Episode Details

HAUNTED WYOMING

Well, hey there, folks, and welcome to The Roundup. We're a Cowboy State Daily podcast that focuses on interesting people in the Cowboy State. Today, in observation of the upcoming spookiest of holidays, we're steering away from the LIVING people in Wyoming… and focusing on those departed souls who are still making their presence known.

First, though, I want to take a minute to make sure you all are in the loop on another great podcast - the "Business From the Basement" podcast, supported by the Wyoming Business Alliance, is a fantastic resource for anyone who is a business person, who is interested in business, who could use some advice or new ideas. Check out the Wyoming Business Alliance's "Business From the Basement" podcast!

Now… on to the stories.

Wendy Corr:

All right, folks, for the first stop on our tour of haunted Wyoming spots, we're going to the newest member of our Cowboy State daily team, Reilly Strand. Reilly's our videographer. He is my right hand. I'm so grateful to have him here.

And he went out with Mark Heinz, they went to the Laramie Plains Civic Center to explore some of the ghost stories. And so Reilly, so glad that you went to that - tell us, first off, what are the Haunted stories that you heard to get you there? Why did Mark say this is something we need to look up?

Reilly Strand:

Yeah. So when a lot of ghost stories are told, it seems a lot of people comment on those and say, well, you should go to the civic center in Laramie And it kept coming up. And there's a few stories that that have surfaced out of the civic center.

There's a girl on a tricycle, I think, that rides down the hallways at night, shadowy figures, voices, all sorts of stuff. There's a lot of history there. So a lot of potential for ghost stories, obviously.

Wendy Corr:

And so when you went to the civic center, what did you discover, and who did you go with?

Reilly Strand:

So outdoors reporter Mark Heinz and I joined Way Out West paranormal, which is a paranormal investigation group based in Cheyenne. They drove over that evening, as well as the manager, I think his position was, at the Civic Center. He's kind of the guy that looks after a lot of things. He does a lot of the maintenance on the building.

So Way Out West Paranormal, obviously, they believe in ghosts. The employee from the civic center does not believe in ghosts. So it's kind of a good push and shove of well, this is what we think is happening - Well, no, actually, that's not happening, because it's actually just radio interference or whatever.

So it was interesting to get both perspectives as we were walking around the building.

Wendy Corr:

What did you find? Did you feel anything? Did you see anything?

Reilly Strand:

Personally, there was definitely some spooky environments in there. I didn't feel any chills or anything like that. I didn't hear anything, but it's definitely eerie. I think you'd have to just, I guess, not be paying attention to not feel anything, because it is definitely a spooky place.

And there's an abandoned pool in the basement that was never used, that has no lights, we went down there. A fourth floor band room that looks straight out of a haunted house, we went up there. other sections of the basement, like the boiler room, where you just would have to be pretty unimaginative to not get a little spooked.

But even the skeptic, the employee at the Civic Center said, Yeah, I don't believe in ghosts, but like, it is pretty creepy in here. So even he had to admit that.

Wendy C