Speaker 1: Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: Just before midnight on May nineteenth, two thousand and seven,
Speaker 2: police were called to the Alaskan Hotel to respond to
Speaker 2: a disturbance in Room three fifteen. The room's only guest,
Speaker 2: a sailor from the USS Bunker Hill, was heard screaming
Speaker 2: through the door. Help stop, he shouted, get me out
Speaker 2: of here. He appeared to be trapped in the room.
Speaker 2: Responding officers said they heard more than one person inside. Later,
Speaker 2: a guest in the room directly underneath gave her account
Speaker 2: of the events. I remember hearing yelling, but kind of
Speaker 2: just assumed that it was coming from the bar downstairs,
Speaker 2: she said. We hear glass chatter from above, and within moments,
Speaker 2: our window within our hotel room just shatters. Before anyone
Speaker 2: could get inside, the sailor jumped out the third floor window.
Speaker 2: When the police broke down the door, or Officer Chris
Speaker 2: Guildford was met with a horrible scene. The walls were
Speaker 2: covered in blood. Guilford said, there was it looked like
Speaker 2: something very bad had happened in there, and I didn't
Speaker 2: know what it was, but it didn't look normal. The
Speaker 2: sailor survived, but hotel owner Betty Adams said that when
Speaker 2: she entered the room, she found something she never expected
Speaker 2: to see. On the wall, the sailor had written one
Speaker 2: word help. He wrote it in his own blood. I'm
Speaker 2: Amy Bruney and this is haunted road. Room three point
Speaker 2: fifteen is in the only haunted space and the one
Speaker 2: hundred ten year old Alaskan Hotel in Juno, Alaska. In fact,
Speaker 2: according to people who've stayed there and even the people
Speaker 2: who own it, just about every corner of the historic
Speaker 2: hotel has some kind of unexplained activity. But when it opened,
Speaker 2: the Alaskan Hotel was all glitz and glamor, a shining
Speaker 2: beacon in one of the territory's richest gold rushed tones. Today,
Speaker 2: Juno is home to just about thirty thousand people. The
Speaker 2: capital of Alaska sits on land originally belonging to the
Speaker 2: Negative Klinget tribe. In eighteen eighty, a discovery of gold
Speaker 2: set off a gold rush and led to the founding
Speaker 2: of the city later that year. Joe Juno was one
Speaker 2: of the original discoverers of that gold, but the city
Speaker 2: wasn't named for him right away. First it was Harrisburg,
Speaker 2: then it was Rockwell. Miners voted to name the city
Speaker 2: Juno in eighteen eighty one, allegedly after Joe Juno bribed
Speaker 2: his voters with liquor. Juno is located on the Alaskan mainland,
Speaker 2: but is surrounded by so much extreme terrain that it's
Speaker 2: only reachable by boat or plain. Those first prospectors set
Speaker 2: up camps and lived in boarding houses, but no real
Speaker 2: hotel existed until the Alaskan opened its doors in nineteen thirteen.
Speaker 2: It was just a year after Elahesca became an official
Speaker 2: United States territory. The Alaskan was built by entrepreneur Jules
Speaker 2: Carrow and brothers James and John McCloskey, miners who had
Speaker 2: struck it rich in the Canadian Cariboo just over the
Speaker 2: border in British Columbia. The hotel opened with a grand
Speaker 2: gala on September sixteenth, nineteen thirteen. According to Jeff Balanger's
Speaker 2: World's Most Haunted Places, the management sent out invitations for
Speaker 2: the gala event that said at six pm, the management
Speaker 2: will formally unlock the doors and the keys will then
Speaker 2: be attached to a toy balloon which will carry them
Speaker 2: out of sight. From the moment the doors swing open,
Speaker 2: never to close. The hotel will be for the accommodation
Speaker 2: of guests. At the time, the Alaska Daily Empire described
Speaker 2: it as one of the most important business ventures of
Speaker 2: this kind in the North. According to the newspaper, the
Speaker 2: gala attracted a very large attendance of people anxious to
Speaker 2: inspect the place that had been talked about so much
Speaker 2: and to take part in the festivities that were to follow.
Speaker 2: The hotel arranged free fairies to bring people in from
Speaker 2: nearby islands for the event as well. According to one
Speaker 2: contemporary newspaper, everyone seemed to be having a good time,
Speaker 2: and the hotel's register had several pages filled with the
Speaker 2: names of well known people of both sides of the
Speaker 2: Gastineau Channel. An account in the National Registry of Historic
Speaker 2: Places Inventories said that a pioneer resident than a teenager,
Speaker 2: Trevor Davis, recalls his observation of the exciting grand opening.
Speaker 2: The McCloskey brothers milling among a well dressed crowd, shaking
Speaker 2: magnums of champagne, the corks aimed at the newly installed
Speaker 2: chandeliers and the gleaming ceiling.
Speaker 3: Of the lobby.
Speaker 2: Three stories tall. The Alaskan Hotel made a grand impression
Speaker 2: with Mount Juno rising up behind the structure. Inside, the
Speaker 2: main floor was primarily restaurants, separate dining areas for men
Speaker 2: and women, and the bar. The top two floors still
Speaker 2: have the original forty six guest rooms, some of which
Speaker 2: have private baths and some of which have shared bathrooms.
Speaker 1: The Alaska Daily.
