ksax - The legendary Palmer House Hotel is one of the most haunted hotels in the nation.

"It operates today as it did in 1900," Owner Kelley Freese said.

The Palmer House stands today as it did more than a century ago. As the first building in Sauk Centre to have electricity, it was a destination for many, and Freese said some of those guests haven't left.

"The activity has really been intense in the kitchen, and there's a man that walks around in the dining room that several of us have seen," Freese said.

The man she sees isn't real. He's an apparition.

"You go there only to find nobody's there," she explained.

Paranormal investigators come from all over to investigate this haunted hotel. KSAX investigated. As we walked up the stairs it got colder even though no windows were open and there's no air conditioning.

"There's just no way to explain it," Freese said.

The cold turned into almost a breeze when Freese turned on the antique phonograph, playing old music.

Many experience the unexplained during their time in the hotel. A guest took this unaltered picture, not realizing what they captured. In the picture there's an image of something floating in the window's reflection in the mirror.

In some of our video, a dot of light appears out of nowhere. It's a light anomaly, which is an unexplained source of light, dancing around in from of the same window.

"That could be a person," Freese said as we described what we were seeing.

Freese said a light anomaly is one of the most concrete pieces of paranormal evidence caught on camera, because much of the activity comes when you least expect it.

"Books have come flying off the shelf in the pub," Freese recalled. "Literally off the bookshelves, over the top of the table and land on the other side of the room."

"A lot of people get touched. I've had my hair pulled and my arm yanked back," Paranormal Investigator Lisa Lee said.

Another source of evidence is sound.

"We've heard voices," Lee explained. "We've heard dogs barking in the basement."

"Could you tell me what your name is," Sherry Johnson said, speaking to a little girl no one could see.

Johnson used a modified radio to pick up sound during our investigation.

"Spirits can use the voices and the words already in our airwaves. They can answer our questions by pulling those words out and sending them out through the radio," Johnson said.

While sitting in the playroom, Johnson spoke with the spirits of children. We heard a quiet voice say one word, "nervous" through the radio.

Johnson and Freese have heard more voices caught on tape in the hotel's basement.

"Do you recognize anyone in the room," they asked. A voice from someone no one could see responded, "Kelley."

More often than not the presence of ghosts or spirits is a feeling, but sometimes when you least expect it the guests you can't always see in the Palmer House will surprise you; whether it's an apparition, a moving object, or a voice telling you to leave.


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PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH HOTEL GUESTS & STAFF


What is wrong with the picture above? Kelley, owner of The Palmer House Hotel, Restaurant and Pub, received this picture by e-mail from a guest. The guest reportedly walked around the hotel and took photos of some of the hotel's uniqueness and distinct features, not realizing she was capturing something much more. This photo was not altered in any way

*Statements have not been altered or edited

"My sister in law and I had some small experiences in room 17! I kept hearing my name being called when I was the only one in the room and the entire floor! The voice was a woman’s and was in the room with me. My sister in law sat in the chair next to the tv and ended up moving from there after ten minutes. She had this strong sadness come over her and she didn’t know why. She was tearing up and everything. Then when we went to bed she felt someone laying on top of her. My sister and her friend stayed in room 22 and did not experience anything, but that was okay."
(Becky Ballard, 9-12-09, Hotel Guest in Room 17)

"Last night, my girls (Angie and Jenna) and I stayed at your hotel with my mother-in-law, Sandy. The stay was a birthday present to me and girls from Sandy because she knows the three of us have an interest in ghosts. (To believe or not to believe) Well, we arrived with the expectation that nothing would happen but we would have bragging rights about spending the night at a ‘real’ haunted hotel." [Read More]
(Tracee Swanson, 10-11-09, Room Unknown, Adults/Teenagers)


Ghost Lore: A young boy died while staying at the hotel and he can be seen and heard bouncing his ball down the hallways. A man haunts many of the rooms of the hotel and is believed to throw glasses in the bar. Mysterious knocks have been heard from several of the rooms in the hotel. The hotel is haunted by Sinclair Lewis. There are bodies and bones buried beneath the hotel in the basement. Several guests have reported that although everything in the hotel was above their expectations, someone had let their kid run through the hallway all night long. The owner was very hesitant to tell them that on those nights, no children were staying in the hotel. Bartenders also told us that glasses that are stored on hanging hooks under the bar have come flying off the hooks, landing, and breaking clear across the room. Room 11 is often the site of many reports. It is said to be forever cold, as the room needs to be heated while other rooms are using air conditioner

