Opinion
UW-River Falls campus brings about eerie feelings
February 15, 2017
Living in Grimm Hall as a freshman was, for me, an experience that reaffirmed a fear that I have long held.
Often times, I would be sleeping in the bed across from my roommate and awake to noises in the middle of the night that differed from the usual yells of “Wake up River Falls” that one hears in the early morning hours. These were creaks, shuffles and slams that occurred for no apparent reason. If I had lived in a normal residence hall at the time, I would account these sounds to the people above me. However, at this point in time, I lived on the third floor of Grimm Hall and the fourth floor remained unoccupied.
Many people have similar experiences: unexplained sounds and flashes of light out of the corner of their eyes. This campus, like many others, is no stranger to the occasional ghost story. Whether it’s the Davee Library, one of the many theaters or Prucha Hall, there are many strange occurrences.
While some of these can be explained by squatters (apparently), many of these are without explanation. People report hearing noises above them on the fourth floor South Fork Suites, noises coming from an otherwise empty room or the feeling of being watched through the one inch gap between the shower curtain and the wall.
With a majority of the buildings existing for a majority of the school’s existence, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear that they may be haunted. The walk from Kleinpell Fine Arts in the middle of the night is far too concerning, and to wander around the basement past 5 p.m. will make you feel truly watched.
The Agricultural Science Building also emits a strange feeling when walking through empty halls, made worse by the window view into the processing facility. The higher you go in the building, the more viewed you feel. Then there’s Hagestad Hall, home of Textbook Services and also former home of a cafeteria (Rodli holding the other side of campus’s cafeteria).
If there was anywhere bound to be haunted, however, it would be North Hall. Looking like a child’s drawing of a haunted schoolhouse, North Hall is one of the oldest buildings on campus and on top of the wasps mentioned in one of my former columns, holds a rather strange layout.
The basement of North Hall is like a maze arranged with no real rhyme or reason, made specifically to make you pace the halls repeatedly, holding a former pool of which fell out of use with the student body and fell into use as a basketball court and later a photo studio.
Going up a floor, you see the Registrar’s Office and the most clear display of the elevator. If you’ve ridden in the elevator, you’ve borderline ridden on the Tower of Terror, as the elevator often overshoots and goes back down to hit its goal floor. This elevator will take you to the lecture hall in North Hall, which is created to operate as a theater but is hardly used for that purpose. Often times, you may think you see a person up in the top portion of the hall, but be sadly mistaken as nary a student risks a trip to the boxes.
On the third floor of North Hall, you run into the Student Voice office, which is perhaps the most frightening portion of the building. While normally holding the smiling faces of the Student Voice staff, many have found it rather disturbing after hours. Maybe it’s the spirit of editors long gone trying to lead us to deadline, or former student politicians looking for vengeance for a particularly nasty headline. Whatever the case, the room never feels empty.
Neither does the rest of campus.