Ghosts of the McBride House

Chris Howell, NewsOn6.com

FORT GIBSON, OK -- Just up the street from historic Fort Gibson you'll find the McBride house. The house was built in 1895 and although it's now closed for a sorely needed renovation, it was once a magnificent showplace.

"Dr. McBride was a physician here in Fort Gibson," said owner Cindy Back, "they said when he built the house he was very particular about every board that went in, every nail, he inspected everything. He was real particular about everything about the house."

Cindy and her husband Chris bought the home in 1982 with hopes of restoring it, but it wasn't long after they moved in that they began to notice some strange and disturbing things.

"When we first moved here we weren't sure... we thought the television had been left on downstairs, it was really terrifying."

They began to suspect that Dr. McBride had never left.

"He liked to entertain and throw big parties, and the house is still to this day -- at 2 a.m. it starts throwing parties, he's still here. You can hear them toasting with the glasses, you can hear laughter," said Cindy, "they're not mean, they're just mischievous, they to take things from you, you can be working on something and turn around and it's gone."

The Back family lived in the home for over 25 years, and know all the ghosts that inhabit the mansion.

"Dr. McBride is one of the ghosts, and I have the Victorian Lady that I share with the army hospital across the street, she goes back and forth between my house and there, and I have two ghost children, a little boy and a little girl," she said.

Cindy recently wrote a book about her family's creepy encounters. It's called ‘Ghosts of the McBride House', and it tells about their experiences with the ghosts.

But why does Dr. McBride insist on haunting the old house? Cindy thinks she knows.

"I think he just doesn't want to leave it," she said.