Goldfield Hotel - The History, Paranormal Investigation and Ghost Hunting

I would not call myself a "ghost hunter". I am more an "avid snooper of anything historical, old and abandoned". If it is old, decrepit and untouched..I have to see it.

Don't get me wrong, seeking ghosts is awesome and I do believe.

I saw Ghost Adventures on the sci-fi channel and it was the rare occurrence of a ghost hunting show that I just knew was genuine.

When I saw the opportunity to go investigate this hotel myself, I immediately booked my ticket and drove from Colorado to Goldfield, NV to join the Ghost Adventures crew in this adventure.

This lens tells my story of those 2 amazing nights in this hotel. Everything is absolute fact as I would NEVER make anything up. Do enjoy!

Click To View Real Life Satellite Map of the Goldfield Hotel

The mining boom of 1902 affected Goldfield, Nevada making it the largest city in Nevada. It boasted a population of nearly 35,000 and had 3 newspapers, five banks, a mining stock exchange among numerous saloons.



Click Here for an AMAZING Panoramic Photo of Goldfield 1909. Be sure to scroll to the bottom and pan your screen all the way to the right.

The residents began to move just 8 years after Goldfield's founding due to decreasing ore. The town was reduced to 1200 people by 1920. Three years later, a devastating fire wiped out 27 blocks of homes and businesses.



Today the centerpiece of this once-booming town is the Goldfield Hotel. The current population is only about 500.

Architect George E. Holesworth designed the Goldfield Hotel in 1908, was opened amidst an array of fanfare. The hotel was built by the George Wingfield, primary owner of the Goldfield Consolidated Mines Company, over a mine shaft that had gone dry.

The four story building of stone and brick cost over $300,000 to build and included 154 rooms with telephones, electric lights and heated steam. The lobby was paneled with mahogany and furnished in black leather upholstery, beneath gold-leaf ceilings and crystal chandeliers. The hotel imported chefs from Europe and boasted one of the first Otis elevators west of the Mississippi River.

Considered to be the most luxurious hotel between Chicago and San Francisco, it appealed to society's upper crust, making owner George Wingfield an even wealthier man.



Wingfield was a multi-millionaire by the age of 30 and became a political powerhouse in the State of Nevada. After making his fortune in the gold fields, he went on to own a chain of banks, numerous ranches, and several Reno hotels, in addition to the Goldfield Hotel.

The collapse of Wingfield's twelve banks in 1932 almost led to the economic ruin of the state.

By the 1930s, when the town supported fewer than 1,000 souls, it had become little more than a flop house for cowboys and undiscriminating travelers. During World War II, it housed Army Air Corp personnel assigned to the Tonopah Air Base 25 miles north of Goldfield. After the soldiers checked out the hotel in 1945, the hotel closed its doors forever.

The hotel has chaged hands many times over the years. with each new owner promising to restore and reopen the old property. In 1985, the building was bought by a San Francisco investor named Lester O'Shea Over the years, the hotel has changed hands numerous times, with each new owner promising to restore and reopen the old property. In 1985, the building was bought by a San Francisco investor Lester O'Shea who got through part of a remodel until his company went bankrupt. In 2003, the county auctioned off the old hotel, as well as nearly ninety other parcels of historic land. A rancher from Carson City named Edgar "Red" Roberts was the only bidder and bought the hotel for $360,000.

Additional Information on the history of Goldfield and the Goldfield Hotel as provided by readers. Thank You

There was a major fire on July 8, 1905 which burned down over two blocks of downtown Goldfield including the former Nevada Hotel which sat on the same block as the current "Goldfield Hotel" in fact this was the reason the stone structure was built as it was believed it would be resistant to future fires.

The Goldfield Hotel was built for J. Franklin Douglas by architect George E. Holesworth; Franklin Douglas built the hotel and opened it to the public prior to its sale in 1908 to Bonanza Hotel Company.

Bonanza Hotel Company was owned by partners George Wingfield and Casey McDannell and was created to purchase the Goldfield Hotel and merged and Consolidate the Casey McDannell Hotels into the new company.

The "Goldfield Hotel" was managed and operated by Bonanza Hotel Company by General Partner Casey McDannell and George Wingfield never stayed at the hotel.

Although it was luxurious it was losing money monthly from its purchase and made the Bonanza Hotel Company owners poorer men as it was eating profit dollars from their other hotels.

The Goldfield Hotel was sold to Newton Crumley in 1923 who in 1926 became the owner of the Commercial Hotel in Elko, NV. It was sold at a tremendous loss for $150,000 dollars.

It was owner Newton Crumley who dug the two mine shafts in the Goldfield Hotel basement which came up as "Dry Holes", searching the hotel property for a gold strike.

And the most interesting information that could confirm my personal beliefs as you can read below is that George Wingfield never stayed at the Goldfield Hotel, he and his entourage had facilities at the old Goldfield Telegraph building which George Wingfield owned.

The Goldfield Hotel c.1934 during Elizabeth's Time

The most famous ghost of the hotel is Elizabeth. In the 1930's, she was reportedly a prostitute whom George Wingfield visited. When she came up pregnant, Wingfield chained her to the radiator in room 109 where she was left with only food and water until she had the child. Legend states that Wingfield killed her and threw the baby down the mineshaft in the hotel's basement. Others say she died in childbirth. She has been reported to haunt room 109 which is often described as being very cold.

