By Barbara Smith
Published by Ghost House Books 2003
ISMB 1-894877-21-7
Pages: 215
The geological grandness of the Rocky Mountains are in themselves, breathtaking but what is even more captivating are the countless legends and paranormal stories that live on there – many dating back to the 1800’s when the word was that there was “gold in them thar hills.”
The mountains themselves, wind their way from Colorado in the United States to Alberta, Canada and into Alaska – a huge area with many tales of men who set out from the east for gold and never returned – leaving just their skeletal remains behind. Others managed to settle in the area and establish the earliest towns.
One of those was Garnet, Montana, which today is known as a ‘ghost town’ that truly has its own ghosts – those of miners whose souls remain to this day. Apparently, tourists say if you listen, you can hear the sounds of horses’ hooves, wagon wheels and even a blacksmith pounding horseshoes during the day. Author Barbara Smith says that at night, one might hear the sound of a honky-tonk piano playing or the knocking of a phantom spirit at the door.
There were also a number of forts established along the Rocky Mountain range, including one in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Though now a bustling city, Cheyenne kept one reminder of its colorful past – a stone house on Park Street that is believe to be haunted by the ghost of a young cavalry officer dubbed ‘Luther.’ According to the author, the family now residing in the home live peacefully with this spirit, who has been know to show himself in full form.
Ghost Stories of the Rocky Mountains Volume II contains a wide variety of stories, not just about the mining towns and their specters, but also of haunted houses, highways and byways, haunted inns and more. If you love intriguing ghost stories and have an opportunity to pick up this book, you won’t be disappointed.
Other books by Barbara Smith include Ghost Stories of the Rocky Mountains, Haunted Theaters and Ghost Stories of the Sea.
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