The Haunted Files explore haunted places, either that are famous or little known. I do some research into the places history and talk about the apparent haunting and the possible reasons for it from research collected on history and background and then make a conclusion.
This shall be a 5-part series with one released each Tuesday.
The Stanley Hotel – Design
The grand hotel found in Estes Valley not far from Denver in the US state of Colorado is famous for its history and also for inspiring the work of author Stephen King to create The Shining, a horror-mystery novel that would go on to be adapted into an iconic movie and miniseries of the same name, with the miniseries being filmed in the hotel.
Today the hotel offers four distinct areas, which are the Lodge, an elegant boutique hotel that also allows owners to bring a pet dog (of appropriate size), the Aspire which offers apartment-style rooms for longer period stays well suited for larger groups, The Residences which are expansive rooms with breathtaking views of the nearby Rocky Mountains and finally The Stanley primary hotel itself, the oldest and most historical part, including the classic rooms and spaces which people associate The Shining with and the part that some claim to be haunted.
The hotel is surrounded by vast country, valleys and mountains and other natural wonders and the hotel offers over 41,000 square feet of adequately equipped meeting and event spaces. It is certainly a place for a grand vacation or getaway with many surrounding holiday activities and leisure. The hotel also offers tours as well to learn more about its history and it also offers special ghost/paranormal tours as well for those enthusiasts who are interested.
The Stanley Hotel – History
Freelan Oscar Stanley, an inventor, entrepreneur and architect co-founded the Stanley Hotel alongside his twin brother, businessman Francis Edgar Stanley in 1909. Before this event, Freelan Oscar Stanley had travelled to Estes Park with his wife on recommendation from his doctor due to his tuberculosis, with fresh air and relaxation being the treatment, such treatment had started to become common for those wealthy enough to afford the getaway.
Not only did the trip to the small town of Estes Park enable Oscar Stanley a full recovery but him and his wife liked the scenery and the breath-taking Rocky Mountains so much that they decided to come back there annually and they also built a house there as well. Oscar Stanley though, not being accustomed to the relaxed social scene and typical country accommodation, the idea came to Stanley to build a grand hotel there.
Much of the land was bought from someone called the Earl of Dunraven who had first visited the area in 1872 and also liked it so much himself that he began buying up all the land in an attempt to turn it into his own personal hunting preserve, which got him a lot of hate from settlers in the area at the time, driving him out of it.
Once the hotel had been constructed and opened in 1909 it was something to marvel at and attracted many wealthy guests and much business to the small town of Estes Park, which enabled the town to develop beyond what it originally once was, with the introduction of electricity to the town for the first time and Stanley helped to fund a number of development plans in the town and he also helped the establishment of the Rocky Mountain National Park.
But not only was the Stanley Hotel something to marvel at but the technology for its time was top of the line, including hydraulic elevators, electric and gas heating, running water, steam laundry, as well as telephones in all the guest rooms and even a fleet of vehicles that would ferry guests to the hotel, dubbed Mountain Wagons.
The Hotel had the honour of accommodating many famous guests throughout its time, including former US President Theodore Roosevelt, famous Hollywood stars, and even the Emperor and Empress of Japan. One such famous guest, author Stephen King, would conceive his idea for The Shining from a stay at the hotel.
Once Oscar Stanley passed away in 1940 at the ripe old age of 91, he had already sold the hotel a few years before then, where which the hotel would begin to fall on harder times, Stanley’s vast wealth had helped him maintain the hotel and he had claimed that he often didn’t make a profit from it and other hotel owners who did not have the luxury of being as wealthy also had a hard time keeping the hotel up and running.
The Hotel though did manage to get on its legs in the end with much thanks given to Stephen King for it after he conceived the idea for The Shining there and helped to make the hotel much more famous and bring it into the popular eye, due to how iconic The Shining ended up becoming.
There has not been any tragic deaths or dark history to have affected the hotel during its existence, although there was a gas explosion in the 1920s in Room 217 that almost killed a chambermaid called Elizabeth Wilson (her name appears to be disputed in a number of publications with Elizabeth Lambert or Lizzie Leitenbergher being other possible names), and gave minor injuries to several others. It is said the chambermaid recovered and came back to work at the hotel until she died at age 90, said to now be one of its ghosts. Interestingly Room 217 is also where Stephen King stayed and even more interestingly the actor Jim Carrey also stayed in the room when he was filming Dumb and Dumber, there is a rumor that he fled the room in terror during the middle of the night and demanded to be moved to another hotel, but there is no official proof of this.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been any deaths at the hotel, there has been a number of natural deaths but this is normal for most hotels, many of which that are not considered haunted.
