The Stanley Hotel
The Stanley Hotel was built during the early part of 1900 by Freelan Oscar Stanley, the creator of the Stanley Steam Engine. Stanley and his wife, Flora, came to Colorado in 1903 under instructions from Stanley’s doctor to get some fresh mountain air. He suffered from tuberculosis and had been given six months to live. His doctor made arrangements for them to stay in Estes Park at a friend’s cabin for the summer. Stanley’s health improved dramatically and the couple loved the area.
Stanley Hotel Haunted
Image of The Shining Hotel
The Stanley Hotel was built on land bought from Earl Lord Dunraven, who visited the area during an 1872 hunting excursion. Dunraven built a cabin, hotel and hunting lodge for guests and then homesteaded illegally up to 6,000 acres to try to develop a private hunting preserve. When it was discovered that Dunraven was trying to swindle people out of their money and land, he was made run away.
Construction on the Stanley Hotel began in 1906. Rock and wood obtained from nearby mountains was used to build it in the Georgian style of architecture. It was completed in 1909 and held its grand opening. The hotel catered to the rich and famous and boasted electricity, running water, and telephones. It didn’t have heat, however, so it was turned into a summer resort. Below you find everything about the Stanley Hotel haunted:
The Shining Hotel
Many people are aware of The Stanley Hotel because of Stephen King’s book The Shining. While he did not write the book while staying at the hotel, he did experience some things there that influenced his writing. King was working on a story centered around a haunted amusement park that had roller coasters flying off the tracks to eat people. His friends didn’t like the story and told him so. He decided to back away for a bit and think about the story some more so King and Tabitha, his wife, traveled through Estes Park and into the Rocky Mountain National Park. Highway 34, or Trailridge Road, was closed because of bad weather. They turned back and King decided to stay at the Stanley Hotel instead. He experienced some scary things while they were there and he worked a lot of these events into The Shining. This is why the hotel is sometimes referred to as the Shining Hotel.
Stanley Hotel Haunted
There have been a number of ghosts spotted at the Stanley Hotel. One of the most well-known is F.O. Stanley himself. He’s often seen hanging around in the Billiard Room and the lobby as these were his favorite areas of the hotel when he was living. He once appeared to a group of tourists that were in the Billiard Room by materializing behind one of the tourists. Bartenders at the Stanley claim to see F.O. strolling through the bar and vanishing as they attempt to stop him at the kitchen.
In addition, Flora Stanley has been spotted quite often. She used to entertain the guests by playing the piano in the ballroom. She’s said to still do just that. Many times, her music is heard, but only the piano keys are seen moving. However, if anyone walks into the room for further investigation, the music ceases, as does the movement of the piano keys.
Various rooms in the Stanley Hotel are especially active when it comes to paranormal activity. One of these is Room 407. Lord Dunraven is said to occupy this room at times. He supposedly likes to stand in the corner of the room close to the bathroom door. One witness said that a light constantly turned on and off. When the light was off, the witnesses informed the ghost that they knew of his presence.
They also told him that they were just staying two nights and then politely requested that he please turn back on the light. That’s when the light came back on. Later, the lights were off, but noises kept coming from an elevator close by. The problem was that this particular elevator was out of order at the time. There are other reports of a ghostly face peering out of the window of Room 407 even when the room is vacant.
Stanley Hotel Hauntings
Another room that gets a lot of attention is Room 418. The spirits here are mostly from children. Cleaning staff have heard many odd sounds coming from the room along with seeing impressions on the bed when no one has been in the room. When Room 418 is occupied, the guests talk about hearing children playing at night in the hallway. There was even a couple that checked out really early in the morning because of all the noise the children had made in the hallway all night. Oddly enough, no children were staying at the hotel then.
When Stephen and Tabitha King stayed at the hotel, it was at the end of the season and they were the only two guests. They stayed in Room 217. There was a tragic accident in this room during 1911. Housekeeper Elizabeth Wilson was almost killed during a gas leak explosion in that room. She survived the explosion but died in the 1950s. Since that time there has been odd and unexplained activity in Room 217. This activity includes lights turning on and off and doors opening and closing on their own. There are also reports of guests having their suitcases unpacked and items put away.
There’s a story that the tour guides tell about a small child that’s been spotted by a lot of the staff members all over the hotel. Even Stephen King saw this child calling for his nanny on the second floor. If you want the best chance to experience some ghostly activity, the best place to stay is on the fourth floor of the hotel. This is where children are heard at all hours of the night playing and chasing each other.
Stanley Hotel Ghost
I have been looking around for some stories about The Stanley Hotel and here is one that sticks out. A person was on a ghost tour of the hotel and happened to take this picture just outside the hotel. As you can see the window has a child at it, but the figure is very hazy when it shouldn’t be because that window is actually opened. The person that took the photo investigated into this photo and called the hotel.
