Episode 31: Haunted America: Rocky Mountain States

Join us as we explore of hauntings in the Rocky Mountain states of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. Have a haunted experience or story to share? Send us an email to readytoconnectpodcast@gmail.com or reach out to us through our social media. Consider becoming a supporter through Patreon and get access to bonus content. Get Ready to Connect! 

#metaphysicalpodcast #metaphysical #hauntedamerica #paranormal

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of their affiliated organizations.

SPEAKER_05 0:23

Well, hey everybody. Welcome back to Ready to Connect. I am Heather. I'm Lisa.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

And I'm Ryan.

SPEAKER_05 0:30

And today we continue our Haunted America series. And today we're going to be going to Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. Montana. Woo! All right. Getting out in prairie country now. Big stuff. Well, maybe not so much Colorado, but definitely Wyoming and Montana. We're starting to move to that prairie country. And I did find that Wyoming hauntings are no fluff. They're no fluff and lots of history and lots of patterns behind the stories that kind of persist around Wyoming and probably in Montana too, where the prairies are full of wind and lots of dust bunnies, but lots of haunted stories. I went into Wyoming, well, I didn't go physically there, but if anybody would like to host us and have us come out and do some recordings, we're always looking for an adventure. But I dug into Wyoming this week and noticed that there was a lot of frontier violence and of the past. And of course, being so isolated over there in Wyoming, there was a lot of heartbreak. And so it feels like the store, you know, the soil over there holds these ghost stories, lots of sudden deaths and loneliness and unfinished business. But my first my first research that I did was the Ocidental Hotel in Buffalo, Wyoming. It was built in 1880 and it was full of cowboys, outlaws, and one of the big biggest co-stars of Wyoming is obviously Butch Cassidy. He's famous for lots of things, right? Lots of documentation on his behaviors and and what he did. But it appears that at the Occidental Hotel that he was a frequent visitor as a traveler. There are early, early, early reported stories as far as the 1880, and it went all the way into the 1900s and right up to now. Lots of oral stories went around this Ocidental Hotel. But one of the one of the big things that stood out to me was a young girl named Emily. And she is said to be dressed in white and she has beautiful long hair. And she is seen walking the halls laughing. And she loves she loves to touch the guests. And she loves to do the supportive touch, like on the back on the lower back, or on the shoulder, or on the arm, or even on the hand. It's said that she pats people's hands to let them know they're okay, which I think is great because as a healer, you know, I I think Lisa can contest this. And Ryan, you you could probably contest to sometimes just the simple touch makes someone just feel so much better, right? They feel, you know, safe in their in the environment they are with you, right? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 3:28

Oh, I have to say, if I was to get touched on the back or the shoulder or a hand and nobody was there doing it, I'm not sure if it would come across as supportive or creepy.

SPEAKER_05 3:38

So I know I I think you can feel the difference of something, even a ghost or a spirit's energy, their intention of why they're placing their hands on you. I know there are ghost hunters out there that dwell in that negative and ask spirits to punch them or scratch them. And you know, you're just antagonizing someone to do that. I mean, if I was a ghost and you're standing in front of me, you know, come on, hit me. I probably just do it on a fun, you know.

SPEAKER_04 4:14

Um, I think you and I, Heather, particularly, we could probably pick that up. You know, I can definitely feel intention behind things when it comes to the spirit world, being clear set in it. So I would get that it was supportive. But a lay person who's just somewhere and gets touched, I think sometimes, you know, could start panic. Sure. It could it could make someone feel like a little creepy, but yeah, I mean, at least it's on the shoulder of the hand, nowhere else, you know.

SPEAKER_05 4:42

So yeah, no, it didn't seem like she was didn't feel like she was doing it to be harmful. She's uh she's been said throughout the folklore of stories that I gathered uh at this hotel that she's always laughing, and people hear this uh you know, laughter, and and all her all the hauntings that I read about, it wasn't like the creepy laughter like the horror movies talk about, you know, or have people do. It was one of those genuine, like young child, you know, laughs where it makes you smile, and and there is that difference, right? When someone laughs in an evil way or kind of sinister way versus a young child's just pure laughter. I mean, I know as a grandma over there, Miss Lisa, your grandson has found his belly laugh, right? And that laughter is just so contagious, right?

SPEAKER_04 5:38

It just makes you smile. You can't not smile when you hear babies laughing. It's just you can't not you have to be in a really bad place to find it annoying, I think.

SPEAKER_05 5:46

Exactly. Exactly. So that's kind of the folklore around this hotel where it's that kind of laughter and it's inspirational verses. But it is said that Emily will come into your room and she'll sit on the bed so you'll actually be able to see the dead, um, the bed depressions. People say that they often feel their hair being either stroked, or if you choose not to pay attention to her, she'll do a slight little tug, but nobody is reporting it as like someone ripping hair out or pulling you in the wrong direction or anything like that. This generally seems to be like an overall, like really beautiful encounter with a child, you know, a young lady, young child spirit.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

I could just affirm like my grandson, now he's younger than probably the spirit Emily is, but he likes to play with the hair. Like when he's taking his bottle, he'll start to pull and play with my hair. He just finds that kind of maybe soothing or fascinating. But I have a question for you too before you go much further, because you said you can see the depression on the bed, right? When she sits down. Have either of you ever felt in your own bed someone sitting down on it, a spirit sitting down, and you feel that happen?

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Yeah, I I felt that. My mother has actually experienced that as well, and and she knew it was her grandfather coming to visit her. But yeah, I felt that.

SPEAKER_04 7:08

You could feel it, and I also feel like I have a lot of spirit kitties, and I could feel when they jump up on the bed and stuff. And I wonder how many of our listeners have had that same kind of experience, so they can probably relate to the experience that Emily's giving in in this room of sitting on the bed.

SPEAKER_05 7:25

Absolutely. I mean, it's probably pretty consistent here at my house. You know, we we have Serafina and she she comes and jumps up on the bed every night. Every now and then, my dog Hunter, you can feel him jump up on the bed when he comes to visit. It's it's far and few between at this point. Hunter's been gone for quite some time. Um now, at least uh at least 14 years. So he doesn't come as often, but generally, if you talk about him, he'll come and visit and give you a good uh he was a lab, so and he did the helicopter tail, so you can feel the tail going in like the wind, you know, the fan.

SPEAKER_03 8:03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:06

But I have many visitations who don't respect my boundaries of this is my time to sleep. Um, Spirit will come and just sit on the bed and expect me to wake up and have a full conversation with them. It's so important to do boundary work as a psychic medium because you do need to sleep, otherwise, you just turn into a zombie. So, but what I have found is when it's not a loved one and someone wants my attention, there's a good reason why they're coming to speak to me. So you kind of give it a little grace, but you don't let it happen all the time. There's a lot of boundary work you have to do for sure. But I apparently at the Osadento Hotel, you can rent room 19, and you will you will be able to talk with Emily and you will be or the Bordello suite, apparently. And it is said that she she and she opens the door, she comes in, she will talk to you, you can even record her. Um, I found many Haunted America ghost stories from other podcasters available where they're talking about how they had a positive encounter with Miss Emily. So I'm okay with this. Like I don't mind if there's a physical interaction when it comes to it being playful and gentle and kind and uplifting. But apparently, this hotel has been in operation for so long that it actually experienced cholera. Is that how you say it? Cholera, cholera, cholera, right? Cholera, yeah. Cholera, sorry, yes. Sorry, apparently my English language is not all fully formed this morning. Um, so I would imagine I I don't know a lot about Kolara. Does anybody uh do you do you two know anything about Kolara? It must be horrific. I mean, I can't imagine any kind of uh uh death is right.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Yeah, it definitely doesn't sound fun.

