Photo illustration by Leona Novio/ Nevada Sagebrush

By Rocio Hernandez

Garrett Barmore, administrator of the William Keck Museum, was alone at the Mackay School of Mines on a Saturday when he heard a noise. He went to search for whoever made the sound, but couldn’t find anyone. However, when he returned to the entrance of the DeLaMare Science and Engineering Library, he found that the bench he had placed to block it had been moved a foot away.

Did Barmore imagine things, or did he witness the work of one of the many ghosts that are said to inhabit the University of Nevada, Reno? Barmore’s experience is one of many unexplained occurrences that are linked to UNR’s history.

Mackay School of Mines

The Mackay School of Mines is referred to as one of the campus’ most haunted buildings due to the numerous ghost stories linked to it.
According to Barmore, legend has it that the portrait of Katherine Mackay, the daughter-in-law of mining magnate John William Mackay, cannot be moved from its spot inside of the conference room on the second floor of the building. People have told Barmore that the portrait falls over after attempts to relocate it. In the early 90s, Katherine’s great-grandson came to visit the building and claimed to have found her portrait in the basement, floating.
Geology professor E.R. Larson passed away in the room that used to be his office on Feb. 1, 1979 at 59 years old. Barmore said that Larson’s desk, chair and filing cabinet are all still in the room. Barmore has witnessed clocks break whenever they are installed into the DeLaMare Science and Engineering Library’s courtyard, and some employees of the Mackay School of Mines say that they all stop around the time of Larson’s death.

Morrill Hall

In 1996, alumna Kathleen Berry wrote about the “ghouls” that university employees at Morrill Hall reported to have seen and felt in the Silver & Blue Magazine. Susie Cady, an ex-staff member at UNR’s central receiving department told Berry that she saw the ghost of a women looking out of a window on the top floor of Morrill Hall. The top floor was closed off to everyone at the time.
Berry said that she had personally witnessed paranormal activity during her time as a student employee in Morrill Hall from 1980 to 1982. She remembers having horrible nightmares of something inside the building every work night during the summer. Berry and other coworkers felt that there were eyes watching them inside of the building. They also saw a chair on the east side of the first floor of the building that would move on its own.

Residence Halls

Nye Hall, Canada Hall and the Nevada Living Learning Community were all built on top of land that was once an Native American burial site, and later a Catholic cemetery. During the construction of the Nevada LLC, KOLO 8 News Now reported that six skeletal remains from the time period of the Catholic cemetery were found buried underground.

Sophomore April Wedekind remembers feeling something strange about the LLC while she was living in it during her freshman year.

“Even though it is new, on the top floor of the LLC, we used to hear footsteps and talking late at night on the ceiling,” Wedekind said. “It always was really creepy.”

Lincoln Hall

On Feb. 11, 1906, mechanical engineering major James Champagne accidently shot himself while he was cleaning his rifle in his room during the night in Lincoln Hall. Senior Hayley Coley was the historian for the Whipple Leadership Council during her freshman year. When Lincoln Haunted Basement, an on-campus haunted house, was completed, Coley asked everyone to stay away from the basement so she could take pictures of it. When she got there, her phone was malfunctioning and it took a picture on its own. The picture showed Coley that there was someone else there, whom she later suspected might be Jimmy from the ghost story of the dorm.

Manzanita Hall

Chris Carver, administrative assistant for Resident Life, Housing, and Food Services, said that a popular Manzanita Hall ghost story involves a female student who got pregnant out of wedlock during her time at UNR. When the baby was born, the student didn’t know what to do with the infant. She decided to hide the newborn in wall space in the bathroom. When she came to the fetch the baby, she found it dead. Carver said that she believed that the story was told as a cautionary tale to students.

Frandsen Humanities Building

Before it was home to the English Department, the Frandsen Humanities Building housed the agriculture department. Some rooms on the first floor of the building were used to butcher cattle. The blood gutters that were installed in these rooms were removed during the building’s renovation. Although there were no reports of cattle haunting the building, alumnus Bryan Allison felt uncomfortable about being in a classroom with a bloody past and said he thinks that the “negative juju” collected from its previous use remains in the building.

Rocio Hernandez can be reached at rhernandez@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @rociohdz19.