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Old Main's Ghost     Old Main, the first erected building of the original Territorial University of Arizona College of Mines, is located on the original site of a ancient Indian village dating back well over 10,000 years. One of the workman who supervised the construction of Old Main was a man named Carlos Maldenado, who lived in Tucson from 1841 until his death in 1888. Although he may be gone now in body, he is far from forgotten and many believe that his spirit still continues to live on. Carlos Maldenado came up to Tucson in the summer of 1868 from Sonora Mexico and was already famous as a Sonoran businessman and famed gambler. His talents also included those of construction management. Carlos took a very keen personal interest in the building of  the structure, the idea of a university education, and was even known to stay in the unfinished building overnight on many occasions talking with local Indians who would stop by to see the big construction event  'way out in the desert so far away from town'  that it was in 1888.   Carlos Maldenado    Another more important reason Carlos was said to often had stayed in the unfinished building that still had no doors or windows, was that some very disgruntled Tucson citizens were still upset at having lost out on again being the territorial capital city, and also not getting the lucrative 'Arizona Asylum For The Insane' which was kept by Phoenix politicians instead.   The rumor had passed around in more than a few circles at some of the saloons on Congress Street in downtown Tucson, that plans had been already made to burn the building to the ground late some night under the cover of the deserts darkness.   One morning as the workers arrived on their horses and in wagons, they noticed as usual that Mr. Maldenado's wagon and horse were already tied to the hitching post outside of the unfinished building. The loud rough burly workers called out Carlos's name but there was no answer. The workers found the 1st floor to be empty, so then went up to the 2nd floor.   Maldenado who was known all over town to have a real sense of humor was seen sitting in a wooden chair with his back facing the workers. Figuring that it was just yet another of Carlos's many practical jokes, the men creeped slowly up behind their boss in the chair, and then suddenly let out a roaring chorus of  "Ya-Hoo's and Ye Haw's."  True to the real joker that he was Maldenado did not move.    As the men walked around to talk to him, they instantly saw it......A very large buffalo skinners knife was sticking deep into Carlos Maldenado's throat and had cut a artery. All down the front of the dead mans clothes was saturated in the eerie unmistakable crimson color and smell of  dried and still wet human blood.   The Murder Weapon (Courtesy of the Tucson Historical Society)                 Sheriff  Mathew F.  Shaw (the brother of the last Tucson Sheriff  Eugene O. Shaw who somewhat mysteriously suddenly left town in April that year for 'health reasons' but then showed up 3 months later in Faison, North Carolina and telegraphed his resignation in) came out to investigate. Not wanting to alarm the town, he first ruled the death as a heart attack, but the workers let him know that they would have no part of it, and that they would tell all of the town what they had seen when arriving at work that morning. It was believed that Carlos had scared off  some very desperate men who mirroring the towns lingering sentiments of getting a college structure instead of Tucson remaining the state's capital, had come to burn the unfinished building down. No one was ever arrested or charged with the crime and it remains a mystery to this very day.   Years after Carlos Maldenado's murder, in 1938, Old Main was declared unsafe and abandoned. Many years of neglect had taken their toll on the original building, termites nearly destroyed some wooden beams as well as the ancient timbers that were used up in the ceilings. The majestic building silently remained closed up as the gathering desert dust soon blanketed every square inch of it's interior.                    It was only the 7:30AM 1941 Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the U.S. entrance into World War 2 that saved and suddenly saw Old Main pushed into service for training military officers after some rather extensive remodeling with funding entirely from the U.S. War Department in Washington D.C.      Not long after the renovations were started, workers reported that they 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 ghostly figure and later identified the ghost as that of Carlos Maldenado from a photo of the man taken at a social event 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.   Old Main Today     If this was the ghost of Carlos Maldenado, it seems apparent that he was pleased with the renovations going on around him back in 1938 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 still merely trying to show his pleasure... still evident from the other side!     Home|BearDown Mystery|Maricopa Hall |May Day Mystery|Old Main Ghost|Professor's Obsession|Centennial Hall|Skeleton's Bones|Spirits In Museum|Contact Us|Disclaimer|