IU was founded over 200 years ago and in that time, the campus has accumulated its fair share of legends about Hoosier hauntings. It isn’t hard to find someone on campus with a ghost story. Many dorms, fraternities and classroom buildings have spooky tales and scary ghost sightings.
By the Indiana Memorial Union, you will find a cemetery. The Dunn Cemetery is almost as old as our campus and is the resting place of the Dunn family. According to some, the graveyard is haunted by Agnes, who is believed to be a Dunn family member. Known as Lady in Black, she tended to soldiers and is believed to rise at midnight to continue her work, going grave to grave.
Agnes isn’t the only woman in black walking the streets of Bloomington. On Third Street, you may encounter The Woman in Black, known to follow unsuspecting campus travelers — reports of her wandering at night with her face covered by a veil dating back to 1911. According to legend, she would hide behind a tree when the walkers noticed her. And when they did a second take, she’d be gone.
The Indiana Memorial Union is a place with many haunts. Ghosts of students and even a ghost dog have been said to roam the halls of the Indiana Memorial Union. The ghosts are not suspected to be malicious, but rather, happy spirits. But even pleasant spirits can scare a person. One maintenance worker shared that he noticed a shadowy figure in a reflection and freaked out, but when he turned around, he saw nothing. However, it was followed by a soft voice that sounded like chanting.
My personal favorite and maybe the scariest story revolves around IU’s Owen Hall. As the story goes, in its early years, the building housed cadavers on the third floor. A few guys decided to pull a mean prank on one of their friends and hung a severed arm on the ceiling light. After a few hours, they hadn’t heard a scream or any other reaction. They checked on her and found her gnawing on the arm while rocking back and forth.
These are just some of IU’s ghost stories and legends. While on campus, you might visit some of these locations and perhaps spot something spooky for yourself.
This article is part of the Source Visitor’s Guide, an IDS special publication.
