Boo Part Too

Last week, Randy and I participated in the Ghost Tour at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs.

This is our wonderful Ghost Tour guide, Keith.  Keith is a wealth of knowledge about the history of the hotel, the ghosts and the Eureka Springs area in general.  He even laughed at a couple of my jokes.

I adore anybody who laughs at my jokes.  Thank you, Keith!

The tour started out on the fourth floor in what used to be the faculty lounge when the hotel was The Crescent College for Women.  Keith gave us a brief rundown of the hotel's history ...

Hotel ...

... School for girls ...

... Hospital ...

... Hotel

We then walked to one of the balconies on the fourth floor and was told of the ghost that haunts this area.  This is the ghost of a young girl, supposedly with child from one of the teachers, who mysteriously fell from this balcony.  She appears about 10:30 at night, and can even be seen from the hill across from the hotel.  Once, a policeman on the hill opposite the Crescent called the hotel 'cause he thought they just had a suicide.

At one of the staircases on the fourth floor, the next ghost is a small child who fell through the railing and down four flights of stairs.

A young couple in the tour with us had a room on the fourth floor and were alerted to be on the lookout for a toddler that may show up at the side of their bed during the night.  This happens quite frequently.

The tour then went to the opposite side of the hotel, still on the fourth floor.  This room is the room that Theodora inhabits.  Theodora is an older lady who likes order.  She is known to rearrange things in her room and even toss out electronics if she has a mind to.  As we were standing there, listening to Keith, out of the blue comes three knocks from the inside of the room.

The room that was empty.

We then ventured to the third floor where Keith told us about the youngster who bounces his ball on the floor and on the walls.  Since our room was on this floor, Keith told us also to be listening for the sound of wheels squeaking.  Here there is known to be the ghost of a nurse who wheels a gurney down to the morgue on the basement level.  During Keith's talk, we hear a blood-curdling scream from a room nearby.  Apparently, the room-mate of the lady in this room decided that it was an opportune time to scare the liver out of her.

Everyone is a comedienne in a haunted hotel.

Onto Michael's room, which is on the second floor.  Michael was an Irish stonemason when the hotel was built.  He fell to his demise while ogling a young woman on the street below.  Michael is a handsome ghost and is known to pinch and prod ladies inappropriately.  Michael's room is in great demand by the all the single ladies.

This is the statue in the lobby that pays homage to Michael.  I walked by it after breakfast the next day and I was sure that I heard him whistle at me.

Kidding.

Throughout the ghost tour, Keith encouraged us to take pictures (with flash) to see if we could get any shots of 'orbs' that are floating around inside and outside the hotel.  Orbs, or spirit energy, be can only be detected with digital photography using a flash.  They are known to appear suddenly in a frame and then to disappear in the next.  Keith also told us that if we saw or heard anything over the night, to make sure that we told the hotel staff about it.

Where else does one end up on a ghost tour but down in the basement where the morgue is?  So, on to the basement we went.  This is where we saw a portion of episode #13 of the show 'Ghost Hunters'.  On this episode, a full-bodied apparition was detected with their infra-red camera right here in the morgue.  In the same vicinity where Norman Baker's autopsy table still resides, no less, as well as the jars that he kept specimens in.  The tour spent a lot of time in the morgue, and some of that time in the dark summoning the resident ghost(s). 

Throughout the tour, we were led by our ghost meter, which measures electromagnetic fields.  In the morgue, the ghost meter was placed on the cement floor and the overhead lights were turned off.   In total darkness, Keith asked if there were any entities in the room and would they make themselves known by making a sound or brushing up against someone.  We didn't hear anything, and no one claimed to be touched by an invisible being.  However, the ghost meter blinked on and off erratically, turned itself off for about ten seconds and then back on again.

I don't not believe in ghosts.  Do you?

Have the BEST day ever!

~ Dorothy