We then drove to Hastings for the final part of our Graves, Caves, and Ghosts Galore tour—visiting a haunted house. This wasn’t just any spooky house decked out with cobwebs and fog machines. This was Annie Wilder’s house (not her real name), a bright yellow Victorian on Ramsey Street. It’s kitty-corner from a funeral home and right across from a bed and breakfast—already a promising location for paranormal activity.
Annie and her husband, Dudley Parkinson, were home to greet us, along with two cats and a dog. The house is haunted by several spirits: Leon, the last owner; Gertrude, who lived upstairs when it was a fourplex; and the Spirit Sisters, two young girls from the late 1800s or early 1900s, possibly with the last name Hartlett. Annie has seen Leon as a full-body apparition and the Spirit Sisters floating in the hallway outside her bedroom.
Strange things happen regularly in this house. There are orbs and shadowy blobs, lights flickering on and off, banging on the walls, and phones that ring even when they’re off—or use the wrong ringtone. A psychic once told Annie there was a portal in the hallway between the sitting room and laundry room. There’s also a couch in the sitting room nicknamed the “magical sleeping couch” because anyone who sits on it immediately feels drowsy. Guests have reported out-of-body experiences, and Annie herself once felt pinned down in bed by an unseen force…with a ghostly tongue in her ear. Another time, she woke up to see a little hooded being beside her bed (like a Jawa from Star Wars) trying to pull her out of her body.
In the basement, Annie and Dudley found an old door with scraps of what looked like wallpaper or a poster featuring a girl. They brought it upstairs and hung it in the living room, placing a reading light above it. That light, Annie says, turns on and off seemingly at will—possibly the Spirit Sisters making their presence known. The name “Carla Hart” is faintly written on the door, and Annie later found an early 1900s school photo featuring a Katrina Hartlett, who she believes is one of the girls.
When we were in the parlor, Annie turned on the light above the door, but it stayed on. Later, when we returned, it was off. As I stood nearby and leaned in, it suddenly switched on. I asked if it was motion-activated. (It wasn’t.) I leaned in again, and it stayed on. Coincidence? Maybe. But maybe the Spirit Sisters were saying hello to me?
Annie told us a story about Greg Thunder, a Twin Cities radio personality, who came to cover her haunted house. His phone, set to vibrate, suddenly rang out loud with a ringtone he didn’t recognize. It creeped him out so much that he left quickly.
Annie believes Leon initially haunted the house because he had unfinished business—literally. In the dirt basement, they unearthed a canister containing $3,800 and some gold coins, which they returned to his family.
I asked her how the pets reacted to the house. She said the dog refuses to sleep downstairs, and one of the cats was once seen standing upright on her hind legs—three times—in the parlor. Another time, the same cat was dragged off the bed by something, and Annie found claw marks in the sheets. Still, later I saw a different cat lounging upstairs on the bed, apparently unfazed. The second cat was hiding beneath it.
We were allowed to tour both the upstairs and downstairs (not the attic or basement, unfortunately). Downstairs included the kitchen, parlor, sitting room, laundry hallway, a tiny bathroom under the stairs, and a bedroom with six doors: one to the kitchen, one to the attic (now sealed), two outside, one to the hallway, and one to a closet. Upstairs were two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a playroom. Annie said the playroom feels cheerful during the day but turns ominous at night. Honestly, I didn’t care for the playroom anyway.
Our tours weren’t without incident. Including my possible close encounter with the Spirit Sisters and their door, two women, one on each half of the tour, felt lightheaded going up the stairs. Another said she felt like something was actively resisting her ascent. I also felt slightly lightheaded early on in the parlor (I assumed I needed a snack), but forgot about it until others mentioned feeling dizzy too.
One woman swears she saw an older woman pacing in front of Annie’s bedroom window—possibly Gertrude. We weren’t allowed inside the bedroom, but I felt compelled to keep glancing up at that same window from the bus. There were at least six windows on that side of the house, but that was the only one that really caught my attention. The same woman also claimed she saw a little boy in overalls on the attic stairs and wondered if the attic might have been a nursery. She was so shaken that she cried on the bus afterward.
After the tours, Annie joined us on the bus to sign books and play EVPs—electronic voice phenomena—captured by a now-defunct paranormal group from the Iron Range. One sounded like “Leave me alone,” another like “Somebody help me” in a deep male voice. Two others were harder to make out.
Annie also hosts paranormal teas at the house, telling more stories and giving guests access to the attic and basement. I’m not sure I’m brave enough for that, but… maybe next October?
Sound off in the comments about your own haunted house experiences!