Ghosts Scare Up Big Business For Two Area Hotels

(KNSI)—As we inch closer to Halloween, KNSI News is taking a closer look at two central Minnesota landmarks that attract thrill seekers due to their haunted nature.

Grant Dossetto/KNSI News

Both are hotels dating back to at least 1901. The group Search4Spirits runs tours year-round of the Thayer Hotel in Annandale. Mark Kolle gives his theory on why older hotels often come with unexpected guests.

“For example, with the Thayer, there was a train wreck where it injured 40-some odd people. And [a] handful of people died, 10. And hotels at that time were used for… almost like a hospital. They had the beds, so they’d bring the people in. People would die there. That’s one of the draws.”

The group Search4Spirits has a rich history with the Thayer. The “ghost hunters” spent two nights at the facility in 2018, and, coming out of COVID, the building’s owners asked them to begin doing haunted tours to help revive the business. Russ Victorian says they use the tours to constantly add to their knowledge of the building. He notes that the guests often with help with that.

Search4Spirits

“We’re gathering additional EVPs, what I call strange voices or Electronic Voice Phenomena, and we’re picking up new material, as well as the material of whatever the team is that has come there. You know, we had a guy come in, and he said that they were a part of the very last passenger train to go through Annandale.”

Victorian checked the dates and believes the man’s story was valid. He is proud that they now work that fact into the tour.

Victorian goes into more detail on what it means to capture an EVP. He also discussed the ties of a legendary Chicago mobster to the building. “There had been talk that Al Capone used to rent out the entire third floor, and we were very interested in finding out if he was there. So Mark’s like, ‘I wonder if he’s here?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, let’s ask.’ So in this EVP, we ask if Al Capone is there.”

An audio clip of the EVP is below.

The two tell KNSI News that they treat hauntings from a scientific angle, but their work has helped deepen their faith over time. They believe people have a window of about one week to pass over to the afterlife when they die. Once that closes, the spirits need help from someone here on earth.

Search4Spirits

Victorian says not all hauntings are friendly, and Search4Spirits is one of the only teams in the state with experience in helping to root out malicious spirits from private residences and businesses alike.

They run haunted tours of the building on the last Wednesday of every month. Victorian recounts leaving the Bridal Suite when the door mysteriously slammed behind him, temporarily locking some of the tourgoers inside. He also speaks of a time when Kolle’s rosary beads were mysteriously cut out of an inner pocket of his bag and dropped on the floor of a room on the top level.

Grant Dossetto/KNSI News

By comparison, the staff of the Palmer House in Sauk Centre couldn’t be happier about the common paranormal experiences that characterize a stay there. The historic site routinely does tours that cover the bar and café where you enter to the suites on the top floor. Manager Joy Klimpke says the real fun happens in the basement, especially a stretch she has nicknamed “The Highway.” It turns out that ghosts are big business.

“Most of all, it is a destination hotel. We get people from all around who just want to come here and experience Palmer House.”

Guests at the hotel are required to treat any spirits they encounter with kindness. Klimpke says their presence actually brings comfort. She is more worried about a real person who is trespassing over any ghost she’s encountered.

Klimke says every employee, from maid to owner, has had an experience with a ghost. She talks about the owner, Kelley, who was at the front desk and greeted a woman who had walked in. The rest of the staff turned to Kelley and asked who she was talking to. When Kelley looked back in the woman’s direction, she was gone.

That same spirit appeared to a room full of people in the bar one evening. “She came in, there was an event going on, and the lobby was full of people, and she walked into the door and she asked, ‘Where can I check in?’ And they all said go to the bar. And she ignored that and went right up the stairs and went right up on the second floor, and she just turned the handle and walked in Room 4.”

Klimpke swears that each room door is automatically locked, and you need a key card to get in. It’s common to see long shadows dancing on the walls, and tour guests have said they’ve witnessed everything from sprites or fairies to ghosts, running the gamut from apparitions of young children to tall men.

Grant Dossetto/KNSI News

Klimpke says the warm reception ghosts get there acts like a beacon or a magnet. They inherently know it’s a safe place to come and be protected. In return, she believes most work to protect the Palmer House.

It’s certainly a more benevolent interpretation of their activity than what you hear from Victorian and Kolee. Ironically, their lives are both richer because of the paranormal. There’s no shortage of cases to investigate, and the two became friends after meeting because of their common interest in spirits.

They started the side venture Search4Heaven because of the profound religious conviction they’ve developed while working with ghosts.

Learn more about taking tours at the Thayer or the Palmer House.

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