Speaker 2: Empire reported that the finish of the entire lower floor
Speaker 2: is in mahogany, matching the elegant mahogany fixtures and furniture.
Speaker 2: The furniture is all leather upholstered. The entire floor is
Speaker 2: well illuminated. Brass chandeliers and tasteful design and art fixtures
Speaker 2: for the electric lights are everywhere. In evidence from the
Speaker 2: nearby steamship docks, it was easy to see what the
Speaker 2: newspaper described as a large electric sign blazing forth, which
Speaker 2: could be seen far down the gasteno channel. Inside the hotel,
Speaker 2: through the doors that never closed, things took a dark
Speaker 2: run rather quickly. According to the Alaskan Hotel, the high
Speaker 2: fashion and glitz was a paltry concealment for the legal
Speaker 2: prostitution and sale of illicit substances that went on there
Speaker 2: throughout its history. At the time, men's far outnumbered women
Speaker 2: in the territory, and sex work was legal in Alaska
Speaker 2: until the nineteen fifties, just before it became a state.
Speaker 1: Rumors also swirled.
Speaker 2: That money laundering was happening in the hotel. In nineteen eighteen,
Speaker 2: five years after the Alaska opened, the territory passed its
Speaker 2: own ban on alcohol. According to the hotel's history, the
Speaker 2: McCloskey brothers decided to turn the bar into a cafe
Speaker 2: for sodas during that period, like most speakeasies of its time,
Speaker 2: The hotel was renamed the Northlander in nineteen sixty and
Speaker 2: the bar previously on the first floor was moved to
Speaker 2: the basement. In a guide to the Notorious Bars of Alaska,
Speaker 2: Doug van de Graft wrote, the Northlander Bar was known
Speaker 2: by many locals as the snake pit, where all manner
Speaker 2: of humanity, such as prostitutes, drug dealers, swindlers, musicians, and
Speaker 2: dirty politicians came to drink and rub elbow. In nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy seven, after a police raid, the bar was shut
Speaker 2: down and its liquor license revoked shortly after the building
Speaker 2: was condemned. That same year, current owners Betty and Mike Adams,
Speaker 2: bought the hotel with the intention to restore it to
Speaker 2: its original name and its original look. In Thousand Ridge Haunts,
Speaker 2: Missy Wright wrote that elements of the hotel are so
Speaker 2: well preserved. Longtime Juno residents comment on how little the
Speaker 2: place has changed. The following year, in nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 2: the Alaskan Hotel was included on the National Register of
Speaker 2: Historic Places. In nineteen eighty one, Betty and Mike reopened
Speaker 2: the hotel for business and quickly restored the institution to
Speaker 2: its former glory, attracting celebrities like John Wayne, Ken Kessei
Speaker 2: Ted Danson, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers as guests.
Speaker 2: According to its history, the hotel's style, as noted by
Speaker 2: its own or Nate string course, Victorian bay windows in
Speaker 2: plush interior, is decidedly done in the late Victorian Queen
Speaker 2: Anne's style. In Alaska Voters Travel Guide today, the flocked wallpaper,
Speaker 2: red floral carpets, and tiffany windows are reminiscent of the
Speaker 2: hotel's original Gold Rush era opulence. While it was the Northlander,
Speaker 2: the owners installed a bar and cabaret in the basement,
Speaker 2: and later hot tubs, which don't appear to currently be
Speaker 2: in use. In nineteen ninety eight, Charles Kevin Wynn died
Speaker 2: at the hotel, having been found floating face down in
Speaker 2: a basement hot tub. In twenty seventeen, Clarence Stanley Milton
Speaker 2: third was found dead in his room. People report seeing
Speaker 2: at least one of those men still at the hotel today.
Speaker 2: Charlie is now believed to be a poltergeist who haunts
Speaker 2: the basement who is especially focused on pretty women. According
Speaker 2: to Joshua Adams, son of owners Betty and Mike Adams,
Speaker 2: who works at the hotel, he's definitely not the only
Speaker 2: presence at the Alaskan hotel, though visitors and staff both
Speaker 2: report often encountering cold spots throughout the building. According to
Speaker 2: Tom Ognan's book Haunted Hotels, guests of reported feeling an
Speaker 2: invisible spirit presumed to be female, stroke their faces or
Speaker 2: sit beside them on the bed. In general, rooms on
Speaker 2: the south side of the hotel seem to have the
Speaker 2: most activity, though it's not known why. James Devereaux in
Speaker 2: Spirits of Southeast Alaska reports that Reflections of ghostly figures
Speaker 2: in historical garb have been reported in the hotel's mirrors,
Speaker 2: especially in the bar area. Others have spotted orbs floating
Speaker 2: in the bar and on the stage.
Speaker 1: According to the.
