Haunting Tales of Utah

Step into the spine-chilling world of haunted Utah! Author Andy Weeks unveils hair-raising tales from his book “Haunted Utah: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Beehive State” in his interview with Stan Mallow on “Paranormal Yakker”.

Discover the origins of Utah's unique nickname, the Beehive State, and how it connects to the industrious spirit of its settlers and the ghostly tales that have emerged in their wake. Listen closely as Andy recounts the legend of the Moon Lake Monster—an elusive creature that has captured the imagination of generations and the ghostly figure of Little Vicky, a spectral presence seen by campers.

We dig deep into other paranormal hotspots, including Mecur Cemetery, where ghost children have allegedly been spotted lingering near headstones and Utah’s Area 51. Andy also dives into tales from the haunted Brigham Young House, where paranormal phenomena abound, and shares eerie stories from the luxurious yet haunted Ben Lomond Hotel.

Finally, we explore the mysterious Skinwalker Ranch, a site notorious for its UFO sightings and mythical creatures. This episode promises a thrilling adventure exploring the unknown that lies beneath Utah's scenic beauty.

Haunted Utah: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Beehive State, Andy Weeks, Moon Lake Monster, Mecur Cemetery, Skinwalker Ranch, Ghost Children, Brigham Young House, Ben Lomond Hotel, The Place Heritage Park, Utah’s Area 51, Phantom Hitchhiker, Cursed Highway, UFOs, Sasquatch, Paranormal, Paranormal Yakker, Stan Mallow

Chapters

• 0:00 Andy Weeks interview on Paranormal Yakker
• 0:27 The reason Utah is called The Beehive State
• 1:25 The Legendary Moon Lake Monster
• 3:11 Bigfoot, Sasquatch Man-Beast Creatures
• 3:46 Ghost Children of Mercur Cemetery
• 4:54 This Is The Place Heritage Park
• 7:12 Haunted Historic Ben Lomond Hotel
• 8:54 Shapeshifting Skinwalkers
• 10:41 UFO Activity at Utah's Area 51
• 11:20 The Phantom Hitchhiker of American Fork Canyon
• 12:29 The Cursed Devil's Highway
• 13:36 Where to buy “Haunted Utah”

Transcript

0:00

Hi everyone, I'm Stan Mallow. Welcome to Paranormal Yakker. My guest on today's show is Andy Weeks. He's a best-selling author of several regional history & travel books,& I'll be talking with him about one of them.

