WEBVTT - All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy. 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:04.360 Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:12.360 and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky listener. Discretion is advised. Hey, gang, 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:14.960 this is just a quick reminder that I have a 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.600 massive fall tour coming up starting in September, and so 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:20.840 if you want to head to my website Amy dash 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:23.960 Brunei dot net and click on the appearances page, you 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.080 can see if I will be anywhere near you. A 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:28.360 lot of these do have meet and greed options too, 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:30.120 so if you want to get a photo of me 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:33.200 or ask me a question personally, this is your chance, 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:35.760 so please check it out and hopefully we will get 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:38.720 to meet in person and talk about spooky things. My 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:55.080 favorite one Chili autumn night, a man and his wife 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:58.840 stayed alone at a lonely hotel nearly abandoned as the 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.760 staff prepared to close. Was the warm weather destination for 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:04.479 the winter. After she had gone to bed for the night, 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.080 he couldn't sleep, so he went exploring the hotel's long, 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:12.720 dark corridors. Eventually he found the hotel bar, where a 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:16.480 bartender named Grady served him a drinker too. When the 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:19.720 man returned back to his room later that night. Inspired 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:22.600 by the remote location of the hotel and the eerie 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:25.880 air of desolation in its empty rooms. He went into 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.240 the bathroom and pulled back the curtain on the cloth 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:32.280 foot tub. What if someone died here, he thought to himself. 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:36.600 At that moment, Stephen King knew he had a book 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:42.039 to write. I'm Amy Bruney, and this is haunted Road. 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:52.160 There may be no hotel more deeply embedded in horror 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.800 lore than the Stanley, the hotel in Estes Park, Colorado 0:01:55.880 --> 0:02:00.280 that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining, the book 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.960 that has become one of the most famous and most 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:07.680 frightening stories of all time, and its sequel, Doctor Sleep. 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.800 But Stephen King never saw any ghosts in the Stanley Hotel. 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.800 His experience was totally normal, not paranormal, even if it 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.880 was extremely spooky. I mean, who wouldn't be creeped out 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:21.760 spending the night in a nearly abandoned hotel. The answer 0:02:21.800 --> 0:02:23.720 is me. I once spent the night as the only 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.240 guest in the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire, and 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:28.840 it was one of my most favorite experiences ever. But 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:33.320 I digress. The Shining undoubtedly put the hotel in a 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:36.880 different stratosphere of fame, though I just want to be clear, 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.440 the movie wasn't filmed there at all. Stanley Kubrick's version 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.800 was filmed in Pinewood Studios in London, and the exterior 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:46.840 shots of the building are of the Timberline Lodge in Oregon. 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:50.560 Long before a certain horror writer passed through its doors, 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.520 the Stanley had a reputation for strange noises in the night, 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:57.639 for ghastly apparitions in hotel rooms, and unexplainable things happening 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:01.200 all around. In fact, the Stanley more than a century 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:05.639 of curious history, and it all started with the tuberculosis epidemic. 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.880 In nineteen oh three, freelan Oscar Stanley went to the 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.360 mountains of Colorado with his wife Flora. Stanley, with his 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:17.239 twin brother Francis, invented a photographic process they sold to 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.840 Kodak and the Stanley Steamer train car. But despite his 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:24.080 riches and his success, Stanley was suffering from a case 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.680 of tuberculosis that was quickly killing him. By the time 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:30.760 he and Flora departed for the Mountains of Colorado, doctors 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.200 had told Stanley he only had three months to live. 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.640 Upon arriving in Estes Park, about an hour and a 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:40.280 half from Denver, He almost immediately began to feel better. 