Real Haunts of Minnesota

The First Avenue Club
The First Avenue Club is a Minneapolis landmark and one of the city’s most popular dance clubs.  First built in 1937, the building was originally a Grey Hound Bus Depot that offered weary travelers a modern travel center that offered public telephones, showers, and air conditioning.  Today, the First Avenue Club is a Minneapolis hotspot that where patrons can enjoy dancing, drinks, and concerts from up-and-coming bands. 

However, the club is also known as one of the most haunted places in Minnesota.  Given the vast number of people who have claimed to see apparitions and paranormal activity, it’s hard to dismiss the reports.  Allegedly, a young woman hung herself in one of the stalls in the women’s restroom and she now haunts the club, appearing as entity with long blonde hair wearing a green jacket.  Several patrons and staff members have claimed to see the ghost, including one female club-goer who claimed the ghostly entity appeared to her in the bathroom, where she showed the patron how she hung herself in the fifth stall of the bathroom.  Other reports include equipment from the stage being mysteriously thrown around and the D.J.s hearing strange, unexplainable sounds coming from their headsets.  People have also reported seeing dancing apparitions with no legs on the dance floor.

Loon Lake Cemetery
Located just south of Lakefield, Minnesota, Loon Lake Cemetery is an abandoned, remote graveyard that hasn’t seen a burial since 1926.  Legend has it ever since, the cemetery has been haunted by a handful of ghosts, including three accused witches who were buried there during the mid-1800s.  The cemetery is so secluded and dilapidated, there is no longer a road that leads to it and those who visit (typically ghost hunters and thrill-seekers) must traverse rather treacherous ground that’s swampy and overgrown with thick vegetation.  Many of the headstones have inexplicably vanished – there were once 67 but now only 18 remain, only adding to the mystery of the Loon Lake Cemetery.

The Last Turn Saloon
During the 19th century, two Native Americans were dragged by a group of angry townspeople to the center of downtown Brainerd, Minnesota.  Accused of raping and killing a young white girl, both were hung in front of a popular bar known as the Last Turn Saloon.  A few years later, a local townsman confessed to the heinous deed.  To this day, the tavern still stands and late at night, people have reported hearing the faint sounds of Indian cries and the beating of drums apparently originating from the bar.