Minnesota Campus Legends: Moorhead State, St. Cloud State and Mankato

Midwestern US Haunted Schools

Some Minnesota colleges have ghost stories without enough documented history for a full guide. This roundup covers three campus legends that do not have their own post: Moorhead State, St. Cloud State and Mankato State. Full posts are live for the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Saint John’s University in Collegeville and Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in Winona, plus Concordia College in Moorhead.

Moorhead State University – Moorhead, MN

Moorhead State University became Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM) in 2000 and now often calls itself Minnesota State Moorhead. It is not Concordia College, the separate private college in the same city, which has its own post.

What the record shows. According to InForum, Weld Hall is the oldest building on campus, and construction began in 1915. John McCune’s 2025 history of Weld Hall in the university archives says it was finished by the end of 1915 and occupied early in 1916. He also records one death during construction: a worker was killed when an 800-pound rock fell from the top of the building, according to the Moorhead Daily News of August 11, 1915.

The legend. The story is usually told about a janitor, maintenance man or construction worker who fell from a roof, a ladder or a winding metal staircase, according to The Advocate, the student paper. The English department chair recalled chains dragged across a floor in 2002, a professor’s 10-year-old daughter and her friend described a figure in a mirror, and a staff member said people have seen orbs of light in the auditorium. A 2009 InForum article said the university’s online campus tour called the auditorium “said to have a ghost.”

What the record does not support. The Advocate reported in 2014 that the staircase exists but “the truth behind the death is unknown,” and a housing staff member called it “the big ghost story.” The adviser of the now-disbanded Dragon Paranormal Society said the group never found concrete evidence, and a ghost hunter the Campus Activities Board brought in during 2004 detected “a possible presence” on the stage that was never confirmed. McCune documents no janitor’s death. He asks whether the 1915 accident became the legend, saying stories get “garbled and exaggerated with each re-telling.” That link is his guess.

Visiting. Weld Hall reopened this fall after a $23 million renovation and holds the English department, a dean’s suite and the Honors College. The restored Glasrud Auditorium is meant to host public events, so an advertised event is the way in. It is a working academic building.

St. Cloud State University – St. Cloud, MN

What the record shows. The James W. Miller Learning Resources Center, the main library, stands on a forgotten pioneer cemetery. Workers digging the foundation found unmarked graves on January 20, 1999, according to the university’s building profile. Archaeologist Richard Rothaus led a student dig, and his 2002 report calls it St. Cloud’s first Protestant cemetery, used from 1856 into 1864, and counts 21 grave shafts, ten holding remains. The profile counts remains of 11 people, while the report counts as many as ten adults and six children across the site. All remains were reburied at North Star Cemetery, and a plaque on a small boulder at the library’s southeast corner honors the pioneer families. The report adds that more graves may lie in unexcavated ground nearby.

The legend. University Archivist Tom Steman told WJON in 2017 he had heard of a Union soldier wandering the library, and that a former staff member said she saw one in the archives one morning. A 2011 WJON piece calls a soldier in a 19th-century uniform the most common report. Elsewhere on campus, Riverview Hall, the former model school that opened in 1913, is said to have a woman whose high heels click down the corridors and a child bouncing a ball.

What the record does not support. Neither the university’s profile nor Rothaus’s report mentions a soldier. The report describes the graves of settler families, so the soldier is a legend laid over a real cemetery. The St. Cloud Times reported in 2024 that Steman has seen no documentation of the deaths said to explain campus ghosts. Retellings also disagree with the archive: WJON’s 2011 piece dates Riverview to 1911.

Visiting. The Miller Center is a public library open during posted library hours, which this fall are mostly closed on Saturdays. The plaque is outside and marks burials, so a quiet visit suits it. Riverview and the residence halls are working campus buildings.

Mankato State University – Mankato, MN

Mankato State University (today Minnesota State University, Mankato) took that name in 1975. Its best-known tale is a 1960s ghost said to steal women’s undergarments in the Crawford-McElroy dorms. When the Mankato Free Press looked for its source in 2006, the residence life director and several longtime staff had never heard it, though it appeared in at least three books. A 2011 MPR News item quoted the student paper on a student and his roommate who changed rooms after a girl in a black velvet dress was said to be in his room. These are active residence halls, not visitor sites.

FAQ

Is Weld Hall at Moorhead State haunted?

Nothing has been confirmed. The documented death is a 1915 construction accident, and the sources found no record of a fallen janitor.

Is the St. Cloud State library really built on a cemetery?

Yes. The university and the archaeologist’s report document a pioneer cemetery, found in 1999. The Union soldier is folklore.

Is the Mankato State dorm ghost real?

The Free Press could not find anyone who had heard of it in 2006, so the story has no traceable source.

More haunted schools in Minnesota

Read about the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in Winona and Concordia College in Moorhead, the other college in Moorhead. For visiting respectfully, see the campus ghost walk guide.

Sources

Shop the gear

Heads up: NicheStuff is our own shop, so we earn from purchases made through these links. Prices and availability are set on the store and can change.