Nebraska is full of stories of hauntings. We’ve looked at many of them in our three-part haunted road trip here, here, and here. The nature of the hauntings varies from one place to the next, and stories range from funny to frightening. This lesser-known haunting has one of the creepiest origin stories we’ve ever heard.
The Wheat Growers Hotel was built in Kimball in 1918. It was a fine, sturdy hotel with a beautiful lobby and an elegant ballroom. It also housed a secret.
Wheat Growers Hotel
The hotel, like many other Prohibition-era establishments, had a tunnel beneath it for the transport of illegal alcohol. It’s said that the tunnel ran between the hotel’s kitchen and a Kimball speakeasy.
By Ammodramus - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11348305
The clandestine tunnel may have lubricated social interactions in Kimball, but it also proved deadly. The story isn’t clear on when or exactly how it happened, but at some point a young woman who worked for the speakeasy became trapped in the tunnel.
By Ammodramus (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
She was stuck there for several days without food and water, and she died there beneath the grand hotel. Ever since then, passersby have reported seeing a woman in a top-story window. The hotel is closed now (and for sale, if you’re interested in owning a haunted hotel), but the young lady’s spirit has never departed.
By Ammodramus (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
And who can blame her? Dying of thirst between the hotel and the lively speakeasy, feeling herself getting weaker by the day and being unable to escape her subterranean prison, must have been a terrifying experience, one from which her soul just can’t recover.
By Ammodramus (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
What happened to the woman? Was this a tragic accident? Was it revenge from a spurned lover? The world may never know the whole story.
Wheat Growers Hotel
By Ammodramus - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11348305
By Ammodramus (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Have you ever experienced the spooky gaze of the unnamed lady at the Wheat Growers Hotel? Next time you’re in Kimball, drive by the property to see if you can spy her in the windows at 102 South Oak Street. The gorgeous building is on the National Register of Historic Places, so even if you don’t see a ghost it’s worth the trip to see this fine example of great plains architecture.
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