Have Ghosts Will Travel
Have Ghosts Will Travel follows the paranormal research and field investigations of Sarah Landis and friends as they check out and report findings on legendary locations.
Have Ghosts Will Travel
The Stanley Hotel, room 217
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July 10, 2026
Have Ghosts Will Travel
The Stanley Hotel, room 217- Episode 7
Don and I travel to Estes Park, Colorado to investigate room 217 in the Stanley “Shining” Hotel. Stephen King and Jim Carey both had frightening experiences. What will we find?
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Pressure just changed and thanks for tuning in to episode 7 of Have Ghosts Will Travel, the podcast where I take my friends to investigate paranormal locations and then report back on what we find. I'm your host, Sarah Landis, and today is an extra special episode because my best friend Anne Husband traveled to Estes Park, Colorado to investigate the Stanley Hotel's infamous room 217. Before we start, just a reminder that this podcast is AI free. Everything is human-made, researched, and written by me. Our theme song is composed and performed by Shane Peterson. Please see the amazing photos and videos from our investigation into room two hundred seventeen at the Stanley Hotel on our Instagram at Have Ghosts Will Travel. Or at our new website, Have GhostsWillTravel.org. The one and only Stanley Hotel, aka The Shining Hotel, is the hotel that inspired Stephen King to write his hit novel. More on that later. What is the story behind this incredible place? The Stanley Hotel website, found simply at thestanley.com, tells a detailed version of its history, which I will summarize here. Long before Stephen King, Freeland Oscar Stanley, recovering from tuberculosis, traveled to what is now the town of Estes Park and was so taken by its beauty and his revitalized health that he decided to come back every year. He and his wife Flora didn't want to give up the sophistication of the East Coast and so set about building the beautiful and grand Stanley Hotel. The doors opened in 1909. Back then it was the gem of Colorado, a truly spectacular hotel complete with electricity, telephones, automobiles, and the like. Over the decades, however, it slowly started to fall into disarray, money not being spent on repairs due to lack of investment. However, a fateful visit from Stephen King on October 8th, 1974 changed the hotel's fortune. Being a colder month, the King family were the only guests. His one-night stay was enough to inspire one of the greatest horror stories of our lifetime. Now, the hotel is a bustling place set in the front range of the Rocky Mountains, and stepping into it actually feels like traveling back to the beginning of the 20th century. The town is quaint, and the beautiful Rocky Mountain National Park touches everything in the area with a sense of wonder and awe. But that's not all the hotel has to offer. It's always intriguing when the paranormal history of a place out lengthens the normal history. And boy oh boy, buckle in because there's so much to go over and all of it is interesting. Let's dig in. The ghostly appearances of Mrs. Elizabeth Wilson center around our room, room 217, and are some of the earliest and long-standing paranormal events. Susan Barnes has a good write-up from RoadTrippers.com explaining what happened. She writes, quote, Elizabeth Wilson was the Stanley Hotel's head chambermaid. On July 25th, 1939, she was nearly killed in an explosion and it took three hours to free her from the rubble. Wilson continued to work at the hotel until 1951 when she died in her sleep, but some say her spirit never left. Wilson particularly likes married couples. Unmarried couples who dare to share a room may find that they have Wilson as a chaperone for the evening. During Wilson's tenure, single men not permitted in the main hotel were relegated to the lodge next door. Today, if she finds a single man staying in the main hotel, Wilson might pack up his bags and leave them outside the door. End quote. Stephen King stayed in this room and had such vivid nightmares that he was inspired to write The Shining after his night there. He and his wife reported that they left the room for a few minutes and some of their clothes were put away in the dresser. King didn't disguise the infamous room in his novel. He had the fictional hotel chef warn young Danny about the room, saying, quote, She had seen something in one of the rooms where, well, a bad thing happened. That was in room 217, and I want you to promise me you won't go in there, Danny. Not all winter. Steer right clear, end quote. Additionally, actor Jim Carrey requested the room after hearing about its reputation with Stephen King while he was filming Dumb and Dumber. He was so freaked out by something that