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.080 Stanley made a full recovery, due in part to the 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:46.400 crisp mountain air of the Rocky Mountains. You might remember 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.280 from our Waverley Hills episode that not everyone who went 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:53.160 away for a tuberculosis rescue, especially at that Kentucky sanatorium, 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:57.080 had such a fortunate fate. Despite his prognosis of having 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.080 three months to live, Stanley lived another thirty seven. In 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:04.560 years before Western settlers arrived, the Estes Park area was 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.960 a summer destination for the Ute and Arapaho tribes and 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:10.560 became a gold rush town in eighteen fifty nine when 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:14.640 prospector Joel Estes arrived in the area. When Stanley visited, 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:18.840 the town was a tourist destination, but only offering simple accommodations, 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.600 not the kind the wealthy inventor was used to. Stanley 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:25.440 started building what would become the Stanley Hotel in nineteen 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.200 o seven, building on land that had originally belonged to 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:33.120 an Irish earl, Lord Dunraven. The earl had illegally homesteaded 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.719 six thousand acres to create a private hunting reserve and 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:40.480 built a hunting lodge, cabin and hotel for guests. As 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:44.599 Kathy Wiser Alexander wrote in Legends of America, Dunraven was 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.239 finally run out of the area after trying to swindle 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.680 folks out of their land and money. Stanley had originally 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.040 planned on naming the hotel after Lord Dunraven, but locals 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:58.880 had other ideas. In September, ses Park residents approached Stanley 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.440 with a deer skin petition and asking him to name 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:06.719 the hotel after himself instead. The Stanley Hotel opened on 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.440 June twenty second, n o nine and makes a grand 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:14.039 first impression. The main hotel building is built in the 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:18.480 Colonial Georgian Revival style, four stories tall and painted mustard 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:21.440 yellow with a vibrant red roof. The design was particularly 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.839 striking for its contrast with the rugged, rocky mountain landscape. 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.520 The style was a departure from the rustic accommodations otherwise 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:31.359 offered in Estes Park. It was also one of the 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.039 first hotels west of the Mississippi to have electricity. The 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.960 property is sixty eight acres. In addition to the one 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.520 forty room hotel, there are the manor House, Stanley Hall, 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:45.120 the carriage House, the north and south dormitories, the laundry building, 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.359 the boiler house, the manager's cottage, the gatekeeper's house, the 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.480 maintenance building, and the swimming pool cabana, some of which 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:55.479 are connected by underground tunnels. The Stanley cost over five 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:59.240 hundred thousand dollars to build, over fifteen million dollars in 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:02.880 today's money. According to the hotel's history, the first guests 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.840 who pulled up and stylish Stanley design steam cars were 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:09.320 astonished at what they saw. Here in this mountain wilderness, 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.200 surrounded by the rustic haunts of the hunter and homesteader, 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:16.000 was an edifice that withstood comparison to the posh hotels 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:20.800 back east. Electric lights, telephones, and suite bathrooms. A staff 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.000 of uniformed servants and a fleet of automobiles were at 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:28.520 their disposal. If the outside was impressive, the interior was 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.920 even more grand. Guests walking in would see a lobby 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.480 with carved wooden walls in several fireplaces, and a grand 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.240 staircase leading up to the guest floors. The original Otis 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.520 elevator from nineteen o nine is still in use today, 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:46.040 and there's an original Stanley steamer on display in the lobby. 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:49.520 The hotel has a bar, dining room, music room, and 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:52.760 billiard room, as well as lounges and meeting rooms. As 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:56.440 Steve Winston wrote in Western Art and Architecture, the public 0:06:56.560 --> 0:07:00.400 rooms are filled with dark woods, brass, old West shandel years, 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:04.880 bronzes of wild animals, old books and photos, and authentic 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:09.479 period furniture and accessories. Bedrooms are reminiscent of the West's 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:13.280 Golden Age, with large headboards and angled ceilings with round lights. 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:17.400 One thing the hotel didn't have when it opened was heat. 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:21.400 Stanley designed the resort as a summer only destination for 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.720 the wealthy set who traveled seasonally, not as a hotel 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.520 that would stay open throughout the year. The first guest 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:31.440 to the Stanley were members of the Colorado pharmacall Association, 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.720 who met there for their twentieth annual meeting. According to 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.360 a newspaper article of the day in the Weekly Courier, 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:41.840 the Druggists were loud in their praise of the magnificent establishment. 