"Mr. Kearney, you have lots of ghosts." That's what a paranormal investigator once told Bob Kearney, a long-time tour guide born and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota.
Hibbing High School was constructed in 1920, and its most striking feature is its auditorium, a hidden gem in the Northwoods. The theater was modeled after the Capitol Theater in New York City and has an astonishing 1,773 seats. Perhaps more intriguing, there is much speculation that it is haunted.
One day in the early 1970s, a group of photography students were taking photos of the auditorium. When they snapped a photo of the empty expanse of chairs, there was a man in a hat and a coat sitting in seat J-47.
"The problem was you could see through him," explains Kearney, "so they took another picture, and the guy was still there."
The pictures were held for almost five years before being released, and since then, the infamous seat J-47 has attracted many people, including paranormal investigators.
Whether or not you believe J-47 has a real spiritual presence attached to it, there is something alluring about the unexplainable. Ghost stories dredge up the past and help us remember that we are all innate storytellers.
You can hear Community Connection every Tuesday and Thursday at 8am on Northland Morning.
