This Wyoming Library Was Built Over A Cemetery; Restless Spirits Haunt The Shelves
Wyoming has a rich history and sometimes that history doesn't want to be forgotten.
Since opening its doors in 1980, the Sweetwater County Library in Green River has had a large number of reports of paranormal experiences.
According to American Libraries Magazine, the library was built on top of a cemetery that dates back to the 1860s. The graves were moved in the 1920s, but a coffin turned up in 1985, attesting that not all graves had been moved. It is believed that there are still bodies underneath the library to this day.
Instances of lights turning on and off on their own, doors opening and closing, names being whispered, and even typewriters and computers typing on their own have been reported.
One of the most hair-raising occurrences was when a librarian briefly walked away from her computer, only to return and have her name typed boldly on the screen. Former Library Director Patricia LeFraivre told American Libraries Magazine:
I don’t think the system could have done that itself. It had no word-processing capabilities, and at that time we didn’t have email. Her name appeared in quite large letters … with nothing else on the screen.
The staff has even been keeping a 'Ghost Log' of all encounters and events that have happened in the library. Some of the entries include:
- 3/3/1993 Micki (Staff) - "I heard my name whispered several times, but no one was asking for me. When I told MD (Staff) about it, she said she had heard her name whispered many times in the last two days and no one was there."
- 10/6/1997 Micki (Staff) - "I was on the phone by Judy’s desk. Started to choke from the smell of strong woman’s perfume. Then it was gone."
- 8/17/2000 C.H. (Staff) - "I was in the ladies room when I heard what sounded like someone tapping their shoe. I knew there was no one else in there, so I tapped mine 3 times. There was maybe a 15-second pause and I heard 3 taps in response. I tried again, but nothing happened."
- 6/2003 S.G. (Staff) "At the front of the library, where new books are displayed, the top shelf of books all fell at once. It was as if someone pushed them all off."
- 2/7/2004 Patrons - "Me and Katie were sitting back in the Children’s corner and felt our coat being tugged then we heard music playing like the kind you play at a funeral, but when we went to check no music was playing."
- 4/18/2008 - "We had a Poetry Jam at the Sweetwater County Library on the evening of the 18th of April. After the show was over, there were several volunteers helping clean up. A man approached me and asked if there was another librarian working that he hadn’t met yet. I assumed he meant during the day and asked what she looked like. He began to describe her as having black curly hair that was styled kind of high up on her head and he said she wore glasses. Well, I was stumped and asked if she had worked earlier that day. He said, “No, right now. I just saw her.” I said, “Wait a minute; you JUST saw her? There are no other librarians working tonight. Was she a real woman or a ghost woman?” He said, “I don’t know, that’s why I asked.” I said, “Where did you see her? Show me!”
Well we put a lot of the items that we do not need in the back hallway and this guy had been back there alone retrieving some of it. There was a light on under the stairs, however, the light in the stairwell was off and it was there on the landing in the darker part of the stairwell at the top of the bottom flight of stairs that he saw her. He said she was so solid he thought she was real and that she wore a long white dress and just held eye contact with him for a couple of minutes and then smiled at him and went upstairs. Later we turned on the light and he noticed the picture of our first librarian in Green River that hangs in the stairwell there and said that the woman he saw looked just like her, however, her hair was styled differently. There was definitely a presence in that area, for right as he showed me where he saw her, the hair on my arms stood up. I almost ALWAYS feel a presence there and on this night it was VERY strong! Extremely cool!!!"
These are just a few of the dozens of entries in the the 'Ghost Log'. Click here to see all of them.
The Paranormal Investigations Team of Utah were invited to conduct an investigation in the library. On their website, they have many photographs and even some surprising EVP recordings. (Electronic Voice Phenomenon). Some of these recordings captured the sounds of a female crying and even screaming.