OGDEN, Utah — When you think of a historic train station, you picture bustle, energy, and a nation moving at the pace of the clock.
But at Ogden's Historic Union Station, some passengers may have never reached the end of the line — or, at least, they haven't stopped trying to punch their ticket out.
We ventured to the iconic Utah landmark for a spine-tingling investigation, only to discover that for many spirits, this famed crossroads wasn't a destination—it was an unexpected, and permanent, eternity.
A Crossroads with a Casualty Count
Opened in 1924, the station was key to cementing Ogden as a major Western hub. Museum Administrator Hope Eggett explained just how central the location was, not just to Utah, but to the entire country.
"Crosswords of the West was very literal for us here in Ogden," she said.
However, a beautiful building with a rich history often comes with a dark side. Hope didn't mince words about its spectral reputation, noting that the station is "constantly on like the most haunted sites in Utah.”
Most haunted place in Utah? Long-forgotten cemetery's history dug back up:
The tragic history of the station has left a significant number of souls behind. Hope shared the chilling figures: "We have at least 42 documented deaths associated with our space, as well as 49 additional bodies that moved through this space. And that's just the ones that we have concrete evidence of.”
With a ghostly casualty count that high, it's no surprise that the spirits are part of the daily routine.
"I think everybody who's worked here for more than a minute or two has pretty much experienced a ghost," Hope assured us.
If they haven't, they probably didn't last long enough.
Hope shared a hilarious-yet-creepy anecdote about staff turnover: "The shortest we ever had somebody employed here, they came here to clean the art galleries. They lasted about two hours, and then they saw some things and never came back.”
The station’s resident ghosts include the playful Frank, a woman in blue, and "many, many children ghosts."
During the investigation, Hope took us to a spot where the station's dark past is physically etched into the floor: the passenger scale—the former site of at least two gruesome crimes.
"This is our passenger scale," Hope explained. “
So this is where they would weigh the baggage and there is at least two trunk murders that occurred. Back in the, uh, turn of the century, it was a great way to get rid of a body is uh, put it in a trunk and then mail it somewhere far away from you." She then detailed the story of one young victim, Francis, who was killed and shipped in a trunk.
But the most active spirits seem to linger in specific areas.
Upstairs, near the Browning Firearms Museum, "A lot of people report seeing shadow figures of soldiers moving through this space.” She said
Hope herself once led a tour on a day the museum was closed, but the peace didn't last. "we kept getting interrupted by really loud footsteps, and I said, we're the only ones here. Like I don't know who those footsteps belong to," she recalled.
The Tragic Tale of the Lady in White
The second trunk murder, Hope believes, created the station's most famous and prolific ghost: the Lady in White. This woman, whose name was Isabella Jansen, is known to haunt the Myra Powell Gallery.
"Our lady in white is known to haunt that Myra Powell Gallery," Hope confirmed. Many people have seen her, but her presence is often detected through scent. "when she's going to be manifesting herself, they can smell her perfume. It's a very old-fashioned lavender-scented perfume."
This gallery, she added, "is the place that made somebody quit their job within three hours of starting it.”
Hope believes Isabella was the victim of the second trunk murder. "Her husband murdered her. he hit her over the head, shoved her in the trunk. There's reason to believe that she might have been still alive when she got into that trunk," Hope recounted. "But I I think she's been flagged here ever since. I haven't met the Lady in White yet.”
That was about to change.
The Ghostly Handshake
With an EMF device in hand, the energy in the Myra Powell Gallery spiked. "Oh yeah, there's definitely something here cause I can feel it," Hope noted.
I thanked the spirit for joining us, and the energy only grew stronger, prompting me to exclaim, "Oh, yeah, look at that. Hi Isabella.”
Isabella, the Lady in White, seemed to enjoy the attention. "To be fair, I usually try to ignore this. Sorry Isabella, maybe I shouldn't ignore you. Maybe I should just acknowledge you," Hope chuckled. "She seems very friendly. She liked that. She's a victim. Well, and I I think you like it when we laugh.” I said.
Hope continued to probe the spirit, asking, "Wow. You like it when we laugh? So, you like laughter, Isabella?”
Then came the startling moment when I told the group the feeling that someone was grabbing my hand.
It was almost as if Isabella was sitting right with us, I placed the paranormal device on a nearby bench and asked, "Is this where you're sitting?”
"That sure is where you're sitting," Hope responded definitively.
I offered a final goodbye: "Well, thank you, Isabella. We appreciate you," and promised, "We'll come back and visit soon.”
I definitely felt the physical contact, something like nothing else I’ve ever experienced.
We came to Union Station seeking the ghosts of a million journeys and found one who was both a victim of a tragic past and a joyful inhabitant of the present.
While the living eventually move on, Isabella and others remain, proving that the final destination isn’t always where you expect.
"There's so many spirits on the other side that want to tell their story about what this building means to them and what they experienced here in our community," Hope concluded.
Rest assured, if you listen closely, those stories are ready to come alive again—right on schedule.