Ghosts of Goldfield and Tonopah Page 3

  “As if he just stepped in off the street,” said one witness. The little ghost enjoys knocking the Do Not Disturb signs off door handles and appearing before startled new help at the hotel. The little ghost can be mischievous, as in the case of a couple who were staying in a room on the floor. After an hour of trying to sleep while the sound of heavy footsteps paced back and forth overhead, the husband finally called the desk to complain. Would someone please tell the person in the room directly above them to be quiet?

  The desk clerk had heard the complaint before and offered to move the couple to another room. Nothing doing; they would stay right where they were. But someone had to talk to the person on the next floor.

  “I am sorry sir, but that room is unoccupied,” the desk clerk informed the weary man.

  DON’T TAUNT THE GHOSTS

  My friend Richard St. Clair (of Empathic Paranormal) has investigated ghostly goings on all over Nevada and California. Recently, he shared this story of his rather strange experience while staying in Room 503.

  Cimarron “Cim” Sam and I were going down to Goldfield to see Virginia Ridgway. It had been a long drive, and we decided to spend the night at the Mizpah; we wanted to see it anyway, so we checked in. After lunch, we went up to the room. I looked around a moment and announced, “Okay, let’s see what you’ve got!”

  “Richard! Don’t do that. Taunting isn’t wise.”

  I laughed it off. I wanted to get some great evidence, and I wasn’t being threatening or provoking, just asking for the ghosts to show me what they could do. We sat on the bed, and it hit us just how exhausted we were. A nap was in order. And I promptly fell asleep.

  The nightmare was immediate. I dreamed that something was trying to overtake me. It was horrible. I kept trying to escape, but I couldn’t. Whatever it was, it was about to overtake me and there was nothing I could do. I must have cried out in my sleep, because Cim was trying to wake me. But he couldn’t. He shook me and called my name. I was still sleeping and still dreaming. Whatever it was it wanted to overtake me. Finally Cim was able to wake me from the horrendous nightmare.

  It had shown me what it had. And it was one of the most frightening experiences I’ve ever had in the paranormal. And I made a promise to myself to never taunt a spirit. It might be more than I bargained for.

  WHO GOT THE LOOT?

  Money can be the root of all evil; it can also be a good reason for a haunting. The two ghosts in the basement of the Mizpah Hotel would no doubt agree. The basement was originally the first floor of the Mizpah Hotel. During that time, several businesses were located here, including the post office and a bank. To ensure the safety of the bank’s deposits, a secure, burglar-proof vault was built. Its ceiling and two-foot-thick walls were made of concrete and steel. Nature had provided the perfect floor: hard Nevada earth. There was no need to worry about flooring, and the ground was left intact. All the valuables were safe—or so the bankers thought.

  Mizpah Hotel basement with orbs. Photo by Bill Oberding.

  They realized their error when the vault door was unlocked a few months later; to their astonishment, the vault was empty. In the middle of the vault floor was a large hole. The bankers looked down and discovered that some clever thieves had dug their way into the vault. After grabbing the gold and other valuables, the robbers fled through the tunnel.

  Two bank employees rushed down the tunnel to reclaim the stolen loot and apprehend the brazen thieves. They returned empty-handed and explained to the awaiting crowd that they’d discovered the two robbers dead in their tracks. Mysteriously, the gold and valuables had vanished. The story goes that three men devised the plot to rob the bank. Two went down to get the gold, and when they returned topside, the third man killed them and fled with the loot. Whoever he was, he made a clean getaway, never to be apprehended. No wonder the two ghostly men have stayed on.

  Those involved in ghost investigations of the basement have experienced feelings of despair and recorded the sounds of weeping and moaning. During an EVP session, an investigator asked, “Did something happen to you?”

  Mizpah Hotel haunted basement. Photo by Bill Oberding.

  The response was a clear, “Yes.”

  When asked to explain, the voice said only, “Oh, I see.”

