GHOSTLY GOINGS-ON By Pam North While Halloween is the traditional time for ghosts to be on the move,there are some places where it seems as if things go bump in the night almost anytime. Gilpin County reportedly has its share of spooks. Accounts of bizarre encounters of ghosts by intelligent, reliable, and often skeptical people are fascinating, and their inexplicability poses intriguing possibilities to ponder. In the north part of the county an ethereal male figure, standing in the foundation of what was once an old cabin near a rural road, appears occasionally, but only on snowy nights. Central City and Black Hawk, possibly because of their dramatic emergence as feisty mining camps populated by a variety of strong characters who often died in tragic circumstances, seem to be magnetic centers for spirits. A Black Hawk couple were blissfully unaware of the ghostly inhabitant in the home they purchased in 1998. One morning, their 17-year-old daughter told of awakening in the night and seeing a little girl sitting on the floor by the window, playing happily by herself. The daughter had been sleeping in a small upstairs room that was one of the remaining original portions of the vintage homee, which had been expanded and remodeled over the years. The couple happened to recount the odd story to a male friend of theirs, who had once stayed with them and slept in the same room that the daughter later had occupied. The man hesitantly confided to them that he had had a similar experience of his own. Not wishing to alarm the family (or stir up their doubts about his sanity), he had said nothing, but he, too, had waked from sleep to see a little girl contentedly sitting in a nearby chair. The couple were forced to give even more credence to the stange happenings when another couple stayed with them shortly thereafter. The visiting woman stopped immediately inside the door of the house, saying, "There's a spirit here." She explained that she had a gift for sensing presences; even her grandmother had told her that she had this sensitivity. At the end of their stay, the woman, on her way out to their car, turned and saw the figure of a child at the window of the upper bedroom. The woman described her as a little girl about five years old, with a sweet, friendly and playful disposition, and she was wearing a yellow dress with a white pinafore. The woman also said she felt the occurrence of a past fire. Afterward, the home's owners, without divulging what the woman had related, separately asked both their daughter and their male friend to describe the clothing worn by the little girl they had seen. Both corroborated the yellow dress/white pinafore attire of the apparition. Later, when the owners were doing some digging to facilitate drainage behind the house , they noticed an area about two feet by five feet where the ground was soft. Investigating, they dug up several pieces of burned wood, similar to the lathing found in old homes. They surmised that there evidently had been a fire at the rear of the home sometime in the far past. While they have had no personal encounter with their ghost, they have noticed that their cats sometimes watch something invisible, turning their heads to follow the path taken by some unseen presence. In 1886 the Sauer-McShane Mercantile Company built a warehouse on Spring Street, in Central City, to store food, glassware, tobacco, cigars, high explosives, fuses, caps, mining candles, hay and grain for their grocery and general supply store on Main Street. A second story was added to the warehouse in 1896. Angelo di Benedetto, an artist of notable stature (whose work can be seen in an impressive mural at the Colorado State Judicial Building), purchased the building in the 1940s, restoring it for use as a studio and residence, and he lived there until his death in 1992. Bob Lewerke, whose business (One Stop Printing) once occupied the historic warehouse, began to entertain the possibility that di Benedetto's presence still might be around. Several years ago, when Lewerke moved his presses in on the main floor of the building, he also transferred a couch and two recliners up to the second floor. Upstairs, he arranged the furniture around three sides of a 10' by 10' piece of carpet. A few days later,when he returned to the upper floor, he found that each piece of furniture had been relocated to a separate far corner of the building. He repositioned them in their original places on the carpet, but a few days later he discovered that they again had traveled to the corners of the building. Three months later, when he again checked out the second floor, Lewerke claimed to have found another surprise; lying in the middle of the carpet was a 3' by 3' piece of cardboard with the signature of di Benedetto scrawled three times on it (apparently di Benedetto was a man of both humor and ego). Last summer Lewerke posed with visiting relatives for a photograph in front of the building. After the photo had been developed, Lewerke said it revealed a ghostly face looking down upon those having their picture taken. Lewerke has said he often has felt a presence in the old warehouse; perhaps di Benedetto has a lasting fondness for his old Central City home, and may not have strayed far after his demise. The Belvidere Theatre on Nevada Street in Central City was completed in 1875 as an opera house, but its inadequate seating capacity led to it being replaced by a new opera house on Eureka Street in 1878. The Belvidere was purchased by L.S. Beaman in 1878 for his Central Bottling Works to produce beer, soda, cider, ginger ale, and a much-touted (by Beaman) health tonic. Later, the structure served various uses throughout the years as an armory, garage, basketball gym, recreation center, dinner theater, movie theater, dance hall and community center, and has been undergoing much-needed renovation. Bob Harvey, past director of the restoration effort, has a photograph taken of an old piano located on the building's