SPEAKER_05 10:20

No, no. No. So I mean, just in a quick, quick search, yeah. Is like acute diarrheal infection, it it attacks the intestines, and you tend to get it from contaminated food or water.

SPEAKER_04 10:37

Um so when when Mike and I were in Africa this past fall, when we were in Africa, cholera was one of the things that we had to be uh prepared for. So we had to have antidiarrheal, uh anti nausea, uh medicine with us. I'm trying to think is if cholera was one of the things that we got immunizations for. I can't remember. Um but cholera is pretty intense. If you you need to get to medical help almost immediately, or you will basically die of dehydration because it you cannot stop the the the diarrhea or that comes from it.

SPEAKER_05 11:19

From what I'm reading here, that it the onset of it, if you don't get the help immediately, you will die dehydrate so fast that it immediately will cause muscle cramps, vomiting, obviously the stools, and it is life-threatening. So it it requires immediate attention as soon as you recognize something's not right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:42

Very much so. I remember when we were on the Serengeti, we had to be careful with the water. We had to drink only, you know, we were told which water was the safe water to drink and things like that. And you know, it's it it definitely gives you pause because you don't have that kind of situation here in America, right? Too much. But if you're out remote like that, you have to be prepared. So if cholera was something happening out at the time of, you know, this haunting, uh uh, you know, uh this story, I mean, out in Wyoming, even now you can get some very remote areas, right? It's not as populated as other areas of our country. And so if you're not close enough to a medical center or you know, medical health, uh you it's definitely life-threatening. I mean, it was I think cholera was the one thing as you know, you you we got we got immunizations for I can't tell you how many different things, but I think cholera was the one that was scary, the most scary to us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 12:36

Yeah, I would I would say so. Uh yeah, I mean it it looks as uh as I listen to you speak and I'm looking it up, it looks like you have a short window and otherwise you're you're you're uh you're going to the light essentially. It's it's that fast. So it's in very no thank you. I I I'll I'll skip the cholera. I'll skip it.

unknown 13:03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

Absolutely. I know it kind of reminds me of uh Nora virus, only a lot worse.

SPEAKER_04 13:11

Oh, worse, yeah. For sure. And you know, you get it from from water and food.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

Right.

SPEAKER_04 13:18

So it's not like you you can't avoid eating or having water when you're living. So you know, you just have to be real safe about it, you know?

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:27

We were told don't eat any raw fruit, don't eat any, you know, kind of things that haven't been peeled or cooked or like uh makes you really kind of uh paranoid a bit.

SPEAKER_05 13:40

I guess it makes you appreciate, you know, being in the United States and having the availability to fresh fruit and vegetables. And you know, we're a food-rich country uh country, and so when we go overseas or travel abroad, right, we we we don't realize how good we have it sometimes, right? Especially with everything going on and the economics of our world. But so I continued through Wyoming and I came across a hotel called the Irma Hotel, which is in Cody, Wyoming. And Cody, Wyoming is actually lots of folklore about Buffalo Bill Cody. Buffalo Bill Cody was obviously back in his day, he was a showman, he was a premier showman. He was a bison hunter, he was also an army scout, and he really achieved global fame, you know, between 1883, I believe it was, to like 1913. So he was the one that created a massive traveling show. He also kind of romanticized like American Frontier, and with his shows, it really kind of brought out uh the real cowboys, what what they considered back in that time what a real cowboy was. But it was known that he would stay at this Irma hotel, and he is said to to this day, the folklore is said to this day, that he um him he himself will help you check in. Um, and as you go to your room, he is your friendly check-in room, uh like the butler would do to make sure everything's okay with you. And it is also said that when you're there, he will want to introduce you to his daughter Irma, and she is often seen in the hotel uh in a rocking chair. I tried to find more information about this rocking chair, but apparently this was a room that has a rocking chair in it, and um, this is where his daughter Irmind loved to sit, which is lovely. Like it is also said that if you roam through the Irma Hotel, you will see an apparition without legs, the legless man he is called. Yeah, I love that. Why not? Yeah, legless man. I I think this is a great opportunity with this story to just talk about like in the psychic world, especially if you're clairvoyant, um, whether you see with your third eye or you actually see with you know your own eyes, not all spirits form a perfect image. And you know, it is very hard for a spirit to sometimes gather enough energy to form the perfect image. And so when I hear this legless um apparition, you have to wonder if he's residual, which I don't think so because he's not able to gather enough, you know, energy to form the perfect person. And it doesn't mean you need to be afraid of it, it just means whatever you know, energy that's available between the energy of the rooms and the hotel and the lights and your energy, right? We don't always form the perfect form. And sometimes we get scared by that because obviously we're used to in our work, you know, life to see people that are fully formed. But it's uh don't be afraid, like talk to it. If you if you happen to go here and you see the legless man, find out why he's legless. Maybe he lost his legs in the battle, and that's why his apparition doesn't have legs. I couldn't find definitive information if he had lost his legs and that's why he's the legless apparition, or if he's legless because he just can't form enough energy to form a whole body.

SPEAKER_04 17:41

So here's a question for you two. What would you rather come across if say say you weren't psychic and you know, would you rather come across an apparition with no head, the headless ghost that we've talked about, or would you rather come across a legless apparition? Which would which would be like more off-putting to you? I happen to think the legless one for some reason. Really? Yeah, because I would think if I was saying the full body and no head, that maybe the head's being blocked by something, but it's probably there. I don't know. I I think I think the null limbs to me is more jarring.

SPEAKER_05 18:19

What do you think, Ryan?

SPEAKER_02 18:22

Um, yeah, that's an interesting question. I think if I saw a spirit without a head, I think that would be a bit more like shocking to me. I feel like if they didn't have limbs, I'd be like, oh, okay. Like I don't know, I don't know why. Like the limbs just feels like it's not as shocking to to see that.

SPEAKER_05 18:44

Yeah, see, I I I I don't I don't know. I don't think either one of them is shocking to me. I think I might be off put for a second, but then I would immediately regain some balance and just be like, okay, this is how it is. You know. But I suppose for me, not having a head would be more shocking. I've been uh privy enough to be around people who are paraplegic, so like it's not off-putting to me, especially our veterans that come home paraplegic, or you know, I've had loved ones in my family who were severe diabetics and unfortunately have lost limbs. So I think the headless one would be a little more off-putting, but I would quickly regain composure and just be like, So where's your head? Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_04 19:36

I think a headless spirit, you know, obviously they were decapitated, they lost their head that way, and that's how it ended, right? Yeah, but me, there's a tragic story maybe between the loss of limb. Yeah, and having to buy back go through it. So I almost would rather deal with a headless spirit. Yeah. To me, that's a one and done story where uh a spirit with no limbs is gonna come with a quite a tragic story, and being set in it, I think it would really impact me.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

That's understandable. Do you think also could it be like let's say a spirit doesn't have a head? Do you think it could also be just simply that they just didn't have all the energy to be able to show it and that that's why it's not there? Or is it mostly because of when they passed their head got cut off?

SPEAKER_04 20:26

I I think I think with either case, no no limp, no head, it could be a matter of having enough energy to form fully form.

SPEAKER_05 20:32

I also think in this situation, I also think in this situation, let's let's talk about our our history, right? In early time, how did we how did we get how did we do away with our criminals? We hung them or we ge guillotine them or right? So like if the energy of that ghost matches a timing time frame in our history where you know their head was chopped off, that would make sense why maybe their head's not there, right? Or a lynching where of maybe the neck snapped, you know, the head clean off. Like so if it's a spirit that passed in 2000, whatever, we have to question why you're missing your head.

