Haunted Wyoming: The Sweetwater County Library Built…

The light turns on and off. Books are thrown on the floor. Hear whispers and cries when no one is around.

Welcome to the Sweetwater County Library in Green River, Wyoming, a building that has the misfortune of having a cemetery as its foundation.

After experiencing these strange events herself, librarian Micky Glimore delved into history to find out more. She learned that the graves were supposed to be reburied in a new cemetery 60 years ago, but not all of them made it to their new resting places.

graves

According to Gilmore’s research, the first known grave believed to have been dug in present-day Green River was in 1862, when it was still a territorial town.

By 1892, the cemetery was officially established and quickly filled up as a result of epidemics and accidents. It was expanded in 1896, but this too proved insufficient.

City fathers bought 80 acres of land for a new cemetery in 1914, which was up the hill from the old cemetery. The plan was to move all the graves. By 1926, a Civil Works Administration project was launched to move these bodies and grave markers to Riverview Cemetery.

However, the area known as Graders Row remained untouched.

Local history says that the men buried here were railroad workers who died during a smallpox epidemic between the 1860s and 1890s.

Old-timers like Edna Evers said workers refused to dig up the bodies because they feared disease. Over time, knowledge about these graves was almost lost.

In the 1930s, the old cemetery was reclaimed as a park. In 1944, temporary housing for veterans of the Second World War was built on this site. During this construction, bodies were found and moved to Riverview Cemetery.

The ground shifted and caused extensive damage to the building, and the residential barracks were condemned and demolished in 1956. Again, during this demolition, more remains were found and reburied.

Yes, let’s build a library here

The land remained unused, except for a large swing that local children had played on for years.

Then, in the late 1970s, a fateful decision was made to build a new city library on this site. Again, when construction began in 1978, bones were found.

Although nothing happened at the site, John Legerski later told Gilmore in an interview that people felt terrible working there.

“Mostly what I saw were pieces of rags, coffin handles, etc., and pieces of rotten wood,” Legerski said. “I wasn’t too happy about it, but we didn’t have that much work in those days. I told them that they would be persecuted, and they laughed at me.”

Children who were present during the excavation started sneaking in to look into the graves and some even looted the bodies until guards were put in place to prevent such gruesome acts.

In an April 2013 interview, Sharon Rhodes told Gilmore, “When we walked past the old cemetery, the workers were taking the graves apart and putting them on the ground. Many of them were broken and you could see inside.

“A few guys were messing around with something. My brother climbed inside one. You could see that it was a man with a red beard. When my brother’s hand went in, it must have caught on his beard and he couldn’t get his hand free. He started screaming for help. We had to call someone to come and help him free his arm.

“It really scared him and it stayed with him for a long time.”

Ghost magazine

When Gilmore started working at the library, she kept hearing strange stories from colleagues that corroborated her own experiences of lights going on and off, a curtain in the multi-purpose room closing by itself, voices coming out where they shouldn’t be, and many other stories.

After receiving permission from head librarian Pat Liver in January 1993, Gilmore began recording these strange occurrences in a “ghost journal” and soon saw a pattern.

There have been reports of children making noises when no one is around, voices that cannot be explained, strange smells, objects moving on their own, and even full blown ghosts.

“We’re trying to get the real story,” Gilmore told the Cowboy State Daily, explaining her idea for collecting stories. “We do not add to it. We are not inventing anything.”

As soon as the meeting is recognized as authentic and not fake, it will be added to the log.

Not all shadows are ghosts, Gilmore said, so if they suspect a story, it’s not logged. She shared examples of ghost journal entries in her book Ghosts in the Bunches: Stories from the Haunted Library of Sweetwater County.

• 09/08/1993 Kathy Maldonado, Staff: I turned off the light in the hallway, closed the door and turned off the light in the study. The light in the hall turned on again.

• 1993 JK, Staff: I saw the staff bathroom door open and no one in there but me.

• 9/2002 Mickey Gilmore, Staff: Hearing crying in cubicles in ladies room, but no one there.

• 11/20/2002 anonymous staff: heard whispered voices in ladies’ room.

• 08/15/12 Lacey H., Patron: When I went to the bathroom I could hear a woman crying. I went through every stall and there was no one there. I asked if anyone was there… the crying stopped.

“I was never scared,” Gilmore said of all the strange happenings at the library during her years there. “Scared, yes, but never afraid. Never felt the dark heaviness.”

Ghost walks

The library now hosts “Ghost Walks” for believers and skeptics alike to walk through the library’s halls and experience the unknown. Started in 2006 by Elle Davis, this walk is an opportunity for people aged 18 and over to explore the library to see for themselves what’s going on.

The route takes guests through the areas that the staff believe are the most haunted, and ghost hunting gear is allowed to see if any interaction occurs.

“People come back later and comment that we didn’t do any scary boogie boogies,” Gilmore said. “We don’t allow Ouija boards or anything like that.”

Not all staff or patrons feel the cemetery affects the library, but Gilmore said she leaves that up to everyone.

“There are some people who worked in the library and never had anything.” Gilmore said.

“We do not have answers to all questions. My experience shows that all properties are active to one degree or another at different times.”

Believe it or not, history and discoveries have shown that residents of the original Green River Cemetery may still be lingering beneath the Sweetwater County Library.

Jackie Dorothy can be reached at the address [email protected].