Meeteetse resident and paranormal investigator Tami Currie has added another object to her collection of haunted objects: an 1880s Old West grave marker with a criminal history.
“I walked into the Hole in the Wall antique store in Meeteetse and the owner, John Fremlin, said ‘I have an object you might be interested in,’” Currie told Cowboy State Daily. “He showed it to me, and I immediately knew I had to have it. There was no question about it.”
Currie has added the grave marker to the eclectic assemblage of items she’s obtained during her career as a paranormal investigator. She holds onto anything that has “energy attached to it.”
“There’s a story with this piece, and I’m going to make sure it’s preserved and told,” she said. “I don't like it when people are forgotten.”
Submitted For Evidence
Currie doesn’t have a certificate of authenticity for her grave marker, per se. What she does have is documentation from the Ogallala Police Department in Nebraska, which once retained the grave marker as evidence of a crime.
“It was taken into the police department in 1965 and documented as evidence,” she said.
Determining whose grave the marker had been marking was easy. It was placed at the grave of Joseph Evans, buried in Nebraska’s Boot Hill Cemetery in 1882.
Figuring out how the grave marker was involved in the crime took some sleuthing. Currie called the Ogallala Historical Society to get the details on what happened.
“I guess you want to call it a reproduction of the original,” she said. “They did a renovation in the cemetery in 1963 and put new markers so they could preserve the originals. That marker was stolen sometime between 1963 and 1965.”
During a routine traffic stop in 1965, an Ogallala police officer found the grave marker in the trunk of a vehicle being driven by John Fincher.
He was charged with theft, and the marker was retained as evidence.
Currie isn’t sure when the grave marker got out of the Ogallala Police Department’s evidence room, but she’s confident that she’s legally obtained it. Furthermore, Evans doesn’t need it back.
“They actually gave him a really decent headstone, and he's not buried at that cemetery anymore,” she said. “I had to make sure it was completely legal for me to own it.”
Reading The Energy
For Currie, collecting paranormal artifacts is part of the allure of paranormal investigation. She’s been traveling the country, visiting haunted places and trying to communicate with the dead, for over a decade.
Her collection includes the original glass doors from the old Mount Maurice hospital in Red Lodge, Montana, and a key that locked a jail cell in Salt Lake City, Utah.
“That key locked people into that cell and never let them out,” she said. “They perished in that cell.”
She got one of her most unusual pieces in Meeteetse: an abandoned prosthetic leg.
“I found it in the basement of the Cowboy Bar, and the old owners let me keep it,” she said. “I think it’s from the 1930s.”
Collecting these objects is about more than morbid curiosity. Currie sees them as pieces of people’s stories that “deserve respect.”
Joseph Evans’ stolen grave marker is an excellent example of that. He had barely started to live his life when he died on Dec. 15, 1882, at age 19.
“A gentleman with the Ogallala Historical Society told me that Evans ‘perished by timber.’ I assume he was cutting wood or something when he died.”
Evans’s story is sad and was cut too short. That’s why Currie believes it’s important to preserve his stolen grave marker.
“These things belonged to somebody, and sometimes they are tossed to the side,” she said. “People deserve to be remembered.”
Calls And Communications
When you’re an experienced paranormal investigator in Wyoming, people want to talk to you, either over the phone or from beyond the grave.
Currie has done several paranormal investigations in Wyoming, including the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and Old Trail Town in Cody.
She’s worked in the historic Irma Hotel, allegedly one of the most haunted places in the state, but hasn’t had much success.
“The Irma Hotel definitely has a lot of energy, but you're not going to find it because it's such an active place,” she said. “It's really hard to say something was paranormal as opposed to it was just somebody in a room.”
For Currie, the most haunted experience she ever had was on the upper floors of Meeteetse’s Masonic Hall.
“That’s one of the scariest places I’ve ever been to,” she said. “It’s primarily upstairs where they would perform their ceremonies. That building holds a lot of energy, and it's a lot of negative energy.”
Currie also travels to other states to meet up with other paranormal investigators. Her next trip will be exploring the old Washoe Club in Virginia City, Nevada, which has been featured on dozens of ghost-hunting television series.
Currie used to conduct and post videos of paranormal investigations with her friend, Kara McCoy, as the Wyoming Area Spirit Posse.
Sadly, McCoy died on Dec. 4, 2025, after a long battle with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and a rare genetic cystic lung disease.
“I might need to change the name, because I’m not a posse anymore,” she said.
Nevertheless, Currie keeps her friend’s spirit alive by continuing to explore and indulge in the paranormal.
“It’s something I’m extremely passionate about,” she said.
Collection Of Curios
Currie said she never aspired to be a collector of haunted artifacts. The stolen grave marker is another addition to her growing collection.
“I will collect anything that has an odd energy attached to it,” she said. “I started collecting creepy dolls for some reason. I don't like dolls, but I have one that is haunted, and I’d like to accumulate more.”
The Hole in the Wall antiques store has been a great place to acquire these artifacts. Oddly enough, many of the items she’s found there have come from Nebraska.
“I don't know why they travel this far, but they do,” she said.
Currie would eventually like to open her own antiques store or museum of haunted objects to showcase her collection. Joseph Evans’s grave marker will have a prominent place in that display.
While she fully intends to preserve the grave marker, Currie hasn’t yet noticed any of its paranormal properties. With a history that unusual and intriguing, she’s confident it’s got a unique story to tell.
“I firmly believe people on the other side have stories that they want told, and they're always willing to talk to you,” she said.
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
