There’s always been a fascination with ghost stories, be it paranormal activity or other kinds of strange and unexplained phenomenons. There are more ghost-chasing TV shows than ever, and horror movies are making a comeback. Montana ghost stories are just as popular, as author Ellen Baumler can attest. It seems whether people believe or not, they’re at least willing to be entertained.
With this spirit in mind, the Boulder Monitor visited with Museum Director Melody Pesta at the Jefferson County Museum, Ellen Rae Thiel at the Heritage Center and others in the community who either shared historical accounts of hauntings or personal encounters (in some cases both). Some of the discoveries may surprise you.
Pesta is no stranger to such activity, as she has experienced some bizarre happenings she suspects are paranormal at the museum in Clancy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear she’s dealing with a Casper.
We’ll start with Pesta’s account. Eliza McLaughlin reports:
A historical haunting
The Jefferson County Museum is home to artifacts and stories from centuries ago. Living amongst the exhibits is a presence that Museum Director Melody Pesta and others have encountered.
The Jefferson County Museum Ghost – an unknown specter roaming the halls of the building – is known for causing mischief, especially in Pesta’s office.
On three different occasions, Pesta’s work has been interrupted by an object coming crashing towards her.
“I was sitting in the office at the computer when I heard a cracking sound above me. I looked up just in time to … dodge a large, framed picture falling towards me. The corner of it did scratch my arm. The weight of it chipped off the corner of the computer,” she said. “Upon examination of the picture, the wire that held the picture in place on the wall was not broken. The nail was still in the wall.”
A month later, the events repeated with a staple gun toppling in her direction, followed yet again with a large book.
The museum ghost is also known for sitting in the storage room across from the office, tapping the window blinds on the glass.
“There is no wind to cause this, and I have thought something about the sun heating the area to cause this, but it seems to happen very randomly,” Pesta said.
Although clearly making its presence known, the phantom appears to be a shy spirit.
Pesta has heard voices or coughs, but seen no one standing nearby. Museum employees and patrons have reported seeing someone in the building’s hallway, only to find it empty when approached.
Pesta’s son Heath – a non-believer – said he felt someone watching him “constantly” while cleaning the restrooms, despite the building being empty.
Other eerie experiences have taken place in the restroom, with a door which refuses to shut accompanied by a chilling breeze. Without an open window or door to explain the situation, Pesta believes this is paranormal activity.
It would also appear that the museum ghost’s favorite pastime includes making things come crashing down.
A year ago, Pesta was walking near the museum’s kitchen exhibit. Once the collection of antique dishes was no longer in her view, a noise stopped her dead in her tracks.
“I heard a loud clattering of dishes as though several dishes had fallen and I would have a mess to clean up and some explaining to do as to why the dishes fell and broke. I searched the kitchen area, and I could find nothing had fallen or broken,” she said.
Pesta and the rest of the museum staff are unsure who the entity could be.
Pam Hanna from the Jefferson County Health Department – which operates out of the building’s addition – was unaware of the haunting.
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That’s quite a situation Pesta finds herself in. Although not quite a personnel issue, it’s a workplace matter that would be nice to resolve, but how to communicate with the paranormal is another story altogether. There will be more from Pesta soon, but right now let’s move to Clancy’s Elkhorn Health and Rehabilitation, where a former employee shares some unsettling experiences. Charlie Denison reports:
Strange encounters at Elkhorn Health and Rehabilitation
According to former Elkhorn Health and Rehabilitation certified nursing assistant Melissa Donovan, there have been several reports of patients seeing or hearing “two ghost boys” in the facility.
“Patients have asked staff to keep the boys quiet, that they can hear them running around all night,” she said, adding that some patients have said they hear the boys laughing. “The most eerie tale I’ve heard is when a patient asked staff to get the boys some clothes because they were sopping wet.”
Curious, Donovan looked into the history of the area to see if there was any record of these mysterious children. With help from the Jefferson County Museum and the Heritage Center, she got some answers.
According to a 1906 article in Boulder’s The Age Sentinel, a boy named Hartwell was killed in a train crash in Clancy. And, upon further research and correspondence with Montana paranormal writer Ellen Baumler, it was discovered two-and-a-half year-old Larry James Sweeney drowned in the area in 1946. Baumler’s records indicate he fell in the creek at East Helena but was found wedged under the Clancy Bridge.
The fact that one of the boys was named Hartwell especially gave Donovan chills, as one of the residents once referred to a boy standing outside her window as Harrison or Harrington.
Perhaps this is why Donovan said she regularly got goosebumps at work. She also saw some unexplainable occurrences firsthand.
