Spooky Saltair: Concert venue home to ghostly sightings, unexplained encounters

MAGNA — It's a historic venue best known for lively concerts, but the Great Saltair is also developing a reputation as a home for something else.

Ghostly sightings have led workers to believe the space is truly haunted, and unexplained encounters and events around the building have even led to a label of "the Saltair Curse."

"I mean, it's pretty active all the time," said manager Brandon Barrick. "Doors open and close. Lights turn off and on all the time out here with really no explanation for it."

Barrick said his nearly 15 years at Saltair has turned him into a believer, and it's not just him — with people hearing eerie sounds and even capturing photos of supposed "shadow figures" around the site.

"There was a time where I was closing by myself, and I kept hearing footsteps, all around," said worker Jada Dominguez.

Event operator David Ramos couldn't believe what he once saw.

"There was a shadow that caught my eye that was very tall — it was down a few steps," Ramos told KSL-TV. "I looked back, and it was gone."

Merchandise manager Maile Roberts described her experience in the concert hall as "peaceful" but also said she had seen several spirits.

"I've seen quite a few that have been really clear," Roberts said. "I've seen a little boy. I've seen a little girl. I've seen a woman wearing a white, almost looks like a nightgown with blonde hair. I've seen the 'military man' people talk about. When I saw him, he was standing next to the bar. I've seen a little old woman in our main floor women's bathroom, and when you walk in there, it goes down a long row of stalls and it, then it kind of curves off on each side, and I've seen her a couple times, usually before doors, and she usually peeks out from behind one of the stalls."

Recurring encounters with apparent child apparitions have been the most perplexing to workers.

"We were out here one day cleaning, and we heard children laughing up in the rafters," Barrick said. "The children are kind of strange. There's nothing around the building that would explain the children."

Possible explanations

Once an attraction intended to become a "Coney Island of the West," Saltair welcomed nearly a half-million visitors per year during its peak popularity in the early 1920s.

The current structure is now the third iteration of Saltair, after fires burned the two previous buildings to the ground in 1925 and 1970.

Workers don't have a definitive explanation for why the current venue may be haunted, but they've formed several theories.

For example, Barrick said the current building was constructed out of an old Air Force hangar, so it might be understandable that the 'military man' apparition that has been spotted multiple times may have some attachment to that.

Location, location, location

Where Saltair is located may also factor in the haunting, Barrick said.

He noted that the venue is next to a section of Interstate 80 known for deadly car crashes. It is also in an area that has been the site of homicide investigations into dumped bodies.

Other theories claim the area is or was the location of a possible spirit "portal," or that the salt of the Great Salt Lake plays a role.

"When the lake rose and then receded, all of that salt was deposited out here, so the building is surrounded by salt on all sides," Barrick said. "One of the theories with salt is that it has the ability to provide a barrier between the spirits and their ability to move around, so once they're here, they're kind of stuck here. They can't cross that salt barrier that's completely surrounding the building."

Escalating paranormal activity

What has been evident to workers and investigators alike is that the paranormal activity seems to be escalating and, in some cases, has been deeply disturbing.

Barrick said during a previous investigation, a man fell down the grand staircase and claimed he was pushed by some unknown entity or energy.

"That was a scary experience," Barrick said. "It seems like we have some spirits who are a little more aggressive and want to push people around and pull hair and cause some trouble."

Paranormal investigator Sam Arky described a recent experience at Saltair where he was staring into a mirror and completely lost track of time and himself and even became unresponsive to other people and didn't come back to himself until he exited the building.

"They definitely could tell that it was not me," Arky said. "I was not Sam anymore."

KSL and W.A.S.P. investigation

Arky, part of the group "Western Association for the Science of the Paranormal" or "W.A.S.P.," offered understandable words of caution ahead of a recent investigation of Saltair at the invite of KSL-TV.

"Just keep your guard up and let's have fun tonight!" Arky told his fellow investigators.

W.A.S.P. co-founder Chris Harmon said among the variety of devices and techniques the group employed was an experiment investigators had never tried before.

