It’s that time of year again for sweaters and pumpkin spice, tricks and treats, and crisp, fall air. Everyone knows where to find the best pumpkin patches, tastiest apples, and most beautiful fall colors, but what about some of the spookiest places around the state? If you like a little fright this time of year, here’s some places around the state that you can check out! Reader beware though, some of these stories behind the ghosts can be a little grizzly!

Wabasha Street Caves (Castle Royale) Today - Photo Credit: Jonathunder, Wikimedia Commons

Wabasha Street Caves- In the early 1900s, the Wabasha Street Caves in Saint Paul were a haven for gangsters, bootleggers, and anyone else trying to escape the law. There was even a grand restaurant called Castle Royale, known for its food and the big bands they would get to play there. Of the more sinister things that happened in the caves, three gangsters were said to have been killed in the restaurant and buried in cement somewhere in the caves, never to be seen again.

The owner has frequently encountered men in 20s style attire as well as strange mists floating through the halls. There is also said to be a ghostly bartender who will refill empty wine glasses!

Others have spotted the apparition of a madam known as Nina Clifford who appears wearing period dress.

St. James Hotel - Photo Credit: Elkman, Wikimedia Commons

St. James Hotel- This historic Red Wing, Minnesota hotel opened on Thanksgiving Day in 1875. Clara Lillyblad owned the hotel from 1932 to 1972, and occupied room 310. Known for her cooking, impeccable attention to detail and hostessing etiquette, Clara still makes her presence known - especially in her old bedroom and the hotel’s Victorian Dining Room. According to renowned paranormal investigator Adrian Lee, she will adjust and tidy cutlery and place settings.

It's not just Clara's ghost inside the hotel. There was a horrific shipwreck on Lake Pepin in 1890 where 98 passengers drowned. In the days after the ship went down, the St James Hotel was used as a makeshift morgue. A lot of people believe the ghosts from that shipwreck still reside in the hotel.

On top of that, the St. James Hotel was apparently built on Native American burial mounds, Lee says. People have seen the head of a Native American man hovering in the basement area.

Milford Mine Distaster- On Feb. 5, 1924, boggy water from Foley Lake flooded the Milford Mine about two miles north of Crosby, killing 41 miners in Minnesota’s worst mining disaster. Only seven miners were able to climb to safety. First dug in 1917, by 1924 the main shaft of the manganese mine was 200 feet deep.

Once the mine was finally reopened, the men that returned quickly exited after hearing screams reverberating from within.

First Avenue - Photo Credit: No machine, Wikimedia Commons

First Avenue- While most people know First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis as a place to check out a great show, before Purple Rain it was a Greyhound bus station. According to lore, a woman hanged herself in the fifth stall of the bathroom. She has manifested herself to at least one person, showing the grizzly manner of her death, a bloated body hanging from the ceiling.

There’s other ghosts as well too. One is named "Slippy" and will play pranks on and disturb the musical equipment, and people say balloons have appeared out of nowhere and go up and down the stairs.

Landmark Center - Photo Credit: Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Wikimedia Commons

Landmark Center- Today the Landmark Center in downtown Saint Paul serves as a center of community and gorgeous architecture, but it was originally the federal courthouse and post office for the area. In the 1930s, Jack Pfeiffer had gotten in with the seedier underbelly of town. He ran a speakeasy called Hollyhocks and was a banker for the mobsters. He had part in the kidnappings of Edward Bremer, a banker, and brewery owner William Hamm. Jack was looking at 30 years in the state penitentiary, so instead took his own life by ingesting potassium cyanide. Today, Jack continues the same sort of party lifestyle by going to weddings and other parties in the Landmark Center, and enjoys hanging around the women’s bathroom on the third floor.

Grey Cloud Island- In 1765 near St. Anthony Falls, Minnesota along the banks of the Mississippi, the Great Mdewakanton Dakota Sioux Chief Wabasha III and his wife had a daughter, Marpiyarotowin. She was more commonly known as Grey Cloud.

While Grey Cloud was buried on the island, she was moved to a Sioux reservation. Some say she can be heard beating her drum through the night. And that’s not all. Many people say this is the most haunted place in Minnesota, and here are a few more of their claims:

There's a group of 12 tombstones at the cemetery the all belong to nuns. If you walk down the line you can count all 12, but when you turn back from a different view there’s a different number.
In the cemetery, people have seen a former Indian Chief roaming around with a green lantern. Some say they just see the Chief, and others say they just see a floating green orb.
People have heard voices coming from nowhere.
Some have heard a woman screaming.
There's apparently a translucent man that people have seen carrying a rifle and smoking and wearing a red flannel and orange hat. One woman says she saw him just staring at her saying nothing and when she got in her car to leave she saw him sitting in her backseat.

The thing that is most common to visitors of the island is the heavy feeling that someone is there, making the air feel thick and difficult to breathe.

Whatever you believe about the paranormal, one thing is true. We’re lucky to live in a state with so much history, and we should take advantage of all the places we have to visit! Take a road trip or explore the city you live in!

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