Story by Kaylee Porter
Rumors about the ghosts who supposedly inhabit Rankin Hall are easy to come by. Anyone who has done a google search of Montana ghosts can tell you about the class of 20 phantom students who are said to meet in empty classrooms on the second floor and tales of their voices and restless shuffling echoing through the dark, creaky hallways. Several past custodians and professors even claim to have encountered the ghost of Jeanette Rankin wandering the building at night.
But Jason Sanders, the current Rankin Hall custodian, doesn’t know any of these stories. He just knows what he heard.
Late one night, Sanders, who has cleaned Rankin Hall for a year and half, heard two people walking around above him. Positive he was alone in the building, Sanders went upstairs to check on the noise.
“I heard an entire class in one of the rooms I had already cleaned and locked,” Sanders said. “Then I heard all the chairs move back like everyone was getting up to leave the classroom; but nobody left and when I went in, there was nobody in there.”
“That night I just locked the place up and left,” he said.
Though he was creeped out by the odd noises, Sanders said he doesn’t mind working in a building that might be haunted. He’s since heard stories about windows opening and slamming shut, chairs miraculously stacking themselves and lights turning on and off, but nothing has ever moved on his watch.
“They like me. They don’t want to spook me too much,” Sanders said with a laugh.
But Sanders isn’t the only one with a chilling story about ghosts on the UM campus, nor is Rankin Hall the only building rumored to be haunted. According to legend, Brantley Hall, the University Theater and Main Hall all have specters of their own. Whether you choose to believe the stories or not, they are an interesting and sometimes spooky part of university folklore.
Ellen Baumler, interpretive historian with the Montana Historical Society and author of two books about hauntings around the state, said she has heard many of the stories behind UM’s resident ghouls, but remains skeptical about the sources.
“I have tried to trace a number of these stories, but I have never been able to link anything to historic fact. That doesn’t mean someone couldn’t do it, but you really can’t make a strong case out of third- and fourth-hand information,” Baumler said.
According to Baumler, Brantley Hall is said to be haunted by the ghost of a young woman who committed suicide after the stock market crash of 1929 when her family lost their farm. Several Web sites dedicated to Montana ghosts support this rumor, adding that the student took her life by either jumping out of a window or hanging herself.
Though Baumler has never confirmed or disproved this story, she said it could be done by going through the Missoula county courthouse death certificates from 1929.
“It would be tedious work,” Baumler said, “but it would give us an idea of how much truth there is to this story.”
Regardless of the reason, eerie and unexplainable occurrences continue to happen in Brantley Hall. Mary Kukowski, an IT technician in the building, said she encountered the ghost of a young woman in the restroom one afternoon. Kukowski said she looked down and saw “really old looking, Victorian-style shoes” in the stall next to her, but no one ever left the stall and the feet were not there when she looked back after washing her hands.
Kukowski said she thinks this may have been the spirit of the girl who committed suicide.
Bill Johnston, the director of the Alumni Association, has an office in Brantley and he too said he has experienced the presence of a ghost. He was sitting in his office on the second floor on a hot July day when he felt an icy breeze. All the windows and doors were closed and Johnston said the building doesn’t have air conditioning.
“It started circulating around my feet and my legs, then my torso, then up around my head and shoulders,” Johnston said. “Then it was gone and I thought, ‘Well that was different.’ There was no possible way a normal breeze could have rotated around my body like that. I sat at my desk for a few moments, then I decided to call it a day and left.”
Johnston said he had heard other stories about ghostly dogs barking in the hallway and aggressive spirits slamming doors and windows unexpectedly, but never paid much attention to the rumors.
“If there is something in the building, it presents itself every once in a while, but it never does any harm,” Johnston said.
Some say the phantom who allegedly resides in the University Theater is more spiteful than the docile Brantley ghost. An October 1999 article in the Kaimin, “UM’s Haunted History,” included the story of several students who were working in the building one day in the early ‘60s when they heard yelping coming from the theater.
“The students unlocked the eastern terrace and found a cold, dead, dismembered dog lying there,” the article reads, adding that there were no tracks around the body or bloodstains on the stairwell leading to the terrace.
Tom Webster, the theater’s current director, said his staff has also experienced weird things in the building.
A few years ago, Kevin Higginbotham, the technical director at that time, was working in the office when he felt an odd presence and papers started rustling.
“The windows and the doors were closed so there was no way for any air to be flowing through there. But the papers just started rustling. He told me he packed up and screamed out of there,” Webster said.
Webster said he believes the University Theater is haunted. “It’s a big old building that’s close to 80 years old. If you believe in that stuff it’s just as likely a place as any,” he explained.
For decades, the ghosts in Main Hall have had a reputation for disturbing custodians as they cleaned. However, Bruce Davis, Main Hall’s current custodian, said he has never seen or heard any evidence that the building is haunted.
“I try to scare myself sometimes, but I can’t even do that,” Davis said. “I mean, it’s definitely weird in here at night, especially since they just shut off half the lights for energy conservation, but I’ve never seen anything.”
Davis said he can see why people think Main Hall is haunted, citing the creaky wood floors, the noisy pipes and the reflections that bounce off the building’s many windows and mirrors.
“People see and hear weird things, and their brains fill in the blank. People want to be scared. They want that experience because it’s a great story,” Davis said.
“This was open once,” he added, pointing to the safe in the basement. “I heard some one crying in there… No, just kidding.”
Baumler said one of the most convincing UM ghost stories she ever heard came from Main Hall. After a night class on the top floor, anthropology student David Dick stopped in the basement to use the bathroom.
“He was standing in front of the mirror washing his hands when he saw a man with a flannel work shirt on walk into a bathroom stall. David said he was standing there fiddling with the old paper towel dispenser for quite a while and he thought it was strange he never heard any noise coming from the stall. He looked underneath where the guy went in and no one was there,” Baumler said.
Baumler pointed out that simply hanging around these creepy buildings will not guarantee you a similar experience.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not something you can chase. You can’t go to a place and expect something spooky to happen because these experiences people have are so random. If they weren’t random we’d be able to explain it,” she said.
http://www.montanakaimin.com/index.php/ ... ng_um/3139
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
