On our continuing tour of 31 haunted locations in the Cowboy State, today we explore a former high school that found new life as a civic center, and may have kept some of the ghosts from its past wandering the halls and hiding behind corners. The Laramie Plains Civic Center is just one of several paranormal hot spots in the Gem City, but with blood in its past, it's a compelling haunted location to add to Haunted 307.


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The Laramie Plains Civic Center's story begins before the building was even erected. In a lawless time in Laramie's history, vigilante killings were occurring all over the newly formed city, and many bodies of those murdered in the spree were buried in scattered places throughout Laramie. When construction started on the first part of the school that would become the Civic Center in 1878, bodies had to be moved and given proper burials before ground could be broken.

The school, then called the East Side School, was considered the oldest public school building in Wyoming, being expanded in both 1928 and 1939. The school was closed in 1979 and is now a hub for office and small business space, performing arts, and classes for the community.

But those venturing into the Civic Center say that parts of the old school never truly left the historic building. Electrical phenomena have been reported, with lights turning on and off and an electric door slamming over and over without any power plugged into the device. Items are said to move of their own accord in the old classrooms, and the building is also said to house several "shadow people," which are ghostly appearances of dark shadows that may follow you throughout the halls.

As far as apparitions, the Civic Center has no shortage of those. Several reports have claimed to see a man wearing a yellow shirt with dark hair, who sits in the janitor's office and disappears when one looks away for a second. There are legends of a young girl that can be seen riding her tricycle in the halls, as well as a cloud of rose-scented perfume that will seemingly come out of nowhere. Sounds are heard all around the building, even when it might be completely empty, such as Native American drumming, or the sounds of a basketball game happening when the gym is empty.

On one occasion, ghost investigators spent the night in the building and noted an old clown doll in an upstairs storage room that would move of it's own accord when seen on subsequent passes of the door.

The Laramie Plains Civic Center is a hub of culture and business in the Laramie community, and is still important today, despite its change in purpose. The spirits that might haunt the historic building probably agree.

 

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