Speaker 2: Haunted Places, beer mugs have also been reported moving on
Speaker 2: their own, as if they were pushed by someone. One
Speaker 2: of the more curious phenomena people report experiencing at the
Speaker 2: Alaskan is time slips. Elva bon Traeger claims to have
Speaker 2: experienced this in the late nineteen aenies while visiting the
Speaker 2: first floor bar. According to Varndel's book Haunted Inside Passage,
Speaker 2: she was on her way to use the restroom when
Speaker 2: she was struck by a painting of two women. One
Speaker 2: was a tall, scantily clad, sour faced blonde, the other
Speaker 2: was an attractive, dark haired woman with a small scar
Speaker 2: on her cheek, sitting behind a small green table. Elva
Speaker 2: assumed the two were prostitutes. She went home and replicated
Speaker 2: the painting of the two women. When Elva returned to
Speaker 2: the hotel a few weeks later, the painting was gone
Speaker 2: and the hallway was painted a different color. She also
Speaker 2: saw changes in the restroom, with a modern toilet replacing
Speaker 2: the pole chain model she had seen previously. When she
Speaker 2: asked the bartender about the changes, he had no idea
Speaker 2: what she was talking about and had no memory of
Speaker 2: such a painting ever hanging in that hallway. When she
Speaker 2: described the painting to the acquaintance she was at the
Speaker 2: bar with, the other woman said she'd been told by
Speaker 2: staff that the tall, blonde woman was a ghostly presence
Speaker 2: in the hotel's hallways. The most popular ghost story about
Speaker 2: the Alaskan Hotel concerns a woman named Alice. According to legend,
Speaker 2: Alice came to Juno with a man, possibly her fiance
Speaker 2: or husband, and they took Room two nineteen at the
Speaker 2: Alaskan sometime in the nineteen thirties. Alice's man left for
Speaker 2: several weeks to look for mining work in the Yukon,
Speaker 2: or in some versions, he was a fisherman or a
Speaker 2: whaler who went out to sea. Eventually, Alice ran out
Speaker 2: of money and was unable to continue paying for the room.
Speaker 2: Out of options, she decided to raise the money through
Speaker 2: sex work, a common occupation in the hotel at the time.
Speaker 2: Most tellings of the story say that when he returned,
Speaker 2: the heartbroken man murdered Alice in the hotel, either shooting
Speaker 2: her or bludgeoning her with a hatchet. In some versions
Speaker 2: of the story, he then hung himself in the same room.
Speaker 2: In others, he simply disappeared. According to one hotel employee
Speaker 2: interviewed by Jeff Balanger for World's Most Haunted Places, guests
Speaker 2: continually asked to be moved out of room two nineteen.
Speaker 2: The man, Jake Good, said, whenever I walk into Room
Speaker 2: two one nine, I get goosebumps. It's cold in there
Speaker 2: all of the time. For some reason, I personally think
Speaker 2: there are probably a couple of ghosts around here. I
Speaker 2: think the one in two nineteen is the only one
Speaker 2: that is frustrated or unhappy or tormented.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Some staff members say they've seen Alice sitting on the
Speaker 2: bed in Room two eighteen and room two nineteen. Others
Speaker 2: complain of feeling watched in that part of the hotel.
Speaker 2: According to Spirits of Southeast Alaska, a former housekeeper tells
Speaker 2: of cleaning the rooms, only to return to find the
Speaker 2: towels and furniture rearranged and scattered about, when there's no
Speaker 2: possibility that anyone could have entered to do so Room
Speaker 2: three fifteen of the Alaskan Hotel is also said to
Speaker 2: be haunted. That room, decorated with antiques and floral linen,
Speaker 2: looks especially close to how it would have appeared when
Speaker 2: the hotel first opened. According to legend, a fisherman's girlfriend
Speaker 2: was one staying in room three fifteen as haunted.
Speaker 1: Inside.
Speaker 2: Passage tells it, the man, suspicious his girlfriend might be
Speaker 2: cheating on him, desperately wanted to come into port. It
Speaker 2: was autumn, a time storms frequently buffet juno and turn
Speaker 2: the ocean deadly. Rather than staying anchored in a protected cove,
Speaker 2: the fisherman made a run for towne and was lost
Speaker 2: to the stormy sea. It's said that during the first
Speaker 2: big storm each year, the fisherman's footsteps can be heard
Speaker 2: on the stairs. Room three fifteen is also the room
Speaker 2: where that sailor had an experience so intense that it
Speaker 2: caused him to jump out the window to escape. When
Speaker 2: asked about the room, according to Alaska Public Media owner
Speaker 2: Betty Adams said, I just it's creepy.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I've never seen anything, but I feel things. The Alaskan
Speaker 2: Hotel is a place I have yet to visit. Though
Speaker 2: I will be there in just a few months, so
Speaker 2: I found someone who has been there and investigated it
Speaker 2: over a period of several days. Up next, I am
Speaker 2: thrilled to be joined by Katrina Widman as we revisit
Speaker 2: her experiences and thoughts on this mysterious location that's coming
Speaker 2: up after the break, I am joined by a very
Speaker 2: special guest, someone who I don't see enough. I will
Speaker 2: be honest, miss Katrino Wideman. So welcome Katrina. Hey, thank you,
Speaker 2: thanks for having me. Of course, you know, it's funny
Speaker 2: because a lot of the places that I cover.
Speaker 1: On Haunted Road, I've actually been there and.
Speaker 2: Investigated, and the Alaskan Hotel is kind of literally one
Speaker 2: of the few that I have not It's in one
Speaker 2: of four states I have not visited, and I'm actually
Speaker 2: going there in June with Strange Escape. So we have
Speaker 2: a cruise going there. We're they're all day and like
Speaker 2: we get to investigate till like eleven at night. So
Speaker 2: really interested to hear what you have to say about it.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no problem.
