North Platte High has been holding a decade-long secret. Past and current students of NPHS, tell of a shrine made entirely from signatures and souvenirs left behind in a disclosed location. Others have said that it doesn’t even exist, but the Bulldogger is here to uncover the truth behind the legendary senior shrine.

I first found out about the shrine from a former NPHS student, Juwan Ortiz who graduated in 2013. He was substituting in my class when I decided to ask him about the craziest thing that he has ever done when he was in high school. As he talked, he began to mention a shrine that him and his two friends decided to seek out. “It was my senior year, and my friends and I decided to go up to this shrine. It took us three tries, but we [eventually] got to it,” said Ortiz. “The third time, we finally made it up there and found a wall full of students’ names and the year they graduated.” He also began to mention how the graduating seniors would leave little knickknacks behind.

The more he talked about the shrine, the more I wanted to see it for myself. I was skeptical at first, but I thought I would give it a shot and help out others who were as curious as I was.

Principal James Ayres gave me permission, and band director Brett Bradley accompanied me to the shrine. I’m just going to tell you now, if you’re fearful of heights, this is not for you; it’s a huge risk to get to it. Before putting my life on the line, Bradley had mentioned how there was nothing there. “It doesn’t exist,” said Bradley, but I persisted. He was right.

First of all, I instantly knew that this was a bad idea because I had to climb up a sketchy 50 foot ladder just to get up to it. One wrong step and I would’ve been gone. It took so long to get to it, just to find a blackened wall with no knickknacks. “I’ve cleared [the shrine] up, and I give the stuff to Ayres,” said Bradley. “I don’t know what he does with them, but I’m sure some of them gets thrown away.”

There you have it. The senior shrine did exist once, but each time a student leaves their legacy behind, it won’t be there the next time. If you try to attempt to find the shrine, Bradley said there’s a huge possibility that you’ll get caught and would have to face the school administration . It was nice to actually witness the secret that NPHS has held for years and it was really disappointing to find nothing. “I’m disappointed and a little sad,” said Ortiz. “It’s taking away tradition and history that seniors get to do their last year, and they took it away.”

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