Pauper Cemetery · Poor Farm History · North Dakota Social Welfare History
Cass County built a larger hospital in 1895 north of downtown Fargo; it also served as a poor farm. The facility provided housing and care for county residents without family support or financial means — the elderly, the poor, and those unable to support themselves. The farm component allowed residents to work and contribute to the facility's operations by producing food and goods.
Residents who died at the Poor Farm were buried in one of three on-site cemeteries. These burial grounds were largely unmarked and maintained only informally during the facility's operation. By the time the Poor Farm — renamed Golden Acres Haven during its final years — closed and was demolished in 1973, the burial grounds held an estimated 1,000 graves.
In 1985, approximately 300 bodies were relocated from the site due to documented neglect and abandonment of the burial areas. Some burials remain in place beneath the current park grounds. A large stone marker reading 'County Cemetery #2' stands in the park, identifying one of the remaining burial areas.
The park was later home to the Trollwood Performing Arts School, which held outdoor performances on the grounds. The stone marker and the willow tree near Cemetery #2 became the center of paranormal accounts coinciding with the school's productions. In 2013, the performing arts operations transferred to Bluestem Center for the Arts. Trollwood Park now functions as a public recreational area with playground equipment, disc golf, and access to the Red River.
The High Plains Reader published an in-depth feature on the park's haunted reputation, drawing on historical records of the Poor Farm and accounts from former performers and visitors. The InForum newspaper covered a formal investigation of the park by the F-M Paranormal group.
Sources
- https://hpr1.com/index.php/feature/culture/the-ghosts-of-trollwood/
- https://fargomonthly.com/whats-the-truth-about-haunted-north-fargo-trollwood-park/
- https://www.inforum.com/lifestyle/arts-and-entertainment/f-m-paranormal-group-probes-trollwood-park-for-supernatural-with-video
ApparitionsPhantom soundsPhantom voicesTouching/pushing
The central paranormal account at Trollwood Park involves a woman in a long, dark blue dress, described consistently as 19th-century in style. Multiple witnesses, including former students and staff of the Trollwood Performing Arts School, described seeing her beneath the large willow tree near the County Cemetery #2 stone marker during outdoor performances.
Accounts describe the figure as dancing or swaying to the music, positioned close enough to the performance area that observers initially assumed she was part of the production. Several sources describe the same sequence: watching the woman, turning away briefly, and finding her gone when they looked back. Former participants in the school described the experience to the High Plains Reader as: 'you'd think, oh, she's just part of the show, and then boom, she'd disappear.'
Apart from the visual accounts, visitors to the park have independently reported the sensation of being followed closely while walking through the grounds — described as the physical awareness of someone walking immediately behind them, accompanied in some accounts by what felt like a tap on the shoulder with no one visible when they turned.
Disembodied voices and other unexplained sounds have been reported in the park's northern areas, particularly near the cemetery marker.
The F-M Paranormal group conducted a formal investigation of Trollwood Park that was documented by the InForum newspaper and the Grand Forks Herald. The investigation did not resolve the identity of the reported figure, though the group documented personal experiences during their survey of the grounds. The county cemetery history — approximately 1,000 interments across three unmarked burial areas, with some remaining in place — provides the demographic context for the reports.
Notable Entities
Woman in Dark Blue Dress
