Begich Towers, Whittier: The Haunted Town Under One Roof

Whittier is one of the strangest towns in America. It sits at the head of Passage Canal in Prince William Sound, walled in by mountains and glaciers, and the only road in is a single-lane tunnel shared with the railroad that closes at night. Most of its roughly 270 year-round residents live in Begich Towers, a concrete Army building from the Cold War that became, in the town’s own phrase, a community under one roof.

It also has a reputation as one of Alaska’s haunted buildings. The ghost stories are modest, told by residents with a shrug rather than a shiver, but they come from the people who live there. This guide covers the history of the building and the town, what residents have said about its ghosts and how to visit Whittier respectfully.

History of Begich Towers and Whittier

Whittier grew up around a US Army port and railroad terminal at the head of Passage Canal, reached through a rail tunnel dug through the mountains in the 1940s. In the Cold War the Army made the post permanent and built two enormous concrete buildings designed to house the garrison without anyone having to go outside in the long, snowy winters.

The first was the Buckner Building, finished in 1953 for up to 1,000 soldiers, with a theater, a bowling alley and a jail; it was once called the city under one roof. The second, begun in 1953 and finished in 1957, was the Hodge Building, designed as the headquarters of the Army Corps of Engineers and named for Colonel William Walter Hodge, who commanded the 93rd Engineer Regiment on the Alcan Highway. The Army used it until the early 1960s.

Whittier was badly hit by the Good Friday earthquake of March 27, 1964: a local tsunami killed 13 people. The Army left soon afterward, and the town carried on with only a few dozen civilians. The Hodge Building became a condominium, and in 1972 it was renamed Begich Towers Condominium in memory of Nick Begich, Alaska’s congressman, who disappeared on a flight over Alaska that year and is presumed to have died in a plane crash. The Buckner, meanwhile, was abandoned and slowly fell apart.

Today Begich Towers has close to 200 apartments over 14 floors. The ground floors hold the post office, a general store, a laundromat, a small church, the police station, a health clinic and city offices, and a tunnel links the building to the school behind it so children never have to go outside in a storm. Until 2000 the only way in to town was by train. That year the old rail tunnel through Maynard Mountain opened to cars as the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, about 2.5 miles long and the longest combined rail and highway tunnel in North America. Traffic takes turns with trains, and the tunnel closes overnight, at about 10:30 PM.

Whittier’s population swells in summer with fishermen, kayakers and cruise passengers, and falls to around 270 people in winter, the 2020 census count. Most of them are in Begich Towers, which is why visitors describe a town that seems to vanish indoors when the weather turns.

The ghosts of Begich Towers

The whistler and the heavy walker

In 2012 the Anchorage Daily News asked Whittier about its ghosts, and residents of Begich Towers were matter-of-fact about them. One ghost whistles as he strolls through the building. Another has a heavy footstep that echoes through the corridors and up and down the stairs. Nobody claimed to know who either of them was. Executive assistant Dyanna Barnes said some of her stories were too scary to share, but that overall the ghosts were mostly harmless and that residents just live with it. ‘They haven’t hurt anybody,’ she said.

The hungry ghost in the kitchen

The most quoted story involves the city manager at the time, Bob Prunella. According to the paper, he woke one night to rustling in his kitchen, as if someone were rummaging for food, and reached for his gun before deciding it was a ghost. When he looked, no one was there.

Why people believe it

Begich Towers is a big, old concrete building with long corridors, stairwells and service spaces, packed with families and often cut off by snow. Pipes knock, wind finds its way in and footsteps carry. Add a town that once housed an Army garrison and lost people to a tsunami, and ghost stories are almost inevitable. None of the accounts is linked to a known death in the building, and we found no record that would explain them. The stories are best enjoyed as what they are: the folklore of a town that lives under one roof.

The Buckner Building next door

Many visitors confuse Whittier’s two ghost stories. The abandoned Buckner Building, a short walk away, has a darker reputation: the town’s museum curator told the Anchorage Daily News in 2013 of water running through dead pipes and of the word ‘Redrum’ painted on a wall. It is fenced, owned by the city and full of asbestos, lead paint and PCBs, and trespassers are not welcome. Look at it from the road only.

Where to look

• The corridors: Where the whistling and the heavy footsteps are said to be heard. They are residents’ hallways, not public space.
• The stairwells: Where the heavy walker is said to stomp up and down at night.
• The ground floor: The public part of the building, with the post office, store and city offices.
• The view from the harbor: The best way for visitors to see Begich Towers, with the mountains rising straight up behind it.

Visiting Whittier and Begich Towers

Whittier is south of Anchorage by the Seward Highway and the Whittier tunnel, an easy day trip and a starting point for boat trips into Prince William Sound. Check the tunnel schedule before you go: cars take turns with trains, and the tunnel closes overnight, so missing the last opening means a night in town.

Begich Towers is people’s home. The public offices on the ground floor are open during business hours, but the corridors and upper floors are private, so do not wander the building looking for ghosts. If you want to stay inside, some condos in the building are rented to visitors, and in 2015 NPR found a bed and breakfast running on the top two floors. Otherwise, walk around the outside, look up at the mountains and imagine winter, when the town lives almost entirely indoors.

• Visiting A residential condominium; public offices inside, but the homes and corridors are private
• Ghost hunting No; this is where people live

Tips for your visit

• Check the Whittier tunnel timetable and plan your return before you set off.
• See the building from the harbor side for the most dramatic view.
• Treat the corridors as private: residents are happy to talk, but it is their home.
• Look at the Buckner Building from the road only; it is fenced and hazardous.
• Pair the trip with a night at the Historic Anchorage Hotel or the Van Gilder Hotel in Seward.

More haunted places nearby

• Haunted places in Anchorage: an easy drive up the Seward Highway, with the city’s haunted hotels and auditorium
• Van Gilder Hotel, Seward: a 1916 hotel on the Kenai Peninsula with a ghost named Fannie
• Haunted hotels in Alaska: historic hotels with ghost stories you can book
• Haunted places in Alaska

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• Wikipedia: Begich Towers
• Wikipedia: Whittier, Alaska
• Anchorage Daily News: Notoriously haunted Alaska places (2012)
• Anchorage Daily News: Shadow of abandoned Buckner Building looms over Whittier (2013)
• Wikipedia: Buckner Building
• CAI / NPR: Welcome to Whittier, a community under one roof (2015)
• Messy Nessy: Alaska's strangest town living under one roof (2020)