CLINTON -- Shellie Larios, of Clinton, collected all the legends of ghosts and supernatural occurrences that she could verify from Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding area. The collection has been published as "Yellowstone Ghost Stories," put out by Riverbend Publishing, The stories come across as legends or folklore more than typical campfire ghost tales, which Larios designed. "I didn't want to write about chainsaw massacres," she said. "No blood, no guts, no gore. I simply tried to encourage people to experience the energy we get from the past." To do that, she gives background on the places and people involved in each story, and sometimes even explains how she found the story.

The history she gives is as accurate as she could find, and she even had park historian Lee Whittlesey write the foreword for the collection.

Larios was drawn to stories about ghosts in Yellowstone for two reasons.

First, her family had an annual trek to Yellowstone, where she became intrigued by the area. "Yellowstone is richly textured in history, and I think a lot of the emotional energy of events lingers long after the events have passed," she said.

Also, in or out of Yellowstone, Larios says she was always interested in ghosts and ghost stories. "Halloween has always been my favorite holiday," she said. "Even better than Christmas. There's just something about the unfinished stories of spirits and specters that I will always find deeply intriguing."

The unfinished nature of the stories that intrigues Larios is transferred to her telling of many of the stories in the collection.

One example is the story of Charles Hamilton's short cut on page 93 in the book.

The tale mentions the history of Dave Edwards, who worked in the park before much of it was developed. He died and was buried by the lake, but later concessionaire Charles Hamilton found that Edwards' grave was in the path where he wanted to build an access road.

Forging a new path for the road and moving Edwards' grave were both expensive options. Instead of spending extra money, Hamilton moved the headstone off of Edwards' grave, piled up a mound of dirt and rocks, fenced it off and put some flowers there.

Then Hamilton built the access road over the grave where Edwards' body still lay.

The legend goes that Edwards wanders the area, lantern in hand, searching for his missing grave, which should be with his body.

Park historians are still unsure exactly where the original Edwards grave is located.

Other stories in the book have similar mysteries attached.