History center offers haunted tour

Michael Pfrang, Sigma Phi Epsilon member, was killed by a cannon after it misfired during a parade at IU in the late 1960s.

Tour guide Sharon Porter Phillips said some people say Pfrang still haunts the Sigma Phi Epsilon house.

According to IU Board of Trustees’ minutes from Oct. 25, 1968, this incident happened during the Homecoming parade when a smoke-making device exploded on the float the fraternity had constructed.

On Friday, the tour, organized by the Monroe County History Center, guided people through the museum where they had the opportunity to hear stories about some past Monroe County residents.

Prior to the museum tour, Porter Phillips took people on her tour bus to see and learn about paranormal activity in Bloomington’s history.

“As a staff we kind of get together and just dream up really cool ideas that the community might like to enjoy,” said Jenny Mack, exhibits manager for the Monroe County History Center.

Angi St. Clair, education and volunteer manager at the Monroe County History Center, said this is the first time they have done a tour like this, and they were hoping to appeal to a diverse audience.

“While we want to educate people, we also want people to realize that history is fun,” St. Clair said. “Hopefully, once they come in here and have a good time, they’ll come back and visit again and spend a little bit more time with our exhibits.”

Porter Phillips, who started the business Misguided Tours in October 2012 to give comedic tours around Bloomington, said she also hoped to make history more interesting.

She started the business because she said she thought having a tour with a comedian, who was taking people to places they didn’t know, would be a great addition to Bloomington.

“I started working on the material, doing the research, finding out things that people don’t really know about Bloomington,” Porter Phillips said.

The tour included a visit to Rose Hill Cemetery where Porter Phillips told stories of Ross Lockridge, a novelist, and Alfred Kinsey, namesake of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at IU, among others who are buried there.  
“The idea of history and comedy as a married thing is very hard for people to understand,” Porter Phillips said.

Porter Phillips said she has been working in conjunction with the Monroe County History Center to make history more interesting.

“Several residents who were born and raised here take the tour and go ‘I didn’t know that,’” she said. “I appeal to people that live here, but I’m also doing it as a tourist attraction because we do have a huge tourism business here in Bloomington coming from all different directions.”

Follow reporter Alli Friedman on Twitter @afreedz.