Portal School

It’s Halloween week, so that means this is the last stop on my Haunted Omaha tour. I saved the campy-est spot for last, for a little extra Halloween gore.

This little school house is a tiny piece of history in downtown Papillion, Nebraska. Its old-school charm is undeniable, but the legend of what happened within its walls in the early 1900’s is less than charming.

Local folklore says that Portal School house was the cite of a grizzly murder. Legend has it that the sweet resident teacher lost her cool one day and decided to leave her pen and paper at home and bring her axe to school instead. They say she killed each of her students and buried their hearts under a nearby bridge. The bridge is no longer accessible but they call it “Heartbeat Bridge” because you can still hear the beating of the broken hearts buried beneath it.

There is no actual record of these events in the history books, but the restless spirit of that teacher still remains at the school house to teach you a lesson or two.