ISU students and staff who have heard female moaning noises late at night in the Memorial Union blame them on “Hortense Wind.” She was an ISU graduate who was the only woman to graduate from Iowa State and die in World War I. Her name can be found on the Gold Star Hall Memorial Wall, and she reportedly has been heard around the MU entrance.

From witnessing ghostly faces in mirrors and windows to unexplained noises, ghost stories are not absent at Iowa State. ISU University Museums will give the public a chance to explore these haunting and sightings Wednesday from 7 until 10 p.m. at Haunted Iowa State.

The event will feature a self-guided, spooky, moonlit tour through campus, including locations with haunted and historical reputations. Sites featured will include the Campanile, ISU campus cemetery, Memorial Union, Farm House Museum and other locations that are reportedly haunted. 

The ISU campus is more spooky than some realize.

It is said there are no mirrors on one of the floors in Linden Hall. Clare Blodgett, senior in political science and an undergraduate assistant employee of ISU University Museums, said that this is because “if you look in these mirrors, you will see two football players behind you.” The football players were reportedly killed in a car accident on the way home from a football game and still haunt Linden Hall.

But haunted reports aren’t limited to residence halls. 

Blodgett said a fellow employee of hers who was watching Farm House Museum one weekend reported a haunting while she was there. The employee reported she was upstairs closing up the rooms and heard voices downstairs seemingly having a pleasant conversation. However, when she went downstairs to investigate, she found no one. The doors were locked, so no one could have entered the building.

One popular ISU ghost story is the haunting of Stephens Auditorium, Blodgett said. It is said that Stephens himself will send icy drafts and echoing footsteps throughout the tunnels of the auditorium.