If You Dare

So many ghosts. Chilling stories and frightening first-hand accounts. Let’s travel to where real ghosts live—not far to go. A short tale away for bone-chilling stories of encountering the paranormal.

Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art [The Square], a former school, is number one on our list. The top haunting tale of The Square is of a young boy who drowned in the pool in the basement. “What pool??” Some debunk it, but the creaky old floors and cranky boiler tell a different story.

Unseen children playing in the halls or singing from the music room has been happening for a century. Disembodied voices, the jangling of keys, and the apparition of a young girl with blonde hair floating through the basement. Some refuse to be left in the building alone or have left because of the eerie occurrences—while others remain because they “got used to the old ghosts.”

Prior to the end of WWI, a janitor lived with his wife and children in the corner of the attic. His daughter went to school there. She would get up early and walk away from the school to join her friends for the walk back, as she was embarrassed that her father worked there. Now, she’s one of the young ghosts roaming the old building. She didn’t want to be associated with the place, and now she won’t leave.

The New Park Hotel, located kitty-corner from the Civic Center, has a fabulous history. Built in 1915 to replace the original Park Hotel that burned in 1914, Great Falls’ founder Paris Gibson and his wife, Valeria Gibson, lived in the top-floor penthouse. Valeria had been sick for some time before the newspaper, The Great Falls Leader, reported she passed in her rooms on August 18, 1900. Her funeral was held at her son Theodore’s house at 402 4th Avenue North.

Local lore tells a different story.

Lore claims that Theodore Gibson pushed his mother down the stairs at his home. The fall broke her neck, killing her instantly. Theodore picked up his mother’s corpse and carried it to her residence at the Park Hotel using Great Falls’ underground tunnels. He threw her body off the top floors to make it appear a suicide. A bricked-over archway within the home suggests this could be true.

Details of Valeria Gibson’s death are questionable, to say the least. Was the wife of Great Falls founder Paris Gibson pushed down the stairs by her son Theodore in a psychotic fit of rage? Did she fling herself out of the second-story window of a Park Avenue suite?

Cause of death—suicide, but some believe the truth is a combination of both stories. Theodore was diagnosed with syphilis, an ailment that causes psychotic symptoms.

Now, Valeria and her family haunt their old residence. Psychics have sensed a female spirit in an abusive relationship with a male spirit, believed to be Valeria and Theodore.

The ghosts of the Lobby Bar are as colorful as its patrons. Booted footsteps are heard on the second floor. C.J. Peterson once ran the bar, but during his time, it was known as the Jockey Club. The nightclub’s walls were painted with sweet little Art Deco ponies, accompanied by live jazz and martinis. Peterson had a penchant for wearing double-breasted pin-striped suits and sporting a fedora, which hinted at mob ties. He is still seen about the joint—his image often reflected in the mirrored back bar.

A man in a white baseball cap and a man wearing a pinstriped suit with a fedora have been seen. It is believed that George, a former Lobby Bar patron, lives onsite with Peterson.

A doll perched on the step of the stairway leading to the top floor—is it someone playing tricks, leaving the doll for the purpose of creating more taunting than haunting? But that plastic-headed, unblinking face peers at you.

Surveillance footage shows the bartender mixing drinks, ringing up customers, and bottles jumping out of cabinets. A cabinet door opens, bottles of vodka roll out, and one of the bottles halts abruptly as if some unseen hand reached out to stop it. A cabinet with a one-inch high lip and a door handle that needs a button pressed while pulling to open.

Above the bar are two floors that once housed the Davenport Hotel, built in 1914. During Prohibition, it was rumored to be a speakeasy and brothel. On November 17, 1925, a fire broke out, and several working girls perished in the flames. You can still hear their cries from within the walls. The odor of smoke can still be smelled on the second floor.

An old cowboy lives on the third floor, wearing a red and black checkered or plaid shirt, and a black cowboy hat. He looks to be in his late 50s or early 60s, staring out the window. A wine bottle was once found out of the rack lying on the counter. A bottle of Jack Daniels was found under the sink but later replaced by a bottle of O’Doul’s.

The scent of a delicate perfume is associated with a woman in a pink 1930s gown. An elderly lady wearing a red hat has been encountered in the bathrooms, washing her hands. Mrs. Schroeder, a retired teacher from Fort Benton, often visited the Lobby Bar and was renowned for her hats. The shadow of a hangman’s noose moves rapidly across the wall.

Murphy-McClay, a brick-and-mortar structure built in 1896, is the oldest dry goods store in Great Falls. The unfinished basement is a dark labyrinth of shelving and old machinery. At one end of the building, two large doors open up to a bricked-up wall.

A human skeleton was found in the basement—a man killed in Fort Maginnis, Montana, and his remains were being shipped back home. The ghastly package ended up at Murphy-McClay because it was the stagecoach stop for Great Falls. The parcel was refused forwarding due to lack of postage and tossed into the basement. Years later, the bones were found. The stranger still lives there.

Kellergeist (German for “The Ghost in the Cellar”). The name says it all, with ghosts running amok. It was, after all, an adult theater and porn shop. Old movie projectors covered in dust and pieces of garter belts litter the top floors. Pictures show a strange orb—that creepy orb following the male owner.

Beacon Ice House, a bar, casino, and nightclub, is rumored to be haunted. Lights turn on and off by themselves, and doors open and close on their own. The restrooms and basements are popular spots for spirits to make themselves known.

A young bearded fur trader haunts the base chapel at Malmstrom Air Force. He often sits in the 7th pew holding a Bible, and drops it. The piano plays by itself, with the song of choice being “All the Ends of the Earth.”

In 1891, Mathias Kranz established Kranz Flowers and Gifts with the first hothouse in Great Falls. A 90-year-old player piano plays a couple of notes, even when not turned on. A child’s voice can be heard, though no child is present.

Certain areas feel uncomfortable. Dark shadowy figures are glimpsed moving in the attic. Charles Kranz inhabits the back storeroom where the workshop used to be. Some say they have terrible chest pains at the top of the stairs to the rooms where the caretaker used to live and died of a heart attack.

An unknown male voice is heard in the basement where the floral design room was located. A child’s voice is heard in the basement, and an old wooden screen door is heard closing in the main greenhouse.

These tales have long been told and are now woven into the fabric of Great Falls’ history. Many more abound—and if you dare, take a visit.