Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A s FA L L 2 0 1 5 60 60 it for quite a while as it crept up the wall. She was more startled than before and remembers thinking how the ball looked exactly like the one from her previous experience. Finally it moved through the ceiling and disappeared. As before, Dee Ann was not afraid and didn't think to follow it upstairs. e house went on the market in 1990. It was vacant more than occupied as stories about it circulated. In 1992, Denise King was house hunting and asked to see it. e real- tor handed her the key saying that she would wait in the car. Denise wandered through the downstairs, noticing the antiques, especially the dining room breakfront. As she moved to the back of the house, she heard a cupboard door open and close in the breakfront. She thought the realtor had changed her mind and come in, but returning to dining room, she found no one. She started up the stairs, but stopped halfway up, thinking she didn't want to be there. She let herself out and found the realtor waiting in the car. Denise thought about the cupboard and asked, "Did you change your mind and come in?" "No way," said the realtor. "I won't go in that house. It's haunted." A Great Falls legislator rented a room in the house for the 1995 session. e owner was never there and it seemed ideal. He lasted three nights. Horrible banging from the cellar terrified him. For three nights the banging kept him in a cold sweat, unable to sleep. Lights turned off that he had delib- erately left on, and twice he came home to the radio blaring upstairs. Exhausted, he packed his things. Could the banging have been the spirit of Christmas Gift Evans, showing frus- tration over the loss of his leg, and wondering where it was? A few years later another family had quite a different experience. e late Darlene Raundal called me in early 2004 to look at some photos. Her son, Garth, was a single parent renting the Evans House. She invited me over. e house was truly stunning with high ceilings, tall narrow windows and original furniture. Darlene ushered me into the dining room where some 30 family members had recently gathered for Christmas dinner. ey had taken many pictures, and Darlene spread them out. "What do you see here?" she asked, pointing to a few shots that included the breakfront behind the seated guests. I could see the reflection of a stern-looking man with a distinctive goatee in the beveled glass of the cabinet doors — the same ones that Denise King thought she heard open and close. ere was no one at the table who looked like that. Darlene pulled an envelope from the break- front. "I found the National Register nomi- nation for the house in here," she said as she extracted a photograph, "And this is Christmas Gift Evans." e image was identical to the reflection. Furthermore, it had appeared on Chris Evans' birthday. Was this a coincidence? Garth came in and we chatted briefly. I asked if his two kids — a six-year-old son and high school-age daughter — were afraid at night. He said that his son was fearful at first, but now loved the house. And thinking of the legislator, I asked him if noises kept him awake. "Oh," he said. "No. I sleep with earplugs." Years passed. In October 2012, I started my tenth season of Haunted Helena tours on the Last Chance Tour Train trolley. Sonia was a new driver. As I talked her through the route, we paused at the Evans House, and I told my stories. Suddenly she gasped. "You're talking about my brother, Garth!" she burst out. I couldn't believe it. I had long wanted to further question Garth, but I did not know his last name and Darlene had passed away in 2010. So that is how I came to interview Garth Scott in Novem- ber of 2012. I asked him about his impressions of the house. He knew the homeowner but never heard him comment about the home's reputation. Garth, however, heard plenty of stories. ey didn't bother him. He and his kids spent a won- derful year in the house. ey did hear noises, but he and the kids slept close together upstairs, and they never experienced anything negative. Was Christmas Gift Evans banging on the walls in frustra- tion over his lost limb? And did gentler spirits focus upon the joy of having children — the Cooneys' toddler and Garth Scott's children — in the house? As Garth and I finished the interview, I asked him, "Do you believe the stories?" He answered, " e house is very special. And let's just say it has something extra." CHLOE KATSILAS, RIO DE LUZ PHOTOGRAPHY A gargoyle sat upon the Evans House in Helena Reprinted by permission. Haunted Helena, Montana's Queen City Ghosts is available from the publisher online at www.arcadiapublishing.com.

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