The season premiere of Discovery Channel’s show, Ghost Adventures, spotlights the supernatural tales in Casper. The season kicked off with a two-hour, two-part special, “Mountain of Madness,” on Oct. 15 on Discovery+ and will be streaming starting in November on HBO Max and Disney+.
Last year, Visit Casper Film Liaison Kelly Eastes received a call from the show’s producers, who were searching for a new location for paranormal stories. After discovering all the haunting sites and stories in Casper, Zak Bagans came to the Cowboy State to film for season 30 of Ghost Adventures.
“Love having these experiences because you get to work with really creative people, and they're here because they love what you have, no matter what the show might be,” said Eastes.
The Ghost Adventures crew, led by host Bagans, spent six days filming in different locations. They uncovered a dozen ghost stories, and six will be featured in the new season.
“Some of the stories were creepier than I wanted to know about,” Eastes said. “I didn’t spread those stories anywhere because other people didn’t want to hear creepy things either.”
Some of the featured locations may include:
• The Crimson Dawn Witches on Casper Mountain
• The former Casper Army Air Base Hospital
• The Casper Elks Lodge
• The historic Rialto Theater downtown
But you’ll have to watch to see what paranormal stories were chosen to be the highlight of the Halloween season premiere.
Eastes said they even built a film set that looked like the inside of a spaceship for one of the stories.
“We actually created a thing that looked a little bit like the inside of what a spaceship might look like, where somebody would be taken into a portal and hauled off,” Eastes said. “So, we’ll see if that turned out well or not.”
The production also brought an economic boost to Casper, with the crew spending about $50,000 and hiring 27 locals as actors.
Filming in Wyoming has the advantage of limited interruptions during production, but no matter how much pre-production prepares for filming, they can’t predict everything that can happen during production.
Even in a small community like Casper, the Ghost Adventures team couldn’t escape local attention. One encounter happened when the crew was filming downtown.
“They were filming at the Rialto, and people driving by recognized Zak Bagans and started shouting his name,” Eastes said.
This was just one of many film production companies that have come to the Cowboy State.