State file · MN
Haunted places in Minnesota
What are the most haunted places in Minnesota? The best-known are Palmer House Hotel and Wabasha Street Caves.
Minnesota’s ghost stories lean toward the gangster era and the small-town hotel. In St. Paul, sandstone caves that once grew mushrooms became a 1930s nightclub where legend places a gangland shooting; in Sauk Centre, the hotel Sinclair Lewis satirised in Main Street is now one of the most visited haunted lodgings in the Midwest. Around them lie lake-country lighthouses, iron-range towns and Victorian mansions with stories of their own.
- 2 hauntings
- 7 recorded sightings
Haunted places in Minnesota
Palmer House Hotel
The 1901 small-town hotel where Sinclair Lewis once worked the desk is now one of Minnesota’s most famous haunts, with stories of “Lucy” in Room 17. Regional legend
Wabasha Street Caves
Sandstone caves in St. Paul that became a 1930s nightclub, where legend says gangsters were gunned down in 1934 and still haunt the dance floor. Regional legendThe ghost lore of Minnesota
The history behind the stories includes the Dakota and Ojibwe homelands that became Minnesota, the river cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the logging and mining booms of the north, and St. Paul’s notorious 1920s and ’30s reputation as a safe haven for criminals. Many of the state’s most famous ghost tales are marketed vigorously, and some – like the brothel story told of the Palmer House’s predecessor – have no support in the record.
Ghost hunters head to St. Paul’s Wabasha Street Caves for their Lost Souls tours, to Sauk Centre for overnight stays, and to Duluth and the North Shore for historic mansions and lighthouses. Never enter the unofficial caves along the Mississippi bluffs, which are dangerous and closed.
Ghost-hunting hotspots
- St. Paul
Gangster-era history, the Wabasha Street Caves, Summit Avenue mansions and popular ghost and crime tours.
- Duluth
A Lake Superior port with Glensheen mansion, historic hotels and a museum ship said to have its own stories.
- Sauk Centre
Sinclair Lewis’s hometown, with the Palmer House Hotel and his boyhood home on Original Main Street.
- Stillwater
A historic river town on the St. Croix with Victorian inns, old prisons and well-attended ghost walks.
Timeline
- June 1900The Sauk Centre House burns Palmer House Hotel
The town’s first hotel is destroyed by fire; later legend recasts it as a brothel and the scene of Lucy’s death.
- 1901The Palmer House opens Palmer House Hotel
Ralph and Christena Palmer open their new hotel, the first building in town with electricity.
- 1920Main Street published Palmer House Hotel
Sinclair Lewis, a former desk clerk at the hotel, immortalises it as the Minniemashie House in his best-selling novel.
- 26 October 1933Castle Royal opens Wabasha Street Caves
Josie and William Lehmann open their nightclub built into the caves, at the end of the Prohibition era.
- c. 1934The alleged gangland shooting Wabasha Street Caves
According to legend, men are shot at a card table; police find no bodies. The story becomes the basis of the caves’ ghost lore.
- January 2008First paranormal seminar Palmer House Hotel
The hotel hosts its first paranormal event, the start of its reputation as a destination for ghost hunters and TV crews.
- October 2021Caves reopen under new owner Wabasha Street Caves
After a pandemic closure, the caves reopen under new ownership with their history, gangster and Lost Souls tours.
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