By Robert Lucke
Well, it is that time, gentle readers. It is time for our annual ghost story, and things in the ghost world we are acquainted with have really changed over the years. When we start writing these columns back in 1975, we had to rack our brains to come up with a ghost story once a year about much of anything. Thank goodness we had Clear Creek and Hungry Hollow to write about, for through the years, ghost stories have been quite commonplace out there.
But now, twenty-five ghost story columns late, we have ghost story after ghost story to report.
Lots in our area center around the big log hotels in Glacier Park. We don't know if too many people have seen "The Shining" or whether there were always ghosts there, but people are not nearly as reluctant to talk about them as they once were.
Ghosts in the Belton Chalet, ghosts in the East Glacier Hotel, ghosts in the Prince of Wales, and the most ghost ridden of all is Many Glacier.
Closer to home, many have talked about ghosts in houses, schools and churches. That is a first to have people ready and willing to talk about things that were unspeakable for years and years.
So what has your intrepid reporter learned from all this? Well, that is simple to answer. We came into the ghost story columns being a dyed- in-the-wool unbeliever to say the least. Even though those first columns did not reflect that, we were. Now, though, all these ghost stories later and all these interviews later and all the interesting stories by obviously intelligent, well meaning people, we have to say that there must be things that do go "bump in the night." No doubt of it at all.
And the stories go on and on.
For instancewe have some dear friends out on Clear Creek that lived in a romantic log-sided lodge for close to 50 years. Often we have told the story that they told us, that they considered the road up a coulee to their house as a "Highway to Heaven," because frequently at night they would hear cars coming up the road and yet no cars would ever make it to their cabin. Not only that, but when they looked (and they looked frequently) no cars were ever in the coulee at all.
Well, they both died a few years ago and this spring a daughter and her husband came out and completely remodeled the cabin, making it suitable for use in the winter and considerably larger than it had been. One question they frequently had was whether or not their mother and father would have approved in the changes to their beloved cabin.
Never any signs of any kind until a couple of weeks ago when all of a sudden lights inside and outside of the cabin started to go on and off for no reason. They laugh when telling the story and say that it is probably their father turning on more lights in the cabin. It is close to hunting season, maybe he is there now and since they have replaced many of his giant 300-watt light bulbs, he is going around turning on and off lights so he can see better. Funny? You bet! Who knows. A ghost story? That is up to you, gentle readers.
Happy Halloween!
