Ghostly welcome awaits visitors to Governor’s Mansion

Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2000 | 9:11 a.m.

The mansion's coordinator for the past nine years says the house is haunted. And the curator for the Nevada State Museum says others agree.

"When I first came here, I didn't believe in ghosts," Helen Wiemer told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "I've been here for almost nine years and now I do."

The ghost allegedly lives in a broken-down grandfather clock.

"Helen is not the only one. Others have reported it, too," said Bob Nylen, the museum curator.

"People have reported the door in front of the clock opening, then feeling a cold wind. They'll close the door and it will open again."

Wiemer remembers a time right after she was hired and had moved into the mansion with her husband. That was the first time the ghost in the clock came calling.

"I was alone upstairs, reading, about 11 o'clock," she said. "I came downstairs to get a Coke. As I walked down the stairs, I felt a cold breeze blowing. I thought it was strange. I thought I had left a window open, but I didn't. As I proceeded down the stairs, to my horror, the door on the clock opened. I almost died."

The clock no longer works. But once in a great while, the hands will have moved, she said.

"I've never felt afraid. I think this ghost is a friendly ghost," she said."

Nylen tells of another ghost or two who supposedly haunt the mansion.

"Some people said they have seen figures of a woman and young girl, cloudy figures, as to appear on the staircase," Nylen said.

Wiemer said she's heard that story but never experienced it.

"All I've heard is a funny noise like someone is walking up there. When Mrs. Guinn first moved in, she heard a noise upstairs.

"She asked me, Helen, do you ever hear noises? I said, Yes I do. It's like someone is walking on the landing up there."