Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The Water Tower Ghost

I think the story of the Water Tower ghost is one of the more fascinating ghost stories in Chicago. As you may know, back in the great Chicago fire, the Water Tower was one of the only buildings left standing among ruins. There is a story that back in the day, when the fire was raging towards the tower, most of the workers abandoned the building to flee for their lives. There was, however, one man who stayed behind "manning the pumps." As the fire came closer, however, it became apparent to the man that he could not escape. Rather than be burned alive, the man decided it would be better to hang himself. He did so, not knowing that the Water Tower would actually be spared from destruction.

Now even today, supposedly you can see the shadow of a man hanging in the upper windows of the Water Tower. According to some online sources, police officers have even seen this figure, but when they go upstairs no one is there. I've heard that ghosts and residual energy often come from emotional traumatic situations, and if this is true then I think the circumstances in the Water Tower would certainly be optimum for a ghost. A man thinking he is going to be burned alive, making the snap decision to hang himself instead? I can only wonder if this story is true, if it is, man that's some bad luck on that worker's part.

1 comment:

  1. I have seen many ghosts in my life but this is the only one that I have seen that is famous enough to have its own web page. However it's not a shadow of a person it is the apparition of the worker in work pants disheveled hair hanging in his face and looked a little bit like a photo out of focus

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