Is it a house or is it a castle? That’s a common question one asks themselves when first gazing upon the Belvidere Mansion and its distinguished turrets located in Claremore. It’s an enormous gothic structure that was built during the early 1900s when Mr. John M. Bayless of the Cassville and Western Railroad arrived from Cassville, Missouri, with his family. It is now a historic home operated by the Roger’s County Historical Society whose former inhabitants seemingly still reside there in the afterlife.
Over the years, stories of both John Bayless and his daughter, Bland who committed suicide in Kansas City, haunting the mansion have surfaced. One day there was a woman who came to the mansion for a tour and encountered a man on the front porch. He was quite cordial with her and told her he was happy with the way the house looked and was being maintained. The comment seemed a little unusual, so when she entered she asked the staff about the man. Baffled about who may be outside, they went out to talk to him, but the man was gone. During her tour, the woman was shown a picture of John M. Bayless and exclaimed that he had been the man she saw on the porch.
At other times, a woman's voice can be heard throughout the mansion whispering to visitors. A man taking a tour one afternoon entered Bland's room and heard a woman ask him, "Who are you?" He searched around for the source of the question, but not a soul was in the room. On one particular occasion, one of the curators of the mansion saw her grandson talking to a woman that fit Bland's description. Others have felt the heavy weight of sadness and then the burn of a rope on their neck. After her suicide, did Bland return home to Claremore to try and recapture the days of her youth?
Other incidents at the mansion have been reported, such as strange lights flickering in the upstairs windows, shadow masses being spotted throughout the home, and toilets flushing on their own. But most of the stories always come back to John and Bland, both early to depart this life and yet the two that remain lingering on at Belvidere Mansion. More information about the Belvidere Mansion and other Oklahoma haunts can be found in the book Ghosts and Legends of Oklahoma.
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