The Stanley Hotel – A ghost at the window
Source: about.com
Enjoy the Haunted Stanley Hotel Personally
If you appreciate the chills that a true haunting can bring, you may want to visit The Stanley Hotel. This location was also one that was investigated by the Ghost Hunters from the Sy-Fy Channel. They found it to be, indeed, haunted. The hotel isn’t just open seasonally any more. It’s now open year round. You’ll find it at 333 Wonderview in Estes Park, Colorado. Be sure to call ahead for reservations.
Further information on the Stanley Hotel:
Hotel’s Website
The Stanley Hotel on Wikipedia
nice site, i am also interested to know much about haunted places.
I would like to share a story about a haunting that took place at Florida Hospital
of Sebring Florida. There was a report of a man with short black hair dressed in all black, a black oxford shirt buttoned to the neck with black pants & shoes similar to a priest roaming the halls in this place. It would go from room to room going into the room and staring at the patients in bed not saying a word. When they asked him a question he would leave the room quickly. One report was that it went into a room of a man and stood at his bed and broke his foot. That man reported this to the nurse and she reported the man for a psychiatric evaluation in which the man was diagnosed as being under the influence of morphine at the time, but was cleared by the doctor as a sane person. but not everyone who has seen this man in black was under the influence of morphine. That how unbelievers deal with things like these. The encounter was spread all throughout the hospital by the nursing staff and has quickly became know as “The Man in Black†I had a chance to verify this story by the man it happened to directly. By Ghostboy132010 please show my name for credit.
okay so like i wuz in my room one time and i saw somthing moving.. it wuz rlly weird.. so i wuz all like omg. so i went to go see whut it wuz… and guess WHUT!@@@@@@@@ It wuz my dog 🙂
So on a recent family vacation, we stopped in Estes Park. I had really wanted to see the Stanley Hotel for myself. I knew ahead of time that it was haunted and wanted to see if I got anything myself. So we were walking up to it and I walked over to the pool area and took a picture of the front of the hotel and then one of each of the front side wings. I didn’t notice it at the time I took the picture but the one of the windows on the front left side has what appears to be an apparition in it. As it turns out with some investigating that I just did, it’s room 217, the same room that Stephen King stayed in and reported a maid’s ghost in it!!
When on a tour at the Stanley Hotel in 2001 we were in the ballroom, I noticed a antique looking wooden grand piano. I went over to look at it and when I touched it I was shocked. Not in awe but physically was shocked. It felt like when you rub your feet on carpet and then touch another person or metal. But this piano was WOOD! How do you get a shock from wood!?! It freaked me out and my mom looked at my face and asked if I was ok. Maybe Mrs. Stanley didn’t want me touching her piano! Just a thought!
Stayed there on business this week and it is definitely haunted. Three of us stayed in separate rooms and all experienced the same thing. The ghost of Lord Dunraven visited the first night and touched me on my back. He does this to women and sometimes pulls their hair while sleeping. The next night was the sound of children playing in the hallway and a loud party, but when we would open the door, no one was there….this was on the 4th floor, the most haunted of the floors. Stay in 412, 414, 416, or 418 to be sure of being “visited.” And don’t watch The Shining until your last day there. The entire hotel is very eery.
i am completely fascinated by all these hauntings and stuff and am a Christian but how do we know what these are? if you die, generally, you stay dead. you either go to Heaven or Hell. your body goes in the ground, your soul and spirit go to heaven/hell, and you stay there. why on earth (haha, no pun intended.) would you come back? and if you do, why??? is this possible? if you have answers email/text/facebook me at:
[email protected]
Hannah Renee [facebook]
thanks!
We usually stay here at least 1 or 2 times a year and we never leave disappointed!! Last time there, we did the flashlight trick when you take a twist flashlight, and ask spirits to turn it on and off.(Very simple)So, we put it up in the “Red Rum” staircase right next to Lord Dunraven’s room, and we got it all on film. We would ask the spirit to either turn it on or off, and it would! Also, one time while sitting in a chair at the manor house, my Dad and I looked through the window and saw a black figure walk by. We ran right after we saw it to the gates, but they were locked. Still wondering if that was a person or spirit to this day. We’ve had a lot of encounters at the Stanley. My first time there I sat in the fourth floor hallway on the “Haunted Couch” this was the day we were leaving, and we were just talking. Then, I heard a whisper in my ear, and my face went completely pale and I was shocked. Later that day, I saw I had a very faint scratch below my ear, which had not been there before. I’ve seen so much more, and I definitely do think the hotel has some paranormal activity! 🙂
me and my husband stayed at this hotel and we stayed in room 212 it was horrable i got woken by children calling my name and then i get pulled out my bed it was horrable i had marks all over my legs and arms from getting pulled i still wake u screaming now… do not stay there
My Husband and I just stayed at the Stanley Hotel last weekend. I wanted very badly for any visitation to happen to us but we found the hotel very peaceful during the night we were there. Even as we wandered the halls at 3:00 am. Well, other than the incredibly creaky hallway floors, that is.
