Utah
Utah ghost stories: Draper’s haunted history
I don’t know if I believe in ghosts. But I very much believe in ghost tours.
Ghost tours are one of my favorite spooky season festivities. “Isn’t spooky season over?” you might ask. I, for one, don’t think so. The weather leading up to Halloween was unseasonably warm and it never truly felt gloomy enough to really get into the haunted spirit. But now, the week when we turned back the clocks, it’s been freezing in the mornings and I’ve felt existential dread every day at 1 p.m. when the sun starts to set. So I’m feeling gloomier and spookier than ever, and ready to think about how my town might be haunted.
I’ve done a lot of ghost tours in major cities, often to the chagrin of my travel companions. I forced my mom to take a Jack the Ripper tour with me in London. I’ll be honest, that one was more gruesome than I had anticipated. My husband had to tromp around Chicago with me for the mobsters and murder tour, which again, was pretty detailed about the specific ways the “ghosts” had been murdered. And I signed my friends and myself up for the official Savannah, Georgia, ghost tour. Which was, once again, gruesome.
These big, touristy cities all seemed to have plenty of gnarly stories to fill hours worth of guides’ tales while walking around their downtowns. It’s something that would never work in my small Utah city, I assumed. Foolishly.
So I was surprised and delighted to learn that there was a Draper, Utah, ghost tour available. I was so excited that I signed up without realizing I would be out of town for the last available tour date. When I reached out to cancel my reservation, the tour guide, Anna Sokol, kindly offered a private tour for when I was back in town.
This was Sokol’s third year doing the tour. Sokol — a history and spooky story enthusiast — started offering the free service while she was still in high school, believing she could gather enough spine-tingling stories about historic Draper to put together a tour. She was correct.
Now, as a freshman at Brigham Young University, Sokol has stayed committed to the tour and commuted back and forth from Provo to Draper to entertain the ghost-curious Draperites on many October nights.
We met in Draper Historic Park near the gazebo the day after Halloween, where she handed me the ghost detector she usually hands to children on the tour. Sokol was equipped with a binder full of dates, images and newspaper clippings, and a head full of Draper’s scariest stories. She began by pointing out the statue of Ebenezer Brown, the pioneer who settled in Draper in 1849. His life wasn’t any spookier than a typical pioneer, but, according to Sokol, a few generations down the family line, Brown’s great-great-great-grandson murdered his wife and tried to plead insanity. His plea failed when it quickly became apparent that his motive was long-held misogyny.
Next, Sokol showed me a home built in 1918 to house World War I veterans. It’s been a number of different businesses over the years and now functions as the coffee and soda shop Bubbles and Beans. It was Sokol’s high school job at the shop, and a spooky encounter she had there, that piqued her interest in Draper ghosts in the first place.
“We always knew it was a little haunted,” she told me.
One day, when she showed up for work, she found a few police officers outside the house talking to her co-workers. They had called the police after hearing footsteps in the attic and assuming there must be a squatter inside. But when the police went to the attic to investigate, they found that the layer of dust that coated the floor remained undisturbed. This was confusing news to Sokol’s co-workers, who had used a selfie stick to raise a phone up to the window of the attic and captured a dark and blurry picture that showed the reflection of two eyes. But when they went to show the police the photo, it was gone from the phone.
Virtually every business in the area has similar spooky stories, Sokol learned when she asked the people in these places to share. The employees at the salon around the corner from the soda shop told Sokol about the ghost they believe haunts the space. They have named her Myrtle. Sokol showed me the Sorenson home, once occupied by a woman named Martina. Martina enjoyed sitting in her yellow rocking chair and listening to baseball games on the radio up until her death in 1954. Years later, some teens attempted to break into the Sorenson home, but were deterred when they spotted the silhouette of a woman in a rocking chair, and heard the faint sounds of a baseball game.
But it was in the small cemetery between many of the houses-turned-businesses where Sokol shared the town’s spookiest stories. There were stories of teen troublemakers taunting spirits and regretting it when a malevolent spirit allegedly revealed itself. Stories of visions of the deceased at vigils and bright images in the sky. The most unsettling story, however, had no supernatural elements, but instead revealed how gruesome history is on its own.
Moroni Clawson was murdered and initially buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. His body at the time was unidentified, so a kind-hearted police officer purchased clothes for Clawson to be buried in. When Clawson’s brother later claimed the body and requested to have it moved to Draper, officials exhumed the coffin. And they were startled to find Clawson’s body unclothed within.
Clawson had been the latest victim of the grave robber Jean Baptiste. A search of Baptiste’s home revealed he had been robbing graves for years, and nearly 300 plots were violated, many of them belonging to women and children. Baptiste was exiled to an island in the Great Salt Lake. But the exile didn’t last long before he fashioned a raft out of the door and sides of his shack, escaped and was never seen again. It was a gruesome and upsetting story.