happened that he left after only three hours and refused to go back. The well-known sci-fi channel series Ghost Hunters had the run of the place for a night investigation in 2006. The hotel night auditor at the time recounts the gas explosion that injured Mrs. Wilson and reiterates that guests have all sorts of experiences with her, like walking into the room or bathroom and the light coming on for them. Plenty of other guests interested in the paranormal have stayed here and there are a myriad of videos on YouTube of them recounting their experiences. Just be sure to judge their credibility accordingly, of course. Now one of the coolest and unexpected things about the room was in the corner, the hotel staff added a bookshelf filled with Stephen King novels and other horror stories. On the very bottom shelf in the corner, there's a gigantic stack of papers, some random scraps, some the back of receipts, or even cardboard serial boxes where guests have written years worth of notes about what they experienced in the room. This of course was so fascinating to me because as I sorted through them, I found there were common experiences that I hadn't seen mentioned online or in any TV show, video, or blog. I took some pictures and notes of these firsthand accounts, and we'll go through some highlights here. There were plenty of people who wrote that nothing strange happened at all and that they had a wonderful time. Many jokes about sleeping too soundly from drinking spirits to notice any ghostly spirits. Awesome, but not what we're here for. So many people left notes about hearing disembodied voices and whispers. One woman said she woke up in the middle of the night and heard two men having a low conversation in the corner of the room near the desk, including one of the men giving a little chuckle. Many reports said lights would go on and off. Several people mentioned feeling cold spots. There were a couple mentions of the bathroom window flying open, which of course I had to go debunk. Multiple guests had reported extra vivid dreams or nightmares, which of course harkens back to Stephen King's experience. Other reports of more interactive experiences were also kinda common. Multiple people report that during the night they wake up because their feet are being touched, like a gentle, comforting pat. Also, multiple people wrote that their pillow was touched, fluffed, or pulled at while they slept at night. One guest reported items being tipped over. Another mentioned the scariest thing about the room was the Shinhai bedpost, perfect for smashing into, which made Dawn and I laugh until we each had our own personal experience with this, and then it stopped becoming funny. There were probably at least 200 of these notes, and I didn't have time to go through all of them. But it's great that people's stays are being documented and that the hotel supports this tradition. Now, I've never been one to just simply report on other people's experiences. Ever since watching the Ghost Hunters episode with my dad as a young teenager, I knew I had to go there and experience these things for myself. So I booked room 217, and on June 21st, Don and I landed in the Denver airport, took a shuttle over to Estes Park, and were dropped off at the Stanley Hotel. The magnificent hotel nestled in the backdrop of the mountains takes your breath away. We arrived at the hotel around 6 p.m. with our nice road mics, two EMF meters, and a FLIR thermal camera. It's a lively place with multiple restaurants, constant tours, and a cafe in the basement, so tons of people were out and about. Even though we were staying in the room and always alert and listening, we couldn't actually start recording a serious investigation until about 10 p.m. when the noise started to die down. Just a sneak peek that we did have experiences that weren't always captured and documented on audio or video, but I will talk about those at the end. After dark, the noise outside started to settle down. We turned off most of the lights, and here's what we discovered. Alright, so getting EMF reading of the room. The light is very low. I'm getting a 0.1 is the highest, just walking around the perimeter. Nothing crazy. Of course, the outlet. No, not even the outlet is giving off a high reading. So very low overall. Around the edges of the room, nothing. I mean, not even the chargers, but 0.5, 0.8. That's very low. That's very like normal, right? Yeah. The bathroom door fluctuating a little bit, but again, the highest is 0.1. Moving on to where the TV is.
SPEAKER_02Creaky floor.
SPEAKER_04Very creaky floor. I mean, the TV's gonna give a high reading. That outlet by the TV. You got a 0.8 was the highest, but even then it's not even one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, these all sound like normal readings to me.
