More boos than you can handle

WALLACE — One of Wallace’s most popular watering holes has one of the town’s most consistent ghastly visitors.

The Metals Bar and Lounge has sat in its current location for roughly 40 years, but it wasn’t always located at 514 Cedar St.

Originally housed inside the former Samuels Hotel in the late 1930s as the Metals Club, it was moved down the street into the building that houses the present home of the Dayrock Bar in the Eagles Building.

The Eagles Club maintained a bar above the former Metals (current Dayrock) location called the Eagle’s Nest, but in the '80s, when the aging club members decided hiking up the long flight of stairs was too much for them, they moved the Eagle’s Nest into the present-day Dayrock and the Metals found what has become its forever home.

Replacing the former Cork ‘n Bottle, the Metals has been under some different ownership, including the current owners Jeremy and Katie Watterson, the building has transitioned from a hole-in-the-wall bar to one of the main attractions of Wallace’s nightlife.

Since taking over the bar, Jeremy has experienced several different instances that some may have considered haunting.

From ghostly party sounds, moving shower curtains, phantom cans dropping down a can chute, regular happy hour visits, and even a spectral visage or two, someone or something has made their home in Metals and doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave.

The building itself comes with a diverse history. Along with the aforementioned Cork ‘n Bottle, the building originally opened as a grocery store, but was later a meat packing plant and butcher shop, as well as a Chinese food restaurant known as the Silver Wok.

With so much history and different people attached to both the bar and then separately the building, it’s no surprise that a spirit or two has attached themselves to the Metals. But, outside from the usual hijinks that accompany a bar, nothing nefarious has really ever happened within the Metals, evidence that not all spirits are tortured souls stuck ‘twixt this world and whatever lies beyond.

Watterson himself recounted two very specific moments that have stood out to him.

The first story is one that is eerily familiar to another local haunt just down the street.

Much like the Wallace Elks Building, where there have been several reports of individuals hearing noises that sound like a party coming from the upstairs meeting hall. Watterson recounted how he was cleaning the bathroom with the door closed and he suddenly heard what sounded like a very full bar on a Saturday night only to find the bar empty and silent.

The other story involved Watterson’s very own apartment above the bar and what can only be described as an invasion of privacy.

Like many of the other odd encounters reported throughout Wallace, small nuanced things are usually the first thing people notice, things like lights being turned on (or off) or small pieces of furniture being out of place. For the Wattersons, it was the shower curtain being opened up after repeatedly being closed that grabbed the attention of the family.

After growing weary of constantly pulling the curtain closed, Watterson asked if sons were using the bathtub as a makeshift urinal for quick use during video game breaks.

When they repeatedly denied the accusation, they replaced the curtain with one that would be a little more difficult to “leave open.”

But to this day, the Wattersons continue to play their game of open and close with their shower curtain.

But that wasn’t the last time something odd happened in the Watterson’s bathroom.

It was late one night when Jeremy went to use the restroom, and while he was in there the lights began to flicker. Not just like a brief power surge or the flicker of a bulb about to go out, no this was a slow dim before suddenly going as bright as they could possibly be — prompting him to quickly exit the restroom and lay in bed the rest of the night wondering what exactly he had just experienced.

Every building in Wallace has some sort of basement, the Metals is no different. And aside from housing the motor that power’s building’s utility elevator, it also has several built-in freezer units from the building’s history in the meat industry — spooky enough as it is.

Also a common feature in the many bars around town are the can and bottle chutes where bartenders can drop the “empties” down in collection bins in the basement.

As the empty containers make their way between floors a very specific sound is made as they drop through the chute, followed by the crash of them dropping into the bin.

On numerous occasions Watterson has been in the basement and heard that telltale sound of a can making its way to the basement but then there’s no final crash.

“You can be here sometimes and there will be someone upstairs working and they’ll throw a can down the chute,” Watterson said. “And in the dark down here it can sound like a bullet that is rapidly approaching you and then it hits the pile and makes a noise. But I’ve been down here and heard that noise of a can coming down — which will always scare the crap out of me — but never the sound of it landing in the can.”

In the upper living quarters, the Watterson’s rent out a separate apartment to Rick Coe, who has lived there for the past few years, told the News-Press that he has definitely had some strange encounters since moving in.

“I live above the Metals Bar and have seen ghosts over the last two years I’ve lived here,” Coe said. “Also, my dog will look in certain corners from time to time and start barking like he sees something.”

Seeing things isn't uncommon there either.

Just off from the dance floor area of the bar as you head down the hallway toward the restrooms you will find a small room lovingly dubbed the “hoist room” — which has a small chainlink curtain that obscures people from being able to see clearly into it.

Primarily used for storage now, there really isn’t any room for a person to be standing in there, but that hasn’t stopped someone or something from posting up in the room and simply watching from behind the chainlink.

“We have had several people who have looked up and seen what definitely looks like a person standing back there,” Watterson said.

Watterson has never felt like anything that has happened has been in any way threatening, and in all actuality it has seemed more playful.

But if you want to see for yourself, all you need to do is make your way to the bar for happy hour (4 p.m.) and within just a few minutes you’ll get to experience it for yourself — a brief chill and the flicker of the lights, for no apparent reason at all.

When you factor just how reduced the population of the city has become from what it used to be, it comes as no surprise that Wallace seems to have more ghosts hanging around than living residents.

“We have so many spirits ping ponging around all of these buildings, it’s no surprise that we’d run into each other from time to time,” Watterson said. “A spirit who shows up for happy hour doesn’t seem very threatening though. I don’t blame her, I don’t want to ever leave either, they’ll have to run me out of town.”

Watterson has a theory as to who the happy hour ghost of the Metals is, but for that story you’re going to have to ask him.