Mark Todd's Blog, page 7

Colorado Haunted Hotels - Windsor Hotel

Between now and late spring, we're sharing the history and haunted legends associated with each of the hotels and B&Bs included in our forthcoming book,  
Windsor Hotel
WILD WEST GHOSTS:
an amateur ghost hunting guide
to Haunted Hotels
in southwest Colorado.
This week, we feature the Windsor Hotel  in Del Norte, Colo. (If you missed -- or want to revisit -- the paranormal investigation we conducted at this hotel, you can click here, as well as watch YouTube clips from our actual investigation.)

* * *
  Historical Context 
The current site of the town of Del Norte falls within the vicinity of the Old Spanish Trail system used as a trade route from Santa Fe to California. By the 1870s, the area saw streams of prospectors flooding into Colorado to seek the rich deposits of gold and silver discovered in the San Juan Mountains. In 1872, the town of Del Norte sprang up on the Rio Grande River as a supplier and financial center for mining operations. At one point, freight wagons lined up on Grand Avenue for a mile waiting to head into the mining camps to the west.
In its boomtown heyday, Del Norte climbed to over 10,000 inhabitants, filled with saloons, dance halls, and local brothels as well as an opera house, movie theater, and library. During the boom years, the failure of only one vote prevented Del Norte from becoming the state capitol. In anticipation, town planners built extra wide roads capable of turning around six-horse teams.
  Offsetting these high aspirations, the community experienced a Wild West town’s expected share of murders, stage robberies, jail escapes, and lynchings.
Lobby staircaseAccording to current co-owner Steve Whitehead, the Windsor is the oldest hotel in Colorado.  Enterprising citizens constructed the establishment in 1874 with local masonry and bricks. The building had expanded three times by 1888.
The hotel operated until the late 1970s, when it closed and sat empty for the next fifteen years. On the evening before scheduled demolition, Whitehead and several other locals decided to save the historic hotel. Pulling together enough funds overnight to buy the dilapidated property, they formed a committee called the Windsor Restoration and Historic Association to prevent the site’s fate of becoming a fast food restaurant.

From that point forward, the town joined together to preserve and later renovate the hotel. Grants and investors made it possible to restore the building above and beyond its former glory days.
Legends, Stories, and Guest ExperiencesThe hotel’s night supervisor said she thought it unsurprising a 140-year-old hotel would be haunted – the whole town is, including the streets and other buildings. One local resident shared stories about a nearby private residence where owners had captured apparitions by accident on multiple occasions in photos of the house.
Hotel co-owner Steve Whitehead reported he witnessed a rock fly out of a door he’d just opened while conducting a tour during building renovations. No one was in that room at the time. A housekeeper said she watched undisturbed clothes hangers start to move – swinging, stopping, swinging again. The radio also suddenly came on and lights switched on and off in Room 210 while she worked.
A guest staying in Room 204 reported hearing someone vacuuming in the hallway at 1 a.m. She was about to peek out her door but the noise quit, only to begin five minutes later. Staff doesn’t vacuum in the middle of the night.
Room where Maud Heinz
committed suicideThe most often reported site on the premises with paranormal activity is Room 209, where hotel guest Maud Heinz committed suicide in 1906. She’d arrived by train one morning, checked in under an alias, and then purchased a .38-caliber revolver and cartridges. She returned to her room and shot herself. She’d left a note, explaining her true identity, and the story soon came out. 
Two years earlier, she’d suffered an accident after an incident with a runaway horse, and she had “visionary spells” thereafter, according to Del Norte newspaper the San Juan Prospector in an article published April 7, 1906.  Shortly before her death, she’d had a lover’s quarrel and decided to end her life. In the century since then, guests report hearing and sometimes seeing her. 
Lodgers recount awakening in the middle of the night to see Maud peering down at them, and one overnight guest reported he awoke to hear her scream.
One of the more unusual features of the hotel lies below the south wing, accessible only from the outside courtyard: an ice cellar. The facility served double duty in the early days as a storage area to keep bodies during the winter, pending the spring thaw while remains awaited proper burial. We found no particular ghostly accounts relating to the cellar, but it certainly adds to the atmosphere!* * * Next week, we share history and ghostly stories for the Fairplay Hotel, haunted by at least three separate apparitions as well as regularly recurring poltergeist activity.

Colorado Haunted Hotels - The Fairlamb House B&B

Between now and late spring, we're sharing the history and haunted legends associated with each of the hotels and B&Bs included in our forthcoming book,  
Fairlamb House B&B WILD WEST GHOSTS:
an amateur ghost hunting guide
to Haunted Hotels
in southwest Colorado.
This week, we feature The Fairlamb House B&B  in Delta, Colo. (If you missed -- or want to revisit -- the paranormal investigation we conducted at this hotel, you can click here, as well as watch YouTube clips from our actual investigation.)


* * *Historical Context
 For hundreds of years, this area was homelands to the Ute tribes, and by the early 1800s, a trading post sprang up in the region to serve Native Americans, traders, and trappers. In 1828, Antoine Robidoux built Fort Uncompahgre, established as a fur trading center. The nearby 200-year old Ute Council Tree still commemorates the tribe's Chief Ouray and his wife Chipeta. Legend says Chipeta was the only Indian woman ever permitted to sit in council meetings held at this site. Annual Ute powwow in Delta      Delta County was created by the Colorado legislature in 1883. The town took its name from the delta that forms at the confluence of the Uncompahgre and Gunnison rivers. The area’s story reflects a heritage of pioneering agriculture, mining, as well as land and water development.Millard and Stella Fairlamb built The Fairlamb House in 1906, constructed of local Delta brick in classic Four Square architectural style. It was the first home in the area built by workers on an eight-hour work day. The house stood on a bluff that overlooked the delta below, and family members erected a series of houses that stretched an entire block. The Fairlamb House is listed on the State Historical Register.One curious story centers on Millard, who combed through the nearby Utah desert in search of Indian artifacts. Finding a human skeleton, he gathered up the bones, put them in a box, and stored them in his third-floor attic. There they stayed for a number of years, always scaring the Fairlamb children. Eventually, the skeleton was turned over to the Utes for interment.The house passed from Millard and Stella to Charles and Ethel Fairlamb and later Harley and Ethel (Lale) Fairlamb Jackson, and it continued to stay in the family for over seventy-two years. The Fairlambs experienced their share of life’s tragedies, including the death of one household member after she fell from a ladder hanging Christmas lights. After 1978, the house continued under had two subsequent owners, both doctors, and also numerous renters. John Taylor and Elizabeth Thompson purchased the house in 1994, and they’ve maintained the turn-of-the-century décor.