SPEAKER_03 21:20

So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:22

Because we don't do that anymore, right? We don't lynch anybody, we don't we don't put them in a in a guillotine and slice their heads off from sever their heads from their bodies anymore. We, you know, we're a little more me more humane at this point. Um, we just electrocute you.

SPEAKER_04 21:37

Um, I think I think part of my like creepiness of the no limbs thing, it probably stems from something I saw on TV, like a horror something. I re have a clear memory of somebody like on a scooter, let's say their torso on a scooter coming up behind somebody and it being like Like that is so creepy. And in my mind thinking, I better not turn around and find anyone coming in on a like scooter kind of thing. I want to say it was pr it was probably in X-Files that I was that I'm remembering or something like that. And it just got usually I enjoy the X-Files, but there have been some real creepy one of those too. They're just like, I I don't want to run across that. But go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 22:22

Well, anyways, if we when we get down to Cody, Wyoming, there are three rooms. So there's three of us. It'll be perfect. Room 16 is said to be, you know, the daughter of Irma's room. And maybe this is where her maybe this is where her rocking chair is. So room 16 is Irma's room, and she is said to be seen in there, and she will have a full intellectual conversation with you if you engage. There is also reports of room 35 and 37, where you will have your your personal belongings moved around in the room while you're there. It is also said that the spirits in room 35 and 37 will turn on the water. So maybe they're helping you with your hygiene, I'm not sure, or getting your attention by turning the water on, or maybe you need to brush your teeth. I'm not really sure what's going on with the whole water thing there. But water is fluidity, it does create energy. So maybe that's their way of being able to pull energy from source to kind of form themselves. But it's great. I I it's uh there's a strong mix of residual energy here. There's a strong mix of intellectual energy, lots of you know typical footsteps and lights and you know guest interaction, which is fantastic. Um I think the Irma Hotel clearly shows that there's with the ghosts that are there, are there's a lot of emotional attachment to it because it's family legacy between Wild Bill Cody and um so there's and then there's still you know consistent um there, you know, people this is still a hotel that you can go stay at, which I find absolutely awesome. Um my last one I'm gonna report on here is Miss Kate Arnold, who resides at the Sheridan Inn in Sheridan, Wyoming. Um, this Sheridan, why uh Sheridan Inn was built in 1893. It is in Sheridan, Wyoming. And Miss Kate Arnold is said to be a longtime worker there. She is um she is definitely a spirit that chooses to stay. She is said that when you walk down the halls, you'll hear her footsteps behind you. She'll open the doors for you as you go into your rooms. She presents as cold spots to let you know that she is standing close by. And she is said to be an intellectual haunting, and she wants to engage. She's not shy, which I think is fantastic. You know, if she wants to open the door and come in and set my stuff up while we stay, I'm happy for that. I'm happy for the conversation too, right? How about you? You guys want to have a conversation with her, right? Absolutely. Yeah. There was one other one in Wyoming, which was Jackson, Wyoming, and that's the Wart Hotel. And this is more um, this isn't an old folklore story. This actually happened in 1964. The hotel saw a massive tragedy, and unfortunately, due to that tragedy, two young sisters perished away. And so it is said that you can hear them running feverishly through the hotel, which I don't know if I really want to experience that. Um, but there is also the engineer, Bob, and Bob is said that he was the maintenance engineer there, and he took good care of the hotel until now it was very unclear what the tragedy was. It was it it seems that maybe there was an explosion or maybe some kind of fire. I don't know. I guess that's why you hear, you know, that's why they're reporting on like people running as quickly as possible out of this hotel. But apparently Bob likes to come in and rearrange your room, not the furniture, your items, any items you set on, like maybe the dresser, like your toothbrush or hairbrush or whatever. But I thought that was cool. Like, you know, he wants to let you know that he's tidying up for you and making sure everything's working properly. So it was very cool. So out of this discovery, we had the the white dress at the occidental, you know, with Emily, and then definitely the young ladies, uh, the young children. So it was very exciting. And again, anybody that lives in Wyoming wants to uh have us come out and do some recording, we'd love to we'd love to talk to you if you have any further stories of what we found. Uh we definitely want to hear about you. Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_02 27:13

That was wonderful. See, I thought there was gonna be maybe, I don't know. We were talking about what was it, Idaho that we we thought maybe there might be some some crops or something. I don't know. I didn't know if anything was gonna if does Wyoming have crops and corn as well?

unknown 27:27

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

They have more cattle, I think. Cattle, that's what it is. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 27:32

It's it's uh yeah, the terrain there can go from you know desert lake conditions to lush depending on which border of Wyoming you're on, right? So yeah, I didn't find, I mean, there was lots of cowboy stories, but nothing tied to like where I could do enough homework to you know talk about all the cowboy stories on the frontier. That might be a whole different that might be a whole other topic we do with the podcast, the frontier cowboys.

SPEAKER_04 28:07

Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah is the Rocky Mountains. Go through all of them. It's a mountainous terrain. Um you know, with areas that are flatter, of course, but you know, it's mountainous. So I don't know how many crops per se. Although Idaho has its potatoes.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Right. That's true. That's a good point. Lisa, do you want to go next?

unknown 28:37

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 28:38

Uh so I had the state of Colorado, and I've been lucky enough to have been to Colorado a couple times, and there's a lot in Colorado, but you can't go to Colorado without talking about the Stanley Hotel. And so I did a real deep dive in the Stanley Hotel, and I found out there's a lot there. And so my whole thing for the podcast is going to be just on this one hotel because it's going to take up all the time I have in which to talk. So the Stanley Hotel is uh found in Estes, Colorado. And I happen to have been out to a retreat in Estes Park, Colorado. So, and my husband was with me. And uh, we actually went to the Stanley Hotel not to stay overnight. Um we were we were someplace else for the retreat center uh for the retreat that we were doing. But um, we did go to the Stanley Hotel to have dinner. Um, and I can tell you, when you go into the hotel, you're not allowed to roam it. I think they have put, and this was you know, back before the pandemic. So this was back before, you know, 2020 or 2019. You weren't allowed to roam it then. I can't imagine you're allowed to roam it now. And I think that's because of so much paranormal stuff that happens that they get too many people who are ghost hunters or looking for that ghostly paranormal experience that just come to the hotel to walk around and see if they can find it, right? So they have the rule you can't roam the hotel, particularly in the residential area. So we could only go to the restaurant and back. And so I did walk into the lobby, but couldn't really, you know, do too much there. Didn't have much time to stay there because of our reservations and whatnot. But I have to tell you that the Stanley Hotel is quite the imposing building, it is huge, it stands on you know, up looking over the town of Estes. It's quite the intimidating building. It's big, and of course, at night it looks a little eerie being so big. But so to tell you about the hauntings at the Stanley Hotel, I kind of have to give you a little bit of the history of the person who created the Stanley Hotel and the reasons around it. So there was an inventor named Freelan Oscar Stanley. Um, we're just gonna call him FO because that's how he's referred to in so many things that I've read about. FO Stanley. So he built this hotel in 1909 with his brother. He was he co-founded the Stanley Motor Company, and so he co-invented the Stanley Steamer auto. That's that old-fashioned kind of car. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:14

Um we were at a a show in Newport um a couple couple summers ago, and um what's that famous comedian that owns the house in Newport? Jay Leno. Jay Leno actually owns a Stanley Steamer. And you can go on YouTube, and he has lots of he's a car enthusiast, but he actually had the um Stanley steamer at the auto show and he was doing demonstrations. What a fascinating car! And what a shame that, you know, and I won't get into it politically, but like here's a car that purely runs on water, right? Of course they blow up, but you know, because of the steam, but like a pressure cooker. But um, if our world was to not be able to get our hands on oil, we could all turn over to a Stanley steamer car, right?

