by Rebecca Mikulin

Created on: March 31, 2009

Ghosts on the Range is an interesting and entertaining account of both historical and modern-day paranormal phenomenon located within Wyoming. It includes the legends of Fort Laramie and the Sheridan Inn, as well as stories of ghost lights, dopplegangers, and the Northwest College (Powell) auditorium.

The historic Sheridan Inn, located in Sheridan, Wyoming, is perhaps the most widely-known "haunting" in the Western United States. This former home of the famous Buffalo Bill Cody is known to be haunted by the ghost of Catherine Arnold, better known as Miss Kate, whose ashes are buried in the walls of her previous room of residence. The Inn was built in 1893, complete with 200 electric lights. Miss Kate took up residence at the age of 22, where she remained for 64 years until the inn was sold in 1965 to a developer who planned to tear it down. After an extensive campaign to save the old inn a Ms. Neltje purchased and re-opened it in 1967, though only as a dance hall and restaurant. Miss Kate died in 1968 and was subsequently cremated then buried in the walls of her old room as per her last request.

Ghost lights are balls of sourceless light seen floating above the ground at night. As a child I thought the lights were fairies living in the neighbor's field. The prevailing theory maintains that the ghost lights are caused by methane escaping from the earth, a plausible explanation considering the amounts of natural gas found in the Bighorn Basin. The other explanation, the one held forth by early settlers, is that the lights are caused by the spirits of the dead.

There is a story of a man who, driving home one night, nearly asleep at the wheel, encounters a hitchhiker who seems oddly familiar. The hitchhiker offers to drive through a particularly dangerous section of highway so the man can rest a bit and so get home safely. Only after the hitchhiker leaves does the man realize why he seemed so familiar. The hitchhiker looked exactly like him. An apparition that takes on the appearance of oneself is known in paranormal research as a doppleganger.

These and many other stories are re-counted in this excellent collection.

I found this book especially interesting because not only is it in my home state, but involves people and places I know personally. In my opinion, the entirety of the collection is well-written and was put together very nicely, all the stories seeming to complement the others.

Not only should interested Wyomingites read this book, but also anyone interested in ghost stories and/or psychic phenomenon. The style of writing creates excellent material for plain recreational reading and even party ghost stories; though anyone looking for good research material on psychic phenomenon may want to look elsewhere.

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