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Is the Alyeska Resort Haunted?

Tucked away in the snow just outside Anchorage, Alaska, the Alyeska Resort is a skier’s paradise. As it turns out, it’s also a ghost hunter’s paradise. Between accidents on the slope and untoward occurrences in the hotel itself, the resort’s 304 rooms may house more spirits than living guests on any given night. Some of them are more mysterious than others.

In 2001, a stock broker visiting the hotel committed suicide in room 721. Ever since, that room has reported flickering lights and televisions, doors that open and close on their own, and faucets that turn on and off in the middle of the night. The furniture from room 721 was moved to room 723 after the incident, and similar activity has been reported in that room too.

A few floors down, the door to room 515 also opens and closes on its own, and other, less regular paranormal activity has been reported throughout the resort. Perhaps Dr. William Mills, who died in a skiing accident in 2011, is among the hotel’s permanent guests. So too, perhaps, is the man who drunkenly leapt from his third-floor balcony.

Regardless of the source of the Alyeska Resort’s hauntings, it remains one of Alaska’s most haunted hotels, and a great destination for those seeking out a ghostly vacation.

The Old Haunted Captain Bartlett Inn is no longer

This haunted hotel is closed and has been torn down.

The old Captain Bartlett Inn was told to have floating orbs in the hotel, moving glassware and plates, strange lights in the halls, and a few strange paranormal occurrences. Unfortunately, the hotel has been torn down and is now the backyard of an Alaska residence. No news of hauntings have come from the residents to date, but if we hear anything you’ll be the first to know.

Check here for more haunted Alaska.

Maybe the haunting of Mobile, Alabama’s Kate Shepard House is just a rumor. The home was originally built in 1897 by railroad man Charles Shepard from plans by renowned architect George Barber. A few years later, in 1910, Charles’s daughters, Kate and Isabel, turned the house into a boarding school for the children of prominent community members. Perhaps one of them is the elderly woman who reportedly haunts the property.

Currently, the property houses a library of Civil War relics and memorabilia. Books from its days as a boarding school are still on display, and the rest of the picturesque scenery is sure to leave visitors feeling immersed in Alabama history. But what about those other feelings? Guests of the hotel have reported a strange presence all over the building.

While the evidence supporting hauntings at the Kate Shepard House is thinner than it is for other places around Alabama, some guests are quite certain that their experiences aren’t quite of this world. The elderly woman who wanders this bed-and-breakfast is its most famous spectral resident. She’s been seen in many of the guest rooms and public areas of the property, and any visitor who could snag a photo of her could surely put the debate about the Kate Shepard House’s haunted status to bed.

Tucked away in the Downtown Historic District of Mobile, Alabama, the Malaga Inn makes the short list of most haunted hotels in Alabama. Originally built as twin town houses by two brothers during the Civil War, the two buildings that make up the property have changed hands several times since. Today, the town houses are connected, and 39 rooms and suites overlook the central courtyard that once separated them. More than a century’s worth of history haunts guests, even despite renovations.

Tunnels still run under the two buildings, and they may have something to do with the hotel’s paranormal occurrences. The current owners believe the tunnels were used by Confederate soldiers to hide during the war, and their coming and going may be responsible for the mysterious movement of beds and other furniture around the hotel.

Additionally, guests report lamps becoming unplugged and unusual swaying of the chandelier that hangs in the lobby. Most notably, though, is the Lady in White.

Originally spotted walking the veranda of Room 007, the mysterious figure comes and goes with no apparent rhyme or reason. Her visage has been reported through the years by hotel staff and guests, and a sighting her is sure to be a highlight for ghost-seeking visitors.

Ghostly voices, shadowy apparitions, and bright flashes are just a few of the features of Battle House Renaissance Hotel in Mobile, Alabama. Here are two of its most popular stories.

Mr. Henry Butler

A former Mardi Gras king, the story goes that Mr. Butler was caught “dillydallying” with Mrs. Raymond Dyson, his Mardi Gras queen. When her husband and his brother caught wind of the affair, they lured Mr. Butler to room 552 of the Battle House Renaissance Hotel and beat him. They left him in the room to call a lawyer — to prosecute him for the dillydallying — and then the front desk staff.

The front desk staff hurried to the room to assist the injured Mr. Butler, but by the time they got there he was dead, and his ghost has haunted the fifth floor of the hotel ever since.

The Forlorn Bride

None of the Crystal Ballroom’s many celebrations ended as tragically as this one. Shortly after a young woman’s wedding in 1910, her husband was called away on some undisclosed business. He promised to return, but loneliness got the better of her. She hung herself from the chandelier.

Hotel guests noticed years later that a gray figure appeared in the background of her wedding portrait, which hung in the Ballroom — her husband returned to find her.

While the hotel has been renovated since Mr. Butler’s murder and the tragic death of the forlorn bride, specters still haunt the hallways of the Battle House Hotel.

The main building that houses the Fort Conde Inn was built in 1836. Settlers built a fort there in 1711, and this historic area has been known to have hauntings throughout the entire city.

It doesn’t have specific ghost encounters that guests have reported, but workers have reported encounters. The guests report a sense that they feel like they are not alone. There have been disembodied voices reported when no one is around too.