As a personal opinion, I am not so sure that George Wingfield was Elizabeth's hidden killer. Some legends state that it was her father. If you look at the timeline of George Wingfield, he lost the hotel in the 30's and he moved to Reno in 1908.







Photos I Took Of Room 109

Two more ghosts who reportedly committed suicide in third floor rooms of the hotel have been sighted by more than a dozen people. While their identities are unknown, one is said to be a woman who hanged herself, while the other is said to be a man who jumped to his death from the hotel.

In what was once the main dining room, called the Gold Room, a malevolent spirit, familiarly named "The Stabber," is said to randomly attack those who cross the threshold with a large kitchen knife.

Near the lobby staircase, linger three small spirits including two children and a midget that are reported to "sneak up" and tap the shoulders of visitors.

George Wingfield himself is said to haunt his old hotel, making his presence known by his cigar smoke. Others have reported finding fresh cigar ashes in his first floor room.

Many psychics who have visited the old hotel claim that it is a gateway into another world. In the fall of 2001 the Goldfield Hotel was featured on Fox Family TV's World's Scariest Places.

The first night was uneventful for me..and many others.

I wandered the hotel on my own that night and there were occasions where I was on floors of that hotel completely on my own.....I had no flashlight because I was an idiot, so the moonlight and camera flash was my only sight.....creepy

I took a lot of photos that night. Just wandered and enjoyed the architecture and tried to venture into as many rooms as I could.

See My Photos In The Flickr Slideshow!

There were 2 areas of the hotel that I physically could not walk into.

First the mine shaft room in the basement



..I could not walk in here. I snapped this photo and turned around and walked away very quickly. I got the creepiest feeling I ever had standing in that doorway. This picture may have orbs (which I struggle to believe in) however I most certainly felt something

Check out this guide for reference Orbs or Dust? A Practical Guide to False-Positives

The other area I could not walk down was a hallway on the 4th floor. Number one...I was up there on my own, however I walked almost everywhere else without a hitch..so what was it about this??



This photo is the 4th floor up the stairs and looking right....so I walk down and am about to turn left into this....



That creepy feeling....oh yes. I think the words "hell no" flew out my mouth before I snapped this photo and turned around and walked briskly back to the stairs.

I never could walk into that hall....even the next night with a group of people

The second night in the hotel was a lot more eventful, and this time I got to tag along with a wonderful group of Reno ghost hunters who call themselves Ghost Posse

At first, I am not one to believe in orbs, but for those that do, these photos are quite interesting. These were taken in the basement. After the first shot, I took an immediate second with no orb





The basement was more active this night. We walked down there and spent some time getting some EVP activity and we began to walk through hallways. One of the Ghost Posse team members was creeped beyond all reason and I was walking behind her. She suddenly turned around because she thought I had pulled her hair.

I did not, and it got insanely cold. I mean a really indescribable cold. The team member carrying the camera had a plume of breath coming out of his mouth and none of the others did. Although not visible, there was a certain presence.



The 3rd floor shadow figure was the most phenomenal thing I witnessed with my own eyes. I stood with the ghost posse on one end of the 3rd floor hall. We shut down all lights and we began to see movement at the other end.

What we all saw was a head and shoulders of a figure rocking back and forth slowly walking down the hall. It moved a little closer but not much and we urged it to come closer. We saw it for almost a solid ten minutes.



Hallway where we saw the shadow figure

We then proceeded to get EVP in room 109. It got insanely cold in there. The ghost posse got an EVP of "I'm in the wall" that you can hear on their website HERE. I got the same EVP at a different time stating "I'm in the wall". As soon as I figure out how to post an EVP I will place it here.

Finally, it came time to wrap up for the evening, and the head of the Ghost Adventure Crew, Zak Bagans told us that we were going to do a group EVP session upstairs on the 3rd floor.

We were all instructed to go into the hall and sit in a doorway with our backs facing out. After about 20 minutes of lights out, Zak began to ask if the spirits could show themselves. Moments after, a small stone was thrown to our end of the hall where our whole team was sitting. Also during this time, another investigator was recording with an infrared camcorder, and his battery drained instantly at the exact same time the stone was thrown. Zak, asked if the spirit could do it again, and another stone was thrown. Once again the man with the camera had problems, but this time the camera turned itself off. This event can be seen in the YouTube video directly below.

This was an amazing adventure that I will never forget. The Goldfield Hotel is most certainly haunted!

A new film is set to be released in October 2008 based on the Goldfield Hotel called Land Of Canaan

Starring Robert Englund, Julianne Michelle and Tara Reid

Juliet Landau (photo) is to play Elizabeth

Synopsis:

After the goldfield hotel was built over an abandoned goldmine in 1908, the former owner George Winfield (Hopkins) gets a young prostitute, Elizabeth (Landau) pregnant, he chains her up in an old room, to a radiator. When she gives birth, the baby is thrown down an old mine shaft, and Elizabeth was left there to die. Cut to present, a group of friends, sneak into the abandoned hotel, to see if they can get any footage of any 'hauntings'. But they start getting murdered one by one. Is the ghost of Elizabeth seeking revenge, or is someone taking a prank too far? What are you afraid of? In the Land of Canaan, trying to stay alive, will be the only mystery. Based on the true story of the murders and hauntings in the Goldfield Hotel in Nevada.

Keep an eye out for it here

Lens Of The Day June 18, 2008

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