When thinking of Pleasant View, the words “scary” or “haunted” isn’t usually the first to come to mind. After all, the city is named “Pleasant” View. However, there are few stories that might be worth sharing at your upcoming Halloween party.

A Ghostly Visit

One night in the middle of the last century, Sally and Weldon Cragun (pictured above) put their children to bed in their historic home. Sometime after their own heads hit the pillow, they were awakened by an unnerving noise coming from the stairway. Lying side by side in complete silence, they listened as an eerie shuffling and thumping sound moved down the hall and into their bedroom, growing louder and closer until it stopped suddenly at the foot of their bed. Looking towards their feet, they saw nothing. After a moment of complete silence, the “shuffle, shuffle, thump” moved out the door, down the hall and disappeared into the night.

Once the frightening moment had passed, Weldon turned to his wife and told her that what they had experienced was the visitation of his deceased Uncle Wilson, the previous owner of their home. Weldon recognized the distinctive sound of his uncle’s shuffling feet, juxtaposed with the pounding of his cane. The only explanation that the couple could make sense of was that Uncle Wilson had returned to see what they had made of his home.

Trick…or Treat?

In the early days of settlement in Pleasant View, it wasn’t uncommon for Ute and Shoshone natives to let themselves into settlers’ homes unannounced. The newcomers did their best to befriend the natives by giving them food and allowing these erratic visits to occur. The Rhees family was a frequent favorite of these visitors because of their home’s proximity to the native camps. One Sunday morning in the 1880s, Charles H. Rhees was lathering up his face in preparation to shave when a native burst into the home, demanding food. The native, seeing Charles’s half-covered foaming face, ran away with horror that he would catch this white man’s disease.