Guestroom directly below attic
hosting the skeletonLegends, Stories, and Guest ExperiencesDespite the fact that there was a skeleton in the attic for years and at least one Fairlamb family member died on the premises, current B&B owners John and Elizabeth attest they’ve personally witnessed very few instances of paranormal activity other than the occasional odd noises that an old house can make. Elizabeth did, however, experience an unexplained phenomenon during the renovations. She’d hired a high school girl to help, and soon the student pointed out a small seashell placed on a shelf kept showing up in other parts of the house. At first, Elizabeth thought the girl was playing a joke on her. But when she started paying attention, she, too, noticed the rogue seashell popping up in strange places. Millard Room - It was at the foot of this
bed the five trapped spirits appeared.Then in 1996, two years after the new owners purchased the property, they learned five female spirits resided at the Fairlamb. During the Ute powwow that year, the B&B played host to several visiting Native Americans, including a Lakota medicine man and his wife. That first morning at breakfast, the couple told John and Elizabeth they’d almost left in the middle of the night because of what happened to them. The medicine man recounted that they both woke to five benevolent female spirits standing at the foot of their bed in the Millard Room. They told the shaman they were trapped in the house.The Lakota offered to perform a release ceremony, which included chanting and burning sage that he wafted with an eagle feather. The ceremony may have released those five trapped ghosts, but paranormal activity continued for at least one woman we interviewed, who regularly stays at the Fairlamb. A year after the Lakotas visited, she reported seeing a wicker chair rocking on its own in the bathroom while she washed her face. She again stayed at the house in 2001, this time with her husband and baby. Back in the same bathroom, lights started to flicker and she heard banging noises. On a third visit, nothing paranormal occurred to her, but she still sensed an unseen presence – even when alone in the house.
* * *Next week, we share history and ghostly stories for Fairplay's Hand Hotel, "home" to six distinct entities, including a ghost dog.

Colorado Haunted Hotels - Linda Goodman's Miracle Inn

Between now and the spring, we're sharing the history and haunted legends associated with each of the hotels and B&Bs included in our forthcoming book,  
Miracle Inn WILD WEST GHOSTS:
an amateur ghost hunting guide
to Haunted Hotels
in southwest Colorado.
This week, we feature Linda Goodman's Miracle Inn (formerly Last Dollar Inn)  in Cripple Creek, Colo. (If you missed -- or want to revisit -- the paranormal investigation we conducted at this hotel, you can click here, as well as watch YouTube clips from our actual investigation.)


Linda Goodman's Miracle Inn consists of two structures -- an 1890s brownstone and a reconstructed Victorian-style boarding house -- even though it's not readily apparent from the outside that both buildings comprise a single inn. But experiencing the oft-reported hauntings within the original brownstone on the western end seems like a bonus when staying at this posh and elegant B&B.
* * *

Historical ContextCripple Creek's 1800s history began as a cattle pasture before Bob Womack discovered an ore deposit in 1890 and sparked the last great Colorado Gold Rush. Soon after, prospectors flooded the region, increasing the population from 500 to 10,000 people in three years.

In 1896, three successive fires destroyed most of the city. Resourceful citizens rebuilt Cripple Creek over the next few months, and many of the historic buildings still in existence date back to that renovation.
 
These days, only a few small mines still operate. The real gold comes from local gambling casinos, legalized
in 1991, and they now occupy many of the historic buildings.

Goodman herself may
haunt the B&B
Shortly after the 1896 fires, a new city ordinance required builders to use brick. A gentleman from the East Coast moved to town and built what would later become Linda Goodman’s Miracle Inn. He modeled his new home after the brownstone style he was used to and erected it next door to a boarding house.

In the decades that followed, the inn also became a boarding house, a bookkeeping office, and a private residence. Legend holds that ladies of the night operated out of the guestrooms.  Even Nicola Tesla reportedly stayed there during his Colorado electrical experiments.

During the 1960s, author Leland Feitz summered in the house. After meeting astrologist/author Linda Goodman (Sun Signs) at a book signing, he invited her to Cripple Creek. Soon after, she rented the house and eventually bought it, adding her own touches, including the large stained glass window of St. Francis of Assisi. 

Rick and Janice Woods bought the building in the 1990s. They also purchased the neighboring boarding house, reconstructing it in a Victorian style and adjoining it to the brownstone to open the Last Dollar Inn.

Jason Barton and Sofia Balas purchased the historic inn in 2013, in the eleventh hour before the building faced auction and an uncertain future. 

They’ve kept much of the décor of the original house intact, including many of Goodman’s antiques and memorabilia. The B&B’s guestrooms are dedicated to various former residents as well as to notorious Cripple Creek madam Pearl DeVere.

Legends, Stories, and Guest ExperiencesThe house has a long-time reputation for hauntings, and this feature attracts a number of its guests.

A psychic told Jason and Sofia the basement of the brownstone contains a spirit portal. If this is true, the ghosts certainly don’t stay downstairs. 

Even before the couple purchased the B&B, they experienced paranormal activity during a vacation stay. Opting for the Linda Goodman Room, they witnessed the door open and slam by itself (in the absence of any draft). Sofia saw a picture in the bathroom shift on its own and move. 

They also heard someone sitting in a wicker chair and sensed a presence standing by their bed watching them. More impressive, they observed a shadow walk past their door. In the Womack Room, Sofia witnessed a shadow apparition pass through the closed closet door. 