As I took many pictures of the outside of the building, I noticed that several of the screens in the second story windows and the fourth story windows were stained
and from years of a fan blowing through them. These stains looked just like that image of the”child” shown above. I noticed these stains and took several pictures at different times of day. They never changed. It was very easy to see what these”images” really were. And they were not ghosts.
Despite a general feeling of uneasiness throughout my stay, overall my visit was unremarkable in terms of anything paranormal. The floorboards in each hallway are noisy, and the walls are thin. Attempting to fall asleep was a challenge, due largely in part to the television of my neighbor and the ghost seekers traipsing in the halls. I ended up checking out a night early so I could get some rest.
i recently visited to the stanley hotel i did not stay that but i did go on the tour and in the beginning of the tour i got taken to the music room. i didnt yet experence anything until the end. but for now i tried to take a picture of the little girl kay-ty however i did not get a picture, but a woman next to me did. it was a little yellow figure she clamed. well anyways our tour guied asked the little girl to come and play with us and so she did and she started to pull on the guides pant leg. and while this was happening i was very close and i felt as if the girl kay-ty was almost taking my energy to do this i started to feel light headed and so did the lady. in the end of the tour i wentinto the cave part of the tour and i did not expereance eneything but i did take some pictures inside of the cave and believe i caught small orbes. anyways that raps it up for me im going on facebook!!! haha gewd night guyss(:
-emilia
@ emilia
Please share the pictures of the orbs with us.
Thanks a lot!
just as an FYI, there is no room “1211” in the Stanley Hotel, and the room pictured in that photo above wouldn’t be 211 either as that is on the West side of the hotel (the above photo is of the East side of the hotel right above Cascades Restaurant)
@Katie
Thanks for your comment.
I have enquired about the room number with the Stanley Hotel, and they were so kind to send the following answer:
Good Afternoon Mark,
I hope this email finds you well. The room you were inquiring about is room 1211 in the Manor House building. If you should have any more questions please let me know.
Kind Regards,
Michael Napieralski
Front Desk Manager
The Stanley Hotel
Direct 970.577.4037
http://www.stanleyhotel.com
ok so i went to the stanley hotel yesterday with my mom even though the creeky hallways and the unchilling feeling is unbareable we went through everything and i mean everything but as we were leaving i took a picture of a cool mirror and my mother had left already to the car there was no one around but in the picture there was a person very blury person just standing as if he as looking right at me but the whole picture was crystal clear except him and he wasnt moving its weird cause it was just me and i wasnt even in the picture
I have a similar pic at the Staley but in a different room around the back of the main building. It was acctually the room across the hall from our room. We knocked on the door and showed the people staying in the room the pic AND they let us look through the room to see that there was nothing there to create the image. I believe it may be the same child.
The author spelled Mr.Stanley’s name wrong his name is Freelan not Freeland I know quite a bit about the hotel and I know for a fact that the name is spelled wrong
@ Faith: Thanks a lot for bringing this mistake to our attention! The spelling has been corrected to Freelan Oscar Stanley.
Thanks again and best regards,
admin
We went on a tour 2012. We smelled Ms. Stanley’s perfume and Mr. Stanley’s cigar. I also took random photos that had orbs. Never scared or spooked.
I recently went on one of the Ghost tours and was very spooked after I looked at the pictures I took in the basement tunnel and a couple closets. There were lots of Orbs and images of faces appearing on the rock walls or on the closet walls. We were up in the ballroom balcony and the closet door opened on it’s own. My daughter could not raise her arms at one point on the tour. She said it felt like someone was pulling her arms down. I truely believe that their are spirits at the Stanley Hotel and plan on going back to stay the night in one of the rooms that are haunted.
I was there a few weeks ago and purposefully blocked anything paranormal, but had an interesting experience. I got lost in EstesPark (just like S.King!) and found The Stanley. First thought: “Wow, that’s the perfect Shining hotel!” I never saw the movie or TV show; only read the book and that 25 years ago, but S.King conveyed his experience so well I felt it all this time later!
As I walked around, I came to feel that the hotel was genuine archaic. I’ve been a lot of old places, and all have been renovated or repaired. And usually somewhat cheaply. The Stanley remains genuinely old, and genuinely old-refined as well. Except for some veneer in the bar, The Stanley comes across like something a wealthy person is keeping nice for their own enjoyment.
After returning for lunch, I was floored at the scenery. Done a lot of hiking, out backing, etc. For a place you can drive to and sit on a porch, that is one Grade AAAA vista in every direction.
