BUTTE — Boo! It’s Halloween. Time for spooky stories, and in Butte just about everyone has a spooky story because many of the city's historic buildings, like the Dumas Brothel, are reported to be haunted — if you believe in that sort of thing.
“I do believe Butte is haunted. I’ve grown up here my entire life and I’ve definitely had experiences, you know, I can’t explain,” said Butte history teacher Tony Hoffman.
Myles Stricker has been running Plantosaurus Rex on the corner of Main and Granite streets. Many people have reported seeing the figure of a woman on the stairs leading to the basement.
“The most common thing that happens with her is people hear her weeping. We were actually setting up for the Mayfair earlier and we had one of our helpers by herself early in the morning at five and she texted us panicking, saying, ‘You need to get here, there’s a woman crying in the back of the building,'” said Stricker.
Butte’s old Cabbage Patch neighborhood, where the city's poorest lived, is believed to be haunted by the spirit of a 9-year-old girl named Ethal Gill, who was brutally murdered in 1898. People who tour one of the cabins report feeling the little girl’s presence.
“She connects with mothers. She connects especially with women. She's been known to crawl into people’s laps, she’s been known to play with people’s hair,” said Hoffman.
All theaters are said to be haunted and the Mother Lode Theater is no exception. Even skeptical employees can’t deny experiencing odd moments in the theater.
“There’s been some weird things, there’s been some weird things—weird noises at night, some things that move that I could never really explain,” said Kate Cherry, who works at the theater.
It’s not surprising to some that Butte would be a hot spot for ghosts.
“There’s a lot of tragedy in our history here in Butte. You know, you talk about 2,300 to 2.500 miners losing their lives underground, you talk about the various murders and mayhem in the community right here,” said Hoffman.
For Stricker, he’s learned to live with the ghosts he believes haunt his building.
“It’s kind of unnerving at times, for sure, because that’s coming from someone who’s not there really, but, you know, you got to do your job and stuff, so I just kind of get used to it after a while,” he said.
