A building sitting at the Totten Trail Historical Site has a dark and grisly past, one that still pops its head up today to make itself known in the form of haunting and ghostly encounters. Today we take a look at the Totten Trail Inn in North Dakota, where indigenous children were housed, officers made their quarters, and today, accepts guests from all over to enjoy the history and haunts that are on offer.
Originally built between 1867 and 1873, the buildings of the historic site were once used for an indigenous boarding school as the United States attempted to “normalize” Native children. These were said to be difficult places to live, with many child deaths on the premises. After, it was used as quarters for officers in the late 19th century, adding more blood to the grounds as a couple passed away in the home before it was renovated to become an Inn for travelers.
The building gained a new life as an Inn, today welcoming many people to stay in the pristine 19th century buildings on the historic site in North Dakota. But the history and past of this location can’t be so easily covered with wallpaper and vintage accommodations. Many ghosts are said to haunt the grounds and the Inn itself.
The rumor goes that if you are walking the floors of the hotel, you will find that creeping feeling on the back of your neck like you’re being watched– and you just might be. Some visitors who look behind them might see a spirit or specter disappear around a corner, as if they’d been peeking around the door frame to watch you as you walked. If you make your way into one of the vintage rooms, you might still feel that creeping sensation of being watched. You might wake up to see a figure standing in the corner of your room, just watching.
Other rumors say that the Inn is haunted by the couple who passed away within the walls before renovations turned it into a location of hospitality. Objects in some of the rooms seem to disappear or be moved to a different location while the room was supposedly empty. Doors tend to open and close on their own with no rhyme or reason, and even the occasional full bodied apparition has been reported.
Most often, those apparitions are said to be young Native American children or soldiers, appearing in their ghostly figure for a few moments before disappearing again.
Today, the inn is inviting and a living piece of history, as guests are encouraged to learn more about the history of the site and the half dozen other buildings on the historic site’s grounds. If you stay the night, while you might feel like you’re being watched, your hospitality will not be in jeopardy. You just might run into a ghost or two during your visit.
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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.