Brian Snyder is familiar with the strange sounds and voices reported at the downtown Cheyenne business he has run for 25 years. He chalks them up to otherworldly occurrences. There is just no other way to explain what he has experienced
Snyder’s business, Bohemian Metals, and home both sit in the 300 block of West 17th Street in downtown Cheyenne. The building is quite old, and also houses the Knights of Pythias lodge.
The building is known for its haunted history, and the lodge hosts an annual haunted house in the building to capitalize on its spooky atmosphere. Earlier this year, a ghost hunting crew actually caught a supposedly haunted chandelier on camera in the building.
But there have been many reported sightings of ghosts and claims of hearing something strange in that particular building, several documented by Snyder himself.
Snyder explained that once, while upstairs in his home above the business, he began to hear heavy footsteps coming up the stairs toward his apartment.
“It wasn’t the witching hour or anything like that, it was fairly early in the evening,” he said. “When I hear the steps, I’m confused, because it’s gated to come up to this area. You can’t access it easily.”
At first, Snyder thought it could have been the police or fire department coming up the stairs, but as he listened, he heard nothing except for those heavy footsteps.
“The stairs are metal, and there is no effort to conceal this noise,” he said.
His dog, who was friendly and used to people, began to bark and growl at the door, his hair on his neck standing up. Snyder also began to worry.
“I’m watching the door, because it wasn’t locked,” Snyder said. “I could sort of hear somebody shuffle on the other side, and then I looked at the doorknob, and it moved a little bit.”
Finally, Snyder went to the door to see who was making all of the noise in the common area, only to discover no one was on the other side. He searched around the area, only to find nothing and no one who could have been causing the disturbance outside of his apartment.
Then, about six months to a year later, Snyder had another encounter.
“I heard a woman’s voice around here, very loud, like you would sound if you walked into a place, looking for someone,” he said. “She said three times, really loud, ‘Hello? Hello? Hello?'”
Again, Snyder’s pets became riled up and ran to the area where they’d heard the noise, but like the previous encounter, no one was around.
Despite the multiple encounters with something he cannot see, Snyder does not feel afraid of any ghosts who may be trying to recreate a horror movie scene.
“People don’t have all the answers right now, but there’s definitely something out there,” he said. “Maybe your mental state when you die has a lot to do with it. If you’re lost when you’re living … you might be staying around in one form or another.”