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:47.160 In those early days, many well to do visitors stayed 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:50.560 the entire summer season. Adults stayed on the lower levels, 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.400 while children and nannies stayed on the fourth floor, where 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:55.840 kids could play freely and stay out of sight of 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:59.360 their parents and not disturb other guests. It wasn't long 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:03.679 before made your accident shook the hotel. On June nineteen eleven, 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:06.560 a thunderstorm cut the power to the resort, and gas 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:10.280 lamps were lit as a backup. When chambermaid Elizabeth Warren 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.280 entered Room two one seven with a lip candle, she 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:15.960 had no idea there was a gas leak. The explosion 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.040 destroyed the west wing of the hotel, about ten percent 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:23.160 of the building. The explosion plummeted Wilson down one floor 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.320 into the Wilson dining room. She was badly injured with 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.480 two broken ankles, but she recovered. The Stanley paid all 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.319 of her medical bills and promoted Wilson to head chambermaid 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.000 when she returned to work. She stayed at the Stanley 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:37.920 until her death in the nineteen fifties. At the time, 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:41.040 Room to seventeen, which you might want to remember for later, 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:45.600 was the lavish Presidential Suite, also encompassing modern day Room 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:50.160 to fifteen. Pieces of carpet and drywall from Room to 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:54.120 seventeen were found in the tunnels under the hotel during renovations. 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:57.760 As barboyer Buck wrote, in the Estes Park Trail Gazette. 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:00.520 The discovered pieces of drywall are paid papered with a 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:04.160 brightly colored floral pattern in reds, pinks, and greens, and 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.760 the carpet fragment is a grass green with red and 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.360 blue details. The success of the hotel helped Estes Park 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.840 improve as well as the hotel describes. By nineteen seventeen, 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:17.280 the town had waterworks, a power plant, and civic organizations 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.840 that were all in some way thanks to Stanley. The 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:24.200 hotel also transported elk from Montana to repopulate the depleted 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:28.280 local population. Because of his contributions to the area, F O. 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:32.720 Stanley is sometimes called the grandfather of Estes Park. Stanley 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.480 sold the hotel in nineteen six, but the new owners 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.200 went into debt, and he repurchased the hotel in nineteen 0:09:38.679 --> 0:09:43.080 nine before reselling it. In the coming decades, the hotel 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:47.080 stayed largely the same, with a few improvements. In ninety five, 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:49.920 the facade was changed from its original yellow to the 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:52.840 white it is today. In the early nineteen fifties, the 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:56.480 owners installed a swimming pool. Beginning in the nineteen sixties, 0:09:56.520 --> 0:10:00.000 the hotel began to fall into disrepair. In nineteen eight 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.400 to a devastating flood hit Estes Park, and the Stanley 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:06.120 was used as a National Guard command center. The main 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:09.640 hotel got a heating system about this same time. It 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.960 wasn't until the nineteen nineties that the hotel was restored 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.079 to its current state. Over the years, the Stanley hosted 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:20.400 everyone from Theodor Roosevelt, John Philips, Sosa and the unsingable 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.760 Molly Brown, to Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and a variety 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:27.840 of foreign dignitaries in Hollywood stars. When Stephen and Tabitha 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.800 King stayed there in nineteen seventy four, they stayed in 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:33.960 Room to seventeen, the same room from the explosion more 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.400 than six decades earlier. At the time, he was working 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.640 on a novel called Dark Shine, set in an amusement park, 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.400 but King wasn't happy with the setting of the book. 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.040 As King describes it, while we were living in Boulder, 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.200 we heard about this terrific old mountain resort hotel and 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:52.600 decided to give it a try. But when we arrived, 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:54.800 they were just getting ready to close for the season, 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:57.520 and we found ourselves the only guests in the place 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:01.560 with all those long empty core doors. King and his 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:04.640 wife were served dinner in an empty dining room. He said, 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.080 except for our table, all the chairs were up on 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:09.720 the tables. So the music is echoing down the hall, 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.080 and I mean it. It was like God had put 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:14.440 me there to hear that and see those things. And 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.320 by the time I went to bed that night, I 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:19.719 had the whole book in my mind. In another retelling, 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.480 King said, I dreamed of my three year old son 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:26.360 running through the corridors, looking back over his shoulders, eyes wide, 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.520 screaming he was being chased by a fire hose. I 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:32.320 woke up with a tremendous jerk, sweating all over. Within 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:34.800 an inch of falling out of bed, I got up, 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:37.120 lit a cigarette, sat in a chair, looking out the 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.640 window at the Rockies, and by the time the cigarette 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.199 was done, I had the bones of the shining firmly 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:46.280 set in my mind. Kubrick's film plays NonStop on a 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.520 channel on every hotel room television. Stephen King isn't the 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:53.040 only notable person to have stayed in Room two seventeen. 