The Stack Monster of the Liberty Memorial Building

The Liberty Memorial Building stands on the North Dakota State Capitol grounds in Bismarck, and it is the oldest building still standing there. The legislature authorised it in 1919 to provide office space for state agencies and to honour the North Dakotans who served in the First World War. Fargo and Bismarck architects Keith and Kurke designed it in a classical style, with a limestone exterior, bronze doors and travertine interiors, and it was finished in 1924 at a cost of about $450,000.

For its first decades it was best known as the home of the State Library Commission, which moved out in October 1970. After that the building housed the State Historical Society of North Dakota and the State Museum, with offices, laboratories and storage in the basement and first floor and exhibits on the upper floors. The Society and Museum moved next door into the new Heritage Center in 1981, and the State Library returned after a renovation in the early 1980s.

The ghost story belongs to the Historical Society years, from the late 1960s into the 1970s. Employees working late at night reported that they were not alone. They heard footsteps, coughing and people clearing their throats, and a few talked of shadows or voices, but nobody was ever found. Because the sounds seemed to come from the book stacks, the staff gave the presence a nickname, the “Stack Monster”. The label was affectionate rather than frightening, and the story was kept alive by retiring employees; in 2013 a former Society employee, Ronald Warner, was interviewed in the building by Bismarck’s KXMB-TV about the legend.

Two ordinary explanations were offered at the time. One was that the presence was a former employee or someone attached to the collections. The other was a large grey-and-white tomcat named Bruiser, who had found his way into the building, although sceptics noted that Bruiser came in during the day, while the noises were usually heard at night. According to the retelling by Prairie Public’s Dakota Datebook, when the Society moved to the Heritage Center both the Stack Monster and Bruiser were given security passes, a joke that sums up how the staff regarded their ghost.

Staff report footsteps, coughing, throat-clearing, voices and shadows in an apparently empty building at night, with no visible source. There is no reported apparition.

The library stacks and work areas of the Liberty Memorial Building, mostly at night when employees were working late in the 1960s and 70s.

The Stack Monster is a favourite in North Dakota Halloween stories and was revisited in Prairie Public’s Dakota Datebook radio series and in a library centennial exhibit about the building.