Miramont Castle

Perusing a book titled “Journeys,” the story of the Sisters of Mercy written by Kathleen O’Brien, one finds an account of the departure of Father Jean Baptiste Francolon in 1900.  The Mother Superior, Mother Baptist, harshly accused the Father of accosting children.  She then threatened to expose him.  In response, the Father cursed her, telling her that she would be dead within a year’s time.

Apparently the accusation reached the public ear and Angus Gillis, driving a wagon in town, came across an angry crowd headed for the Colorado haunted house.  Driving ahead, Angus warned the Father, secreted him under a blanket in his wagon, and drove him to Colorado Springs where Father Francolon left abruptly for Europe.

A sad and creepy postscript to this tale is that in August of 1901, the very next year, Mother Baptist died quite horribly in a train accident while traveling from Durango to Silverton.

A less substantiated incident is that of a nun, Henrietta, who hanged herself, supposedly because she was carrying the child of Father Francolon, who refused to give up his priesthood and marry her.

It seems that Sister Henrietta never left Miramont Castle, a Colorado haunted house, and is still seen occasionally.  There also is a little girl on the fourth floor, but who she is remains a mystery, although one psychic thought she might have been a patient who died there.  A transparent Victorian couple has been seen on the grand staircase, once by the president of the Manitou Historical Society, and a Victorian widow sometimes appears in the mirrors in the mother’s room.  A Native American is another regular visitor.

Phenomena are so common that there are books on the third level for visitors to relate any odd occurrences that they encounter.  And the entries are many.  With its many unsolved mysteries, the Miramont Castle is among the greatest Colorado haunted houses.