Copyrighted©-1965-2010
Old Main's Ghost
Old Main, the first building of the the Territorial University of Arizona College of Mines, is located on the original site of a ancient Indian village dating back over 10,000 years. One of the workman who supervised it's construction was Carlos Maldenado, who lived in Tucson from 1868 until his death in 1913. Although he is gone now, he is far from forgotten and many believe that his spirit lives on.
Velasco came to Tucson in 1868 and was already famous as a Sonoran businessman and famed gambler. Years after he died in the 1930's, Old Main was abandoned. Years of neglect had taken their toll on the original building, termites nearly destroyed some wooden beams and the ancient timbers that were used up in the ceilings. World War 2 suddenly saw Old Main pushed into service for training military officers after some rather extensive remodeling with funding from the U.S. War Department.
Not long after the renovations were started, workers reported that he saw the head and shoulders of a Mexican man floating in the air in the various rooms being worked on. Although the rooms were dark due to the old electrical system being torn out, workers got a good look at the phantom and later identified the ghost as that of Carlos Maldenado from a photo of the man taken in 1883. After that, witnesses have reported this same apparition at Old Main on many other occasions. At one time, a Regent and a female office clerk spotted the apparition lounging in a doorway. The ghost reportedly looked straight at them and vanished. Students, office workers, and faculty still regularly report seeing the shadowy form of a man at Old Main.
If this was the ghost of Carlos Maldenado, it seems apparent that he was pleased with the renovations going on around him back in the 1930's and all subsequent projects at Old Main. His ghost had never put in an appearance after his death, until the first renovations began. Maybe he is merely trying to show his pleasure... still evident from the other side!
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