Haunted Hollenberg Station, Kansas

Five miles northeast of Hanover, Kansas is the only remaining Pony Express stop still standing in its original location. Built on Cottonwood Creek in 1857 by Gerat H. Hollenberg, this station was also the largest stop along the Pony Express route. Intending to capitalize on the many wagon trains passing his way on the Oregon-California Trail, Hollenberg’s six-room building initially served as a grocery store, tavern, and an unofficial post office. Three years later it became a Pony Express station and later a stagecoach station.

The Pony Express Route, which ran 2,000 miles from St Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California was in operation for only 18 months, from April 1860 through October 1861. Amazingly, these young riders carried approximately 35,000 pieces of mail over more than 650,000 miles during this time and it is said they only lost one sack of mail during this time.

Before the Pony Express, the railroads and telegraph lines extended no further west than St. Joseph, Missouri and mail traveled west by stagecoach and wagons, a trip that could take months if it arrived at all. The Pony Express alleviated this problem with riders who could dramatically reduce the amount of time it took for the mail to be delivered. But, it was a dangerous job, fraught with Indian attacks, rough terrain and severe weather.

Pony Express Want Ad

For this reason, a Pony Express an 1860 advertisement in California read: “Wanted. Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.” Most of the riders were around 20, but there was one that was only 11 and the oldest rider was in his mid-40’s. Usually, they weighed about 120 pounds. One Hundred, eighty-three men rode for the Pony Express, each receiving $100 per month in pay. Riding in a relay fashion, each rider would cover about 75-100 miles before another rider took his place on the route. However, riders received fresh horses every 10-15 miles. The entire one-way trip would take about ten days.

While the Pony Express dramatically improved the communication between the east and west, it was a financial disaster for its owners. Hoping to gain a million-dollar government mail contract, the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company spent about $700,000 on the project, losing about $200,000 of their investment. The owners failed to gain the million-dollar contract and when the telegraph was completed in October 1861, the company declared bankruptcy and closed down.

Afterward, most of the 163 stations fell into ruins but somehow the Hollenberg Station managed to survive. In 1869, the town of Hanover was founded and its residents made every effort to preserve the old station. The building is now located on a state historical park and operates as a museum and visitor’s center.

Hollenberg Station Interior

However, according to many visitors and staff members, some Pony Express riders have chosen to linger at the station long after the building ceased to serve the Pony Express. Many claim to have heard the sounds of pounding hoofs thundering through the night and the distant sounds of young men calling out as their phantom mounts near the station. Others have even claimed to have seen the riders. Witnesses also report the occurrence of many strange sounds and cold spots within the building.

Hollenberg Station is located four miles north of U.S. 36 on K-148, and one mile east on K-243 in Hanover, Kansas. Open seasonally.

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Ghostly Theorosa Bridge - Kansas

About 12 miles north of Wichita, Kansas sits the small town of Valley Center. Now having a population of a little more than 5,000 residents, the settlement was born in 1872 on the banks of the Little Arkansas River. Located along the ever important railroad, the town grew to include a post office, three stores, two blacksmith shops, a grain elevator, and several homes by the early 1880’s.

Though now a bedroom community to nearby Wichita commuters, one of biggest attractions in this quiet town is that of the haunted Theorosa Bridge, also known as the 109th Street Bridge and the Crybaby Bridge.

On an old country road three miles north of town on Meridian Street, this old bridge spans Jester Creek at the intersection with 109thstreet.

There are several legends about the haunting of this bridge all based on a baby drowned in the creek below. Today, the bridge is a simple concrete bridge that normally no one would pay any attention to, except for the legends.

The first legend tells of settlers who were passing through the area in the late 19th century when they were attacked by Indians and a baby named Theorosa was kidnapped. Her grief-stricken mother was said to have left the wagon train to search for her missing daughter and reportedly continues to look today as her mournful cry can still be heard calling out for her child.

Another legend has it that a skirmish between the cavalry and an Indian tribe living by the creek occurred about this time. In this version, an Indian woman is stabbed and her baby is dropped into the creek and drowned.

