Haunted Kansas

PITTSBURG -- There has been more than grass and buffalo on the Kansas prairie. For more than a century, ghosts, witches, werewolves, UFOs and even Bigfoot have been romping across the state.

Lisa Hefner Heitz has collected numerous ghost stories and legends into a book titled "Haunted Kansas," published by the University Press of Kansas. She discussed some of them recently in a presentation at the Pittsburg Public Library.

Heitz said she has been interested in fairy tales and spooky stories since childhood. Her interest intensified after she took a basic course in folklore as part of her graduate work in American studies at the University of Kansas.

"When I grew up in Topeka, I heard our local legend about an 'Albino Woman' with long white hair and glowing red eyes who supposedly haunted a cemetery north of Topeka," Heitz said. "When I was in high school we'd go out to the cemetery on weekends to look for the Albino Woman. I decided to write a paper on her and started doing research."

Heitz was fascinated to find that the legend was at least 30 years old by the time she first heard it, and that the story had changed over the years.

"When I first heard of her, the Albino Woman was more sad and forlorn than frightening," Heitz said. "The story was that she was searching for her lost white poodle. I was surprised that my own daughter, who was then in high school, had also heard all about the Albino Woman, but by this time, the woman was more scary and the dog had changed to a German shepherd."

The legend still persists in Topeka, Heitz said, but the Albino Woman is now violent, even capable of eating children. Her dog is now a pit bull. "I've heard it described as a one-eyed pit bull, or even a headless dog," Heitz said.

She said she believes that the character of the woman has become more violent over the years because society itself has become more violent. "Some elements of this story -- or any legend or story -- may mirror social concerns," Heitz said. Her paper on the Albino Woman became the basis for her master's thesis and also was the seed from which her book grew.

"It occurred to me that if Topeka had such a legend, other communities across the state might have their own stories," Heitz said. "And, while stories from other states had been collected and written down, they hadn't been in Kansas. I immediately decided to jump in and fill that void."

Heitz said she began by sending a mass mailing to libraries and museums across the state, asking about local legends and stories. She also began personally collecting stories and found that people were usually more than happy to share tales.

"I might go to a town, walk into a cafe, order a cup of coffee and ask the waitress about local stories," she said. "Almost without exception, they all have a story for me."

Kansas is full of stories, Heitz said. They range from "Sinkhole Sam," a sea serpent-like creature who supposedly lives in a sinkhole near Inman, to the Deer Woman, half deer and half woman, who supposedly hangs around near Mulvane. "Nobody has been able to tell me yet which half is the deer and which half is the woman," Heitz said.

Bigfoot, when he isn't prowling the Himalayas or the California redwood forests, likes to drop in on Kansas, according to lore. "We've got lots of Bigfoot stories in the state," Heitz said. "The most recent one I've found was from Lawrence just a few years ago."

There have been numerous UFO reports across the state, and Heitz said that southeast Kansas especially seems to be a hotbed of UFO activity, even as far back as the 1897 when a "great airship" with a red light cruised in the skies west of Girard.

That same year, another airship was seen near Chanute, and a witness reported that a cable came down from the ship and lassoed a farmer's heifer. The airship and the heifer then flew off. Even earlier, in 1873, a "great flying snake" was reported seen over Fort Scott.

Some ghost stories have their origins in actual people "who are somewhat legendary even while they're still alive," Heitz said.

For example, she said, in Atchison there was a librarian who ruled her library with an iron hand, insisting that all procedures be carried out according to her standards. The librarian has been dead for years now, but some employees believe that the woman's spirit is still watching over the library she loved so dearly.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, murderess Kate Bender of the "Bloody Benders" may still be roaming the hills near Cherryvale.

A "singing ghost" has been reported from Pleasanton, and Heitz read an account of the ghost supposedly haunting McCray Recital Hall at Pittsburg State University. Some witnesses have described the McCray Hall ghost as female, others have said it is male, and it apparently can play a variety of musical instruments. "The McCray ghost is definitely not one of the boring ones," Heitz said.

So far, she has surveyed 35 communities across the state. Based on her observations, Heitz said Atchison is probably the most haunted town she has studied so far.

She currently is compiling material for her second book, which will probably have a section on the mysterious lights, popularly known as "Spook Lights," seen in 20-mile area between Joplin, Mo., and Columbus. "I'm also a little shy on stories from western Kansas, so I should probably get more material from that part of the state," Heitz said.

For all her investigations, she admitted that she has never personally encountered a ghost, UFO or Bigfoot."I suppose I'm a ghost skeptic -- I don't really believe these stories, but I don't disbelieve them either," Heitz said. "Intelligent, rational people have told me stories that I can't explain. I've gone to sites where ghosts have been reported, but I'm not stupid -- I do not go there at night. If I did see a ghost, I'd probably get into another field of research."