Nicola Tesla stayed here 3 months
while conducting electrical experimentsOther guests report footsteps in the hallway, and a number have experienced their hair pulled from behind. One previous inn owner felt an unseen presence pat the top of his head while he leaned over the bed in the Linda Goodman Room. That owner also reported the door to the Feitz Room mysteriously closing and locking on its own (an action that takes manual locking). 

According to an article in the Pikes Peak Courier, some guests have heard a “phantom train” while staying in the Feitz and DeVere rooms; a child ghost has appeared at the desk in one of the rooms, and the apparition of a train conductor has shown up in the living room.  

Sofia has often felt a cold spot move through her while serving breakfast, an activity that often happens while she sits at the table. Guests have also noted the moving cold spot in the dining room.

Even if the spirit portal basement is off limits to the public, paranormal interactions at the ground level and on the second floor in the original building abound for the more adventurous and ghost-seeking guest.


* * *Next week, we share history and ghostly stories for Del Norte's Windsor Hotel, where a tragic early-day suicide still haunts the premises.

Colorado Haunted Hotels - Hotel St. Nicholas

Between now and the spring, we're sharing the history and haunted legends associated with each of the hotels and B&Bs included in our forthcoming book,  
Hotel St. Nicholas WILD WEST GHOSTS:
an amateur ghost hunting guide
to Haunted Hotels
in southwest Colorado.
This week, we feature the Hotel St. Nicholas  in Cripple Creek, Colo. (If you missed -- or want to revisit -- the paranormal investigation we conducted at this hotel, you can click here, as well as watch YouTube clips from our actual investigation.)

* * *
Shades of Alfred Hitchcock – but with a lot more class. Because this building is a renovation of a former Sisters of Mercy hospital and sits elevated on a hill above the town, the setting resembles the classic haunted hotel. The three-story brick building, shrouded by tall Ponderosa pines, appears imposing and impressive with outside balconies and a cupola still topped with an iconic Christian cross.
Historical Context

The Hotel St. Nicholas’s colorful history began in 1898 when the Dublin-based Catholic Sisters of Mercy built it to accommodate the Cripple Creek area during the Colorado gold rush.

The hotel lobbyAccording to history compiled by the hotel, “The Sisters originally operated from an existing wood-framed building, one block from the current St. Nicholas, and served 307 patients during their first year. A massive fire in April 1896, destroyed most of Cripple Creek, and led to an incident of drama and irony. As the fire progressed through [town], many wooden-framed buildings were dynamited in an effort to slow the fire. 

"While the sisters were evacuating patients to safer locations, a member of an anti-Catholic society entered the hospital’s kitchen and attempted to destroy the building by placing dynamite in the stove chimney. To the man’s misfortune, the dynamite exploded prematurely, causing little damage to the hospital, but blowing off his leg. He was evacuated with the other patients, and the compassionate care he received from the Sisters led him to express remorse for his deed. His shoe, which had landed in the tea kettle, was kept by the Sisters as a memento.”

The nuns, convinced they needed a safer structure, hired a Denver architect to design and build a three-story brick hospital for a cost of $12,000. The first two floors served patients, reserving the third floor for the nuns and the attic for the hospital orderly. Completely modern for its day, the hospital contained electric lights, steam heat, hot and cold running water, and surgery facilities. The first patient was a young miner who had fallen down a mine shaft.

The Sisters left Cripple Creek in 1924, and local doctors bought the facility. After closing in 1972, the building served as a boarding house but eventually stood vacant by the time it was purchased and refurbished as a hotel in the mid-1990s.


Legends, Stories, and Guest ExperiencesThe community abounds with ghost stories, and the Hotel St. Nicholas has its fair share. Paranormal activity occurs on all three floors.

Third-floor hallwayA number of years ago, owner Susan Adelbush sat working in the office behind the cashier’s booth and heard someone behind her. She turned to see a tall, thin man who wore a turn-of-the-century derby hat and long coat. Within seconds, he disappeared.

An employee later saw that same man, wearing the same clothes, as he strolled past her out of the nuns’ room. Only sometime afterwards did Susan and the employee compare notes to discover they had witnessed the same apparition.

Not to be ignored, the derby-hatted gentleman appeared again to part-time local Tom Tunnicliff in the first-floor hotel lounge. He and several friends stood at the bar. The front doorbell sounded and the on-duty staffer left to check but soon returned – no one had entered the otherwise empty hotel. Tom felt someone touch his shoulder, and he turned to see the dark outlined silhouette of a man in a long coat and derby. The apparition passed through Tom’s arm, giving him a tingle, and proceeded to walk through the bar as well as through the antique boiler against the outside wall.

Surgery-turned-guestroomGuests have reported a crying little girl at the foot of their bed in Room 11 (the former surgery room). Others said they’ve heard children playing with a bouncing ball and laughing on the third-floor hallway in the middle of the night. This happens even on evenings when no children stay at the hotel, according to Susan.

In an article in the Pikes Peak Courier, the hotel also remains home to ghostly former patients of the hospital’s mental ward. The article cites another reported recurring presence – a ghost called “Stinky,” sighted on the back staircase and making his presence known with a “sewage-like smell.”

Hauntings occur throughout Cripple Creek. Many casinos claim to have regular ghosts that play slots. One establishment reports a recurring apparition who sits at a particular machine. The ghost plays for a while and then disappears. One wonders who collects the earnings, if any.

Several people visiting Tom’s own house, just below the Hotel St. Nicholas, have witnessed an apparition arrive on his porch, come through a locked door, and walk through the home.

“People in Cripple Creek often dress up in period clothes,” Tom said. “But sometimes they disappear. You don’t know if you’ve seen a real person or a ghost.”

* * *Next week, we share history and ghostly stories for Cripple Creek's other haunted establishment in our book, Linda Goodman's Miracle Inn (formerly Last Dollar Inn), which may contain a portal to another dimension in its basement.

