Upon starting my new job, I had the task of learning how to give a 40 minute long historical tour of the hotel and the opera house. Before this, I was the kind of person who was too afraid to answer my own phone. Social interaction just caused me too much anxiety.
So I had my work cut out for me. I was told I could pretty much just memorize the tour they were already using and that would be good enough.
The only problem with this, is that I became totally consumed in learning everything I could about the history of the place. I had an undying need to find out everything I absolutely could about what happened there and all about Marta Becket.
Marta Becket's paintings in the alcove of the hallway, where I would always start my tours.
Safe to say, the aura of the hotel had captured me completely. I began forming my own unique tour with added bits of information that fascinated me and I took out a lot of parts from the original that were just not true.
At the time, it seemed like I was the only one there that really cared about all the little details. For this post, I’ll just include the ones I thought were really interesting.
Ever since I had started investigating there years before, people mentioned that there was a vortex portal of some kind at the hotel. Maybe it’s not exactly a portal. Perhaps it’s on a ley line of some sort.
I used to think that all that means is that spirits can come through and exist there more than other places. That may be a part of it but I think it means a lot more.
There is something magical about that place that draws certain people to it. It happened before I got there and while I was there I witnessed it on many occasions. It’s as if this location has its own spirit or identity that can call out to people. The cute thing is, I believe it prefers artists of all sorts.
Stormy views from the hotel front doors.
I couldn’t help but notice that all kinds of artists and artistic people came to the hotel regularly and described to me that they had some sort of indescribable connection with the place. Many of those artists would use the hotel as their inspiration for their own works of art.
The best example I can give is Marta Becket herself. She was a trained professional ballet dancer and painter. She and her first husband would go on tours around the country so that she could dance to any audience she could get.
The first time she ever came across the Amargosa Hotel was in passing during one of these tours. She remembers it being a stormy day and the whole hotel wasn’t completely visible to her but she made a note of it because she wanted to come back someday.
Some years later, she was back home in the east before going out on another tour with her husband. A friend of hers insisted she come to a party where there would be a fortune teller. Marta agreed to attend and spoke with the fortune teller.
While the lady held onto some of her jewelry, she told her something strange. She said that Marta was going to move somewhere rural and create the greatest work of her life there. Also, that she kept seeing a big letter “A”.
At the time Marta thought it made no sense. The city was all she had ever really known. Why would a professional ballet dancer move out of the city where the majority of her work was?
Opera House entrance.
Well, Marta ended up traveling through Death Valley during her tour. She and her husband’s van got a flat tire and they were directed to the closest service station, which just so happened to be right across the street from the Amargosa Hotel.
She was delighted to see the old place she had wanted to come back to since the last time she saw it. While waiting for the tire to be fixed, she ventured over to the colonnade of the hotel and eventually stumbled upon the old recreational hall, the future Opera House.
She just knew, then and there, that this place was so full of potential and that it was meant for her. She gave her deposit during that trip and returned to live there forevermore a few months later. How is that NOT destiny???
I like to imagine what it was like for her at that time. Did she have a strange feeling that she just belonged there? Were some things or people just uncannily familiar to her there? Did she too feel the omnipotent presence of the vortex pulling her in?
An old mannequin with some of Marta's costumes on, discovered during a paranormal investigation.
During my time working there, there were numerous occasions when I witnessed these seemingly magical interactions with others.
People who had known each other but hadn’t seen each other in years met again at the hotel. People who were visiting the hotel who had come from the same town and lived one street apart from each other but hadn’t met until then. People who recognized each other from the resort they had stayed at 3 days ago. People who recognized the names of other people in the guest book who signed it just the day before.
Also, just like what happened to me on my first visit to the hotel, people who had sworn they must have met each other before but could not think of the occasion. The place has a talent for bringing the right people together in the strangest ways.
One time I was giving a tour to a small group of people. I noticed the car they came in was the same make and model as mine. I found out one of them was a tarot card reader as well. I had an instinct to ask her if she was going to a particular convention that I was planning on going to soon. She said she had bought her ticket to it on the way to the hotel that day. We are still friends and I’m so happy I got to meet her.
Long exposure shot of the colonnade.
On a creepier note, the most absolute strangest thing I ever experienced at the hotel is hard to even describe. Well, I guess it’s synchronicity, but in the way that somehow I felt the location knew certain things about me and my life and would show me over and over again.
Most of it had to do with someone special who had come into my life around that time who I believe is my soul mate or twin flame.
I was constantly seeing signs of him at the hotel even though he wasn’t even there. One time I found an old telephone memo logbook in the office and checked it out to pass the time. I found a page that had two names on it, his name and my name.
My partner is a musician and I like to call him my werewolf. One day this guy came into the hotel and gave me his business card. He said he writes music with his daughter and their band is called The Werewolve’s Muse.
On a full moon, while we had been in a temporary separation, two men came into the hotel separately with the same name as my soulmate/twin flame. That same night I almost stopped dead in my tracks coming back from the opera house on a tour.
The sun was setting and on the wall the light shining through the side gate showed a clear letter “K”, the first letter of his name. This was the first time I had seen the shadow cast like that.
The unexpected and symbolic letter K lighting up the wall.
The synchronicities were almost too much sometimes and it truly felt like the hotel was actively participating in sending me these messages. Why? I’m not sure.
Maybe it’s presence there reflects back to us what’s running through our minds or what is important for us at the time. Or perhaps even directs us to what will make us most creative.
I do know that since I’ve been away from the hotel these sort of occurrences have slowed drastically. I really wonder how these synchronicities have manifested there for other people. It’s one of those kinds of things that is so personal I don’t think people would talk about it very much.
However, it is one of the huge ways in which I felt a connection to the place. I have a strong feeling that Marta experienced very similar things there and it’s a part of the reason she felt so attached to the place.
Next I’ll tell you all about my 3 night stay at the hotel that I did completely alone and the truly weird things that happened. Later, I’ll get into more hauntings. -Tabitha .Z.
All photos by Tabitha .Z.
Some information comes from the book To Dance on Sands, by Marta Becket.