By Nakya Castille, Staff Writer
Paranormal Activity in Denver
Denver Colorado is fairly known to have it’s haunted places and buildings that are very famous if you are coming to visit from afar. As an example, we all are familiar with the Stanley Hotel being haunted with spirits of all kinds--however that’s bland! The real question is, do you know the history behind these hauntings of the uncommon places in Denver and why they came to be known so widely for natives who’ve lived in Denver for so long? Well, let’s venture in! For this trip, please be sure to have your flashlight ready, a friend or close one--for mental and stability reasons, and your confident pants on because we’re going in deep.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons by Kcorless (CC BY-SA 4.0)
To start, We all know Denver Union Station right? The big old wooden building that looks to be in an olden horror film? Yeah that building. The one hundred and twenty-seven year old building does indeed have a haunting history behind it. Legend has it, from what we know, there are in total three-four technically ghosts that reside in the Union Station and in specific locations. The first ghost happens to be an old man who died a horrific death. From most reports, this old man’s unfortunate luck had him seeing the tracks of the train station far sooner than anticipated with that being his corpse was last seen splattered. It wasn't fully decided the cause of his death, whether that was due to him stumbling onto the track (rolling off perhaps) or even possibly just wandering unknowingly into the track. It is rather unknown but it has been said that this ghost has been haunting for years. All that’s said to be known about him was that he remained in the station content on spooking random passers-by as they went on about their ways. Without a single trace of his presence, he vanished and has not been seen or felt for a while.
Our second ghost has been apparently befuddled on which train he ought to take, roaming around the lobby back and forth for a time until he would suddenly vanish. It is believed that this gentleman might well be the ghostly afterimage of a traveler long passed by, who had died in the station while waiting for his train to arrive. Freaky...am I right? And that’s why folks, always check your surroundings and look at people for strange behaviours. You may never know what is going on within.
Our final ghost that happens to be residing in the station is one with a commanding presence, who maintains guard over the station’s great hall. Having never actually been seen – but has been only felt by those with a sharpened intuition, this figure remains shrouded deeply in mystery. Some thoughts linger in the air on perhaps being a military man, due to the strength of his presence, and his diligence in keeping watch – many a common traveler of this station have felt reassured by his presence, in that darkest hour of the night.
With that in mind, that is all we know about the ghosts that are present in the station. Unless you’re into the supernatural and messing with spirits, by all means go investigate the wonders of the union station but I do not recommend it. Some spirits are meant to be left alone.
Photo by Scott Beal (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Which brings me to another spirit or at least we all believe it is one. Does it ever creep you out anytime you drive to or from the Denver airport, our favorite Blue Horse with his intimidating red eyes happens to be following your every move even when passing it completely? Believe so, you are not the only one who has some sort of creepy aura from the Blue Mustang. While DIA itself has its own scary theories and hauntings, the Blue Mustang that now commonly goes by Blucifer has a shocking and rather unsuspecting story behind it’s creation.
To begin, let’s take it back into history to where Bluificer’s birth came to be. The statue itself was originally commissioned to be built by the City of Denver in the mid 1990s when the current Denver International Airport was being established. It was also said that the statue was completed behind schedule and unveiled at the airport in 2008. Artist Luis Jiménez was working on his now famous Blue Mustang, his largest commissioned piece to date and a commission from the City of Denver to be placed outside its recently built airport. Unfortunately, despite the amazing commission piece, a section of the 32 ft tall, 9000 lb. cast fiberglass sculpture fell on him, severing an artery in his leg. His wound ended up killing him and the sculpture had to be finished posthumously by his family, friends, and professional lowriders and racecar painters Richard LaVato and Camillo Nuñez.
Now you’re probably wondering, “What does this have to do with the creepy vibe the Horse gives off in the first place?” Well I'll surely get to that. Even despite the sculpture having to be finished by those close to Jiménez, the piece was actually very near completion upon the artist's untimely death. Shocking but not quite as surprising if you are familiar with how fast Luis did his commissioned artwork, knowing that Bluicifer was nearly finished before his creator’s death isn’t all that bewildering. A fun fact you should know is how the name “Blucifer” came to be. The vivid blue coloring all over the anatomically correct figure is a clear nod to Jiménez’s love for traditional Mexican muralists and the bright colors he would have encountered as a boy growing up and working in his father’s sign shop in El Paso, Texas. Now most people essentially just decided to run with the name also because of the red eyes the horse ended up having upon completion. Quite in fact, to add onto the key point of why people ran with the name ‘Blucifer’, the name itself was bestowed upon Jiménez’s sculpture by locals shortly after its unveiling. A combination of the names ‘Blue’ from its official name ‘Blue Mustang,’ and the name ‘Lucifer,’ from the archangel who fell from heaven and now rules the underworld, seemed fittingly appropriate for the unveiled demon horse who rears tall outside Denver’s airport. Despite the fact the horse wasn’t intentionally supposed to be a demonic presence that watches you leave or arrive at the airport, due to it having luminous red eyes that are seen in the depth of night gave it its title. Despite being an eyesore and known as a demon early on in his life for his patricide, he has been nonetheless accepted as another majestic public art piece in the great city of Denver. Willing to welcome all who come and to stare at those who leave. It’s spirit presence though isn’t all that inviting though...from personal experience as I look away from him when I’m driving past him to and back from DIA.
Our final “haunting”, or at least in this manner creepy and rather disturbing, place I will go into is the Assembly Student Living Apartments--only it didn’t used to be called that. It was actually a nightclub that has been said hosted a demonic figure everyone came to name as the Devil. With that being set in your mind as of now, let's venture deeper.
According to an article on Westword, an article titled “Satan Sheets”, Maruca Salazar, a eighth-grade teacher at the time, had heard news from her class that they had seen the devil in the Los Caporales ballroom. This was the former ballroom at the Regency hotel that was later changed to housing for students. According to her students, their context of what happened was, “At Los Caporales, this girl was there, and she was very dressed up and beautiful. So this handsome young man asks her to dance. They get to the center of the floor and begin to dance, and all of a sudden, this woman begins to feel hot and uncomfortable, like something is burning her back where the man is holding her. Pretty soon the woman passes out on the floor and the crowd parts, and it's the devil standing there!"
Since Salazar is an artist that appreciated Mexican culture, part of this tale interested her even if she wasn’t entirely sure what the children were saying was initially true. However, the rumors began to spread and even began to change everytime on what the ‘devil’ supposedly looked like, ranging from a handsome cowboy -- left his hoofprints in the Regency's decrepit parking lot -- and even "a good-looking guy was on the mechanical bull in the basement, and his boot fell off, and his hoof was showing," says Debbie Ortega. Debbie Ortega is a the District 9 Denver City Council representative who's had a devil of a time dealing with complaints about the Regency since the once-upscale hotel at 3900 Elati Street was purchased in 1999 by Art Cormier, the former owner of Smiley's Laundromat. So, naturally Ortega was fully aware of the devil rumors.
There were a lot of protocols and reports that were set in place after so many had seen the unknown identity that was said to take the form of the devil. However, Denver itself didn’t really find the cases to be really believable for the most part, and even denied actions set in stone to do away with the hotel at the time until people began to try and go about normality in the building. Eventually within time, the Regency was sued yet it still stands today but by a different name…
If you ask me, Denver seems to love to take their sweet time putting things into action when it comes to serious situations like this. For that, if I were to ever visit these places, I wouldn’t go in them without a little protection. Oh! But the most important factor to keep in mind too...don’t mess with spirits that aren't meant to be messed with even if the temptation is overbearing.
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