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Spirits In The Museum   All of the museums at the University of Arizona are built on top of the ancient sites of the now lost (or almost) Tribes of the Hohokam, and many others in more recent times including the Apaches, Pascua Yaqui (Toltec's from ancient Mexico), Yaqui, Papago, Sand Papago, and Tohono O'Odham-"People of the Desert"-(Hohokam descendents).     At what is now the Arizona State Museum South (an archeological museum) at 1010 E. University Boulevard (the s/w side of campus) closest to the rock wall that is on Park Ave, was in 1885 at just the very extreme desert edges of the Territorial University of Arizona's property . It was the mid  1930's and the United States was deep into a world wide economic depression that had millions of North Americans destitute, homeless, jobless, and looking for their next meals.     Tucson faired even worse than most other cities its size, and jobs were almost non-existent. As part of the U.S. Governments WPA (Works Projects Administration) Projects, some funds were allocated in 1935 to build sidewalks around Tucson and some projects at the University Of Arizona for what is known now as the Arizona State Museum South.     The economic failure of the country and locally was so serious that in many of Tucson's families, boys between the ages of 13 to 17 were taken out of school or the home and went to work just so that the family could buy food and be able to pay the rent or mortgage before facing eviction. These boys were expected to do the same jobs of any adult working man no matter their age or physical size.     Work began in 1936 for the large scale  job of digging and laying the foundation for the Arizona State Museum building most of the work was done by hand using picks and shovels. One of the crews consisted of six young men between the ages of 13 and 16. They had a hard job ahead of them digging by hand with shovels down to the foundation level, but all of them  put in an outstanding effort.     Their reward was that on the West Side of the foundation their crew was chosen to put in the first section of rock and concrete foundation wall. Things that early morning started out in great spirits as the young boys sang in unison as they worked building their section of  foundation section up to a height of about 8 feet. Then, suddenly the unthinkable happened. As the 13 to 16 year old boys were down in the trench the foundation wall section fell over on top of them crushing and killing all six of the young boys instantly.     The news spread around town quickly, and calls were heard questioning why such young boys had ever been down working in the deep  trench at all.   A few days later when work resumed, odd unexplained things began to happen to the work crews. The dead boys voices could be heard at times, tools soon seemingly disappeared into thin air, pallets of bricks fell over onto a supervisors car, cement poured one day  might be found full of large cracks along its entire length the next day.         Currently the Museum located there on the campus of the University of Arizona contains and displays many exhibits featuring thousands of artifacts from Tucson's ancient residents. The first floor is open to the public with collections and exhibits. But, up on the 2nd floor both the public and employees have never been allowed any access since the opening of the massive brick and stone building as a museum.     Behind the many 2nd floor hall doors there are virtually unknown and unmarked rooms containing the largest collections of specimens in the world from all the different  ancient peoples of what is now called Arizona.     Student volunteer docents, regular University employees, and others have all reported for many years the many strange happenings and noises they have regularly experienced somewhat difficult to explain occurrences and sensations during their time within the old musty walls, halls, and basement of the old and apparently haunted  museum.     |Home|BearDown Mystery|Maricopa Hall|May Day Mystery|Old Main Ghost|Professor's Obsession|Centennial Hall|Skeleton's Bones|Spirits In Museum|Disclaimer|