St. James Hotel, Cimarron, New Mexico, United States

Gambler T.J. Wright is one of the permanent guests at the St. James Hotel. Evidently, the gambler was shot at the door to his room, then staggered inside to die. To this day, the room is not rented overnight, and few people enter even for a few hours.

Chef Henri Lambert and his wife opened a saloon in 1872, during the wild-and-rowdy days of the Old West. Cowboys riddled the ceiling with bullet holes, sometimes from fighting, and sometimes from just high spirits.  In all, twenty-six  people - including T.J. Wright - died at the St. James, which soon became a place to stay as well as to drink and gamble.

Lawman Wyatt Earp and his brothers were guests at the hotel as they traveled west to the infamous town of Tombstone. Authors Zane Grey and Lew Wallace also enjoyed the hotel's hospitality. Outlaws Jesse James and Billy the Kid were two of the more notorious guests.

Mary and Johnnie Lambert are two benign ghosts. Johnnie, the son of the owners, died as the result of an accident in the hotel when he was three years old. He plays with the ghosts of two older girls who died in the hotel; they are supervised by Mary, Johnnie's mother.

The ghost of Wright has been seen in mirrors, and has been caught on videotape.

Then there is Melissa, who in life used to "entertain" in the hotel after Mary had gone to bed. Melissa brought her "gentlemen callers" up an exterior staircase. She has made her presence known to male guests, by touching them and/or sitting or lying on their beds.

Remember: Room 18 is not available to rent. 

Geiser Grand Hotel, Baker City, Oregon, USA

The Geiser Grand Hotel is one of the most impressive buildings in Baker City. It was built in 1889, when Baker City was a mining town. Two local men, Jake and Harry Warshauer, built the hotel on the site of the county's first schoolhouse; the cost ran high into the tens of thousands of dollars, a great deal for the time. It was indeed elegant, with almost one hundred rooms, electric lighting, and the third elevator west of the Mississippi. A few years later, the hotel was bought by John Geiser, along with his son, Albert; they changed the name from the Warshauer Hotel to the Geiser Grand Hotel.

The hotel's glory days didn't last long; the Depression hit hard, as did World War II. Finally, in 1968, the hotel closed and spent more than twenty years empty, its condition worsening with each passing year.

In 1993, Dwight and Barbara Sidway - no strangers to renovating hotels - purchased the building. They spent five years and a great deal of work and money on the restoration, and finally, the hotel was open for business once again.

Guests on the second and third floors have been known to complain about the party on the third floor. Upon investigation, nothing is to be found; the party ceases abruptly. The ghostly guests, though, have sometimes been seen on the balcony, apparently checking out the diners in the restaurant below.

Kitchen and bar staff have reported watching items move before their eyes, and beer taps activating with no visible cause.

Not long after the hotel's grand reopening, a maid checking the rooms found the bed in the Cupola Suite thoroughly unmade; pillows thrown everywhere, bedding pulled out, curtains twisted. The lock on the room also malfunctions frequently, and more than one guest has experienced the sensation of a perfume-wearing female ghost sitting next to them on the bed.

The Lady in Blue has been seen ascending the hotel's main staircase. When she reaches the top of the stairs, she disappears into the wall.

Takayoshi Nakayama, a director for the Japanese supernatural TV show Unbelievable, filmed a show at the Geiser Grand Hotel. He and his crew captured, on tape, a glass moving with no one nearby. More startling, when Nakayama returned to Japan, his three-year-old son began to laugh and talk to someone his parents couldn't see. The episode featuring the Grand Hotel was one of the most-viewed in the show's history, and Nakayama returned in September of 2010 for another episode.

Ghost hunters will be pleased to learn that the hotel offers occasional ghost hunts, as well as ghost tours encompassing the hotel and other haunted buildings of Baker City.


 

Haunted Stone Lion Inn, Guthrie, Oklahoma, USA

The Haunted Stone Lion Inn is a 1907 house that was once the residence of a large family, the Houghtons. They needed it; they had twelve children to raise.

One of the children, Augusta, would never live to adulthood, however. At the age of eight, she caught whooping cough. This may not, though, have been the cause of her death; in those days, cough syrup was a strong concoction with codeine and opium. The general belief is that Augusta was given an accidental overdose.

The third floor is where most of the ghostly activity is experienced. The Houghton children kept their toys up there, and often played with them between the hours of 10 p.m. and midnight - which is, now, the time when most of the noise is heard upstairs.

The inn is strictly nonsmoking, but sometimes, the smell of a cigar is noticed, and at times, even smoke in the air - with no visible source. An earlier guest at the inn, perhaps?

Larian Motel, Tombstone, Arizona, United States

Tombstone is one of the most haunted cities in the United States, and the Larian Motel, located in the historic district, fits right in.

