“Maybe all the people who say ghosts don't exist
are just afraid to admit that they do.”
Michael Ende
From 1996 to 1998, I worked in Yellowstone National Park as a night clerk for the lodging concessionaire, Amfac. Four nights a week, from ten o'clock in the evening to eight o'clock in the morning, I was the sole person manning the front desk at Grant Village at the south end of the park. During my final season, I was also a trainer of night clerks. It was a position that had me traveling to the different lodgings in the park as they opened and showing the new night clerks the ropes of working in America's first national park. One location that I trained was the Old Faithful Inn, without a doubt the most famous location in the Park as it had been constructed beside the internationally famous geyser from which it gained its name.
The Old Faithful Inn is actually made up of sections of lodgings constructed over a period of years. The front desk is located in that part referred to as the “Old House.” There the log walls stand in testament to a much more rugged part of the Park's history. They are rough hewn and massive, but they offer little sound proofing as the chinking between them is scant. Therefore, silence was maintained throughout the shift except when absolutely necessary, And then we spoke only in whispers.
As one might expect, the Old Faithful Inn, being as old as it is, is rife with stories of ghosts. I personally have spoken with several employees who swear they have witnessed and even interacted with spectral entities. None of them were of the type to believe in such things. At least before working at the Inn. Like the security guard who told me of the night he encountered a young woman, who appeared every bit as solid and real as you or I. He recalled that her dress was out of date but he didn't think anything of it because, as you can expect, employees meet people of all kinds during their time in the Park. She spoke of how much she loved the Old Faithful Inn and how she never wanted to leave. Shortly after, the guard stood to take his leave to resume his rounds. When he looked back to say goodbye, he was startled to find the woman had vanished. At that point, he became a believer.
One night I had my own experience with the Inn's spirits.
It was right at three o'clock in the morning, about midway through the shift. The new employees were busily generating reports for the coming day, I was reading a paperback I'd brought along to pass the time, and all was necessarily quiet. No one spoke except in low whispers that could only be heard by those behind the front desk. Security guards were located in the manager's office across the hall and were equally quiet.
Suddenly there was a loud knocking at the ceiling over the front desk. As if someone were rapping their knuckles against the wood. We all looked up in surprise while a guard ran out of the office and up the massive log steps. Very shortly thereafter, he returned looking bemused. There had been no one upstairs to make the noise. A little rattled, we all resumed what we were doing and quiet once again settled over the lobby. Then just as we all began to relax the knocking came again, only this time so loud that I could actually feel the percussion in my chest! Once more security raced out of the office and up the stairs, and once again he returned nonplussed. Only this time he wasn't alone. With him was a middle aged woman in her robe and slippers complaining that she could not sleep with all the talking going on downstairs. When there hadn't been a single voice heard by any of us. Once I'd taken care of her one of the new clerks looked at me and said, “I don't know what that was but if it happens again, I'm outta here!”
Fortunately there were no other noisy occurrences that night. When the location manager came in at eight o'clock I told him that I'd met his ghost last night. Having had his own otherworldly experiences, he merely looked at me with a grin and asked, “Which one?”
A likely tale. Old Faithful Inn is a must the old place that echoes history throughout. On 8/3/99 we lingered there for a bit after watching Old Faithful being faithful.
When we left I filled the van with very inexpensive gasoline with no State or Federal taxes. But our credit card has been taken by the ghost in the place, and after a thorough search, we never found it, and I believe, paid for the gasoline with cash.
Wait that night at Yellowstone Falls, we stayed. She was searching through the baggage and it magically appeared. Returned by the ghosties. I believe we thanked them.
Incidentally, we arrived at Grant Village very late the night before, but waited for the put waited for the 9:30 p.m. show not knowing that the time had changed to Mountain Time. We missed the show by a ghost in time, and may have missed you in the same way, when you came on a bit later.
Tasked by his Goddess to find, relocate, and then quicken, the last three Heart Tree gem-seeds, Vanx the bard, and his motley crew of adventurers, set out to do just that.
Tasked by his Goddess to find, relocate, and then quicken, the last three Heart Tree gem-seeds, Vanx the bard, and his motley crew of adventurers, set out to do just that.
Tasked by his Goddess to find, relocate, and then quicken, the last three Heart Tree gem-seeds, Vanx the bard, and his motley crew of adventurers, set out to do just that.
