Ghosts, ghosts everywhere in Utah County

FAIRFIELD — If you believe everything you read on the Internet, Utah County is a regular Amityville — minus the oozing walls.

There are reports of a ghost of a dead nurse hanging from a flagpole at the Lehi Historic Hospital and chatty spirits at the old Utah County Jail.

Poltergeists reportedly have taken up residence at Spanish Fork and Pleasant Grove high schools, and the Salem cemetery is said to be home to at least one angry — and somewhat vulgar — polygamist wife.

Then there's Camp Floyd, which from 1858 to 1861 housed 3,500 troops — nearly one-third of the U.S. Army at the time — sent to Utah to take care of a rumored Mormon rebellion.

These days, rumors circulating at Camp Floyd-Stagecoach Inn State Park and Museum settle on the supernatural side.

Members of the Utah Ghost Hunters Society have been getting into the spirit of Halloween by conducting a paranormal probe of the historic buildings at Camp Floyd.

The investigation was requested by Mark Trotter, manager of the state park for the past five years. Trotter said he doesn't necessarily believe the park to be haunted, but he considers such supernatural surveys to be fun.

Still, Trotter has heard a couple of stories over the years about unexplained events at Camp Floyd.

"I had one employee who said every time she'd go to close the door at the (Stagecoach Inn) it felt like somebody would pull back on it," he said.

Another unusual report came from a park volunteer, who told Trotter he saw a dress "that was not where it should be."

"He described it as just hanging there in the air," Trotter said.

Personally, Trotter has had no such supernatural run-ins — "Maybe they just don't like me," he said of otherworldly entities — but he seems to enjoy the search.

In June 2003, he joined members of the Paranormal Society of Utah for a nightlong ghost-activity investigation of Camp Floyd.

"(That group) picked up quite of bit of activity at the (Fairfield) schoolhouse," he said.

By activity, Trotter means electronic voice phenomena, the term used to describe voices of spirits caught on tape.