The Stanley Hotel – Haunting
Before Stephen King’s visit and the creation of The Shining there had been some belief that the ghost of Freelan Oscar Stanley and his wife Flora may occupy the premises and have been claimed to be seen by staff and guests from time to time, via full-body apparitions.
Freelan Oscar Stanley’s alleged ghost is most often witnessed in the lobby of the hotel or in the Billiards room which was apparently his most favourite room of the hotel. Another common area to possibly see Freelan Stanley’s apparition is in the hotel bar.
Flora Stanley is said to manipulate the hotel piano in the ballroom/concert hall, playing music from it that has been heard by guests and staff at the hotel, some who have gone to check it out even claimed to see the keys on the piano moving by themselves and that when they stepped into the ballroom the piano would instantly stop playing. Some believe a deceased employee also still works there as well trying to enforce curfew, telling people in a disembodied voice to “get out” or even physically trying to nudge or pull them out, the employee in question called Paul worked at the hotel from 1995 until his death from a heart attack in 2005 (he was rushed from the hotel to a hospital where he died).
There have also been reports of a child spirit about the hotel as well, with people claiming to have seen its apparition. Other commonly reported activity across the hotel are uncanny shadowy figures, disembodied laughter, lights seemingly acting off their own accord and objects moving all by themselves.
There are also a number of rooms that are said to be specifically haunted at the hotel as well and so one who is interested in the paranormal may also be interested in trying to book a stay in such rooms if they have the guts for it. Such Rooms include Room 217, 401 and 418 among others.
Anyone remember Lord Dunraven? Many believe his ghost haunts one of those rooms and that room is said to be 401. Guests who have stayed in the room have reported his apparition standing in the corner of the hotel room, specifically near to the bathroom and he has also been blamed for messing with the room’s lights as well by turning them on and off or vice versa, it is also claimed he can be a bit touchy with female guests while not being fond of male guests, with claims that the ghost will mess with men’s belongings in the room. Ghostly faces have also been reported looking out of the room’s window as well when the room had been empty.
Could Casper the Friendly Ghost be haunting Room 407? Some say that whatever ghost is haunting that room it is surprisingly friendly and won’t hesitate to tuck someone into their bed who had kicked their covers off in the night, there is a claim from a child that this is what happened to them in the room. There is also a general feeling of presence in this room to. It would seem any who are looking to getting some action from the paranormal may want an easy start here first.
Room 428 also seems to have a friendly ghost there as well, but that people have claimed to see him, and claim that he is some cowboy who also appears to be fond of the female guests as well but won’t hesitate to leave the room if asked when he appears.
Room 302 appears to have a poltergeist occupying it if some guests and paranormal investigators are to be believed, with such activity including pictures flying off the wall and even a table allegedly levitating and many have claimed that the being takes form as a shadow on the walls when it wishes to be seen. It’s certainly a step up from Rooms 407 and 428.
One may also want to witness a bit of residual activity, said to be possible in Room 413, with people claiming to have seen a man dressed in old-fashioned clothing just standing in the room. It would certainly seem to be some kind of residual activity, at the same time stranger things seem to also be connected to the room, such as a man’s face in a blue ball on the outside door of the room having been reported – whatever that’s meant to mean.
Room 418 may contain the ghosts of mischievous children reported by both staff cleaning the room and guests staying in it with such activity including unexplained noises, unexplained impressions on the bed and noises of children playing in the outside hallway specifically at night.
Room 217 and the area around it is said to be haunted by a former chambermaid called Elizabeth Wilson (or other possible names being Elizabeth Lambert or Lizzie Leitenbergher) who worked at the hotel until her death, (the chambermaid who was also almost killed by a gas explosion in the same area). People have claimed to see her spirit floating about and also walking right through closed doors. It also appears she had something against those who were unmarried sharing beds, with guests complaining of an invisible force pushing them apart, and single men staying in the area of the hotel have claimed their bags have been packed and left outside the room. It is to be reminded again that 217 is where Stephen King stayed as well as Jim Carrey and as such is one of the hotel’s most requested rooms.
The Fourth Floor itself is said to be a particularly haunted area, most commonly by spirits of children, with many claiming to have seen their apparitions. Interestingly again the fourth floor was the floor that Stephen King stayed on.
