History Dept. sponsors Fright Night and ghostly stories

This archived article was written by: Nathan Pena

Fright Nights, an hour-long event on Oct.29, where the many ghosts of Carbon County were discussed. The hosts for the event were Kitty and Bobcat, who are co-writing a series of books documenting the many ghosts of Eastern Utah. They were asked to tell stories about ghosts around Carbon County and how the legends came to be.
The first story, according to Kitty, was a story that emerged from real events. “This ghost story shows a direct correlation between history and a ghost story.” The ghost story came from Scofield after many residents had asked them to add the tale to their next book. “The story that they keep telling us, is the story of Mary Green,” Kitty said. “They said ‘you have to make sure you put in the story of the Green Ghost.’”
Kitty and Bobcat agreed to add the story and listened to the tale of a ghost that walks along the side of the road, looking into cars. Once she does, the car instantly freezes over, turning it ice cold. Kitty says, “The most interesting thing about this woman, is that you only see the top half. The other half ends in tatters.”
Kitty, as a historian, was intrigued by this and delved deeper into the story and found it closely related to a woman named Myrtle Green, who died tragically by a train and having her body split into two, the lower torn to shreds by the wheels of the locomotive. “We always try to find the real person associated to the ghost story,” Kitty added.
The second story she talks about is the White Lady of Latuda. “The next story is about someone that we can’t find,” Kitty said. “Probably the most infamous ghost of Carbon County,” according to Kitty.
“The White Lady is almost difficult to track down, primarily because of the things that happened to her happened to a million different miners and their wives.” Kitty and Bobcat did some digging, sifting through old stories and found a single thread that linked closely to the origins of the White Lady.
According to their research, it is about a couple who moved from Yugoslavia to Utah where the husband worked for the mines. They were given a home until an accident happened in the mines where the husband worked, killing him instantly. The wife was forced out of her home with her infant child. With unsuccessful pleading, she decided to kill her child, dress up in her wedding gown and hang herself in front of the mining office. From then on, the story of how she died and her hauntings frightened the local miners until one decided to blow the mining office up.
So many stories surround Eastern Utah, we even have local ghost stories on USU Eastern’s campus. However scary they may be, remember there is always a speck of truth hidden within these legends.