Want to get scared this Halloween season?
Consider getting spooked by one of these 10 actually creepy places in Minnesota.
I didn’t want to believe it either, but our state is full of stories about the paranormal. You’ve probably even visited some of these spots, without realizing they’re haunted!
For your warped pleasure, this post rounds up the most haunted places in Minnesota.
Explore these places, if you dare. But be warned: you might want to bring a friend (or ten?) along for protection.
PS – Don’t miss our recently updated guide to the best haunted houses near Minneapolis!
1. Forepaugh’s Restaurant (St. Paul, MN)
For this one, we did some good-ole fashioned boots on the ground reporting.
Until 2020, Forepaugh’s was a high-end restaurant located in Irvine Park, a park whose spooky experiences led to us researching whether it was haunted. More on that later…
But while researching Irvine Park, we came across some dark stories about Forepaugh’s Restaurant, located just 90 feet away, which hint that the historic mansion is seriously haunted.
Back in the late 1800s, Joseph Forepaugh had an affair with his mansion’s young maid, Molly. Molly became pregnant and Joseph ended the affair, but Molly was so distraught that she committed suicide. According to reports, she hung herself in the attic by tying a rope to a chandelier and jumping out of the third story window.
Since then, restaurant guests and employees have reported freaky sightings of a woman dressed in 1800s attire, lights turning off and on by themselves, and strange noises coming from the third story attic. In one instance, the disturbances were so bad that it led to an investigation by the St. Paul police, whose K-9 dog refused to enter the attic.
On our own visit, we actually asked some Forepaugh’s employees about Molly. They smiled and said, “Oh yes, Molly! We’ve had quite a few meetings…”
2. Irvine Park (St. Paul, MN)
Officially, Irvine Park doesn’t show up on the traditional lists of haunted places in Minnesota. But our experience with strange flickering lights in the park, creepy noises, and animals randomly going berserk makes us question otherwise!
And as it turns out, there’s an interesting end to that earlier story about Molly the Maid and Joseph Forepaugh…
Joseph Forepaugh died in 1892. He shot himself… in Irvine Park.
3. Mounds Theatre (St. Paul)
Built in 1922, Mounds Theatre originally hosted silent movies. In recent years, studies by the Minnesota Paranormal Investigators Group, the Minnesota Ghost Hunters Society, and numerous psychics all conclude the same thing: this place is really haunted.
Visitors have reported seeing a little girl bouncing a ball on stage, an usher wandering the isles looking for his lost love, an apparition of a bald man watching a movie, loud sounds of a man sobbing, and more strange photographs than you can count.
Mounds now offers haunted tours each October. There’s a 1-hour standard tour, but for the truly brave, they also offer a 3-hour investigation that runs from midnight to 3 AM. The overnight tour includes a visit to the creepy basement and an opportunity to explore the grounds on your own. You can purchase tickets at realhauntedotours.
4. St. Paul City Hall (St. Paul, MN)
On February 13, 1906, St. Paul City Hall was the site of the last execution in Minnesota history.
William Williams was convicted of murdering a teenager as well as his own mother, and he was sentenced to hanging outside City Hall. Except they botched his hanging. On the first attempt, the rope was too long, and police had to physically hold Williams by the rope until he died from strangulation.
Since then, witnesses have seen apparitions wearing old-style clothing in and around City Hall. Including, you guessed it… a man hanging from a noose.
5. The Wabasha Street Caves (St. Paul, MN)
We’re not sure why St. Paul seems to be the most haunted of the two Twin Cities, but in the case of Wabasha Street Caves, it probably has something to do with this place’s creepy past.
Before the caves closed in 2020, they offered ghost tours. The tours had tons of wild stories about the caves, including one that was especially bloody – a massive mobster massacre.
As the story goes, a prohibition-era bootlegging operation went awry, leading to a massive shootout between mobsters and tons of people dead. Since then, visitors often reported strange people sitting at the bar, and the cave owners even maintain a collection of hundreds of spooky ghost photos.
Even without the stories, the dark and damp caves, located deep in St. Paul’s river bluffs, can be a spooky place. Here’s to hoping they reopen soon.
6. First Avenue (Minneapolis, MN)
Before First Avenue was one of the most well-known music venues in the country, it was the site of a bus station. As the story goes, a woman was waiting at the bus station for her lover to return from war. When she learned he’d died in combat, she hung herself in the restroom.
Since then, multiple First Avenue employees have seen an apparition hanging in the women’s bathroom. Always in the fifth stall, which happens to be the exact scene of the tragedy.
7. The Palmer House Hotel (Sauk Centre, MN)
The Palmer House Hotel, located in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, is rumored to be one of the most haunted placed in America. It was even featured on its own episode of The Travel Chanel’s Ghost Adventures!
The Palmer House was built in 1901… just one year after a fire burned the old Sauk Centre house to the ground, killing hundreds of people in the tragedy. Today, the paranormal activity seems endless, with guests and employees reporting strange voices, doors slamming shutting, furniture getting rearranged, and most commonly, the sounds of phantom children playing in the hallways.
8. The Glensheen Mansion (Duluth, MN)
A popular tourist attraction and a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, the Glensheen Mansion in Duluth is a beautiful estate on the shores of Lake Superior. Originally built in 1905 by the wealthy Congdon family, this history took a turn for the worse when Elizabeth Congon and her nurse were brutally murdered in the mansion by the family’s adopted daughter.
They say Elizabeth’s ghost still haunts the mansion to this day. The mansion is now owned by the University of Minnesota, who offers creepy flashlight tours for adults wanting to learn all about the mansion’s eerie past.
9. Enger Tower (Duluth, MN)
Enger Tower just looks like a creepy spot. Located in Duluth’s Enger Park, this tall, narrow watchtower is made out of old stones and stands over five stories tall. And it’s supposedly haunted.
In the 1940s, a man jumped to his death from the top of the 80-foot structure. Since then, many people claim to see a strange figure wandering the tower’s top floor. Yet when they enter the tower to get a better look, he’s nowhere to be found.
10. The Warden’s House (Stillwater, MN)
How’s this for a frightening place?
The Warden’s House in Stillwater was first built in 1853 to house the wardens of Stillwater Prison, the oldest prison in the state of Minnesota.
The last warden who lived in the house was Henry Wolfer. Wolfer’s daughter died from appendicitis shortly after she gave birth to a son, who Wolfer then raised in the Warden’s house without incident.
Fast forward nearly 100 years later. While taking a tour of the Warden House Museum, a young girl asked the tour guide, “Is the woman always there?”
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