SPEAKER_04Very low, yeah. We got this big armoire, 0.1, 0, 0.1, 0, 0.3. So overall, very, very low readings. 0.8, I think, was the absolute highest. So the baseline for the room is 0.0 to point, I'd say 0.5 on average, with the highest being 0.8, but still not even reaching one. So pretty low. So if this does jump, that would be I don't know, it would be something to think about. Let me get out my thermal camera. I'm gonna turn off some of these lights. After establishing that there really is no significant electromagnetic fields in the room, I get out the thermal.
SPEAKER_02I can't tell. It looked like there's something else over here on there as well.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I got it. Um it must be the on the arm of the couch below you.
SPEAKER_02Like here?
SPEAKER_04Like on the front. Right there, right there.
SPEAKER_02Right here? Yeah. On the front?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. But even like it was registering warmer, but only see or feel anything. It looks like there's an old vent unit on the floor behind you.
SPEAKER_02There is, but it's not doing anything. Yeah. It's like a radiator.
SPEAKER_04Oh. Something is.
SPEAKER_02You got something?
SPEAKER_04What is that? That's the dresser. That's that little dresser.
SPEAKER_02Why is that giving off heat?
SPEAKER_04Move your hand up. And then to the left. Yeah, what's that?
SPEAKER_02Nothing. This is just the drawer.
SPEAKER_04Oh. I don't know why that would be giving off heat. Unless it was reflecting something.
SPEAKER_02Maybe it's reflecting the lamp.
SPEAKER_04Maybe the TV.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I'm guessing. That looks like the direct TV box.
SPEAKER_04Makes sense, though that would be hot. That's really cold, whatever that is.
SPEAKER_02Where is it at? Tell me when to stop.
SPEAKER_04Keep going. It's on the floor.
SPEAKER_02Is it where my foot is?
SPEAKER_04No, it's further. Keep going towards the wall.
SPEAKER_02My whole body just reacted as if something is my hair's standing on end.
SPEAKER_04It's something is colder over there.
SPEAKER_02It feels cold on the floor.
SPEAKER_04I can see that it's colder.
SPEAKER_02It's Miss Wilson, are you here with me?
SPEAKER_04What's above you? Is there a vent? Why would that be cold? Is there a vent under the arm wall?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I might be going underneath this. Well wait, they said there's no air conditioning in this building.
SPEAKER_04There is no. You're right, there is no air conditioning.
SPEAKER_02So there's no vents. Well, whatever it was passed. I'm no longer, my hair's no longer standing on it. But it's still colder over here. It was like right here.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Like you can feel it. Like if you stand, oh, it's kind of damp.
SPEAKER_04It's right here. Oh, it is. It is something damp. It's just a damp, it's just a wet spot.
SPEAKER_02I definitely felt something standing over here. Yeah, I got I got to like right here and started to and my whole body just like had a wave wash over it. Like all the all the hair on my arm started to stand on end.
SPEAKER_04You think it was a static y thing from walking on the carpet?
SPEAKER_02No, I'm very familiar with static. That was not static.
SPEAKER_04Interesting. Well, it's on the mics. And it's on this. Now I didn't mention this to Don, but earlier, long before we started recording, I felt a strange cold spot on that same side of the room. Not exactly where he was, but on the same side. I was just walking around unpacking things and it hit me, causing me to stop. There's no central air in this hotel, no HVAC units. Instead there's a window unit, but it was not turned on. My gear was still packed, but luckily we were able to get Dawn's reaction on audio and thermal. Is a small wet spot on the floor enough to create two cold spots in different parts of the same side of the room? I don't know about that. Another explanation, also unlikely but way more fun, is that the manifestation of the spirit of Mrs. Wilson is drawing energy from the air, causing cold spots around the wet spot of the floor, where she's trying to clean up the mess and continue her maid duties even to this day. We then turn our attention to try to communicate directly with Mrs. Wilson. I start by reading a blurb about what happened to her in hopes that it will stir something up. Alright, we're starting an EVP session. A little history on the Stanley. It opened in 1909, and the first guests who arrived in stylish Stanley designed steam cars were astonished at what they found. Here in them in this mountain wilderness was an edifice comparable to the Posh hotels back east. Electric lights, telephones, and suite bedrooms, a staff uniformed, a staff of uniformed servants, and a fleet of motor cars at their disposal. On June 25th, June 25th, that's coming up. 1911, a gas leak filled room 217. Unaware of this leak, Mrs. Wilson entered the room with a lit candle, triggering an explosion that blew her through the floor into the dining room below.