  Let the ghostly Lady in Red and the other ghost wander the halls of the hotel; these two ghosts prefer to keep a lonely vigil in the basement. They are up for some ghostly pranks, however. The lights are their favorite tool. Those in the basement go on and off when least expected. Most people just get used to this. Some have found the lights disconcerting, especially when one is alone and suddenly the lights flicker off and then on, as to say, “We’re here, and we’re staying until we see justice served.” That might be a long time, a very long time indeed.

  CHAPTER 3

  THE GOLDFIELD HOTEL GHOSTS AND LEGENDS

  A third hotel, larger and more expensive than the others is promised by the fortunate owners of the Hayes, Monnette lease (on the Mohawk Claim No. 2) Messrs. Hayes, Monnette, Benedict and Smith. These gentlemen out of the generous returns received from their mining operations in Goldfield, have concluded to erect a $200,000 brick hotel building, and its construction will begin as soon as the plans which are now in the hands of a Reno architect are complete.

  —Goldfield News, December 1, 1906

  GOLDFIELD HOTEL BEGINNINGS

  After fire completely destroyed the original Goldfield Hotel, new owners commissioned Reno architects Morrill John Curtis and George E. Holesworth to design and rebuild another hotel on the same site at the corner of Crook and Columbia Streets in 1908. The town was growing, and visitors were arriving daily. The hotel’s owners wanted a fine hotel that could accommodate them. With four floors, 175 rooms, an unsurpassed dining room, and a well-appointed lobby, the Goldfield Hotel was elegance the likes of which this desert town had never seen.

  The Goldfield Review of November 23, 1907, said, “The new Hotel Goldfield which is rapidly nearing completion will be one of the finest caravansaries on the Pacific Coast and certainly will be untouched in Nevada.”

  Goldfield Hotel Fire November 17, 1906. The Boomtown Years, 0300106, Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada–Las Vegas.

  Construction of the Goldfield Hotel. Photo courtesy of Central Nevada Museum.

  Employees of the Goldfield Hotel Palm Restaurant. Note the potted plants in comparison to the desert landscape of the time. Photo courtesy of Central Nevada Museum.

  An employee of the Goldfield Hotel Palm Restaurant. Note the piano in background. Photo courtesy of Central Nevada Museum.

  An employee of the Goldfield Hotel Palm Restaurant. Photo courtesy of Central Nevada Museum.

  The cigar counter of the Goldfield Hotel, circa 1909. Photo courtesy of Central Nevada Museum.

  That same year, author Bessie Beatty described the Goldfield Hotel in her book Who’s Who in Nevada: “The hotel is built of stone and brick, four stories high, and has two hundred rooms. The furniture was purchased in Chicago at a cost of $40,000. The house is provided with all the modern conveniences to be found in a hotel on Broadway, New York, and is considered one of the marvels of the desert.”

  The praise was warranted. There in the middle of the Nevada desert stood the grand and new Goldfield Hotel. Nothing had been left to chance. The hotel offered fine dining in the Palm, a large restaurant; two bars, from which flowed the finest French champagne; a billiard room; and a barbershop. Every room was lushly carpeted and had its own telephone that was connected to the hotel’s central switchboard. Rich velvet drapery covered the windows, and exquisite tile adorned the lobby floor.

  On January 15, 1908, the hotel opened for business under the management of attorney J.F. Douglas, who had purchased the failing previous Goldfield Hotel and successfully managed the hotel right up to the night of November 17, 1906, when fire swept through the building, burning it to the ground. As flames engulfed the wooden building, people jumped out of the secon
d-story windows to safety. Two men were not so fortunate. Businessman A.H. Heber and former Denver, Colorado judge J.M. Ellis lost their lives in the fire. According to one newspaper report, Ellis’s head was dismembered and all that remained of the men were a few charred bones and personal affects, which relatives identified. In paranormal research, one prevalent explanation for ghostly activity is sudden unexpected and violent death. The deaths of Ellis and Heber certainly fit this category. There is no evidence that either Ellis or Heber haunts the Goldfield Hotel that was built on the ground on which they perished. It is merely one theory why some of the unexplained activity occurs in that section of the old hotel.

  No expense had been spared in building and decorating the new Goldfield Hotel, known as the “Gem of the Desert.” For a brief time in 1909, the hotel even offered its own newspaper.

