Fort Laramie, Part II

EMM & HARMONY

April 22, 2018.

Fort Laramie, WY

Our second destination at Fort Laramie was Old Bedlam, built in 1849 to house bachelor officers. A gorgeous two story building that boasts an all-white facade and dual wrap-around porches, Old Bedlam is easiest the most impressive looking residence remaining on post. There have been reportings of a specter within its walls, a cavalry officer that apparently does not like noise and has no problems telling guests to "be quiet".

The feeling that I had the moment I stepped into the building was one of fun, almost a sense of mischief. We could easily picture the young officers wandering about from the kitchen to the dining room, a drink in hand and smile on their face. This was not a place of sadness or unrest, perhaps the very reason why there is only one disgruntled spirit lingering, the one trying to keep the officers in line.

The first floor of Old Bedlam was a center hallway, rooms branching to either side and a staircase leading up. A rather small space and with the rooms inaccessible due to the thick sheets of glass, our time on the bottom floor was short. We headed upstairs to investigate further.

The floor plan of Old Bedlam is an an odd one. Four entrances in total at each corner of the building, leads to two stairways on opposite sides of the house. Most of the rooms are centrally located in the building in a cluster, with half of the building shut off from visitors. Sadly because of this, much of the upstairs was the same as the down, a small hallway from which to view the rooms.

Harmony and I had brought along a gypsy caravan bell, which we placed in a spot far from us within the building so that we can encourage specters to move or ring in order to communicate. As we stomped on the floor boards and called out, taunting the specter to hush us, I hung the bell on an upstairs door handle.

"Tell us to be quiet!" I yelled, "A lady in the officer's quarters, come kick me out!" While Harmony banged on the glass entrances. No response. No sounds, no bell. We continued on.

I heard Harmony call from downstairs, "There are wasps crawling on the floor! Three of them!" We certainly had not seen any wasps when we first arrived! No windows were open, no doors and wasps are not exactly easily overlooked. I called out, "Are you the one sending the wasps in? Come kick us out!" Stomping all the way down the hallway and the stairs, I grabbed the bell, placed it on the newel post and joined Harmony by the front door.

As I neared her, we both heard a CRACK!

We stopped dead in our tracks...CRACK!

The sound wasn't of glass or of anything breaking. It sounded like something was

leaning, maybe pushing against the plexiglass in the far corner of the upstairs.

Another CRACK! We stopped again, silent. Then, we heard something drag across

the floor from the same direction, like the shuffling of footsteps...then silence.

We waited, hearing nothing. Satisfied with this reaction, we gathered ourselves to

leave and announced our departure. As I walked towards the steps to grab the bell,

we heard it...SHUFFLE SHUFFLE SHUFFLE. Clear as day, the sound of footsteps

shuffling towards the top of the staircase.

As the only people at Fort Laramie were myself, Harmony and the park ranger,

we knew it had to be something...someone else. I jumped and ran over to hide behind Harmony, who had moved out of view of the staircase. I told her I didn't want to get the bell anymore.

She called to the upper floor, "Can you throw the bell down to us?"...no response. I called out the same thing, again no response. We waited and after what seemed like forever, I pulled myself together and started up the stairs, refusing to look up. I grabbed the bell as quickly as I could, took one peek into the corner where the sounds had come from and ran back downstairs and out of Old Bedlam as fast as I could, muttering a "thank you" on the way.

***