SPEAKER_04 32:06

Yeah, so he was, you know, he's the inventor of that. So he's quite the inventor. But as we talked about before, I can't remember on which episode. Remember, we talked about tuberculosis and how that impacted one of the other um ghost stories that we were talking about? Well, he suffered from tuberculosis, and he in 1903 the doctors gave him only a very short time to live. And true to that time period, it was thought that clean air was the cure for tuberculosis, that that was going to be helpful. So he moved to the Rocky Mountain area for that cool, crisp, dry air that was supposed to or believed to be the remedy for tuberculosis at the time. And as it turned out, by being in this area, Estes area, right at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Of course, he went there to die peacefully, is what he was. He wanted to be out and we're in a peaceful area. He regained his health. And he was apparently cured by the end of the year. Yeah. So, um, and because of that, FO wanted to bring comfort and elegance to the many people who are seeking health and relaxation. So he set upon it himself to create Estes as a resort town. He built um, I think uh uh um a water um a water what do you call it factory that would um make electricity. There's a name for that, um, which I can't seem to find, in that area to provide electricity and all this stuff. And he set on creating um this hotel. So the construction of this particular Stanley Hotel began in 1907, and it was 25 miles from the nearest railroad station, just so you know, so it's quite a distance back then. Um and this was a high-class hotel. The Stanley Hotel was high class. There were bathrooms in every guest room, which was never really heard of, electric lights all throughout the hotel, telephones, and uniformed workers were part of this hotel. So back in 1907, this was like the high, highest of class. And in fact, I think it might be the first elect all electric hotel.

SPEAKER_05 34:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 34:29

But on June 22nd in 1909, it opened its doors to, believe it or not, 150 druggists from the Colorado State Pharmaceutical Association. There you go. So its grand opening was in uh June 22nd, 1909. And then, so what does that have to do with you know the haunting? Well, just so you know a little bit about F.O. Stanley and why he opened this hotel, two years to the almost to the day of the opening of this hotel to the public, the hotel experienced its largest disaster in its history, if not of all of Estes Park. On the evening of June 25th, 1911, basically the timestamp was 7:50 p.m. A colossal explosion happened. Um, it it could be heard all through Estees Park. It could be heard like over a mile away, and it originated directly below room 217. So just scroll that away for a while, room 217. What had happened was there was a gas buildup between the dining room and the second floor, which created tremendous pressure between the hotel walls. So even though electricity was readily available throughout the hotel, FO Stanley had installed a gas generator and put gas lamps in each of the rooms just in case of a power outage. And it was that that morning of June 25th, that morning, there was something that indicated that the electrical plant was was having issues and that it could lead to failure. So, in response, the staff was instructed to activate the gas system. So the pipes filled with the older staffs for the first time, and and this likely the system has not been tested. The pressure led to the formation of a small leak above the dining room. And now enter in Elizabeth Lizzie Wilson. By the way, we're not really sure if Wilson was her last name because it after this explosion, it was reported of several different last names. But enter the head chambermaid, Lizzie Wilson, and she ignited the escaping gas when she lit a candle in room 27. And that created the explosion, right? So apparently, this explosion it it blew several doors off their hinges. Uh at least 10 plate glass windows on the ground floor were shattered. It destroyed 10% of the 70,000 square foot hotel and all of the West Wing.

SPEAKER_03 36:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 36:52

What happened to Elizabeth Wilson, do you think? She did not die. Believe it or not. No, she actually turned on the bed.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 37:02

Yeah, she actually fell to the dining room below her, practically not dying, but she did break both her ankles. Yeah. Now there's a couple versions of the stories of what happened with Liz Lizzie. Actually, some say that there were two other maids with her. Uh, one of them was thrown into a wall, but heroically uh grabbed a fire extinguisher to fight the inferno. I don't know. Uh that's really kind of like um corroborated, but these are some stories. But there is a story that Lizzie went into a coma where she was in a coma anywhere from two days to two years. Oh, okay. That's a range. That's a range. But when she woke up, so that's very unclear. But when she woke up, this is very this part is real. She went right back to work at the Stanley Hotel where she worked until she died of old age in 1950. Wow. So now we have Lizzie, she's dead at 1950. Almost immediately after her death, in the late 1950s, haunting started in room 217 where the explosion was. Yep. And they haven't ceased since, they've been ongoing since. So what has been reported there? Strange activity that disrupts sleep of guests in two in room 217. So this this maid, Lizzie, she still resides in that room. And uh what she will do if if an unmarried couple is in that room, they will often get awoken because some invisible force is pushing them apart. Interesting. Yep, don't sleep next to each other.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Oh, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:41

Okay. Uh she takes the luggage of single men and leaves it outside their door, letting them know that a bachelor lifestyle is not welcome at the Stanley Hotel. She's quite the prune, right? But she's actually known to be relatively friendly to most people. She spends most of her time cleaning the rooms, making herself as busy as she was in real life, you know, in her afterlife. So guests have reported seeing her walk through walls, interrupting their sleep. This has been going on for many years. Yeah. So Lizzie is a haunter of room 217, moving objects around, you know, all the all the usual stuff. But I found that fascinating that you know, you better be married if you're going to stay in that room because you will not be allowed to sleep next to each other.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

I I wonder if the hotel even asks, like, are you married? Um if so, we have this room that you can stay in.

SPEAKER_05 39:39

So old-fashioned thinking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:41

If you're not married, then uh please do not leave a negative review.

SPEAKER_04 39:48

So now the story of ghost hauntings are not just relegated to room 217. There is actually no floor, no area that's off limit um to spiritual activity in this hotel. It has been well documented and many, many pictures with ghosts in them that taken by guests. So let's talk about Lucy. Lucy is a spiritual haunt in there's a second building to the right of the main lobby, and it's considered one of the most haunted of the Stanley Hotel's 11 buildings. It was built initially for the wife of FO, uh Flora Stanley, and it was built as a symphony hall in the style of the Boston Symphony Hall. And many people, many spirits call this concert hall their home. So let me tell you a little bit about Lucy. Lucy's a little bit more of a recent ghost or haunt. Just so you know, the Stanley Hotel, a little bit of the history here, has went through its period of multiple owners, right? Because of where it's located, it's it was considered a seasonal hotel because in the winter it had to close. Not only do the roads that lead to it had to be closed because of snow, but the hotel itself didn't get heat until 1983. Wow. Yeah. So it it would close in the winter, obviously. And because of that, it's hard to upkeep it, it's hard to make a profit off it. So it went through many different owners. Um, even FO, he sold it the hotel in 1926, but then he repurchased it three later three years later, then he sold it again, obviously because you know it was difficult to care for. Frank Nomalie bought it in 1974, which is the year that Stephen King came to stay at the hotel. And we'll talk about Stephen King and all of that in a little bit. And he restored it to its original glory, so to speak. But then, and he created in 1977 the Stanley Historic District, which protected the hotel and the surrounding buildings. But even more was needed to save. It went through a cycle of being on the market near bankruptcy and coming back, and that that cycle just repeated with every owner. But in 1995, the hotel was again on the verge of bankruptcy and was up for sale. And it was during this period that the concert hall, this building, um, had a hole in it large enough to see the sky. And this is how Lucy found her way into the concert hall. And even though her story largely remains unknown, um, but it is known that she lived alone in the concert hall while that hotel was up for sale. So she was basically a squatter, right? But when it was bought um by John Cullen, bought it in 1996 uh for just $3.1 million, by the way. Um, I'll run out and grab the checkbook. But you figure a hotel this size for $3.1 million, it's gotta be close to a couple hundred now, right? Million.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 42:58

