When Visit Casper’s film guy, Kelly Eastes, got a call from the popular discovery+ hit “Ghost Adventures,” wanting to know about supernatural hotspots in and around the Oil City, Eastes didn’t even know the community had any big ghost stories.
Once he put out an all-call, however, Eastes and “Ghost Adventures,” got a little more than they had bargained for.
It turns out that Casper not only has the kind of neck-hair-raising stories that “Ghost Adventures” seeks, it has so many of them that the episode filmed in Casper is now set to become the season premiere for the popular discovery+ series.
And, instead of the usual 45 minutes or so that most “Ghost Adventures” episodes run, the program, which airs Oct. 15, will be two hours long.
There’s some irony behind the scenes of this tale, though, because “Ghost Adventures” ultimately tossed several of the great ghost stories Eastes had pitched to get them to fly to Wyoming.
Those stories were interesting enough to get a film crew of 17 to fly to Casper, so they were great stories.
But after Eastes happened to mention an alien abduction story near Glenrock and the witches of Crimson Dawn up on Casper Mountain, all bets were suddenly off.
They threw out their playbook for Casper and wrote themselves a brand-new one on the spot.
Billy Tolley, Aaron Goodwin and Jay Wasley during the team's investigation of Casper Mountain (Discovery Channel) 
The Ghost Adventures team heads to Wyoming's Casper Mountain to investigate strange UFO sightings, alien activity and unexplained activity surrounding the area (Discovery Channel) 
The Ghost Adventures team prepares to investigate strange activity surrounding Wyoming's Casper Mountain and former military base (Discovery Channel) 
Aaron Goodwin investigates Casper Mountain (Discovery Channel) 
Jay Wasley during the team's investigation of Casper Mountain (Discovery Channel) 
Jay Wasley and Aaron Goodwin during their investigation of Casper Mountain (Discovery Channel) 
Billy Tolley investigates Casper Mountain (Discovery Channel) 
What Is Crimson Dawn
Crimson Dawn today is a county park with a museum, which was once a 1929 cabin belonging to author and artist, Neal Forsling, her husband Jim, and two daughters, Mary and Jean.
One of the things Forsling enjoyed doing was telling her children stories of the witches who lived on the mountain, revealing themselves only on Midsummer’s Eve. The deep red color of sandstone that Forsling saw on the 640-acre property inspired the name, Crimson Dawn, for this world of imagination she created to entertain herself and her children.
Then she started peopling this world she had dreamed up with interesting characters.
The Cardinal Witch, for example, who lived in the Crystal Cavern beneath the Red Butte with her sister, the Topaz Witch. There was the Star Witch, the Black Witch, the Lavender Witch and the Emerald Witch, as well as the Undine and the Homesick Sea Witch.
There were other characters, too. Phantom Woodchopper, Blind Minstrel, Moon Maiden, three elves and a leprechaun.
All of these figures were only ever active on Midsummer’s Eve. Forsling arranged a Midsummer’s Eve party for her children, who invited a few of their friends. It was a fun night of informal storytelling with a bonfire and a walk in the woods.
Each year Forsling and her children invited a few more friends along, and the event grew and grew. One day it had become this huge Casper community tradition. A “y’all” come event that’s still happening every year.
Yes, There Are Real Witches
Eastes said most of the people he knows that participate in the event don’t believe they are real witches or anything like that. It’s more about celebrating imagination and enjoying a lovely sunset with friends and family.
Tammi Chappell, however, who is a member of Haunts Casper and served as a guide for “Ghost Adventures” while they were in Wyoming, shared a different perspective.
“There are real witches, I can tell you,” Chappell told Cowboy State Daily. “I have a friend whose family all live up there … and her whole family are white witches.”
While “Ghost Adventures” was in town, they requested Chappell find some of these white witches for their program, which Chappell did, thanks to her connections with Haunts Casper, a nonprofit group dedicated to better understanding supernatural experiences.
Later, Chappell learned that some members of the group who claim to be white witches didn’t particularly like the idea of a program like “Ghost Adventures” highlighting their group or its activities.
But Chappell feels differently about that, too.
“It’s really good for Wyoming to have “Ghost Adventures” come here,” Chappell said, pointing out the ripple effects for tourism in the future, which can help keep events like Crimson Dawn going.
“The (Crimson Dawn event) is so cool,” she added. “They stage actors throughout the forest during these times of the year, and you can go as a family.”
Each actor tells their stories, which are all retellings of Forsling’s original Crimson Dawn story. It becomes an exercise in creative imagination, one that a whole community and families can share together.
Fifty Grand Dropped On Casper
Eastes, too, touted the economic impact that filming crews like “Ghost Adventures” have when they come to town.
While their filming window was only six days, the crew spent $50,000 while in Wyoming, hiring 27 local people who worked with them while they were here. The 17 crew members, meanwhile, stayed in area hotels and ate in area restaurants, and bought materials from area stores for their sets.
“So, it was a good economic impact for everyone involved,” Eastes said.
