May 17, 2023 • 44 mins
In 1997, during renovations to the Crescent Hotel, workers found a bizarre discovery. In the woods behind the hotel, they unearthed a glass jar with a mystery object inside. Local authorities determined that it was a cancerous tumor, preserved in alcohol. More than 400 more jars were soon found and...is it any wonder the Crescent Hotel is considered one of the most haunted hotels in America?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
When Norman Baker arrived in Eureka Springs, Arkansas in nineteen
thirty seven, he brought along promises of a miracle cure
to cancer. His methods, he claimed, combined with the power
of the healing springs in the area, would be potent
medicine against the disease. Ailing patients flocked to the town
deep in the Ozark Mountains seeking treatment at the Baker
(00:34):
Cancer Curing Hospital. Many were removed under the cover of night,
having succumbed to their illnesses, with Baker trying to hide
their deaths and obscure the fact that his treatments were
no more than smoke and mirrors. After Baker was run
out of town as a fraud in a huckster, the building,
which had been previously known as the Crescent Hotel and Spa,
(00:54):
fell into disrepair, sitting abandoned for years. Eventually it was
purchased by a hotel group and revived to its former
glory as a Victorian era escaped for the well to
Do in nineteen ninety seven, during renovations of the property,
workers found a bizarre discovery in the woods behind the hotel.
(01:15):
They unearthed a glass jar with a mystery object inside.
Local authorities determined that it was a cancerous tumor preserved
in alcohol, one of the very specimens that Norman Baker
had used as evidence of the efficacy of his miracle cure. Eventually,
more than four hundred jars and bottles were brought to light.
(01:37):
What workers had discovered was the dump site for what
Baker presented as evidence of his success, but was really
just one more way he was hiding the truth about
his deceptive practices, robbing desperate people of their money, their hope,
and eventually their lives. Is it any wonder the Crescent
(01:58):
Hotel is one of the most haunted places in America.
I'm Amy Bruney, and this is haunted road. Long before
European settlers colonized the area, the Native American Osage tribe
(02:20):
talked of a great healing spring in what is now
northern Arkansas. When Europeans arrived, the indigenous peoples are believed
to have shared their knowledge of the spring, having frequented
the water for its healing properties. In eighteen fifty six,
doctor Alva Jackson, a man later referred to as a
backwoods pseudo healer, came upon the waters in an unincorporated
(02:43):
part of what had lately become Carroll County, Arkansas. He
claimed to have accessed their healing properties, sharing the secret
only local until eighteen seventy nine. Then Jackson brought to
the spring a prominent local man, Judge LEVI Saunders, who
presided over the Carroll County courts. Judge Saunders had a
disease of the legs and bathed them in the waters
(03:05):
during a hunting trip. When the man was healed of
his affliction, words spread quickly. People came to the area
in droves, hoping to be cured. Soon, Sonders set up
camp in the area, followed by a handful of other families.
According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, it was the judge's son,
Buck Saunders, who suggested the name Eureka Springs, after the
(03:27):
phrase Ponce de Leon is said to have exclaimed when
he allegedly found the Fountain of Youth, which if you've
been listening for a while you know is in Saint Augustine, Florida.
Saunders built the first house in Eureka's springs, and the
town was formerly founded on July fourth, eighteen seventy nine.
Shortly after came a general store and a hotel, and
(03:48):
droves of people building flimsy wooden shacks near the town's
sixty two different springs. The cheap wooden structures were especially
susceptible to fire, and the town burned down four times
between eight eighteen eighty three and eighteen ninety three. Still,
the area developed quickly, boosted by the Eureka Improvement Company
founded by former Arkansas Governor Powell Clayton. During this time,
(04:12):
the Industrial Revolution was growing cities, but also turning them
dirtier and grittier than they had been before, bringing sickness
and disease. Along with development, Victorian era people with expendable
income were increasingly looking for natural treatments.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
One of the most.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Popular was hydrotherapy, a water cure that purported to improve
illnesses and boost general health through immersion in natural, clean,
healing waters. Today it's considered an alternative therapy. Then it
wasn't exactly embraced by the medical community either, with some
hydrotherapy practitioners openly speaking against conventional medical practices. Eureka Springs
(04:58):
appealed to affluent track as a natural reprieve from city life,
but also as a method of connecting to nature to
heal their ailments. The water cure peaked the interest of
citizens at the epicenter of development, returning to the natural
in times of sickness suddenly made sense. An eighteen eighty
one Eureka Springs promotional pamphlet declared, certain diseases known as
(05:21):
incurable have been brought here, and the improvement in the
general health was so marked that invalids jumped at the
conclusion that they were well. While people of all kinds
had previously inhabited Eureka Springs, the newly founded Improvement Company
knew that money and renown would only come from attracting
the wealthy. Eureka Springs was to be a Victorian pleasure resort,
(05:42):
not a camp for the down and out. To that end,
Clayton and the Improvement Company constructed a marquee hotel high
up on a mountaintop, a glamorous and elegant escape they
called the Crescent Hotel and Spa, which opened in eighteen
eighty six. The grand structure had one hundred guests rooms
across five stories, its towers raising high above the tree line. Inside,
(06:05):
healing waters from three local springs flowed from the taps.
The Crescent enjoyed a prosperous beginning as a year round hotel,
but by nineteen oh one interest in the healing waters
had dwindled. The hotel switched to summer only accommodations in
nineteen oh eight. For the other three seasons, the hotel
became the Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women, an
(06:27):
academy for affluent girls. Tuition was high, and during the
Great Depression the college shuttered. The hotel limped along as
a summer destination and then as a junior college for
another decade. Another issue arose around the time of the depression.
Cases of typhoid were linked to three of Eureka Spring's waters.
(06:47):
Not only did this bode poorly for resort goers, it
also put a shadow on the town built on healing.
As historian doctor Timothy Covalchik notes, talk of death in
the healing town was almost non existent. Perhaps because the
town's economy was so closely tied to its reputation, people
there became comfortable with the idea of concealing the truth.
(07:08):
Certainly at the Crescent, the future held more of that darkness.
There were also two tragic deaths at the Crescent in
its early years. During its construction, Michael, an Irish Stonemason
is said to have fallen to his death where Room
two eighteen would later be. During the college years, a
young student fell to her death from a balcony. Whether
(07:29):
she was pushed or she jumped is unclear, but there
were whispers that it might have been over a failed
love affair, with the town in a market economic downturn.
It only makes sense that when Norman Baker came swooping
in with promises of prosperity, the residence of Eureka Springs
welcomed him with open arms. So what if he had
a dark past? As you might guess, things got ugly fast.
(07:56):
A vaudeville performer turned inventor, Baker made his fortune by
owning the second largest radio station in North America, a
platform he used to pedal his own version of snake oil.