"Lying in bed and waiting to fall asleep after investigating when I start hearing my name being called. I tell them I’m trying to sleep now. I’ve been trying to communicate with someone all night, now I’m trying to sleep and I find this a bit rude of you to come to me now. But if you do have something to say and it’s something short, I would like to hear it. I hear the name Benjamin and then I got the name Lancaster. I heard Lancaster a few times and then they put the names together as Benjamin Lancaster. Then I hear the name Ellie. Seemed like this Benjamin person was looking/searching for an Ellie."
(Michelle, 1-11-09, Room Unknown, Adult)

"Room 9, the name of “Chapman” comes to them. Room 11, an 18 year old having a baby. Cramden”-suicide in the early 50’s. Leisel."
(Total stranger walking in to The Palmer House, 9-1-07)

"Yesterday I was coming down the stairs then I heard a thump, thump, thump, WUMP. Then a twisted broken shape of an old man with a snapped cane looked at me then evaporated. Just like snap! Not like gone, like having the skin floating off. Fast, until nothing was left! Maybe because the palmer house was built on top of a destroyed one, the spirits of the perished might be here. But nobody knows what the true reason is."
(Greg & Laurel, 12-30-06, 10 years old)

"When we were going to bed, the thermostat got cooler! And nobody had turned it down! And when we went to bed I heard a ball tap up stairs. We heard a knock at the door at 1:30AM. A book was open and when we returned to the rooms it was closed. This is a cool Hotel."
(Atreya, 10-22-06, Room 11, Child Age Unknown)

"While sleeping I was awoke by something slapping my bare leg that hung out of the covers. As my eyes fluttered open I saw something scoot by my face. Needless to say, I had a hard time staying asleep after that. Also, a really cold pocket of air was by my face for a short while, and the bathroom floor kept getting mysteriously wet for no reason."
(Jessica Rose & Daryl, 10-08-06, Room 2-3, Adult)

"I was sitting in the bar having a pizza when suddenly a shadow flew on the wall in front of me and I felt wind all around me. When I looked behind me, though, there was nothing there. Okay, that was only my first night, so tonight I’ll write more. Wow, our sound machine turned itself off last night. I woke up to go to the bathroom about 3:00 and it was off."
(Paul Landiero, 8-25-06, Room 9, Adult)

"I was in the bathroom around noon and I went to wash my hands when the water, which I had put on cold, all of a sudden was burning and steaming hot. Then I went to tell my family and wrote it right here."
(Parker Hill, 8-06-06, Adult stopped for lunch)

"We were staying to show our horses at the Arabian show. Sunday morning we were up early at 6AM. About 6:45, we heard a knock on the door-very clearly! I went immediately to the door and there was no one there, not a soul in sight up or down the entire hallway. And apparently the ghost in this hotel lies to read westerns, as a paperback copy of “Streets of Laredo” disappeared from our room as well!"
(Leesa Schofield, 9-06-03, Room 19, Adult)

"We came in here one night because I read in Minnesota Ghost Stories about this place. I wanted to come here just to see if anything happened. My friend and I were sitting down at the bar and we met these group of kids around our age. They had a video camera and asked if we wanted to go in the basement with them. We went down there and started to look around and the girl w/the camera asked me if I wanted to video tape. She told me to go in the little dark room. I had the light on the camera so I could see. I walked in and I hate the dark to begin with, but it felt extra spooky in there. I had the camera on the wall and there was a door leaning on the wall. As I had the camera in that direction, the door fell down right in front me me and made this huge bang. Everyone screamed and ran out of there and I was frozen in place. There was definitely something strange about that basement. I never got those people’s numbers but we do have that on video tape. That was definitely an experience I will never forget!"
(Elise Rodgers 10-29-?, Room 12, Adult)

"The weekend of August 6-7, 2005, we were staying for the Arabian horse show. On the first night of our stay in room 13 at The Palmer House, Betsy’s cell phone rang around 1:46AM. The phone displayed the letter “P” and said no contacts as that name. In the morning, she double checked her phone under recent calls and it showed up as unavailable. On the second day, we were unable to find both our keys. Emma had come up to the room and used one of the keys to let herself in and the rest of us had used the other one. Betsy then left with her purse and had not taken a key with her. We were looking all over for one of the keys when Betsy returned and said she had on of the keys in her purse, even though it was not there before."
(Betsy, Carol, Emma, Mary, Kelsey, 9-6-05, Room 13, Adults/Kids)

"I arrived at The Palmer House on Saturday, June 10, at approximately 3:00pm. My mother and I were traveling together and we were meeting my brother and his wife for a two night stay." [Read More]
(Becky and family, 6-10-06, Rooms 17, 18 and 19, Adults)