  But the town was quickly losing its luster. Everyone was packing up and leaving. There was no longer that get-rich-in-a-day excitement, no jobs and fewer tourists.

  Despite all its costly uptown furnishings, the hotel was unable to pay its operating costs and expenses. In 1910, the case of Judell et al. v. Goldfield Realty Company Co. was decided by the Nevada Supreme Court. As owner of the Goldfield Hotel, Goldfield Realty Co. owed Judell $901.10 for goods, wares and merchandise and had been ordered to pay by a lower court.

  The defendant, Goldfield Realty Co., didn’t want to pay and argued that its manager and secretary were not authorized to bind the company in the execution of the promissory note. The Supreme Court saw it differently and ruled in favor of the plaintiff. The hotel continued to be beset by cash flow problems.

  Then, as now, no one wanted to receive a large power bill. In 1913, the Goldfield Hotel Company took its power bills seriously and succeeded in having its rates reduced. The following case was listed in the Reports of the Railroad and Public Service Commissions of Nevada: “Case No. 47—Alleged Excessive Electric Rate. During the month of June, 1913, the Goldfield Hotel Company of Goldfield made a complaint against the Nevada-California Power Company, alleging excessive rates for light and power. The complaint was disposed of by the general rate reduction made in Case No. 44.”

  After the 1923 fire that destroyed most of Goldfield, the hotel’s billiard room was used as the town’s temporary post office. Over the next thirty years, the hotel would see a succession of owners come and go. None of them stayed very long, and none was able to make the hotel a success.

  At one point, the state of Nevada considered buying the hotel. In 1957, the legislative commission conducted a study of the hotel to determine its suitability for use as a girls’ sanitarium or girls’ school. Had it been found suitable for such use, the hotel’s history would have taken a very different turn. The hotel has also been a favorite of filmmakers and has been used in several films over the years including the 1971 cult favorite Vanishing Point, 1998’s Desert Blue and the 1987 Cherry 2000.

  The glory days of the Goldfield Hotel are long gone; once known as the Gem of the Desert and the most opulent hotel in Nevada, today many people consider the hotel to be one of the most haunted places in the state. Recently, Virginia Ridgway, Goldfield Hotel caretaker and historian, appeared on a local television travel show in which she proclaimed it to be “the most haunted hotel in the world.”

  Whether or not this statement is true, the Goldfield Hotel is an impressive four-story brick building that looms like a specter from a bygone era, a reminder of what Goldfield once was, arousing the curiosity of all who see it.

  Quick, ask a ghost investigator what’s on his or her bucket list of places to investigate. Chances are the Goldfield Hotel will be somewhere on that list. The hotel is known to ghost hunters far and wide. This has not gone unnoticed by television. Episodes of Dead Famous, Scariest Places on Earth, Ghost Adventurers and TAPS Ghost Hunters have featured investigations of the building. All have agreed there is something here.

  Goldfield Hotel lobby. Photo by Anne Leong.

  The amount of ghostly phenomena that is said to occur in and around the hotel is staggering. Full-body apparitions have appeared in the basement and at a third-story window; this in itself seems to defy logic. But then again, ghosts aren’t confined to keeping their feet firmly on the ground. Numerous people have heard the sound of loud pounding coming from inside the deserted building during daylight hours. Then there are the lights and the sound of tinkling glass, soft laughter and music coming from within the hotel in the wee hours of the morning when it is completely deserted. I personally experienced this phenomenon during a late-night investigation with four friends one summer.

  It was one of those sweltering nights that occasionally happen midsummer in the Nevada desert. The air was still, with not so much as a breeze to cool things down. The hotel, which can be bone-chilling cold in the winter, had held the day’s three-digit heat and was radiating it through every room. I had come to Goldfield early in the day with my friends Richard St. Clair and Cimarron “Cim” Sam of Empathic Investigations. Set to investigate the hotel with friends Helmey Kramer and Jennifer “Jen” Peterson, we met up with Virginia Ridgway in the hotel lobby and made our plans.

