Fort Abraham Lincoln and the Custer House: History and Ghost Stories

Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park sits seven miles south of Mandan, on the west bank of the Missouri River across from Bismarck. It holds two very different histories: the cavalry post George Armstrong Custer commanded in the 1870s, and On-A-Slant Village, where Mandan families lived in earth lodges for about two centuries before smallpox devastated them in 1781.

The ghost stories belong to the fort. Guides and staff at the reconstructed Custer House describe a presence that taps visitors on the shoulder and moves dishes and candlesticks, and visitors talk about a woman in black at an upstairs window. A park ranger has described a soldier in an 1880s uniform who vanished in front of him. Below we separate what is on record from what is told, and explain how to visit.

History of Fort Abraham Lincoln

In June 1872 two companies of the 6th US Infantry under Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Huston Jr. built a small post on the bluffs across the Missouri from what would become Bismarck, to protect railroad surveyors and settlers. They called it Fort McKeen. That November it was renamed Fort Abraham Lincoln and a much larger cavalry post was added on the flat land below, and in 1873 the 7th Cavalry arrived with its commander, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.

Custer and his wife, Elizabeth, known as Libbie, moved into a new commanding officer’s house in the summer of 1873. It burned down in February 1874 and was replaced with a larger home, which became the center of the post’s social life. From here the 7th Cavalry marched out in the spring of 1876 for the Great Sioux War.

On Sunday, June 25, 1876, the officers’ wives gathered with Libbie in her parlor to sing hymns. They did not know that Custer and about half his regiment had been killed that day at the Little Bighorn, in Montana Territory. The news reached Libbie on July 6, when Captain William McCaskey and two other officers came to the back door of the Custer House to tell her. Libbie left the fort soon afterward, never remarried, and spent the rest of her long life writing and speaking in defense of her husband’s reputation. She died in 1933.

The fort lost its purpose once the railroad pushed west, and the army abandoned it in 1891. Within about a year local people had taken the buildings apart for their lumber and nails. In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt signed the deed giving the land to North Dakota as a state park. In 1934 the Civilian Conservation Corps built a visitor center, shelters and roads, reconstructed the blockhouses on the hill, marked the sites of fort buildings with cornerstones and rebuilt Mandan earth lodges.

The Custer House you can tour today was built in 1989, in time for North Dakota’s centennial, as a careful reproduction on the original site. The barracks, commissary and other fort buildings have been rebuilt since, and costumed guides lead living history tours in summer. Nearby, the park’s On-A-Slant Village has six reconstructed earth lodges, including a large council lodge, that tell the story of the Mandan people who lived on this ground long before the army came.

The ghost stories of Fort Abraham Lincoln

A presence in the Custer House

North Dakota Tourism has written that tour guides and other workers at the house say it is haunted by a presence that has tapped people on the shoulder, moved dishes and candlesticks and even wiped its hands on valuable linen. The house that carries these stories is a 1989 reproduction, so if you believe in hauntings, the story is about the place, not the boards.

The state’s tourism office repeats an old piece of lore that spirits of people who die violently return to where they were happiest. For Custer, it suggests, that could be the house on the Missouri bluffs.

The woman in black

The most repeated sighting is of a woman dressed in black at a second-story window, and visitors also describe footsteps and whispers inside. She is usually said to be Libbie Custer, still waiting for news from the Little Bighorn or mourning a husband who never came home. Nobody has put a date or a named witness to these sightings, so treat them as legend.

The park’s own Haunted Fort shows have used the story of the officers who brought Libbie the news, with women’s voices sobbing in the dark. That is storytelling for an October attraction, not a documented haunting.

The photograph of Tom Custer

One of the more specific stories comes from North Dakota Tourism: after a dinner party at the Custer House, a photograph of Lieutenant Tom Custer, the commander’s brother, flew off the piano and landed on the floor, with no open window to explain it.