Yet another tale suggests that a woman named Theorosa is a young woman who has an illegitimate baby and drowns it in Jester Creek to hide her shame. Later, overcome by guilt, she drowns herself in the creek as well.

Finally, another tells of an engaged woman who fell in love with another man and bore his child. Jealous with rage, her fiancé reportedly through the baby over the bridge into the creek and Theorosa jumped off the bridge to save her baby, but drowned herself, instead.

In any event, the bridge has reported to have been haunted for years and years. Many have reported seeing floating balls of light, eerie shapes, and the apparition of a woman in the area around the bridge. Cars are said to mysteriously stall as they cross, or if they should stop, will feel the entire vehicle begin to shake. Others report cold breezes which seemingly come from nowhere, and the sounds of mournful voices or the chilling cries of a baby.

Yet others say that the weather is consistently different at the bridge than it is in the rest of the area. Rumor has it that if you call out to Theorosa, telling her that you have her baby, she’ll come out of the water and attack you.

The original iron and wood bridge that first stood at Jester Creek for decades burned down in 1974, was rebuilt, and was destroyed by fire again in 1976. Afterwards, it was closed for the next fifteen years. However, in 1991, the road was reopened and the current concrete bridge was built that continues to serve travelers across the creek.

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The Ghost of White Woman Creek, Kansas

Winding through Greeley, Wichita, and Scott Counties in western Kansas, White Woman Creek starts in Colorado and disappears into White Woman Basin. It flows underground from there into the Arkansas River. The abundant underground water was one of the features that made the area so attractive to early settlers.

There are several versions of how the creek got its name. The first tells of a Cheyenne Indian attack in the late 1860s. The Cheyenne were said to have attacked a western settlement in retaliation for an earlier raid on their camp by white men. After several white men were killed, the Indians recaptured their stolen goods and kidnapped 12 white settlers — 10 men and two women. As time passed, the two white women decided to stay with the tribe and married Cheyenne men. One of the women, who the Indians called Anna-Wee, fell in love with Chief Tee-Wah-Nee, and bore him a son. Most of the white men also were accepted and remained with the Cheyenne. However, there was one man who was eager to leave.

Fort Wallace, Kansas, 1867

After many months with the tribe, he was able to steal a horse and made his way to Fort Wallace in present-day Wallace County. Upon his arrival, he convinced the army that the remaining whites were being held against their will. The escaped man led a group of soldiers to the Indian camp and the soldiers attacked, killing the Chief and his infant son. As the battle continued, his wife, Anna-Wee retaliated by killing the man who had betrayed them. She then continued to defend the tribal village she had come to think of as home, and in the end, she too was slain.

Another story tells of an Indian war party that was raiding homesteads in the area in the 1870s. During the raid, they also attacked an Army ambulance, killed the guard and kidnapped a woman who was traveling with the ambulance. The warriors rode off with the woman and one night while camping along a creek, she was able to escape. One version of the tale says that in order to avoid the same tortures she had seen inflicted upon the ambulance driver, she stole a rope from the Indians while they camped, ran to a tree on the banks of the creek, and hanged herself before her captors could stop her. Another version says that the last that the Indians saw of her, she was running up the bed of the stream, and it is believed she perished on the prairies.

Ghostly woman along a creek.

Since the late 1800s, legend has it that on moonlight nights, the specter of woman has often been seen running along what is now a dry creek bed, or at other times, wandering slowly along the old stream. Others have heard her singing a mournful Indian song.

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Fort Scott National Historic Site, Kansas

The old Fort Scott Hospital is now a Visitor’s Center by Kathy Weiser-Alexander.

Fort Scott, Kansas, initially called Camp Scott and named in honor of General Winfield Scott, was established on May 30, 1842, at the Marmaton River crossing of the Fort Leavenworth-Fort Gibson Military Road. It was among nine forts originally planned to line the area between the Great Lakes and New Orleans to separate proposed Indian lands and white settlements.

When the fort was established in 1842, the nation was still young and confined largely to the area east of the Mississippi River. Yet within a few years, Fort Scott’s soldiers became involved in events that would lead to tremendous spurts of growth and expansion. As the nation developed, tensions over slavery led to the conflict and turmoil of “Bleeding Kansas” and the Civil War.