"Here is Ali," Harmon said. "This is the first time we've ever done something like this — bringing in a dog."

Arky said Ali is believed to have heightened senses, and it seemed to be that way as the crew investigated the first floor of Saltair.

Near the southwest corner of the building, Ali did a double-take at an apparently empty, dark space, but nothing appeared to be there.

Upon subsequent video review, the crew was stunned to discover two unexplained "hissing" sounds that were recorded as Ali toured around the first floor.

The dog also refused to go into the women's restroom on the first floor, and workers and investigators had previously said those spaces were paranormal hotspots.

Investigator Kyrianna Valdez spoke of a previous time with a "spirit box" — a device that quickly cycles through radio frequencies, in theory allowing entities to communicate—where she made a personal connection.

"I asked is there anyone in this room you'd like to talk to and it goes, 'Kip.'" Valdez explained. "That's my nickname!"

Utilizing a similar device during this investigation, something once again appeared to be communicating.

Though cycling through radio frequencies should generally produce irrelevant gibberish, the device spoke the name, "Andrew," as I, KSL-TV reporter Andrew Adams, sat nearby.

It seemed even more apparent that something was trying to get my attention, since Harmon subsequently stated that he thought he heard his name spoken through the device.

"Actually, no," something blurted out through the spirit box device, apparently correcting Harmon.

A voice also came through the device and stated, "go upstairs," which was noteworthy because the third floor was home to several unexplained phenomena throughout the night.

Earlier in the evening, KSL photojournalist Nathaniel Gillis and I detected a transient sulfurous or "rotten egg" smell. Though the nearby Great Salt Lake has been known to spread odors to surrounding areas, the KSL crew found it noteworthy that the smell was only detected in that room and not the rest of the building, and that it came and went.

Additionally, my iPhone recorded an orangish light anomaly pass through a south-facing 'porthole' window. Though I questioned if the light potentially could have somehow been the reflection of a car passing along Interstate 80, Barrick noted that the angle and speed at which the anomaly passed by made that unlikely.

An investigative session on the third floor employed a structured light sensor camera, which projects out a field of laser beams.

Arky, who was operating the device, said it was mapping an unexplained "stick figure" that couldn't be explained by the other investigators standing in the room.

Harmon also expressed that he felt a cold spot on his right hand and that he was inexplicably not feeling well during that investigative session.

And that's not all …

Those were far from the only unexplained events throughout the night.

In the room where Arky had his disturbing experience with the mirror, investigators placed a special camera and motion detectors and left the room sealed off to see what might be recorded.

Arky said they were stunned to find the motion sensor had gone off multiple times and that the camera recorded the sounds of unexplained footsteps.

During yet another session, team members used dowsing rods, and one investigator employed the "Estes method" to see what might be documented.

The Estes method represents a form of sensory deprivation where the investigator was blindfolded and wore headphones attached to a spirit box device. She spoke out the responses when she heard them to others in the group.

During that session, the investigators acknowledged it appeared once again that the children that had previously been sensed around the property had returned, and they believed the spirit of a young girl came through and was attempting to communicate with the group.

When one investigator asked the supposed spirit who she wanted to communicate with, the blindfolded investigator blurted out, "him" and the dowsing rods held by Fiona Robinson of Grimm Ghost Tours immediately pointed to me.

"It wants to talk to me," I skeptically shrugged, curious that once again something appeared to want to communicate with me that night.

I asked if the spirit "died here," and the response from two investigators each holding their own sets of dowsing rods was an affirmative "yes."

When an investigator asked the supposed entity if I reminded her of someone, and I asked if it was her "father," the answer through the dowsing rods was also a yes.

Though numerous pieces of potential paranormal evidence were recorded during the W.A.S.P. investigation, nothing explained precisely who or what may have been lurking around the property.

For workers and investigators, however, the evidence was further validation that no one at Saltair is ever truly alone.

"I think there are potentially spirits who, you know, have passed away on or around the property and have been attracted to the building and then are not able to leave," Barrick said. "Until you've witnessed it for yourself, it's hard to kind of imagine what kinds of things are going on out here."

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