Andy Weeks - Ghosts of Idahos Magic Valley: Hauntings and Lore

Published by Haunted America

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2012 by Andy Weeks

All rights reserved

First published 2012

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.61423.682.5

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

print ISBN 978.1.60949.601.2

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.

For my little familyHeidi and Braydenand our big dreams.

How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads;

to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly,

and brings nothing but sweet dreams.

Bram Stoker

CONTENTS

PREFACE

I accept, I told the city editor when he offered me a job to be his assistant. I was excited, as most young journalists are, at the next adventure in a growing newspaper career. My wife was just as excited about me becoming an ACEassistant city editorperhaps in some ways even more so than me. I knew youd get it, she told me as a smile lighted her face. The Times-News would be a good career move for me, she said, while Idaho would be a nice change for our little family. We met with a realtor, packed our belongings and found an apartment in Twin Falls. Only after being at the apartment a few days did I realize it was infested with earwigs, which, much like cockroaches, would creep out at night and scatter whenever lights were turned on. As uncomfortable as it was for me to share space with the bugs, they were a minor trial to the heavier ones that pressed on my mind.

On the very day we came to Twin Falls to close on the apartment, my father passed away. The next six months were like a roller coaster for me, a lot of ups and downs, both at the newspaper and in my personal life. The editors who hired me had, within a short time after I arrived, moved on. I had a tough time focusing on my new job. I was living away from my family at a time when I really needed them near. My wife and son had stayed behind in Salt Lake City to sell our house, and more than once I felt like giving up and returning home. I didnt believe there was much magic in the Magic Valley.

It didnt help that there werent any mountains nearby. After all, I had moved from the shade of Utahs towering Wasatch Mountains to an open and arid landscape where tumbleweeds tumbled in the breeze. Correction: not just breeze. Chicago has nothing on this windy city.

But I stuck it out, and six months later our house sold and things began to change. My family arrived. We bought a new home (one without earwigs). We made friends. And in another few months, I moved from the city desk to cover the outdoors beat, which allowed me to become more familiar with south-central Idaho, its people and its scenic surroundings. I began to see the magic.

CASTING A SPELL

One of the definitions of the word magic, Webster explains, is something that seems to cast a spell. This, finally, is what happened to me. I became a convert of sorts to the Magic Valley. Ive also seen it happen to others. Though it is not as scenic as other parts of the stateno snow-capped mountains and thick forests hereMagic Valley is beautiful in its own right. The land is adorned with lush farmlands, full fish hatcheries, active dairies, deep canyons, rushing rivers, scenic waterfalls and arid deserts.

Who would think that in such an unassuming place you also might find a ghost or two? But that apparently is a very real possibility. Talk to the areas residents, maybe even your neighbors, and you just might find that they have an interesting story to share. Before long, as the alleged witnesses pile up, youll see that such phenomena have indelibly left their mark here just like Mother Nature.

Thats what this book is about: the paranormal and strange in Magic Valley.

The stories contained within these pages, however, are not strictly ghost stories but also history lessons. Youve probably heard the saying that every town has its ghosts. Those ghosts are irrevocably entwined with the history of the area. Some of the stories become local legend, while others have all the hallmarks of folklore or fable. And then there are the ones told by modern eyewitnesses to paranormal events. Though this book has a little bit of folktale and legend, I primarily and purposefully have focused on more modern accounts by living witnesses. This, besides research, is what a good reporter does. And it is from that standpoint that I have approached this work.

One other thing: telling the history of any area is much more funfor the writer and, I hope, for the readerwhen told through the lens of the eerie and macabre. Whether or not you believe the stories, thats up to you. Some of them, indeed, are folklore and legend. Others have been reported as truth, either in the historical record or as told to me firsthand.

Im not the only one who has been told the stories. Bill Knopp, founder of Fright Night Tours in Twin Falls, has heard many of the same stories and pointed me to many of his sources. He shared his experience, writing:

When I first visited Idaho, it was a whirlwind trip to Buhl to drop off my friend Becky and her infant son so they could begin their life anew and escape a bad marriage in Michigan. When I returned a dozen years later in the fall of 2009, it was me escaping a bad job in Michigan and looking to rebuild my life and career. Becky was now married to a good man whom I knew from serving an LDS mission in Michigan, and living in Kimberly near the Snake River Canyon, and they invited me to stay with them until I was able to get settled.

Through Becky, I met local artist and historians Bev and Gary Stone, who shared intriguing stories with me about the Oregon Trail and the role that the Stricker Ranch and Rock Creek Station played in the development of Idaho. In doing so, they also shared haunted stories they had experienced, later verified by a couple of the ranch caretakers, many of whom had rarely lasted more than a few months while living on the property because of scary encounters.

As I investigated the stories from the Stricker Ranch, one of the former caretakers shared haunted stories that were happening at his restaurant in Old Town Twin Falls. Soon, I met others who had similar experiences and tales from other of the original buildings located downtown. The more stories I shared, the more people came forward to share their experiences. I kept hearing, Youve got to talk with Sue, or Jim or check out the old such and such building. I hear its haunted.

I began to compile the stories and formed a driving tour, where I shared what I had heard, culminating with a stop at Stricker Ranch for a visit to the cellars there, where we often captured orbs and other strange phenomenon in the pictures we took. One time, a writer for the Times-News was on a tour, and her camera inexplicably snapped off three or four photos while it was hanging on her shoulder. During that same tour, a teenager ran out of the Stricker Ranch house in fright, telling me she had seen an apparition of an old man with bushy eyebrows. With those experiences, and stories from caretaker Gary Guy, I am convinced that the former inhabitants of the Ranch continue to dwell there