At his Baker Institute, which he opened in Iowa. He
claimed to be able to heal all manner of sickness.
According to the book Border Radio by Jean Fowler and
(08:17):
Bill Crawford. His patients roamed around Muscatine with open sores
that contaminated town drinking fountains with blood. The hospital began
to take in as much as one hundred thousand dollars
a month, and the cash was taken out in suitcases
under cover of night. Some reports contended that deceased patients
were similarly discharged from the Palace of Healing. Baker claimed
(08:40):
so much success at the institute that he attracted attention
for him the wrong kind. He was exposed as a
fraud who had no medical training and was run out
of the state. Eventually, Baker discovered Eureka Springs when he
announced his intention to buy the shuttered Crescent Hotel. Locals
knew of his reputation and that the a Mareamerican Medical
(09:00):
Association denied Baker's claims to cure cancer, but Eureka Springs
was desperate and held the man up as a path
back to prosperity. During renovations of the hotel, it was
renamed the Baker Cancer Curing Hospital. He painted much of
the building purple, which is still visible on the chimneys.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
To this day.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Baker also installed one of his inventions, a caliophone, which
projected songs for miles around. For whatever reason, people believed Baker,
buying into his claims that he really could cheer the
terminally ill. When he opened his new hospital, he brought
in his staff from the Iowa location, and more than
one hundred patients from the other hospital followed him to Arkansas.
(09:44):
Baker advertised secret remedies based on the work of two
other known medical fraudsters whose work he had promoted. Even
after patients died in droves, he would inject those remedies,
largely comprised of carbolic acid, glycerine, alcohol, and brewed tea,
into tumors, claiming the medicine would eat the cancer without
(10:05):
harming the surrounding tissue. Desperate people went to the hospital
looking for hope, and Baker was happy to take their money.
The town of Eureka Springs was also feeling the effects
of renewed tourist interests and was returning to financial stability,
But not everyone in town loved Norman Baker. A well
respected local couple, Ray and Chloe Freeman, spoke widely about
(10:27):
his false claims. They owned some businesses in town, and
seeing that Eureka Springs relied largely on tourism. The couple
had contact with many visitors to the area. They had
apparently heard rumors of the dark happenings on the ridge
above town and warned incoming patients that those who went
to Baker Hospital to find a cure found disappointment and
(10:47):
sometimes well many times even death. Among the horrific accounts
of Baker's treatments, he was said to have attempted to
cure brain cancer by cutting open the scalp and pouring
in a mixture of spring water and ground watermelon seeds
directly onto the brain. The victims who died of his
(11:07):
unproven methods were treated no better in death than they
were in life. For victims at Baker Hospital, according to
paranormal writer Troy Taylor, it was said that he hid
the bodies for weeks until they could be burned in
the incinerator in the middle of the night. As his
publicity claimed that he could cheer cancer in a matter
of weeks, he had to keep the press from finding
(11:28):
out that many of his patients died every month. But
Baker didn't just try to keep outsiders from the truth.
He took those who suffered the most and placed them
in an annex. Some sources referred to it as an
asylum where they would die in extreme pain. Baker was
aware of the talk. In nineteen thirty nine, he published
an open letter to them in the local newspaper, claiming
(11:50):
that they had used underhanded methods, made discriminating statements, and
spread pure falsehoods in attempting to discredit Baker Hospital and
doctors to deprive the hostile hospital of patients. He also
had fear of attack from the American Medical Association. His
office in the Crescent reflected that paranoia. It was walled
off behind bulletproof glass. In his personal quarters, it is
(12:15):
said that he kept two submachine guns on the wall
for easy access, just in case. It took more than
two years of patients dying in the clandestine removal of
their remains for officials to investigate Baker Hospital. Eventually, he
was fined a fraction of the millions he defrauded from people,
and sentenced to four years in prison. He died ironically
(12:39):
of cancer shortly after his release. The hospital closed in
nineteen thirty nine, and the building was abandoned until nineteen
forty six, when investors purchased the property and returned the
Crescent to its original use as a hotel. In nineteen
ninety seven, Marty and Elise Rennick purchased the Crescent and
have operated it as since, though Marty was killed in
(13:02):
a car accident in two thousand and six. The building
they bought was run down and in disrepair, and they
set out to return it to its Victorian heyday. It
was during the Rennicks renovations that workers uncovered those four
hundred jars of tumorous remains in secret remedies. The Arkansas
Archaeological Survey matched them up to specimens Baker had used
(13:22):
to advertise the hospital in its heyday. According to the
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette, the bottles weren't left behind by Baker,
reporting that Keith Scales, who leads the ghost tours of
the Crescent, said officials were told that subsequent owners of
the building took all of Baker's specimen bottles to the
dump in the nineteen sixties. He thought that meant a
landfill near Berryville, but apparently it meant a dump behind
(13:45):
the building. Today, the Crescent looks much the same as
it would have in eighteen eighty six, when it opened
its doors. One of the main differences, though, is that
guests won't just find access to the healing waters around
the building, they'll also more than likely find ghosts. The
(14:08):
Crescent has been called America's most haunted hotel. While I'm
not totally sold on whether that's actually true. There are
a lot of haunted hotels out there with a lot
of really cool activity and ghost stories. There's no denying
that there are many accounts of unexplained activity at the Crescent.
The most notable ghost at the Crescent is that of
the Irish stonemason Michael, who died during the hotel's construction
(14:31):
when he fell from the roof. Stories say that he
was trying to catch the attention of a beautiful lady
down below. Michael fell to his death in the spot
where room two eighteen would be. Guests who stay in
this room report a list of intense experiences. They range
from strange sounds and sensations. Just seems so terrifying that,
according to Haunted Ozark's, guests have left the room screaming
(14:54):
and refuse to return. One guest even reported seeing hands
reaching out from the bathroom mirror at night, the sound
of a large object falling can be heard, but a
more visual event has also been noted. Instead of simply
hearing the thud of what can only be Michael's fatal fault,
people have also reported seeing the aftermath. According to Troy
(15:16):
Taylor's writings about the hotel, the wife of one of
the proprietors reportedly stayed in Room two eighteen one evening.
In the middle of the night, she ran from it screaming.
