Mystifying Things Happen in South Dakota

The Hotel Alex Johnson is located in Rapid City, South Dakota. Here you can see the artistic design and décor of the Sioux Indian Nation. There are floor tiles that bear the signs of the “Sacred Four Directions” in a hand-painted motif. The hotel has 143 guest rooms and suites. Six US presidents have stayed here: Calvin Coolidge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan.

Tragic Deaths

Alex Johnson who made his fortune with the railroad, built this hotel in the 1920s. Throughout the years the Hotel Alex Johnson has had dedicated owners. At this hotel, there have been such incidents as a heartbroken bride jumping out of a window on her wedding night and a young woman, whose death was made to look like a suicide when she supposedly leaped out of the window of Room 812. However, people who knew her well doubted this story and believed that someone in her family pushed her out as she was due to come into a monetary inheritance.

The Lady in White

The cries of a heartbroken woman could be heard coming from the room from which the bride jumped out of the window. In Room 812 there is an apparition of a woman called “The Lady in White”. She floats around the hallways on the 8th floor looking for her killers. Sometimes during the night the window in Room 812 opens by itself, and dresser drawers have been known to be turned upside down.

Other Ghostly Entities

The entity of Alex Johnson has been spotted walking around the hotel. There are also unknown entities: two apparitions have been seen one of a little girl and one of a football player. A poltergeist has been known to throw chairs at the staff. Pianos throughout the hotel play by themselves and mischievous things happen.

In Sioux Falls we find the Orpheum Theater which was erected in the late 1890s to 1900 time period and originally used as a vaudeville theater. The theater has a large auditorium with a balcony, and a stage and backstage area. In 1954 it became the new home for The Sioux Falls Community Playhouse which produces five plays per season. The Orpheum Theater also hosts many other cultural events.

The Ghost of Larry

The playhouse has an unknown ghost who is known as “LARRY” and who has tried to communicate with the living only succeeding in scaring them. On a cold October night in 1959, an actor named Ray was alone on the theater’s stage. He was walking through his staging when the script called for him to look up at the balcony. Doing so he saw a growing blue, pulsating light with a male apparition in the center. This apparition was either pointing at him or motioning for him to come up to the balcony. At this time Ray felt like he was in the middle of a cold air blast. He quickly left locking the door. This angered LARRY. Arriving the next day Ray found that all the newly wired fuses appeared to be deliberately blown and during dress rehearsal and on opening night a sandbag from above the stage fell on Ray knocking him out both times.

In 1972 late at night a technical director Jack was getting the stage ready for the rehearsal of a children’s production. While sweeping the stage he heard a sound behind him. Looking around he saw behind him a late 1890s tin-type picture (the size of a postage stamp) of a bearded man in his 30s with rosy cheeks. Jack put the picture up on the light board and after turning on all the stage lights he saw no one who could have dropped this picture. Suddenly a feeling of coldness settled over him and he left the building quickly. It is not clear who the man in the picture is but it is assumed that it is a picture of LARRY. The picture stayed on the light board for some time and then mysteriously disappeared.

There are three theories as to who LARRY could be:

a construction worker who was killed while the theater was being built.

a stagehand who was killed during a vaudeville show.

a man who was having an affair with a married woman and was killed on the balcony by the jealous husband.

Whoever he may be LARRY is there to stay in the Orpheum Theater.

Located on the bluffs of the Missouri River in Yankton is Mount Mary College. It is found on an 80-acre campus consisting of modern and historic buildings. The town of Yankton itself has a long history. It was founded on the Lewis and Clark Trail, in the heart of Indian country. A Benedictine missionary named Martin Mary came to minister to the area’s Indians in 1876. He became the first Catholic Bishop in this territory and invited the Benedictine Sisters to start a religious community. In 1936, this Benedictine Order of Sisters started a junior college for women. By 1951 it was awarding its first Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. In 1969 men joined the student body. In 1975 an Associated Arts degree program was begun and Graduate Studies programs were added in the 1980s and the 1990s.

Strange Happenings

A worker who fell to his death during construction makes his presence known around campus. Showers turn on by themselves and water fountains begin to run. When no one is around footsteps can be heard and shadows are seen.

Ghostly Apparitions

In the Corbey Residence Hall, there was a female student who disappeared one day. Now the apparition of this girl is seen riding up and down the elevator. Her presence is felt in areas around the elevator and on the floors where it stops.

At Whitby Hall, residents have seen a figure dressed in gray polyester pants crossing their rooms. Apparitions wearing hard hats and blue suits have also been seen walking around the rooms. A white entity likes to stand in corners keeping residents company. Room 200 was kept vacant for a long time. Light never seems to touch the door no matter how many lights are on. There seems to be a dark shadow covering the door.

In the Old Gym/Stage – mainly in the Costume Room and the Music Hall Area a presence is felt and the apparition of a nun who was once the music teacher has been seen.

At Dakota Hall, a boy who was once caught in the room of a girl and locked in the attic for the night where he became distraught hung himself haunts the hall making strange noises.

Over the years suicides and tragic deaths have also happened in some of the College’s fraternity/sorority houses. At the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity House (originally the Alpha Phi House) a male ghost haunts the fraternity. He hung himself thinking he hadn’t passed his pre-med school exams. There is also a female ghost. She was a girl who got an infection from a hat pin scratch and died.

At Delta Tau Delta Fraternity there was a fraternity brother Gerry who shot himself in the 2nd-floor shower sometime during the late 1950s- early 1960s. Now the entity of Gerry turns on TV sets and DVD players, keeps people company in the basement while they listen to music, and likes to play with the electricity and the lights.

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