Is Fort Collins Haunted? An Interview with Lori Juszak; Local Ghost Expert and Entrepreneur
If you are a fan of all that is spooky and scary in Fort Collins, then you have surely heard of Lori Juszak. Much of the ghost scene in Fort Collins would be incomplete without her.
Juszak is the owner of Fort Collins Ghost Tours, and the author of the book, “Ghosts of Fort Collins.” She has spoken to countless businesses about their haunted experiences and done months of research about Fort Collins's terrifying history.
Juszak was kind enough to let me speak with her over the phone and ask her about how she helped start the ghost tourism industry in Fort Collins.
Q: Can you give me a gist of how you got started with your career? You have a very interesting job as the owner of Fort Collins Ghost Tours, so I would love to hear about your story.
A: Well, when we first moved to Fort Collins back in late 2009, I went looking for a history tour since I loved history. There were no tours of Fort Collins at all! I decided Old Town would be the perfect place to create a walking tour. I spent six months interviewing, doing research at the archives, and also interviewing building owners to get a history of the whole area. Everywhere I went, the business owners would look sheepish at the end of the conversation, and I would ask if they had anything to add. They would almost always say, “Hey, did you know this place is haunted?” At first, I would think, oh yeah, sure it is. But after my 30th interview with somebody saying the same thing, I thought, well, there must be something here. We decided to put ghost tours on the schedule as well as history tours, but we could not sell a history tour. We couldn’t even give away a history tour! But the ghost tours would fill up immediately.
Q: That’s super cool! So you didn’t have any previous interests in ghosts at all? You just realized Fort Collins was a sort of “hotspot” for it?
A: Well, I did grow up in a house that was supposedly haunted. But I’m not a real “ghosty” person. But then when all of this happened, I thought, okay, this is interesting. Then, about two months in, we’d had so many haunted things happen on the tours that I even said to myself, “I don’t want to do this anymore.”
Q: That’s crazy! So do you believe in ghosts yourself then?
A: There have been so many things that have happened over the years that are completely unexplainable. It’s just been so blatant. People have gotten photos of apparitions. People have gotten touched. We’ve had a rock thrown out from a room when nobody was inside. Just really bizarre things. I’ve had one door that slams every time I give a tour, and there was nobody in that room and the door had no spring on it.
Q: I can’t even imagine. That is freaky! What happened that made you reconsider leading the tours?
A: We used to have a stop on the tour where we would go into the back of this hallway above ground in a venue in Fort Collins. There was a story about the business owner at the time who went into the bathroom and never came out. So, I would stand in the hallway and tell the ghost stories to the tour groups. One day, very early in the tours, I was telling the story, and the restroom door slammed. I thought, “Oh my god, there’s a woman in there, and she probably won’t appreciate all 15 of us standing outside the bathroom door.” I told the assistant that I would wait for her and apologize before telling the story. So I waited and waited, and finally, I knocked on the door and there was nobody inside. There were no windows and no springs on the door.
The next weekend, I told the story to a new tour group again, and I heard the door slam again. At that point, I immediately went to open the door, and there was nobody in there. I got kinda freaked out because it was a violent slam. I contacted my grandmother in our family who is a very nurturing and spiritual woman, and she tried to reassure me that there was nothing bad in the room, and it must have been something physical happening with the door. She had me put my hand on the door to inspect it to see if there were any springs or mechanisms that could make it slam. Suddenly, the door slammed so hard that it pushed me backward and my fingers almost got caught in the door.
At that point, I thought “whatever is in that room is not friendly, and I’m not going back.” I never told that story again.
Q: That gave me chills. Do you ever have experiences where people get too freaked out?
A: Yeah, every now and then we have someone faint on the tour. It’s usually not because it’s that scary, but it’s really because they locked their knees. We haven’t had any real incidents, but we do very often have people who freak out a little bit when we’re underground. We usually have an assistant circling the area who can come by if we need to take someone back upstairs.
Q: Ah, that makes sense. Do you think running all the ghost tours has taken a toll on you?
A: For me, it has. But with some people, they think it’s really cool. I mean, I love being scared, and I love Halloween, but being around it so much wasn’t a good healthy thing for me. Plus, the tour guides we have now are so much better at it. They are so theatrical, and they aren’t nearly as bothered. They’re fascinated when stuff happens, and they’re not nearly as freaked out as I am.
Q: Well I’m glad you’ve been able to turn it into something positive by managing the tour and hiring people who are interested in it! I saw you wrote a book about all of this too, so what was that like?
A: Well I love to write, but I’m not particularly great at it. My son helped by writing parts, and he did a bang-up job of it. He also took some wonderful photographs. We just took all of the experiences that we’d had and mixed it in with Fort Collins history. We took a lot of time to create those links between the ghosts and the history in some ways too. Fort Collins has a fascinating history and so many weird things have happened here.
Q: That’s really cool! The history and legacy that you have built up for yourself is really impressive. What makes you passionate about the Fort Collins ghost scene?
A: The people who go on the tours are wonderful, and it’s just so much fun. My tour guides and I have worked together for 10 years, and we’ve made so many good connections. We also love our business owners who we partner with, and they are so kind for letting us show the haunted places inside of their businesses. It’s a really fun job to be in.
