If you happen to be a bit skeptical as to whether ghosts exist, perhaps you should pay a visit to Mantorville, Minnesota. Actually, the Mantorville Opera House is where you are most likely to encounter a ghost or two.
According to dl-online.com, Priscilla Ruemping performs and is also the director at the opera house. She says it's customary to say a goodbye to performers as they exit the opera house. She also says a goodbye to a ghost before she leaves.
Once, she said a goodbye to the ghost and not expecting a return goodbye she heard "goodbye". “I was just so tickled that they acknowledged me!” Ruemping said.
She claims that is a pretty tame experience compared to others she has had at the opera house, such as a ghost named Harold.
“He likes to scare people,” Ruemping said. “I've got to the point whenever I'd have to go in the basement, I'd always talk to him on the way and say ‘Hey now, I've always been nice to you, I always say hi. So don't scare me.’ And he doesn't. But the one time I went down there and forgot to say it, I'm going up the stairs, and he creeps me out… The one time he grabbed my ankles!”
There is also a ghost named Ellen that resides at the opera house on the corner of 5th Street and Main Street where it's stood for over a hundred years. Ruemping says that Ellen is a bit of a prankster who likes to hide cast member's shoes and clothes, as well as props, etc.
“One time she turned on the fog machine when it was off,” Ruemping said. “They like to let you know they’re there.”
Hawk Horvath is a paranormal investigator from Rochester claims it's for real “It is extremely haunted,” Hawk Horvath said. “It will not disappoint.”
"We’ve caught video of lights turning on and off by themselves, which is pretty fun,” Horvath said. “We’ve also had an infrared camcorder on the stairway going to the top floor and caught the lights turning off and that was pretty awesome… then they tend to manipulate our equipment a whole lot in the Opera House. It’s what we call an intelligent haunting, meaning they want to communicate with us. We don’t have to work very hard.”
One of Horvath's investigators was once pinched by, they assume, Harold. “She said, ‘Harold just pinched my butt,’ and we picked up a voice right then that said ‘Yeah,’” Horvath said.
If you are a fan of the paranormal, it might be worth a trip to Mantorville in the near future.