Speaker 2: So what strikes me about the Alaskan Hotel just kind
Speaker 2: of off the bat, It just kind of has a
Speaker 2: dark and ominous feel to it, and there's not a
Speaker 2: lot of I mean, I think hauntings in general can
Speaker 2: kind of come off that way to people who aren't
Speaker 2: familiar to them or familiar with them. But for some reason,
Speaker 2: the Alaskan I've never been there, I just don't get
Speaker 2: the greatest vibe from it, if that makes sense. Did
Speaker 2: you get that feeling when you went there?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's definitely it's an odd place.
Speaker 5: Do you know the town itself is it's got a
Speaker 5: very cool vibe. We went right as their season ended,
Speaker 5: so it was pretty empty by the time we had
Speaker 5: gotten there for filming. Surprisingly warm. I wasn't prepared for that.
Speaker 5: I think, you know, you think Alaska, you think it's cold,
Speaker 5: and it wasn't. It was actually very beautiful and warm
Speaker 5: up there. But the overall vibe of the space is
Speaker 5: definitely one that's uneasy. I don't know that I would
Speaker 5: say it's bad, but there's definitely a level of, you know,
Speaker 5: I don't fully feel comfortable in this space.
Speaker 2: Right, And that's kind of what I mean, Like just
Speaker 2: just I think I rewatched a portion of the episode there,
Speaker 2: So basically, you and Jack Jack Osborne, you filmed there
Speaker 2: and investigated there for the very first episode of Portals
Speaker 2: to Hell, so clearly a really interesting place to kick
Speaker 2: off the entire series with. So was that intentional or
Speaker 2: did you guys kind.
Speaker 1: Of pick the order after the fact.
Speaker 5: I'm not really sure why they decided to choose Alaska
Speaker 5: for the first one, because Jack and I had met
Speaker 5: beforehand to talk about Portals to Hell and you know,
Speaker 5: if we got along and if we wanted to move
Speaker 5: forward doing it together and everything, and then they were like, oh,
Speaker 5: we're going to do Alaska. And it took me like
Speaker 5: twenty two hours to get there. You know, I live
Speaker 5: on the East coast. It was a little easier for
Speaker 5: Jack being on the West coast. But it was definitely
Speaker 5: a gosh, I don't even know what's the word for it,
Speaker 5: like a slap in the face to do that one
Speaker 5: the as the very first one. And I don't mean
Speaker 5: that as like a negative thing, but it was just
Speaker 5: it was a really overwhelming location. So to have that
Speaker 5: be like the first time you're working with a brand
Speaker 5: new crew, a new teammate, it was like, wow, okay,
Speaker 5: we're going for it, like you know, like this is
Speaker 5: pal in your face kind of location.
Speaker 4: But I don't.
Speaker 5: As far as like the production side, I don't know
Speaker 5: why they chok, oh, you know what, I do know why.
Speaker 5: I think it had to do with weather, because we
Speaker 5: were going to be filming over we see, we started
Speaker 5: in October, so October, November, December, and I think like
Speaker 5: the first week or two of January, and so you know,
Speaker 5: Alaska weather wise wouldn't have been really great to if
Speaker 5: we waited any longer. So I think it was more
Speaker 5: a logistical thing of let's just do it to to
Speaker 5: you know, capitalize on some of that weather that they
Speaker 5: have right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean from.
Speaker 2: A production standpoint, just you know, being a producer, it
Speaker 2: is like it is kind of epic. You're like, we
Speaker 2: are going all the way to Alaska for our very
Speaker 2: first case and it really did work like it did,
Speaker 2: And I mean I remembered it ever since because I
Speaker 2: had not heard of the Alaskan Hotel before, and so
Speaker 2: a lot of the claims there were fairly recent, and
Speaker 2: they also kind of seemed to really deeply affect people,
Speaker 2: like what can you remember just kind of struck you
Speaker 2: as something that they told you that just seemed kind
Speaker 2: of different from any other hauntings you'd been to before.
Speaker 5: Well, I think there's definitely layers going on there. There
Speaker 5: have been reports going back decades too, which is interesting.
Speaker 5: One of the reports, and I can't remember if they
Speaker 5: kept it in the episode or not. And you know, yeah,
Speaker 5: as an investigator, you're shifting through rumors and hearsay, and
Speaker 5: it's it's always hard to tell, Okay, this person's account,
Speaker 5: is this accurate or not? Did they make it up?
Speaker 5: Is it how long has this been passed down? You know,
Speaker 5: kind of the whisper down the lane type of thing.
Speaker 5: But one of the stories we had heard was that
Speaker 5: a woman I think she went into the bathroom, walked out,
Speaker 5: and when she walked out, she was in a different
Speaker 5: time period, you know, And that always struck me as
Speaker 5: interesting because you only hear about those type of experiences,
Speaker 5: I mean seldomly you hear of them. The other one
Speaker 5: I can think of that's really well known as Gettysburg,
Speaker 5: and I'm sure a lot of people, if they're into hauntings,
Speaker 5: they've heard of that story where the two admin they
Speaker 5: got into the elevator at the at Gettysburg College. The
Speaker 5: elevator took them to the basement, and when the basement
Speaker 5: doors opened up. They were watching an entire Civil War
Speaker 5: hospital scene, you know. So you hear of these experiences,
Speaker 5: but they're not altogether common.
Speaker 1: So that one really.
