From: "D. Lutz" (d-lutz@worldnet.att.net)
To: (obiwan@ghosts.org)
Subject: Omaha's Hummel Park
Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 05:37:07 -0600
In Omaha, there is a city park on the northern outskirts named Hummel Park. This is quite possibly the most haunted place in the city, if not the state.
The background of this park is very macabre to begin with. In the early 1900's, Omaha was notorious for being very racist. Lynch mobs would ride through town and hang or otherwise mutilate any black people that happened to be in sight. As with today, most black people in Omaha back then lived in the northern part of town. So the mobs would ride through and do their thing up there the most, knowing this. They hanged so many black people that the trees still bow over the road leading to Hummel Park. The weird part is that young trees and even the grass lean toward the road outside the park and even inside the park.
All of this death associated with the park seems to have warped the very ground it's on. There are altars of Satanic worship scattered throughout the park (I've seen one of them up close.......Not cool), there is a lodge on the south side of the park where a collection of albinos live. They like to frequent the park at night, and they absolutely detest normal people (from what I hear). The lodge itself looks like a giant wooden igloo. The entire thing is fenced off-guess why.
My most recent visit follows: Sara, Kyra, and myself(jeff) decided to go out of sheer boredom. We arrived at 5:04 am (this time of year the sun doesn't rise until about 7:30 or 8:00am). Still looking like the middle of the night and very Blair Witch Project-ish, we proceed. As we were driving up to the entrance a rock or something hit the outside of the drivers side door. It scared poor Sara to death, so she insisted on eveyone holding hands. I obliged, and on we went. For some reason, just as we pull up, it started to rain. This particular entrance seems to have been cut right out of the side of the hill, because the sides are incredibly steep. Sara pointed out that halfway up the left side a few feet inside the park was where she saw the ghost car several years ago. Apparently her and bunch of her friends saw a late model car wrecked impossibly up the side of this hill, like God had picked it up, smashed it against this big bowing tree and left it suspended there. Later that night, a car with a highly damaged front end chased them out of the park and disappeared as soon as they left (there's more to it than that, but I digress...). We drove around for a while and saw a picnic area. We decided to investigate. And right in front of us was the morphing stairs. All three of us got out and ascended them and counted each cracked, crumbling one, finally reaching 188. I saw something on the top of the last one and asked Sara to point the flashlight at it. The number 188 was clearly spray painted, confirming our count. I turned around and saw the altar, and in the dim light of Sara's maglite, I saw inverted crosses and pentagrams and decided to myself that was enough for me. We turned around and headed back down the stairs, being sure to keep count. When we reached the car, the official count was 183. And no spray painted numbers. Off to our right we saw another possible altar. Upon investigation, all we saw was the numbers 4:20, a few names and gang grafitti. We figured this was just a place to get high. Satisfied by this, we started toward the car, when we heard a low rumbling sound, like an earthquake, then this horrible screaming. I thought it might have been racoons we saw earlier, but I've never heard them make that kind of sound. We were in that car and out of there. As soon as we left the picnic area, Kyra's stomach ached badly and Sara tasted blood, like her gums were bleeding. I felt somewhat dizzy and disoriented. Outside of the park we headed for the interstate to get back home when Sara and I noticed that the left side of the car was heavy and visibly leaning to that side. She even got out and checked for flats, which there weren't. We heard that weird knocking 3 more times. We had a passenger we didn't want. After getting lost and again finding the park, the weight lifted. Physical ailments went away. We went home with the only sound being the Misfits in the cd player. Noone spoke a word.
The park is in North Omaha on J.J. Pershing Dr. off of 30th street (the intersection's marked by a strange barn type building on the right) and is open daily 5 am to 11pm. The fine for trespassing after hours is 25 dollars plus court costs, though I doubt the police will set foot outside of their cruisers.
-Jeff
Ed from Omaha adds:
From: haedje@webtv.net
To: obiwan@ghosts.org
Subject: Hummel Park
Date: Monday, September 08, 2003 10:11 PM
I, being an Omaha resident am very familiar with the park, having spent a lot of time there hiking and picnicking with my family and friends throughout the years. I agree that it is probably haunted, but I just wanted to set a few facts straight for you. The afore mentioned "albino village" or wooden igloo building that you identified on the park's south end is or was, a swanky private restaurant called the A-RI-RANG Club. The albino village is purely an urban legend that has been circulating since my dad was a teen in the late 50's and probably even before. Unfortunately, the park is run down due to budget cuts in our city, but it was not always so. Even into the late 1990's the park was very well maintained and police patrolled it almost hourly. A caretaker lived on site until just recently, his job being cut and the house torn down. Now the park is left to vandals and pseudo satanic worshippers. It is a very beautiful park, and I am trying to get community support and voluteer help to restore it to former glories. My brothers and I are amateur ghost hunters as well, and would be very interested to hear from you. Thanks, Ed
More information on ghosts.org:
Some more information from a reader.
A reader's experience at the park.
Links to other sites about Hummel Park:
Spooky photos
of the park from BourbonStreet Ghost Stories.
If you have an account of a famous haunting you'd like to share, or more information to add to a haunting already listed, please feel free to email me.
This page (http://www.ghosts.org/hummelpark.html) last updated April 14, 2005.