SPEAKER_02Jesus.
SPEAKER_04But it says she survived.
SPEAKER_02Through the floor?
SPEAKER_04And lived to work in then lived to work at the hotel until the 1950s. Following her death, Mrs. Wilson is said to have returned to her housekeeping duties in the afterlife. Today, room 217 is frequently booked by fans, and guests have reported several encounters. They often wake up to find suitcases packed and closed neatly folded. Unexplained cold spots, which we just had, flickering lights and doors unlocking on their own. Known for being conservative, she is said to wedge herself between unmarried couples sleeping in the bed. Room 217 is famously the room where author Stephen King and his wife stayed in 1973. Their eerie experience there, along with the legends of Mrs. Wilson, directly inspired Stephen King to write The Shining. Alright, let's start an EVP session. I'm Sarah. This is Dawn. We're here staying in this room tonight, hoping to see if we can talk to you, Mrs. Wilson, or whoever else may be here. We're coming out of respect, but just to see if there's something you want to say to us, or if you want to help us get packed in the morning, or tuck us in at night, that would be great. We have some devices on the bed. There's a gray device that has some lights on it. If you go near it and make it light up, we'll know that you're here. So it would be really great if you could approach one of those devices at any point. They're not gonna hurt you. Were you the head chambermaid here? Did you like working here? Is that why you stayed behind? That's people walking outside.
SPEAKER_02How do you feel about the notoriety that has come from Stephen King staying in this room?
SPEAKER_04Was it you who scared Stephen King?
SPEAKER_02Or maybe Jim Carrey.
SPEAKER_04We're inviting you to come talk to us today. You can sit in this chair next to me or on the couch.
SPEAKER_02I'll make some room for you.
SPEAKER_04It is a very beautiful hotel.
SPEAKER_02Come take a load off, Miss Wilson. What does that spot on the floor that we saw earlier look like?
SPEAKER_04It's still cold. Still a cold spot. I think it's because it's wet, like you said. Well, Mrs. Wilson, please feel free to come talk to us. We'll be staying in here tonight. We'd love to hear what you have to say. It's creaking from upstairs. I think you do a very good job of keeping this hotel looking great. So thank you for everything that you've done. Some people say that they feel their pillows being touched or fluffed at night, or their feet being touched or padded. Is that you? Any movement on the devices?
SPEAKER_01None.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna move this one to where I can see it because I can't see it at all.
SPEAKER_01Maybe she feels more comfortable around a woman as well.
SPEAKER_04I'll put it over here. Are you able to approach that light on the on the corner of the bed? The sheet looks like it needs to be tucked in a little bit. It's a little unkept. Lots of little noises and creaks, but you could be walking down the hall and hear a creak or someone upstairs, or maybe even downstairs. It's very old and creaky.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Pretty much all those noises are discounted.
SPEAKER_02The sound carries very strangely in this room.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Like that was someone walking upstairs, I think. That was my chair creaking.
SPEAKER_02Did you say something after talking about the creaking?
SPEAKER_04I said that was my chair creaking.
SPEAKER_02Before that.
SPEAKER_04I did not. What did you hear?
SPEAKER_02A whisper.
SPEAKER_04You heard a whisper?
SPEAKER_02I heard a whisper.
SPEAKER_04From what side?
SPEAKER_02It sounded like it came from you.
SPEAKER_04Sounded like it came from over here?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I didn't say anything. My chair might have creaked a little bit.
SPEAKER_02No, this wasn't a chair creak. That was a voice.
SPEAKER_04I didn't hear over here. You think it might have been from out in the hallway?
