With Halloween quickly approaching, it’s time to share some ghost stories from around the state. The first scary ghost story I will tell is that of Elizabeth Polly, the Blue Light Lady.
When I came to Fort Hays State University in the fall of 1989, I had heard of the story of the Blue Light Lady, a ghostly apparition that wandered the fields outside the city of Hays. Some of the descriptions of the legend I heard was that she was a nurse at old Fort Hays and saw the plight of the Indians camped outside of the fort. Feeling sorry for them, she went out to them offering them help and medical supplies, when the soldiers discovered her helping the Indians; they took her outside of the fort in the middle of a blizzard to allow her to die, leaving her only with a lantern to guide her way.
A very horrible way to die, freezing to death just outside of your former home. The real story of Elizabeth Polley is not quite as horrible, but just as sad. In 1867, Fort Hays was hit by a cholera epidemic. Cholera is a disease that can kill within hours if untreated. Cholera is transmitted through food and water contaminated by the bacteria. Elizabeth Polley, believed to have been a trained nurse who tended to and comforted the sick and dying. One of her favorite places to go was Sentinel Hill, just outside of the fort. Soon Elizabeth contracted the disease and died. She was given a full military funeral, but could not be laid to rest on her favorite spot, Sentinel Hill. When Fort Hays closed in 1905, the soldiers bodies were moved to Fort Leavenworth and the civilians moved to Hays City Cemetery. Elizabeth was buried near Fort Hays.
The first time Elizabeth allegedly visited Hays from her astral afterlife was in 1917, when a farmer saw a woman dressed in blue walking across his farm towards Sentinel Hill. He followed her into one of his sheds and found nothing. Elizabeth is still to this day seen by Hays citizens emitting a blue light as she walks, thus the Blue Light Lady. Just off 27th Street in Hays, next to the Moka’s Restaurant there is a small park with a statue honoring her. In 1941, her body was moved from her resting place to her favorite point, Sentinel Hill.
So if you are feeling adventurous Elizabeth Polley’s grave isn’t easy to get to. It’s on Sentinel Hall is just southwest of the fort off a dirt road and you will have to walk the last couple hundred yard. Who knows, maybe you will see a faint blue light walking the farmers’ fields.