Haunted Herrick Hotel, Gary: Children's Laughter at the Old School for the Blind

Gary is a small town on the Minnesota line in eastern South Dakota, about 90 minutes north of Sioux Falls. On its north side is a campus of red brick buildings that housed the South Dakota School for the Blind from 1900 to 1961, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. After decades of standing mostly empty, the campus reopened in 2009 as Buffalo Ridge Resort, and its Herrick Hotel, once the boys’ dormitory, now offers 19 restored rooms with original wood floors, exposed brick and carved woodwork. Underground tunnels, once walked every day by the students, still connect the hotel to the spa, the Rock Room Bar and Grill and the event spaces.

The ghost stories here are about children. Guests report a child laughing and footsteps on the upper floor with nobody there, and a member of staff has described voices, running and laughter in the tunnels and on the top floor when she was alone. The resort itself does not advertise ghosts, so what follows is what visitors and staff have reported. For other stays across the state, see our guide to haunted hotels in South Dakota.

The ghosts of The Herrick Hotel at Buffalo Ridge Resort

Laughter on the top floor

The most common report is simple: a child laughing, and footsteps crossing the upper floor of the hotel when nobody is up there. Visitors who have posted on HauntedPlaces.org describe it as gentle rather than frightening.

Nearly 60 years of children lived in these buildings, and OnlyInYourState notes that the Herrick was the boys’ dormitory, said to be home still to the ghosts of young boys, with dark figures and youthful laughter. It is a natural thought, but no particular child has ever been named.

Voices in the tunnels

A web of tunnels links the campus buildings so students could move between them in all weather. A woman named Cheyenne, who first visited in 2017 or 2018 and later went to work at the resort, wrote on HauntedPlaces in 2023 that she hears child-like voices and running in the tunnels and on the top floor, often when she is alone. She says her hair sometimes gets yanked and believes the whole property, not just the hotel, still holds some of the children who lived there.

One former student, Dorothy Fiala, a 1953 graduate, joked to South Dakota Magazine while touring the tunnels, “Thank goodness those walls can’t talk.” She meant school days, but it is quoted often by people who think the walls are still trying.

The family who left early

An older story comes from the years before the resort, when the building briefly ran as a bed and breakfast called Clementine’s. A guest, Sally Rakow, wrote in 2021 that she heard noises during the night and the hostess mentioned a family with young children who had left early. She later concluded that she and her husband had been the only guests in the house.

It is a single account from a visitor’s memory, but it fits the pattern: children heard, never seen.

A shadow in an empty room

The same staff member describes seeing a shadow walk into a room on her first visit and finding the room empty when she followed. Shadows and footsteps are the hotel’s whole repertoire. There are no tragic legends attached here, which makes it one of the gentler haunted stays in the state.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Upper-floor rooms: Where most of the footsteps and laughter are reported. Ask for the top floor when you book.
• King Jacuzzi Suite: The hotel’s largest room type, with original floors and exposed brick.
• Queen, Two Queen and Two Full rooms: Standard rooms in the restored building, good for families and hunting parties.
• The tunnels: Not a room, but the reason many people come. They connect the hotel, Talking Waters Spa, the Rock Room and the event spaces.

History of The Herrick Hotel at Buffalo Ridge Resort

Gary grew up around the Winona and St. Peter railroad in 1872, taking its name from postal agent H.B. Gary, and was the seat of Deuel County until it lost that status to Clear Lake in 1895. Residents offered their former courthouse to the state for a School for the Blind, championed by local newspaper publisher Doane Robinson, later the state historian. The school opened on March 1, 1900, as the nation’s 42nd school for the blind, according to the resort.

Over 60 years the campus grew to eight or nine buildings on 37 acres (Wikipedia counts eight built between 1899 and 1925), including an administration and classroom building, boys’ and girls’ dormitories built in 1910 and 1924, a power plant, a laundry, a barn and farm buildings. The Herrick Hotel occupies the old boys’ dormitory. The school kept a dairy, livestock, gardens and an orchard and stored produce in a root cellar that is now the Rock Room’s wine cellar. The barn’s upper level hosted South Dakota’s first sanctioned high school wrestling match.

In 1961 the school moved to Aberdeen. The buildings served as an assisted living home until the early 1980s and then stood mostly empty for nearly three decades, apart from a spell when the dormitory ran as a small bed and breakfast. The campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. In 2008 Joe Kolbach, owner of Dakota Wind, bought the property at an estate sale, restored the dormitories and the campus lake, Lake Elsie, and Buffalo Ridge Resort opened on July 3, 2009, in time for Gary’s Independence Day celebrations.

The Rock Room Bar and Grill opened in 2010 on the ground floor of the old Administration Building, and the old school auditorium is now the ballroom. In August 2023 Patricia Fields bought the resort, added Talking Waters Spa on the Administration Building’s second floor and renamed it Buffalo Ridge Resort and Spa. The resort does not say who the Herrick Hotel is named for, and we have not found a published answer.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Ask staff whether you can walk the tunnels during your stay; they connect every main building.
• Request a top-floor room, where most of the footsteps and laughter are reported.
• Eat at the Rock Room, in the old Administration Building, and ask about the root cellar that now holds the wine.
• Book a spa treatment at Talking Waters; the steam rooms are in the same building the students used.
• Gary is small and quiet. Pipestone, Minnesota, and its haunted Calumet Inn are about an hour away if you want a second haunted night.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Historic Calumet Inn, Pipestone, MN: Charlie of Room 308, across the Minnesota line
• The Palmer House Hotel, Sauk Centre, MN: one of Minnesota’s best-known haunted hotels
• Hotel Alex Johnson, Rapid City: South Dakota’s most famous haunted hotel, on the other side of the state
• Haunted hotels in South Dakota

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

• Buffalo Ridge Resort: The Herrick Hotel
• Buffalo Ridge Resort: History
• Wikipedia: South Dakota School for the Blind
• South Dakota Magazine: Buffalo Ridge Resort
• OnlyInYourState: Spine-tingling hauntings said to be true in South Dakota
• HauntedPlaces.org: Herrick Hotel

Booking links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.