The soldier at the infantry post

Park ranger Dan Schelsky told North Dakota Tourism that during a Haunted Fort night he saw a man in an 1880s infantry uniform, carrying a rifle, walking toward him near the infantry post on the hill. When he looked back, the man was gone. Staff have also spoken of footsteps, voices and figures around the rebuilt barracks, and of weeping and stomping in other fort buildings.

The fort had real deaths behind its stories: soldiers who froze in hard winters, men killed in brawls in the saloon towns nearby or drowned in the river, and suicides. Those are the people the barracks stories are usually said to belong to.

Moving drapes in the billiard room

When a Bismarck radio reporter toured the Custer House after dark with a guide in 2017, she wrote that the drapes in the billiard room seemed to move while they were talking. It is a small story, but it is one of the few first-hand accounts published with a date.

Where to look

• The Custer House parlor: where the officers’ wives sang hymns with Libbie on the day of the battle, and where the presence is said to move dishes and candlesticks.
• The upstairs windows: where the woman in black is said to appear, looking out toward the river.
• The billiard room: where a reporter saw the drapes move during an after-dark tour in 2017.
• The infantry post on the hill: the site of the original Fort McKeen, with its CCC blockhouses, where a ranger saw a soldier vanish.
• The barracks: rebuilt cavalry barracks where staff report footsteps and voices, and one of the buildings used for Haunted Fort.

Visiting Fort Abraham Lincoln and the Custer House

The park is open year round for its trails, campground and river views, and it has a visitor center, a commissary and a trolley. The Custer House is shown on guided living history tours from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, with guides in period dress. Tour passes cost $8 for adults and $5 for students from kindergarten to 12th grade, sold at the Visitor Center or the Commissary. Groups should call the park ahead on 701-667-6340.

Haunted Fort: each October since 2002 the park has run Haunted Fort, which began as a lantern-lit tour of the Custer House and has grown into about ten nights of staged haunted houses in the fort buildings. It is a scare attraction with actors, not a ghost tour or an investigation, and it is popular, so check the park’s events page for dates.

Ghost hunting: the park does not offer public paranormal investigations. Haunted Rooms does not run ghost hunts in North Dakota; our nearest events are in Montana.

Give On-A-Slant Village its own time. It is a place of Mandan history and heritage rather than a ghost story, and its earth lodges are open for self-guided visits in summer.

• Visiting State park, open year round; Custer House by guided tour in summer
• Tours Living history tours of the Custer House, Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day
• Hours and season Check the park site for Visitor Center and tour times
• Tickets Custer House tour pass $8 adults, $5 students (K to 12), sold at the Visitor Center or Commissary
• Ghost hunting No public paranormal investigations; Haunted Fort is a staged October attraction

Tips for your visit

• Book a summer Custer House tour first; the guides are the best source of the house’s stories.
• Visit the blockhouses on the hill near sunset for the view over the Missouri and Bismarck.
• Come back in October for Haunted Fort if you want the scare, but expect actors and chainsaws, not quiet history.
• Check the park website before you go: Visitor Center hours change with the season.
• Pair the trip with the Liberty Memorial Building and the Former Governors’ Mansion in Bismarck, about 15 minutes away.

More haunted places nearby

• Haunted places in North Dakota: the Stack Monster, the Former Governors’ Mansion and the Gray Lady of Sims are all within an hour
• Haunted hotels in North Dakota: for a haunted place to stay on your trip
• Rough Riders Hotel, Medora: a historic hotel two hours west, near Theodore Roosevelt National Park
• Haunted places in Montana: heading west toward the Little Bighorn
• Haunted places in North Dakota

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.

• North Dakota Parks and Recreation: Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park
• Wikipedia: Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park
• Wikipedia: Fort Abraham Lincoln
• Prairie Public: Libbie Custer
• North Dakota Tourism: Legend and lore
• North Dakota Tourism: North Dakota ghost stories
• Haunted Attraction Network: The evolution of Haunted Fort (2019, updated 2026)
• SuperTalk 1270: The real hauntings of Fort Abraham Lincoln, the Custer House (2017)