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Cemeteries and museums store old bones and old things, and, as you might expect, they're where the ghosts hang out.

Now board members of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula are wondering where their ghost chaser has disappeared to.

"Maybe he's got other ghosts to chase," theorizes Bob Brown, executive director of the museum.

Maybe. But nobody's heard from him since he approached the museum twice last summer and fall to offer his ghost-documenting services.

Brown, for his part, can't quite recall the young University of Montana student's name (it's buried there somewhere in a thick, scrawled-over yellow legal pad). Maybe the young man was scared off when the museum said it would charge him for his services - $25 an hour, to be precise, since they'd have to staff the place while he used the building.

Rumors of other-worldly activity in the museum have persisted for years. The museum's former curator was a believer in things that go bump in the night.

"She swore there was a ghost here and she had seen it," said Brown. "It was a military-looking ghost, not mean, not threatening. She described it as being mischievous."

Prankish. Hiding tools and things. You know, activities normally ascribed to forgetfulness.

For his part, Brown isn't convinced.

"As far as we know, in this building, nobody ever died," he says. "This place used to be a quartermaster's warehouse, and all it had in it was stuff.

"I personally have not seen anything," he adds, "but you hear things when you're here alone at night."

Museum curator L.J. Richards smiles when you mention the alleged apparition. Does she believe?

"Oh THAT," she says, laughing. "No."

For now, the only place the ghost exists is on a single line of type from the museum's Dec. 20, 2004 minutes:

"The ghost researcher has not contacted the Museum to pursue the poltergeists."

Reporter and editor Jamie Kelly can be reached at 523-5254 or at jkelly@missoulian.com

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