Lights flicker on and off. Books are thrown to the floor. Whispers and crying have been heard when no one else is around.
Welcome to the Sweetwater County Library in Green River, Wyoming, a building that has the misfortune of having a cemetery as its foundation.
After experiencing the strange occurrences herself, librarian Micki Glimore dug into the history to discover more. She learned that the graves were supposed to have been reinterred at a new cemetery 60 years before, but not everyone had made it to their new resting places.
The Graves
According to Gilmore’s research, the first known grave believed to be dug in present-day Green River was in 1862 when it was still a territorial town.
By 1892, the cemetery was officially established and filled quickly as a result of epidemics and accidents. It was expanded in 1896, but that also proved inadequate.
The town fathers bought 80 acres of land for a new cemetery in 1914 that was up the hill from the old graveyard. The plan was to move all the graves. By 1926, a Civil Works Administration project was launched to move these bodies and grave markers to the Riverview Cemetery.
An area known as Grader’s Row, however, was left untouched.
Local lore said the men buried here were railroad workers who died in a smallpox epidemic between the 1860s and 1890s.
It was said by old timers, such as Edna Evers, that workers refused to dig up the bodies because they feared the disease. Over time, knowledge of these graves was nearly lost.
The old cemetery was reclaimed in the 1930s as a park. In 1944, a temporary housing project was built on the site for World War II veterans. During this construction, bodies were found and moved to the Riverview Cemetery.
The ground shifted and caused extensive damage to the building and the housing barracks were condemned and torn down in 1956. Again, during this demolition, more remains were found and reinterred.
Yeah, Let’s Build A Library Here
The land remained unused except for a large swing local children played on for years.
Then in the late 1970s, the fateful decision was made to build the town’s new library at the location. Once more, as construction began in 1978, bones were found.
Although nothing happened at the site, John Legerski later told Gilmore in an interview that people got eerie feelings when working there.
“Mostly what I saw was pieces of rags, coffin handles, stuff like that, and chunks of rotten wood,” Legerski said. “I wasn’t too happy with it, but in them days we didn’t have that much work. I told them they would get haunted and they laughed at me.”
Children who were present during the excavations began sneaking over to peer into the graves and some even looted the bodies until guards were placed to prevent such gruesome acts.
In an April 2013 interview, Sharon Rhodes told Gilmore, “As we passed by the old cemetery, the workers were removing the graves and had them sitting up on the ground. Many of them were broken open and you could see inside.
“Several of the boys were messing around with stuff. My brother reached inside one. You could see it was a man with a red beard. As my brother’s hand went in, it must have caught in the beard and he couldn’t get his hand free. He started hollering for help. We had to call someone to come and help him get his hand free.
“It really scared him and that stayed with him for a long time.”
An explained dark-haired lady and blue mist captured by a patron of the Sweetwater County Library. (Courtesy of Hannah Yeager) 
Newspaper clipping about “Graves Discovered” in Green River, Wyoming, by construction crews. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
A book that was thrown to the floor at the Sweetwater County Library when no one was around. (Courtesy Micki Gilmore) 
A man in a top hat was photographed by a patron of the Sweetwater County Library in Green River, Wyoming. (Courtesy of Paula Birrel) 
A “stick figure” caught on a SLS camera at the Sweetwater County Library in Green River, Wyoming. (Courtesy Micki Gilmore) 
A screenshot from the Facebook page Ghost Walk Crew of the Sweetwater County Library in Green River, Wyoming. Participants are allowed to use approved ghost hunting equipment to verify any encounters. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
Ghost Walk guides at the Sweetwater County Library in Green River, Wyoming. A large, unexplained orb hangs over the group. Some believe that these orbs are of supernatural origin. (Courtesy Micki Gilmore)
Ghost Log
When Gilmore began working at the library, she kept hearing strange tales from co-workers that corroborated her own experiences of lights going on and off, the multipurpose room stage curtain closing on its own, voices being heard where they should not be and many other stories.
After getting permission from Head Librarian Pat Laivre in January 1993, Gilmore started recording these strange occurrences in a “ghost log” and soon saw a pattern.
There were reports of sounds of children when no one was there, voices that could not be explained, strange smells, objects moving by themselves and even full apparitions.
“We are trying to get the real story,” Gilmore told Cowboy State Daily as she explained her thought behind collecting the stories. “We don't add to it. We don't make up anything.”
Once the encounter was deemed credible and not faked, it would be added to the log.
Not all shadows are ghosts, Gilmore said, so if they are suspicious of a story, it does not go in the log. She shared examples of the ghost log entries in her book, “Spirits in the Stacks: Tales from Sweetwater County's haunted library.”
• 9/08/1993 Kathy Maldonado, staff: I turned off the back hall lights, shut the door and turned off workroom lights. The hall lights were back on.
• 1993 J.K., staff: I saw the staff lounge bathroom door open and no one was there but me.
• 9/2002 Micki Gilmore, staff: Heard crying in the stalls in the ladies’ room, but no one was there.
• 11/20/2002 anonymous staff: Heard whispering voices in the ladies’ room.
• 8/15/12 Lacey H., patron: When I went to the restroom, there was the sound of a woman crying. I went through every stall and no one was there. I asked if someone was there … the crying stopped.
“I never was scared,” Gilmore said about all the strange incidents at the library during her years there. “Startled, yes, but never scared. Never felt dark heaviness.”
Ghost Walks
The library now hosts Ghost Walks for believers and skeptics to walk the halls of the library and experience the unknown. Begun in 2006 by Elle Davis, this walk is an opportunity for people age 18 and older to explore the library to see for themselves what happens.
The route takes guests through what staff say are the most haunted areas and ghost hunting equipment is allowed to see if any interactions take place.
“We have people later come back and comment that we weren't doing any Oogie Boogie scary stuff,” Gilmore said. “We do not allow Ouija boards or anything like that.”
Not all staff or patrons believe the cemetery affects the library, but Gilmore said she leaves that up to the individual to determine.
“There are some people that have worked at the library that never had anything.” Gilmore said.
“We don’t have all the answers by any means. My experience is that the whole property is active to one degree or another at different times.”
Whatever you believe, history and discoveries have revealed that the occupants of the original cemetery of Green River may still remain beneath the Sweetwater County Library.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
