Welcome back to the crypt, boils and ghouls on this, our most unholy of months! For our October Spooktacular edition, we’re going to spotlight the top three undeniably haunted places in our not-so-little mountain town. Each location has experienced hundreds of credible paranormal experiences over their long and storied histories and has even personally touched members of the MOB crypt on multiple occasions. We encourage all of you to go out yourselves and try to find your own evidence of the hereafter, but, beware: if you’re not careful hunting for ghosts, you just might become one!
Nestled just north of the tracks in the heart of downtown looms the Hotel Weatherford. Opened in 1897, this piece of Northern Arizona history offers seventeen boutique rooms, three separate pubs and is the home of the iconic pine cone drop on New Year’s. You can’t go wrong with any of the bars in the building as the beer lines are kept clean, the cocktails are potent and the food is deviously delicious across the board. But, it’s Halloween! We want ghost stories and one of the best comes from the second story, where legend has it that two honeymooners in the now-defunct Room 54 spent their final nights in the 1930’s. Taking a break from the usual honeymoon activities, the ill-fated husband took to the woods for a quick hunting expedition where he was hit with a freak and severe blizzard. His bride, despondent over the presumed loss of her husband, proceeded to hang herself in the closet, not knowing that he was indeed quite alive. Upon returning and finding her strung up, he immediately shot himself. Hotel guests frequently report seeing people in period attire passing through walls and even arguing in the night. The story was recently featured on an episode of Ghost Adventures after a new couple talking about their own honeymoon were warned by their bartender that such conversation upsets the ghosts. They opted to disregard the sagely advice and, when the bartender excused herself, a full bottle of wine fell off the top shelf and broke right where she had been standing. We saw the video, it was gnarly and would have probably knocked the poor girl right out. Our other favorite ghost story is recent and that makes it even more rare. Hauntings from yee olden tymes are a dime a dozen, but when you run into something contemporary, it merits attention. Dapper Dre, one of the main brains behind Freaky Foot Tours and overall downtown treasure, was one of the last people to see this poor soul alive. We cornered him a while back and got the full story about a wildly drunk woman who was cut off at the bar in the early 2000’s. She apparently stumbled off for a while before trying to jump from a window to the balcony to get one more drink and came up short before falling to her death three stories below. We’re not the type of people to make light of a person passing, especially when it entails trying to get one more drink, but this situation is a good example of why you, dear reader, need to watch out for your friends. Rumors are that windows on the third floor around where she made her leap open and close on their own accord, so beware.