When staff approached her and asked what inside of the outburst,
she claimed that she had seen blood splattered all over
the walls. Staff members ran up to look, but found
no blood or any signs of a disturbance, let alone
(15:39):
a violent crime or an accident. Other guests of Room
two eighteen have experienced this same phenomenon to the same
degree of horror. Another frequent sighting is of the ghost
of the college student who died there. Stories say that
she was perhaps jilted by her lover, but whatever the
details are, they were known only to her as she
stood on a balk of the crescent, while the main
(16:01):
tale claims that she jumped to escape her sadness. According
to Haunted Ozarks, there are other more whispered accounts perhaps
some speculate that she was pushed. That would add a
sharper edge to her screams, which have been heard by
many guests of the Crescent. Since the most common experience
that people report are with the ghosts of the hotel
(16:22):
in its time as the Baker Hospital, it only makes
sense if spirits linger in places of intense emotion, then
they're likely to linger at a place that sold false hope,
where suffering people place their hope in a man who
was lying to them and stealing their money, only to
have their trust betrayed and more than likely to die.
(16:43):
As Taylor wrote, the deeds committed during this era have
unquestionably had a lasting impact on the building and perhaps
on the spirits who still linger. Official stories downplay local legend,
but those stories maintain a vibrant life based on the
unending stream of pairs normal anomalies. Within the Crescent Hotel,
a young woman by the name of Theodora appears regularly.
(17:06):
According to accounts by paranormal writer Janie Tremir, she often
asks for her room key before vanishing. Differing accounts report
that she was either a patient or a caretaker of
the terminally ill. Some accounts placed Theodora in Room four nineteen,
where she has most often been spotted by housekeepers. Theodora's
voice has reportedly been captured on EVP. In Hauntings of America,
(17:30):
Taylor wrote that in nineteen eighty seven, a guest claimed
she saw a nurse pushing a gurney down the hallway
in the middle of the night. The nurse reached the
wall and then vanished. Many others have recounted witnessing that
very same scene, while others not brave enough to open
their door report hearing the squeaking and squealing of a
heavily laden cart. She always pushes the cart after eleven PM,
(17:54):
Norman's reported curfew for his patients. The Morgue is unsurprisingly
a hotspot for paranormal activity. According to Bill Ott, the
Cressens director of Marketing and Communications, the Morgue still features
the walk in cooler Baker used to store cadavers and
body parts, as well as an adutopsy table he used
(18:14):
chiefly to explore removed cancer, not patience after death. Hotel
staff also recounted that they would get calls on the
switchboard from the basement recreation room, but no one was
at the other end, they couldn't be because the room
was unused and locked at all times, and the only
key was held at the front desk. When staff would
check it out, they'd often find that the wreck room
(18:36):
phone had been taken off the hook, but by who
or what was never answered. They had no idea who
it could have been because there was only one entrance
and exit and one key, which they had. A later occurrence,
a staff member received yet another one of the mysterious calls.
According to Taylor, when he went down to the basement
to check, the phone was still on the receiver, but
(18:57):
he still maintains that he felt another press the room
with him. He locked the door behind him, taking the
single key with him as he returned to his post.
Within five minutes of returning, the switchboard alerted him to
yet another incoming call from the very room he just
checked and found seemingly empty. Baker himself has been seen
(19:17):
as well in his standard white suit in lavender shirt.
Sources recall that he appears sour, confused, and trapped. He
is most often seen in the basement, near the old
recreation room or on the first floor landing. According to Tremir,
she wrote that while it is unclear whether Baker felt
remorse or was even cognizant of the wrongdoings he committed.
(19:39):
An operation that is believed to be Baker himself has
been spotted. Those who have seen him say that he
looks lost, first going one way and then another. Up next,
I will be talking to Sarah eccles, a ghost tour
guide from the Crescent Hotel. You won't want to miss
her first hand accounts, which if you're a panormal investigator,
(20:00):
are going to make you want to book a stay
there sooner rather than later. That is coming up after
the break. So I am now joined by Sarah E. Kelly,
(20:21):
who is a tour guide at the Crescent Hotel, and
I'm thrilled to have her with us, just because this
is such a bucket list location for me, so I'm
really eager to hear all about it. So thank you
for joining us my pleasure. I read a bit about
the activity that goes on there, and you are a
tour guide there, so I'm sure you see a lot.
You've experienced a lot. How long have you been there exactly?
(20:45):
Working at the hotel.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
I have been there just about four years now and
we get a lot of activity a lot of times
we're working and we can't take the time to capture
the activity. I work in the day Spa as well
as a tour guide there, so I'm there quite a
bit throughout the day and the evening. But it's it's
a really cool place to work, and I've been there
(21:08):
for quite a while now.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Now you say you work in the day's spa. It's
funny because I frequent a hotel here in New England,
the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire, and I consider
the spa to be one of the most haunted places
in the hotel, which I don't like to advertise personally
right exactly, but is that the case for you as well?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
We have activity in the spa as well. You know,
we have the old bowling lanes from nineteen oh one,
which you know is kind of fun. But I would
tell you a lot of the activity happens in the hotel,
like during the day on the room floors. We really
get a lot of that because you know, spirit most
active when they would have been alive, you know, during
(21:51):
their life, or wouldve been awake during their life, and
so I find the creepiest parts of the day are
like between eleven and three on the room if I'm honest.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
So, yeah, basically like right after checkout or check insbody left.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
And it should be quiet, but sometimes it's not.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So yeah, And I think there's something to that, because
you know, I'm sure you've encountered this. A lot of
people assume that paranormal activity just happens at night, but
when you have places like a hotel, I think the
reason people are more cognizant of it at night is
because that's when it's the most quiet.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Yeah, if a hodel is busy, people are bustling around
and you know, the restaurants are open, and a ghost
could walk right in front of you and you think
it was a living person.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah, or you could debunk just about any picture, any
sound that you heard, thinking that it's another guest in.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
The hallway or in another room exactly.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
But I think that spirits are probably more active during
the day just because they're active on our schedules, especially
in a place like that.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Absolutely, it wasn't that long ago that I was coming
back from a lunch break in you know, working in
the day spa, and through a couple of bars on
the stairs, I saw two little hands and two little
eyes peeking through and I thought it was a real
kid because and I like kids.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
You know, there's lots of kids in the hotel.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
And I pop back up the stairs to like wave
and there was no kid there. But there is a
child that is seen on that set of stairs all
the time, and so it was kind of fun to
think that they're connecting with me. But I didn't have
time to take a picture or like, but there that
was those little hands, of those little eyes peeking at me.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Well, I think there's something to be said for the
personal experience. I think sometimes we get so caught up
in trying to capture activity or capture some sort of evidence.
But to me, I find those kind of like personal
experiences just as compelling.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
So I tell people all the time, you yourself is
your best ghost hunting tool, all of your senses, you know, so.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Well absolutely, like we don't. I try to kind of
tell people, if you're in this to have an experience
for your don't worry so much about what other people
are going to think of it or trying to kind.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Of justify it. Right, so you know, you had it,
you had it.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yeah, So this child that you saw because you said
that's a regular occurrence, Like, how often are people encountering this, uh,
this spirit pretty often?