SPEAKER_02Maybe.
SPEAKER_04If that was you, Mrs. Wilson, could you please say that again? That's people upstairs.
SPEAKER_02Oh. I definitely thought I heard something for a second there though.
SPEAKER_04Well, I'll listen to it when I go over the mics and see.
SPEAKER_02As you said, uh you were saying something about yeah, I think that's creaking upstairs, yada yada. And then I heard a whisper. And I thought it was you whispering something under your breath. And then you followed it up by saying that your chair was creaking.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I didn't whisper anything. Unless I did and forgot, but that I would I'll be able to identify my voice pretty easily. Sure. Is there someone who's not Mrs. Wilson here?
SPEAKER_02You're welcome to contact us as well. It doesn't have to be Miss Wilson.
SPEAKER_04A lot of people write that they've had weird dreams, very vivid dreams, lucid dreams. Stephen King said he had a bad nightmare. Do you feel any like weird vibes or creepiness or anything?
SPEAKER_02I I'm definitely getting a vibe from this room, but uh I felt it the strongest when I was investigating that cold spot for sure. Like my whole body, like I was just like standing there, and my whole body just got this wave of like something was happening.
SPEAKER_04Hmm. It does have a certain like heaviness to it. When we first got here and walked in and put our bags down before dinner. It felt totally normal. But like walking back in, opening the door felt like different that time. I don't know why.
SPEAKER_02It felt I felt something when we first got here.
SPEAKER_04You did? I didn't really. What did you feel?
SPEAKER_02Like I was being watched.
SPEAKER_04Oh, you did? I didn't feel that at all.
SPEAKER_02It didn't feel like malicious or like angry. It was just like there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. See, I didn't get that. But coming back from dinner, like when I opened the door, it felt like I was like interrupting something. You know?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Alright, well, if you want to come talk to us throughout the night, that's totally fine. But I think we might get in bed now. So we've listened to this audio countless times, boosted it, and there's nothing there. No voice from outside, no mistaking my voice for the whisper, no faint sound, nothing. It just has to go down as an unexplained personal experience for Don. After a kind of uneventful EVP session, we go to bed weary from travel, but with a sense of anticipation that Mrs. Wilson might be visiting us during the night. Don fell asleep very quickly, but I lay awake reading, waiting for something to happen. People were pretty loud as they left the restaurant on the floor below, and I'll play a sample of their voices. It's obvious that they are live humans, and obviously the voices are coming from outside, so no logical person would mistake them for ghostly voices. Here's a quick sample of just how loud they are from our room 217 so you can hear. Zero, mostly zero. That's just someone bringing towels to the room next door. In the middle of the night, I twice heard what sounded like when someone opens their mouth to speak but doesn't actually say anything. I'm laying on my back. Don is on my right side, and the sound came from my left between the bed and the couch along the wall. It was more identifiable and significant sounding in person, but luckily I did capture it on the mics that I left running overnight. I'll play it now. You can hear it happen twice, and then the rustling immediately after is me sitting up in bed to look in that direction. Let's loop and listen.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for calling the Stanley Hotel a historic and iconic landmark in beautiful Estes Park, Colorado. Please listen to the following menu choices to be directed to the destination you desire. For reservations, press one. To speak with the front desk, press two.