Colorado Haunted Hotels -- The Forest Queen

Between now and the spring, we're sharing the history and haunted legends associated with each of the hotels and B&Bs included in our forthcoming book,  
Crested Butte's Forest Queen HotelWILD WEST GHOSTS:
an amateur ghost hunting guide
to Haunted Hotels
in southwestern Colorado.
This week, we feature the Forest Queen in Crested Butte, Colo. (If you missed -- or want to revisit -- the paranormal investigation we conducted at this hotel, you can click here.)

* * *
Historical Context The vicinity of Crested Butte on the East River Valley served as the summer home to the nomadic Ute Indians for hundreds of years. By the Nineteenth Century, they shared the land with trappers, explorers, and early attempts at settlement.
Eager miners followed earlier pioneers when prospectors discovered silver in the late 1860s. Within ten years, coal and silver mines opened in the surrounding area, resulting in multiple smaller mining towns. Widespread timber harvesting supplied lumber and fuel for newcomers while emerging cattle operations helped contribute to the economy by the 1870s. Crested Butte became the principal supply center for the area and an official town in 1880. The Denver Rio Grande Railroad arrived the year after.
Mining proved dangerous work. On Jan. 24, 1884, a coal mine shaft ignited and exploded, launching coal cars out of the tunnel, scattering debris more than a hundred feel, and destroying nearby buildings. A rescue attempt recovered fifty-nine bodies, many teenaged boys.
The Forest Queen Hotel began operating in the early days as part of Crested Butte’s red-light district, a series of brothels lined up between First Street and Second Street on Elk Avenue. The original building consisted of a saloon filling the first floor and a brothel on the second. 
After the mining declined in 1893, Crested Butte still survived, in part, because of the high-grade coal mines, some of which continued operations into the early 1950s. Higher transportation costs and lower consumption of coal eventually forced most of the mines to close, along with the railroad.
In 1961 scouts came to Crested Butte to investigate the area for a possible ski mountain. After a decade of slow times, locals welcomed the new opportunity. 
In keeping with the times, the Forest Queen by then had long transformed into a more respectable business, with a series of taverns and restaurants occupying the first floor while the second floor provided accommodations to overnight guests as well as to longer-term boarders. 
Today, Crested Butte not only hosts a thriving ski industry but also boasts a recreational playground for biking, hiking, and other outdoor pastimes. Shops, restaurants, and a slate of cultural events and festivities draw thousands of visitors year round to this community of 1,500 full-time residents.
Ghostly Legends and Guest Experiences
Both guests and staff have long reported paranormal goings-on at both the hotel and grill for many years.Housekeeping staff say they find rearranged or tousled bed sheets and linens in the rooms on a regular basis. One chef from the kitchen below stayed upstairs overnight in a room with two beds. Awaking the next morning, he found all his clothes laid out on the other bed – not a service the hotel provides.
Another chef told us accounts of items that regularly turn up missing in the kitchen, only to return a day or two later. And these are industrial utensils, nothing an individual would borrow for home use.
Perhaps the most famous haunting in the hotel involves an 1800s prostitute named “Elizabeth.” Many locals refer to her as the Red Lady Ghost. Her tragic tale circulates in two versions, both ending with hurling herself from a second-story window and headfirst to her death in Coal Creek. The first version goes that one of Elizabeth’s regulars, a patron she adored, promised to deliver her from a sordid life. But one day she looked out her window and saw him kissing his wife – and thus the suicide. 
The other version tells the story this way: While Elizabeth stayed at the hotel, she fell in love with an itinerant gambler who talked her into bankrolling her life's savings. She did so to win his affection. But after the gambler doubled his winnings, he abandoned her with no money and no prospects – again ending with the leap from her window
Guests and staffers alike report the Red Lady Ghost makes her presence known by banging pots and pans and slamming doors. Her alleged crib is now present-day Room Four.
Both the men’s and women’s bathrooms in the grill also have a history of paranormal activity. One patron had a cellphone knocked from his hand before he turned on the light switch. When he bent to retrieve the cell, something prevented him from straightening back up for several seconds. Once he had, he turned on the light to an empty room.
On a different occasion, a woman experienced a series of repeated lights-out episodes in the women’s bathroom down that same hallway.
The reports of paranormal activity don’t stop in this building. In the next block, the Eldo Brew Pub has a reputation for hauntings as well, with staff reporting apparitions and anomalous sounds of all sorts.


* * *Next week, we'll share the haunted history of Cripple Creek's Hotel St. Nicholas, which operated (no pun intended -- okay, maybe a little one) as a gold rush miner's hospital for years before becoming a hotel.

#GhostHunt No. 14 - the Vintage Inn in Gunnison, CO

Our paranormal investigation account this week takes place at the Vintage Inn B&B in Gunnison, CO.

