Haunted City: An anthology of KSL’s ghost investigations

SALT LAKE CITY — Looking back over KSL archives, the amount of allegedly haunted places covered is nothing short of astonishing.

Since 2014, KSL has featured a different location each year on a series called “Haunted City”. This year, we take a look back at the previous reporting we’ve done on those ghost investigations and Utah Mysteries.

Haunted City: Helper restoration properties more than new owner bargained for

In 2022, we traveled to Helper, Utah on Main Street where a restoration project occupied some old buildings. The construction workers became concerned, especially about the Kiva Club, which was previously a gambling parlor and brothel. They said they heard noises and saw apparitions.

KSL followed a team of paranormal investigators to the Kiva Club. Investigators picked up several appearances with infrared lasers and cameras. They also picked up multiple electronic voice phenomena, which were made out to be words like “help” and “child”.

KSL footage shows investigators seemingly speaking with something invisible to human eyes through a motion sensor-activated music box.

‘Ghost’ Island: Historic ranch leaves visitors uneasy, touched, even scratched

The year prior, in 2021, the KSL team visited Antelope Island to Fielding Garr Ranch on the island. They spoke with Carl Aldrich, who works there.

He said visitors of the island reported seeing things, like the shapes of bodies around the island. He tells the story of how one day he was in his office and smelled a perfume-like smell, like a woman’s perfume. He began recording on his phone and asked the empty room, “what are you doing in my office?”

The reply was all but comforting. The recording played for KSL shows a faint voice, that was interpreted to be the words “looking for you”.

Paranormal investigators began their search in the old ranch house, and ended outside with very unnerving evidence.

Mystery of Utah’s Skinwalker Ranch very much alive

The shadow of the ‘skinwalker’ has loomed over the property dating back to a curse that was apparently placed on the land long ago by a Native American tribe.

Skinwalker Ranch is currently owned by Utah commercial real estate magnate Brandon Fugal.

He has been intrigued by all of the unexplained sightings and happenings reported since poltergeist activity, UFO sightings, cattle mutilations, bizarre injuries, transient radiation spikes, and anomalous visual and audio phenomena that have been reported or documented over the decades.

In 2020 KSL 5 reporter Andrew Adams and photographer Meghan Thackrey visited Skinwalker Ranch to talk to Fugal about the mysterious ranch and see for themselves what phenomena might take place during their roughly 9-hour stay there.

It didn’t take long for the first in several unexplained events to take place.

Haunted Halls: Even ghosts apparently lamented demolition of old West Jordan Middle School

Mysterious noises always seem to have their source. Over time, though, those who roamed the halls of the old West Jordan Middle School listened closely.

They heard a distinct rattle.

Librarian and former drama teacher Lisa Morey said they were sounds without an explanation that would echo out of quiet spaces like the gym after hours.

“About three or four years ago, I was sitting here,” Morey said during an interview in June 2019 as she pointed to the bleachers on one side of the gym. “As you can tell, the room is usually very quiet…”

At that precise moment when Morey uttered that statement, something on the other side of the gym inexplicably began to pop. Shock washed over Morey’s face as she sat still and waited to see if the noises happened again. Fifteen seconds later, they did.

‘Haunted’ objects at Salt Lake antique store? Paranormal investigators take a look

In 2018 Andrew Adams paid a visit to Scott Evans at his antiques store Euro Treasures. Evans has collected statues, paintings, furniture, and much more.

Evans believes the collection contains more than just the stuff it’s made from.

“Yeah, they all have their own spirit,” the shop owner said as his reflection was encompassed by a decades-old mirror near him. “Humans have the ability to leave part of their essence — part of their soul as it were — in something that they have created and that they used.”

KSL brought in a medium and a paranormal investigation team separately to see what could be detected inside the antique shop. What they found was certainly unexpected.

Ghost investigation: Does the ‘Purple Lady’ haunt the Rio Grande, or do other restless souls?

A distraught woman from the early 1900s has been known to haunt the premises of the Rio Grande Train Depot.

KSL brought in the “Ghost Hopping” team to investigate the “Purple Lady,” the apparent source of numerous ghostly sightings and unexplained phenomena over the decades at the train station.

The group brought along a device known as the “Paranormal Puck 2,”.

As the investigators stepped into the dark basement, the Paranormal Puck chirped out results like “Devil”, followed by several words that could be interpreted as drug slang and drug references, including “dime” (bag), “speed” and “compound.”

Utah County restaurant has ‘over 100 spirits’ at any 1 time, owner says

Leslie’s Family Tree in Santaquin has been serving time-honored family recipes, including hand-breaded country fried steaks, savory burgers, and massive scones, to its diners for over three decades.

“You hear them talking plain all the time – just as plain as day,” she said.

Disembodied chatter, children’s laughter, objects moving on their own, and even apparitions that appear and disappear, owner Leslie Broadhead said they’ve all become part of the standard fare at the restaurant, and she’s not the only one who has become an unsuspecting witness to them.

Why the building is home to so much unexplained activity is a complicated story.

Haunted city hall? Paranormal investigation at the Salt Lake City and County Building

Since it opened in 1894, the Salt Lake City and County Building has been an unmistakable landmark, a towering center of power housing the mayor’s office, city council and, apparently, ghosts.

Ghost stories seem to be around every shadowy corner of the old building, shared by security guards and accountants alike.

The underground tunnel that connects the City and County Building to the library across the street was used to transport jail prisoners, like convicted serial killer Ted Bundy, to court hearings.

Paranormal activity: Downtown piano bar an unknown local ‘haunt’

If dishes mysteriously being placed on the kitchen floor like displayed playing cards; a piano playing at random; an apparition; and balls of light or “orbs” caught in photos aren’t signs of a haunting, they are certainly unexplainable.

Even skeptic workers at Keys on Main maintain incidents like these have happened enough to question whether the downtown dueling-piano nightclub may have a few patrons who have lingered beyond closing time for this life.