She was discovered, of course, in the concert hall, and she was forced out. And soon she uh she was forced out when it was being renovated, and it is said that she froze to death outside the Stanley Hotel. Oh yeah. So Lucy's ghost is highly active, and she's active, of course, in this concert hall where she spent part of her life. So she's still happy to call the Stanley her home. She is often witnessed in the concert hall. Uh visitors, whether they're on a ghost tour or by themselves or whatever, have seen the door to the concert hall open and close on its own multiple times. This is a not normal occurrence, apparently. And these actions are often accompanied by the strange whispers of a woman, it's said. And who's not there? Whispers of a woman. And so it is known to be that Lucy is known to manipulate, you know, the door, be the one that whispers. I think Lucy's been even caught like on some of these ghost hunting TV shows to manipulate the flashlights, like we did with Gregory. In your in the the studio, there's a photo of a hotel guest in the concert hall, and behind her, the reflection is the apparition of another woman who's believed to be Lucy. So if you go to Stanley Hotel, look for that photo. Lucy's not the only one in the concert hall. I'm telling you, this hotel's got a ton of stuff in it. There are two other noisy spirits that joined Lucy in the concert hall and they're irritable. And they are the janitors Paul and Edward.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 44:31

Both were handyman. And they are there for eternity, tending to their former office, basically in torment. Paul died of a heart attack, and he survived that initial attack, but died in the car on the way to the hospital. And he often reported yelling at others to get out, and is very particular about closing time. So his ghost is most active after 11 p.m. curfew that he once enforced for the hotel. So he would enforce the 11 p.m. curve in curfew in in real life and no different in spirit life. Oh yelped at to get out by ball.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

Do you think he's he's in spirit uh now he's just annoyed that he passed and so now he's just like annoyed and just being irritable, perhaps? Like because he wanted to maybe.

SPEAKER_04 45:26

Maybe. I think Lucy is an intelligent haunt. Yeah. I wonder, and I also think Lizzie's an intelligent haunt. I wonder if Paul yelling at people to get out after 11 is residual.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

Oh, okay, okay. I don't know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:39

Right? But Edward, believe it or not, he's even less friendly than Paul. Uh-oh. Apparently. Uh he will aggressively bang in the concert hall near the front of the building where he once worked. He wasn't apparently in in in life, he wasn't a big fan of people, and he nothing's really changed. There's been many pleasant run-ins with the spirit. Oh geez. So that's the concert hall. We're not done. FO Stanley and his wife Flora also haunt the Stanley Hotel. So they are said to be most often found um at the 217 wine bar in the lobby. Uh it was once the music room. And inside it, it features a seven and a half foot Steinway piano that once belonged to Miss Stanley, uh, Mrs. Stanley, Flora Stanley herself. Now she suffered a stroke in the Stanley and died 10 days later. Um and she loved the Rocky Mountains just as much as her husband. So it makes sense that she would stay in this hotel or want to be here. But more than Rocky Mountains, she loved her piano music. She loved playing them, playing music. She basically carried this over into her afterlife. So her piano was often heard eerily playing itself late at night. Oh wow. Um, and it seems Flora does not like anyone else playing on her piano. Her surprise possession because the piano cover has slammed down on many of fingers that have attempted to play her piano.

SPEAKER_02 47:06

Oh, okay. All right, so I'm not gonna try that.

SPEAKER_04 47:09

No, no, no, although wait, wait, wait, no, no, you have to. You kind of have to.

SPEAKER_05 47:19

Just just practice reflexes. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 47:23

Yep, yep. How quickly can you pull out? I'll play a little and then stop and let's see what happens.

unknown 47:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 47:31

Pull up the fingers. And we'll be talking about it. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:37

So let's know that rock star Ryan is here.

SPEAKER_04 47:43

So when you hear the piano music, you know Flora is is basically busy playing the piano, but Efo always hangs around with her wife, with his wife. And he passed away in 1940, but he does hang around the music room with her. It is said that in life they really enjoyed uh long evenings entertaining their guests at this hotel. So his face you can often uh see in reflections throughout the lobby and also in the music room. So it's it's interesting. In the music room is a giant mirror, and so you can see reflections in that mirror too. And what also is reported, um, many, many reports of parties that carry on late into the night that are in the adjacent ballroom, the McGregor ballroom next to next to it. You can hear the clink of glasses, cheerful laughter that go through the hotel. And once once the the rooms are opened, once the room is opened, all that all that stops. All that stops. All that yeah, it's it's really kind of uh interesting. Really kind of interesting. So uh all right, so we're not done. We're not done. Because one of the more haunted places of the hotel is the fourth floor. Oh the fourth floor of the hotel. So the fourth floor of the main building, you will hear, and this is known as the never-ending hallway of children, apparently, because the way it is constructed with the doorway at the end of the hallway, it it gives an optical illusion of never ending, apparently.

SPEAKER_03 49:25

Really?

SPEAKER_04 49:26

Um yeah, yeah, yeah. So in this hallway, small ghost children have been spotted running around the floor, and you'll hear them playing, you'll hear their voices and stuff like that. And this is kind of interesting. Many visitors leave lollipops for them as small treats, only to find them moved to new and hard-to-reach locations the following day. So historically, the fourth floor is where the children of the wealthier families and their nannies would stay. Oh so this makes sense why there's children up on the fourth floor. Wow, and it makes sense why those lollipops are put out of reach of the children. The nannies are saying no no sugar for these guys, right?

SPEAKER_03 50:10

Yeah.

unknown 50:11

Yes. Yep.

SPEAKER_04 50:14

Room 418 has a reputation of being haunted by little boy ghosts. Sometimes you'll see the impressions of a body left on the bed there after it's been made. The hotel staff often report strange noises coming from inside the room when it's empty. So, aside from the children of the uh fourth floor, um, in rooms 407 and in room 428, you're gonna find the Irishman and the cowboy. So I tell you, this there's so many stories, it goes on forever. Room 407 of the Stanley Hotel is known to be the home of a very angry Irishman who watches silently from the corner. He will flicker lights, he'll sometimes pull on the hair, he will sometimes yank the bed covers.

SPEAKER_03 50:59

Really?

SPEAKER_04 50:59

Yep. Um, they named him Lord Lord Dunraven. Basically, that's the name of a very unpopular Irish earl who once ruled the land. So I don't know what an Irish Earl was doing ruling this land of the Rocky Mountains, but there you go. Yeah. Yeah, right? In room 428, it's a different kind of entity. They say it's the mountain man Jim Rocky Mountain Nugent. And he was a famous or infamous outlaw before Colorado became a state. He was an outlaw. It is said that half his face is disfigured from a grizzly bear fight. Whenever you would use the name Jim Rocky Mountain Nugent, apparently this would strike fear in the hearts of people in the Rockies area back in the day. Wow. Anyway, he really opposed Lord Dunraven. He didn't want Lord Dunraven to purchase this land in the 1870s, and he was shot for it. Died a month later with a bullet in his brain. So the guests in room 428 feel the presence of a man sitting at the foot of their bed or sitting in the corner just watching them. He doesn't do anything more than that. But the overwhelming feeling, oh, actually, he does do something to the female guests. Um, female guests sometimes will report the tickle of lips brushing them awake in the middle of the night.

SPEAKER_05 52:30

Dirty bird. He's a dirty bird.

SPEAKER_04 52:34

Gotta kiss them ladies. I find it interesting that both these men are on the same floor of the Stanley Hotel.

SPEAKER_02 52:44

This is like a whole community of spirits.