1880s-era Vintage Inn B&BBut first a S/O to owner/proprietor Beth Marcue, who welcomed us and made her entire B&B available to our investigation. Thanks, Beth!
The Vintage Inn was originally built in 1883 by Capt. Louden Mullin, a Civil War veteran responsible for many entrepreneurial ventures in West Gunnison. (At the time, the community divided into East and West as competing factions for the arrival of the new narrow-gauge railroad and consequent location of the depot.) Through the next century, the building served as a series of private residences as well as a daycare and video store before becoming a B&B in 2010.
Unlike the other ghost hunts we've conducted, this B&B has no documented history of paranormal activity. But to be fair, it’s only been open to the public for five years. We went in on a hunch anyway because of the age and appearance.
Our intuitions proved dead on.
Initially, we took EMF readings in the guestroom, ranging from 450-480mG around the bed and 580-590mG throughout the rest of the room. (EMF stands for Electromagnetic Field, and ghosts are said to manipulate this energy as a way to manifest or communicate.) The kitchen hovered in the mid-420s, the hearth room in the 410s, and the front living room in the 450s.
We decided not to further investigate the guestroom because owner Beth believed it was a newer addition to the building. So instead we focused on the original structure, most of which is available to guests during their stay.
In this instance, Beth wanted to assist as a ghost-hunt team member since she, too, was curious to see what we might find. We were glad to invite her along, and she offered a number of personalized questions that made the investigation more interesting.
VI hearth roomWe began in the heart of the B&B, the hearth room, where we set up our equipment in front of the stove. Almost immediately, our EchoVox spirit box produced several EVPs using Beth’s name – fine by us. (EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon, sometimes occurring on audio recordings but can also be generated through a spirit box. Our EchoVox generates only random sounds -- no words -- and it's up to a spirit to assemble and create intelligible responses.) It was, after all, her house and her invisible roommates!
When we asked if any unseen presences could tell us who they were, we received clear replies of “no” twice. Then we asked if they had a story to tell, and we got “alright.”  But the single-syllable words that followed didn’t reveal much coherence.
So we asked how many spirits were present during the session and heard a response of “five” from two different voices. (Our EchoVox produced multiple voices while we conducted our investigation that day.) Later analysis confirmed what we’d heard in real time, but also additional references to Beth as well as the word “apple” after we asked if they had stories to tell.
Back in real time in the hearth room, we turned on the flashlight and asked for the spirits present to wink or dim the light as another way to communicate. No response. We also conducted an audio-only EVP session, which later yielded nothing.
VI living roomBeth suggested we move to the front living room because, to her, that room always held a different feel. We again set up our EchoVox, camcorder, and flashlight to see what more we could capture. Beth asked if there was anything she could do to make the spirits in the house more comfortable. That only resulted in more references to Beth. So Mark asked if they were happy in this house. Loud and clear in real time, we heard in a man’s voice say, “Happy.” Mark asked for confirmation that the spirit had said “happy” and received an immediate “yes.” In later analysis, we also captured “good” following that exchange. Audio-only, nothing.

But the spirits made their strongest showing in the living room through the flashlight, fluttering at first and then dimming twice almost to the point of winking out. We captured these two episodes on video. 

EVP and Flashlight Response
We thanked them for their interaction and, on later analysis, discovered a voice saying, “You’re welcome.”
While there, Beth asked us to conduct readings in her private bedroom, where she kept a dresser that had arrived in Gunnison via her family’s covered wagon. We turned on the EchoVox and set the flashlight on the dresser. Mark asked for communication through the light, and we heard a voice through the spirit box twice say, “Flashlight.”  However, the light never winked or dimmed this time
In later analysis, we discovered several additions. Mark asked if the spirits present had any questions for Beth. A man’s voice repeated, “Question,” followed by a woman’s voice ten seconds later also saying, “Question.” The recording held Beth’s further request to blink the flashlight, but the response was “hard.” We also captured a woman’s voice announce, “Say it,” about thirty seconds later. We couldn’t determine if this spirit addressed the team or some other unseen presence.
We captured one final remark on later analysis: Mark had asked if anyone in the room had a connection to Beth’s family, and a woman’s voice replied, “I did.” 
 EVP of "I did" responding to Beth
We were glad we followed our intuition to investigate the Vintage Inn. Beth must be a good innkeeper as well as a good ghostkeeper. All her spirits appeared happy and polite.
* * *Several friends and followers have asked us if we'd share more about the history and legends surrounding the hotels we investigated. It's all in the forthcoming book, of course, but we're happy to share these fascinating back stories as we anticipate the release of the book this spring. 
So in coming weeks we'll share some of the history and the paranormal legends associated with the hotels we investigated. Each has its own special flavor and, certainly, its individual and unique "haunts."
BTW, Happy New Year to all our para peeps, followers, and friends!

#GhostHunt #13: The Bross Hotel in Paonia, CO

The account this week from our paranormal investigations for the new book takes place at the Bross Hotel in Paonia, Colo.
The Bross Hotel B&BBut first a S/O to owner Linda Lentz, who gave us the tour of her charming three-story B&B. 
W.T. and Laura Bross oversaw the construction of the hotel in 1905, which they ran until the 1830s. Their son Otto took it over and would remain on the premises even after he sold it and until he died in 1959. 
The hotel has experienced quite a lot of paranormal activity in the basement and on all three above-ground floors of the hotel through the years, including repeated sightings of both Laura and Otto as well as regular poltergeist activity, with disturbed bed covers and even the fall to the floor of a large dining room mirror moly-bolted to the wall! (This occurred in the 1990s after a former innkeeper had made disparaging remarks about "Mother" Bross. The proprietor certainly didn't repeat that mistake.)
The mirror that fell to the floorOur investigation at the Bross included several tantalizing anomalies.
We first took EMF readings in the dining room near the infamous mirror. Baseline meter output hovered steadily around 270 mG but climbed dramatically to over 400 mG in field strength near the north end of the mirror frame. (EMF stands for Electromagnetic Field, and ghosts are said to manipulate this energy as a way to manifest or communicate.)

But goings and comings in this public space interrupted us from recording any useful EVPs during our visit. (EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon, soft whisperings or voices that sometimes occur at almost inaudible levels on audio recordings but can also be generated through a spirit box.)
From there, we headed to the second floor and to Room No. 2, the “English/Ghost Room,” or Otto’s room. We began by setting up a video camera on a tripod to record movement in the room. We also shot a number of still photographs with our digital camera – but not for long. Within a few minutes, the newly installed batteries in both the SLR camera and camcorder drained, forcing us to replace them. (Rapidly depleting batteries are a common cited phenomenon in haunted locations, where ghosts may draw down such energy as a way to manifest or communicate.)
Rm 2 -- the "English/Ghost Room"While the recharged video camera ran, Mark scoped the room with the EMF meter while Kym recorded voices using a spirit box.  It soon became apparent that the voice recordings corresponded to Mark’s changing locations within the room. When he stood by the video camera, the spirit box declared “videotape” twice, announced the word “film” twice when he started taking photos, and even mentioned “fan” while he aimed his camera at the ceiling fan above the bed. 
In all, the spirit box emitted forty words during a fifteen-minute session, including two references to “staircase” (just beyond the open bedroom door), “bed” twice (the room’s largest feature), “room” twice, and also both “electric” and “electricity.” (This was a novel feature for an early 1900s hotel, and many early guests remarked on the amenity in those early days.)
We’ve run the spirit box in other locales with very little response, but here the instrument was a chatterbox, with roughly 25 percent of the words specifically describing objects or activity related to the real-time investigation.
The box also mentioned “shower,” and when we opened the attached bathroom door, the baseline EMF readings of 120 mG jumped to 450 mG in field strength. However, we received no other correlating events in that room.

