Top 10 Hauntings in Denver

It's that time of year again. And, according to those who believe in such things, Denver's ghosts are haunting while the haunting is good.

I cannot confirm or deny the stories that follow. I've yet to see a ghost in this city or any other, and I've sought them out in graveyards and haunted houses from Old San Diego to Silver Cliff, Colorado. I'm something of a skeptic.

But the night janitor's tale of the Gates of Hell opening in the since-demolished Denver Courthouse for six consecutive nights in 1900 makes me think that anything is possible in this oxygen-deprived city, if only you believe.

No more dallying. Here are the 10 of the most haunted -- make that allegedly haunted -- places in Denver.

Cheesman Park, 8th Avenue at Williams Street

An inspiration for  the 1982 film Poltergeist, the former cemetery saw a lot of shenanigans when it proved time to relocate the bodies to make way for the park. Workers were paid per body excavated, so con artists broke skeletons down to up their numbers, plus they didn't finish the job: As many as 2,000 bodies remain below that lush green blanket of grass. Keep that in mind the next nice day at Cheesman, where there's always a lot more going on than meets the eye.

The Brown Palace Hotel, 321 17th St.

Open continuously since 1892, the grand dame of Denver hotels has its fair share of ghosts who have taken occupancy over the past six score and three years and never checked out.  Amidst the many stories of ghostly musicians and newspaper thieves, the story of Louise Crawford Hill, who lived in the hotel after her husband ran off with his much younger mistress stands out. Before a 1999 tour devoted to star-crossed lovers, the hotel switchboard lit up like a pinball machine with calls from room 904, where Hill died. But when the operator answered, the line was dead -- and there was no phone in the room.

Asylum, 6100 E. 39th Ave.

When haunted house entrepreneur Warren Conard was working alone at Asylum one night, his music player zonked out and clanging emanated from the corner. He tossed an empty spray can at the noise and left. When he returned, the can was stuck to the paint cart with spilt paint. That and other incidents led the 13th Floor Entertainment Group to bring in a paranormal research team. They found five cases of electronic voice phenomena (EVP) ranging from swearing to growling, indicating the possible presence of a few angry spirits.

Grant-Humphreys Mansion, 770 Pennsylvania St.

There are said to be five resident spirits lurking in the shadows at this History Colorado site, including the namesake of the castle-like place, Albert Humphreys. He met his demise in a suspicious shooting on the third floor and is said to have haunted the mansion ever since, with an assist from four wayward spirits from nearby Cheesman Park.

Lumber Baron Mystery Mansion, 2555 W. 37th Ave

Long before it was painstakingly renovated into a posh B&B, this majestic Highland mansion wan known as the neighborhood's haunted castle. Visitors have reported strange phantom voices, furniture moving on its own in the middle of the night, cold spots and a ghostly woman in a flapper dress making appearances. Then there's the cold case of two teenage girls murdered here in 1970, and the pyramidal third floor was supposedly built as an interdimensional portal. Best of all, the place offers Haunted House Hunts  and paranormal investigation nights in Halloween season.

Denver Union Station, 1701 Wynkoop St.

During the FasTracks redevelopment, RTD staffers say they encountered all sorts of paranormal activity at Union Station -- papers went missing, unexplained music played and ghost encounters were a regular occurrence A ghostly little girl is said to haunt the basement, while a cast of apparitions including three-fingered hobos, soldiers and long-lost travelers have been spotted in the depot and on the train platforms.

Molly Brown House, 1340 Pennsylvania St.

The "Unsinkable" Margaret Brown's former abode on Denver's "Millionaires Row is" said to have a number of spectral tenants, including Brown herself, as well as her mom, her daughter and her estranged husband, J.J., whose main act of vengeance from the grave seems to be hitting his pipe inside -- something he was not allowed to do while he was among the living.

Mary Reed Building, University of Denver

Distinguished by its stately redbrick architecture and central tower, this 1932 building that now serves as office space at the University of Denver has been said to be haunted for years. The cleaning crew has reported unexplained messes and clanging alarms, as well as a resident ghost who's rumored to be the building's namesake and DU benefactor, Mary Reed. Some campus security officers reportedly refuse to enter the building at all.

Corridor 44, 1433 Larimer Sq.

During Prohibition, the Larimer Square storefront that's now Corridor 44 housed a speakeasy. as legend has it, the owner hired a hitman to take out his daughter's boyfriend, the hitman killed the daughter by mistake and the owner's wife knocks over bottles of booze and breaks mirrors in the restrooms as her grief outlived her mortal coil.

Denver International Airport

No, not the demonic blue steed that guards DIA's terminal, red eyes afire. Nor the murals that some say depict iconography from the coming New World Order. No, the haunted airport stories stem from a Cheesman-like story of the airport being built atop an old Native American burial ground. Wait, wasn't that the plot of Pet Sematary?