The "Richest Square Mile on Earth" May Well also be the Most
Haunted Square Mile on Earth.
Life in mining towns was not easy. Many died untimely and
violent deaths - deaths from diseases, from hostile
environments, from mining accidents, from crime, and even from
broken hearts. Conditions were ripe for creating ghosts and many
mining towns today claim hauntings. Central City, Colorado, also
known as "the richest square mile on earth" was a thriving
mining town during the gold rush area and to this day many of
it's first residents and visitors still roam it's buildings,
streets, and cemeteries.
On the main intersection of town was a building housing one of
these restless spirits on it's second floor. During the late
1980's the second floor of this building was the annex for the
Golden Rose Hotel, the main building being directly across the
street from it. The hotel was a replication of earlier days, all
furnishings were actual gold rush era pieces, and to preserve
the historical aviance there were no telephones in the rooms.
Guests would have to walk across the street to the main lobby to
talk to hotel personnel. With a ghost living in one of the
rooms, guests made the trip over to the main building quite
often.
I worked in the hotel in 1990 and 1991 until the building was
sold to be turned into a casino. Room 25 seemed to have it's
problems. Windows would open themselves, which would not have
been so hard to rationalize if they had not had to slide up to
be opened. Water faucets turned themselves on, clothes and other
objects would disappear then turn up on the bed when the
occupants got ready to leave. When the haunted room was empty,
any guests in rooms on either side would come to the desk to
report fights in the room.
I remember one guest had reported that items were missing from
his room. We assured him that our housekeepers were extremely
honest people, but he seemed to not be convinced, until just
before check-out he came in and spoke to me. He told me that his
belongings had turned up, just as I had indicated they might do.
He seemed shaken, and I again reassured him that this was not a
prank that anyone on our staff would orchestrate. He agreed
readily that it was not our staff. It seems he had already
packed and was writing a quick letter to mail on his way to his
next destination. When he turned to the bed his belongings were
neatly laid on the foot of the bed. When I remarked that it was
highly unlikely that someone could have snuck in to replace the
items without him hearing them, he just laughed. It seems that
he had been facing the mirror on the desk in his room while
writing and that no one could have moved anywhere in the
vicinity of the bed without him having seen them - and no one
had. His missing belongings seem to have just materialized out
of thin air.
Several times during my employment with the Golden Rose, guests
in rooms next to the haunted room came to me to report fights in
the next room. When I would just calmly smile and assure them
everything was quite in order, they would protest so furiously
that I would have to walk across to the annex with them and open
the door of the room where the "fights" were taking place. It
was interesting to see the colors the guest's faces would turn
when I opened the door revealing that the room was indeed
unoccupied, and neatly ordered with nothing out of place or
destroyed. Some guests loved it, some insisted on moving to the
main building for the rest of their stay.
When gaming was re-legalized in 1991 the annex was sold and
converted into a casino. I went off to a business partnership
running a parking lot, shuttles, and some miscellaneous
marketing. Part of this marketing involved doing coupons for
some of the casinos. Checking an order one day, I went to Doc
Holliday's casino - which was in the building that had housed
the Golden Rose Annex just months before.
It was early morning and when I entered the office the secretary
was quite frazzled, and was sorting a very disordered stack of
papers on her desk. She complained loudly that the "guys" kept
forgetting to shut the windows and file cabinet drawers at night
and she was many mornings faced with picking files up off the
floor and reorganizing them. She was also not pleased with the
disappearance of files, which would invariably turn back up on
her desk at a later time, but she could never find out who was
taking the files in the first place. The room the office was in?
You guessed it. Doc Holliday's casino office was located in none
other than the haunted annex room.
I was told that the casino was called Doc Holliday's because it
was believed that the ghost of Doc Holliday inhabited the
building. He actually died and was buried in Glenwood Springs,
Colorado. Whether he actually has taken up permanent residence
in Central City, a town he frequented often during life, or not
will probably always be a mystery. It is no mystery that SOMEONE
has decided to take up permanent residence in that room,
however.
This is only one instance of haunting in Central City. For
people interested in ghost hunting, I would be hard pressed to
think of a better place to visit. You will find that there are
scores of very well known haunted places there, and quite a few
lesser known ones as well if you talk to residents that have
lived in the area for a time.