10 Denver Urban Legends You'll Never Forget

"Teen Girls Found Slain in Denver Apartment" was the front page headline of the Denver Post on Oct. 13, 1970, and that horrific double murder has never been solved. A 17-year-old girl was brutally raped and strangled, and it is assumed that her 18-year-old friend was shot but the perpetrator upon discovering the crime. Since that dreadful day, paranormal activity has been reported including phantom footsteps, sightings of a young woman, and other unexplained presences accompanied by frozen gusts of ghostly wind. More Info

Although a popular destination for Denverites seeking rest and recreation, Cheesman Park is notorious for also hosting restless spirits who took up residency there following the exhumation and gross mishandling of the graves and corpses buried there. Today paranormal activity is a regular occurrence, and visitors report sensing an unexplained feeling of dread that looms over the park, collective moans and whispers emanating from the former graveyards, and women and children seen playing and singing then mysteriously vanishing into thin air. More Info

Built in 1891, the Oxford is Denver's oldest boutique hotel and is also home to some of the city's oldest ghosts, including an unseen force in Room 320 where a murder-suicide took place in 1898 and a mysterious postal worker from the 1930s who can't seem to get enough booze at the Cruise Room. See for yourself if you dare!

The Brown Palace Hotel opened its doors in 1892 and hasn't closed them since - even to ghostly apparitions. Through the years visitors to the hotel have reported seeing unexplained figures from bygone eras, such as a string quartet practicing music, an old train conductor still in uniform who vanishes through a wall, and the mournful cries of a baby coming from the boiler room. More Info

The historic Patterson Inn (formerly the Croke Patterson Mansion) is now a lovely little bed and breakfast for traveling tourists, but this 1890 14,000-square-foot mansion has many paranormal presences with whom guests may not want to share their elegant digs. Besides peculiar odors and whispering voices, the haunted hotel is allegedly home to the spirit of a little girl buried in the basement floor, who is unwilling to relinquish her control over the creepily magnificent mansion, and who may or may not have caused two security dogs to plunge to their deaths from a third-story window. More Spooky Stories

Founded in 1893, the Buckhorn Exchange has entertained many wild west characters over the years, and some miners, cowboys, and the like are said to still be causing a ruckus in its hallowed halls. The ghosts seem to have a knack for moving furniture and conversing loudly at the bar, especially when the restaurant is completely deserted.

The former Denver Tramway Building, built in 1911, became the new home of Hotel Teatro when major renovations began in 1997. However, the massive restoration was accompanied by a whole host of strange occurrences and apparitions. The most notable occupant is "the tool man" who roams the property and is believed to be a mechanic who worked on railcars in the basement of the building and died tragically in an accident while at work. He is now trapped in time and can't seem to escape the site of his untimely demise.

The Denver Orphan's Home was founded in 1876 is now the Denver Children's Home, which continues to provide youth services to the metro community. Unfortunately, the organization and its building have a dark history, including a fire in 1888 that claimed the lives of several children, numerous exorcisms performed on site, and the ghost of a sad, lonely bride who wanders the halls perhaps in search of her groom. The whimpers and cries of children can still regularly be heard as they mourn their premature loss and displaced orphan souls.

"The 32-foot sculpture of a seemingly bloodthirsty bronco is the work of artist Luis Jiménez," who was tragically killed by the statue during its construction, after a piece of the 9,000-pound structure fell on him and severed an artery. Naturally, many Denver residents believe the beast to be cursed and have protested its presence at the Denver International Airport, but that's just one of the many pieces to the DIA conspiracy theory puzzle.

Is there a secret subterranean command bunker for the New World Order? For the U.S. Government? Are the runways really shaped like a swastika? Is the apocalyptic feel of the airport murals some sort of foreshadowing of impending doom? (On and on the questions go, and the answers to them we may never know.)