About a month and a half ago, Oct 2016 for you readers from the future, I was assigned a research paper on any topic I wanted. I chose the paranormal. Living in Flagstaff, there is no shortage of ghost stories ranging from the haunting of the historical mansion of the city's founders to the numerous hotels around town. However, there was on particular story that piqued my interest the most: The ghost of Morton Hall.
Morton Hall is one of the older residence halls on NAU's campus, the university at which I currently study. Located on North Campus, just a bit to the northeast of the North Quad, Morton Hall is a part of a trifecta of halls (which include Taylor and North Hall where Residence Life is located) that have been joined in to a single, larger unit. Like any old building in historic towns and cities, Morton's age has produced its share of spooky stories. A story of two lovers who decided to meet each other late at night in a secret tunnel beneath the building but ended up drowning when the tunnel filled with a sudden flood of water and now strange noises are heard in the walls and pipes of the hall. The tale of a stillborn baby in the hall's basement found in a pool of blood who's cries echo throughout the basement to this day.
Those two stories are, of course, pure fantasy. There are no tunnels beneath the area in question excepting sewage lines nor are there any records documenting any such tunnels ever being found. All there is are old pipes and a building structure that experiences constant temperature fluctuation throughout the year. There are no records of anyone or anything being found dead in the basement much less in a pool of blood which, considering the subject is a baby, is conspicuous. However, there is one story that has yet to be disproved: the story of "Kathy"
Kathy, as she's come to be called, was a young woman student living in the then female only residence hall during the winter of 1953. As one version of the story goes, Kathy had received a letter from her parents stating that, due to a financial crisis, they could no longer afford to bring her home for the winter holiday. At the same time, her fiancee had decided to call off the engagement and end their relationship. Heart broken and falling deeper into depression, Kathy hanged herself inside the closet in room 200A. She has since been witnessed wandering the halls in the blue nightdress she died in, sometimes playing pranks like locking restroom doors that had no locks, opening windows, peeling fresh paint from her favorite pink wall among other things. She has also been known to pull the sheets off of any girls sleeping in the area around the suicide room.
However, she isn't always a trickster. There have been occasional reports of female residents who experience emotional distress such as depression, homesickness, or heartbreak suddenly feeling a warm presence in their room. Some have even reported that they would feel someone was hugging them. After these incidents, the subjects would claim to feel much better about things as though they had received friendly support or loving reassurance. Indeed, Kathy has been likened to a guardian angel of sorts for the girls in Morton hall.
Being of a mind for paranormal matters and mysteries, I took it upon myself to delve into research about the case of Kathy and the history of Morton Hall.
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