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On this page we will share with you some of the "spook-tacular" places our team members have visted!

Here are some of the haunted places that our very own Team Founder:  Anney Horn has visited!

1886 Crescent Hotel -- Eureka Springs, Arkansas
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1886 Crescent Hotel

The 1886 Crescent Hotel and Spa has a rich and fascinating history. Read about some of the earliest accounts from stories taken from the Eureka Springs Times Echo, one of Eureka Springs early newspapers which is still in existence today and some fascinating information on Dr. Norman Baker, one time owner of the Crescent Hotel who ran a "Cancer Hospital" in his "Castle in the Air".

The Myrtles Plantation -- St. Francisville, Louisi
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The Myrtles Plantation

*211-year-old National Register Home built by General David Bradford ..."Whiskey Dave".
The Myrtles Plantation, circa 1796, invites you to step into the past to experience antebellum splendor. You will see fine antiques and architectural treasures of the South and discover why The Myrtles has been called one of "America's Most Haunted Homes".

The Pontchartrain Hotel -- New Orleans, LA
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The Pontchartrain Hotel

A cherished landmark in the historic Garden District of New Orleans, The Pontchartrain Hotel has been satisfying the desires of its discerning guests since the 1920s. With its beautiful, historic location and longstanding tradition of hospitality, The Pontchartrain Hotel truly is the heart and soul of New Orleans ... whether you're a first-time guest or making a return visit, they look forward to welcoming you!

Creole Gardens B&B -- New Orleans, LA
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Creole Gardens Bed and Breakfast

The Creole is your hotel of choice when in search of a fun, funky, colorful pet and kid friendly place to stay right in the heart of New Orleans! Their reputation for being as unique as the city itself, has made their Bed and Breakfast a favorite destination for locals and travelers alike and they invite you to be a part of the excitement.

The Jefferson Hotel -- Jefferson, TX
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The Jefferson Hotel

At a time when steamboats plied the Big Cypress River from New Orleans and true Southern gentility was the order of the day a stately structure, now known as the Jefferson Hotel, was built.  Once used as a warehouse to store cotton, this lovely building changed hands numerous times.  At the turn of the twentieth century it was transformed into a hotel and has served as a haven for weary travelers since that time. 

Oatman Hotel -- Oatman, AZ
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The Oatman Hotel

The Oatman Hotel is listed on the National Historical Building Registry and is the only two-story adobe building in Mohave County. The hotel is filled with memorabilia of the past and the Gable/Lombard Room has been refurbished to the period that they were there.

 

Today, the Oatman Hotel no longer provides accommodations for guests but still serves as a museum.

Bird Cage Theatre -- Tombstone, AZ
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The Bird Cage Theatre

It opened in December of 1881 and closed its doors in 1889. During its short business life, the Bird Cage was the wildest place in the west! The Bird Cage is named after its thirteen little cribs that hang from the ceiling where ladies of the night plied their trades. Twenty dollars a night, would buy a gentlemen a bottle of whiskey and a lady for the night. Different from the way Hollywood has portrayed it, no respectable lady would have ever entered the Bird Cage. The longest single poker game in history was played in the basement gaming area. Eight years and four months of one continuous poker game!
The theater is very interesting because of its antiquities.It adds to the possibility of a residual haunting.

Most of the open spaces that used to contain tables for its patrons is now replaced by historical objects, much like a mini museum. we also noticed that the piano near the stage is the original one that was placed there over a century ago.

In the 1880s it was not only a theater, but also served as a saloon, gambling hall and brothel. It was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - even on holidays. The New York Times called it, "the wildest, roughest, wickedest honky tonk between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast." That statement was well deserved, since the Bird Cage was the scene for twenty-six deaths during its eight years of business.

Doc Holliday dealt Faro from time to time at the Bird Cage Theatre. One night Johnny Ringo, who hated Holiday with a passion, was passing Doc's table. When Doc slurred, "Care to buck the tiger, Johnny? It's the gustiest game in town." Ringo wheeled around, removing his bandana and yelled back, "care to grab to the other end of this bandanna, this is the deadliest game in town?"

Doc stood and said with a smile, "Sure Johnny, I'm your huckleberry and this may be my lucky day." When two men grab opposite ends of a bandanna, they fire at each other, at point blank range. Normally this would kill both men, however Ringo was drunk and slow on the draw. At the last second Curly Bill grabbed at Ringo's gun and yelled, "Hell Doc he's drunk!" as both men fired and missed. Holiday, who was also in a drunken stupor answered, "Bronchos, I drink more by 10:00 AM, than he can all day." Holiday then walked off.

