Karen Stevens | Haunted Montana

Published: May 1, 2008

A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Haunted Places You Can Visit — If you dare!

Looking for ghosts? Karen Stevens has found some and she’s willing to share her knowledge.

In Haunted Montana, Stevens explores the Treasure State’s haunted locales. Each site mentioned in the book meets three criteria: the locations are historically important and open to the public, and the ghostly activity is recent. Specters range from Clara Bicknell Hodgin, the wife of a long-ago pastor who haunts Grandstreet Theatre in Helena, to Dorothy Dunn, a little girl who still meanders through the Meade Hotel in Bannack.

Stevens, a reference librarian in Billings, personally investigated each haunted site over a period of years, interviewed witnesses and, occasionally, used such ghost-hunting devices as an electromagnetic meter and cameras equipped with infrared devices and motion meters. She ranks ghostly activity from high (the Little Bighorn Battlefield) to low (the Rockwood Speakeasy in Butte, where the spirits of two men sometimes spook visitors).

The book also contains a chapter titled “Tips for Ghost Hunters,” which gives step-by-step instructions for those trying to track down ethereal guests.