stage. Seated at the instrument is the shadowy outline of a figure that appears to be a woman in a long skirt, arms extended with hands over the keyboard. Harvey researched the history of the piano, and found that it had been part of the University of Wyoming's music department long ago. A female music student was murdered there, and Harvey has wondered if there is a connection between her death and the old piano. Harvey also has recounted an incident that took place in the Belvidere several years ago. A small group was taking a tour of the building, and one young man was joking about ghosts. As he walked along, his arms were suddenly gripped by unseen hands, visibly indenting the sleeves of his down-filled jacket, and he was lurched to the side. Shaken by the encounter, he continued on the tour with no more quips about the spirit world. Harvey claimed the experience was recorded on videotape, and he also mentioned a ghostly voice that was recorded on tape at another time when he and some friends were in the building. The Belvidere has been the scene of other ghostly sightings in past years, when the current owner, Jay Williams, and his daughter occasionally witnessed a woman's face mistily floating in front of one of the building's structural columns as the sun was setting. Ghosts, while obviously an element of the past, apparently can express themselves in the present, and perhaps even can have a bit of fun with unsuspecting mortals in the process. The Casey Street home of a Central City woman has been haunted by a benign spirit she has named Joe. When she purchased the home she was told by its previous owners of an inhabiting presence there. Their three-year-old daughter had sometimes stood at the bottom of the stairway, pointing and saying, "Man, man," when no one was visible to her parents. The wife also had seen an ethereal figure in the parlor on several occasions, again with no human element to explain it. Their housesitter had found the front door inexplicably standing open after having been closed and secured by two locks. The sightings had ceased for quite some time before the selling of the house, so it had been assumed that the ghost had departed the premises. This was a source of relief for its new owner, who had ambivalent feelings about cohabiting with a spirit. It wasn't long before it became obvious that Joe either hadn't left, or that he had returned. Strange happenings became frequent occurrences. Doors she had closed and locked stood ajar with no explanation. One door between two upstairs rooms often was found open after having been closed, despite the fact that it stuck badly, and was very difficult to reopen once it had been shut. Joe managed to execute this maneuver easily and silently. Doors apparently were one of Joe's favorite things, and he delighted in making them the opposite of whatever the new homeowner desired them to be. He also seemed intent on letting her cats out if she had confined them to one room; soon seeing that they had the run of the house again. While she was settling into her new home, a friend came by to help her unpack. Joe must have liked the friend; he went home with her for a few days. The friend first became aware of Joe's presence when she heard a masculine voice call out her name, and no one was there. Her television turned itself on to the movie Ghostbusters, in Spanish (Joe obviously had a sense of humor). Her taplights would turn themselves on. He even came to work with her, opening the front door of her office frequently so that the bell would ring, and turning on her radio. She would feel a definite coolness in a room when he was near. When she went back to visit the homeowner, Joe returned with her and stayed. No sign of Joe had been noticed at the Casy Street home between the friend's visits. Joe also seemed to like modern-day gadgets; sometimes her microwave buttons made little beeps, and Her television also was tinkered with, suddenly changing to mute with captions for no apparent reason. Joe also seemed to have opinions about things, like how long Christmas decorations should be kept up after the holiday season. The homeowner wanted to leave her lavishly-ornamented Christmas tree up for longer than usual, vowing to take it down on Valentine's Day. When that date arrived, she was tired from work, and not in the mood to put the tree away after all. Sitting in her parlor relaxing. she heard a noise, and walking into the living room to investigate, she found the tree leaning against an adjacent wall. Attempting to straighten it, she felt the tree move away from her to fall on the floor. Joe apparently was adamant that the time had come for the tree to go. This reporter, after the interview and tour of the home were completed, walked out to discover that her car door, previously definitely and deliberately locked, was now unlocked. It was probably just Joe, saying hello in his own inimitable way. Other tales have been told. A Central City couple have watched the rocking chair in their living room move gently back and forth with no one visible sitting in it. They theorized that it was the deceased past owner come to sit a spell and visit. A casino owner has recounted experiences of catching glimpses of shadowy forms dressed in Victorian garb, sometimes just as quick reflections in a mirror. He also reported an incident involving a rocking chair that appeared to be unoccupied, but his dog growled and barked at it, then gazed after an invisible something that seemed to have vacated it and moved away. A small Black Hawk building was said to have been the scene of spirit doings when the advent of gaming turned it into a casino. A balloon followed someone down a stairwell, and some items flew off a shelf in the kitchen. A surveillance tape reportedly recorded a slot machine handle going down with a resulting quarter payoff, in the middle of the night with no one around. The stories are numerous and fascinating, but are they true? The answers are up to you.