As a young America grew, settlers hungry for land forced American Indians west of the Mississippi River. When they arrived in this area, tribes were guaranteed land where white settlement would be forbidden. Established in 1842, Fort Scott served as one of a line of forts from Minnesota to Louisiana that helped to enforce this promise of a “permanent Indian frontier.” Soldiers kept the peace between white settlers, native peoples like the Osage, and relocated Eastern tribes.

Positioned on a bluff overlooking the confluence of Mill Creek and the Marmaton River, Fort Scott filled a gap between Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to the north and Fort Gibson, Oklahoma 150 miles south. The fort was home to infantry soldiers and the dragoons, an elite unit of troops trained to fight both on horseback and on foot. The infantry performed many of the fatigue duties, including fort construction, while the dragoons went on numerous expeditions.

Army Train on the Santa Fe Trail

In the 1840s, settlers flocked westward to Oregon and California. When conflict arose along the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails dragoons were called on to keep the peace. Two expeditions rode escort on the Santa Fe Trail in 1843. The next year, dragoons from Scott and Leavenworth marched into Pawnee country to persuade that tribe to cease hostilities against the Sioux. In 1845, they patrolled the Oregon Trail as far west as South Pass, Wyoming parleying with Indian tribes as they went.

Both infantry and dragoons left Fort Scott to fight in the Mexican-American War (1846-48), which brought vast new lands into U.S. possession. Some Fort Scott dragoons marched with Stephen Kearney into New Mexico and California, while others served with Zachary Taylor at Buena Vista. Infantry soldiers from Fort Scott also fought with Taylor and participated in Winfield Scott’s overland march to Mexico City.

Westward expansion in the 1840s brought about a growth spurt that nearly doubled the country’s size and fulfilled “Manifest Destiny” – the idea that it was America’s divine right to stretch from coast to coast. As the frontier extended further westward, the idea of a “permanent” Indian territory died a quick death and the army abandoned Fort Scott in 1853. However, violent events in the region would soon bring soldiers back as the nation experienced growing pains over the issue of slavery.

Bleeding Kansas

Slavery divided the nation during its turbulent adolescent years. Conflict arose over whether to allow slavery in the new western territories. Under the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), Congress created Kansas and Nebraska Territories, opening these lands for settlement. It declared that the residents of these territories could decide by popular vote whether their state would be free or slave. In Kansas, people on both sides of this controversial issue flooded in, trying to influence the vote in their favor.

John Brown Painting

Three distinct political groups occupied Kansas-proslavers, free-staters, and abolitionists. Proslavery advocates, as the name implies, supported slavery, regardless of whether they personally owned slaves. Abolitionists wanted to rid the nation of “the peculiar institution”. Free staters didn’t particularly care about slavery where it already existed but were opposed to its extension westward. The conflict between these opposing factions soon turned violent. As a result, this era became forever known as “Bleeding Kansas,” an era when violence, destruction, and psychological warfare prevailed in the region.

Fort Scott and the surrounding area were not immune to the turmoil. Sold at auction in 1855, the buildings of the fort became the new town. The townspeople were primarily proslavery, while free-staters and abolitionists dominated the surrounding countryside. This division of opposing factions was illustrated on the grounds of the “old fort” by the existence of two hotels. One, a former officers’ quarters, became the Fort Scott Hotel, nicknamed the “Free State” Hotel, due to the political leanings of many of its guests. Directly across the square, an infantry barracks was now the Western Hotel, a headquarters for proslavery men.

Bleeding Kansas Fight

By 1858, radical elements from both factions converged on the area. James Montgomery, an ardent abolitionist, became a leader of free-state forces that invaded Fort Scott, a haven for Border Ruffians (extreme proslavery men). During one raid, Montgomery tried to burn the Western Hotel; another raid took the life of John Little, a former deputy marshal.