SPEAKER_04For a coleman family, how can I help you? Hi, um, I was wondering if you all ever had like horseback tours or horse-drawn carriage tours come to the hotel. Um, not that I'm aware of. No, I'm so sorry. Okay. Alright, that's alright. Thank you. So did I hear disembodied horses visiting the hotel at night? When I heard it, it clearly sounded like it was coming from outside. Maybe this is some auditory remnant of the past echoing through the present. Or maybe the hotel clerk was just unaware that someone does ride horses up to the hotel. That was pretty much it for during the night. I went through hours and hours of audio and there were tons of bumps and creaks, but being an old creaky hotel and sounds traveling easily into the room, I feel confident in saying that everything else was not paranormal in nature. However, the next morning, when we went to breakfast, I started recording again and invited Mrs. Wilson to help us pack and leave. I did get some interesting things here. Alright, we're gonna go eat breakfast, Mrs. Wilson, but if you would like to help me pack, that would be awesome. Because I'm a mess. And I need your help. One is that there are bumps that are obviously coming from inside the room close to the mic. Here are some samples of sounds and bumps coming from outside the room first, so we can compare it with sounds that I think are coming from inside the room. It also at one point sounds like the microphone is being touched. Let's take a listen. The most interesting audio clip is what sounds like possible humming to me. I've debated about this because we now know that other humans are so easily heard from down the hall and outside and upstairs. But I chose to highlight this because it's humming. I wonder how loud someone would have to be for humming to pick up in the room. Also, someone humming that loudly, besides being unhinged, is just a weird thing to do. Listen for yourself and tell me what you think in the podcast comments wherever you stream, or in the Instagram post from today's episode. Now let's loop and listen. Starting with the most significant is that Don woke up and the first thing he told me was that around 5 in the morning he said his pillow was touched. Quote, two distinct taps, end quote, to be exact. Besides being insanely jealous that this didn't happen to me, I made him show me exactly what he meant, and he recreated what he said it felt like, which was two firm taps or pats on the corner of his pillow facing the edge of the bed, which is obviously not the side I was sleeping on. This is a claim that several people have made in this room. Also, upon first entering the room, Don alleges he felt a presence, nothing bad, just something standing there and watching. I did not feel this at all. It felt like a normal space to me. However, coming back from dinner, when I opened the door, I had a strange sense that I was interrupting people. So much so that I paused and almost apologized and began to reclose the door before regaining my senses, realizing that I was walking into an empty room. Of course, these experiences are nothing that can be validated and not evidence at all, but anecdotes that I thought were worth mentioning. I've already discussed my cold spot, but I also had a short experience while I was brushing my teeth before bed. The bathroom is quite beautifully renovated, and I was just standing there letting my mind wander when a chill passed through me. It's hard to explain because it didn't get colder, but it just felt like a wave of energy that made the hair on my arm stand on in. And then after three seconds or so, it was gone. Paranormal or not, I can't say, but it was weird. Now this next one is also purely anecdotal and not able to validate paranormal activity in any way. But it's weird and I wanted to mention it given the history of the room. I had two short dreams where I had sleep paralysis. I didn't actually have an episode of sleep paralysis, which I have experienced, but two dreams where I went to sleep and had a dream where I had sleep paralysis where I was lying on my stomach in the bed, being held down by some unseen force and panicking. A dream within a dream, you might say. Again, dreams are never evidence of the paranormal, and the most logical conclusion is that I was thinking about the history of the room so much, given my weeks of research and reading, that it was in my subconscious as I went to sleep. So what I'm left with as I come to conclusions is a beautiful old hotel with many stories from many people. And it's not just limited to room 217 either. That was the focus of my stay, but there are accounts from all over the hotel and its grounds. Unfortunately, we didn't get anything crazy on our audio or video, which is frustrating. Part of my quest behind my investigations and episodes is to answer the question, why do some spirits stick around after death? Is it from traumatic deaths, or could it be from love and emotional attachment to the place? Does one happen more than the other? Is it a choice? I was hoping that my stay in room 217 would be a slight tug on a string to unravel this mystery, but no such luck. There might be activity in 217, and if it is Mrs. Wilson, it seems that she likes to stay out of the way and show up during sleep or when guess her out of the room. Overall, with the history and reports and the few strange things that happened during our stay, I definitely think the Stanley Hotel is haunted. Despite no bombshell evidence, this was an amazing location, and I 100% recommend taking a trip out here. I know that Don and I are already planning our next trip where we will be staying on the fourth floor this time, where a cowboy stands at the edge of the bed and watches you sleep.
SPEAKER_02Wait, what?
SPEAKER_04Just because you don't have facial features, you know.
SPEAKER_03Do they know what TVs are?