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.800 When Jim Carrey was in Esta's Park filming classic film 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:59.640 Dumb and Dumber, he stayed in that same room. He 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:02.440 was allegedly so spooked that he didn't even last a 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:06.240 full night. Today, four hundred thousand people visit the Stanley 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.800 Hotel every year, about one d twenty thousand of them 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:14.120 stay overnight. Visitors today can explore a hedge maze similar 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:16.000 to the one in the Shining, but on a much 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:20.600 much smaller scale, which the hotel built in well, four 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:24.280 hundred thousand living people visit the Stanley every year. If 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.040 we were counting dead people, that number might be a 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.360 lot higher. The thing is, aside from the explosion in 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.360 nineteen eleven, the Stanley hasn't been the site of any 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.480 major accidents or tragic deaths on the property that would 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.240 account for the hotel being one of the most haunted 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:42.120 in America. Some believe that the hauntings at the hotel 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:45.319 are attributable to the geology of the minerals found in 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:48.280 the mountain the hotel is built on, which has significant 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:52.760 amounts of limestone and courts said to amplify paranormal activity. 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:56.000 My friend John Tenney has another theory. If people can 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.000 go anywhere they want after they die, why wouldn't they 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.360 want to visit places as they loved during their life? 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:04.280 And his view, ghosts are going on vacation to the 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.760 Stanley the same way living people do. Room to seventeen 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.319 lives up to its spooky reputation. The ghost of Elizabeth 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.200 Wilson is said to appear in the room, often cleaning 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:18.000 up after guests, much as she would have done in life. 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:21.280 Some guests report that she unpacks their suitcases and tucks 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:25.199 them into bed. Stephanie Earles, writing in Out There Colorado, 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:28.880 writes that unmarried couples sharing a bed complained of an 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:32.520 invisible force wedging them apart as they slept, and single 0:13:32.559 --> 0:13:34.720 men woke to find their bags have been packed and 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:38.920 left outside the door. Guests have reported the door opening 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:43.000 and closing by itself, and bathroom faucets operating on their own. 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:46.040 Some say they've seen a woman in old fashioned clothing 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.720 around the area, just like Princess Caroline Stickney stays around 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:53.120 the Mount Washington Hotel, overseeing the place. The Stanleys are 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.679 also said to haunt their hotel. Fo died in nineteen 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.559 forty and his wife, Flora, died in nineteen thirty nine. 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.920 His presence is often sensed at the hotel bar and 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.640 in the billiard room, and his reflection has been seen 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.560 in an antique mirror in the hotel. Guests who are 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:11.679 checking in sometimes say they see him at the reception desk. 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:15.600 As Nancy Williams wrote in Haunted Hotels of Northern Colorado, 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.600 clerks at the front desk have seen the chairs quietly 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:21.160 rocking on the front porch when there's no breeze and 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.400 no one is sitting in them. Mr Stanley's large wooden 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:28.720 rocker his favorite, often moves slowly back and forth. Flora, 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:31.640 on the other hand, smells of roses wherever she goes, 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:33.880 and likes to play the piano in the concert hall. 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:38.160 Kathy Wiser Alexander wrote in Legends of America that employees 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:40.920 and guests have reported hearing music coming from the room, 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:42.840 and when they take a peek in there, they can 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.920 see the piano keys moving. However, as soon as someone 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:49.520 walks across the threshold to investigate further, the music stops 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.040 and no more movement can be seen upon the keys. 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:56.200 Haunted Hotels of Northern Colorado reported that a man wrote 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:58.640 to the hotel about his experience of seeing a young 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.480 woman playing the piano. He said when he approached, she 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:05.560 was suddenly transformed into an elderly woman, and then she disappeared. 