Speaker 5: Struck me, you know, assuming it's true and accurate. I
Speaker 5: think that happened in the eighties, I want to say,
Speaker 5: maybe the early nineties. And I think the other part
Speaker 5: of it was, you know, I mean, you're talking about
Speaker 5: a town where it was easy to cover things up,
Speaker 5: you know, and if there as a lot of these places,
Speaker 5: these hotels that were kind of there as a midpoint
Speaker 5: stopover for workers, historically, it's not uncommon to find really
Speaker 5: bad s where he's coming out of those places, you know,
Speaker 5: So I think it was easy for people to cover
Speaker 5: things up there. That's at least what we had been told.
Speaker 5: And so a lot of the tragedies you're not going
Speaker 5: to find documented, so a lot of them are passed
Speaker 5: on orally, and you know, I'm sure there's some exaggerations
Speaker 5: on some of those stories, but we definitely did hear
Speaker 5: of murders, we heard about rapes, we heard about suicides.
Speaker 5: And then there's the element of Josh, who highly intelligent person,
Speaker 5: but I think there were some you know, the way
Speaker 5: he was describing things happening in the hotel. It seemed
Speaker 5: like there was definitely a level that was more malevolent, right.
Speaker 2: I was kind of fascinated by him. So if you've
Speaker 2: seen the episode of Portals.
Speaker 1: You'll be familiar with this gentleman. And I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: I think he's the owner's son. I can't remember. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'll probably meet him.
Speaker 2: But he has a lot of experiences in the basement itself,
Speaker 2: it seems like, and the basement, according to him, had
Speaker 2: not been used as a room for twenty years, and
Speaker 2: someone had passed away there and apparently, like I think
Speaker 2: women in particular have issues down there.
Speaker 1: Did you have that experience?
Speaker 4: We were working with a device.
Speaker 5: It was like a motion detector device, and I think
Speaker 5: it also checked for ambient temperature, and we had that
Speaker 5: go off a couple of times when I was down
Speaker 5: in the basement and was me and our one producer
Speaker 5: who she was also the director, so like, you know,
Speaker 5: both women downstairs in the basement. And that was really
Speaker 5: the biggest thing that happened was our motion detector kept
Speaker 5: going off and we couldn't find a cause for it,
Speaker 5: so currently unknown, you know why that was happening.
Speaker 2: So of that when you're investigating, they're like, this is
Speaker 2: where the women get missed with, right, like get down there,
Speaker 2: and you're like, here we go again.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I know, but yeah, it wasn't you know, experience wise,
Speaker 5: I don't think we had anything that was off the
Speaker 5: wall scary, like it was a scary place just because
Speaker 5: of the vibe. But you know, I don't none of
Speaker 5: nobody got thrown up against the wall. Nobody, you know, nothing.
Speaker 2: Like that, right, And I think that's part of it too,
Speaker 2: because you hear the stories and there are like certain
Speaker 2: very notorious rooms. You know, there is the one where
Speaker 2: that that gentleman supposedly threw himself out the window. I believe, yes,
Speaker 2: and he really wanted to stay in a haunted room,
Speaker 2: like he asked the owner, did Jack sleep in that room?
Speaker 4: He did?
Speaker 5: Jack slept in that room? And you know, kind of
Speaker 5: one of the sadder things we were told about, you know,
Speaker 5: is that I guess their drug use per capita is
Speaker 5: fairly high. And so I think what the Alaskan has
Speaker 5: also seen as a lot of people suffering from addiction.
Speaker 5: So how it was said to us is like the
Speaker 5: gentleman who took his own life or jumped out. I
Speaker 5: think he survived. Actually, yeah, he survived, but he jumped
Speaker 5: out of the window. What was said to us is
Speaker 5: it's not altogether surprising for that area, which is, you know,
Speaker 5: really unfortunate, but it seems like a pattern that certainly happens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that's.
Speaker 2: Important to think of too, especially you know, some of
Speaker 2: these things that happen in these locations, you sometimes do
Speaker 2: have to kind of take a darker, deeper dive into
Speaker 2: what it could be other than something paranormal. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I do think that. I feel like I've heard that
Speaker 2: just kind of in general in a lot of areas
Speaker 2: of Alaska, like it's such a different atmosphere than we're
Speaker 2: used to, you know, they don't they have a very
Speaker 2: different daylight situation going on there.
Speaker 1: It's isolated.
Speaker 2: You know. I used to date so one years ago
Speaker 2: who had lived in Alaska, and he said he has
Speaker 2: never quite got used to it. And I think it's
Speaker 2: a beautiful place and I think a lot of people
Speaker 2: love being there, but I could see that there are
Speaker 2: certain aspects of it that could wear on you. And
Speaker 2: I do think that might have something to do with
Speaker 2: a obviously some of these types of experiences would also
Speaker 2: be just kind of how people feel in a place
Speaker 2: like that, Like they might feel uneasy if they're not familiar,
Speaker 2: if they're visiting. Yeah, in the episode itself seemed like
Speaker 2: a lot of the experiences they brought up were pretty extreme,
Speaker 2: But then it also seems like there's kind of just,
Speaker 2: I don't want to say, run of the mill paranormal
Speaker 2: activities maybe to you and me were like, oh, Flo's
Speaker 2: steps knock. Yeah, but did you have anything like that
Speaker 2: happened or do you remember people mentioning things like that
Speaker 2: that just kind of went on all the time.
Speaker 4: Or yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 5: I think that the overall vibe of our interviews and
Speaker 5: what we had been told about people that we couldn't
Speaker 5: interview was everybody knew it was haunted.
