Section: Events
Prepare for a scare: Auraria's hauntingly tragic past
Oct 25, 2006

Of course, Ninth Street Park will be part of the Haunted Auraria tour.

In researching the history of the long-gone town of Auraria and the older buildings that remain on campus, Metro State History Club President Charlie Smith said that what struck him was the extent of the tragic history of the area, “from the lawlessness of the early town to the 1908 shooting of the priest in St. Elizabeth’s. And the Tivoli, well, it has a history of its own.”

All this tragedy no doubt will make great fodder for Auraria’s Ghosts, Spirits and Hauntings, a haunted history tour to be led the night of Oct. 30 by Smith and the other members of the history club.

The club has been researching the area for the past three weeks using books and newspaper archives and interviewing Metro State history professors, including Chair and college archivist Stephen Leonard and Adjunct Kevin Rucker, who leads historical tours of LoDo.

“It’s solid research,” said the club’s advisor, Visiting Professor Ellen Slatkin.

Joining in the frightfully educational tour will be the Cryptoscience Society, a new student organization devoted to scientific investigation of “the hidden.”

“Crypto comes from the Greek word kruptos for hidden or unacknowledged,” said Jason Cordova, president of the group. The Cryptoscience Society is interested in everything from UFOs to spirits to “cryptozoology,” meaning mystery animals such as Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster.

Last Saturday, society members toured the campus with paraFPI, a Colorado paranormal investigations group that Cordova says has an international reputation.

“We spent a lot of time in the Tivoli and walked through campus with a psychic,” Cordova said. “We collected a lot of data, including four ‘orb’ photos.”

Cordova explains that orbs are round balls that resemble a ball of light, which implies that they are some sort of manifestation of an entity that’s haunting a place.

At the end of the tour, the society will present their findings at the Tivoli. Snacks will be provided.

The tour and presentation are free and open to anyone interested in Auraria’s “ghoulish history and unexplained hauntings.” Participants should meet at 6 p.m. on the south end of Ninth St. Park.