What Dwells in The Dark 

Photo by Darken Wolf

Who is the ghost haunting the lower floors of Knight Hall? 

LARAMIE, Wy. — The University of Wyoming has several haunted locations on campus, but Knight Hall’s history is particularly haunting.  

Built on a former Laramie cemetery with several bodies being dug up during construction, Knight Hall is named after UW’s first full-time Dean of Women Emma Howell Knight.  

“I was skeptical for many years,” said UW Campus Disability Office Director John Porter. “Probably my second or third year in is when I had a few potential situations where I felt not alone.” 

Knight Hall was originally a women’s dormitory following it’s construction in 1941.  

During World War II, it housed overflow U.S. Army trainees from nearby Hoyt Hall, and shifted purpose in the 60s to house male graduate students before finally being converted to it’s current-day purpose as an administration building.  

Throughout its history, there have been rumors that the building was haunted. 

Porter discussed his time working in the building during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he would take Zoom calls from the basement of Knight Hall.  

“I was walking towards the stairwell in the basement when I heard “hello” behind my head,” Porter said. “Nobody else was in the building. All the lights were out. A couple weeks later, [I] heard footsteps.”  

He also described hearing papers being shuffled on the desks of empty rooms and seeing something turning corners of the building with no one else present. 

“I wasn’t anxious,” Porter said. “It just felt like somebody was there. And maybe sort of just not friendly, not evil, not dark, but you could, you felt a sense of somebody was there just, just hanging out.”  

Porter is not alone in having these paranormal experiences within Knight Hall. 

There have been reports from several students and staff members of weird noises, especially down in the basement, which houses a testing center for students with disabilities, the Wyoming Public Radio (KUWR) office, and storage.  

Despite Knight Hall being built on a former graveyard, the ghost apparently present is supposedly neutral, not friendly or angry.  

Haunted Xplorations, a since-dissolved, paranormally-affiliated company stated that “it’s the professional opinion of Haunted Xplorations [that] Knight Hall at UW does have paranormal activity and is haunted by one or more non-hostile, yet intelligent spirits.” 

The Disability Office has affectionally nicknamed the ghost Gertie.  

“[I] never felt scared,” said Porter, “but sometimes you don’t feel alone down here, even when you’re the only staff member.”