"I was reading my fav book on the steps and all of the sudden I heard my cousins name and my name. Then I heard a snap sound. Then I saw a figure. It looked like it was a mother and her boy. It looked like the boy was bouncing his ball and I heard a big groan. I just heard a lil girl and it must have been a ghost. The toilet flushed once and no one was in there. I was just sitting outside of room 16 and I heard something in the hall. I looked up and down the when I heard footsteps and no one was there."
(Briannah, 7-29, 30, 31-06, Rooms 16 and 13, Child)

"Gost’s come here. Do some werd things. This Place is HANTED"
(Kantrovich, 5-03-05, Room 21, Child)

"My friend and I came from Fargo looking for a good scare, and we did see a few things. Upon arriving, I immediately felt drawn to a specific chair in the front entryway…then, after we checked in, I felt drawn down the hallway to my right at the top of the stairs on the 2nd floor, but we were staying in room 17 (on the 3rd floor), so we went all the way up and dropped our things. Shortly after being in the room, we found that many of our batteries were dead (we’d brought some equipment to catch/record something) and so we left again to go buy some." [Read More]
(KEJ, 10-22-06, Room 17, Adult)

"Ever since I directed a play in a haunted theatre in Cheyenne, Wyoming, I’ve been curious about ghosts and haunted places, and when I travel, I try to go and see peculiar places with eerie stories associated with them. A couple of years ago, in France, I stopped in a supposedly haunted castle, on the edge of a creepy forest. In that castle, there had once been a witch trial, and the place even had its resident black cat!" [Read More]
(Paula Egan Wright, 7-13-03, Room 13, Adult)

"We stayed at The Palmer House for the 1st time to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. When we told our friends that we were going to be staying there, the common response that we got was “That place is haunted.” I didn’t mind that too much since I grew up in a home that we considered “haunted” also. Some strange unexplained happenings were experienced there too." [Read More]
(Joel & Brenda Wollem, 10-28-06, Room 1, Adults)

"As with any new job, I wanted to be sure that I made a good first impression. I vacuumed the dining room and made sure that all of the tables were set with placemats and silverware. I was slightly disgusted that, on several tables, the silverware seemed to have been thrown on haphazardly. But I straightened it all out and went to check the bathrooms. A few hours later, I went to double-check that everything was clean. When I checked the dining room, many of the sets of silverware had been moved!" [Read More]
(Night Clerk, June-August 2002)

"A young boy died while staying at the hotel, and he can be seen and heard bouncing his ball down the hallways. A man haunts many of the rooms of the hotel and is believed to throw glasses in the bar. Mysterious knocks have been heard from several of the rooms in the hotel. Is the hotel is haunted by Sinclair Lewis. There are bodies and bones buried beneath the hotel in the basement." [Read More]
(Excerpts from “The Minnesota Road Guide to Haunted Locations” - By Chad Lewis & Terry Fisk - Ghost Lore)

Stories told to current owner, Kelley:

"An older couple came in to have lunch one day. She informed me that her grandfather, Clarence Grindy (sp?) had fallen down the first flight of stairs, leading up to the hotel, and died."
(As told to the owner Kelley by lunch guests, 1-31-08)

Previous Owners:
Had an electric knife turn on in the kitchen and vibrate across the table.
Would hear children in the hallways and there were none (owners live here)
Heard “voices” join in with a group of singing musicians. They heard it, too!

Employees:
Regularly “rearrange” the rolled silverware settings in the dining room.
Water turning on and off in various sinks while no one is around.
Hanging stemware shooting out of their racks across several feet.
Candle holders sliding across a table in the pub when no one was near.
Floor lamps in the lobby turning on and off.
TV in the pub turning on VERY loudly and only night clerk in the lobby.
Glasses not simply falling off of shelves, but seemingly “thrown” down.
Temperature dropping late at night in the lobby for 20 minutes or so.
Hearing people up in the hotel at night when we didn’t have any guests.
Following a “guest” upstairs to only have them simply NOT be there.
Children asking me who that little boy is sitting on the steps. I don’t see him.

Guests:
A row of books simply falling off of a shelf and all landing upright & in order.
Complaining about children playing in the hallway at night & no kids are here.
Complaining about noise of us rearranging furniture during the night. We don’t.
TV’s turning on late at night in unoccupied rooms and then turning off again.
Sudden dramatic drop in temperature for short periods of time.
Complaining about noisy guests above them and they’re already on the top floor.


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Sources:
www.thepalmerhousehotel.com
KSAX.com
www.lakesnwoods.com
www.minnesotaghosts.com
www.exploreminnesota.com
www.aubergedesquatresaisons.com
www.unexplainedresearch.com

The Legendary Palmer House Hotel - Sauk Centre, Minnesota