Iowa’s oldest haunts: Check out the ghoulest ghost stories

Iowa seems like a fairly calm place with a seemingly peaceful past, but is Iowa as spook free as people think it is? From the UNI campus to the woods of Urbandale, spooky legends tell of spirits everywhere.

Bartlett Hall, UNI Campus

Some of the students that use to reside in the hall (the hall is now used for of ces and events on campus) are telling tales of a ghost that ickers lights. Some also report creepy events like sounds of someone running from the track when it was apparently deserted, the windows locking by themselves and doors closing and opening without any assistance.

Students have also reported sounds of people walking above them and the sinks in their dorm turning on and off.

Porter House, Decorah

Though the house is deserted, people tell of lights going on in the middle of the night and mysterious noises emitting from inside. The story behind the haunting is that parents went to the house for a holiday, and later that night they sent the kids to bed, but a young son went up to the tower and locked himself inside where he eventually froze to death. Now, the boy is the spirit

that haunts the grounds. When investigators went to look at the site, they tell fables of them hearing a detached male voice telling them to answer a phone call.

Uncle Charlie, Urbandale

In the woods of Urbandale late at night, anybody might be able to see Uncle Charlie. He is a spirit that has reportedly been lurking in the woods, and if someone takes a ash photo in the woods, people have seen him hanging out in the corners of the pictures. He is described as a man with a translucent body, but with a flesh-eaten face. Deep in the night, people report sounds of running in the woods, along with high pitched screams.

Children of Iron Hill, Charles City

At Iron Hill in the late 1920s, a train crash went up in Ames, killing most of the passengers, including a train car lled with orphans. To this day, people report of a girl in a white dress or a girl in all black haunting the hill. People have heard a voice singing “Ring around the Rosie”, and soft shrill shrieks.

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