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Actually, Now it's not somebody that it's not a spirit
that we talk about on the tour. It just seems
to be an interaction that we have quite often on
those stairs. People will feel like they got their dress
tugged on. People wake up in the middle of the
night to a little kid waking them like they do
in the middle of the night, and that activity is
kind of second floor and down those stairs there, And
(24:39):
we've gotten pictures of her several times. In fact, when
I had my experience with her, i'd mentioned it to
another guide and she's like, you're kidding, because we just
got a picture of that same girl going up the
stairs like last night, and it was like, oh, that's
kind of cool when you connect those stories as well
with somebody's photograph or whatever it is. But she becomes
very regular for us.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Now, do you have any idea who she might be?
Speaker 3 (25:03):
We don't write at the moment, and we're always investigating
trying to find out. But I feel like in the
Crescent especially, we have so many spirits that they're ready
to connect with us that want to have that interaction
with us. But it's almost hard to pitpoint. I find
when I'm investigating a lot of times I can't rely
that there's only one person trying to come through that
(25:23):
we get several coming through. So it's hard to pinpoint
names and things like that. But yeah, but she looks
like she's kind of from the Victorian times, from the pictures.
She wears a little dress and has her hair kind
of curled in that, you know, same kind of way,
or maybe shortly after in the twenties, But she is
not of this time, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
No, And yeah, no, that doesn't sound yo, So do
you What would you think is maybe kind of the
more common types of activity that people encounter at the hotel.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
More commonly, you know, in their rooms, they will get
woken or poked. We have one particular spirit named Michael
who's particularly roguish, and women will say that he strokes
their hair or will tickle them, or or open the
bathroom door on them while they're in there. You know,
things like that become kind of calmon occurrences.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
And also another one.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Of our really most felt experience or I should say
smelled experiences is doctor Ellis was a doctor there. He
was the hotel physician, and they smell his cherry tobacco
down the hallways in the lobby. And usually when I
tell the story, like half of my tour was like,
oh my gosh, I smelled it earlier. Oh my gosh,
(26:40):
I smelled it, you know, two days ago. And it
doesn't happen all the time. We can't smoke in the hotel.
Cherry tobacco is not something that is very popular right now,
so it becomes something that you go, huh, okay.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
But that's one that I hear quite often.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Now. I understand, like the hotel history is kind of dark,
you know, it's definitely different. Uh, But from what I've heard,
it doesn't necessarily have a heavy feeling to it.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Is that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
And why do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (27:14):
I actually think, you know, the dark part of our
history was so short, you know, Norman Baker being there
and running it as a cancer hospital was only about
two years of our existence. But most of the time
it was a place of celebration. It was a place
that the wealthy folks went to vacation and they didn't
have as many promblems as some of the less fortunates.
(27:36):
And also I think that our spirits are friendly as
far as you know. They're not negative entities. They had
an unfortunate passing, and they're just trying to connect with somebody,
And so if they were to try to scare us off,
I don't know that everybody would want to connect, but
I do think it's mostly and I'm not saying there
(27:59):
aren't a couple of negative energies in the hotel, but
for the most part, people's spirit experiences become almost comical
or like trickery, you know, and not necessarily that scary
kind of spirit experience. For instance, I had a guest
that had told me they brewed coffee in the morning,
and the coffee pot you can't see through, so she
(28:19):
figured it brewed. She went to pour it and there
was nothing in there. And then a couple hours later,
underneath the coffee pot there's a drawer that it was
sitting on, and the.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Coffee ended up in the drawer. Not scary, just.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Letting them know in that way that is unmistakable that
something crazy happened here and.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
It was not human done, you know, right exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
And that's so I feel like I investigate many hotels
that kind of have that same vibe. And I know
a lot of us have speculated that perhaps spirits have
had great, you know, memories there and they're coming back
for some reason, like something profound happened to them, or
they vacation there. And so you do have these kind
of spirits that make themselves known, but they're not necessarily
(29:03):
doing anything harmful. Ohka, now, USA, say you had a
couple that might make themselves done and more of it.
I don't want to say negative, but maybe anymore mischievous way.
What kind of interactions do those ones pose?
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Mostly it's a sadness above anything else. When I say negative,
I don't even mean like mean or hateful. Uh. It
really is this sadness that comes over people when they're
in our morgue area where they used to keep the bodies,
or in the area where he used to keep in
the We call it the pain Asylum. But this place
(29:40):
that he used to keep people, well, they were very
sick because it wasn't good for his business to see
people dying of cancer. And you feel a real heaviness.
Sometimes people feel the pain in their stomach. We had
a medium ount not that long ago, and I can't
be in there myself. I get the same pain, and
I'm not very sensitive myself, but can a firm that
that was something that she was feeling and thought it
(30:02):
was spirit connected. I've had people burst into tears as
we get into the Morgue area that are like, I'm
not a crier, and as they're like, you know, pouring
tears on their eyes. I just had somebody do it
the other night. So those are the things that I
find to be more negative. No, nothing's super harmful. It
just doesn't make you feel real good, you know, right.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
I mean that's kind of the classic almost unfinished business.
You know, this is kind of a very strange set
of circumstances where you have people who are terminally ill
and it's kind of being hidden in a way. Yeah,
and like what does what imprint does that leave?
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Well?
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Even oh sorry, go ahead, no, go ahead, you know
that I do so.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
And not only that, but like Norman Baker when he
was telling them that they're you know, they needed to
go back to the asylum because the asylum or sanitary,
and you want to go get healthy to be sick.
Part of his treatment was mental therapeutics, and he was
very much putting it on them like you're not doing
this properly or you would be healed. So they also
felt I think a level of guilt or like I
can feel that sometimes in the hotel, like I didn't
(31:06):
do enough for myself, when actually it was not something
that they could have done for themselves. They were kind
of being swindled into thinking this would work.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
You know, Yeah, I can't even imagine like a their mindset,
but be like what that leaves behind rights? Yeah, so
many spirits we encounter. It is, you know, they there's
something that is keeping them there. There's something that they
either feel guilty about, or there's something that they a
(31:35):
message they want to get across. And I can't imagine
being in that place where you're basically being told you're
dying because you're not.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Doing good enough exactly, And then how do you handle that?
And when they finally pass, of course they feel like
they could have probably done more, or they should have
done something different, or you know, their families weren't ready
for them to go and they just can't cross over.
I mean, all those kinds of things come into play.
But again it's it's kind of specific areas in the
hotel and that most of it like you said, is
(32:05):
pretty lighthearted connecting. I'd also tell you that they miss people.
