Hauntings from Atchison, KS

17 July 2018 | Your Stories, Your True Encounters

I’m a big fan of Weird Darkness and after hearing many stories similar to my experiences, I thought I’d take the chance to share my story…well stories. I go to school in Atchison, KS, also known as “The Most Haunted Town in Kansas.” Growing up, my dad and I bonded over the paranormal. Friday nights were often spent watching Ghost Adventures and many scary movies. We loved the thrill and the feeling of being scared. So going to school in the most haunted town in Kansas was the perfect thrill I needed for my enjoyment of the paranormal.

I have a few experiences to share from my 3 years of living in Atchison; the first occurring during my very first week at school. Atchison prides itself on being haunted. It attracts people from all over for those eager to see something. The town offers tours all through the city with countless stories and legends. The most popular being the Sallie House. My school’s campus is actually half a mile away from the notorious Sallie House. I have driven by it hundreds of time and each time I can’t help but glance at all the stories that lie within. The most popular being the little girl whom they call Sallie who died during a surgery. But there is something far darker there. Because it is so popular for being haunted, you can take a tour of the house. One weekend when my family came to visit, we definitely had to visit the Sallie house. Beforehand, my family and I joked about who the “demon” would most likely affect. It’s said that demons latch themselves onto those who are weak or vulnerable so we joked that mom would be the first, then myself, and the least likely of my family of 5 who it would attach to would have been my sister.

Upon entering the house, I was definitely fan-girling. It’s like my dreams were coming true. Hearing and seeing so many stories that had occurred in the house, I took my time exploring every inch. After about 20 minutes of touring the house, my sister had complained that she was starting to get a headache. Now this wasn’t uncommon for her. My sister and I both get headaches all the time, so thinking nothing of it we kept touring. In one of the rooms, I noticed my sister looked flushed in her face like she was very warm. Yes it was a hot day in September, but the house was air conditioned and everyone else felt and looked fine. Again, I didn’t think much about it until later. To my dismay, nothing exciting happened while we were at the house, it was all for the tourist experience.

Finally ready to go, we head to leave the house. On our way out, I jokingly asked my sister, “Hey, how ya feeling? Is that ghost still giving you problems?” She laughed and said yes cause her head still hurt. So just because I said, “Hey! Let’s take a picture to see if it’ll show up with you!” Now, let me remind you, we are all joking about this. Not one bit were we being serious. After snapping a picture, we left.

While walking back to school, I ask my sister how she’s feeling. She looks at me and smiles, “Oh I feel fine, my headache is gone.” Now this was weird because when we get headaches, WE GET THEM BAD. Often they progress into migraines. They don’t just go away in 30 minutes without the help of aspirin-which we didn’t have any on us at the time. This made me want to check out the picture I took of her before we left the house. Zooming in on every part of the picture… the walls, behind the door, my sister’s flustered cheeks, her pretty smile and then something else.. Something over her right shoulder. There was a white spot in her hair. Not in front, not behind, but IN her hair. Looking closer, that’s when I see it. My heart starts racing with fear and excitement. In the white spot (an orb), I saw a face. You could see two dots for eyes, the lining of a nose, and a smirk. An evil, mischievous smirk peering through her hair into the camera like it was posing for the picture just wanting to be seen. I flipped out. I showed my family. Not telling them what I saw. I first had them look at the picture to see what they saw. They all pointed out the same thing I described for you. We were all in awe. A spirit had attached itself to my sister while we were in the house. I shared the photo with friends from home and school. Telling them that we visited the Sallie House and asked if they saw anything in this picture. Again, never telling what I saw. Simply asking if they noticed anything. 80% saw it and were amazed and freaked out. The rest were skeptical, they saw the white dot, but did not believe in the paranormal so made excuses for what it could have been instead. Whenever people mention the house, I just have to share my experience and show people that picture I took. Maybe one day, we’ll go back for an overnight visit.

Another story of mine happened my freshman year of college. Avoiding the ridicule of upperclassmen and getting our beanies pulled. (When your beanie is pulled you have to kaw like a raven—A tradition for all incoming freshman.) Wanting to avoid the social suicide, a new friend and I went to the local park around 11 pm one night. Being the paranormal fanatic I am, I knew the famous legend of the park. There’s an area in the park known as Molly’s Hollow. The legend goes: A teenage girl named Molly and her boyfriend had visited the park after prom. The couple got into an argument and the boyfriend left her there. The next morning, the girl’s body was found hanging from a tree. It was never known if it was a murder or suicide. It is said that around midnight you can hear a loud, agonizing female’s scream in the hollow.

Now going to a Catholic college, a lot of people there do not mess around with the paranormal. So I kept the stories to myself. That night, my friend and I placed ourselves on a blanket on the hill overlooking the hollow. We talked about life and were lost in conversation. It was after 11:30 at this point, so there were definitely no families or other people at the park. During a lull in the conversation, I hear what sounds like a woman screaming just down the hill in the direction of the hollow. It wasn’t loud, but it was loud enough to hear that is was in fact a female scream. I didn’t say anything to my friend about it. I thought it was in my head since I knew the story. A minute later, my friend turned to me and asked, “Did you hear that?” I asked what he was talking about? “Did you hear like a scream?”. That’s when I got spooked, cause my friend did not know about the story. We had both heard the scream. I told him the popular legend, and that is when we left. Many of my friends from school talk about going to the park at midnight, but I haven’t had the courage to face whatever I heard that night in the park 3 years ago.

Submitted to Weird Darkness and My Haunted Life Too by Marriah Clayton

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