Hot bed of paranormal activity in Pocatello

If you’re looking for a good scare this time of year they’re pretty easy to find, but in one area community, there are spooky things happening year ’round.

From Old Town Pocatello to the Fort Hall bottoms and from the cemetery to Pocatello High, the Gate City has sometimes been described as a gateway for the paranormal. Some of these are urban legends and some documented incidents, but either way, Pocatello is brimming with tales of hair-raising hauntings and stories of the supernatural.

Pocatello’s roots as a Native American trading post and sacred burial area and then of the roughest towns in the old west certainly make for a fascinating history, and according to paranormal investigators and hundreds of witnesses, some of those historic people are still seen peering through windows and haunting the halls.

So why is there so much activity here?

“I think Pocatello is very unique, I think there is a lot of love for this town, whether it’s something to do with the sacred land from the Native Americans that were here and that are here in Fort Hall,” said Lisa Brian, paranormal investigator. “Whether it is something to do with the flood that came through and the water that have to do with that or the lava so there is a lot of different theories between why there is so many spirits that seem to be roaming around this area.”

One of the most well known and well documented is the ghost or ghosts at Pocatello High School.

During winter break in 2014, the surveillance cameras captured lights flickering on and off and even what appears to be a shadowy figure moving from the hall to the bathroom.

“One night when I was getting ready to leave I heard a door close in the basement, and no one else was in the building,” said Principal John Cotant. “The securitiy cameras did not pick up anything of anybody being in the building. And I felt like that was the time I should be getting out of there. We have had other times when I have had staff members in the building on a saturday morning doing work getting ready for activities and they heard the piano playing in the auditorium, and nobody was there but that piano was playing.”

In Old Town Pocatello, there are literally hundreds of stories of paranormal activity in the historical buildings.

Things like disembodied voices, people being pushed and scratched objects moving on their own or herbs and even full body aberrations, so we decided to see for ourselves.

Misty Inglet and Linda Larsen went on an overnight investigation with the Scientific Paranormal Investigative Research Organization, or “SPIRO.” The ghost hunters have an arsenal of specialized equipment including infrared cameras, electro magnetic frequency monitors and highly sensitive video and voice recorders. We were able to get lots of emf readings and we both felt some extreme temperature changes and even some physical contact.

“We were in the back room and we were talking to the girl who died of the opium overdose and she was giving us really good hist on the k2, and so I said what can you do to show us you are here whatnot, and all of a sudden my hat just went right off my head on to the floor,” said lead SPIRO investigator John Brian. “It was almost like a breeze caught it but there is no breeze in here.”

Lisa and John and their team all have personal stories of interactions with ghosts.

They say they have been pushed and scratched.

This video is of one of the investigators and this is what happened to him. You can see the word stop is scratched into his skin and just listen to some of the voices they have recorded.

There are plenty of dark stories of murder, drug use slavery and prostitution, but even with this dark history Lisa believes most of the spirits that are still here have another purpose for being here.

“They have a real protective feel to themand are watching over our buildings and watching over this area,” she said.

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there are plenty of things that are hard to explain, but you can’t deny that the rich history in Pocatello is fascinating and the frights are fun as well.