Phillips County Museum News for Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Some people don’t believe in ghosts, and some people believe that even peaceful hauntings are demonic entities in disguise. Others believe that ghosts haunt this earth until the day they can be free. Well, I’m going to share a local ghost story, a story I believe. This is about the haunting of the old Moore’s Printing Building.

There are a few places in Malta people are sure that are haunted, As I share this one with you, open your mind and glimpse of what could be happening. When people think places are haunted, it often has something to do with the history, voices they hear, or things they see. Sometimes though, you can feel it in your skin, the way your hair rises on the back of your neck, or the goosebumps you get like something else is there.

The old Moore’s Printing building, on 2nd Street E., is something a bit eerie and maybe a little dark. Considering it was once a mortuary, it’s easy to see why some believe it is haunted. With all of the spirits that have left their shell and been carried through the old building, it just might be. The basement, where they used to take the caskets, was only accessible by a small manual elevator, which only allowed them to take one casket at a time. The funeral home was owned by the Bell family. In 1968, Garry L. Adams came to help Wilford Bell, and in 1970 he purchased the business, renaming it the Adams Bell Funeral Home.

The Bells also owned an old 1905 mansion house, one block away from the old high school, which was previously known as the Veseth house. Due to the fact it had been abandoned for a while, it became known as the party house, even though it had a certain quality that kept people from going there. Some people even stated that they wouldn’t even walk by it because they were so scared. Many people said that the Bell’s house was haunted, but the owner, Kent Bell, said it was only beautiful and that there was never a reason for he or his family to believe it was haunted. In the late 1980s, the house mysteriously burned down.

The old Moore’s Printing, however, has more to it than rumors. Some have even seen an apparition of a small girl. There have been people who feel like there is something wrong, like there is something else with them, like have felt the eyes of the dead. Maybe deep down it was their imagination, maybe it was just fear that caused these instances, these gut-wrenching feelings, but maybe, just maybe there’s more to the afterlife than just death.