Premier Paranormal Researcher Deborah Cobb of Ghostlandia
"The descendant of prospectors, cowboys, frontier settlers and even outlaws, Deborah Cobb’s roots in Western history go five generations deep. In her family, there’s a running thread of women who are tough as nails.
She’s also the daughter of a rodeo queen and a hair metal rocker, both of whom worked at coal mines which makes her a literal Coal Miner’s Daughter, like Loretta Lynn. She is the great-granddaughter of both a homesteader in South Dakota and the infamous silver prospector, Panamint Annie. An award-winning journalist and radio personality, Debbie has lived her whole life in the Cowboy State and finds its stories the most fascinating to immerse herself in.
She spent seven years in radio and four years in print media, including being the youngest editor of a Wyoming Press Association paper at only 20 years old with the High Plains Sentinel in Wright, Wyoming.
Her brand of niche and referential humor is apparent in every project she takes on. She adores public-facing projects and chatting with locals wherever she goes. Her unique form of observation has led to dozens of projects she’s played with over the years, both professional and personal. This year, she even learned to crochet.
Debbie played roller derby for 10 years and founded and ran the nonprofit Wyoming Roller Derby Association through its eight tournaments in seven years. She’s also skated for nearly every Wyoming roller derby team at one point or another.
Debbie lives on the border of the Thunder Basin National Grasslands, in the shadow of the Black Hills that her family hailed from. This proximity keeps her close to her roots as she hikes and camps through the backcountry. She has two dogs, Seger and Hendrix – the old man and the puppy, respectively – both Staffordshire Terrier mixes.
Debbie passes her free time by hiking, camping and roller skating through life. One of her favorite pastimes includes thrifting art pieces and redesigning them. She is also a student at the University of Wyoming studying Psychology and Communication Theory with an emphasis in Rhetoric."
Miss Kate Arnold & The Sheridan Inn:
A Love Story
By Deborah Cobb | Ghostlandia.media
Have you ever loved something so much that you wanted to be immortalized with that love in your own afterlife?
Miss Kate Arnold felt that way about the Sheridan Inn in Sheridan, Wyoming. This is a ghost story, but it’s also a love story — one about a woman so devoted to a hotel that she asked to be interred there after her final breath.
The Sheridan Inn is a gorgeous piece of architecture, with a dozen gables gracing the front of the hotel. It was once the most luxurious hotel this side of Chicago, with a design that made the building iconic and beloved.
During its time, it saw the likes of its one-time owner Buffalo Bill Cody and his sharpshooting prodigy, Annie Oakley. As Ernest Hemingway made his way through the West, he rested his head at the Sheridan Inn. Even President Herbert Hoover made the Sheridan Inn his presidential suite as he traveled through the state for fishing expeditions.
Catharine Arnold, known as Miss Kate, stepped off the train in Sheridan, Wyoming, in 1901. At the time, the building now known as the Sheridan Inn was owned by Buffalo Bill Cody himself as his train went throughout the West with his Wild West Show. Miss Kate had left her family in Virginia, searching for adventure on the high plains and in the Bighorn Mountains.
She was only 22 when she accepted employment at the Sheridan Inn as a seamstress for the owner’s family. Her love for the inn began that day and would last for the rest of her long life.
Over the next 64 years, Miss Kate would take on whatever role the inn required of her. She worked as a housekeeper, seamstress, desk clerk and even babysitter. Her presence in the inn was known and appreciated by all those in the bustling western town of Sheridan.
As she lived and worked at the inn, Miss Kate would even keep a garden of beautiful flowers, many of which graced the tables of the inn during its heyday. She was a beloved member of the community, though she never married and stayed loyal to the inn itself for her entire life.
Every night, she saw to it that the candles in the inn were extinguished, and she cared for each of the visitors as if they were guests in her own home — in a way, they were. As she worked at the hotel, new owners would come and go, but Miss Kate was a constant, and those who frequented the inn came to know and love her.
She weathered multiple wars, times of strife and struggle, and even the difficult financial times that caused troubles for the inn and its owners. All the while, Miss Kate kept her many hats and jobs at the Sheridan Inn.
Miss Kate’s love for the hotel and those who stayed there gave the hotel a reputation for hospitality and kindness as thousands of guests passed under her adopted home’s roof. Even when the hotel closed, she stayed in the hallowed halls, working as a caretaker and waiting for the next owner to reopen the doors to welcome guests once again.
Unfortunately, that would not happen during her lifetime, as the hotel closed its doors in 1965 and new owners planned to tear down the aging structure for more lucrative real estate goals.
Miss Kate would pass away in 1968, but not before making her final wish well known to anyone who would listen: She wanted to be returned to the inn that had been her home for six decades and asked for her ashes to be interred at the hotel. Her wish would be granted.
While no one, not even the current proprietors of the hotel, knows exactly where her ashes were placed, a small and private ceremony was held to inter her ashes within the walls of the Sheridan Inn, so her afterlife could be spent in the place that brought her purpose and joy.
Thus began the legend of Miss Kate that perpetuates to this day — that she still walks the halls of the Sheridan Inn, in spirit form, still caring for the elegant building and making her presence known.
The inn is open again today, with a special room named just for Miss Kate. As the room was her home for six decades, it’s hard to imagine she’d leave it behind without caring for the new guests.
Miss Kate is said to sit in her old rocking chair where she would hand-sew various clothes and make repairs as a seamstress. She’s said to be seen walking through the garden she cared so much for, and some guests are convinced she went out of her way to make their stay memorable and comfortable.
As she did in life, Miss Kate is said to extinguish candles and electric lights in the room that bears her name. Glimpses of her have been reported, and even footsteps could be heard in the hall as she perpetually paced them, watching out for the guests in her care.
The rare haunting out of love for a building rather than tragedy makes Miss Kate a presence known throughout the town of Sheridan, her love story continuing even into the 21st century, over 100 years after she stepped foot across the threshold of the Sheridan Inn.
Today, the inn boasts themed rooms that guests can stay in, it hosts parties and conventions in its elegant ballroom, and the shadow of the building is synonymous with the town itself. Aging but cared for, the hotel seems to be poised to be open for another 100 years, with Miss Kate along for the ride.
The hotel’s staff say they strive to give each guest the same hospitality and care that Miss Kate herself would have provided. If you take the chance to stay in the Miss Kate room at the hotel, you might even meet the ghostly hostess as she rocks in her chair next to your bed or makes sure to turn out the lights before you drift off to sleep.
More than six decades in the hallowed halls has given Miss Catharine Arnold a longevity to her story and love for the inn. We can all only hope to have our final wishes honored like hers were.
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