If you want to have an otherworldly experience, paranormal investigator Danny Stewart said, go to the Provo riverwalk at night. Start behind the Macey’s on State Street and make your way west toward the neighborhoods.
“Weird stuff happens,” Stewart said. “I’ve taken taken so many groups — former students, girlfriends — each time, without fail, they walk out asking, ‘What the [expletive] just happened? Is that what I think I saw?’”
Stewart, who taught in the humanities department from 2011-14, hosts The Original Provo Utah Ghost Tour and has dedicated his study to the spectral. In our interview, he spoke about current projects, apparitions over the Provo City Center Temple, and why ghost tours that take you to cemeteries are only there for your money.
You’ve called yourself more of a story collector than paranormal investigator. How do you come across these stories?
Everything I talk about is something I found myself or someone brought to me. I don’t Google anything. I’m a strong believer in truth and authenticity. People bring me their stories when they experience a phenomenon they can’t explain.
I believe every single person on the planet has experiences they can’t explain. Those experiences can fall in the back of your head. You won’t acknowledge them because you have no place to put them.
What are some of the stories you share during your ghost tour through downtown Provo?
There’s a ghost appearance that happened by the [Provo City Center] Temple. A woman came to me and said in 2010 she saw gigantic, and I quote, “17-foot-wide by 10-foot long flying manta ray” fly over the temple. A couple years later someone approached me with same story.
I felt felt iffy about it and came close to not talking about it on my tour — until last year. I started talking about it and [a tour member] started looking apprehensive, disturbed. He was talking to my girlfriend, who is my assistant, and he told her he saw it. He was close to parking structure in Provo and saw it jumping from one building to the other.
Do people respond to your work in such a religious community?
Communities around here are very open-minded. Mormons love my stuff. They’re my biggest fans. They have a very open-minded belief in interaction with the other side. Just like any religion, we’re mortals trying to explain the unknown.
You must get busy around Halloween. People are more in the mood to have ghostly experiences.
I do, but my tour is not about fear — actually the opposite. It’s about helping people understand not be afraid. The spirits, or whatever they might be, are not evil. Of all I’ve found in my life, less than 1 percent — and I’m talking hundreds of stories — you can categorize as evil. These things are just like you and I. They hurt, they’re confused, they’re lost, and they’re not out to scare and damage on purpose.
That’s why I won’t take anyone to a cemetery. Any tour that takes someone to a cemetery is crap. If you’re a spirit, are you going to be where your dead body is? You’re where you fell in love or grew up.
What type of work did you do at UVU?
I taught humanities through the arts through the lense of occult from 2011-2014. I used to take students on extracurricular ghost tours.
What projects are you working on now?
I’m a contributing writer for Utah Stories. I’m also doing a documentary about the “Provo Vortex” with a guy who graduated (from UVU) months ago. We’re trying to turn it into a TV pilot.
I’m also working on three books right now that are taking forever. I could actually use some help on one. I’m writing a book on the imaginary friend — not from a psychological perspective, but literal. Anyone who has an imaginary friend, I’d say, please get in touch with me.
As much as I love [paranormal investigation], I hate the label. I’m an artist first. I’m a creative writer and collector who just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
You can learn more about Stewart’s ghost tours on https://www.facebook.com/provoutahghosttour/. To get in contact with him about his book, you can email him at stewiebalooie@hotmail.com.
