USU Haunted History

On a campus known to be as haunted as Utah State University, students don’t have to look far for a good scary story. One of USU’s most popular haunted houses is located next to campus, the Kappa Delta sorority house.

The weird occurrences in the house have been attributed to the ghost known as Patty.

The rumor of how Patty came to haunt the KD house is unclear. The most popular story is that Patty once served on the sorority council and kept the girls up to standard. While much of the story is unknown, it is said she died young, hanged from a tree outside the house.

Julie Haws, a junior at USU and a current resident in the KD house, said she had her first encounter with Patty during sorority recruitment.

“The night I went through recruitment, our lights flickered off,” Haws said. “All the older girls said it was Patty. Even a mirror broke, and everyone believes it was because something wasn’t being done right.”

Haws said Patty is still known to keep the KD girls in check. If one of the girls is acting outside of standards, they can expect the doors to slam and the lights to flicker.

Other stories about Patty are also told in the house, including a woman in white being seen walking in the house over holiday breaks, and the girls sleeping in her room dreaming of Patty.

Haws believes in ghosts and said Patty means no harm. She is just looking over the house to make sure KD remains in good standing.

Another lesser-known area of haunted housing can be found in Jones Hall in the Lundstrom Student Living Center.

Rumors about a spirit terrorizing the hall have been shared by residents for a couple of years.

Ainsley Reges, who currently lives in Jones Hall, said she’s heard her fair share of stories about the building.

“Right after I moved in, I heard a rumor that the building was haunted,” Reges said. “It’s rumored that a bishop or a medium was hired. I also think I heard something about an exorcist.”

Reges was told an old resident had been attacked by the ghost and things would fly off the walls and hurt people. Reges also claimed to have her own encounter with the ghost.

“When I moved in, a lot of the ceiling tiles were misplaced,” Reges said. “I made one of my friends move it back. The next morning when I woke up, the tiles had been moved again.”

Reges does believe her building to be haunted. She also said her dog, Loki, has acted strange since the start of the semester. He has barked at nothing and has hid and whimpered when there was nothing in the room.

Housing isn’t the only supposedly-haunted place on Logan campus. The Ray B. West Building on the Quad also has a few ghosts.

Lynne McNeill, the chair of the folklore program at USU, has had a number of graduate students report seeing a ball roll across the fourth floor.

“They will be sitting up there and hear a child’s laughter,” McNeill said. “Then they’ll see a ball roll by. No kid comes, and when they go to look down the hall, there’s no ball. No kid. No nothing.”

McNeill also said there’s a ghost who screams between the second and third floor. When you’re on the second floor, you’ll hear someone screaming above you, and when you’re on the third floor, you’ll hear someone screaming below you.

Stories have also been told about ghosts in Old Main and the Caine Performance Hall. A 2014 USU Today story recounted the tale of two musicians who might haunt the buildings.

According to a USU Special Collections and Archives report, Thurza Little, a talented pianist, played the grand piano in the auditorium.

However, Little died of a rare disease before graduating. She has still been heard playing in the performance hall.

Some local stories come from outside of USU. One popular legend is that of the Weeping Woman, a statue in the Logan Cemetery. The statue is surrounded by numerous graves of children under the age of five.

There are a couple different versions of the Weeping Woman’s story. One says she lost her children due to illness and died because of grief. Another suggests she killed her children and then herself.

Most versions of the legend claim if you stand around her grave at midnight on a full moon and chant “weep woman weep” three times, the statue will begin to cry.

McNeill said the real story behind the statue is much less exciting.

“The statue is not of a particular woman,” McNeill said. “It’s called a surrogate mourner, which is built so while the family cannot be in a constant state of mourning, someone can.”

Another popular story is of St. Ann’s Retreat, a small property located eight miles up Logan Canyon.

The property comprises a series of cabins as well as a swimming pool. It was built in the early 20th century, and was owned by the Catholic Church in the 1950s.

The rumor states goes that Catholic nuns, who took a vow of celibacy, were forced to drown their babies in the swimming pool on the property. There are a few different variations to the legend, and the truth of the stories are not confirmed.

Lisa Gabbert, an associate professor of folklore at USU, has studied St. Ann’s extensively. She compared the legend to a B-grade horror movie.

She also said the real horror story on the property happened in 1997, after the property had been sold.

“In the late 1990s, a very famous incident happened,” Gabbert said. “Two groups of teens, totaling about 30 people, took a trip to St. Ann’s. The caretaker captured the teens and held them at gunpoint in the bottom of the swimming pool.”

Gabbert also recalled hearing rumors that the teens were chained together with ropes surrounding their necks. The Herald Journal has also reported on the incident.

“We live in a well-haunted place,” McNeill said in response to the number of stories and legends about USU and the surrounding area.

Television shows such as Ghost Adventures and Finding Bigfoot have all made their way to Logan.

There are also legends of witches in Logan Canyon and numerous haunted houses throughout Cache Valley.

More information on these legends can be found in the Fife Folklore Archives in the USU Library.

-Jared.Adams@usu.edu