Published by Haunted America
A Division of The History Press
Charleston, SC 29403
www.historypress.net
Copyright 2014 by Jill Pope
All rights reserved
Cover images courtesy of Lisa Kindel.
First published 2014
e-book edition 2014
ISBN 978.1.62585.096.6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pope, Jill.
Haunted Warren Air Force Base / Jill Pope.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
print edition ISBN 978-1-62619-562-2
1. Ghosts--Wyoming--F.E. Warren Air Force Base--Anecdotes. 2. Haunted places-- Wyoming--F.E. Warren Air Force Base--Anecdotes. 3. Parapsychology--Wyoming--F.E. Warren Air Force Base--Anecdotes. 4. F.E. Warren Air Force Base (Wyo.)--History--Anecdotes. I. Title.
BF1472.U6P6657 2014
133.12978719--dc23
2014028793
Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Dedicated to my loved ones who have passed away.
I miss you deeply but feel you around me, which is of great comfort.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Id like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who graciously shared their paranormal encounters with me.
Heartfelt thanks and credit go to Valerie Martina fellow ghost enthusiast who created the trolley ghost tours and has a deep loyalty and passion for them. Many of the stories in this book were acquired by Val pre-9/11, when the trolleys did daily tours on Warren Air Force Base (WAFB). Id also like to recognize all of the Cheyenne Street Railway Trolley drivers and guides who represent Cheyenne so well.
I would like to thank Cheyenne Paranormal Investigations (CPI), with whom Ive worked over the years. The team that participated in the base investigation in 2007 includes Troy Brandt, founder and original team leader; Scott Newbury, founding member; Brenda Middleton; Natasha Middleton; and K. Creeps Holden. Investigators Larry and Joe joined in the 2007 WAFB investigation. CPI members who did the 2008 WAFB paranormal investigations included Bob Aquin, second team leader; Jessica Garcia; Dylan; Troy Delois; and Roy. Other CPI members are Stacie Tomlinson, Amy Lambert, Sara Aquin and Leslie Aquin.
Id also like to thank Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society: Bryan Bonner, Matthew Baxter, Stu Hayes and Carol Olivacz (www.rockymountainparanormal.com).
Appreciation goes to Alex Martinez (200708) from Public AffairsCommunity Relations for Base for his assistance and to Lieutenant Myman and Lieutenant Knee of Public Affairs (2007). Dan Lyon, base historian (2009), gave me continued assistance with trolley tour historical information and a base tour. Recently, in preparation for this book, I was assisted by Eydie Sakura, first lieutenant, U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command 90 Missile Wing/Public Affairs, and Christen Ornella, second lieutenant, U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command 90 Missile Wing/Public Affairs, as well as Paula Bauman Taylor, base historian and Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and Heritage Museum curator, and James Fuller, historian.
With much love to all of my family and friends, thank you for the support. Special acknowledgement to my nephew Chris Larson, whom I neglected to mention in my first book. I shall not make that mistake again!
Special acknowledgements to all of the Visit Cheyenne staff for the continuous support and encouragement. Lisa Kindel, thanks for being the book photographeryou do great work.
INTRODUCTION
With cable television airing nonstop reality shows, we have been inundated with material on the supernatural. Whether its aliens, sasquatches or psychic or spiritual activity, there is no shortage of information pouring into our households and heads. While some of the propaganda seems quite preposterous, all this has made these subjects more approachable. People are willing to tell about their paranormal experiences, and the general public is becoming open to the possibilities. My generation and many before it were programmed to think within the boxcolor within the lines. We were taught that there were no such thing as ghosts. We tend to try and rationalize our paranormal experiences, as we should, because there is often a scientific answer. My advice is to keep an open mind; it may lead somewhere quite fascinating. Spirits reach out to us in ways that we dont understand.
I am the director of the Cheyenne Street Railway trolleys as part of my position as director of operations at Visit Cheyenne, where we promote tourism in Cheyenne and Laramie County in Wyoming. The first trolley tours began in 1988, and the base was included in the general Cheyenne historic tour. The trolley ran daily historic tours on the base in the summer until security issues from 9/11 prevented its entrance onto the base. The tours still run seven days a week in the summer, traveling through the historic neighborhoods of Cheyenne, excluding WAFB. The trolley guides, mainly Valerie Martin and her father, Bob Morgan, werent even looking for ghosts in the early trolley days. When they met base residents during their daily tours, they would ask them about the history of their homes. More often than not, they received a ghost story in reply. The duo became fascinated with the ghosts of Warren Air Force Base and documented the accounts.
Cheyenne trolley on the fort, circa 1920s. Courtesy of Visit Cheyenne photo collection.
I became the manager of the Cheyenne Street Railway trolleys in 2002, less than a year after 9/11. While the trolleys are occasionally chartered for a tour on the base, we do not have the daily access to the post or its stories that we once had. Several of the stories I have compiled here came from the tour guides who drove the trolley prior to 2001. Valerie Martin is the source of many of these stories and has been a trolley guide for over twenty years, since 1993. She is quite an asset to our trolley program. Vals father, Bob Morgan, used to be a trolley driver as well. He passed away some years after he retired from driving the trolleys. The two of them created the ghost tours, wrote all the original scripts and are responsible for much of the material presented in this book. There were other trolley guides who participated and helped grow the tours. I have been actively collecting additional tales of the supernatural on the base and in the city of Cheyenne since I started working for Visit Cheyenne and Cheyenne Street Railway in 2002. Its become quite a passion and is definitely the most enjoyable part of my job. Whenever I meet someone who works or lives on the base, I question him or her about paranormal experiences. While I expect people to think Im flaky at the inquiry, the majority of them reply with a ghost story or two, many of them saying they did not believe in such nonsense until they experienced the paranormal themselves at Warren Air Force Base.
