Haunted Kansas: Ghost Stories and Other Eerie Tales

by Lisa Hefner Heitz

Overview

Who’s that? Is someone there? A whisper of air brushes your cheek. Then all is still. Maybe it was just the wind. Or maybe it wasn’t. . . .

Maybe you’ve just been visited by the late Ida Day lurking in the basement of Hutchinson’s public library or the widow Tarot staring forlornly from an upstairs window at Fort Scott, or the phantom Earl floating behind the scenes in Concordia’s Brown Grand Theater. And maybe the horrific Albino Woman truly does haunt Topeka, turning romantic nights into nightmares. . . . maybe.

Pursuing the stories behind these and other spectral manifestations, Lisa Hefner Heitz has traveled the state in search of its ghostly folklore. What she has unearthed is a fascinating blend of oral histories, contemporary eye-witness accounts, and local legends. Creepy and chilling, sometimes humorous, and always engaging, her book features tales about ghosts, poltergeists, spook lights, and a host of other restless spirits that haunt Kansas.

Heitz’s spine-tingling collection of stories raps and taps and moans and groans through a wealth of descriptions of infamous Kansas phantoms, as well as disconcerting personal experiences related by former skeptics. Many of these ghosts, she shows, are notoriously linked to specific structures or locations, whether it is an eighteenth-century mansion in Atchison or a deep—some have claimed bottomless—pool near Ashland.

The evanescent apparitions of these tales have frightened and at times amused Kansans throughout the state's long history. Yet this is the first book to capture for posterity the lively antics of the state’s ghostly denizens. Besides preserving a colorful and imaginative, if intangible, side of the state’s popular heritage, Heitz supplies ghost-storytellers with ample hair-raising material for, well, eternity. Maybe that person breathing softly behind you has another such story to share. Oh, no one’s there? Perhaps it really was just the breeze off the prairie.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700634439
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	03/29/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Lisa Hefner Heitz, a Topeka native and resident, is a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in Kansas!, Midwest Living, and other publications.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

House Ghosts (Haunted Houses&Buildings

-The Old Stone House

-The Haunted Farm

-The Blue Handkerchief Ghost of Carey House Square

-Herbie the Bakery Ghost

-The Ghost of Ida Day

-The Emporia Country Club Ghost

-The Haunted Duplex

Fort Ghosts

-The Watching Widow

-Custer’s Ghost

-The Haunted Teddy Bear

-The Well-Ghost

-More Frontier Ghosts

-The Ghost of Father Fred

-The Ghost of Catherine Sutler: The Lost Children

-The Lady in Black

-The Ghost of Custer

-The Ghosts of the Rookery

-The Face in the Fire

-And the Rest

School and Theater Ghosts

-The Oxford Middle School Ghost

-The Ghostly Trumpeter of Paola High School

-Death Takes a Holiday: The Salina Central High Stage Ghost

-George and the Night Nurse: Kansas State University

-Virginia the Ghost of Sigma Nu: University of Kansas

-The Musical Ghost of McCray Hall: Pittsburg State University

-Earl, the Brown Grand Theatre Ghost

Graveyard Ghosts

-The Albino Woman

-The Blue-Eyed Monster of Clearwater Cemetery

-The Demonic Church

-The Caretaker Ghosts

-The Glowing Tombstone

Ghosts on the Range

-The Ghost of the Cimarron

-The Hamburger Man

-Theorosa's Bridge

-A Ghostly Sisyphus

-Kate Coffee and Her Ghouls

-The Legends of Witches Hollow

-The Holmes Ghost Light

-St. Jacob’s Well: The Cowboy Ghost and His Ghost Horse

Ghostly Oddities

-Mystic Cow Lights

-The Phantom Cat

-Angel over Greensburg

-The Haunted Mattress

-The Haunted Hayloft

-The Singing Ghost

The Most Haunted Town in Kansas: Atchison

-The Ghost of Sallie the Man-Hater

-The Haunted Villa: The Ghost in the Tower

-The Tea-Making Ghost with a Toothache

-The Skirt-Tugging Ghost

-The Ghost of Anna

-The Suitcase-Throwing Ghost

-The Ghost of the Bride Trapped in the Trunk

-A Quartet of Ghosts

-The Legend of Molly’s Hollow in Jackson Park

Epilogue

Notes and Sources

Additional Resources

Index

Editorial Reviews

Topeka native Heitz makes Oz seem safe and sane. She has travelled around the state collecting oral histories, contemporary eye-witness accounts, and local legends about ghosts, poltergeists, spook lights, and other restless spirits. Among the haunted places are houses, forts, schools, theaters, graveyards, and the range. She picks Atchison as the most haunted town in Kansas. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

"Lisa Hefner Heitz has made an important contribution to Kansas folklore by pulling these stories together for the first time. It is perfect for those who seek a publication containing the most popular poltergeists in Kansas."—Kansas History

"Finally, a book not about Dorothy, the Yellow Brick Road, or being bored silly, but one that tells us what we’ve known all along—Kansas is a spooky place."—James J. Fisher, Kansas City Star

"Heitz has carefully crafted and cleverly recounted the state’s best tales, legends, and ghost stories. Whether you are a believer or not, this book will haunt your memory with the eerie, the pathetic, the tragic, and the bizarre. A delight to read and contemplate, Haunted Kansas inspires us to think differently about our state and adds a new dimension to Kansas literature."—Thomas Fox Averill, author of What Kansas Means to Me

"Enjoyable and easy to read, Haunted Kansas tells us a great deal about who we are as Kansans and gives us insights into our values and attitudes. It will also appeal to anyone interested in regionalism, folklore, history, or popular culture."—Jennie Chinn, Kansas folklorist and coauthor of Kansas Quilts and Quilters

From the Publisher