In the wintertime, when we do get a little bit slow,
they're not as active, you know, because there's not people
around to interact with. And we do something in the
wintertime called Eurekas brings paranormal weekends and we open all
our haunted rooms. We hunt them for a couple of
days and it's like a convention. But you can feel
(32:28):
the buzz in the hotel when they It's like they
know it's coming, and you can find the energy rise
up and things start to happen around us, and then
we're like, oh my god, they know the people are
coming to see them.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
It's a really.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Crazy feeling to know that some of them are looking
not all of them, but some of them are looking
forward to that connection with people again that they haven't
had in a.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Month or so. You know.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Well, I think we really experienced that during kind of
the height of the pandemic when some of these places
were closed.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I'm sure you were to.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
And I felt like some of these entities were kind
of like what is going on? Where are my people exactly?
And when we would come back and investigate places, they
were so eager to interact, Like, you know, I don't
think we realize how much they kind of either look
forward to or just even rely on us to keep
(33:22):
them kind of engaged. Absolutely, Now, how many people visit
the hotel and just have no idea of its reputation?
Like I feel like it's like everyone should know that
it's haunted. But do you ever if people just come in
and are just completely surprised by this fact.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yes, And I'm always surprised that they're surprised because it's
all over the place. It's really hard to avoid.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
If you have not googled us one time, you know,
you must have not known.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
But we still do get people that don't know that
place is haunted, and some of them are comfortable with it,
some of them are not. I always just try to,
you know, let them know. In my experience that most
spirits are people, and most people are not bad people.
Maybe they're not as friendly or maybe they're more friendly,
but they are just people in that it's nothing to
(34:05):
be afraid of, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
But it does happen sometimes.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah, I think humanizing them is very important, you know,
it's I think a lot of the things that spirits
do Uh, if you actually like saw a living person
doing it, most of the time, it would not be
that crazy, right, although sometimes right right, right, But most
of the.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Time they're just doing these daily you know things, or
again just trying to connect, not trying to scare you
away or get.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
You out of their space.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
You know. Right now, are there apparitions seen at the hotel?
There is, I know, the little girl, but is there
anyone else that people might stumble upon?
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Becky is one of our most seen I think spirits.
He's a little boy that was there during the college
days and he seems to be very I mean, he
seems to connect with the children, and we get a
lot of families in so that's one that they because
these kids, gosh, they're so much more open than we are.
They don't doubt themselves. I definitely saw a little boy
(35:06):
right there, and he wasn't one of us, you know,
So I think he's one of our most seen spirit
by eyeball. Everything else can kind of be felt. Pictures
are taken in reflections, but he seems to be pretty
well interacting with people on the regular.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
So mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
And then now, what about like shadow figures, shadow figures,
we do have one.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I would say actually in the morgue area, which is
connected to the laundry room and all that stuff. But
he whatever that I say, it's a heat. I don't
know for sure, but whatever the shadow figure is will
peek around the corner. Now, when we take a tour
down there, it's a private tour, you know, only ticketed
people can be down there, and it's gotten every guide
(35:50):
at least one time where it looks like some of
the peaks around the corner or shadow does and we
go to kick somebody out of the area.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
And there's nobody there.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
And I don't think that that's actually related to Norman
Baker at all. I think that was a little bit
later on. But that shadow figure, the person is very
tall and leans around corners all over that place.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
So yeah, now when you started, did you start in
the spa first or.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Were you a child?
Speaker 3 (36:18):
I actually started in the day Spa, and I was
there first for about a year before I started doing
the tours. But you know, the activity was always there,
you knew it was there. And then when I started
doing the tours, you know, I really got involved in
the paranormal investigating side. And you you're I'm always surprised
at what kind of activity we can get.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah, so was there a point where you kind of went, oh,
there's something to this, Like you started in a spot,
did you have an experience or an epiphany like, oh,
this place is definitely haunted that made you kind of
want to be more interested in maybe get involved in
the paranormal side.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
It was kind of interested in it from the beginning,
I would say, interested in that kind of stuff. But
I would say the most poignant moment for me was
and also seeing how commonplace it was. We were cleaning
up the day spa, and of course that's what we
do when we're not busy as we clean and there
was a glass cleaner on the counter and it moved
(37:16):
over all by itself and one of the girls jump back,
put her hands up and said, today, boy, I'll see that.
And one girl said yes and three of us said no,
and then we just went back to cleaning. And I
was like, really, okay, well that's how common this stuff
is and again.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Not harmful, just moved it over. We all went okay,
we saw that, and then we moved on with our lives.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
But uh, yeah, it's funny, like you're just like, this
is what happens here here, and everybody.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Were like, Okay, that's just the way it is around here.
But again, nobody seems afraid. I have very sensitive friends
that work with me in the day spa and they
still continue to work there, which says something about, you know,
our spirit activity not being threatening. But that was one
of those moments where I was like, boy, this is
a little bit more common than I thought. But you
can feel the energy as soon as you walk it.
(38:04):
I would say, as soon as you drive onto the property,
you just know you're someplace really special that has something
above and beyond your hotel experience.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Now, what do you think lends to that? Do you
think it's just because it's the hotel itself? Do you
think it's something environmental? Like, why do you think this
has become such a haunted.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Well, I definitely think the limestone has a lot to
do with it. You know, we do find I'm to
understand that the water running over limestone makes electromagnetic forces
that they're measurable. It's creating energy, and so we do
see that in the you know, the limestone walls. When
it rains down those walls, there is an energy that
can be picked up and the spirits are way more active.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
We have these limestone.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Quarries in town where everything was locally limestone deposits where
things were locally quarried from, and they're still free flowing
springs going through those. And also remembering that there's places
all over the world with high concentrations of limestone that
talk about the same things that we do, you know,
religious places, sacred places, healing waters. Is not that weird
(39:09):
that this combination of different kinds of stone and these
waters going through kind of help out the spirit activity.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
I would think right makes sense.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Now, So if someone's going to visit the hotel and
they would like to have an interaction on a paranormal level,
like do you have any recommendations for them? Where should
they go, what should they do, how should they apply?
Speaker 3 (39:33):
I really think the best way to do it is
to keep an open mind. I always like to tell
people to introduce yourself, let them know that you're open
to activity, that you're not afraid to connect with them.
And of course we have specific counted rooms that are
more active than others, and all that means it's not
that the other rooms are not active as well, but
that it's more consistently active.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
And I was just going to ask that any rooms
that people should go or we.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Have we have five five rooms. I'm gonna get this wrong, but.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
There there is for nineteen we have two, eighteen, two, twelve,
one oh one, and then the North Penthouse, which is
the five is five oh two, but that's Norman Baker's
suite as well. So we have quite a few rooms
that are are more active than others. I would say,
more consistently active.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Okay, Now, if someone is there and they're experiencing paranormal
activity and they don't necessarily want to, what is your advice.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
My advice to them would be keep calm and relax,
you know, don't overthink it because a lot of times
it's not spirit activity. You know, it is just somebody.
