Some performers can’t get enough of the limelight, even in the afterlife. The Historic Atlas Theatre in Cheyenne has a long and eventful past that lends itself to having a few ghosts in the wings of the stage, even being a favorite of local paranormal investigators in the past. Today we explore the ghosts of the past lingering in the Atlas.
The building that now houses the historic theater is a National Historic Landmark, having been built in 1887 and first being the host of a confection shop on the bottom floor, with offices on the second level. In 1908, it was converted to a theater in the growing and bustling frontier town of Cheyenne.
The building was a theater for a few decades, before being left abandoned for an indeterminate amount of time, transformed into a night club, and then back into its well-known form as the theater we know today.
But there are patrons watching shows at the theater that may not have paid for their ticket with currency. A woman is seen very often on the second floor by passersby, who say they see a woman dressed in white look out the window and then disappear when they look away- even when the theater is closed.
The Atlas is said to house at least two spirits, a male energy and the aforementioned mysterious female spirit. The man is described as a prankster, often disappearing and reappearing objects during rehearsals and playing jokes on those in the theater. The woman is more somber, with the legend that the two of them passed on after a devastating fire on the second floor decades earlier.
Another tragic turn in the theater’s past came in the form of a true story of a mother and child who died of exposure in a particularly nasty winter while seeking shelter in the Atlas. Yet another story tells the tale of a preacher in the 1800s who found out that his wife was selling herself as a lady of the evening, killing her and then himself in a jealous rage.
Regardless of the murky origins of the ghosts of the Atlas, the fact remains that countless performers, employees, and visitors to the historic building have recounted tales of being in the presence of the otherworldly occupants on more than one occasion. You can check out the Cheyenne Little Theater Players schedule, catch a show, and maybe a fright at this historic building.
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Born in Death Valley and raised on the prairie, Deborah is a Wyoming-based paranormal researcher and University of Wyoming graduate. Her interests lie in folklore, history, symbolic interaction and research. She also researches the paranormal academically and is a graduate student studying sociology.