AZ Haunted Hotels: Jerome and Oatman
Connor Hotel (Jerome)
Mile High Inn (Jerome)
Jerome Grand Hotel (Jerome)
When the Jerome Grand Hotel was first built as a hospital in 1926. United Verde Hospital was equipped with all the most up-to-date and well equipped hospital in Arizona. When the mines started to dry up, the hospital was forced to close its doors by 1950. For over 44 years the structure stood abandoned until it was bought, renovated and became the Jerome Grand Hotel. The reports of paranormal activity started after the hotel opened its doors to the public in 1997. Witnesses feel the patients who died when the building was a hospital might still be hanging around. They report hearing heavy breathing and coughing coming from empty rooms. Two female ghosts have been seen wandering the halls. One of them is dressed in white and holding a clipboard, and the other resembles a woman who died at childbirth. Other claims is that of a child ghost running around in the bar, disembodied screaming, doors opening and closing by themselves, and unseen footsteps in empty hallways.
Ghost City Inn (Jerome)
Constructed sometime in the 1890s, this building has been a boarding house, funeral home, art gallery, a religious retreat, and finally the Ghost City Inn. Today the inn has many reports of ghostly activity. In the Cleopatra Hill a woman's apparition has been seen, a male spirit has been reported in the Verde View room, doors shutting on their own, and disembodied voices.
Oatman Hotel (Oatman)
The Oatman Hotel is famous for many things from who used to lay their hats there to the claims of ghosts roaming around the building. The hotel was built in 1902 and is the oldest two-story adobe structure in town and all of Mohave County. Many miners, politicians, lawmen, outlaws, and movie stars stayed in the lavish rooms. After being married in Kingman on March 18, 1939, Clark Gable and Carol Lombard honeymooned at the Oatman Hotel. The remoteness of the place was one of the reasons Gable kept coming back to the hotel. He also enjoyed playing poker with the miners. Today, visitors and staff have heard laughing and whispering coming from the unoccupied room the two stayed in. One claim is when a photographer took a picture of the empty room, an apparition of a man appeared in one of the photos. Other ghost seen in the hotel is that of an Irish miner named William Ray Flour. The story is told that his entire family died on the way to American and he was so upset that he began drinking heavily. He ended up drinking himself to death, died behind the hotel, and his body was found two days later. The staff just buried him in a shallow grave right where he died. His ghost has been seen in his old room and the hotel staff has named him “Oatie”. Oatie likes to play pranks such as opening windows and pulling off sheets in his old room. People have reported hearing a bagpipe sound coming from his former room as well as feeling a cold spot with it is very hot outside.
The hotel seems to have lots of other playful spirits in many of its rooms. The bar had reports of money being lifted off the bar as well as glasses floating in air. Witness have claims of lights turning on and off by themselves, the sounds of creepy disembodied voices, toilets flushing in empty bathrooms, and footprints which appear on recently cleaned floors. The Oatman Hotel no longer takes in guests but still serves as a museum, restaurant, gift shop, and much more.
(source: www.legendsofarizona.com)
The location, accommodations and staff were great. The room was priced so nicely, too. I am going back for sure. Rooms were swanky and views were nice, too.
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