During this era, soldiers returned periodically to Fort Scott to restore law and order, staying each time until violence abated, only to have a conflict resume on their departure. By the time the strife waned in 1859, nearly 60 people had died and hundreds terrorized throughout Kansas Territory in the struggle over slavery. Anti-slavery forces finally prevailed. Kansas entered the Union as a free state on January 29, 1861, but by then, the fighting and violence once contained to Kansas threatened to engulf the entire country.

Civil War

The struggles of an adolescent America became a full-fledged rebellion during the Civil War as the nation divided over the issues of slavery and self-determination. The war brought the U.S. Army back to Fort Scott. Union commanders viewed the town as a strategic point in southeast Kansas to establish a base of military operations, where the army could protect Kansas against a possible Confederate invasion. Troops reoccupied many of the old fort buildings, including the stables and hospital, and began construction on a variety of new buildings and over 40 miles of fortifications.

Fort Scott served as a major supply depot for Union armies in the West, a general hospital for soldiers in the region and a haven for people fleeing the war-displaced Indians, escaped slaves, and white farmers. Many of these refugees joined the Union Army, greatly diversifying its ranks. American Indian and African American regiments were recruited in the area, including the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry. Sworn in on the grounds of Fort Scott, this was the 1st African American regiment to engage the Confederates in combat.

Fort Scott’s military stores made it a target of Confederate General Sterling Price, who made two unsuccessful attempts to capture it during the war. Guerilla warfare, which plagued the region, also threatened the town. Intense fighting on the Kansas-Missouri border between the Jayhawkers and the Bushwhackers kept the military occupied. The Union presence likely spared Fort Scott from pillaging and destruction, a fate of other towns in the area.

Railroad Expansion

After the Civil War ended, the nation began to heal and to unify. Railroads built across the continent played a major role in tying the country together. Town leaders of Fort Scott saw a railroad line as a means to build prosperity by tapping into the trade of Eastern markets. By 1869, their efforts succeeded as the first railroad reached the city. As workers laid tracks south of town, they came into conflict with squatters who forcefully opposed the railroad. The military returned and established the Post of Southeast Kansas (1869-73) to protect the railroad workers. This set the stage for a rare instance when U.S. troops took up arms against American citizens to protect the country’s business interests.

Early day Fort Scott, Kansas.

From 1842-73, Fort Scott evolved from an isolated frontier outpost into a bustling trade center and played a significant role in events that transformed the United States. During that time, America grew from a young divided republic through the growing pains of conflict and war into maturity as a united and powerful transcontinental nation.

Today, the city of Fort Scott is the only major town still existing in Kansas that developed from a U.S. Army fort established before Kansas became a territory and a state.

The fort itself is today restored and preserved as a National Historic site. The historic site is located in downtown Fort Scott ate the intersection of U.S. Highways 69 and 54.

Contact Information:

Fort Scott National Historic Site
P.O. Box 918
Fort Scott, Kansas 66701
620-223-0310

Fort Scott Hauntings

Officer Row, Fort Scott, Kansas

Fort Grounds – There have been several sightings of ghost-like Civil War soldiers looming on the lawn and around the courtyard. Officers have also been seen in the cell blocks and stables.

On one occasion a visitor to the fort made a comment to one of the staff about a nice conversation he had with a gentleman dressed in period costume. However, the staff person was somewhat confused as no one on staff was scheduled to be dressed in a costume that particular day. Inquiring at the office, this was confirmed. It appears that the Fort Scott tourist had the “pleasure” of meeting one of Fort’s many ghosts.

Officers Quarters – The Officer’s Quarters are said to be the most haunted. Long ago an officer accidentally shot himself when riding up to the building on the left. He had been showing off for his wife. The devastated woman held him in her arms as he died in front of the building. According to our reader Carol, she has felt the presence of the long-dead woman in the quarters on many occasions.

The building on the left once served as the Free State Hotel. However, when the fort was permanently closed, both buildings served as an orphanage home called Goodlander’s for many years. According to staff and guests, the sound of these long-ago orphan children are often heard playing in the two buildings.

Several sightings of fog-like apparitions have been reported sifting from the chimney in the officer’s quarters. It is said that at midnight every night a ghostly figure can be seen looking out of the window of the officer’s building formerly known as the Free State Hotel.

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