The University of Idaho Argonaut

When Judy Allen started working at the Nez Perce Tribe Head Start program, no one told her what she was getting herself into.
For 11 years, Allen worked as a janitor for the program and said she witnessed some of the most hair-raising events in the building.
“This is the first job I’ve prayed so much at,” she said.
The two-story brick building, located in Lapwai, is less than an hour’s drive from Moscow and is renowned as one of the most haunted places in Idaho. Once called Fort Lapwai, the building served as barracks for soldiers in the 1860s and eventually became a tuberculosis sanatorium. 

Remodeled to serve the needs of the Head Start program, the building was sectioned into classrooms for children and office space for employees.
While wrapping up her duties in the large conference room on the second floor, Allen said she heard knocking downstairs. Allen said she figured the knocking was an employee needing to get inside and headed to the first floor.
Once there, she found no one, only to realize the knocking she had heard had been replaced with the sound of chairs moving overhead, Allen said.
“I thought maybe they were having a meeting I didn’t know about,” she said.

But when Allen returned to the conference room, there was no surprise meeting, just Allen and a room of chairs strewn haphazardly. The room was not as she had
left it.
Sandra Taylor, a teacher at the program for eight years, said the building has been blessed more than once by local medicine men in an attempt to keep haunting at bay. She said the blessings help but don’t last.
Taylor said there have been many times she arrived at school early to find the lights on, toys strewn over the floor and the radio blaring. She said she heard reports of neighbors seeing lights flashing in the rooms after hours.

Once Taylor said she witnessed the ghost of a young native girl dressed in an old, beaded dress. The girl had long, black hair and stared at her, whining and rocking in a chair, she said. Despite her fear, Taylor said she never felt threatened.
“They’re here. They’re accepting us to a point,” she said. “They’re not there to hurt us … they did make you know their presence was there.”
Taylor said the most hostile act employees have reported is hair pulling.
“We’ve had our share of spooks,” said Chrystal Rabago, health safety specialist for the program. “It’s probably just kids that were left there.”

Once a line of books was discovered after the clean-up crew had gone, Rabago said. The books were taken from the shelves and set in a line from the classroom to an office 15 feet away.
After occurrences started piling up, Allen said she could no longer clean the rooms without the radio turned up to avoid hearing her name called. She said she sometimes attempted to talk with spirits in the room. She wore a necklace a friend gave her to ward off the dead.
“I (wore it) for two years I was so scared,” she said. “I don’t know if people know how haunted it is.”

Allen’s list of freak occurrences has stopped growing, however, after the Head Start program was forced to relocate several months ago in response to black mold, a toxic mold that can cause serious health risks, found in the basement.
Taylor said she would move back to the old building if given the chance but would never sleep there overnight.
“I just wonder if they kind of expected us to go,” she said, “if they’re kind of content now.”