We repeatedly asked if "Mother" Bross or any other entities were present in the room but received no direct replies. Our video recordings yielded identified anomalies, and our attempts at recovering EVPs also turned up nothing. We also detected no temperature fluctuations or cold spots.
Lobby stairway wraps
around a bronze sculpture
of a faux elevatorSometimes the ghosts just don't come out and play on cue! (By contrast, another paranormal team had investigated the hotel a few weeks prior to our own visit, and that group reported interactions with both Laura and W.T. Bross. Over a period of two days, the team also established communication with Otto, his wife, and son Billy.)
But the punchline for us came just before leaving.
We packed up and smoothed out the few wrinkles created on the bedspread from our equipment. As we headed downstairs, Linda called out that we should retrieve the tourist literature on the vanity by the bed, and we about-faced and reentered the room. 
To our surprise, the left side of the bedspread looked crumpled, like someone had been sitting there. In fact, it looked exactly like the print of someone’s fanny, and very much in keeping with one former innkeeper’s repeated observations in this and other rooms in the hotel.  Definitely not the way we left it seconds before. We were so stunned, we didn't even take a picture before straightening the spread (a mistake we wouldn't make again!)
When we mentioned the disarrayed bed once we retreated downstairs, the owner merely smiled.  * * *We're going to interrupt the accounts of our paranormal investigations for the weekend between Christmas and New Year's. (BTW, happy holidays, all!)  

But the following weekend, we'll share highlights of our visit to the Vintage Inn B&B in Gunnison, Colo., where we discover ghosts who seem polite and even tell us they're happy with their current accommodations!

Don't forget you can follow along during our investigations as we live-tweet from Twitter @writeinthethick. You can check out our Facebook page for updates about dates and times. And you can subscribe to our YouTube "Ghost Hunt Findings" channel to see our constantly expanding collection of video clips from our various investigations.

#GhostHunt No. 12: the Beaumont Hotel in Ouray, CO

Our account this week from our paranormal investigations for the new book takes place at the Beaumont Hotel & Spa in Ouray, CO.

Note Queen Anne Victorian architectureBut first a S/O to co-owner Jennifer Leaver, who gave us a tour of this lovely building and filled us in about various hotspots along the way. Thanks, Jen!


Built in 1886 of bricks fired from the mud of local hot springs, the Beaumont began as an enterprise to entertain railroad and mining investors to the area during the gold and silver rush. And through the years, it has accumulated an impressive array of paranormal occurrences, including full-bodied apparitions, mysterious aromas of tobacco smoke and perfume in various rooms and halls, as well as lots of poltergeist activity.
Since our on-site visit occurred during off-season, we had access to most of the hotel. We’d asked Jen which rooms had the most promising paranormal activity to launch our investigation, and she told us she felt hard-pressed to name a room that didn't have such reports!
Room 304But she recommended we start in Room 304, where the bathtub had mysteriously filled late one night for unsuspecting and surprised guests. Before having a chance to set up our equipment, we both caught a whiff of tobacco smoke close to the door of this “unoccupied” room. (The whole facility is non-smoking.) At first we thought we might have smelled the coffeemaker. But on closer inspection, that wasn’t the source. The odor was clearly tobacco. We took a step backwards and neither of us could smell the aroma. We stepped forward and it had disappeared altogether, only to return a moment later. What an intriguing beginning, and consistent with accounts by other guests and staff throughout the hotel.

We bee-lined toward the infamous bathroom and hovered our EMF meter over the claw-footed tub. Baseline readings registered 530mG. (EMF stands for Electromagnetic Field, and ghosts are said to manipulate this energy as a way to manifest or communicate.) The rest of the suite fell in much the same range: 520mG in the bedroom and 560mG over the bed, which had a wooden four-poster frame. 
Next we set up the camcorder, audio digital recorder, and EchoVox spirit box to see if we could capture any EVPs. (EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon, sometimes occurring on audio recordings but can also be generated through a spirit box. Our EchoVox generates only random sounds -- no words -- and it's up to a spirit to assemble and create intelligible responses.) In real time, we heard a number of single words, including “tobacco” and “smoke.” Guess the entities wanted to make sure we didn’t miss the aromas they had manifested for our benefit.

EVP confirming ghostly smells we detected
We retrieved the flashlight and invited any spirits in the room to use that energy to communicate. Almost immediately, the flashlight flickered multiple times and then almost dimmed out – twice! – which we documented on video. We felt excited by this two-way conversation involving targeted questions and flashlight replies and consider the phenomenon one of the hallmarks of this investigation.

Room 304's impressive flashlight interaction 
Our later analysis of the audio-only recording gave nothing new, but the EchoVox replay revealed “babble” and “birthday,” followed by a coughing sound (the smoking habit of one of the local ghosts?)
We next set up in the second-floor spa, a whole suite of rooms showing EMF ranges of 510-560mG. The foyer seemed the most convenient location to stage our equipment. We’d had such great luck with the flashlight already, we repeated that experiment – but the flashlight refused to come on at first. Mark stepped into the hallway with the light, and reentered the spa to try it again. This time it came on; simultaneously the EchoVox announced, “It works.” On our request, the flashlight flickered twice more. And again, our camcorder captured all this.  Later analysis of the EchoVox offered nothing additional to our findings, nor did the audio-only session we conducted.
Lobby staircaseOur final investigation took place in the Luella Lounge, where our EMF registered a fairly steady 520mG throughout -- except when we decided to go for broke by setting up the flashlight once more. This time the light fluttered only slightly, but more impressive during those flickers, the EMF shot up past 970mG. During paranormal investigations, the dimming of the light at the same time as the electromagnetic flux confirms a ghost drawing on flashlight energy as a way to manifest or make contact.
Then, without warning, the EMF dropped to baseline. It seemed like the ghosts had gotten bored with us.
In the meantime, we’d left our EchoVox running, but heard nothing definitive, then nor during later analysis. 
On the outside chance the spirit or entities had returned, we switched on our audio-only recorder. We didn’t have high hopes of capturing anything with the bar’s refrigerator humming in the background. Nevertheless, we analyzed the recording when we returned home and found an EVP of “Jim” when we’d asked for a name. 
 Audio-only EVP in Luella Lounge
Ghostly smoke aromas, on-request flashlight winks, and solid EVPs – we couldn’t have asked for more during this on-site investigation.
* * * Next week, we share highlights of our visit to the Bross Hotel in Paonia, CO, where we witness a ghostly fanny print on a freshly made bed!



