A Most Haunted Fort
Part 1
by A. Raby
An article from the December 2016 Star Beacon
The older a place is, the more ghost stories seem to
accumulate about the place. The more active a place is, the more phenomena gets
reported. Fort Leavenworth, with its long and storied history, is no exception.
For those unfamiliar with the history of Fort Leavenworth, it was first
established May 8, 1827 as Cantonment Leavenworth, and its purpose was to
protect trade along the Santa Fe Trail. Two years later, the post was evacuated
and held by the Kickapoo tribe for several months. In 1832, the post officially
became Fort Leavenworth.
A. Raby resides at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and is
editor/formatter of the institute’s publication, The Passing Times. Part
2 of this article will run in the February 2017 TSB.
The fort helped protect the wagon trains traveling west.
During the Civil War, thousands of recruits were trained and mustered out of the
post for the conflict. After the war, Fort Leavenworth became the main base of
operations for frontier conflicts, supporting more than 1,000 engagements with
many different Native American tribes. In 1866, the post saw the formation of
four black regiments, who became known as the "Buffalo Soldiers" among their
enemies, due to their valor.
In 1875, the United States Disciplinary Barracks was
built and established. During its history, many events occurred, ranging from
the executions of Nazi war prisoners to "Rocky" Graziano getting his start in
boxing. In 1991, the School of Application for Cavalry and Infantry was
established, and later it evolved into the U.S. Army Command and Staff College.
Since then, the post has continued to grow and evolve throughout the years.
Given all the history, it is no surprise that there is
a plethora of ghost stories on post. While nearly every building on post has
some sort of story attached, there appear to be a couple places of note.
In 1875, the St. Ignatius Chapel church and
rectory burned down and claimed the life of the priest assigned to the chapel.
After the fire, some of the material was salvaged and used to build a home in
the same spot. In the dining room of the new home, the fireplace was built with
some of the still-scorched bricks. Etched into some of these bricks are names,
to include a "Father Fred." There are a lot of apparition reports of a figure in
a robe and collar here. In 1973, a photo was taken during a dinner party. When
the photo was developed, a smudged image of a robed figure appeared.
Interestingly, the rebuilt chapel burned down at its new location in 2000.
The Post General’s house is said to be one of the
myriad places where General George A. Custer can be seen. According to reports,
he is often spotted on the first floor of the home. In 1867, then-Lieutenant
Colonel Custer was court-martialed at Fort Leavenworth for leaving his command
and mistreating his troops. It’s pretty well known that General Custer died at
the Battle of Little Big Horn (or Greasy Grass to the Native Americans) in 1876,
so why his spirit appears on Fort Leavenworth remains a mystery.
After the new facility was built in 2002, the barracks
of the Old Disciplinary Barracks was torn down in 2004, yet many of the old
buildings have ghost stories attached to them. The most notorious story is about
Guard Tower 8. The tower was shut down decades ago, after a soldier committed
suicide with a shotgun in it. One night, in the early ’90s, a soldier worked the
swing shift in Tower 10. He could see someone in Tower 8, even though the tower
was supposed to be closed. He thought it was the Watch Commander or the
Commandant testing his vigilance. He called the control room and reported the
incident. After still seeing the person in the tower and repeated calls to the
control room, he couldn’t figure out what was going on.
It was not until his relief came and told him about
the suicide that he realized he had seen a ghost. According to Soldiers
Magazine, the old control room still gets staticky and silent calls from
Tower 8. Other stories reported from the old prison facility include screams
from an elevator shaft where 14 Nazi POWs were executed by hanging, and a
ghostly pair of inmates can be seen wandering the third story of the hospital
building.
The best place on Fort Leavenworth for para-normal activity is said to be The
Rookery. It is the oldest surviving building on post, and the oldest
continuously occupied residence in the state. It is also considered to be one of
the most haunted places in the state! There have been reports of at least four
separate entities sighted within The Rookery. One report told of a young girl
who is often seen throwing a tantrum. Other reports speak of an old man with
bushy hair who wakes up sleeping residents. The other two are a little more
involved.
In 2010, the Munoz family was living there when the wife spotted an
apparition of a man in a western-style shirt and vest with burlap or tweed
pants. Some time later, the family bought a book on Fort Leaven-worth ghosts,
when the wife identified the ghost she saw as Major Edmund Ogden. Major Ogden
was the quartermaster of Fort Leavenworth, but helped oversee the construction
of Fort Riley. He died at Fort Riley during a cholera outbreak and is buried
there, but clearly, his spirit returned to his old home on Fort Leavenworth.
There are still reports of his spurred footsteps around the home.
The other entity reported within The Rookery is a
pretty scary one. Simply referred to as the Lady in White, she can be seen on
either side of the duplex in long, white, scraggly hair. Seeing her is not the
scary part. According to reports, when she sees you, she screams and charges you
with her hands clawed as if to attack. It sounds a little "Hollywood," but there
have been several credible reports of this. To quote a favorite movie, "I ain’t
afraid of no ghost." Still, that would be pretty terrifying.
There are so many places on Fort Leavenworth with so
much history, and this is only a part of them. In the next issue, I’ll continue
about more of the reports and sightings around the fort, as well as some
reported incidents within the current USDB facility. Until next time, readers!
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