Some believe there is a child ghost also roaming the hotel called Lucy and there is a legend associated with it, that is obviously not confirmed. The story is that there was a young girl squatting in the hotel who had ran away from home (or from some place) and was sneakily living in the basement of the hotel until she was discovered by maintenance men who were doing some surveying of the room ready for a major construction project. She was then apparently thrown out of the hotel where she froze to death in freezing temperatures. Make of that what you will. She now apparently haunts the basement and sometimes the concert hall but is said to bring a feeling of positivity despite how she may have died, some claim singing/humming heard about the place is Lucy.
The interest in paranormal activity in the Stanley Hotel really didn’t start picking up until after Stephen King’s famous visit and the creation of his book, The Shining, as well as the following movie and miniseries adaptations, which served to further boost the popularity of the hotel. It can be interesting to consider why paranormal activity was more commonly reported after Stephen King’s book and I will talk on that when we reach the conclusion section, could it be that there were just more people going to the hotel to witness it or was it simply influence of the book making guests more suggestible to such stuff?
The way in which Stephen King claims to have conceived the Shining is also an oddity and sort-of mystery itself, with him having given various differing and even conflicting stories on how he exactly got the idea when staying at the hotel. One of his most famous telling’s was that it involved a dream of his son being chased through the halls of the hotel by a possessed fire hose, of which some have tried to connect to a paranormal influence, he woke up after the dream drenched in sweat and while smoking out on the balcony, he conceived the base idea of the book.
The Conclusion
Due to the lack of dark history and tragedy it makes it more unusual the place appears to be so haunted as many of the most famously and well-known haunted places have had dark and tragic events happen throughout their history. But there are a number of hauntings that are not associated with tragedy and darkness, it just seems that more people are attracted to these darker and tragic places as well as these places generally being historical and open to the public, people can fixate on it and it is more interesting and thrilling for many.
But there are also many accounts of hauntings taking place in locations where there is no such dark history or tragedy and really it isn’t an established rule for a place to have such a bad past to become haunted, again as I have said before no one truly knows how a haunting would work if they do exist.
There are some who believe that the conscious mind alone can bring a haunting into existence or that a great concentration of people influenced by something in relation to a particular location (Stephen King’s the Shining for example) can cause a haunting to manifest. As well as that it has long been believed for thousands of years that some people may simply just not want to pass over to the “other side” and as such they decide to stay as a ghostly form.
As well as that residual hauntings, a haunting which isn’t considered of any intelligence but is in-fact a repeat of an event happening from long ago, do not have to be dark or tragic either to have such a haunting imprint itself, some believe that residual hauntings can also manifest from intensely happy memories and good times so strong that they also can imprint themselves.
At the same time though many may simply be more suggestible to paranormal phenomena at the hotel due to its association with The Shining and of which many people at the hotel may so be wanting to witness something that their mind may play tricks on them. But this does not fully explain the notion of a haunting at the hotel even before Stephen King had left his touch there.
Bibliography
https://www.stanleyhotel.com/about.html# – Hotel origins information.
https://independenttravelcats.com/stanley-hotel-estes-park-colorado-history-hauntings-whiskey/ – Hotel history
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/stanley-hotel-colorado/#:~:text=Stanley%20built%20the%20hotel%20on,create%20a%20private%20hunting%20preserve. – haunting information
https://www.outtherecolorado.com/features/the-spooky-story-behind-colorado-s-haunted-stanley-hotel/article_4d27194e-cbf6-51f5-abb3-8011e33f66b3.html – haunting information
https://www.newspapers.com/image/588216652/ – gas explosion newspaper clipping (Lizzie Leitenbergher name). Unfortunately, subscription needed to read.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/614525004/ – gas explosion newspaper clipping (Elizabeth Wilson name). Unfortunately, subscription needed to read.
http://www.traveloddities.com/tag/jim-carrey/ – Jim Carrey stay
http://weekinweird.com/2015/08/19/spirits-of-the-stanley-hotel-ghost-of-lucy-photographed-at-haunted-hotel-that-inspired-the-shining/ – Lucy Ghost and legend.
https://thoughtcatalog.com/christine-stockton/2016/09/real-ghost-stories-from-the-staff-of-the-hotel-the-shining-is-based-on/ – more haunting information/stories.
Thank you for reading! Next up in part 4/5 of the Haunted Files I will be going over the haunting of the famous RMS Queen Mary Oceanliner!
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