Out of the many historical sites in North Dakota that are still standing today, there is one that is very notorious for its hauntings. Fort Totten has a long history of being many things, and there are a lot of stories attached to it, some of which are chilling to hear. People who have worked there have had spooky encounters that can only be explained by something paranormal, and here are some of the stories:
Fort Totten was originally established in 1867.
The photograph above was taken not long after it was built. It served as a post for soldiers guarding transportation routes through the Indian reservation there. At one point it was also the meeting spot for an expedition that was to survey the United States and Canada border. It only served that purpose until 1890.
After it was decommissioned as a fort, it was transformed into a boarding school.
The boarding school was for the local Native American children, and it was used for that purpose until 1959 when it closed. A year later it was listed as the national historic site it still is today. But the stories of its past seem to linger on even today.
From 1935 to 1939, the boarding school was temporarily a tuberculosis preventorium, which basically means that it was a place where children who were susceptible to or already had contracted tuberculosis were housed. This helped prevent the further spread of the deadly disease, but some of the children who already had it did not make it and died within the fort. Even at the beginning of the fort's use as a boarding school this was not all that uncommon. Children taken from the reservation were not immune to the same illnesses and diseases that the soldiers and teachers at the fort were, and being exposed to these caused numerous deaths.
Today, the fort is notorious for being haunted.
Many employees, both current and former, have had paranormal experiences here. There are the ghosts of children said to be wandering the grounds, perhaps those of the children who had died here. They can sometimes be seen in the windows of some of the buildings, and other times out walking on the grounds. Eerie, distant noises of children laughing can be heard echoing through the fort at times.
In the boys' dormitory on the grounds, some people have encountered a human-shaped shadow moving across one of the walls before disappearing. Psychics have been here before and reported that particular building has a lot of angry, violent energy.
One of the most haunted places is the part of the fort that is now run as an inn.
The Totten Trail Historic Inn is a bed and breakfast on the grounds of Fort Totten. The original building housed some of the fort's officers and their families years ago. But apparently some of them, supposedly one man and one woman, died within this very building before the renovations began. Apparently their ghostly spirits did not leave. Guests who stay at the inn today have sometimes felt that they were being followed, or have seen dark apparitions following them out of the corners of their eye.
Have you ever experienced something spooky at Fort Totten? Share your story!
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