Jeff Morris - Twin Cities Haunted Handbook: 100 Ghostly Places You Can Visit in and Around Minneapolis and St. Paul

Twin Cities Haunted Handbook

COPYRIGHT 2012 by Jeff Morris, Garett Merk, and Dain Charbonneau

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any fashion, print, facsimile, or electronic, or by any method yet to be developed, without express permission of the copyright holder.

For further information, contact the publisher at:

Clerisy Press

306 Greenup Street

Covington, Kentucky 41011

www.clerisypress.com

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress

ISBN 978-1-57860-507-1

Distributed by Publishers Group West

Printed in the United States of America

First edition, first printing

Editor: Donna Poehner

Cover design by Scott McGrew

Text design by Annie Long

Cover and interior photos provided by the authors unless otherwise noted.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

W E WOULD LIKE TO START BY THANKING all of those nameless people out there who made this book possible. During our countless hours of research into this vast array of haunted locations, so many people helped us who either wished to remain anonymous or whose name we never knew. It almost seems unfair that many of those people who have helped us out the most may not be individually mentioned in this section. For this reason, we feel that these people should be mentioned first. You have our most sincere apology for not mentioning your name, and you have our most sincere thank you.

Next, there are a handful of people who helped us with the daunting amount of research that was necessary for this book. Without these people, this book would not have been possible: Beth Fontaine, Chad Brinkley, Nicole Dunn, Tiffany Long, Jerry Zoeller, Matt Kroeger, Michael Lamping, and Richard Miller. I would also like to thank a couple of groups that aided us along the way. Anoka County Historical Society, Para Adventures, Twin Cities Paranormal Research Group.

Many individual stories throughout this book can be credited to individuals who helped us to find the stories and histories of the locations. A handful of locations on the east side of the Twin Cities were attained with the help of the Hastings Paranormal Team and Dakota County Paranormal Society. Without them, locations such as the St. James Hotel, Hastings State Asylum Cemetery, The Onion Grille, and several others would not have been possible.

Another person who helped us during Garett and Jeffs long trip to Minnesota was Ryan Vehr. Ryan spent his own time and money for little credit. He simply wanted to join us in the adventure that has become this book.

Finally, we would all like to extend individual thanks to family and to people who have helped us:

D AIN I would like to thank my dad for sharing his interests and insights into the paranormal and joining me occasionally on trips to many of the locations. Id like to thank my mother for always supporting and encouraging me throughout my entire life. I thank Steven and Juliet for their willingness to always loan me their equipment on many of my outings. I also would like to acknowledge Dan, Nicole, Reane, Tammy, Marcus, Isabel, Grace, Austin, Oliver, Zoey, Scarlet, Jilena, and Steph. Thanks to the folks over at Real Ghost Tours for the wonderful experience they provide at St. Anthony Main. Id also like to extend a special thanks to Elaine for her love and support throughout this entire endeavor.

J EFF I cant express my gratitude enough towards everyone in my life who has encouraged and supported me through the creation of this book. Amy, Koen, and Koda, my family, have allowed me the necessary time to both work on the book at home and travel to Minnesota for research. My parents have also been generous and supportive during the writing of this book, and they also deserve my most sincere thanks.

G ARETT To start, Id like to thank God and my parents for making me; if they hadnt done that, I wouldnt be able to help write this book. Id also like to thank Paul Bunyans blue ox, Babe, for stepping all over the land to make the many, many lakes throughout the Twin Cities. Id also like to give credit to Ryan, Jerry, Mike, Matt, Mark, Bob, Terry, Joe, Sterling, and Garfield. A huge thank-you to Jeffs car for not dying on our trip to the Twin Citiesyou done good, car.

FOREWORD

A MONSTER LIVES IN MY BEDROOM CLOSET. The closet itself sits slightly ajar on the wall closest to my side of the bed. I use it for storage. Remnants of my past are boxed and stacked within the small space: report cards and photographs from grade school and high school, souvenirs from summer vacations to Civil War battlefields, a photograph of someone I used to know by a fountain that I no longer recognize, a shard of wood from an old amusement park I wrote about in my first book but that no longer exists except in memory, yellowing pages of a short story I wrote in college about a coded treasure map that held a secret I no longer remember, tangible memories of my past that I never look at but know are there.

The monster has yellow eyes. At night, Ill sometimes awake from some interesting nightmare and look over towards the closet. Since my eyes have not yet become accustomed to the pitch darkness of the room, all I can see are the thin ovals of the monsters yellowish glowing eyes as it peers out at me.

Some say that fear is biological and measurable. When one is frightened, certain things happen within his or her body. Adrenaline begins to flow. Eyes dilate to take in more light. Hearts beat faster to give muscles more fuel to fight or flee. Other senses are enhanced. Ones body places itself upon the precipice of action. So why are we so often frozen in fear? Why, despite our body preparing us for confrontation, are we so often frozen in inaction.

Fear is often directed towards the unknown. We cannot act against something we do not understand. All I know about my monster is that it lives in the closet and it has yellow eyes. I dont know the color of its skin. I dont know the size of its teeth or its claws. All I know is it watches me silently throughout the night with those piercing yellow eyes.

The ultimate unknown is death. Sure, we struggle to escape the maniacal serial killer or the bloodthirsty creatures that may chase us in the night, but what we fear most is what will happen when they catch us. We know that they will kill us. We know that we will die. What we dont know is where we will be after we die. Will we wander the earth as a spirit, never completely grasping who we are or in what stage of existence we are trapped? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell?

Ive heard people refer to those of us who go headlong into haunted places looking for evidence of ghosts as brave. They claim that they would be too frightened if they were to ever actually encounter a ghost. They respect the bravery of those who seem to actually want to find a ghost. I would suggest though that instead of bravery, there is also a degree of cowardice that drives me towards these ghosts. As Ive said, fear seems to follow the unknown. If I were to find these ghosts and ultimately understand them, the mystery around them will dissipate. If ghosts are in fact remnants of people who have died, this will also ease my own fears of death.

The more people looking for these answers, the higher the probability that someone will find them.

This philosophy is constantly in the subconscious part of my brain. Thinking about it now, it seems that this is somewhat an inspiration for the Haunted Handbook series. These books are essentially travel books. They tell you the history and the ghost stories of the haunted locations in the subject city, but perhaps just as importantly, they tell you how to get to the places and how to look for the ghosts there. The more people out there and the more haunted locations they are exploring, the higher the chances are that people will find that key piece of evidence that gives them another clue as to what is really out there. With this knowledge or even the desire to pursue this knowledge, the fear begins to disappear. Fear is replaced with curiosity and thirst for understanding.