The Stanley Hotel

The Stanley Hotel is a 138-room Georgian hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. Located within sight of the Rocky Mountain National Park, the Stanley offers panoramic views of the Rockies. It was built in 1909 by Freelan O. Stanley of Stanley Steamer fame and catered to the rich and famous.cite web|title="Rocky Mountain Legends"|work=LegendsOfAmerica.com|url=http://www.legendsofamerica.com/CP-EstesParkHaunting.html|accessdate=2007-05-10] The hotel and its surrounding lands are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.cite web|title="About The Stanley"|work=StanleyHotel.com|url=http://www.stanleyhotel.com/about.html|accessdate=2007-05-09]

The Stanley has hosted many famous guests, including the Titanic survivor Margaret Brown, John Philip Sousa, Theodore Roosevelt, the Emperor and Empress of Japan, and a variety of Hollywood personalities. The Stanley Hotel also hosted Stephen King, inspiring him to write "The Shining". Contrary to information sometimes published King was living in Boulder at the time and did not actually write the novel at the hotel. Parts of the mini-series version of "The Shining" were filmed there, although it was not used for Stanley Kubrick's cinematic version.

The Stanley Hotel shows the uncut R-rated version of Kubrick's "The Shining" on a continuous loop on Channel 42 on guest room televisions.

History

In 1903, F. O. Stanley, inventor of the Stanley Steamer automobile, came to Estes Park for his health.cite web|title="Rocky Mountain National Park - Culture"|work=US-Parks.com|url=http://www.us-parks.com/rocky/culture.html|accessdate=2007-05-10] Stanley suffered from tuberculosis and came West at his doctor's suggestion. The doctor arranged for the couple to stay in a cabin in Estes Park for the summer. Immediately, they fell in love with the area and Stanley's health began to dramatically improve. Impressed by the beauty of the valley and grateful for the improvement in his health, he decided to invest his money and his future there. In 1909, he opened the elegant Stanley Hotel, a classic hostelry exemplifying the golden age of touring.After spending the summer in the cabin, Flora wanted a home like the one she had left in Maine. Their home was built about one-half mile west of where the Stanley Hotel would later be built. Today the house is a private residence.

Stanley built the hotel on land that he purchased from the English Earl Lord Dunraven. Dunraven came to the area in 1872 while on a hunting trip. He built a hunting lodge, cabin, and hotel for his guests and illegally homesteaded up to convert|15000|acre|km2 in an unsuccessful attempt to create a private hunting preserve. Dunraven, was finally run out of the area after trying to swindle folks out of their land and money.In 1907, construction started on the Stanley Hotel. Wood and rock were obtained from the nearby mountains and the hotel was built in the Georgian architectural style, which experienced a revival in the early Twentieth century. Equipped with running water, electricity, and telephones, the only amenity the hotel lacked was heat, as the hotel was designed as a summer resort.

Popular culture

The neoclassical hotel was the inspiration for the fictional Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's novel "The Shining". While he and his wife were staying at the Stanley, King conceived the basic idea for the novel. The 1997 television miniseries version of "The Shining" was filmed at the Stanley, and it has been used as a location site for other films as well, most notably as the "Hotel Danbury" in "Dumb and Dumber".cite web|title="Stanley Hotel Ghost Story "|work=Allstays.com|url=http://www.allstays.com/Haunted/co_estespark_stanley.htm|accessdate=2007-05-09]

In May 2006, investigators with The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) investigated the hotel for the SciFi Channel program "Ghost Hunters". TAPS returned to the hotel on October 31st, 2006 for a live, six hour follow-up investigation.

Hotel ghosts

In addition to its regular guests, the hotel is reported to play host to a number of otherworldly visitors. The most notable is F.O. Stanley himself who is most often seen in the lobby and the Billiard Room, which was his favorite room when he was still alive. On one such occasion, he was said to have appeared during a tour group’s visit to the Billiard Room, materializing behind a member of the tour. Bartenders at the old hotel also report having seen F.O. stroll through the bar, disappearing when they try to cut him off at the kitchen.

Flora Stanley purportedly haunts the hotel as well, continuing to entertain guests with her piano playing in the Music room. Employees and guests have reported hearing music coming from the room, and when they take a peek into the room they can see the piano keys moving. However, as soon as someone walks across the threshold to investigate further, the music stops and no more movement can be seen upon the keys of the piano.

Cleaning crews report having heard many strange noises coming from room 418, as well as seeing impressions on the bed when the room has been empty. Guests often report they hear children playing in the hallway at night. One couple reportedly checked out of the hotel very early in the morning, complaining that the children in the hallway kept them up all night. However, there were no children booked in the hotel at the time.

A ghost named Miss Wilson also haunts room 217

In 2002, a guest reportedly recorded a ghostly man wearing a cowboy hat and a mustache staring out of the window of room 408. The image stood in the window for a few minutes then fades to the left of the window. Upon questioning the front desk about the odd image, the employee explained that nobody was checked into that room that evening and nobody could have stood in that window since it was above the bathroom sink and the "fading" direction would have taken the person through the wall.

In 2006, a guest attending her sister's wedding (held in the Music Room) had an unearthly and unexplained encounter. During the wedding reception, she went upstairs to the Bride and Groom's suite and -- as a joke -- wrote "RED RUM" on the bathroom mirror in lipstick. Returning downstairs, walking down the grand staircase leading to the lobby, she felt a distinct shove on her lower back, lost her footing, and fell eight steps landing face down on the wood floor below. After being helped to her feet, she looked behind her to see who did it, and no one was there.Fact|date=January 2008 Members of a tour group in the lobby who witnessed her fall also saw no one behind her on the staircase.Fact|date=January 2008

Investigations

As a special event on T.V. TAPS, The Atlantic Paranormal Society did an investigation on the hotel multiple times. They recorded all types of activity from a child saying hello in the basement to seeing shadows. And even at one point Jason Hawes, a lead investigator left his camera on while he slept in a room. During the video tape you can hear what sounds like glass being smashed or broken and of a door opening. When he gets up to see what the noise was he had realized one of the glasses on the table was broken out of nowhere and the closet door is open. After putting the camera down on the nightstand and going back to sleep, viewers can see the closet door close by itself.

TAPS also did a live T.V. special investigation of the hotel on Halloween in 2006.

Another live investigation is in order on Halloween 2008.

References

External links

* [http://www.stanleyhotel.com Official Website]
* [http://www.us-parks.com/rocky/culture.html Rocky Mountain National Park - Culture]
* [http://www.legendsofamerica.com/CP-EstesParkHaunting.html Ghosts and Hauntings of Estes Park, CO]
* [http://suewidemark.com/historyinfo/stanleyhotel.htm Stephen King - The Overlook - The Stanley Hotel and Ghosts]
* [http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/spookymountainnews/stanley.shtml The Stanley Hotel on SpookyMountainNews]
* [http://www.planetparanormal.com/podcast/index.php?id=173 Spirit Talk: The Stanley Hotel]
* [http://www.allstays.com/Haunted/co_estespark_stanley.htm Colorado Hauntings]