THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Father Hennepin Bluffs Park and the nearby St. Anthony Falls riverfront are associated with local ghost stories involving unexplained voices, EVP recordings and lingering spirits. Some paranormal traditions connect the activity with deaths in the Mississippi and with legends surrounding the disappearance of nearby Spirit Island.
Father Hennepin Bluffs Park occupies a wooded bluff along the Mississippi River near St. Anthony Falls. The surrounding riverfront has deep Indigenous, industrial and engineering history, including the former Spirit Island, which once stood near the falls and was heavily altered and quarried before ultimately disappearing during development of the river. Local paranormal folklore associates the park and nearby riverfront with unexplained voices and electronic voice phenomena. Ghost-tour accounts have also linked reported activity to deaths in the Mississippi and to legends surrounding the loss of Spirit Island. The claim that Spirit Island itself was specifically used as a burial ground appears in paranormal folklore but is not presented here as established historical fact.