The Fort Conde Inn features a two-floor main house where guests seem to have more experiences on the second floor, but the inn has cottages too. In the Antunez cottage, a housekeeper reported that she place a bucket of water outside the door to one of the suites. Her water began to roll down the stairs on its own very slowly. It stopped once then continued down the stairs again.

A worker in the Antunez reported that he walked into a room and came upon a confederate soldier in uniform staring out the window. The soldier turned slowly to stare at the worker. The worker ran from the building and said he wouldn’t come back to the property ever again.

More workers in the Antunez reported that they heard heavy footsteps walking up the stairs, but when they yelled out to ask who was there, no one responded. The steps faded. No one else was in the building.

One of the deepest paranormal mysteries concerns attacks against the living. Paranormal researchers have long tried to find this answer and have different theories rooted across science, religion, and even a spirit’s former role in life on Earth. But sometimes there are spirits with no viable cause for malevolence. The St. James Hotel in Cimarron, New Mexico is one such place with these confounding entities.

Is the St. James Hotel in New Mexico Haunted?

The St. James Hotel was built in 1872 by a man named Henry Lambert. At one time, Lambert was Abraham Lincoln’s personal chef at the White House. After President Grant had taken office, he actually recommended to Lambert that he build a hotel, seeing as he had decided to leave his position as head chef and see prospects out West. The two-story, multi-room hotel quickly became a hot spot for the most notorious outlaws in the Old West lore. Jesse James, Buffalo Bill Cody, Clay Allison, Black Jack Ketchum, and Annie Oakley herself all stayed here and they all helped contribute to the multiple bullet holes that were shot into the ceiling of the hotel’s bar. Even today, there remains close to thirty bullet holes in the ceiling that serve as a reminder about the colorful past of the hotel. Once the railroad came through along with the disappearance of gold rushes in the area, the St. James began to fall into disrepair. Passed to Lambert’s sons and resold to different owners over the decades, it wasn’t until 1985 when the hotel was totally renovated and accepting of multitudes of reservations that the ghost stories began to emerge.

Bullet holes in the St. James bar

Ghosts of the St. James Hotel in Cimarron

Room 18 is completely locked up and off limits to guests. The spirit of a man from the Old West days named T.J. Wright is said to be haunting the room. According to oral legend, he was killed after a poker game in the hotel’s bar and he crawled into the room and died there. According to the hotel’s current general manager, a woman loudly claimed in the bar one evening she wasn’t scared of T.J. and cursed his spirit. While going to her room, a pair of hands came up underneath her arms on the staircase, lifted her four feet in the air and tossed her over the side of the banister! The woman was quickly tended to and was very quick to make a verbal apology out loud to onlookers that she was very sorry to have ever disrespected T.J.’s ghost.

Late one evening inside the hotel kitchen, a young chef was occupied with simple prep work, not near a stove. Suddenly he felt a very hot, burning sensation on his neck and back. Quickly he left to the washroom to look at what was happening.  In the mirror, he saw three deep red scratch marks that ran a length of eight inches that had been viciously raked across his back.

A hotel housekeeper was said to have been on routine maintenance call one afternoon and noticed that the padlock which keeps Room 18 chained up, was oddly swinging back and forth on the chain. The housekeeper went down the hall to tend to the maintenance call, and once finished passed back by the padlock that was still swinging. According to the worker, the padlock swung back and forth furiously on the chain for twenty minutes before suddenly stopping. This same worker, looking for a scientific explanation, found none and tested the swinging of the padlock himself and found it to stop swinging after five or six seconds.

Room 18 is not the only malevolent one. Room 17 next door is haunted as well and referred to as the Mary Lambert Room. Mary was the wife of the original builder Henry. Living at the hotel, Mary tragically had several miscarriages and later died in the room herself. Over the years guests have wished to stay in her room, due to it’s proximity to Room 18. However, in the Mary Lambert Room, the window is to be kept closed at all times. Why? Because if the window is opened, Mary’s spirit will bang and tap with authority on the window until the guest gets up and closes it.

The Mary Lambert Room 17

Today, the St. James Hotel is still the busiest and most popular hotel in Cimarron. Reservations and bookings are still taken, and management allows the limited exploration of paranormal research groups interested in the hotel’s ghosts. The mirror behind the bar on the first floor is the original. Many visitors who approach it for a drink have noticed a genuine cowboy sitting behind them in the reflection only to spin around and see nobody behind them at all!

The Redmont Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama first opened in 1925. At the time, it was unusual for a hotel to have private baths for every room, and the Redmont was ahead of the curve. It was acquired in 1938 by renowned businessman Clifford Stiles, who converted the top floor into a private apartment for himself and would become one of the hotel’s most notable ghosts.

Clifford Stiles wouldn’t be the only man to inhabit the penthouse and later haunt the hotel. Hank Williams spent the last night of his life in the old apartment before his tragic and unexpected death in a car accident while on tour in 1952. Guests report seeing his specter wandering through the upper floors of the hotel.

A woman in white also wanders through the hotel, and rumors hint that she may have died in one of the rooms. The spirit of a dog lingers on in the hallways, and strange orbs show up in photographs taken inside the hotel. Guests have reported feeling a strange presence, occasionally accompanied by the sound of disembodied footsteps through the corridors.

Hotel staff won’t recommend any specific rooms for guests looking for a paranormal thrill, but something spooky is sure to happen during any stay with the plethora of extra inhabitants.