When I first started working at the hotel, the manager lived on-site in a makeshift apartment. It was a part of the building behind the old cafe. The manager living there helped out when guests would lock themselves out of their rooms and things like that.
The manager at the time had plans to leave town for a weekend trip and just so happened to voice her worries about not being there out loud to me. Of course I offered to stay at the hotel while she was gone. How could I pass up such a spooky opportunity?
Originally I was to stay 3 nights in room number 2, but that room had sink issues so I offered to stay in room number 24. This is a large room at the end of the hallway with two double beds. The reason I wanted to stay in this room is because I thought it might be pretty haunted.
It shares a big wall with the abandoned spooky hollow area where the old miner dormitories once were. I figured It’s as close as you can get to it so it’s probably filled lots of with paranormal activity. I am still pretty sure to this day that my theory is correct.
An oracle card I pulled during my first night of the stay.
After I got all of my things into the room something happened in there pretty fast. I was coming out of the bathroom and going towards the desk on the opposite side. I was back lit by the lamp near the beds, so my own shadow was cast on the wall in front of me. A little detail one does not normally notice.
However, it caught my attention when I stopped at the desk but a part of the shadow cast on the wall continued to move on. It was as if someone was right behind me and kept moving across the room. It was quite startling and made me jump. When I looked around of course nothing was behind me.
Views on my night walk.
Later that night, I took my black light flashlight and walked all around outside in search for scorpions and spirits. I went across the street admiring the very visible sparkling stars and noting the silence.
Only the humming of the one occupied hotel room air conditioning unit could be heard. And some mysterious bugs inhabiting an old mesquite tree. This place really does feel so disconnected from the rest of world.
I wandered down to the corner of the street where one lone street light stands. It’s a minor signal to night drivers that there is an upcoming sharp turn right there. One that a few have completely missed and ended up coming to a hard meeting with the old garage building. It’s quite symbolic actually, though this place is simple and quiet, it holds many dangers.
The street light was going on and off in no particular pattern. When it turned off, it left everything around it, including me, in complete and utter darkness. I stay there for a while, soaking in the feeling that I was the star in some horror movie of some desolate place only witness by the lost souls there.
The streetlight.
That night in the room I had a very interesting dream. In it, I woke up exactly where I had fallen asleep. Everything in the room looked the same except I was sitting up. I became aware that there was something at the edge of the bed.
There was some kind of presence but it didn’t have a human form. I saw two shadows with some sort of sparkle to them at each corner of the bed near my feet. They seemed to be moving around from one side to the other.
I was very defensive of these things in the dream, pointing at them and raising my voice to them. “Don’t come over here! Stay away from me! Leave me alone! Don’t do it!” I was certainly attempting to set some boundaries with them.
The energy in the room felt eerie and unsettling but not particularly dangerous and that’s all that happened in the dream. The way I woke up was strange though. I was sleeping and then suddenly my head jerked back. I wonder to this day if something touched my head and woke me up because I know I didn’t flinch at anything in the dream to wake myself up. I can’t be sure but it was definitely strange.
A photo I took after waking up from my strange dream.
What is even stranger though, is that I know for a fact I am not the only person who’s had strange dreams in that area of the hotel.
One time, a guest staying in room 22 (right next to 24) told me that her husband had a dream where he woke up in the room and saw the bathroom door, which had been closed, open on it’s own. When he woke up the bathroom door was indeed open. They also experienced some of their personal belongings in different spots where they had left them.
Another guest was staying with two other people in the room and had a bizarre dream. In the dream he woke up in the room and saw a man in a black suit in there with all of them. The man told him, “I have to tell you something but we have to go in the bathroom.”
So he went to the bathroom with the man and then the man told him, “Look in the bathtub.” The dreamer refused to do so and then woke up from the dream.
I find it super interesting that all of these dreams take place in the same rooms that the dreamers were sleeping in. It seems like there really is paranormal energy in those rooms and sometimes while dreaming we can become more aware of them.
It makes me wonder how many people have had similar experiences in those rooms or any of the hotel rooms for that matter. After my first night sleeping there alone and having that dream I decided to put some crystals under my pillow and the next night I slept like a rock.
My candlelit bath time.
During my stay there, I also took advantage of the little vintage tub and made myself a nice cleansing bath. Of course it was solely lit by candle light.
The creepiest note I have about this is that months later I was taking a small supervised tour of spooky hollow and I noticed a big hole in the wall on the other side of this tub. You could actually see the end of the tub sticking out right there and sure enough, you could see into it by looking through the overflow drain.
I mean this is some real Norman Bates stuff right here! Luckily that area is locked off and no one should actually be back there. But still!
Sharp turn ahead! The old garage on the left, the old cafe on the right.
My last night there I went outside again when it was super late. I sat in the middle of the all the buildings and I watched the skies. Just checking out the stars and keeping my eye out for any ufos. I didn’t see any alien craft but I did notice something very odd.
I was looking over at the Opera House area and above it on the roof I noticed what looked like a white tattered sheet blowing in the wind. At first I didn’t think anything of it but then I realized that it wasn’t even windy outside and there should be nothing like that up there. I looked again and stared at it.
It looked like white fabric slowly but elegantly blowing around. I was so perplexed because I’ve never seen anything like it. It calmly started moving away from the opera house, towards the inner corner of the building but staying near the roof. I watched it swaying and slightly changing shape until it eventually dissapeared.
This shows the area of the roof the mysterious shape appeared to move across.
I still have no idea what I saw that night but it did remind me strongly of something I had seen in some of Marta’s artwork. In at least two of her paintings of the outside of the building (including the one I own, The Spirt of Amargosa), she painted what looks like small pieces of white fabric or paper blowing around in the wind.
Note the white flowing pieces near the bottom of the colonnade in The Spirit of Amargosa.
I can’t remember the name of the other painting and I have a pretty bad photo of it but I’ll still share it for reference.
The same sort of white flowing pieces in this painting of the colonnade.
I remember looking at her art one day and seeing them and wondering what they were. At first I thought they were pieces of trash but why would she paint trash in her art? When you actually look at them they are somewhat transparent looking. Is this what I saw on the last night of my stay?
It really makes me feel like Marta had seen the same thing that I did and decided to put it in her artwork. Maybe she even saw it more than once. I wonder what she thought it was.
More stories to come… -Tabitha .Z.
All photos and video by Tabitha .Z.
This was a fantastic, phenomenal and phantasmic! Brilliant story telling, insane series of happenings and best of all, very vivid.. the photos and video to this series add the wonderful cherry on top!