My Ghostly Encounter at the Palmer House Hotel

I've heard for as far back as I can remember that Palmer House Hotel in Sauk Center is haunted. It has quite a paranormal reputation that'll make anyone who spooks easy feel totally on edge.

A few years ago I had gone to the hotel for a special news segment I was working on for our radio station's news department. The series I was working on was called 'Frozen In Time'. I was there to get the scoop on the hotel who still does things 'old school'.

I wasn't at the hotel to interview the staff about ghosts, but it did seem to be the elephant in the room while we talked about the building's history.

We walked around the hotel gathering footage for my video story and everything seemed really, well--normal. It looked like an average older hotel.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I asked the owner about the hotel's haunted history. She indulged my curiosity and started sharing stories of guests who claim to have encountered paranormal activity. There's actually a book where guests fill out a blurb about their stay and it's filled with entries from guests who had things go bump in the night.

The hotel has even been featured on Ghost Adventures because it's known all over the country for being one of the most haunted places in America.

The owner asked me if I wanted to go into the basement and check things out. Of course, I agreed! When in Rome, right? But, I'll admit, I was super freaked out.

We walked down the stairs and I could feel my heart starting to beat a little fast. Immediately I regretted my decision, but we were already halfway there. When we got to the last step, I looked around and it was really dark. When the light popped on I realized that it looked like an old cellar. It wasn't very warm and inviting. It was cold, dim and old. I noticed old doors stacked up against each other that were being stored down there.

We made our way into the basement further and in the corner, there was a little room. We went into the room and I realized there were old animal cages that looked like they were used to house chickens or something long ago. I was talking to the owner about it when all of a sudden, I heard something that sent chills down my spine.

I heard what sounded like the dishes clanging together. I looked up and noticed a wrack of dishes and old china sitting on a shelf. I couldn't understand why they were making noise.

I was terrified but I tried to hold my professional composer and pretend I didn't hear it. The owner looked at me, paused and then said, 'Did you hear that?'

Scared half to death I replied, "YES!"

She said, "you just had your first paranormal experience at the Palmer House Hotel."

It was at that moment that I almost left my camera equipment behind and ran out of there faster than the speed of lightning. She could tell I was freaked and we left the basement.

It was freaky and while I don't know if I necessarily believe in ghosts, it was definitely an unexplained encounter that had me all kinds of scared.