Speaker 4: All their workers.
Speaker 5: Now they might not have known when they first got hired,
Speaker 5: but they certainly found out soon enough. And you know,
Speaker 5: it was kind of the like you said, the run
Speaker 5: in the mill activity of footsteps and voices and whispers
Speaker 5: and uneasiness and maybe a door closes and shadow figures
Speaker 5: was big there too, And I don't even think it
Speaker 5: was shadow figures as in like a human shadow figure
Speaker 5: it was like blobs of shadows people would see, and
Speaker 5: we had experienced a couple of those things. I think
Speaker 5: we had some interesting edps that we got there. Definitely
Speaker 5: the uneasiness. We have footsteps a couple of times. I
Speaker 5: think one or two of them might be explainable. But
Speaker 5: there were definitely some things that popped up that didn't
Speaker 5: have explanations for us. But you know, going back, it
Speaker 5: is it's a really old building. You'll see when you
Speaker 5: get there. It's an old building, it's creaky. There's definitely
Speaker 5: room for era in that kind of stuff. I think, Yeah,
Speaker 5: I think we'll probably have to be careful with that.
Speaker 2: I mean, well, we're going to be there with a
Speaker 2: pretty good sized group. Obviously, we're splitting up and taking
Speaker 2: turns and going up and investigating. So I'm excited about that.
Speaker 2: But did they tell you, Were there ever any employees
Speaker 2: who just kind of called it a day and had
Speaker 2: had enough and quit before the action?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I believe so.
Speaker 5: I think very specifically they had told us about.
Speaker 4: I think it was as.
Speaker 5: A housekeeper who had had an experience and quit. Actually,
Speaker 5: I think it happened a bunch of times for them,
Speaker 5: but it was one of those things of I don't
Speaker 5: know if they're phased by it anymore, you know, because
Speaker 5: it's happened to them a bunch of times, where an
Speaker 5: employee has said something to them or a patron has
Speaker 5: said something to them. So I think they're just sort
Speaker 5: of like, yeah.
Speaker 4: Is what it is?
Speaker 5: You know, Like Jack and I had it's really funny.
Speaker 5: We referenced this a lot. There was an investigation we
Speaker 5: did where like horrific things happened on this property and
Speaker 5: they were having a really intense haunting. And when we
Speaker 5: would ask the owner about it, their response is always is.
Speaker 4: What it is?
Speaker 5: Or like like that's the best attitude to have, though,
Speaker 5: like is what it is?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I know, I actually said back in ghost Hunters days,
Speaker 2: we actually break Grifver and I used to say that
Speaker 2: all the time.
Speaker 1: We're like, it is what it is.
Speaker 5: Like, this is what we're gonna do. Yeah, sometimes there's
Speaker 5: no solution. Sometimes you just got to live through one.
Speaker 5: And I think that's I think that's what the owners
Speaker 5: the Alaskan are doing, you know. But I do think
Speaker 5: there's some there's some other elements.
Speaker 4: Going on there.
Speaker 5: And Josh kind of leaned into that a little bit
Speaker 5: off camera, you know that I kind of think there's
Speaker 5: been some intentional calling of things to that place.
Speaker 1: Okay, so he kind of talked.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've mentioned it when I was
Speaker 2: watching the episode or not, but there might have been
Speaker 2: some hint at that, Like what do you think that is?
Speaker 2: Do you think it's him per se or do you
Speaker 2: think there's other people who did it.
Speaker 5: I think it's been both. And I work closely with
Speaker 5: Michelle Beljay who's a psychic medium and also an occultist,
Speaker 5: and she'll be the first one to tell you that
Speaker 5: just because you practice certain things doesn't mean it's bad.
Speaker 5: It's just the intention behind it. And I think in
Speaker 5: the case that the Alaskan, I don't know that every
Speaker 5: single person has had good intentions behind what they've been
Speaker 5: doing there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've stumbled on a few places like that, you know,
Speaker 2: especially when the activity kind of suddenly takes a turn.
Speaker 2: And I don't like, I know, we say intention but
Speaker 2: I also think it's almost unintentional sometimes, like they don't necessarily.
Speaker 2: I think sometimes people underestimate the power of what they're
Speaker 2: asking for, you know what I mean. Yeah, And like
Speaker 2: in the kind of with Josh and particular, I was
Speaker 2: very he was such an interesting interview, probably one of
Speaker 2: the most interesting interviews I've ever seen on a parabole show.
Speaker 2: He just seemed very There was a lot going on there.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you since that in.
Speaker 1: Person, but.
Speaker 3: He just seemed very in tune with the location itself,
Speaker 3: and like he said that someone died in his arms, right,
Speaker 3: and the like Charlie was at his name, Yeah.
Speaker 4: In the hot tub in the basement.
Speaker 1: And so do you think Charlie is still there?
Speaker 2: He seems to think Charlie is very much still there.
Speaker 5: You know. It's hard to say because I think one
Speaker 5: of the drawbacks that do in television that we don't
Speaker 5: always have enough time in these places. Like I think
Speaker 5: sometimes to get a really accurate sense of a location,
Speaker 5: it would I would want to be there for like
Speaker 5: months at a time, and we just can't do that,
Speaker 5: you know. So I'm seeing these locations just as glimpses.