  We would begin in the basement, where we hoped it would be cooler. And it was, but only by a degree or two. As we concentrated on filming and recording EVP, Helmey and Jen conducted some experiments they’d planned. Many times during ghost investigations, the cameras are turned elsewhere when something truly amazing happens. So it was on this night. While some orbs are of paranormal nature, for the most part, they have fallen out of favor with ghost hunters. We all watched an orb come from Helmey’s hand, roll across a table and disappear into thin air. No, we didn’t capture this on film.

  Rather than dissipate, the heat clung to the building as the night wore on. After a few hours, we decided that a break and fresh air were in order and headed up the back stairs. As we came up to the area that was once the dining room, we heard people laughing and talking.

  “There’s people up there,” I whispered to the group. We stopped in our tracks. Someone had broken into the hotel. What’s more, they didn’t care if we heard them or not. This sent a chill though us. Ghosts are one thing. But being in a decrepit old hotel with such bold trespassers and the nearest police officers some twenty-seven miles away—now that was downright frightening.

  “Our purses,” Jen and I whispered simultaneously, “are in the lobby.”

  Light anomalies outside the Goldfield Hotel at night. Photo by Anne Leong.

  Helmey, followed by Richard and Cim, went charging up the stairs and into the dining room. No one was there. We knew what we’d heard, so we spent the next hour searching the building and its perimeter. No one but us was about and stirring in Goldfield. Perhaps we had stumbled on a time warp, a long ago party happening again and again within the hotel’s walls. Or maybe it was the ghostly inhabitants of the Goldfield Hotel, just wanting to have some fun with us. This experience clearly demonstrates that while we were experienced ghost investigators looking for a haunting, when the phenomenon occurred, we were quick to attribute it to live people rather than dead.

  It’s unlikely that any of us will ever forget this particular Goldfield Hotel investigation but not simply because of the ghostly party. Don’t think that the rest of the investigation was uneventful; it wasn’t. There was our sighting of a full-body apparition outside a third-story window. There was also the sound of pacing boot steps that walked down the hallway, down the stairs and then stopped right there in front of us. We separated at one point during the investigation with Helmey and I going to the fourth floor, while Richard, Cim and Jen stayed on the third for an EVP session. While we were on the fourth floor, we heard nothing but silence, while on the third floor, the sound of loud boots pacing up and down the floor was clearly heard. We got some great shots and good EVP, and we considered the investigation a success.

  HOT AIR, TALL TALES AND THE MAILBOX IS A BREEZE

  There’s a Goldfield tale about a jewel thief who made a large h
aul of jewelry one night. On the run and fearing the law was about to catch up with him, he buried his ill-gotten loot somewhere in the desert between Goldfield and Rhyolite. Diamond brooches, emerald earrings, twenty-four karat bangle bracelets—oh my, it’s enough to make you fill up the canteen and dust off the metal detector.

  Back in the Goldfield Hotel, legends and lore abound. Of special spinetingling delight to ghost hunters is the story that the hotel was built atop the town’s original cemetery. And wouldn’t you know it—according to this tale, not all the bodies were moved before construction began. Adding some sparkle to the story are those who claim to have seen rows of white crosses on the spot where the hotel now stands.

  Interesting as this tale is, it’s not true. When I asked town historians where the story might have originated, they suggested a film. Apparently, the lot in back of the hotel was decorated with white crosses and used as a cemetery in a movie. There just might be some bodies buried beneath the hotel, but they are most likely canine or feline and not of the Homo sapiens sort.

  Author surrounded by ghost mist at the Goldfield Hotel during an investigation. Photo by Bill Oberding.

  Then there’s that underground tunnel that led from the hotel to the red-light district a few blocks away. Nope, there’s not a grain of truth to that one either. Another tall tale has it that the lobby ceilings of the hotel were covered in twenty-four karat gold. It’s a great story that serves to demonstrate the millions of dollars in gold ore taken from this area, but it’s untrue. And so is the tale of Jack Dempsey acting as bouncer for both the Goldfield Hotel and the Mizpah Hotel some twenty-seven miles away in Tonopah.