Wrangell Institute

From: Pearl Nestor (p_j_gumby@hotmail.com)
Story type: Ghost
Location: Wrangell, Alaska
Source: Form Submission

All my life since I was a kid my mother used to tell me about Wrangell, Alaska . How she grew up there and was raised in boarding schools, and then later she went on to Mount Edcumbe another boarding school in Sitka Ak. Back then Alaska was comprised of small villiages (still is) and the only way for many of her Indian generation to recieve an education was to relocate to large BIA schools.

Beverly Hyndes , my mother probably spent 2/3 of her childhood in boarding schools. She was always fond of Wrangell Institute, where she spent the bulk of her childhood. But she also told of some scary stories, maybe not scary, but certaintly odd. She said that sometimes she would wake to the sound of Indian drums beating in the middle of the night/early morning. She also said that one time she woke up and saw this little imp of a person kissing the cheek of one of her roommates in another bunk. Also there was a grave yard next to Shoemaker's Bay and the local priest took them to decorate the graves. One litte girl kept one of the flowers and took it into the dorm with them and for several nights this girl had not slept so well.Finally in frustration she opened a window and flug it out and hollered 'there's your flower, take it!' .

Of course I was enthralled with these stories. Mainly because my mother is not one to add to a story or get carried away with the telling, plus she is a truthful person and she was dead serious as she related these happenings to me. Now fast forward to 23 years. I signed up for the Young Adult Conservation Corps, at 19 I found myself going to a base camp in Wrangell, Alaska that will house 16-23 yrs old kids that mostly keep us all occupied so we don't end up in Jail. Oh yeah, jobs skills too, right.

When I first saw Wrangell Institute it didn't take right away that this was the place that my mother spent her childhood. After I phoned home she confirmed all that. In a lot of ways I was amazed to be in the same place that had so much sigificance for her. What destiny, did she ever envision that this place may someday shelter her offspring?

To make a long story short, I ended up running the campus printshop, and because I was always a night owl, I did extra duty as night security on weekends. I would always get reports of noises coming from the empty extra rooms, as I shined my flash light I would hear the noises, but nothing would be there.

The scariest place was the old teacher's quarters which was a building not being used but we had to make sure it was secure. One time I entered in daylight to count a stack of bedframes and it felt like a whole lot of eyes were watching me. The feeling was so strong, I had to get out fast, the energy was too overwhelming.

The worst thing to happen to me there was this, I was very tired and decided to go to bed early, it was fall close to winter, the dorms felt very cold. All we had were just partitions seperating each room. I was so drowsy and almost fell asleep when the covers were down around my feet. I thought , that's weird. So I took the covers back up to my chin and fell asleep promtly. I awoke again because I was so cold, it was sooooo cold, and noticed the covers at the end of the bed again, that's really strange, so I pull the covers up again and I just laid there wide awake wondering what the heck is going on. Just then the covers started moving down my body real slow, I thought it was one of the girls pulling a prank so I yanked on the blanket real hard and something yanked back so hard it took the blanket out of my hand. I got up and turned on the light to catch whoever was trying to play a joke, and no one was in the room. I never would have believed anything strange happening to me , and all the stories my mother told me about Wrangell Intitute came back to me. I just told whatever was in the room that I was very tired and very cold and that I would appreciate it if they would just leave me alone. With that I jumped into bed and went right to sleep. Whatever, or whoever it was left me to my rest the remainder of the night.

When I told my mother of my experience, she was not surprised, she also said the weirdest places was the old hospital, and the teacher's quarters.

I also had a weird experience on the beach directly in front of the Institute. A friend and I were on the beach watching the sun go down and we heard this wicked laughing coming from one of the bushes, so we looked around trying to find it but we didn't see anything, That's when we decided it's time to leave. That wicked laughter, was the most awful thing I ever heard.

Anyways, I heard that Wrangell Institute was built on an old Indian grave yard, I don't know if it's true or not , but even my mother says it was. It's been torn down these last seven years or so. I hope those spirits are at rest now.

This is a true account. If anyone else has anything to contribute of their experiences at Wrangell Institute, sure would like to hear from you.This is a Big Wonderful building , I wish I could go back, I loved that place, it holds my mother's youth, and now mine too.