Redefining School "Spirit"

The four most haunted buildings are churches, hospitals, jails, and schools. Toss in a school built on top of a cemetery and you have a different definition of "school spirit."

 

Lee Williams High School in Kingman, Arizona is one of these schools. Ghosts have appeared at graduation events in prairie gowns and 19th century men's suits. A man wearing a bowler hat and long coat lurks in the hallways; a little girl calls out at night asking to go out and play. There are also cold spots, disembodied footsteps, flickering lights, and alarms and motion detectors that go off randomly.

 

Kingman was the site of many battles between Native American tribes and settlers who arrived after the area was annexed from Mexico in 1848. These settlers needed the water at the springs where the tribes lived. Conflict ensued, and then violence. Those who died were buried at Pioneer Cemetery in unmarked graves. This site later became part of the school's football field with a set of bleachers resting on top of the graves of 350 settlers and more than 70 Hualapai.

 

Some graves were moved in 1944 before the original school was built, but the $45 charge per body ($600 today) proved too dear a price in war-time America and most bodies ended up left behind.

 

Then, bodies were discovered two years ago. Fifty workers were digging a trench behind the bleachers in construction of the new high school. They unearthed 11 grave sites, seven coffins and cuff links, medallion, jewelry and a brass nameplate. Drake Havatone, Hualapai tribal elder, was called in.

"We believe it's a taboo to move or disturb a body, because the spirits become unrestful," Drake said. "Many will be angry." Havatone performed a ceremony to pacify the spirits, blessing all the spirits along with the workers who had disturbed the graves. "Spirits will sometimes go home with the person who disturbs them," Havatone had said. A cleansing of the workers left them pacified as well.

The new high school opened in 2012. No word yet on whether the hauntings continue.