And it numbered among the best I’ve heard on any ghost tour. Because the best ghost tours, led by the best guides, reveal that history doesn’t need any supernatural elements to make our hair stand on end. It’s plenty spooky on its own, so long as it’s presented correctly. And can, sneakily, imbue a respect for the people and places of our towns’ histories. “It makes life special to know the background of the buildings and the people who came before us,” Sokol explained.
“I love history,” Sokol told me. “And I think it’s just so much more palatable and so many more people are interested if there’s a spooky element to it.”
She loves history so much that she’s committed to doing the tour until the day she dies. “I love that it’s accessible,” she said. “I love that I can just say, come to Draper Park at 6:30 the weekend before Halloween and I’ll teach you a little bit about history. I’m an enthusiast.”
Next year, I’m taking everyone I know on the tour with me. Because I think it’s important to know the history of where we live. And it’s fun to feel spooked every once in a while.
Until then, I’ll be watching for updates at @draperhistoricghosttour on Instagram.
Helicopters and planes were seen dumping water on the fire and flying low over the campus Saturday evening.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A fire breaks out above the University of Utah on Saturday, June 20, 2026.
Utah has spent the past year fighting measles outbreaks — a grim milestone that could affect whether the United States can keep its measles-free designation.
More than 680 people have gotten sick since the state’s first outbreak began on June 20, 2025.
Unlike measles outbreaks in Texas, South Carolina and Arizona, the spread in Utah has been tough to contain to one region — infecting undervaccinated communities in nearly every county.
READ MORE: How health sleuths are watching for threats like measles during the World Cup
Measles popped up in healthcare settings, big-box stores and restaurants, and youth sporting events. In February, an exposure at a state high school wrestling championship sparked at least 46 cases among attendees.
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to medicine. It causes a tell-tale rash, high fevers, strong cough, ear infections and diarrhea.
While most recover, some — including young babies, pregnant people and those with weak immune systems — are at higher risk of developing dangerous complications like pneumonia, brain swelling, blindness or even dying. Even healthy people can develop issues years down the road, including a rare but fatal degenerative brain disease that manifests about a decade after infection.
The measles vaccine is safe and 97% protective after two doses.
READ MORE: South Carolina’s measles outbreak is over after sickening nearly 1,000 people
Though Utah’s spread has slowed in recent weeks, state epidemiologist Leisha Nolen sees little opportunity to rest. She’s worried the start of school and arrival of colder weather in the fall will cause measles to surge again.
“It’s still here, it’s still transmitting,” she said. “We just need those few cases to hit the wrong community and it could flare up really big again.”
Utah sees the impacts of dropping vaccination rates
The worst spread has been in the southwestern part of the state, where 265 people have fallen ill with the vaccine-preventable disease since last summer. Overall, measles infections hit 22 of the state’s 29 counties.
READ MORE: Babies too young for MMR vaccine become ‘sitting ducks’ in measles outbreaks
In the state’s rural northeast, the conditions were also ripe for measles to spread. Daggett, Duchesne and Uintah counties — collectively dubbed the “tricounty” health region — has seen the second-largest decline in childhood vaccination rates in the state.
More than 16% of the region’s kindergarteners were missing their measles vaccines in the last school year, according to state data. Statewide, 12.8% were missing their vaccine, putting the state far short of the 95% vaccination rate needed to prevent measles outbreaks.
The TriCounty Health Department logged 74 cases of measles this spring, after people who got sick at the youth wrestling tournament spread the virus in school and later within their households.
The frontier region had seen a rise in vaccine hesitancy for some time, said Sydnee Lyons, the health department’s public information officer.
Despite the large number of cases, local and state health officials consider TriCounty’s measles response a success.
Health officials focused efforts on mitigating the inevitable spread. Unvaccinated students were excluded from in-person school and people who were sick were told to isolate themselves. And their appeal to care for one’s neighbors led to more people coming in to get vaccinated, officials said.
READ MORE: Dr. Mehmet Oz urges public to take the measles vaccine as U.S. cases rise
TriCounty’s infectious disease specialist Cyndie Mattinson recalled a parent who told a school nurse she didn’t want to talk to the health department because “she was worried that we would be angry with her and be judgmental because her children were unvaccinated.”
The nurse vouched for the health department staff, and told the mom to let her know if she felt judged. Mattinson ultimately had a great conversation with the mother.
“The perceptions were changed that we weren’t out there to police, we were there to be a help and a resource to the community,” Mattinson said.
Health experts will meet to decide on U.S. measles status
Utah’s lengthy battle with measles will likely affect whether the U.S. can keep its measles-free designation. Public health officials consider measles to be eliminated from a country when it shows it stopped continuous spread within local communities for at least a year.
