Ghosts at the Conrad Mansion Museum

The Conrad Mansion Museum in Kalispell is one of the most well-documented dwellings for ghosts and supernatural experiences in the Flathead Valley — so much so that the museum gives a series of Ghost Tours every fall, giving guests the opportunity to get up close and personal with the mansion’s spirits.

“Me personally, I’ve never had an experience,” said the museum’s Executive Director Gennifer Sauter. “But it could be that I’m just not sensitive to these things. We’ve had lots of reports from visitors about feeling things and seeing things.

“One experience that sticks out in my mind was when one of our guides backed up into someone while giving a tour, but when she said ‘Excuse me’ and turned around, no one and nothing was there.”

Construction on the mansion began in 1892 and the Conrad family — Charles, Lettie and their three children, Charles D., Catherine and Alicia — moved into the home around Thanksgiving 1895. The youngest Conrad daughter, Alicia, gifted the mansion to the city of Kalispell in 1974.

Since opening as a museum in 1975, volunteers, staff and visitors have reported strange sights, sounds, scents and feelings.

“We’ve heard many, many reports of a little girl on the third floor,” Sauter said. “That’s actually a very common one.”

The little girl, who Sauter said is commonly believed to be the ghost of Alicia, has been seen inside the home and also through the window outside by passers-by.

People have also reported seeing a man (perhaps Charles Conrad?) smoking a cigar outside, and the smell of cigar smoke sometimes drifts through the grounds. A visitor on one of the previous tours asked about the woman she saw sitting in the sewing room, even though no one else had seen the apparition.

In 2012, the Daily Inter Lake reported on a new phenomenon at the mansion, in which an artist’s paintings were being moved every night during the museum’s art and craft bazaar.

“Maybe it was the same ghost who occasionally sets off the motion alarms in the middle of the night,” Sauter said, laughing.

Sauter also recalled an experience a local photographer had inside the museum. It was the holiday season, and the photographer was taking photos of the two-story Christmas tree in the Great Hall. She was going up and down the main staircase in order to get a variety of shots. On one hurried trip down the stairs, she said she suddenly felt and then saw footsteps running next to her. Sauter said the photographer described it as a warm feeling of joy, like the children were running down the stairs on Christmas morning.

“We believe all the spirits want to be here,” Sauter said. “We’ve never had reports of anything malicious or bad.”

The Conrad Mansion Museum’s annual Ghost Tours explore these stories and many others. Visitors can also purchase a book, “Crazy Full of Ghosts,” from the museum gift shop that includes many of the experiences.

“It’s kind of neat to think they’re around here and looking out for the place,” Sauter said. “And neat to think that maybe there’s something beyond.”

The Conrad Mansion Museum is located at 330 Woodland Avenue in Kalispell. Off-season tours are available October through May by reservation only. For more information, visit www.conradmansion.com or call 406-755-2166.

Entertainment editor Stefanie Thompson can be reached at 758-4439 or ThisWeek@dailyinterlake.com.