Iowa State Myths and Legends
There are many myths and legends rumored to be associated with Iowa State University. They celebrated with tours that are given each year at Haunted Iowa State, a week or two before Halloween.
Memorial Union
Hortense Wind
Known to make a strange noise that sounds like a low eerie moan. She is also blamed for many odd occurrences such as: the slamming of doors at night when nobody else is in the building.
Zodiac
It is a well known superstition that you do not step on the Zodiac in the entrance of the Memorial Union, or you will fail your next test.
Barton Hall
Barton hall is said to be haunted by the ghost of Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross. She is said to be a "nice" ghost, however.
Freeman Hall
Freeman hall, much like Barton, is said to be haunted by the ghost of Alice Freeman, who is also a "nice" ghost.
Friley Hall
Iowa State University’s Friley Hall is perhaps the Ames school’s scariest building; over 1200 places to sleep and 5 floors. Walking the halls at night has been deemed a daunting task due to the creepy feel of the halls and rooms. "Mr. Big" is said to haunt the halls of Friley through means of strange sounds and cool drafts. It is said that he was chased throughout the building by guards wearing a cape and a top hat from 1 a.m. until the guards lost his trace and were tired. They then looked through a small hole in the brick of an old, closed off incinerator room. They saw an outline of the man of his size wearing a cape and a top hat on the wall of the isolated room, and on the wall next to him "I am Big" was written. A student committed suicide in a dorm room, and everyone who has lived in that dorm has either died or gone missing. The room was closed for the reason of not having access to a fire escape. The fire alarm has also gone off at 2:00 am during the 2018 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals without anyone laying a finger on the handle. Besides the beeping, once everyone had exited the building, a loud siren started to blare, which had not gone off before, and it would pause every 15 seconds or so, unlike a usual fire alarm.
Linden Hall
Linden Hall is haunted by the ghost of an ex-Cyclone football player. He is in his full game day gear and can be spotted the night before a home football game, prepared to play the next day.
Iowa State Cemetery
The Iowa State cemetery has had many accounts of faint outlines that look like an isolated mist in the shape of a person over the years.
Nuclear Engineering Building
The Nuclear Engineering Building is said to be haunted by the ghost of Joseph Keichel, who died of radiation poisoning in 1946, shortly after his stint working on the Manhattan Project in the Ames Laboratory. Although the actual cause of the poisoning is inconclusive, he blames graduate students and continues to haunt them by thwarting their projects in the Nuclear Engineering Building.
Farm House
Turning on and off of lights have been reported, along with rattling of dressers.
Fisher Theater
Frederica Shattuck died in 1969 and haunted the Shattuck Theatre. Her ghost then moved to Iowa State Center Fisher Theater in 1973 with the theater program, along with her wheelchair and a few of her other belongings. According to the Iowa State Daily in an article in 1978, a member of the cast investigated some strange noises, and found her wheelchair mysteriously rolled to the middle of the stage as if Shattuck was about to give a monologue.
References
http://www.inside.iastate.edu/2007/1019/ghosts.shtml
http://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/article_1d72e2db-d152-5ea9-a4f0-f2ae6896c341.html