When I developed the image, two specters became visible behind me (Photo by David James with Photoshop Generative Fill)

With Halloween approaching, this post takes a close look at the tales of hauntings around Duluth, presenting a classification system for the four different types of haunted Duluth locations. It concludes with a Geoguessr challenge made up of five spooky Duluth photospheres.

Numerous websites, several of them websites promoting Duluth tourism, provide lists of the most haunted locations in Duluth. There are also at least two books that claim Duluth is one of the most haunted places in the United States.

This post takes no particular position on the existence of ghosts, ghouls, or any other sort of haunting spirits, but does note that what defines a place as being haunted in Duluth seems to fall into one of four categories.

The Location of Urban Legends: An often repeated story exists of a person haunting this location, but the story begins with “people say,” or “rumor has it.” Going to the archives of the Duluth Public Library won’t be of much help in filling in the details — that’s left to a good storyteller. These sorts of hauntings can most often be found in places where stories are easily retold and passed down, making schools a common place for these hauntings. For example, Denfeld Auditorium and the toilets in Griggs Hall at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Sites of Unexplained Phenomena: Somebody saw, heard or felt something for which there is no other explanation than the supernatural. Within the pantheon of Duluth ghost stories, this includes otherworldly sounds heard at the Duluth Public Library and a strange handprint mysteriously appearing at the Depot.

Spooky Places: Even without a specific story, some places just have a haunted feel to them. Duluth has a lot more older homes than most Minnesota cities (43% percent of homes in Duluth were built before 1940, compared to 16% statewide), which means that it has no shortage of run-down buildings that fit the recognizable template of the haunted house. When I was a kid, me and my best friend from church spent a lot of time discussing who the ghost was that lived in my basement. Not because we had seen or heard anything unusual, but because my damp, stone walled basement, still holding abandoned household items from nearly 100 years of occupants, was simply too spooky not to have a ghost.

Enger Tower shows up on a lot of lists of haunted Duluth places, which makes sense because it can look pretty spooky sometimes (Photo by Matthew James)

Morbid Places: This category is similar to urban legends, but you can go to the Duluth Public Library archives to learn more about the deaths connected to these locations, which include old hospitals, current and former burial grounds, and the sites of notable murders. Glensheen Mansion would be the best known example of a Duluth site with a very well-documented tragic murder.

Because haunted places based on urban legends and mysteries of the unexplained require you to know the backstory to take part in the scariness, this Geoguessr challenge focuses on places in Duluth that are bit scary all on their own. The photospheres have been selected to show each location at its spookiest. The rounds last three minutes each. For the best experience, play alone at night in a dark room.

PDD Geoguessr #28: Haunted Duluth

How to Play Geoguessr

GeoGuessr can be played on a laptop or desktop and on Android or IoS mobile devices with the GeoGuessr app. Just click on the link that fits how you play. You can create an account to keep track of your scores and see how you compare to other players or just click on the link above to play as a guest without having to create an account or log in.

Every game consists of five locations based on a theme chosen by the game creator. You are shown a Streetview image stripped of all the informational labels that are normally overlayed onto the image. Unless the challenge specifically restricts it, you can move around and look for clues like street signs and business names to find out where you are. The image below shows a basic overview of the Geoguessr screen layout and controls.

Once you think you know the location — or are nearly out of time — you use the inset map to place your marker where you believe the round started. After you hit “Guess,” you will see how close you were to the correct location and how many points your guess earned. The closer you are to the location, the higher your score, with a maximum score of 5,000 points. On a map that covers a small area, like the Gary-New Duluth neighborhood, being off by a few blocks will cost you a lot of points. On a map that has locations from around the world, you will get nearly all the points just for finding the right city. The maximum error for a perfect score also changes by map size, but in general if you are within 50 feet (15 meters) you will always get the full 5,000 points.

Not often, but every now and then, GeoGuessr gets a little buggy. If the underlying Streetview imagery has changed since the game was made, sometimes it repeats the last round, gives a black screen, or doesn’t allow a guess to be made. If that happens, please let me know and I’ll update the challenge.

At the end of the five rounds, an overview screen shows your score for each round in addition to your guessing time and how far off you were from the correct location. The correct locations and your guesses are also shown on a map and you can click on any of the round numbers to review the locations. Additionally, the final screen in a challenge will show how you rank compared to the top scorers of the challenge. When choosing your user name, keep in mind that your user name and score per round will be visible to other players of the challenge.

If you have feedback on this challenge or ideas for future challenges, please share them in the comments below.