Five Haunted Lodging Adventures


If sleeping with ghosts is in your travel plans, here's where to stay

If you're in the spirit for spirits this autumn, you might consider a passive adventure that takes you to a haunted hotel or room for rent where you can get up close and personal with the haunts -- if you dare!

While not as rigorous an adventure as rappelling down a Costa Rican waterfall or ascending McKinley's North Face in winter, spending a few nights in haunted rooms and lodges can get your adrenaline rushing and may prove to be a real test of your wits.

Are you tempted? Are you daring? Are you ready?

Browse through the short list below of haunted hotels, bed and breakfast lodges and historic rooms to rent, and start making reservations for the season. There's nothing to worry about. After all, you don't believe in ghosts, do you?


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The Historic St. James Hotel
Old Santa Fe Trail, Cimarron, New Mexico

You can't help getting a little spooked as you follow the Old Santa Fe Trail into the mountains of northern New Mexico. In addition to a rich history of marauding Commanche raids and bad guys who tried to win the American West with a gun and prayer, there's an eerie feeling to the remote surroundings. The St. James Hotel is one of the most noted Old West lodges. Built first as a saloon in 1872 by Frenchman Henri Lambert, former personal chef to President Abraham Lincoln, the hotel was founded in 1888, initially proving to be more a place of violence than rest. Twenty six men lost their lives in the early years there, most the victims of gunfights or brawls. Outlaw Clay Allison stayed there, as did train robber Blackjack Ketchum. There were other famous guests: Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley, who met there to form their Wild West Show; Zane Grey, who wrote the novel Fighting Caravans while a guest; Governor Lew Wallace, who wrote Ben Hur while there. Frederic Remington was a prolonged guest, sketching the nearby hills and mountains. With so much colorful history, it's no wonder a ghost may live there still today, or so goes the rumor. The 12 guest rooms in the primary hotel are furnished with lavish antiques. The rooms are comfortable, and the history is magnetic. A great weekend retreat, if you don't mind sharing the historic facility with rumored spooks.

John Stone's Inn
Ashland, Massachusetts

The sign over the door of John Stone's country inn reads, "spirits, food and lodging," but until you spend the night and get to know the apparitions that appear there regularly, you don't really know the signmaker wasn't talking about alcoholic refreshment when he imprinted the message above the door of the 166-year-old lodge. Daniel Webster gave speeches here, and there are secret rooms that served as hiding places for runaway slaves, but the inn's greatest claim to fame is the ghosts walking its halls. The apparition of a 10-year-old girl is often reported staring out a window in a storage room near the kitchen, and an invisible intruder likes to put his hands around the necks of customers in the dining room. Near an ice machine in the cellar, several employees have felt an unseen presence tapping them on the shoulder or holding their hands under the ice when they try to fill ice containers.

Myrtles Plantation Bed & Breakfast
St. Francesville, Louisiana

Possibly one of the most haunted homes on American soil, this beautiful (though not quite peaceful) home has seen its share of violence and unsettled ghosts and apparitions. Many ghosts roam the halls of this picturesque home, built in 1796 by General David Bradford. There have been ten murders in the house, plus at least one suicide. A frequent visitor is the ghost of Cleo, a former slave hung for murdering two little girls. General Bradford's son-in-law, Clarke Woodruff, cut off the black woman's ear for eavesdropping, and she took her revenge by mixing oleander into the children's birthday cake. Another ghostly guest is attorney William Winter, who lived there from 1860 to 1871 and was shot to death by a stranger as he sat upon the front porch. His ghost often can be heard or seen inside the house. Ghosts from the slave graveyard on the property still report for chores, and the ghosts of the two children poisoned by Cleo reportedly still play on the verandah from time to time. One ghost, dressed in khaki pants, is said to meet visitors at the gate and tell them the plantation is closed.

Bullock Hotel
Deadwood, South Dakota

The ghost of Deadwood's first sheriff, Seth Bullock, walks the halls of the hotel he founded. Bullock was sheriff in the 1870s and died here in 1919. Since then, over thirty people have seen his ghost. Guests, employees, and managers of this hotel have encountered the tough old sheriff, "whose gaze could stop fights."

Historic Sheridan Inn
Sheridan, Wyoming

This inn is said to be haunted by the spirit of Miss Kate Arnold, a housekeeper who lived here for 65 years. The inn opened in 1893 and was once owned by Buffalo Bill Cody. The ghost of Miss Kate is felt most strongly in her former room on the third floor, near the front downstairs windows, or in the ballroom. Sometimes, she is detected as a moving cold spot, at other times only her soft footsteps are heard. The owners have preserved her room just as she left it and interred her ashes in the wall above her favorite chair in order to share the strange event with guests.