Hummel Park – Omaha 

Hummel Park, which is said to be one of the most haunted places in Omaha and is rumored to be an ancient Native American burial ground, was once the site of a fur trading post run by Jean Pierre Cabanne in 1823. It was later named in tribute to J.B. Hummel, a longtime superintendent of the Omaha Parks and Recreation Department. The park has a very eerie feel to it. Spread over 200 acres, it is filled with steep hills and winding dirt roads. An area at the eastern edge of the park is known as “Devil’s Slide” because of the many suicides that have taken place there.

Erosion has washed the area free from trees and resulted in steep cliffs and sharp drop-offs. One of Hummel Park’s most mysterious characteristics is the trees that bow over the road entering the park. It is believed that many black men and women were hanged from these trees in the early 1900s by local racist lynch mobs—and their ghosts still dangle from the trees. Park visitors claim to hear screams and cries coming from this park late at night.

Another of Hummel Park’s wellknown mysteries is the “Morphing Stairs,” a long, stone staircase located at the top of the park. These stairs are said to “morph” because nobody knows the exact number of stairs in the staircase. Each time a person counts the number going up or down, a different number is counted on the return trip. The “Morphing Stairs” lead down a large hill into a valley containing a decrepit pit area with a deteriorating shelter house.

Spray-painted markings in this area, such as inverted pentagrams and swastikas, along with the presence of dead animal carcasses, indicate that Hummel Park is a place where occult rituals and devil worship have taken place. In addition to these satanic rituals, numerous murders have been committed in the park. One of these murders involved an Omaha prostitute named Laura LaPointe who, in 1983, was sexually assaulted and then robbed of $25 by four other prostitutes. She was beaten to death with a 6-foot tree limb and a softball bat and was later discovered in a roadside ditch located in a heavily wooded area of the park.

The screams and cries heard by park visitors, coupled with local ghost hunters’ claims of unexplained electromagnetic readings and sightings of various ghostly apparitions, indicate a high level of paranormal activity at Hummel Park.

Written by — David P. Rodriguez Founder and Lead Investigator, Paranormal Research & Investigative Studies

HUMMEL PARK
11808 JOHN J. PERSHING DRIVE OMAHA,
NEBRASKA 68112

Taken from the: Encyclopedia of Haunted Places -Ghostly Locales from around the World – Compiled & Edited by Jeff Belanger – Copyright 2005 by Jeff Belanger