That book is Haunted Utah: 0:15

Ghosts & Strange Phenomena of the Beehive State. Andy Weeks, welcome to Paranormal Yakker. Thank you. Very happy to be here. Thank you for the invitation. Before asking you about some of the many incredible haunted places in Utah that you write about & why I was glued to your book, I'd like to first ask you, Andy, what is the reason Utah is referred to as the Beehive State? Oh yeah, a good question. A lot of people probably wonder about that if they don't know the history. The Beehive actually comes from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, their Book of Mormon. In the Book of Mormon, it talks about Deseret, which in their term was the honeybee, & being industrious, busy & whatnot.& so when the Mormons or Latter-Day Saints settled the valley, they actually wanted to name the state Deseret. That didn't fly when statehood became evident, but a nickname kind of denoting back to the Book of Mormon was the Beehive State. So denoting that Deseret, honeybee, industrious people. The Moon Lake Monster, also known as Mooney & the Nessie of Moon Lake, is said to call the lake home. How, Andy, did those people who saw the monster describe it? I remember growing up hearing this story as a little kid from my grandparents. They lived out near the Moon Lake area,& it was kind of always one of those stories that were told. Big story on campfires, especially if you're camping in that area. So people described that as kind of like what you would think of Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, this serpent-like creature with humps. That's been the traditional one. I believe if I remember right, there were some variations of that.& the interesting thing about the Moon Lake is that parts of that lake, the bottom, has never been found.& so there's always been the speculation, well, does this monster exist somewhere beneath the surface? Where? Where? Where did it come from? Where is it? But there has been sightings.& I remember my grandmother, she compiled a biography, autobiography & she shared this story. It was taken from a newspaper that she didn't attribute to the newspaper, but it was an article in there about some of the stories of the Moon Lake monster.& it's a fascinating story. Not only the monster, but there's tales of ghosts around the lake. There's one about Little Vic is the ghost girl. Campers have seen her. I talked with one gentleman who was kind of a caretaker of the campgrounds, Forest Ranger, I believe it was.& he swears that he's encountered Little Vicky. So there's the Moon Lake Monster.& then there's some ghost tales around there. Bigfoot, Sasquatch type creatures have been seen roaming the lands of Utah. Did anyone who you interviewed or researched reported having a close encounter with one of these men beast creatures? Unfortunately, anyone I talked to did not. I did a lot of research on the sightings. I have talked to people who have, they'll swear they've encountered Bigfoot. Unfortunately, not in Utah area where I wrote this book, but lots of stories about Bigfoot. Bigfoot does play a role out by Moon Lake as well. Metcur Cemetery is a popular destination for paranormal investigators who go there to make contact with spirits who never left the earth plane. You Andy, write about the cemetery & the ghost children who have been seen there. What can you tell me about these ghost children? Yeah, yeah, ghost children. Oh boy, I did talk with someone about this & he swears that there's ghost children out there. He's seen the legs of them on the fence line.& there's been alleged recordings of these ghost children all times of the day & night. People visiting mostly at night, I believe. But there's been other instances where children will appear near headstones or like I said, this gentleman near grave. He has seen like the bottom half, their legs. It's very interesting. He swore that this place is haunted by the children. Now, I believe that there was a lot of mining that took place & it was believed that some of these children are children of miners & early settlers of the area, Utah. It's one of those historic cemeteries you have to visit. This is the place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City includes the Brigham Young farmhouse, which some say is one of the most haunted houses in Utah. Can you, Andy, tell me about any of the paranormal activity that has been reported to have taken place there? The Brigham Young house. It's a quaint little house, first of all. It maybe not so little, but it's a very nice house.& it was told that Brigham Young, as we know, had several wives.& he built this house, actually, some of his wives stayed there.& they had this upper parlor where the kids would play, like a playroom.& so some of the ghost stories associated are noises of children. But one of the more popular ones is they've had events there & they've had music playing, guests coming.& the plugs of the stereos would be they'll come back & find that these stereos were unplugged. No one was there to unplug them. What happened? How did that happen?& they've had mysterious balls of light. When no one was in the house, caretakers, property management, they would see balls of light go across windows. Those are popular stories. A lot of different things like that. People sometimes think, how does this Brigham Young is considered a prophet by the Latter-Day Saints? The Mormons have a definitive idea of the plan of salvation. Why does a ghost haunt this place? I guess one of the mysteries, definitely. But the Brigham Young house is a fascinating little house. I say little because compared to mansions today, it's little, but it's not so little. But Heritage Park overall, it has numerous stories & the history there is pretty fascinating. I've talked to several people who've experienced paranormal events throughout the park, not only at the Brigham Young house, but I remember one gentleman working in an old tannery. They put on displays & whatnot. He was there just fiddling around one afternoon. No one was around & he told me the story about he was working on this sheath& he couldn't get it to glue.