This event is known as the handkerchief dual and it took place in the Bird Cage Theatre, between the Faro Table and the Orchestra Pit. The ladies of the night or soiled doves, worked the customers of the Bird Cage 24 hours a day. The ladies plied their trade in cribs suspended from the ceiling in the building. There are 14 cribs which line the side of the gambling hall in the Bird Cage, 7 on each side of the room. The ladies would close the drapes to entertain their clients with champagne, kisses and other favors of the trade.

Today the floor of the Bird Cage has been converted into a museum, but the theater's namesake - the famous "bird cages" where ladies of the night sold pleasures to cowboys and miners - are still intact. You can see their red curtains in this photo. The old song, "She's only a bird in a gilded cage" by Arthur J. Lamb was written for the "tainted angels" of the Bird Cage Theater. Today, though, a visitor can walk through the museum-floor and soak in the history of this wonderful old place. Historic figures such as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Bat Masterson once walked on these very floorboards.

OK Corral -- Tombstone, AZ
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The OK Corral

The Old West's most famous gunbattle lasted all of about thirty seconds, but it left three men dead, three other men shot, and enough questions to occupy historians for more than a century.  The gunfight also led to criminal charges being filed against the three Earp brothers (Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan) and Doc Holliday who, near the O. K. Corral on October 26, 1881, decided to enforce the law against four notorious "cowboys."  The hearing that followed the shoot-out considered the question of whether the Earps and Hollidays killed out of a justifiable fear for their own lives or simply to rid themselves of troublemakers and personal enemies.  After listening to weeks of testimony, Judge Spicer gave his answer--but whether his answer was the right one remained a subject of considerable debate long after the silver mines that gave birth to Tombstone, Arizona had vanished.... 

The Lemp Mansion -- St. Louis, MO
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The Lemp Mansion

The Lemp Mansion was built in the early 1860's and was subsequently purchased by William J. Lemp as a residence and auxiliary brewery office. Although it was already an impressive structure, Lemp used his massive brewery fortune to turn the thirty-three room house into a Victorian showplace.

The radiator system was installed in 1884, five years after radiant heat was patented. The grand staircase was removed to accommodate an open-air lift that ran the gamut of the house. The decorative iron gates in the basement restaurant are all that remain of the elevator. In 1904 the house was completely renovated. To the left of the main entrance is the former brewery office, where William Jr. committed suicide. The decorative mantle is Italian marble.

To the right is the parlor, with its hand-painted ceiling and intricately carved mantles of African mahogany. Behind the parlor is an atrium where the Lemps kept exotic plants and birds. The main bathroom is dominated by a unique glass-enclosed, free-standing shower that Lemp discovered in an Italian hotel and brought back to St. Louis for his personal use. Other unusual fixtures in the room are a barber chair and a sink with glass legs. At the rear of the house are three massive vaults that the Lemps built to store great quantities of art objects. The Lemps were such avid art collectors that they could not display all of their acquisitions. Each vault is fifteen feet wide, twenty-five feet deep, and thirteen feet high.

The bedrooms were on the second floor. The main bathroom has a white granite shower stall and a marble and cast-iron mantle. The servants' quarters were located on the third floor, which boasts cedar walk-in closets, a skylight and an observation deck. The mansion does not have a ballroom in the traditional sense because the Lemps built an auditorium, ballroom and swimming pool in a natural underground cavern that could be reached from a now-sealed tunnel in the basement. Another tunnel led from the house to the brewery.

The wine and beer cellars, laundry and kitchen were located in the basement. The huge kitchen that once served the elite of St. Louis society has been completely modernized and now serves the honored guest of the historic Lemp Mansion Restaurant.

Lafitte Guest House -- New Orleans, LA
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Lafitte Guest House

The rich and colorful history was born in 1849, when the Gelieses family built this private home.

Lafitte Black Smith Shop -- New Orleans, LA
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Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop

Legend has it that the pirate brothers Jean and Pierre Lafitte used this location as a blacksmith shop, which served as a front for more lucrative, extra-legal pursuits (including the trafficking of slaves). It's also rumored to be the oldest building still standing in the entire Mississippi Valley. Since the '40s, however, it's served as a watering hole for locals, tourists and celebrities such as Tennessee Williams.

