S2, E34: Utah's Most Haunted Places & Terrifying True Stories | Spooky Lake City 👻

We're starting at one of the most beautiful buildings in this city, the Rio Grande Depot, at Third South and Rio Grande Street, opened in 1910.

Back then, it was the front door to Salt Lake.

Families, soldiers, newlyweds, everybody came through here.

Then cars took over, passenger trains faded out, and eventually the trains left this building for good.

Today it houses state history offices and the Utah History Research Center.

But a lot of people who've worked here will tell you that not everybody left.

The most famous resident is a woman everybody calls the Purple Lady.

Here's the legend.

Shortly after the depot opened, a young woman was on the platform with her fiancé, waiting for a train.

But they got into a fight.

Things got heated, and he pulled the engagement ring off her finger and threw it onto the tracks.

She climbed down to get it back, and she never saw the train coming.

Now, is that a true story? Honestly, I can't find a record that proves it.

But the sightings are a different story, because those have been piling up for decades.

One of the earliest accounts people point to is from 1947.

A woman stepped into the restroom and saw a lady in a long purple dress and a big purple hat.

And that woman's bathroom? That's still where a lot of the sightings happen.

People describe her the same way over and over.

Dark hair, long dress, and a look of complete despair.

Some say she seems angry, and it's not just her.

Security guards have reported footsteps on the mezzanine at night when nobody's there.

and heavy breathing on the first floor.

Staff at the Rio Grande Cafe, which ran inside the depot until 2020, told KSL about flickering lights, water acting up, and things moving around overnight.

There's even a second ghost some people believe in, a man thought to be an old station master.

or some say the fiance himself, still hanging around the place where he made the worst decision of his life.