Mount Marty College

Mount Marty College stands as a historically significant educational institution in Yankton, South Dakota, established with a mission to provide higher education within a religious context. The college campus encompasses multiple buildings reflecting decades of institutional growth and development. Among these structures, Whitby Hall has emerged as the singular location most notoriously associated with paranormal phenomena, having gained a reputation as one of the most actively haunted dormitory buildings in the upper Midwest. Whitby Hall first opened its doors in 1955 as a residential facility intended to house students, and from its inception the building appears to have become inhabited by entities of a distinctly non-corporeal nature alongside its living occupants.

The architectural layout and design of Whitby Hall contributes to its haunted character, with multiple dormitory rooms and residential corridors providing numerous locations where paranormal events have been documented. One of the most notable hotspots within Whitby Hall has been identified as Room 200, which achieved particular notoriety among students and paranormal researchers due to the intensity of supernatural activity reported within its boundaries. A peculiar characteristic of this room involves electrical lighting behavior, with students and staff noting that lights within the corridor fail to reach all the way to the door, creating anomalous darkness that defies conventional explanation. According to accounts from those with knowledge of the building's history, Room 200 was once blessed by a priest to mitigate paranormal activity, with the reported result that haunting phenomena apparently transferred to adjacent Room 201, suggesting spiritual forces responsive to religious intervention yet unwilling to entirely vacate the space.

The entities inhabiting Whitby Hall appear to be multiple and distinct in their characteristics. A prominent apparition manifests as a man wearing gray polyester pants, likely dating the haunting to the 1970s or 1980s. Other figures observed include men dressed in blue suits, consistent with Whitby Hall's designation as a dormitory for young men in religious training. An additional apparition appears as a white mist-like figure lacking defined form. Most disturbingly, a boy is said to have hanged himself within the attic, with his spirit remaining present within the structure and manifesting through footstep sounds and mysterious disturbances. The suicide appears to have generated a particularly strong residual haunting, suggesting that violent or traumatic death may create particularly potent paranormal manifestations.

Phenomena associated with Whitby Hall include widespread electrical interference affecting lights, electronic devices, and electrical systems throughout the building. Students have reported mysterious malfunctions of shower fixtures and water fountains that operate abnormally without human intervention. Ghostly footsteps have been heard traversing corridors and staircases with rhythmic cadence. Elevator disturbances have been documented, with elevators moving between floors without being called. Most notably, one female student vanished entirely from Whitby Hall under unexplained circumstances. The reputation of Whitby Hall as an excessively haunted location became sufficiently pronounced that the college administration closed the building to student residential use, curtailing its function as a dormitory. Despite its closure, paranormal researchers have continued to document ongoing supernatural activity within its walls, making Whitby Hall a recognized landmark of American collegiate hauntings.