Diamond Bessie Grave -- Jefferson, TX
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Diamond Bessie Grave Site

Diamond Bessie is the popular name given to Bessie Moore, née Annie Stone, a prostitute whose murder in the woods outside of Jefferson, Texas propelled her to the level of local legend. She was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head sometime during the early afternoon of Sunday, January 21, 1877. Her accused killer was her lover (and husband), Abraham Rothschild, the dissolute son of one of the most prominent society families of the day.

Hotel Brunswick, Kingman AZ
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Hotel Brunswick

The Hotel Brunswick was originally built in 1909. It was the first three story building in the county and surrounding counties in Arizona. The original Owners, Mulligan and Thompson earned a reputation of providing up scale services with waterford crystal stemware and solid brass beds.

A lady came between the partners and caused a division of the property in 1912. A wall was built to create two separate hotels. The separate hotels continued on with one side having a bar and 25 rooms and the other a restaurant and 25 rooms.

The dividing walls were finally brought down in the 1960's. In 1997, new proprietors renovated the building and after a period of 20 years in which the hotel had remained only a spirit haven, it was reopened as a bed & breakfast hotel. In 1999, a French owner took over the Brunswick as an historical boutique hotel, offering additional services to guests. The hotel changed hands again in 2006 and now also hosts a fine dining bistro.

Celebrities such as Clark Gable were known to have spent time within the walls of the Brunswick

Ghosts and shadow people are wandering all over the hotel. A little girl ghost may appear in the dining room. The kitchen and basement are centers of haunted activity. But you may have shadow people near you, walk through you or just pass you by in the hallways. Multiple reports of this have been around the hallway leading from the second floor. The feelings seem to be harmelss and no negativity or evil is felt thus far..

Big Nose Kate's Saloon -- Tombstone, AZ
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Big Nose Kate's Saloon

Today, the building is home to Big Nose Kate’s Saloon. A number of changes have been made to the original structure since it burned down and has been rebuilt. The bar area, that was originally housed in the basement of the old hotel, is now located on the main level. In the basement is a gift shop, but the tunnel leading to the mine shafts still exists. The saloon holds the Grand Hotel’s original long bar, the only one of which survived the fire of 1882 and is still available for thirsty patrons. The only other long bar that survived the two infernos is in the Bird Cage Theatre, now a museum. Imagine setting your elbows down on the very place that once did the Earps, Doc Holliday, and the Clantons.
Today, not only does this historic saloon continue to be popular among its new patrons, but is also said to remain home to a couple of spectral ones as well. Naturally, the most evident is that of the “Swamper,” who allegedly has never left the building. Staff, locals and tourists alike have had experiences with this old miner, ranging from photos where he has appeared, to a number of fleeting appearances as he roams the halls, stairways, and especially the basement.  Part of the legend claims that the “Swamper” hid his silver somewhere in the building and returns to protect it.

Other appearances have been made by fleeting cowboy spirits which have been seen at the bar, standing in doorways, and by one account, knocking over cases of beer in the basement.

Perhaps, this is one of our old friends – the Earps or Holliday?

 

Other witnesses have claimed to have heard phantom people singing and talking in deserted rooms, reported that things fall to the floor of their own accord, doors open and close with unseen hands, lights turn on and off by themselves, and silverware has been known to go flying off tables.

The mannequins on the false balcony have seemingly been moved and sometimes even tossed from the balcony. The sounds of footsteps and muted voices are often heard coming from the basement when no one is down there. Areas in the saloon also experience extreme cold spots and gusts of cold air.

Photographers have made numerous reports of strange hazy forms appearing in images, as well as having numerous camera malfunctions.

One story tells of the building’s owner and several employees exploring old “Swamper’s” tunnel. They soon discovered that it still led all the way to the old shafts of the Toughnut Mine. Safely, they made their way back to the basement, but as they approached Swamper’s tunnel, they heard a loud moaning sound and heavy footsteps coming down the stairs leading to the tunnel.

Sure that someone had come into the building, they came out of the tunnel, immediately searching the premises, only to find the building empty and the doors still locked. Perhaps Swamper was afraid they were going to find his silver?

Other strange events have occurred on the staircases leading to the basement, including female employees who have felt pushed off the last stair. Another female employee felt cold, clammy hands encircling her throat.

Whatever you do, don't let the ghosts scare you because the atmosphere and food at Big Kate's Saloon is wonderful and place is a "must stop" in Tombstone. The restaurant/saloon is located at 417 E Allen Street.

 

Calico Ghost Town -- Calico, CA
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Calico Ghost Town

1881 marked the beginning of one of the largest silver strikes in California history and the birth of Calico. This authentic silver mining town lives on as one of the few original mining camps of the Old West.

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