Because we are haunted. Unfortunately, people like to add to
the experience. They'll come by and knock on your door,
or they will make woo sounds outside and uh because
it is a beautiful place to be. But also in
(40:56):
that same way, just letting the spirits know I am
not cool with this. So if we can just keep
it to a minimum. I always say that talking out
loud to spirits is the best way to get through,
you know, because they are listening, you know. And whether
that will make them not mess with you or make
them mess with you more, I'm not sure. But I
do find the non believers get that activity just to
(41:18):
like so they could prove.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
That they're there.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
So maybe just being friendly and open and also letting
them know that I really want to have a good
night's sleep tonight.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
If we could just keep it to them be great. Exactly.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
That's the same advice I give people. And I'm always like,
if you're that worried about it, you better bring sleeping spear,
blood fear blogs and and good night.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Trying to take a little melantonin to up your so
but really, again, it's not supposed to be scary and uh.
And again for those people that have come to the
hotel and been either scared or non believers, you know,
they still left with a great experience and and wanted
to still come back.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
So yeah, yeah, that's great. So if people do want
to visit, obviously they can book a room or whatever.
But if they want to do a ghost tour, if
they want to do investigating, what do they do?
Speaker 3 (42:06):
We actually have reserve Eureka dot com, which is a website.
You go on there and you can buy tickets for
the ghost tour. They run twenty nine fifty per person,
and we will sometimes do up to twelve to thirteen
ghost tours a night on a weekend night during the
busy time, so we have plenty of opportunity. We take
about twenty people on each tour, and we tour the
(42:28):
entire hotel, and the only way you can get down
into the morgue is to take the tour, So that's great.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Well, I really appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Thank you telling me I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
I am super curious about the hotel. I've come this
close so many times to getting there, so I'm going
to make it happen.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
And I come to see you s And I also
want to say that I'm a big fan of yours
that I appreciate the reality that you bring to ghost investigating.
So I appreciate you guys and your show as well.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Oh well, thank you, we appreciate that. Yes, So, Sarah,
thanks for joining me. I and hope you will meet
in person very soon.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Good. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Amy.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
The Crescent Hotel has clearly had so much more history
and happiness in its past than despair. But the despair
that does exist in its past is intense, more intense
than most beautiful hotels you'd visit. I really can't think
of many places that would have that much cause for
a haunting. Imagine the mindset of someone desperately ill and dying,
(43:37):
walking through the doors and feeling hope, saying goodbye to
family members, hoping to return to them, cured, only to
be carted away in the middle of the night after
not making it at all, perhaps pieces of them cut
out and left to rot behind the building. Remember that
mindset when you visit the Crescent and reach out to
those spirits there accordingly. I'm Amy Bruney and this was
(44:01):
Haunted Road. Haunted Road is hosted and written by me
Amy Bruney, with additional research by Taylor Haggerdorn and Cassandra
de Alba. This show is edited and produced by rema
El Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers
(44:22):
Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. Haunted Road is
a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Menke.
Learn more about this show over at grimanmild dot com,
and for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
When Norman Baker arrived in Eureka Springs, Arkansas in nineteen
thirty seven, he brought along promises of a miracle cure
to cancer. His methods, he claimed, combined with the power
of the healing springs in the area, would be potent
medicine against the disease. Ailing patients flocked to the town
deep in the Ozark Mountains seeking treatment at the Baker
(00:34):
Cancer Curing Hospital. Many were removed under the cover of night,
having succumbed to their illnesses, with Baker trying to hide
their deaths and obscure the fact that his treatments were
no more than smoke and mirrors. After Baker was run
out of town as a fraud in a huckster, the building,
which had been previously known as the Crescent Hotel and Spa,
(00:54):
fell into disrepair, sitting abandoned for years. Eventually it was
purchased by a hotel group and revived to its former
glory as a Victorian era escaped for the well to
Do in nineteen ninety seven, during renovations of the property,
workers found a bizarre discovery in the woods behind the hotel.
(01:15):
They unearthed a glass jar with a mystery object inside.
Local authorities determined that it was a cancerous tumor preserved
in alcohol, one of the very specimens that Norman Baker
had used as evidence of the efficacy of his miracle cure. Eventually,
more than four hundred jars and bottles were brought to light.
(01:37):
What workers had discovered was the dump site for what
Baker presented as evidence of his success, but was really
just one more way he was hiding the truth about
his deceptive practices, robbing desperate people of their money, their hope,
and eventually their lives. Is it any wonder the Crescent
(01:58):
Hotel is one of the most haunted places in America.
I'm Amy Bruney, and this is haunted road. Long before
European settlers colonized the area, the Native American Osage tribe
(02:20):
talked of a great healing spring in what is now
northern Arkansas. When Europeans arrived, the indigenous peoples are believed
to have shared their knowledge of the spring, having frequented
the water for its healing properties. In eighteen fifty six,
doctor Alva Jackson, a man later referred to as a
backwoods pseudo healer, came upon the waters in an unincorporated
(02:43):
part of what had lately become Carroll County, Arkansas. He
claimed to have accessed their healing properties, sharing the secret
only local until eighteen seventy nine. Then Jackson brought to
the spring a prominent local man, Judge LEVI Saunders, who
presided over the Carroll County courts. Judge Saunders had a
disease of the legs and bathed them in the waters
(03:05):
during a hunting trip. When the man was healed of
his affliction, words spread quickly. People came to the area
in droves, hoping to be cured. Soon, Sonders set up
camp in the area, followed by a handful of other families.
According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, it was the judge's son,
Buck Saunders, who suggested the name Eureka Springs, after the
(03:27):
phrase Ponce de Leon is said to have exclaimed when
he allegedly found the Fountain of Youth, which if you've
been listening for a while you know is in Saint Augustine, Florida.
Saunders built the first house in Eureka's springs, and the
town was formerly founded on July fourth, eighteen seventy nine.
