People who have been around long enough to have heard many stories have approached her with their own tales to tell of the house, she noted.
"I think it has something to do with the old fort that used to be here," Meyers said, stating that her house sits on the land where the Yankton fort was located. With the tumult of the times and calamities associated with the fort, Meyers said perhaps the restless souls that were victims of tragedy are the ones residing with her. But she doesn't seem too concerned.
"I never feel threatened," Meyers said. "It just kind of freaks me out."
Meyers will be flown to New York Oct. 11 for the taping of "The Montel Williams Show."
The program will feature several people from across the country sharing stories and experiences of haunted houses and other ghostly phenomenon. Famed psychic and author Sylvia Brown will also be there to consult with the guests.
"How cool is that?" said Deb Murray, Meyers' neighbor.
Though Deb and her husband, Steve, have not seen anything out of the ordinary from their next-door vantage point, Deb said she didn't doubt the possibility of the existence of unexplainable occurrences.
"Colleen's no crackpot," Steve said.
And while he admitted to being more of a skeptic, Steve said that another person who had lived in the house had told him of seeing an apparition which he believed to be the ghost of his deceased father.
"He told me that and I could tell he really believed what he saw," Steve said. "So, I don't know."
"I'm open enough to think there are things out there that we just don't know about," Deb said. "Hey, you never know."
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