Douglas County historian relates tales of "haunted" areas

Halloween brings up ghost stories, and as one local historican attests, Douglas County has its share.

In April 1954, residents of Castle Rock were reporting something strange around Plum Creek.

According to reports, it stood about 6-feet, 4-inches tall, it was beastly in appearance and it would taunt area fishermen by swinging a chicken around by the neck in what people described as a voodoo-type ritual.

At least 2,000 people came from Denver and the outlying areas to search for the creature, which according to Shaun Boyd, archivist for the Douglas County History Research Center, sparked quite the phenomenon in the county that was home to only 3,000 people at the time.

"It turned out, though she never publicly admitted it, to be Castle Rock resident Mary Wilkinson," Boyd said. "It was most likely her trying to make her friends fishing in the creek look stupid. It's believed she put on an ape suit in an attempt to pull a prank, which got a little out of hand and became more like a fun little phenomenon."

However, residents continued to speculate the "Monster of Plum Creek" was anything from a convict out of the Arapahoe County Jail to someone who had escaped from a mental institution. Meanwhile, Wilkinson became the first woman to serve on the consolidated Douglas County School Board, proclaiming her wit and independence by saying she was the most beautiful and smartest woman on the board, Boyd said.

It was never officially determined Wilkinson was the Monster of Plum Creek, but like the other ghost mysteries around Castle Rock, there is no definitive proof, Boyd said - only theories to why the stories developed.

The Old Stone Church Restaurant, 210 Third St., Castle Rock, is no exception. Originally the building was a Catholic church. Restaurant workers have reported seeing a woman in black at the front of the restaurant lighting candles, hearing banging in the kitchen and encountering a little girl upstairs in the former choir loft with an ax in her head.

"It was believed there was once a cemetery lot around the Old Stone Church," Boyd said. "It makes sense there would be a little cemetery around the church, but we've been able to prove there was no cemetery through older aerial photographs."

The Cantril School, 312 Cantril St., which was one of the original K-12 Castle Rock schools and now holds administrative offices for the Douglas County School District, has reported strange noises and flashes of something walking about the building, which was built in 1897 to replace a former school building that perished in a fire.

"In early, early Douglas County, there were a couple of horse thieves that were captured after murdering someone. One was hung in Larkspur and the other was hung near the current location of Douglas County High School along Front Street in Hangman's Gulch," Boyd said. "They buried the body in the creek bed along Front Street. A flood a few years later unearthed the body, and the skeleton was brought into the old school to be studied."

A short time later, Boyd said, the school burned to the ground.

Anna Haislip: 303-954-2457 or haislipa@yourhub.com