“Once a TV turned on in an empty room where someone had passed away a week or so earlier,” she recalled, “and a number of times objects would fall off dressers on the opposite side of the from where I’d be standing.”
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Elkhorn Health and Rehabilitation isn’t the only place in Clancy that has encountered the unknown. Eliza McLaughlin reports on Red Cliff Estates:
Red Cliff Estates
All 39 of Clancy’s census-designated square miles have been packed to the brim with history, including several successful mining claims — which built the town – and multiple fires, which left parts of the town in ashes.
Although the people who lived during Clancy’s early days have passed on, some of their spirits still roam the area, watching over the land they once called home.
One such ghost is that of Evelyn Harvey Eddy.
Ellen Baumler, a renowned Montana ghost story author, told the story of Eddy and her continued presence in Clancy in chapter 13 of her book “Montana Chillers: 13 True Tales of Ghosts and Hauntings.”
Eddy and her family, the Harveys, were the founders of Red Cliff Ranch, a thoroughbred breeding facility. The Harveys lived in a small white farmhouse, on what residents of the area today call Cherry Street.
In 1898, Silas Harvey, Eddy’s father and the owner of Red Cliff Ranch, contracted typhoid fever, according to the Sept. 10, 1898 edition of The Clancy Miner.
“There seems to be considerable sickness in this neighborhood at present of one kind or another. Silas Harvey has been down with typhoid fever in a mild form for the past week, but is now slowly recovering,” the article reads.
A month later, “The Clancy Miner” continued to report his health was improving. This is The Miner’s last mention of Silas Harvey.
Baumler’s book lists May 7, 1879 as Silas Harvey’s last day due to illness; however, it would appear that the actual day of his death is still unknown.
Following Silas Harvey’s death, Eddy’s daughter Esta passed away in 1883. Eddy joined her daughter in death in April of 1887, according to the Helena Daily Herald.
More than a hundred years later, residents of Eddy’s childhood home have reported seeing a figure standing in the attic window looking over the fields, hearing footsteps in the attic and watching doors and dressers open or close on their own.
Eddy’s story grows more chilling when in June of 2005 an excavator working to build a basement in the Red Cliff subdivision struck something metal, sending contents of the box spilling onto the ground.
It was a casket, full of human remains.
A medium was called to inspect the home and identify its uninvited resident. The body – and ghost – are both presumed to belong to Eddy.
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In addition to ghost stories, Jefferson County is home to myths and legends such as “The Hanging Tree” Eliza McLaughlin reports:
The Hanging Tree
In addition to ghost stories, Jefferson County is home to myths and legends such as “The Hanging Tree.”
Jefferson County’s so-called Hanging Tree, stands between Interstate 15 and Haab Lane, north of Clancy. On the opposite side of I-15 of the towering ponderosa pine is a street affectionately named Hanging Tree Gulch Road, which feeds into similarly themed roads such as Vigilante Trail, Ambush Ridge, Rustlers Fork, Robbers Roost and Bootlegger Trail. Each name makes the mystery of the tree all the more engaging.
According to a post on WayMarking.com, Clancy’s hanging tree received its name in the late half of the 1800’s when vigilante groups rode through the state, seeking justice for miners who were robbed by “road-agents” while traveling to Helena for supplies.
Once vigilantes got their hands on the criminals, they strung them in the tree, leaving their bodies dangling as a warning to others, or so the legend says.
“The Hanging Tree … remains today as [testament] to days gone by when justice was often swift and merciless; the way things could often be done back in the days of the Wild West,” reads the Way Marking post.
Although the story of robbers and vigilantes certainly adds excitement to the tree’s history, historians disagree with the tales.
“The picturesque Ponderosa pine certainly looks the part, like a Hollywood version of an old west hanging tree, but there is no evidence that it was ever used to execute anyone,” reads HelenaHistory.org, a local history website manned by historians.
Helena History also explains that rumors claiming that a cemetery exists below the tree are untrue.
Jefferson County Museum Director Melody Pesta told The Monitor that there are many conflicting stories about the tree’s horrored past, with some people asserting that the tree would have been much smaller at the time hangings supposedly took place.
Regardless of the truth behind the legend of Jefferson County’s hanging tree, as the wind blows through the Prickly Pear Valley, the thought of convicted robbers swaying in the breeze proves a haunting image.
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With such a rich history of unique people and places, there’s no shortage of stories to cover, and this includes that which is out of the ordinary. The Boulder Monitor is interested in hearing more tales. Email charlie@boulder-monitor.com.