The national measles case count was 2,104 as of June 18, nearly surpassing last year’s record total.
READ MORE: A parent’s guide to preventing measles infection and what to look for
Utah has fought measles for a year, but it’s not clear if the earliest clusters are connected with the major outbreak on the Utah-Arizona state line, which was detected in August, Nolen said.
But since then, most of the state’s measles cases have come from within Utah, not from other parts of the country.
International health experts will gather in November to determine if the U.S. and Mexico have lost their measles elimination status. Canada lost its status last year after ongoing outbreaks.
In Utah, doctors continue to reassure scared patients and lobby for better public health policy.
Dr. Ellie Brownstein, president-elect of the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a pediatrician in Salt Lake City, spent the height of the outbreak opposing a bill that would have made school vaccine waivers easier to get. It failed, but she says there hasn’t been a clear cultural reckoning over measles’ resurgence.
“I don’t know that we get it to end,” Brownstein said. “I don’t know that we’re going to get this genie back in the box because there’s enough people out there to spread it.”
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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SANDY — Vibes were as high as the temperature in some cases as thousands gathered at Real Salt Lake’s home stadium to cheer on the United States’ 2-0 win over Australia in the second match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Fernando Sanchez took it all in, between belts of his drum standing in front of more than 4,000 people at the Sandy stadium.
“I was born and raised in Mexico City,” said Sanchez, who hosts a podcast called the “Fercho Show” from his current home in Utah. “But I’m from the U.S. now.”
Four years after scoring just two goals in three group games before a 3-1 exit to the Netherlands in the Round of 16, the United States is flying under Mauricio Pochettino, exciting fans across the country — from the sellout crowd at 69,000-seat Lumen Field in Seattle to watch parties around the world, including Friday in Sandy.
“The vibe is amazing,” Sanchez told KSL.com. “You can see all of the people who came out, everybody is happy because this World Cup means so much for Utah, for everybody. It’s the best of the best from each country fighting on the field. That’s what it feels like, and it’s so good to be part of this game.”
Less than 24 hours after some 9,200 fans showed up at America First Field for Mexico’s 1-0 win over South Korea, Real Salt Lake employees braced to host as many as 6,000 American fans who submitted an RSVP to spend a portion of the Juneteenth holiday in 94-degree weather.
In-game hydration breaks became as much of a necessity for fans as the players in Seattle, with hundreds flooding the open hydration stations, concessions area, and a few food trucks at each “quarter break” installed by FIFA for the first time at a men’s World Cup.
While final attendance dropped to around 4,500 fans in Sandy, the spirits remained high as Folarin Balogun, who scored two goals in a 4-1 win over Paraguay in the World Cup opener, forced the opening goal off Australia’s Cameron Burgess.
Alex Freeman, the son of former Super Bowl champion Antonio Freeman who at 21 is the youngest player on the roster, doubled the advantage in the 43rd minute off a set piece that was initially ruled offside.
But after a lengthy video review where fans refused to sit down, pandemonium ensued as the U.S. fans in Sandy recognized their national team was moments away from clinching passage out of the group in the first men’s World Cup on home soil since 1994.
It’s the first time the United States men’s national team has won consecutive games at a World Cup tournament since 1930.
Yet it’s not just the wins, but how the Yanks are winning that has Americans excited about a sport that has made significant strides domestically in three decades since the founding of Major League Soccer.
The U.S. is winning with an exciting brand of attacking soccer led by Balogun, who grew up in England but chose to represent the country of his birth over his parents’ native Nigeria in 2023, and Christian Pulisic, the AC Milan winger with 33 goals in 87 international appearances from Pennsylvania who did not play Friday due to a calf injury.
“There’s a lot of American pride,” said St. George youth soccer player Tate Hurst, who showed up to the watch party with a half-dozen club teammates at Fire SC during Western Presidents Cup regional this weekend. “The American dream.”
Sunburn, heat and hydration aside, the moment created a memory for thousands of soccer fans and casuals alike. That included RSL season ticket holders, waiting until the end of the month-long international break for the club’s MLS season to resume in July.
But for one afternoon — and perhaps another, as the club plans to host a similar watch party next Thursday when the United States hosts Türkiye in Los Angeles (8 p.m. MT, FS1) — each soccer fan was pulling for the same team.
Except, perhaps, for the dozen or so Australia fans in the corner of the east lawn who represented their own Socceroos for the entire 90 minutes.
“Soccer brings everybody together,” one RSL staff member said over the public-address system as fans headed for the parking lot while James Brown’s “Living in America” blasted over the sound system after the full-time whistle. “That’s what today was all about.”
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