SPEAKER_04 52:48

Just like this is crazy. So it got me thinking, why are so many spirits here at this hotel? I mean, it's a large area, but we've I've you know I've looked at other hotels that had a large areas. So there is some um theories as to why so many spirits hotel. So a lot of paranormal investigators claim that the 101 uh foot-wide library and its spiral staircase are responsible for much of the high uh uh for much of the experiences at the Stanley because there's a portal, they they believe there's a portal above the stairs that's created by opposing mirrors. And these opposing mirrors are said to entice numerous spirits into I'm raising my hand into um into the state.

SPEAKER_02 53:35

So spirits agree with that because our listeners can't see this, but uh we're recording over Zoom right now, and Lisa's screen is randomly raising a hand as she's talking about the portal.

SPEAKER_04 53:51

So I guess I got something to say.

SPEAKER_02 53:55

Yeah, spirits agree with what she's saying.

SPEAKER_04 53:59

The staircase and the lobby is a hotbed of spirit activity. Many reports of seeing apparitions, walk down the staircase, walk out the door, people coming through these portals, apparently. So I did a deep dive on mirrors facing each other, and does it actually create a uh a portal? So when two mirrors are facing each other, uh it creates this infinite lube of images, right? And this repeated images creates a visual tunnel of what's called unbroken continuity, meaning there's no beginning, no end. And it is believed by some spiritual systems that energies flow or follow a particular path, whether it's linear or spiral, it doesn't matter, but there's always going to be a pattern to it. So when the two mirrors are facing each other, the repeated pattern created is believed to be a channel of uninterrupted spiritual energy. And this is a setup for a bridge between a spiritual world and our own. Two mirrors in the Stanley Hotel lobby act as portals, ushering in hundreds of con hundreds of I guess, entities. Um, it is also the most famous connections between the dead and the living in the United States mirrors in this lobby. And it maybe that's why there's so much activity on the staircase and in the lobby, too. And I found this fascinating because this hotel was built during the Victorian time, and you're gonna find many, many mirrors throughout this hotel. Victorians were fascinated with the occult and spiritualism, and that and mirrors played a large role in those beliefs. Mirrors um set up to reflect each other might offer a glimpse into the spirit world or show you a spirit. So many Victorians would put the mirrors in their house. And you know, this goes back to a whole lot of other stories about mirrors. You know, you've heard this the bloody Mary stories or the candy man story, you chant that, and through the portal of the mirror comes, you know, this entity. You know, some people say this is a portal to hell. I don't think it's really hell. These spirits don't seem to be, you know, demonic in any way. But and then another rumor about why so much spiritual activity in the Stanley is there are some rumors that the Stanley Hotel was built upon a native native burial ground. There are doubts that exist to this theory, but it's supposed to be built Indian burial ground, but I don't think so. There the fact is though that the area was once a Ute and an Arapaho? Arapaho? Arapaho. And so that could add some credence to that subject, but most people believe that the vortex or this portal is uh the theory of the mirrors is is what is you know more true. Now, can't talk about the Stanley Hotel without talking about Stephen King and the movie The Shining. So I if most people who don't know Stephen King, he writes books usually in the horror genre and the shining, and many of his books have become movies, and the shining was no different. But Stephen King, it is said, stayed in the infamous room of 217. So the story goes: Stephen King, he stayed in this room with his wife Tabitha at the end of September of seven 1974. The two had been on a tour of the Rocky Mountains, they headed to Grand Lake, but a blizzard shut down the Trail Ridge Road and they had to turn back. They came to the Stanley, which was closing for the season on the following day, because the Stanley didn't have heat until 1983, so it closed every um every winter. Somehow the Kings convinced the two remaining staff, the housekeeper and the bartender, to let them stay the night. The four of them were the only people in the echoing in this huge empty hotel, right? A number of strange things then happened to Stephen King over the course of the evening. So while exploring on the fourth floor, King saw two twin girls who seemed so well behaved. The author later complimented the housekeeper on them, thinking they were her children, only to be told that she had no children. Other versions state that King was on the second floor and saw a single boy. Either way, Stephen King saw some child that really wasn't there. Later that night, Stephen King went down to the bar by himself and met the barkeep, Lloyd, who had become a key character in the movie Shining. And actually, Stephen King's not even sure if the man was real, uh, because the whole situation seemed very eerily surreal to him. And then just a little backstory, Stephen King was in the process of writing a book at the time about some sort of uh berserk roller coaster that jumped off its tracks and attacked people, but apparently it wasn't going so great. He's had writer's block. Um, his stay at the Stanley fixed his rider block. Now, these are King's words. According to King, that night I dreamt of my three-year-old son running through the corridors, looking back over his shoulder, eyes wide, screaming. He was being chased by a fire hose. I want you to remember, room 217 exploded and was on fire. Oh, wow. I woke up with a tremendous jerk, sweating all over, within an inch of falling out of bed. I got up, sat in a chair, looking out the window at the Rockies, and by the time he was done smoking a cigarette, he had the bones of a book firmly set in mind. So he abandoned his roller coaster in um deference to his horror classic, The Shining, which he published in 1977, three um, yeah, three three years later. And I don't know if you know anything about the story of The Shining, but the story of The Shining is about a writer who has writer's block that decides to take a caretaker job at a hotel that closes for the season. He moves his wife and his son to this hotel for the season to take care of the hotel where he then proceeds to go mad. His son has psychic visions while at the hotel of two twin girls of different things. And it's you know, the horror then unfolds. So this move the shining was made into a movie in 1980, and just so people know, the famous hedge scene that's in that movie, the hedge maze did not exist at the Stanley Hotel at the time, but it was built after, of course, after the fact in 2015, you can go to the hedge maze now. And what's interesting about the Stanley Hotel is it was never, even though it was the inspiration for the shining, it was never actually shown in the movie. The hotel scenes were not shot at the at the Stanley Hotel, nothing was shot at the Stanley Hotel, except for in 1997, um, Stephen King filmed his adaptation, a mini-series uh of The Shining at the actual Stanley Hotel. And then the other film it was featured in was the movie Dumb and Dumber. And a quick story about that, Jim Carrey, this one of the stars of Dumb and Dumber, apparently stayed in room 217. Um, and according to the hotel lore and various accounts, Carrie, who was filming this at the time, lasted only three hours in the room before checking out abruptly in the middle of the night, reportedly visibly spooked. And he has never talked about it. Wow. So that's the Stanley Hotel of Colorado, and there's so much in this one hotel, and it's not the only thing that's spooky in Colorado. Right. No, no way, right? I don't have any more time to tell you more about Colorado. So we'll have to maybe revisit Colorado and some of the things because there was a haunted road and all these other things. But the Stanley Hotel has enough going on for any paranormal seeker, go to the go to the Stanley Hotel. I do think they do probably they can't not do ghost tours through here. Right. You know. We had a lovely meal. I'm gonna tell you that. We had a lovely meal there.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:01

I mean, it it sounds like regardless of wherever you go, like you're whoever goes, wherever you go in the Stanley Hotel, you're bound to to experience something. Right now, Lisa, did did you actually experience anything when you were there?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:15

I was not there long enough, I think, to experience uh I did not. I cannot, but we did meet a couple people that did have stories and wanted to definitely interview them for their stories of what they experience at the Stanley Hotel. Um you know, if I ever go back to Estes Park, you know, it is one of my things to try and stay at the Stanley Hotel. I'm telling you, just seeing the the hotel from a distance can can give you the heebie jeebies a little bit, you know. You're like woo-hoo, little creepy feel, gotta go there. So that was the Stanley Hotel of Colorado. So what did you find at Montana?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:48