Speaker 5: Really my thought on it just based off of my
Speaker 5: time there. I don't really know if Charlie is who
Speaker 5: Charlie says he is. It seemed more sinister than that.
Speaker 5: It seem more malevolent and seem more trickstery and in
Speaker 5: my experience, those things are not human energies. Those are
Speaker 5: you know, something a little different, but they you know,
Speaker 5: we've certainly seen cases where those types of energies can
Speaker 5: pretend to be something else to kind of gain trust,
Speaker 5: gain access. As for the invitation type of thing, if
Speaker 5: we're talking Catholicism, you know that would you know a
Speaker 5: priest would label that a demon. He's trying to gain
Speaker 5: your trust and access. You know, I don't know, people
Speaker 5: can call whatever they want. It's just to me, it
Speaker 5: felt like it had a deeper level than what Josh
Speaker 5: was talking about.
Speaker 2: And what a better way to kind of get through
Speaker 2: to Josh, Like, here's someone who literally died in his arms,
Speaker 2: and so you know, he probably already feels a connection
Speaker 2: to that person in a way. And so of course
Speaker 2: if there is some something or someone there watching this happen,
Speaker 2: they know at that point, okay, if I present myself
Speaker 2: as Charlie, this person's going to be more trusting.
Speaker 5: So yeah, yeah, it's it's a really sad. There's some
Speaker 5: sad stories up there, especially you know, the case of
Speaker 5: the rape that allegedly happened. We never found documentation of that.
Speaker 5: But of course, like would you you know what I mean,
Speaker 5: you probably would not find documentation of that because it
Speaker 5: would be one of those things that would be really
Speaker 5: easy to cover up, and people would want to cover
Speaker 5: that up. And it also the time period we were
Speaker 5: told it happened in, many people would probably find it acceptable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, unfortunately, and you know it was I mean, it
Speaker 2: was wild, you know, it was kind of this It
Speaker 2: was so funny because I kind of going through the history,
Speaker 2: you know, it was meant to be this very kind
Speaker 2: of glamorous, beautiful hotel and then which it is. I
Speaker 2: think it's beautiful, but then it kind of just got
Speaker 2: taken over by the fact that there wasn't really a
Speaker 2: lot of people kind of looking over how things went.
Speaker 2: You know, there wasn't a lot of oversight. There weren't
Speaker 2: a lot of laws. It was very much kind of
Speaker 2: just every man for himself, and like you were saying,
Speaker 2: a lot of money laundering and illegal things going on,
Speaker 2: and with that comes a lot of debauchery and very
Speaker 2: bad things and depths and hauntings. It turns out, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean strange energy behind yeah, and I think that
Speaker 2: that energy is kind of affected by just the atmosphere
Speaker 2: of where it is like, I'm so curious to know,
Speaker 2: you know when I the only thing I can kind
Speaker 2: of relate it to is when we went to Iceland,
Speaker 2: which kind of has not a similar landscape, but like
Speaker 2: a similar climate.
Speaker 1: Where it's daylight.
Speaker 2: They when we went there, we went there during the
Speaker 2: midnight sun, and I felt kind of panicky almost the
Speaker 2: whole time because it never really equalled, you know, what
Speaker 2: I would experience at home as far as and it
Speaker 2: just never felt quite relaxing. And so I wonder if
Speaker 2: just that kind of energy in general can affect the
Speaker 2: haunting there, especially when people are coming in and out
Speaker 2: and they're traveling from all over the world. Uh, and
Speaker 2: then you have that energy of all those people coming
Speaker 2: in and touring, and they're coming in on cruise ships
Speaker 2: and they're checking it out, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: one day it just stops. The season ends. Yeah, do
Speaker 2: you think that does something? Because you've probably went there
Speaker 2: at the best time if you really think about it
Speaker 2: that way.
Speaker 5: We did, Yeah, and we were there in October and
Speaker 5: it was like right as they're season had ended, and
Speaker 5: you know, the locals were there and there were what
Speaker 5: did they call them drifters? I guess is what they
Speaker 5: called them. That they get a lot of drifters that
Speaker 5: time of year, you know, people maybe looking for some
Speaker 5: work or people looking for where do they go from
Speaker 5: here kind of things, so they stop over in Juneo
Speaker 5: and that was the atmosphere is pretty It wasn't desolate,
Speaker 5: but it was just you know, you can tell you're
Speaker 5: in a touristy area and there's like no tourists, so
Speaker 5: it's just like, oh, this is interesting, you know because
Speaker 5: even places like you know, Lake George and New York
Speaker 5: that's a pretty touristy area. But even going there in
Speaker 5: the off season, there was still a good amount going on,
Speaker 5: you know where I felt like Juno was just like, oh,
Speaker 5: there's like there's nobody here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's really no way there. I mean you obviously
Speaker 2: boat are plane, but once it gets kind of gnarly outside,
Speaker 2: you're not.
Speaker 1: Going to make it there that way.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I think, you know, it was definitely easier
Speaker 5: shooting wise and investigation wise to be there when the
Speaker 5: foot track was lower because you don't get the ambient
Speaker 5: noise from outside. I'm sure it gets a little rowdy
Speaker 5: on the main stretch there when they're in season and
Speaker 5: we didn't have to deal with any of that. So
Speaker 5: that was definitely, you know, a better way to go
Speaker 5: for our purposes for sure.
Speaker 2: Years ago, we filmed on Mackinac Island in February January,
Speaker 2: something I would not recommend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was not the time to be.
