Haunted Seminary Hall tours continue at NSU

To help celebrate Halloween, the Graduate Student Association at Northeastern State University has taken the task of explaining the campus history of ghostly sightings by holding its annual Haunted Seminary Hall tours.

The tours include ghost stories and legends, but also tell the building's true and sometimes spooky history.

There are many people who have seen or heard things on the Northeastern State University campus that they don't think could be real.

Tour guide Catherine Jennings explained that Seminary Hall is well-known for its supernatural phenomenon. Several students, faculty and staff have reported hearing or seeing inexplicable sounds and images in the structure, she said.

Most sightings or phenomena include Florence Wilson, principal of the Cherokee National Female Seminary in the 19th century.

Wilson's fiance, Pleasant Buchanan, was thought to have died in the Civil War. However Jennings said new information found in NSU's archives and discovered in conversations with the Buchanan family has painted a slightly different picture. Either way, after the death of her fiance Wilson poured her heart and soul into her work educating the young women at the Cherokee seminary.

Wilson served as the principal of the seminary for 26 years. Some people believe she never left. There have been several sightings of Wilson in and around Seminary Hall, Wilson Hall named for her and other places on campus.

Some say spirits hang around due to unfinished business. To find out about Florence Wilson one must take the tour.

GSA offers the tours from 8-11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 30. Cost is $5 per person and proceeds fund GSA activities. For more information about Haunted Seminary Hall, call 918-444-3686.