Wow. I don't know how I can top all of that, but that was that's incredible. Uh it has to be a portal, it has to be a portal above the. I agree. I was just gonna I was just gonna say I'm blown away by the idea of there's a portal and that would make sense with all these spirits just like cohabiting. Like it's it's just crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:10

Well, not just the resident spirits that stay there, but there's so many stories and pictures. I actually went on deep dive to look at people's photos of what they capture walking down the staircase out the door.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:22

Yay, I'm free. Let me walk out this way.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:25

Yeah, that's incredible. Well, whenever we uh get a bus and go on go on a trip, then we'll we'll definitely hit up the Stanley Hotel.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:35

Absolutely, absolutely. I think it's important here too, to just for our listeners who might not who are just getting into metaphysics here, as Lisa's talking about the energy of this area, the where the hotel is located, and we've referred it to as a portal of energy. For those of you who are just coming into metaphysics, there there is a long belief, right, of portal of energy is like the lay lines of the earth and the graphic designs that the ley lines create around our earth. And a portal of energy of land is like where specific locations where earth and the magnetic fields connect to the sun and the several different ley lines that intersect, creating powerful intersections, right? It creates vortex of energy which funnel in those particular spots, which in the metaphysical world, there's people that say those funnel of energies create like uh dimensional energy where your state of consciousness is altered, right? I mean, I think I think it's important to know that because there's ley lines all around the world. And if it happens to be, you know, a doorway at Stanley uh hotel, let's do it. Let's let's uh let's go have a spiritual connection in a different way than what we're having here in you know Connecticut.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:04

It'd be interesting, interested to know if the ley lines cross the ley lines that cross the portals that are found in Sedona are along the same ley lines that go up through Estee's uh Colorado.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:16

Oh, that's a good question.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:19

Because I mean Sedona is known as a hot beta portal, too, right? A hot bed of area.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:24

Absolutely, absolutely. So you think maybe the ley line goes through Sedana uh Sedana? I'll be okay. Uh Sedona to Colorado?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:35

Possibly. I don't know. I don't I don't know if they go horizontally around the globe or vertically. Um both, right? Because they create or whatever, but it'd be interesting.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:46

Because one of the ley lines around our earth is the you know, the flower pattern, right? The the flower grid.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:52

I I could ask a couple people I know, like we interviewed Luke Seward. He lives in Longmont, Colorado. So, you know, I wonder if he would know. Not too far from SD's Park.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:02

Yeah, that would that would be great. Let's ask, yeah, or anybody of our listeners that may be interested in ley lines and you know geographical shapes that the ley lines form could could help us out here. That's true.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:19

So Montana, you know, I know we were kind of slightly joking off air about, you know, perhaps could there be any haunted areas near an Airbnb that has cows? They have little little cows. I could not find anything that was really close to that Airbnb. Yeah. Yep. So that was a bummer. But but you know what? It it's just a drive. So maybe we could still stay there with the cows and then just go drive and see where where we're gonna go visit. I think it yeah, it'd be a lot of fun to hang out with them. Um I I grew up in uh cow country, so yeah, that's near and dear to my heart. But uh anyway, so uh the f the first place that I found here is Kempton Hotel in Terry, Montana. It's a small historic hotel built in eastern Montana. It was built in uh 1902, and it's actually the oldest continuously operating hotel in the state. It's and it's much of it has been preserved in its original early 1900s style as well. So that'd be pretty cool just to go visit and see it. So there's a couple spirits that reside there. There's the woman in white, often she's the most well-known spirit. She's uh believed to have been a woman who died during a flu outbreak in the early 1900s, and usually she's seen wearing a long white dress.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:56

Ah, lady in white.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:57

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:58

Lady in white.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:59

Yeah, lady in white, so we gotta write that down. Yep. So she's usually near the attic or the upper floors, and it seems residual because uh she's usually just kind of standing in the hallways, or she'll like appear briefly in the rooms and then disappear. So yeah, I didn't really see much interaction with her. Mostly just she's just there. There's also two children who have there, it's said to be that they were siblings who possibly they passed away from uh uh typhoid fever. Did I say that correctly? Whenever I read this word, I want to pronounce it differently. But yeah, anyway, so um they passed away there while they were staying at the hotel. Their activity is you can hear them like running, running footsteps, uh laughter, uh movement in otherwise empty areas, and um sometimes you'll see them in the upper windows or hallways. So two children. You also have the former owner or caretaker who's there. So they're thinking that uh this spirit is thought to be a man connected to the hotel's early ownership, who passed away in the building in 1949, so I feel like that's more recent. And sometimes, you know, guests feel like and also workers employees feel as though he's still there watching over the hotel. Um so you could hear like heavy footsteps, uh doors opening and closing on their own. Once again, like related to that spirit. Nice. So yeah, I I feel like most of that is more residual, um, rather than you're not really interacting with them. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:30

Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:31

Yeah, yeah. Um a second place I found was Western Heritage Center in Billings, Montana. It's a so the Western Heritage Center is a museum uh housed in the historic 1901 library building. So it used to be a library. Um it currently preserves artifacts and stories from the Yellowstone River Valley in Northern Plains, so sounds like it could be quite educational. Uh but basically um let's see. So there's a couple spirits in particular that live there um or stay there. There's Priscilla, who's uh the child spirit, so said to be a young girl who died in childhood. She's mostly in the attic and uh the stairs. You can see her footprints appearing in dust. So I know we've talked about that over the past couple weeks too, like dust or what we're talking about, like flower at one point.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:25

Everybody with flower, making mess. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:29

She's often described as as playful. There's also the elderly man. So you he's usually seen sitting near the basement fireplace. They're wondering if he was a former patron of when it was a library. Or perhaps he could be like an artist tied to um exhibits that could that are there. But he just appears calm and he's just as if he's just observing the museum. So I thought that'd be kind of interesting to like you know, kind of walk in there and see someone just observing, you know.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:01

And what hotel is this again?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:04

Uh this is called the Western Heritage Center. So it's a museum.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:07

Okay. Oh, sorry, the museum. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:10

Yep, in Building Spontana. Yep. Um. And then there's also the elderly woman. Uh, she's reported mainly on the first floor or in the exhibit rooms. She's just seen usually wearing like a long dress, and she kind of just glides into the room. So they're wondering if she was maybe a former librarian or just somehow connected to that area. And then the last place that I uh looked up here is the Belton uh chalet. I can't pronounce that word. Uh C-H-A-L-E-T. It's in West Glacier, Montana. It's one of the most historic hotels, so Heather, you might be psychic because if we're talking about another hotel. So but it was built around 1910 uh by the Great Northern Railway as the first major lodging stop for visitors entering Glacier National Park. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:11

So actually, Ryan, I think I think I I remember somewhere in my past speaking with somebody. I'm pretty sure I I remember someone telling me about the an apparition there, and she is go ahead, you keep talking, and maybe it'll come to Maine.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:29

Okay, all right, it'll come. So uh staff and guests reportedly they they see a wide range of activity over the years here, like footsteps in empty hallways, lights turning on and off by themselves, door slamming, water faucets turning on, uh voices calling out names, objects moving, you name it. However, uh specific spirits that are there is one of them is called Belton Bob.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:55

He's like a prankster, and he's mostly Oh, great for April Fool's Day, right? Yeah, I know, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:01

