In my earliest days that I remember with my Hippie parents I remember being fascinated by ghost stories, UFO stories, and big foot stories.     They went along great with watching old classic horror movies, Godzilla, King King, etc.    In other words, I was a geek and some may think in need of a tinfoil hat before the term was very popular.

I was born in Texas.   I moved to Colorado with my Hippie parents when I was around 5 and a half.   I attended school all my years in Colorado and graduated in 1989.  (that gives you my age)

I have six children and some grand children.   Some of my children actually post and reply here on steemit.

Get to the point!  You mentioned ghosts...

Well we moved to Colorado, and a place my parents always wanted to live was in Lake City, Colorado.   I therefore, spent a lot of time in Lake City though we didn't actually move there until I was 10 or 11.

Lake City, Colorado is located a mile from where the Alferd/Alfred Packer massacre took place.   This massacre is what inspired Trey Parker and Matt Stone to make Cannibal the Musical before South Park existed.   In fact, my mother spoke to Trey quite often when they were making that Musical and she even has a brief role in the courthouse scene in that movie.  (Youtube video at the bottom of this post if you want to watch the musical)

The town did not exist until about a year after the massacre.    It thrived on silver mining and has some smaller gold mines as well.   That mining ended when the price of silver collapsed.    This left a beautiful little town (smaller than it had been) in the middle of a mountain valley where two rivers that cut canyons converge.   It is a heavily forested, and very mountainous region.    It is within a few miles of five different 14,000+ feet mountains.

You still haven't said anything about ghosts!!!

Yeah, I know I'm setting the atmosphere as I have quite a few stories I can share about this place and if people are interested I just may do that.

I liked being afraid as a kid.   I liked the adrenaline rush.   I soon heard about strange ghost stories around this place.   This was a town where kids walking around the street at midnight was not only considered safe, it was kind of normal.   (Boy how the times have changed)     So I would hear about haunted places and I would go look for them.

I looked hundreds of times and only had a few experiences.    I also collected a lot of information.   Later on as an adult when I moved back to the area to raise my children.    I was invited by a local historian to help him on his Ghost Tours he would have during the summers.   He knew the history very well, and I knew the stories, and could share some of my personal experiences.    Between the two of us we were very popular with the tourists.

You've given ghost tours, so what?   You still haven't said anything about ghosts...

I have seen a ghost, I've recorded a ghost on tape before I even knew what EVP was and before that was something most of the world had heard of, and I've been around when some other strange things have happened.

I had more information further confirm my experiences as I got older and learned new historical things that explained my experiences.

I've also looked for ghosts in other places.   The most recent was about 5 or 6 years ago staying a couple of nights at the Stanley Hotel (setting for the movie The Shining, and also has been a spot for many of the contemporary ghost hunting reality shows that came about).

I've collected some other ghostly stories from others...

So telling you about ghosts is more about where to begin...

I will tell you some tales about ghosts and try to back it up with some historical photos (as I can find them) or similar references I can find on the internet.   I'll even consider doing a Google Earth map or something.

I know people like their posts short and sweet.    So I actually am going to leave this as a cliff hangar you can decide on.

Should I start at the beginning recounting things as they came to me so you can see how the information fell into place over time?

Do you prefer I give you quick summation without going into the detailed story?

Do you want me to skip details completely and just tell you the experiences as short and to the point as I can come up with?

What would you prefer?

REPLY with comments and I will read those and start giving you more substance than this.    I have laid the initial ground work here.

Videos and other material for other references made in this post:

link to Imgur where I uploaded my image of Lake City and Alferd Packer and such if you'd like to see it in more detail.