Speaker 2: There's a beautiful place, but one thing that we heard
Speaker 2: from the locals is that people would go there in
Speaker 2: the winter to hide from any number of things. You know,
Speaker 2: some people go there to write, some people would go
Speaker 2: there because they were literally like felons on the uh
Speaker 2: oh wow. And I don't know, Juno just kind of
Speaker 2: strikes me as kind of a similar vibe where that
Speaker 2: kind that time of year, you probably have some really
Speaker 2: interesting characters kind of yeing about.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I want to be surprised.
Speaker 5: That's kind of like how things were alluded to us,
Speaker 5: you know, and I know Jack talked to the cops
Speaker 5: and everything, so they kind of like let us in
Speaker 5: on what I guess maybe the seed your side of
Speaker 5: the town.
Speaker 2: That's so interesting. I love that well, I can't wait
Speaker 2: to visit it. I love having more insights. This actually
Speaker 2: was completely by chance that this podcast episode happened just
Speaker 2: two months before I'm heading that way. It was just
Speaker 2: kind of you know, we plan these pretty far in advance,
Speaker 2: so I'm really excited about it. So I'm really glad
Speaker 2: you were able to join us and tell us a
Speaker 2: little bit about your experiences. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well thanks for having me. I hope your trip
Speaker 4: goes well. I'll keep you posting nothing too crazy half and.
Speaker 2: So tell us like, what are you up to? What
Speaker 2: how can people find you? I know you have new
Speaker 2: music out which I'm obsessed with, so please tell everyone.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so definitely on all the major socials, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok,
Speaker 5: YouTube at Katrina Wideman my last name spelled weid Man.
Speaker 4: And as far as current projects.
Speaker 5: I'm doing a YouTube series called Travel the Dead and
Speaker 5: that is very much the peak behind the curtain of
Speaker 5: what it is to be an investigator. It's me and
Speaker 5: my best friend, Heather Taddy, who we met on Paranormal State.
Speaker 5: So she and I very much started our paranormal careers together,
Speaker 5: and these are the private cases that we're asked to do,
Speaker 5: and so you're kind of getting an inside look at
Speaker 5: what it's like to do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love her. That's great.
Speaker 2: I've actually watched a bit of it and it's it's
Speaker 2: really something, so people need to go check it out.
Speaker 1: I thank you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's really raw and gritty, but we did not
Speaker 5: want it to you know, we just wanted it to
Speaker 5: be what it was, which is Paranormal Investigating is roll
Speaker 5: on gritty like, so we didn't want to pretty it
Speaker 5: up or anything. So it's a very intimate doc series.
Speaker 5: And then my music, for people who might not know,
Speaker 5: that's my background is a music and theater So when
Speaker 5: we were kids, paranormal investigating wasn't a job.
Speaker 1: So like we all.
Speaker 5: Kind of had other avenues before. I think this found
Speaker 5: us and mine was music in theater. So I put
Speaker 5: out my debut singles the sole Artist on March thirty first,
Speaker 5: and that's called Suffer Me, and you can download it
Speaker 5: and stream and Spotify iTunes all your major platforms. And
Speaker 5: then second singles coming out in a few weeks.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 2: I know, whenever we get together and Adam Barry is there,
Speaker 2: I just kind of disappear. Well, the two of you
Speaker 2: talk musical theater.
Speaker 4: Talk musical theater.
Speaker 5: Yeah, probably because I'm obsessed with he was in It's
Speaker 5: my favorite musical it's called bat Boy, and he was
Speaker 5: in that, and so I'm always like fascinated that he
Speaker 5: got to be in that show because it's such a
Speaker 5: great show.
Speaker 1: I love it. I have the most talented, wonderful friends.
Speaker 1: I love it so well.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: It was really great chatting with you, and I really
Speaker 2: hope we run into each other in persons. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm sure we will. We're always kind of passing by.
Speaker 2: So yeah, hopefully I see you very soon.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely well. I can't wait to hear about your
Speaker 4: trip to the Alaskaan.
Speaker 5: All right, thank you, Okay, see Amy.
Speaker 2: The Alaskan Hotel feels like a genuine TimewARP, so I
Speaker 2: suppose it's no surprise that time slips are one of
Speaker 2: the reports there. It's rare you find a hotel that
Speaker 2: bowl that has changed hands so few times and where
Speaker 2: so little has changed within its walls, the furnishings, the
Speaker 2: feel all seemed to be almost as it was the
Speaker 2: day it opened. It makes you wonder if that's why
Speaker 2: many restless souls don't feel compelled to leave or go elsewhere.
Speaker 2: The Alaskan has become their beacon, never wavering, never changing,
Speaker 2: and seemingly always there. I'm excited to visit there soon myself.
Speaker 2: I'll report back on what, if anything happens. I'm Aymy
Speaker 2: Bruney and this was Haunted Road. Haunted Road is hosted
Speaker 2: and written by me Amy Brune with additional research by
Speaker 2: Taylor Haggerdorn and Cassan Alba. This show is edited and
Speaker 2: produced by Rima el Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thain
Speaker 2: and executive producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 2: Haunted Road is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and
Speaker 2: Mild from Aaron Menke. Learn more about this show over
Speaker 2: at Grimandmild dot com, and for more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
Speaker 2: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
Speaker 1: Or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.