Yeah, yeah. Happy April Fool's. Uh so he's known for moving objects, making noise for like pots, pans, like he'll kind of like, you know, rattle them, playing tricks on staff. So yeah, I guess he's just having fun. There's also, I know we talk about this too, like, you know, the um we talked about the man in the fedora hat. Well now we have the man in the derby hat. And so we're gonna have to start a whole new map for like the man in the green hat. Anyway, so so he's he's seen uh in the in the old railroad station um area, and he's just seen wearing a derby hat and like just carrying like a little bag, and and you know, he's he sought to to be a traveler from around that time period.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:46

It's interesting, right? So the spirit is probab is attached to a man in r in in life, right? Who probably was an unassuming guy, and he's known forevermore as the man with the derby hat.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:59

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:00

You know, if you were to if you were to sit here and think, how would I want to be remembered for the rest of eternity? Yeah, would you pick I'd want to be, you know, the lady in white or the man in the derby hat or whatever it might be, you know? It's interesting, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:14

Yeah. Yep, yep, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:16

I forever be, you know, the woman with cats, or you know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:22

Right, right. Or, you know, this next spirit is just known as the sobbing presence. I wouldn't want to be known for I don't know. So apparently guests have reported to hearing like crying or sobbing from certain rooms, like room 30 or 37. Um, sometimes it's just occupied with like voices calling names, whatever, while they're crying. So I I can only imagine it must be heartbreak. Uh that's my guess. So but that's just residual. And then lastly, there's a rocking chair that in an empty room, there's a rocking chair that will just move on its own, like rock back and forth.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:01

Maybe Emily's visiting from Wyoming.

unknown 1:15:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:05

Or Dolly Madison, right? She was the one that sat in the rocking chair on a porch out in Virginia or something like that, or DC.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:11

Yep. Mm-hmm. So uh quite quite an array of uh spirits, uh spiritual of spirit activity actually happening in Montana. Yeah. I but if any of our listeners have been to any of these places, it'd be fascinating to hear about any uh firsthand experience. So feel free to share.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:34

I do seem to recall though when I was l doing research for Wyoming that the hotel you were speaking about had the lady in red, and she was known to intellectually connect with you as well. And I do remember somewhere in my past conversations in life, which you know I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. So um that this someone had spoken to me about this. So like you can clearly see maybe the maybe the guy with the hat and the lady in red were together.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:09

Maybe you never know. Oh, there you go. All right, so we'll go to these places, we'll try to find the connections with all with all these spirits and like like hey, do you hang out with so and so in room 30? Like, what's going on?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:22

Yes, I love this. Why room 30? Yeah, why does he have a green hat and you're in a red dress? What's going on here?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:31

What's going on with this?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:35

For sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:36

Is this your favorite rocking chair? What's going on?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:40

Is this the one that creaks a lot and you like to scare people? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:46

Well, before we, you know, we're gonna continue our trek through the Rocky Mountain states next week, but before we leave, want to hear what you guys are up to over the weekend. Anything to report?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:58

Hmm. I think all three of us have something to report, but who wants to go first?

SPEAKER_04 1:17:02

We do. We had an amazing Sunday, this past Sunday, with the Astrological Society of Connecticut and their New Age Fair. We were honored enough to be able to have a table there for our podcast to see if we can interact with some of the listeners. We had quite a few people stop in to support us, see our map of our spirit ladies, and uh give us some topic ideas. It was a really wonderful experience to for Heather and I, we used to do these fair circuits early on in our business. So we were able to see some old faces that we hadn't seen in a while, you know. We connect with some people. It was I I had a wonderful time. I had a wonderful time.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:43

Yeah, it was great to be out there. It was great to be at the fair and the capacity of just being able to talk with everybody and you know, not sitting at the table doing as many psychic readings as possible. And it was just so great to see people we haven't seen in years, and then just to have that reaction of like, oh my god, I haven't seen you in a thousand years, you know. It was, and it was great. And I was it was so nice to watch, you know, just everybody come over to the table and engage with us, and some of you know, some people who know Lisa and I, just Ryan, just so they got to meet you, and everybody was just so enamored, like, wow, this, you know, you guys make a great team. And I heard that repetitively, like um, several people that walked over to the table were like, you guys just banter so great, and um, we're just so happy and proud to be here. And without you, Ryan, we we wouldn't be where we were either with this podcast. So, like, I'm really glad you got to meet um people that we knew, and we got to meet a lot of new faces and just building new memories, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:53

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:54

I remember looking to you, Ryan, saying, What do you think of this kind of fair? Because you've been to other networking kinds of things and different types of affairs for your artist having media business, but this type of fair of a community of people who think like this, you know. Um, I remember asking you about that and what you thought, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:13

Yeah, it was it was certain, certainly, I'd say enlightening, you know, and and uh truly and inspiring. And I truly appreciated everyone who came to our table, whether they were just curious or the amount of people that came just to talk about their experiences. And and it's just like, wow, like this is what it's about, like being in the community, hearing from other people, realizing that we're all not alone as well. So um, I just found it so fascinating. That was my key takeaway, too. People coming up and being like, yeah, I I experienced you know something similar like this, and then they felt comfortable enough to actually share it with us at that time, too. That was truly incredible.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:57

So I think everybody that met us really, really well, we promote it anyways, but like we're a safe place, we're a safe space. And you know, with the three of us together and individually, we engulfed that kind of like happy, let's let's talk, you know, we promote that, and people just I love how comfortable people were. Um, yeah, I missed the fairs. I don't miss how tiring those fairs are. I was pretty much a zombie on Monday, but yeah. Yeah, I'm not used to standing on my feet for six hours anymore, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:45

Well, that it was a great time of connection and just meeting some of the people that were there doing their, you know, their own um product, let's say, or their own service. It was really great. And just personally, you know, just having some connections that were done for me were just really affirming and felt good. It felt really good. And um, yeah, so so grateful, so thankful for the community that is there supporting us and and now knows some new people that now know about us. And uh, you know, hopefully it'll bring more listeners our way too.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:23

And some more people who realize we're still in business.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:28

Well Heather and I heard that. Where'd you what happened to you guys? Where'd you go? I'm like, Well, we just it was lovely. And we got to meet um one of your interns too that came out to support and take some photos, which was really wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:45

Yes, yes, absolutely, yes, yeah, it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:50

Great weekend, great weekend. And uh, we're so grateful for all our listeners and again, anybody that would like to invite us out and host us, we were we would love to come with our equipment and have some fun and uh just continue this beautiful journey that we're totally in love with and bringing and broadcasting to you, to everyone listening.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:13

You know what was really cool too for for us, and actually you mentioned it too, Ryan, for saying it's great to see you in person because we've been doing our podcast, recording it through Zoom through the winter. We haven't been in the same place, the three of us together like that in a while. So that was fun too. Yeah. So yeah. Anyway, all right, it's springtime. I have an affirmation for springtime. Would you all like to hear it? Absolutely. Okay, I actually have a couple, but here's one. I release what it I release what was and embrace what is. So that's sort of like the new beginning. And then how about this one? Every step I take is leading me toward my highest good.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:59

There you go.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:00

And even though this episode is not appearing on April 1st, today is April 1st for this podcast recording. And in the old world, on the first day of every month, we say rabbit, rabbit, rabbit. And that is to solidify the beautiful um energy and brings prosperity because rabbits are all about prosperity and success. So we give you that today, even though when you're listening to this, it's not the first. We bring you prosperity and success for all of us talking to you and all of you listening. Oh, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit. Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:42

Yeah, rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:44

Oh, come on.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:52

And on that note, we'll see you next week to connect.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:05

Thank you for tuning in to Ready to Connect. If you're interested in exclusive behind-the-scenes content, be sure to like, share, and follow us on social media by searching for Ready to Connect Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. And for those looking to further support our podcast, consider subscribing to our Patreon at patreon.comslash ready to connect podcast. And until next time, get ready to connect.