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.600 The Stanleys, though, aren't the only owners of the property 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.800 who are said to haunt the Stanley. Lord Dunraven himself 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.040 is said to haunt rooms four oh one and four 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:16.640 oh seven. There's a male ghost in room four a 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:20.520 one who said to inappropriately touch female guests. He's also 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.840 said to steal and hide women's jewelry. Closet door in 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:27.160 this room also opens and closes on its own. Uncover 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:30.520 Colorado reports that one man claims he witnessed his wedding 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.560 ring inexplicably moved from the bathroom counter and fall down 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:36.920 the drain of the sink in the bathroom. Lord Dunraven 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.120 is known to turn lights on and off in room 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:42.040 four oh seven, and a ghostly face is sometimes seen 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:45.800 peering out the window of the room. According to Uncover Colorado, 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:49.160 multiple guests have reported the odd experience of being tucked 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.280 into bed by some invisible force, and others have felt 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:54.360 someone sit on the foot of the bed, only to 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:56.960 find nothing but an indentation on the covers when they 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.520 switched on the light. But those are only of the 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:04.040 many many ghosts of the Stanley. Other ghostly reports on 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:06.880 the property include the ghosts of a pastry chef who 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.280 makes the employee tunnels under the hotel smell like baked goods. 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:12.480 Some claim this to be the ghost of a French 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:15.600 chef named Pierre who died in a tunnel collapse, but 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:19.360 this appears to be a myth. Charles Stansfield wrote in 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.760 Haunted Colorado that guests whose rooms are near the elevators 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.960 sometimes complain about the elevators moving noisily up and down 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.520 the shafts continuously very late at night. Those bold enough 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:31.920 to open their room doors and look down the corridor 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:35.440 report that people dressed in nineteen twenties style tuxedos and 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.800 evening gowns can be seen entering or leaving the elevators, 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:43.320 but the elevator doors remain closed. There are many reports 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:45.640 of ghosts of children on the fourth floor, where kids 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.720 and nanny's once stayed. They are especially heard running in 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:50.960 the hallways or on the roof where kids were once 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:54.200 allowed to play. Legends of America said that one couple 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:57.360 reportedly checked out of the hotel very early in the morning, 0:16:57.520 --> 0:16:59.960 complaining that the children in the hallway kept them up 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.920 all night. However, there were no children booked in the 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:05.680 hotel at the time. The ghost of a little boy 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.920 sometimes tries to wake up sleeping children because he wants 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.200 to play another polls pranks like turning on the television 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:14.679 as loudly as possible and flicking the light switch so 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:17.560 people will notice him. A little girl is often seen 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.840 on the central staircase. A cowboy ghost in room four 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.480 is reported to loom over you while you sleep, but 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:26.399 the good news is that he's said to be friendly 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:29.720 and even once politely left the room when requested to 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:33.320 by startled guests. Locals believe he's the spirit of James 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:37.000 Nugent known as Rocky Mountain Jim, a local explorer who 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:39.920 helped found the town. Others believe that he's the ghost 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:43.640 of a frontiersman who was hanged for murder. The concert 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:47.320 hall is said to be haunted by a ghost named Lucy. 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.280 Brittany Annas writes for Trips Savvy that she was a 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:53.240 runaway or homeless woman who found refuge in the hall, 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.760 but no evidence of this exists. Some say that this 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.359 happened in the nineteen seventies and that she was a 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:02.200 young teen had been squatting in the basement before being 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:05.440 kicked out by maintenance staff and freezing to death in 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:08.639 A woman on a ghost tour took a photograph that 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:12.040 some claim shows Lucy, a young girl in a pink dress. 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:14.439 Others claim that there is an additional ghost in the 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.000 concert hall named Paul, said to be the spirit of 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:21.600 a former employee. Nightly Spirits writes that, among other duties, 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:24.359 Paul used to enforce the eleven PM curfew. In the 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:28.440 hotel's early days, guests and employees report hearing someone telling 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.520 them to get out late at night. A construction worker 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.520 was doing some work on the floors in the concert 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:36.240 hall when he felt someone nudge him several times until 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:41.080 he left. The hotel's main stairway has been nicknamed the Vortex, 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.080 believed to be a center of energy that functions as 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:47.920 a paranormal portal, allowing ghosts to appear and disappear it will. 