Explore the supernatural among the ghosts and legends of Minneapolis' original and only real ghost tour.
Maybe it's the location on the shores of the fabled Mississippi or our long winter nights by a flickering fire. Perhaps it is the history of native tribes whose Spirit Island once rose from the river and has now disappeared forever. Or the legacy of fortune seekers who flocked to the area in the 1800s, some of whom found the wealth they sought and many of whom died trying.
For over three centuries, men, women, and children with hopes, fears, and dreams have lived and died here. But their stories—and perhaps their spirits—remain. Nowhere is their existence more felt than in the oldest parts of the city, along the river where Spirit Island once stood. This is the site of the original St. Anthony Falls, which drew engineers and entrepreneurs, loggers and lumber pirates, saloonkeepers, floozies, and scoundrels of every stripe. Today, it is still the site of some of the city's most historic buildings and, allegedly, its best-known ghosts.
High-tech ghost hunters and spiritualists alike attest to their continued presence—the weeping Ojibway woman, the lost children, the Wolfman of Nicollet Island, the builders, destroyers, homicides, and suicides. This is where, to this day, the ghost train runs where no tracks can be found. Below your feet, caverns, both natural and manmade, honeycomb the limestone and are home to strange things, also natural and manmade.
The Real Ghost Tour™ takes you there. This is no dry history lesson or haunted house, jack-in-the-box, gore-fest. Rather, it is a thoroughly researched dramatization, drawing on real legends and real history in the actual places in which the people lived and died, the events took place, and the ghosts have been seen. Today's most modern technology brings their stories to life in an indoor, outdoor, underground tour that you, your friends, and your family will never forget.
Believers and skeptics alike will find themselves swept up in the re-creations of actual events and actual sightings in the venues in which they occurred. Open your mind. Spend 80 fascinating minutes seeing what scientific and spiritual explorers alike tell us is here. See it for yourself.
The Real Ghost Tour
Where every story has a ghost, and every ghost has a story.
This webcam points at a room that serves as a terminus of the spirit river that runs under St. Anthony Main – and where William Satterlee can interact via the EMF reader and computer. View.
Have you experienced the strange, the unexplainable, the paranormal? You are not alone. The supernatural still holds a powerful place in our world. The Real Ghost Tour has worked with medium Kathleen Cotter and the West Metro Paranormal Society to examine evidence of real ghosts in the area, and employs the techniques of science to explore the spirit world. Our resident ghost hunter will show you how parapsychologists employ both ancient skills and modern technology to study the unknown.
Have you felt the presence of a departed loved one or some wandering soul? Open your mind, and learn the ancient arts from the best in the field.
Visit The Other Side — Beneath your feet is a world few ever see. What secrets do these 19th century limestone walls hold? What lies beneath today's bustling Mill City?
Step into the past with Real Ghost Tours of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Join a real ghost hunter on an expedition into the city's shadowlands, to meet the colorful characters of bygone days, where technology, theater, and a bit of the supernatural bring lingering souls to life.
Join us at 125 Main Street SE Minneapolis to touch, and be touched by, the past … if you dare.
Visit our blog for further information & updated tour times.
An EMF meter reads the fluctuation in electromagnetic fields. They help us track down spirits at every turn.
An electromagnetic field (EMF) meter can detect fluctuations in the amount of electromagnetic energy in an area, and unusual fluctuations frequently indicate paranormal activity. Over the last few decades, as electronic devices and their fields have proliferated, the EMF meter has become an essential ghost-hunting tool for detecting paranormal disturbances.
At Real Ghost Tours, we have meters set up in our building's EMF hot spot. A normal reading in our building is between 0.3 and 1.5. A reading in the 6-20 range can indicate paranormal activity – which means it's time to jump on the Ghost Cam and check out what's going on! Our EMF is one of the best on the market, taking a reading every second that we can store and analyze later.

1840 - 1898
An Iowa farmer with a sideline in shoddy mattresses, he moved with his family to Minneapolis…

An Iowa farmer with a sideline in shoddy mattresses, he moved with his family to Minneapolis in 1877 & established what would eventually be the Salisbury & Satterlee Mattress Factory.
He has a bench of his own in St. Anthony Main & his ghost is said to visit the ladies room on the second floor.


1861 - 1919
The son of a teetotaling, fire-breathing Wisconsin preacher, Gene Satterlee moved to…

The son of a teetotaling, fire-breathing Wisconsin preacher, Gene Satterlee moved to Minneapolis & began working in the Salisbury, Rolph & Co. Mattress Factory, eventually being made partner of the firm & becoming a prominent Minneapolis businessman.
His spirit is the most communicative in St. Anthony Main.


1820 - 1905
A leading businessman of the city, he built one of the earliest still-standing structures in Minneapolis…

A leading businessman of the city, he built one of the earliest still-standing structures in Minneapolis. At times successful, his businesses met with many of the tragedies common in the early days of the city: his lumberyard burned to the ground & his steamer sunk in the Mississippi.
Perhaps his survivor's guilt, of being the captain of a ship with only one other survivor, kept him from crossing over.


1885 - 1940 (?)
Little is known of this spirit, except that one medium sensed her as a show girl above Denell’s (formerly Pracna’s) bar.