Union Station, Ogden: The Haunted Railroad Station and Its Ghosts

Ogden grew up as the junction of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads, and for decades almost every traveler crossing the West by rail passed through its Union Station. The present Spanish Colonial Revival building, with its red tile roof and big white rooftop letters, was dedicated in November 1924 after fire ruined the first station. Passenger trains stopped in 1997, and Ogden City now owns the building, which holds the Utah State Railroad Museum, the John M. Browning Firearms Museum, a classic car museum, a cowboy and Western heritage museum and the Myra Powell art gallery.

It also has one of the strongest ghost reputations in Utah. A museum administrator told FOX 13 in 2025 that nearly every long-term employee has had an experience, and she described a Lady in White who smells of lavender, a playful spirit called Frank, children and the shadows of soldiers. Paranormal groups have run public tours here for years, and the nightly Ogden Ghosts walking tour starts on the plaza outside. Here is the history, the stories and how to visit.

History of Union Station

After the golden spike joined the transcontinental railroad in 1869, Ogden became the meeting point of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific lines. In 1889 the Ogden Union Railway and Depot Company opened a large brick Romanesque Revival station with a central clock tower, 33 hotel rooms, a restaurant and a barbershop. For thirty years it was the gateway to the West.

In 1923 a fire that started in one of the hotel rooms gutted the station and weakened its walls and tower. A telephone operator stayed on duty to warn people, and no one died in the fire itself. Soon afterward, though, a stone fell from the damaged clock tower and struck a railroad clerk, who died on the way to the hospital. That accident settled the decision to replace the building.

The new station, designed by architects John and Donald B. Parkinson in the Spanish Colonial Revival style and built on the old foundation, was dedicated on November 22, 1924. It served passengers through the busiest years of American rail travel, including the war years. On December 31, 1944, two passenger trains collided in heavy fog after a missed signal in what became known as the Bagley train wreck; accounts put the death toll at 48 or 50. Ghost tour guides say the dead and injured were brought back to the station.

Passenger traffic faded after the war. Ogden City took over the building in 1977 under a 50-year lease and turned it into a museum center, and the last Amtrak Pioneer pulled out in May 1997. In December 2022 the city agreed to buy the land from Union Pacific for 5.5 million dollars, so it now owns the station outright. Today it houses several museums and galleries, with old locomotives and rolling stock outside in the Spencer S. Eccles Rail Center.

The ghosts of Union Station

The Lady in White

The best-known ghost is a woman in white said to appear in the Myra Powell Gallery, announced by the smell of old-fashioned lavender perfume. Museum administrator Hope Eggett told FOX 13 in 2025 that staff call her Isabella Jansen and that she believes the woman was killed by her husband and shipped in a trunk. Visit Ogden tells a different version: a woman who died in the 1944 wreck and now roams the second floor, speaking only to men. Neither story has been matched to a record.

The girl in the trunk

Several accounts tell of a child whose body passed through the station in a trunk. Ghost tour investigators told Weber State’s student paper in 2013 that some employees believe the ghost of ten-year-old Frances Williams remains in the annex, after her mother killed her in 1913 and a baggage handler at Union Station found the trunk. FOX 13’s 2025 report places a young victim named Francis near the old passenger scale. The station’s staff say it has dozens of deaths connected to it, and Eggett cites 42 documented deaths and 49 additional bodies connected to the building.

Children, Frank and the soldiers

Staff describe a playful spirit they call Frank, a woman in blue and many child ghosts. In the Browning Theater, investigators reported a boy in the rafters and children’s voices and laughter on recorders. Near the John M. Browning Firearms Museum upstairs, people describe the shadows of soldiers, and one museum worker said he felt a pat on the shoulder he put down to Mr. Browning himself. Loud footsteps are reported when the building is closed.

What to make of it

Union Station’s stories are told by the people who work there, which sets it apart from many haunted lists, but the details shift from one telling to the next, and the station has never presented them as history. Enjoy them as the folklore of a building that saw thousands of arrivals, departures and tragedies, and enjoy the museums for what is certainly true.

Where to look

• The Myra Powell Gallery: where the Lady in White and the lavender perfume are reported.
• The upstairs galleries: the second floor named in the 1944 wreck story.
• The Browning Firearms Museum: for the soldier figures and Mr. Browning’s reported pat on the shoulder.
• The Browning Theater: where investigators described a boy in the rafters and children’s voices.
• The annex and the old passenger scale: linked to the girl in the trunk.

Visiting Union Station

Union Station stands at the west end of Historic 25th Street in downtown Ogden, about 40 minutes north of Salt Lake City. The Deseret News reported in 2023 that the station is free to enter during regular operating hours; check current hours before you go.

For the ghost stories, the Ogden Ghosts walking tour leaves Union Station Plaza every evening at 7 PM, according to the Salt Lake Tribune’s 2026 Halloween listings, and takes in Peery’s Egyptian Theater and other downtown stops. Paranormal groups have also led tours inside during the station’s Night at the Museum events in October and its Spring Scream in April. Ghost walks along 25th Street, once Ogden’s notorious ‘Two Bit Street’, also start near the station.

Combine your visit with Peery’s Egyptian Theater a few blocks east, the Bigelow (the former Ben Lomond Hotel, now apartments) on Washington Boulevard, and the Ogden City Cemetery, home of the legend of Flo.

• Visiting City-owned station with museums open to the public

Tips for your visit

• Allow two hours for the museums; the firearms and railroad collections are excellent even if you never see a ghost.
• Ask the front desk whether any special evening events or paranormal tours are scheduled during your visit.
• Join the 7 PM Ogden Ghosts walk from the plaza to hear the stories of the station and 25th Street.
• Walk around the outside to see the old locomotives in the Eccles Rail Center.
• Make a day of it with dinner on Historic 25th Street, a few steps from the station.

More haunted places nearby

• Peery's Egyptian Theater: Ogden’s 1924 movie palace and its balcony ghost
• Ogden City Cemetery: The legend of Flo and the facts behind it
• The Bigelow (Ben Lomond Hotel): Room 1102 and Utah’s most famous hotel ghost story
• Haunted places in Salt Lake City: The Rio Grande Depot, the McCune Mansion and more
• Haunted places in Utah

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: Union Station (Ogden, Utah)
• FOX 13: Is Ogden's Union Station haunted by passengers who reached the end of the line? (2025)
• The Signpost (Weber State): Ghost tours explore Ogden's paranormal hotspots (2013)
• Visit Ogden: Paranormal Ogden
• Visit Utah: Myths and legends of Ogden
• Deseret News: Haunted places in Utah (2023)
• Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Halloween events 2026