The group left no trace of themselves behind, Eastes added. All trash was cleaned up as required, which is something he himself makes sure happens whenever a film crew comes to town.
“Now they’re going to advertise a lot of different locations around the county,” he said. “Like they went to one of the locations at the Natrona County International Airport, which used to be an airbase during World War II. And they did some shooting at the Elks Club, and they did some stuff at Rotary Park and at Crimson Dawn.”
That, Eastes believes, can help draw more tourists to Casper, as fans of television shows often want to take road trips to see locations where shows they liked were filmed.
“Starship Troopers filmed at Hells Half Acre in the ‘90s,” Eastes said. “And there are still people stopping there all the time, to see where that was filmed.”
Casper’s Haunted Underbelly
“Ghost Adventures” was only in Casper for six days. Throughout that time, Chappell helped guide the group through Casper’s haunted underbelly, which she has explored extensively with Haunted Casper.
The club is a nonprofit whose members just want to understand the supernatural better. Each of the members have different religious persuasions and some, like Chappell, don’t really believe in ghosts.
The group does no advertising to speak of, and don’t charge for any of their investigations at historical places. Yet they are always busy. Thanks to word of mouth, they get lots of calls from families and groups wanting investigations done at historic places.
“They (‘Ghost Adventures’) really liked what they found here,” Chappell said. “Zack was very excited about the Rialto and the Elks Lodge. I took them out to the old military base, to the old hospital, which has been rumored to be haunted for years.”
Chappell wasn’t present as the group was conducting their actual investigations. Her role was just to show the filming crew places the team might like to explore.
“I did take them to real haunted areas, though, so they absolutely could have found ghosts,” she said. “I didn’t take them into any building that had had no sightings.”
A Portal On Witch Mountain?
The annual Crimson Dawn event isn’t really about real witches so much as imagination. Chappell also doesn’t recall any ghostly encounters that truly terrified her during her explorations of places with a supernatural reputation in Casper.
However, “Ghost Adventures” takes a decidedly different approach to Crimson Dawn and the supernatural subject matter they explored in Casper.
The episode, set to air on discovery+ on Oct. 15, says the team faces off against “malicious spirits and eerie supernatural phenomena as they pursue answers to terrifying hauntings.”
“This season we were inundated by an overwhelming amount of dark energy,” lead paranormal investigator Zak Bagans said. “No question, these are some of the most intense, jarring, and disturbing investigations we have ever experienced. Every location is a paranormal powder keg, and many of them are breeding grounds for evil.
“We’ve encountered a lot in our years of doing this,” Bagans continued. “But this is unlike anything we have seen or captured before.”
The “gripping” episode will feature UFO sightings, alien abductions, and eerie hauntings at both Casper Mountain and the abandoned military base using the latest paranormal gadgetry and technology.
And their investigation will also uncover what they believe could be a portal to another dimension in what they described as a haunted forest on Casper Mountain.
Casper’s Underground Tunnels Fuel Untold Ghost Stories
Normally “Ghost Adventures” doesn’t delve into topics like witches on mountains or tales of alien abduction. But in Casper’s case, the stories were just too good to pass up, Eastes told Cowboy State Daily.
While that led to tossing some of the ghost stories he had pitched them, Eastes ultimately isn’t too unhappy about that.
The director of Visit Casper's Film Casper initiative was only too happy to distance himself from ghost stories in areas of downtown Casper that he frequents. And, while Eastes had to be on set when “Ghost Adventures” were working to make sure the group had everything they needed and that all rules were followed, he made a point of distancing himself from whatever was taking place.
“I wanted to shield myself because I wanted to be able to sleep when I needed to,” he said, laughing a little at himself.
That didn’t keep him from learning a few more ghost stories than he liked though, and he admits to feeling slightly more unsettled than he used to when he has to go downtown now.
“Casper used to have tunnels underneath the town,” Eastes said. “So, people could move around under the town. A lot of them have been closed off now, but so, some of the stories I heard came from those tunnels.”
One of them involves a women’s clothing store called Cadillac Cowgirl.
“They had a construction worker down there working in the basement,” Eastes said. “And they didn’t end up filming in this place, but they did see the story to figure all that out.”
In the corner of the basement opposite where the construction worker was building shelves that day, there was a rocking chair.
“Mid-project, the construction worker evidently came running upstairs during his project,” Eastes said. “He was freaked out because, when he turned around to get something and looked, the rocking chair had been rocking while he was down there working on the other side of the room.”
The shelves the worker was building shouldn’t have been enough to set a rocking chair off, Eastes said. There were no earthquakes or anything else happening that should have caused that either.
Eastes admitted he does drive a little faster when he passes by that store now. And he knows if he ever does visit that store, the last place he’s going is the basement.
Though he does still plan to watch “Ghost Adventures” when it comes out. Even if it takes him another entire year to forget what he learns about the haunted underbelly of Casper, now pegged by “Ghost Adventures” as a supernatural hotspot in Wyoming.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
