SCSU Archivist Shares Ghost Stories of Campus

ST. CLOUD -- The supernatural and natural have blended together for over a century at St. Cloud State University.

St. Cloud State has had reports of a high-heeled lady ghost in Riverview. The building opened in 1913, and it used to be a learning lab for kids until 1958. Students have heard children in the basement and the high-heels of an old teacher walking down the hallway when no one is around. University Archivist Tom Steman says he’s fascinated by these campus stories.

"It's fascinating to hear these stories and to hear these stories that haven't changed over time much at all. Like in Shoemaker Hall maybe people have experienced these things before, and people have been experiencing these things for a long time. That connects them to the history of the university and connects them to each other over time.”

Not just the older buildings on campus claim to be haunted, even the newer built Miller Center have similar haunted stories like the high-heeled lady. Steman spends the majority of his workday in the Miller Center. He says after sunset, many have claimed the ghosts come out to play.

"In this building (Miller Center) I've heard about a Union soldier wandering around the library. I had a staff member that isn't here anymore tell me she saw this union soldier in the archives one morning when she came in and I don't think she was pulling my leg either."

Steman says he hasn’t experienced the supernatural yet, but he wants to. Shoemaker Hall, Lawrence Hall and Eastman Hall also claim to be haunted sites on the nearly 150-year-old campus.

This story was written by WJON Intern: Jacob Lundy.