Paradise for the Paranormal

By: Lisia Lucero and Sienna Reese

There are few things more spine-shivering and stomach-solidifying than locking your keys in the apartment, dropping your earring down the sink, or actually leaving the stove on. Ghost stories are one of those few things. 

With the spooky season starting to appear, let’s hear some paranormal encounters from some students at Fort Lewis College, if you dare. 

Liiyah Smith, Freshman, She/Her- In sixth grade, Liiyah Smith said she spotted a witch on the Sanostee reservation. Smith’s brother and she were outside of their grandma’s house that sat in the crook of a huge mountain next to a rock ledge. Smith got dared to walk into the depths of the woods. As she was walking into the dark depths of the night she saw a lady. The woman had long, white hair in a braid and said she was carrying a stick with animal carcasses on it. Smith was terrified and ran back into the light and safety of her grandmother’s house, she said. 

Madelyn Scott, Freshman, She/Her- Madelyn Scott and her friends decided one night to visit the graveyard and add flowers to the bare tombstones, Scott said. Then, when everything felt alright, things took a scary turn. Scott and her friends were walking through the graveyard when one of her friends heard a whistle, then more, and she decided to whistle back— which is considered by many to be a very poor mistake. Right when they were leaving the graveyard, Scott’s friend’s windshield wipers started moving like crazy, all by themselves, and they drove away feeling frightened, Scott said. 

Xeno Innarelli, Freshman, He/They- Xeno Inarelli went to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum that shut down in the 90s in West Virginia on a ghost tour, Inarelli explains. The tour group was in a hallway and the guide had a tennis ball that spoke with the spirits. The guide would ask the spirits questions and then throw the ball and it would curve left or right depending on the answer. Inarelli said that he was really fascinated by the experience because he had got to see this paranormal encounter. 

Atlee Barrow, Sophomore Communication Design major- When Atlee Barrow was young, they lived in a place a ways out of town, they said. Over the span of four years, from around the ages three to seven, they would play with and talk about an imaginary friend named Danny, who apparently lived down the hill around the place where their mom’s friend lived. One day, while visiting her mom’s friend’s house, Barrow was playing with the dog when it suddenly jumped around defensively and was growling at the corner. Looking at the corner, Barrow cheered and said, “Look! Danny lives here!” To this day, Barrow has no memory of this event happening or Danny at all, they said.

Maryssa Abston Tolliver, Junior Art Education major- A few years back, Maryssa Abston Tolliver and their cousin were hanging out at their auntie’s place, watching movies, Tolliver said. Their cousin, Brandon, briefly headed to the bathroom and as he headed back to the couch, the faucet suddenly turned on full blast. Confused, he trotted back to the bathroom and shut off the sink. He came out, ready to plop on the couch cushions, when, once again, the bathroom faucet turned on full-run. Weirded out by the second occurrence, Brandon turned the sink off again. He sat back down on the couch again, but after a few minutes of watching a movie, the sink’s knob was fully turned on yet again. After that night, the sink functioned normally, but there is no explanation of what happened that night, Tolliver said.