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:51.639 I'm not sure that I buy that, but apparitions often 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.439 thought to be the Stanleys, have been reported on the staircase. 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.160 In a tourists took a photograph that some claim shows 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:00.720 a ghostly figure in period us at the top of 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:05.120 the stairs, another Stephen King Tidbitt. The hotel also has 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:09.360 a pet cemetery on site. Uncover Colorado writes that Cassie, 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:12.920 a friendly golden retriever, is said to still deliver newspapers 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:15.440 and scratch at the doors to be let in from outside, 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:19.240 despite being buried at the grounds. Up next, I have 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.800 my dear friend Carl Peiffer joining us. We're going to 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.600 talk about his time as one of the resident paranormal 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:28.639 investigators at the Stanley Hotel and will also chat the 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.639 Estes method or the spirit Box experiment as you may 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:33.959 know it if you're a kindred Spirits fan. That's right, 0:19:34.200 --> 0:19:37.560 that technique was born at the Stanley Hotel. That's up 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:55.960 after the break. I am joined now by Mr Carl Pheiffer, 0:19:56.000 --> 0:20:00.720 who we go way back. Carl. We're just kind of 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:03.240 decide what to call you as far as like what 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.120 your position in life is these days. But I mean, 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:09.280 I knew you as paranormal researcher. I know you as director, 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:14.399 brilliant photographer and artists like there, you are jack of 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:17.760 all trades, it seems, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I love 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.920 creativity and I've kind of been exploring all different facets 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.760 of it. And I mean creativity and the paranormal are 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:26.520 my two big passions. So anywhere that I can blend 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:28.600 those two and have fun and make a couple of 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.560 bucks from it is really the light goal at this point, right. 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:33.920 I feel like a lot of us who are kind 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:37.160 of in the paranormal field, it's it is trying to 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:39.880 make a living out of something that we love, which 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:41.840 I think is the case for a lot of people 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:44.080 who have a passion about something. And so I think 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:45.920 it's great to be able to meld those two things 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:48.280 in your world. And you're brilliant at it, So I 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:50.919 love it. I've been privileged enough to have you photographed 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:53.399 me a few times and they always turn out lovely, 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:56.960 So I have on some of those shots. They're fantastic. Yeah, 0:20:57.040 --> 0:21:00.640 a lot of fun. So I met you years ago. 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:02.399 I might have met you before the Stanley, but in 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:04.679 my brain, I feel like Carl is just always at 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:08.080 the Stanley Hotel. You know, it were kind of a 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:12.200 staple there. I have spent so much time at that 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:16.960 hotel and I have just such phenomenal memories of it, 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:19.320 and just to kind of take it back for one 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:22.200 moment before we get into the hauntings and things and theories, 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:26.040 So years and years ago, I attended a what was 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:29.000 a Darkness event hosted by Dave Schrader Back I want 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.920 to say, probably two thousands, six or seven with Chris Williams, 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:34.960 and she had just started on ghost Hunters. I wasn't 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:36.960 even involved in ghost Hunters. She and I were just 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:40.120 really good friends, and at the last minute we decided 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:42.160 to go there because we heard they were fun, and 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:44.040 there wasn't even rooms at the hotel, so I think 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:45.960 we stayed at like a holiday inn or something. But 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:48.240 you know, I got to this event with a few 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:53.679 hundred paranormal people and I was like, Oh, I have 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:57.199 found my people. I have found my tribe of weirdos, like, 0:21:57.680 --> 0:21:59.560 you know, because I kind of had been going through 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.119 my paranormal interest for so long, you know, feeling like 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:05.200 it was kind of an unusual thing. But here I 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:07.960 was in this place, surrounded by people from all walks 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:10.720 of life who were super interested in the same thing 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.199 I was, and it was this like serious awakening for me. 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:17.359 So years would go by and I would go up 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:20.280 to the Stanley every year, usually in April. And so 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:21.920 it started with Darkness events, and then I had a 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:24.120 company called Beyond Reality Events, and we had a big 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:26.640 paranormal event every year, and then Strange Escapes went there, 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:28.600