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Local ghost stories give DSC students creeps
Rachel Tanner | Dixie Sun News Editor

Urban legends, ghosts and haunted graveyards might be for the superstitious, but even the non-believers are bound to be curious when it comes to haunted places close to home.

Urban legends, ghosts and haunted graveyards might be for the superstitious, but even the non-believers are bound to be curious when it comes to haunted places close to home.

In and around the St. George area, there are a variety of so-called haunted places, from a building right on campus to a field where some of Utah’s most gruesome history took place.

The Val A. Browning library, located nearly in the center of campus, is said to have a friendly ghost who visits at night.

Bonnie Percival, a librarian at the library, said she has heard talk about a “nice little lady” with a long sleeved, high collared white shirt and black skirt who sits at the reference desk sometimes late at night.

“I’ve heard that long after the library closes at night [a man] hears noises and sees her sitting up there at reference very quietly while he is working on the computers,” Percival said.

Another haunted campus located about 45 minutes north of St. George, Southern Utah University, is said to have its own ghosts.

The building on campus known as Old Main has quite a bit of history behind it. A lot of different stories have been told about this building, and most of them all lead to creepy occurrences.

According to www.prairieghosts.com, a variety of different happenings have occurred inside and in front of this old building. Piano music playing, lights turning on and off, and elevators mysteriously breaking down are just some of the occurrences that students claim to have seen happen over the years in the building.

The construction of the building, which happened in 1897, also brought some eerie stories. The sandstone and bricks used to lay the foundation of the building are said to be blood red because of a number of deaths that occurred on campus years ago, including a story about the school custodian getting into a fight with his wife, murdering her and dragging her down the stairs and across the bricks in front of Old Main, staining them red.

Travis Bentley, a junior psychology major from St. George who is currently attending SUU, said although he has never been to the campus late at night to see if these old legends are true, one of his friends swears he saw someone in the third floor window.

“My friend went one night with a group of people and stood outside the building to see if anything would happen, and just when they were about to leave he said they all saw something kind of whitish go past one of the windows,” Bentley said. “They were probably all just seeing things, but who knows?”

Another local eerie place to visit is the Silver Reef cemetery, located near Leeds north of St. George. According to www.myufo.com, the old Catholic cemetery is haunted by a little girl who follows people out of the cemetery. There have also been reports of people hearing footsteps and voices of children asking to be taken home, and feeling as if they are being watched while they are there.

A different location not thought to be scary, but instead is thought of for recreation and summer fun is Lake Powell. Before it was dammed, this man-made lake was an ancient riverbed canyon with prehistoric Native American figures etched into the rocks. It was a sacred area for many different tribes and reportedly many people had died and been buried there, according to www.utahghost.org. Because of this, today it is haunted by those ancient Native Americans. It is said that flute music can be heard playing late at night, as well as laughing and crying.

Last, but not least, is the story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The site of the massacre, located north of St. George on Highway 18 near Enterprise, is supposedly haunted.

This historic yet horrible massacre happened in April 1857. More than 120 men, women and children on their way to California from Arkansas were murdered by a band of Mormon militia in the field where the monument now stands. No one to this day knows the reasons behind the slaughter, but many have reported that they’ve heard voices crying out to them when they approach the creek below the monument, according to www.carpenoctem .com/tv/haunt/ut/.