Though the motel is distinctly modern, having been built in the 1950s, it is only a block from the famous O.K. Corral, and occupies land that once housed a general store and a gun store, among other businesses.

Rooms 1 through 4 are the most haunted; twin sisters once experienced an eerie feeling in the Doc Holliday room, which is Number 3. Doc Holliday died with his boots off, succumbing to tuberculosis, but Room 3 keeps his name alive and well. The sisters woke at exactly the same time on their first night, 12:30 a.m., feeling that someone else was in the room with them. They were unable to sleep for the rest of the night.

Whoever, or whatever, haunts Room 3 likes to play with the guests' belongings. One man put his glasses on a table, then could not find them just a minute later. Eventually, he gave up and went sightseeing. When he returned, the glasses were on the table where he had put them.

Old-fashioned music with no source has been heard, and the image of a man has been sensed - but not the image of a 19th-century outlaw; this man has the look of a tourist of the 1950s or '60s. An exceptionally satisfied customer of the motel?

Sage Hill Bed and Breakfast, Anamoose, North Dakota, United States

The tiny town of Anamoose (population less than 300) boasts the Sage Hill Bed and Breakfast, located in a former schoolhouse.

The schoolhouse, known as the White School, was well ahead of its time. It was built in 1928, and had a wind generator to provide power. Hot lunches were provided, as well as hot showers for the students (most of the houses in the area had no indoor plumbing).

The school even had six school buses, all horse-drawn, and a garage to keep them. For forty years, it taught the children in the area, but the number of students never exceeded 100. White School closed in 1968.

Rumor has it that a fire killed the superintendent of the school, along with a young boy. Be that as it may, when the current owners began renovating the former school into a B&B, odd things occurred.  Lights flickered on and off. The sound of moaning was heard. A light in the cellar remained lit, despite all efforts to turn it off. Cigar smoke was noticed, though no smokers of any kind were in the building. Upon investigating, workers saw smoke hovering in the air of the cellar, and a cigar was found.

Cold spots and a feeling of being watched have also been reported. For such a small town, Anamoose has some interesting activities on offer.

Casablanca Inn on the Bay, Saint Augustine, Florida, United States

Almost one hundred years ago, the Casablanca Inn (then known as the Matanzas Hotel) was a hotbed of smuggling activity. In the 1920s, Prohibition was the law of the land, and illegal activities abounded. The female proprietor of the hotel would let rumrunners know whether or not it was safe to come ashore by standing on the roof and swinging a lantern.

The woman fell in love with one of the smugglers, and one night, unable to come ashore due to the presence of government officers, he was lost at sea in a hurricane.

The Lady with the Lantern still signals to him; a ghostly light has often been seen on the roof of the Inn.

The White Eagle Saloon, Portland, Oregon, United States

The White Eagle Saloon was built in 1905. At that time, the surrounding neighborhood consisted largely of immigrants, and the area was working-class; indeed, the place was established by two Poles who wanted a place for their fellow immigrants to spend some leisure time.
 
In those days, streetcars were the mode of public transportation in Portland, and one of the stops was located almost directly in front of the White Eagle (popularly known as "Bucket of Blood", due to the frequent fights occurring there). Things haven't changed much; the White Eagle is now only a block from Portland's MAX line.


In those days, Portland was still involved in the practice of "crimping", or shanghaiing. The city had a network of tunnels running beneath the streets - and more to the point, beneath various drinking establishments. Unlucky male patrons of these watering holes could be knocked out, either physically or by drugs, and awake to find themselves at sea.

The top floor seems to be the epicenter of the hauntings. Sounds of a woman crying have often been heard, and noises of people walking back and forth. During the saloon's "glory" days, the upstairs was a "white" brothel, and the basement was a "black and Chinese" brothel. A young prostitute named Rose had a client who fell in love with her, and begged her to let him take her away from the saloon. Rose was too frightened of the owner (who considered her his "property") to leave, and when the man attempted to persuade the owner to let Rose go, he was beaten terribly. He made one more effort to convince Rose to leave with him. When she refused again, he stabbed her to death. Thus, Rose has never left the premises.

The former owner was offered $200 to allow two men with a video camera to stay overnight in one of the upstairs room. The answer was a flat refusal.

As for the basement, noises have often been heard from it. Coins have fallen from the ceiling. A waitress descending the staircase was shoved violently, falling the rest of the way.

Now? The saloon is owned by the McMenamin brothers (who also own the Edgefield in Troutdale), who, evidently, love to buy haunted properties. The saloon is open for (legal) business, and the bar area has hosted many a famous band. Previous guests warn that this is not a place for light sleepers, since the rooms are directly above the bar. Each room contains a sink, with the bathrooms located down the hall.

Ghosts apart, some potential guests may be interested in this review, from Yelp:

"You'll inevitably run into some of the lodgers in the hall, preferably the way I did when I came out of the shower and faced a man in a coconut bra and pirate hat."