Don't forget you can follow along during our investigations as we live-tweet from Twitter @writeinthethick. You can check out our Facebook page for updates about dates and times. And you can subscribe to our YouTube "Ghost Hunt Findings" channel to see video clips from our investigations.

#GhostHunt No. 11: the Windsor Hotel in Del Norte, CO

This week's account of paranormal investigations for our new book takes place at the Windsor Hotel in Del Norte, CO, flanking the mountains on the western edge of the San Luis Valley.
Note old Spanish Territorial architectureBut first a S/O to the Whitehead family, who own and personally operate the hotel -- Steve, lodging manager; Kodi, the hotel's sommelier; and Regan, the establishment's five-star chef
The Windsor Hotel, built in 1874, has the rowdy history of many frontier mining towns and, in this case, the suicide of Maud Heinz in 1906, which has resulted in a persistent haunting. In addition, guests and staff report inexplicable noises and a variety of poltergeist activity.


Even though co-owner Steve Whitehead told us he’d witnessed little paranormal activity himself within the hotel, our own experience in upstairs rooms began almost immediately. In fact, we captured one of our favorite EVPs from all our audio recordings for this project. (EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon, where spirits communicate through audio recordings or else through means of sounds generated on a spirit box.)
We made a straight path to Room 209 – where Maud, the building’s famous suicide-ghost, resides – and followed our routine of first taking EMF readings. (EMF stands for Electromagnetic Field, and ghosts are said to manipulate this energy as a way to manifest or communicate.) That room showed 500mg throughout most of the space and 580s over the bed, with surges up to 740 over the north central section of the mattress. This puzzled us since the bed consisted of black walnut frames – nothing metallic to interfere or create false readings.
After setting up the video camera, we started the EchoVox spirit box. (Our EchoVox generates only random sounds -- no words -- and it's up to a spirit to assemble and create intelligible responses.) The real-time session produced lots of babbling, with one coherent word when we asked if the entities preferred the term spirits or ghosts. A man’s voice clearly replied, “Ghosts.” That word repeated itself several times throughout our investigation, possibly to make sure we got the message straight. (We made a similar query at the Fairlamb House B&B and received a similar response – at least we now have confirmations at different sites of the “PC” term to use these days!)
We brought out the flashlight and addressed Maud, asking her to use that energy to communicate. The device wouldn’t turn on. We tried it again and the light remained steady. We left the flashlight on for several minutes before Mark picked up the unit to click off, and it winked and then dimmed in his hand. Time to get a new flashlight? Maybe not, keep reading.
Contact with "Maud" using flashlight
In the meantime, the EchoVox continued to spit out many single-syllable sounds. We tend to discount these because they’re too easy to misinterpret. We shut it off and began an audio-only recording session. Mark asked if someone was manipulating the flashlight – never hurts to ask. Of course, we couldn't hear any potential EVP response until we analyzed the recording later.
And now for that exciting EVP we mentioned earlier. In playback, we heard Mark’s question, followed by an immediate reply of … wait for it … “yes” in a woman’s voice! (Remember that this occurred in Maud’s room.) The event may not sound too impressive, but getting a voice using nothing but an audio-only tape recording is gold during paranormal investigations, ranking just below an apparition on videotape. Our recording produced one of the clearest EVPs from an audio-only session we’d captured to date. 
EVP confirming ghostly interaction with "Maud"
That event excited us to analyze the EchoVox session. To our surprise (in real time, we didn’t think we’d captured much at all), the recording revealed several intelligible phrases just after we turned on the spirit box. They included spirits saying, “Here it is” and “Wait please.” Coinciding with the flashlight episode, we also recorded “[something]’s broke.” We couldn’t quite make out that first word. All these statements came in a man’s voice – ironic, since our audio-only session recorded a woman’s voice. 
EchoVox spirit boxLuckily, we managed to capture the flashlight episode on both separate video and audio recordings.
The investigation continued across the hall in Room 210, where housekeeping had reported moving clothes hangers and electrical anomalies. EMF baselines produced readings of 530-590mG around the room, with the bed showing 630-670mG (bedsprings?) 
The real-time EchoVox greeted us with “Hi, Kym.” When we asked how many spirits joined us in the room, we heard an unequivocal “two.” The flashlight performed perfectly this time – but also without results. 
During later analysis, we had what sounded like another audio-only EVP, but we couldn’t tease out the words. On the EchoVox recording, we again heard what we'd heard during the real-time investigation: the same woman's greeting, “Hi, Kym,” but adding the word “Lucy” to our request for who was with us. When we asked for further communication, a man’s voice answered, “Did we?” But when we'd asked for any flashlight manipulation, a woman’s voice told us, “I’m so sorry.” Finally, we asked if they had any questions for us and heard, “Hold on, Mark (woman’s voice), Kym (man’s voice).” 
EVP of ghosts directly addressing us


We did hold on but, alas, no one offered anything further. Couldn’t really complain, though – the investigation had already yielded very productive results.
* * * Next week, we share highlights of our visit to Ouray's Beaumont Hotel, where it was hard to find a room that did *not* have paranormal activity!