Shortly after came a general store and a hotel, and
(03:48):
droves of people building flimsy wooden shacks near the town's
sixty two different springs. The cheap wooden structures were especially
susceptible to fire, and the town burned down four times
between eight eighteen eighty three and eighteen ninety three. Still,
the area developed quickly, boosted by the Eureka Improvement Company
founded by former Arkansas Governor Powell Clayton. During this time,
(04:12):
the Industrial Revolution was growing cities, but also turning them
dirtier and grittier than they had been before, bringing sickness
and disease. Along with development, Victorian era people with expendable
income were increasingly looking for natural treatments.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
One of the most.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Popular was hydrotherapy, a water cure that purported to improve
illnesses and boost general health through immersion in natural, clean,
healing waters. Today it's considered an alternative therapy. Then it
wasn't exactly embraced by the medical community either, with some
hydrotherapy practitioners openly speaking against conventional medical practices. Eureka Springs
(04:58):
appealed to affluent track as a natural reprieve from city life,
but also as a method of connecting to nature to
heal their ailments. The water cure peaked the interest of
citizens at the epicenter of development, returning to the natural
in times of sickness suddenly made sense. An eighteen eighty
one Eureka Springs promotional pamphlet declared, certain diseases known as
(05:21):
incurable have been brought here, and the improvement in the
general health was so marked that invalids jumped at the
conclusion that they were well. While people of all kinds
had previously inhabited Eureka Springs, the newly founded Improvement Company
knew that money and renown would only come from attracting
the wealthy. Eureka Springs was to be a Victorian pleasure resort,
(05:42):
not a camp for the down and out. To that end,
Clayton and the Improvement Company constructed a marquee hotel high
up on a mountaintop, a glamorous and elegant escape they
called the Crescent Hotel and Spa, which opened in eighteen
eighty six. The grand structure had one hundred guests rooms
across five stories, its towers raising high above the tree line. Inside,
(06:05):
healing waters from three local springs flowed from the taps.
The Crescent enjoyed a prosperous beginning as a year round hotel,
but by nineteen oh one interest in the healing waters
had dwindled. The hotel switched to summer only accommodations in
nineteen oh eight. For the other three seasons, the hotel
became the Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women, an
(06:27):
academy for affluent girls. Tuition was high, and during the
Great Depression the college shuttered. The hotel limped along as
a summer destination and then as a junior college for
another decade. Another issue arose around the time of the depression.
Cases of typhoid were linked to three of Eureka Spring's waters.
(06:47):
Not only did this bode poorly for resort goers, it
also put a shadow on the town built on healing.
As historian doctor Timothy Covalchik notes, talk of death in
the healing town was almost non existent. Perhaps because the
town's economy was so closely tied to its reputation, people
there became comfortable with the idea of concealing the truth.
(07:08):
Certainly at the Crescent, the future held more of that darkness.
There were also two tragic deaths at the Crescent in
its early years. During its construction, Michael, an Irish Stonemason
is said to have fallen to his death where Room
two eighteen would later be. During the college years, a
young student fell to her death from a balcony. Whether
(07:29):
she was pushed or she jumped is unclear, but there
were whispers that it might have been over a failed
love affair, with the town in a market economic downturn.
It only makes sense that when Norman Baker came swooping
in with promises of prosperity, the residence of Eureka Springs
welcomed him with open arms. So what if he had
a dark past? As you might guess, things got ugly fast.
(07:56):
A vaudeville performer turned inventor, Baker made his fortune by
owning the second largest radio station in North America, a
platform he used to pedal his own version of snake oil.
At his Baker Institute, which he opened in Iowa. He
claimed to be able to heal all manner of sickness.
According to the book Border Radio by Jean Fowler and
(08:17):
Bill Crawford. His patients roamed around Muscatine with open sores
that contaminated town drinking fountains with blood. The hospital began
to take in as much as one hundred thousand dollars
a month, and the cash was taken out in suitcases
under cover of night. Some reports contended that deceased patients
were similarly discharged from the Palace of Healing. Baker claimed
(08:40):
so much success at the institute that he attracted attention
for him the wrong kind. He was exposed as a
fraud who had no medical training and was run out
of the state. Eventually, Baker discovered Eureka Springs when he
announced his intention to buy the shuttered Crescent Hotel. Locals
knew of his reputation and that the a Mareamerican Medical
(09:00):
Association denied Baker's claims to cure cancer, but Eureka Springs
was desperate and held the man up as a path
back to prosperity. During renovations of the hotel, it was
renamed the Baker Cancer Curing Hospital. He painted much of
the building purple, which is still visible on the chimneys.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
To this day.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Baker also installed one of his inventions, a caliophone, which
projected songs for miles around. For whatever reason, people believed Baker,
buying into his claims that he really could cheer the
terminally ill. When he opened his new hospital, he brought
in his staff from the Iowa location, and more than
one hundred patients from the other hospital followed him to Arkansas.
(09:44):
Baker advertised secret remedies based on the work of two
other known medical fraudsters whose work he had promoted. Even
after patients died in droves, he would inject those remedies,
largely comprised of carbolic acid, glycerine, alcohol, and brewed tea,
into tumors, claiming the medicine would eat the cancer without
(10:05):
harming the surrounding tissue. Desperate people went to the hospital
looking for hope, and Baker was happy to take their money.
The town of Eureka Springs was also feeling the effects
of renewed tourist interests and was returning to financial stability,
But not everyone in town loved Norman Baker. A well
respected local couple, Ray and Chloe Freeman, spoke widely about
(10:27):
his false claims. They owned some businesses in town, and
seeing that Eureka Springs relied largely on tourism. The couple
had contact with many visitors to the area. They had
apparently heard rumors of the dark happenings on the ridge
above town and warned incoming patients that those who went
to Baker Hospital to find a cure found disappointment and
(10:47):
sometimes well many times even death. Among the horrific accounts
of Baker's treatments, he was said to have attempted to
cure brain cancer by cutting open the scalp and pouring
in a mixture of spring water and ground watermelon seeds
directly onto the brain. The victims who died of his
(11:07):
unproven methods were treated no better in death than they
were in life. For victims at Baker Hospital, according to
paranormal writer Troy Taylor, it was said that he hid
the bodies for weeks until they could be burned in
the incinerator in the middle of the night. As his
publicity claimed that he could cheer cancer in a matter
of weeks, he had to keep the press from finding
(11:28):
out that many of his patients died every month. But
Baker didn't just try to keep outsiders from the truth.