But this is where I really came to love it. Been a lot of resorty places. The rest seem like the builders were looking for the best place they could find to create a resort, so had to do some creative hyperbole on the area. The Stanley is the most authentic, ‘incredible place requiring a resort’ I’ve been.
I do believe there is evil stuff going on there. (And oh yes my friends, never let them or your heart deceive you; every ghost is evil, every one of them.) I didn’t feel it then, but I believe I do now. What I did feel at the time, was a very thick and genuine honesty, of a place that really deserved to be just exactly what it was intended to be. That the creators did a fantastic job feeling what was supposed to be there, and then did all it took to build precisely that physical entity.
Go. It may flash w evil. But it’s built in a solid rock of beauty and honor as well.
BEST HOTEL EVER!!!!
The face in the window does not mean that’s a ghost. You can stay in the rooms and in fact I did the exact same thing from the very top floor. Our room overlooked the main entrance that people always take photos of. I’m very pale so I sat with just my head showing looking out from the top story window. Somebody will freak out I’m sure. The place is totally haunted tho 😛
My mother and I stayed one night in room 328 on April 6th and I had my very first paranormal experience. My mother had left the room to go down to the cafe, however I had not heard her because I was in a deep sleep. I was startled by a cleaner who had opened the door halfway (even though there was a Do Not Disturb sign on the door.) He then closed it after he saw me in the bed closest to the door. I felt a little angry irritated and scared, but I had just been woken out of a dream and was quite groggy. I looked for my mom but she was not in the other queen bed. I lied there for maybe 5 minutes looking at the door debating whether to chain lock the lock. If I did – I would just be waken up by my mom when she came back to the room and I wanted to sleep more. I finally debated in my head that the best thing to do was to lock the door and call mom on the cell to inform her. When I finally found the energy to get up, I rounded the bed and had my hand up to the chain when all of a sudden it was already locked. I was stunned. I paused then looked for mom in the room. The bathroom door was closed. I called out her name multiple times with each call getting more anxious but she did not respond. I finally noticed her purse was gone so I opened up the door to luckily find it empty. Later she said she had closed it because it was allowing too much sunshine in. But the question remains – who locked the door within those 5 minutes when the cleaner opened up the door and me still in bed considering my options? Was haunting. Later we did the tour and found out the tenants directly above us had a similar story. The tour guide advised us it was the Bellman ghost.
My wife and I stayed in 217 a few years back. After dinner in the hotel restaurant we retired to our room. I set my alarm for about 3 am. Between 3 and four a heard a loud stomping noise the corner of the room by the bathroom, near an exterior wall. My wife shot up out of bed like I have never seen her do in our 15 years together. I cracked up. Probably the people.below us messing w us. Nothing else happened. The next am I woke up and showered. We the left and drove to Jackson hole wy. We stayed in the car except to have lunch, and I wore jeans as it was cool. When we got to the hotel, I noticed my legs were burning. Both legs had a number of scratches, one of them had about 30 or so. Single and double scat he’s running different direction s, and it burned very bad, kind of like poison ivy, which it was not. When we first got to the Stanley I walked all over taking tons of pictures and taunting the ghosts to show me what they had and that I didn’t think they had it in them, laughing meanwhile. I got a real spooky feeling by the fire escape in the top floor. I also captured a bright ball of light on the main staircase. This place is definitely haunted and one of three paranormal experiences I have had. The other was a night terror where I had a recurring dream.of a possessed home and woke w a dark shadow holdING it’s hand over my mouth. I could not scream or breath. Scariest thing I have ever experienced, and could be from a partial dream like state that some explain a night terror to be. I do believe that my graND mother and i are sensitive based on a story she shared with me as a boy. The third experience I had was a heartbeat in the dental office I was renovating about 3 am. I was pulling nails out of a pile of spectacular hard maple trim I had removed from the 80 year old art deco gem of a building I was renovating. I actually went outside the building looking for the source of the rythmic sound I had heard, to hear nothing. I went back in finished my work with the radio blaring some Dido, and got the hell out ASAP. No other experiences there other than feeling like I am being watched. I since restored the building to pristine good as new and leave a radio at all times for my friend who shares my live of the building. Cool hotel and definitely has an energy to it. Scatch could be from alot.of things, but I feel like I pissed something off and it wanted to show me.what it had.
good ghost
I recently visited the Stanley hotel. The hotel is beautiful! The outside grounds were not as elaborate as expected, but the surrounding Estes Park views are breath taking. The strange thing that happened to me was the timing of the clock tower chimes, both when I first arrived and right as I was leaving. I recorded the chimes as I was photographing the approach to the hotel entrance. VERY HAUNTING TO VIEW! A nice touch was being able to order a “REDRUM” punch in the hotel bar, not to mention, it was very tasty! Unfortunately, ghost tour was sold out, but will try next visit. 🙂 Happy Hauntings to you.