Don't forget you can follow along during our investigations as we live-tweet from Twitter @writeinthethick. You can check out our Facebook page for updates about dates and times. And you can subscribe to our YouTube "Ghost Hunt Findings" channel to see video clips from our investigations.

#GhostHunt No.10: the Fairlamb House B&B in Delta, CO

 All this fall, winter, and early spring, we're engaged in our latest book project -- haunted hotels in western and mountainous Colorado -- and we're using our blog to share highlights about our visits (and ghost hunts) to each location. You can click on the tab just under our blog banner called "New WIP Ghost Hunt Book" for more context and a bit of backstory about the project.

This week's account reports on our paranormal investigation at the Fairlamb House B&B in Delta, CO.
But first a S/O to owners John Taylor and Elizabeth Thompson, who offered us coffee and then gave us total run of their lovely B&B.
The establishment has reported poltergeist activity, including a rocking chair (by itself, of course), as well as five resident ghosts -- all women. Some time ago, a visiting Lakota shaman performed a ceremony to free those trapped at this location. Also, one previous owner in the early 20th Century found skeletal remains in the nearby desert, brought it back, and stored it for years in the house's attic.
We were a little nervous about what ghosts remained in the house after the medicine man’s release ceremony. We needn’t have been!
Because one couple had witnessed all five women spirits at the same time in the Millard Room, we chose to start our investigation there.
Millard Fairlamb RoomBaseline EMF readings fell in the 510mG range near the bed and slightly lower everywhere else in the room. (EMF stands for Electromagnetic Field, and ghosts are said to manipulate this energy as a way to manifest or communicate.) 
Our EchoVox spirit box went so crazy with squelching feedback that we heard very little in real time. So we recorded with the spirit box for only a short while and resorted to straight audio recording to see if we could detect any EVPs later. (EVP stands for Electronic Voice Phenomenon, sometimes occurring on audio recordings but can also be generated through a spirit box. Our EchoVox generates only random sounds -- no words -- and it's up to a spirit to assemble and create intelligible responses.)
More interesting during the real-time EchoVox session, our flashlight flickered immediately after we asked spirits to use the energy generated by our 160-lumen lamp to dim the light. Simultaneously, the EMF meter increased by 160mG. We documented the dimming of the light on video. The correlation of request, dimming, and EMF fluctuation was striking, and confirmed the willingness of an unseen presence or presences to interact with us. 
Video of flashlight experiment
Later EchoVox analysis drew responses to our question about who was there, giving the names “Hutch” three times (in a man’s voice), and “Wilhelm” once (in a woman’s voice). The EchoVox also produced a man’s voice saying “girls” and a different man’s voice saying, “Crappy ... thing?” – as though expressing an opinion. 
 EVP of "crappy ... thing?"
When we’d asked whether the entities in the B&B preferred the term “ghosts” or “spirits,” we got immediate responses, including a boy’s voice twice saying, “Ghosts.” During our investigations, we’ve seldom recorded children’s voices.
EVP of "ghosts" four times!
On audio-only recording analysis, we picked up the EVP of a feminine vioce whispering, “Help me, Kym.” (Messages like this tend to frustrate us since we only hear them in analysis, long after we’ve left the premises.)
Across the hall in the Stella Room, our EMF baselines were 480mG in the north end of the room, 530mG in the south, and 570mG over the bed. Again, our EchoVox suffered from a fair amount of reverberation. The only thing we clearly heard in real time was a woman’s voice saying, “Home … yes,” in response to our query asking if any spirits lived there. We could also make out the word “four” when we asked how many spirits were present. We expected an answer of five, based on the other guests’ reports, but we hardly felt disappointed!
We captured those same words again when we later analyzed the session, and when we listened to ourselves thanking the woman for her response, she said, “Okay.” At this point in our session, we’d again turned on the flashlight and asked for interaction. Nothing happened. Perhaps because a woman’s voice reported, “Problems.” We also asked her name, to which she answered “Thelma.” Then we asked if she’d died there, and she answered, “Yes.” (We found no historical records that indicated a Thelma dying on the premises.)
When we asked where the spirits were now, one man’s voice commanded, “Answer!” followed by a different man saying, “Here.” We inquired about the bones in the attic, to which a woman replied, “We’re dead.”
The audio-only recording in that room produced no later EVPs. Same thing with later video analysis.
Ethel Fairlamb RoomWe concluded our investigation with sessions in the remaining Ethel Room. EMF readings fluctuated only slightly from 470-480mG throughout the room. When we again tried the flashlight experiment, the EMF rose to 610mG, but the light didn’t dim or flutter. Later in the session, our camcorder shut itself down, still with a three-quarters full battery. (More on that later.)
Puzzling, but we had no reverberations on the EchoVox like we’d experienced in the other rooms. In fact, within seconds we heard the word “bones” repeated three times. We asked whose bones, and a man’s voice said, “Wife.” 
We also heard the words “blood,” “death,” and “company.”
After we'd later analyzed our recordings, we detected the same words we had in real time, along with a number of others. During the flashlight request, a woman’s voice said, “It’s a thing – thing.” A reference to the flashlight? Right after that, another woman’s voice asked, “Who’s there? Hello?” We asked for another sign of spirit presence, and two different men repeated what the boy said earlier: “ghosts.” At the same real-time moment the camcorder shut down, we discovered later that nothing recorded on video – even though it seemed to be running. In the analysis, we found a correlation at the same time our camcorder shut down a woman’s disgusted voice announcing, “That’s it” (emphasis on “that”). The separate audio-only recording gave us no additional EVPs this time.
We may not have made contact with the original five women spirits in the house, but we certainly got a dismissal from someone!



* * *Next week, we share highlights of our visit to the Windsor Hotel in Del Norte, CO, staking out the room where an 1880s suicide took place. That ghost still lingers.Don't forget you can follow along during our investigations as we live-tweet from Twitter @writeinthethick. You can check out our Facebook page for updates about dates and times. And you can subscribe to our YouTube "Ghost Hunt Findings" channel to see additional video clips from our investigations.