& finally, he just gave up on it. So he walked away & he sat it on the chair & walked away. He came back & it was glued together. No one was there. He said no one was there to do that. The historic Ben Lomond Hotel is one of Ogden's legendary haunted landmarks. Constructed in 1927, it was built on a grand scale & a beacon of luxury. The hotel also has a history of supernatural activity. Can you Andy, share some of the paranormal happenings that occurred at that hotel? So there's a particular room. I believe it's 1102. There is a room that is allegedly haunted by a couple of women. Now, I say a couple because there's different stories. One is that is believed that a woman drowned in a bathtub& that she haunts the place. She comes back & made her presence known through objects moving through different things like that. There's also reported a woman who is believed to be the mother of a soldier boy back from World War II who stayed at the motel waiting for her son to return.& she got the news that something happened to him. He wasn't returning like she had hoped.& so she ended her life.& the ghost story associated with that is that she haunts the room still waiting for her son. There's been a number of stories about the Ben Lomond Hotel, hallways, apparitions, hallways being haunted by apparitions, house workers, hotel keepers encountering these spirits. The history is quite fascinating & it's a luxurious hotel, a pleasant hotel. I had the opportunity to go there. It's a fun place. But you're seeking ghosts. You want to check out 1102. In Navajo mythology, skinwalkers are shape shifting witches who can cause harm. The Skinwalker Ranch located in Utah has been the site of an abundance of paranormal activity & UFO sightings. You Andy, write about the mystery of the skinwalker. What has your research uncovered about it? The Skinwalker Ranch is quite fascinating. Netflix has done a series on it. There's been books devoted solely to that. It's been the talk of paranormal activity for a long time& strange creature sightings. So much has happened there. & I think it's still being documented. It's really a fascinating place. The interesting thing about Skinwalker Ranch is it's really tough to get to. There are stories about people getting too close. They'll be these vehicles, black vehicles come out & stop them. They won't let them on the property. Well, I didn't experience anything like that. But there are gates up that says no trespassing. It is kind of a tough place to find in northeastern Utah. But some of the stories associated with that property are phenomenal. Wolf-like creatures that have red eyes that appear out of seemingly nowhere. Vicious looking creatures. Where do they come from? What are they? There's been talk of the aforementioned black vehicles that just show up. Some have speculated, oh, that's the government vehicles, but could they be something else? There's been all sorts of activity there. UFO sightings have been reported in the area. It's really a fascinating place, but you're going to be hard-pressed to find anything personal about it. Because it's tough to get into. Utah's Green River Complex is often referred to as the New Area 51. Why is that? There's been so much activity, UFO activity. So many sightings, so many reports of UFO activity over the years. It's not just conglomerated into a certain decade or timeframe. It's been an expansive timeframe where a lot of reports have happened.& I haven't done so recently, but if you were to search the internet on that, I wouldn't be surprised if you found some recent reports, because it seems to continue to happen all the time. Just about every city on the planet has a legend about phantom hitchhikers on their roadways. Utah has the phantom hitchhiker of American Fork Canyon. What, Andy, can you tell me about that phantom hitchhiker? I got to tell you a story about this, first of all. When the book came out, Haunted Utah, people would say, "Is that you on the cover?" This is the picture of the phantom hitchhiker. No, that is not me on the cover. But apparently people who know me, they think that's the back of my head. The phantom hitchhiker of American Fork, yeah, so he bums a ride. You'll see him at night, bumming a ride, his thumb out.& you pick him up, the question is, where is his destination? Because he never arrives. Pretty soon, he's gone from the vehicle. Where did he go? This is kind of a story that a lot of states happen, but I found the Utah story fascinating because it seemed like there was more documentation on it. Those are fun stories. If you see a gentleman with his thumb out in American Fork Canyon, if you give him a ride, I don't know that he'll stick around for very long. The Devil's Highway, also known as Satan's Highway, spans 3 states, New Mexico, Colorado, & Utah. Legends abound that the highway is cursed. How did that highway get the reputation of being cursed? Sadly, there's been a lot of accidents, crashes along the highway.& so with that, a lot of death, tragedy, sadness. & so that's kind of how it got its legend. There's a stretch there. It's come down in legend that this place is haunted by people who have died along the roadway.& also from some evil entities that perhaps are attracted to the death that has taken place.& so it's not a very pleasant road to travel. Be mindful, a lot of these roads, that road is not a divided highway, or at least it was not at one time. I don't know what it is now, but it was not a divided highway. The reason, you know, in high speed, there's a lot of crashes. Be safe. You don't want to end up a ghost there. Should viewers of Paranormal Yakker

want to buy Haunted Utah: 13:39

Ghosts & Strange Phenomena in the Beehive State,& also learn about other books you've authored, how, Andy, can they do that? The book, this book, Haunted Utah & other books I've authored are available through Amazon, at Barnes & Noble. Anywhere that you can buy a book, you can buy my book. If they don't have it in stock, you can order it.& you can learn about me. Actually, I have a website. It's in the process of being revamped. So it's kind of offline right now, but it should be up again before too long. So that is Andy-Weeks.com. Andy Weeks, I thank you for being my guest on Paranormal Yakker. Yakking with you has been a most informative experience. Thank you. Thank you, Stan. It's been a pleasure. I've watched a few of your shows preparing for this,& I've enjoyed them. I look forward to watching more.