Haunted
Stanley Hotel
Greetings,
Five years ago I was
living in Estes Park and had several paranormal experiences there. The
first place I worked was at the historic (and haunted) Elkhorn Lodge,
just West of town across the street from the American Wilderness Lodge.
The Elkhorn was built in 1874 ( two
years before the Custer massacre at
the Little Big Horn). President Teddy Roosevelt used to stay there
often and there is a portrait of him (which I did myself) hanging in
the dining room.
During my time working there, I had
one particular experience that I
will always remember. It was on a very sunny day and I wanted to take
some pictures of the teepees that the manager (Jerry) had put up behind
the bunkhouses for the tourists. I was taking a photo of the main,
largest teepee with an instamatic camera and when the picture came out,
I saw a huge, figure of a man standing in front of the teepee. The
strange thing was that this man was beyond normal height and
transparent! You could see the teepee through him in the background. I
immediately thought "Ghost picture!". I ran to the nearest person
I could see (Dawn, another wrangler) and tried to get her attention,
but she was with customers (a family asking about the trail rides). She
gave me the "I'm busy with customers" look and I waited impatiently for
her to finish. Their conversation dragged on and on and I kept looking
at the picture. I noticed that the figure in the photo was beginning to
fade, so I gave up and ran to the stables to show somebody there. At
the back of the stables, my girlfriend was putting one of the horses
away and I yelled to her to "hurry up and come here, NOW!" She
yelled back that she had to put the horse away first and I watched as
the figure faded completely away.
Later, Dawn found me and asked me what
I wanted and I told her about
the picture and described the man I saw as wearing old Western clothing
with a leather vest and holding a whip. I told her he was huge. She
looked at me and said "You saw ________, he was the stagecoach driver
who used to pick people up in Denver and bring 'em up here in the old
days. Everyone was afraid of him because he was so big and so mean."
So, I didn't have the picture, but at least somebody believed me and
validated my story.
She also told me that the Lodge is
haunted by the daughter of the man
who built it. Other employees, who worked in housekeeping, told me that
in her room you couldn't move the rocking chair or else things would
begin to fly through the air. Her dresses hang in the hallway upstairs
in the lodge. In fact, the lodge is a museum as well as a place to stay.
It's a great place to visit if you get
the chance.
I worked for a longer time at
the Stanley Hotel and had several
experiences there. Thanks for your time.
P.S. I can suggest a coulple of
booklets by local (Estes) resident
ghost enthusiasts, the series: Ghosts of the Estes Valley and More
Ghosts of the Estes Valley. In my opinion, the whole area is a
"goldmine" of paranormal activity. Stephen King created one of his
greatest novels "The Shining" while staying at the Stanley and I think
he had a LOT of inspiration from those surroundings. One Denver female
psychic who toured the Stanley for a live Halloween broadcast one year,
came out of the building and when asked by reporters if she sensed
anything, said: " I won't ever go back in there, not because its
haunted, but because there are so many of them."