Haunted train station

[Willard]

i'm the mysterious man in a theatre production, that's what that is a bout. And I found out that if we wanted to we could take a weekend retreat out there. Ride horses, swim, use a zip line..... go exploring late at night.

Schweeet! How much?

[RaccoonCC]

The anal mysterious man.

good job, mjames.

[mjames]

http://www.ranchlife.org/acrobat/graydo ... e_list.pdf

Those are prices. if we took 25 people it would be about between 18-30 bucks per person.

[darkcloud617]

so they got haunted places there too right?

[mjames]

A "haunted" train station (which is the title of this topic ), and from what I have heard they have some sinkholes and maybe a few caves on their property (and in the vicinity).

Also, if we get bored we could always ride the horsies.

[RaccoonCC]

lets go!

[colt45]

Dude that sounds amazing lets get a group and go.

[darkcloud617]

sounds pretty cool to me 2- if you all are going invite me

[paul06660]

I hereby resurrect this almost 20 year old thread from the dead. Surprised theres only one mention of Graydon Springs and Camp Wakahni in this entire massive forum. Anyways, Graydon Springs was a major stop on the Frisco line that went north to Kansas City. The area experienced a "boom" in the 1870's both due to the railroad connection and the mineral health springs "craze" of the late Victorian period. However after WW2 much of the community was gone as people moved to larger cities with jobs that paid substantially more than rural work. For a period, the main part of Graydon Springs was owned by Drury University which did extensive work building infrastructure, documenting geologic features and the native wildlife. Supposedly it was also used as a student retreat.

Sometime in the 1960's the land was sold to the Camp Fire organization, which rebranded the place as Camp Wakahni. This ran for many decades until about 2004-2005 before it was shuttered due to funding issues. At that time, Good Samaritan Boys Ranch, INC purchased the land with the intention of using it as a retreat for their boys, but for whatever reason this never came into fruition. About half the horses went to the ranch, and the other half were sold off to private individuals.

In 2011-ish there was considerable attention given to the place to turn it into a nature preserve branded as Graydon Springs Outdoor Legacy (GSOL). Several endangered species have been documented on the grounds, and much of the area is still in its natural state. However funding for this project never came through, and the place, still owned by Good Samaritan, continues to sit mostly unused to this day. Although a few churches have leased the grounds around 2020-2022 for summer retreat purposes.

As a former attendee of Camp Wakahni in 1995 and 1997, I have always wondered the current state of the place, and the thought of exploration has crossed my mind many times. There are some pics available on facebook from around 2019, but they only show the main part of camp and not the outlying areas. Would love to see the old lean-to's and wagons that we use to sleep in, as well as the old craft hut and remnants of the old stable. Ill never forget that summer working with the horses at 5am, especially the smell of the wild grass and shed used to store the leather saddles. The craft hut is especially interesting to me because it had the most beautiful view of the area, and the legend of someone buried in its concrete foundation.

In regards to exploring the area, there are some challenges that must be considered. The main entrance on highway JJ is most likely monitored, and there is the possibility someone may be living on premises. Also there are quite a few neighboring properties which people may see you trying to access other entrances. The remains of the former Frisco depot appear to be standing on Google Earth, although its closer to the greenway trail and not on the main property. Exploring at night would be a very bad idea, as there are lots of hazards that could cause injury, many of which are difficult to spot even in the day. Regardless, I believe the place may be ripe for a thorough exploration and photo documentation by a very experienced UE person. Heck I may even try to check it out myself sometime over the summer.