He took those who suffered the most and placed them
in an annex. Some sources referred to it as an
asylum where they would die in extreme pain. Baker was
aware of the talk. In nineteen thirty nine, he published
an open letter to them in the local newspaper, claiming
(11:50):
that they had used underhanded methods, made discriminating statements, and
spread pure falsehoods in attempting to discredit Baker Hospital and
doctors to deprive the hostile hospital of patients. He also
had fear of attack from the American Medical Association. His
office in the Crescent reflected that paranoia. It was walled
off behind bulletproof glass. In his personal quarters, it is
(12:15):
said that he kept two submachine guns on the wall
for easy access, just in case. It took more than
two years of patients dying in the clandestine removal of
their remains for officials to investigate Baker Hospital. Eventually, he
was fined a fraction of the millions he defrauded from people,
and sentenced to four years in prison. He died ironically
(12:39):
of cancer shortly after his release. The hospital closed in
nineteen thirty nine, and the building was abandoned until nineteen
forty six, when investors purchased the property and returned the
Crescent to its original use as a hotel. In nineteen
ninety seven, Marty and Elise Rennick purchased the Crescent and
have operated it as since, though Marty was killed in
(13:02):
a car accident in two thousand and six. The building
they bought was run down and in disrepair, and they
set out to return it to its Victorian heyday. It
was during the Rennicks renovations that workers uncovered those four
hundred jars of tumorous remains in secret remedies. The Arkansas
Archaeological Survey matched them up to specimens Baker had used
(13:22):
to advertise the hospital in its heyday. According to the
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette, the bottles weren't left behind by Baker,
reporting that Keith Scales, who leads the ghost tours of
the Crescent, said officials were told that subsequent owners of
the building took all of Baker's specimen bottles to the
dump in the nineteen sixties. He thought that meant a
landfill near Berryville, but apparently it meant a dump behind
(13:45):
the building. Today, the Crescent looks much the same as
it would have in eighteen eighty six, when it opened
its doors. One of the main differences, though, is that
guests won't just find access to the healing waters around
the building, they'll also more than likely find ghosts. The
(14:08):
Crescent has been called America's most haunted hotel. While I'm
not totally sold on whether that's actually true. There are
a lot of haunted hotels out there with a lot
of really cool activity and ghost stories. There's no denying
that there are many accounts of unexplained activity at the Crescent.
The most notable ghost at the Crescent is that of
the Irish stonemason Michael, who died during the hotel's construction
(14:31):
when he fell from the roof. Stories say that he
was trying to catch the attention of a beautiful lady
down below. Michael fell to his death in the spot
where room two eighteen would be. Guests who stay in
this room report a list of intense experiences. They range
from strange sounds and sensations. Just seems so terrifying that,
according to Haunted Ozark's, guests have left the room screaming
(14:54):
and refuse to return. One guest even reported seeing hands
reaching out from the bathroom mirror at night, the sound
of a large object falling can be heard, but a
more visual event has also been noted. Instead of simply
hearing the thud of what can only be Michael's fatal fault,
people have also reported seeing the aftermath. According to Troy
(15:16):
Taylor's writings about the hotel, the wife of one of
the proprietors reportedly stayed in Room two eighteen one evening.
In the middle of the night, she ran from it screaming.
When staff approached her and asked what inside of the outburst,
she claimed that she had seen blood splattered all over
the walls. Staff members ran up to look, but found
no blood or any signs of a disturbance, let alone
(15:39):
a violent crime or an accident. Other guests of Room
two eighteen have experienced this same phenomenon to the same
degree of horror. Another frequent sighting is of the ghost
of the college student who died there. Stories say that
she was perhaps jilted by her lover, but whatever the
details are, they were known only to her as she
stood on a balk of the crescent, while the main
(16:01):
tale claims that she jumped to escape her sadness. According
to Haunted Ozarks, there are other more whispered accounts perhaps
some speculate that she was pushed. That would add a
sharper edge to her screams, which have been heard by
many guests of the Crescent. Since the most common experience
that people report are with the ghosts of the hotel
(16:22):
in its time as the Baker Hospital, it only makes
sense if spirits linger in places of intense emotion, then
they're likely to linger at a place that sold false hope,
where suffering people place their hope in a man who
was lying to them and stealing their money, only to
have their trust betrayed and more than likely to die.
(16:43):
As Taylor wrote, the deeds committed during this era have
unquestionably had a lasting impact on the building and perhaps
on the spirits who still linger. Official stories downplay local legend,
but those stories maintain a vibrant life based on the
unending stream of pairs normal anomalies. Within the Crescent Hotel,
a young woman by the name of Theodora appears regularly.
(17:06):
According to accounts by paranormal writer Janie Tremir, she often
asks for her room key before vanishing. Differing accounts report
that she was either a patient or a caretaker of
the terminally ill. Some accounts placed Theodora in Room four nineteen,
where she has most often been spotted by housekeepers. Theodora's
voice has reportedly been captured on EVP. In Hauntings of America,
(17:30):
Taylor wrote that in nineteen eighty seven, a guest claimed
she saw a nurse pushing a gurney down the hallway
in the middle of the night. The nurse reached the
wall and then vanished. Many others have recounted witnessing that
very same scene, while others not brave enough to open
their door report hearing the squeaking and squealing of a
heavily laden cart. She always pushes the cart after eleven PM,
(17:54):
Norman's reported curfew for his patients. The Morgue is unsurprisingly
a hotspot for paranormal activity. According to Bill Ott, the
Cressens director of Marketing and Communications, the Morgue still features
the walk in cooler Baker used to store cadavers and
body parts, as well as an adutopsy table he used
(18:14):
chiefly to explore removed cancer, not patience after death. Hotel
staff also recounted that they would get calls on the
switchboard from the basement recreation room, but no one was
at the other end, they couldn't be because the room
was unused and locked at all times, and the only
key was held at the front desk. When staff would
check it out, they'd often find that the wreck room
(18:36):
phone had been taken off the hook, but by who
or what was never answered. They had no idea who
it could have been because there was only one entrance
and exit and one key, which they had. A later occurrence,
a staff member received yet another one of the mysterious calls.
According to Taylor, when he went down to the basement
to check, the phone was still on the receiver, but
(18:57):
he still maintains that he felt another press the room
with him. He locked the door behind him, taking the
single key with him as he returned to his post.
Within five minutes of returning, the switchboard alerted him to
yet another incoming call from the very room he just
checked and found seemingly empty. Baker himself has been seen
(19:17):
as well in his standard white suit in lavender shirt.
Sources recall that he appears sour, confused, and trapped. He
is most often seen in the basement, near the old
recreation room or on the first floor landing. According to Tremir,
she wrote that while it is unclear whether Baker felt
remorse or was even cognizant of the wrongdoings he committed.
(19:39):
An operation that is believed to be Baker himself has
been spotted. Those who have seen him say that he
looks lost, first going one way and then another. Up next,
I will be talking to Sarah eccles, a ghost tour
guide from the Crescent Hotel. You won't want to miss
her first hand accounts, which if you're a panormal investigator,
(20:00):
are going to make you want to book a stay
there sooner rather than later. That is coming up after
the break. So I am now joined by Sarah E. Kelly,
(20:21):
who is a tour guide at the Crescent Hotel, and
I'm thrilled to have her with us, just because this
is such a bucket list location for me, so I'm
really eager to hear all about it. So thank you
for joining us my pleasure. I read a bit about
the activity that goes on there, and you are a
tour guide there, so I'm sure you see a lot.
You've experienced a lot. How long have you been there exactly?
(20:45):
Working at the hotel.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
I have been there just about four years now and
we get a lot of activity a lot of times
we're working and we can't take the time to capture
the activity. I work in the day Spa as well
as a tour guide there, so I'm there quite a
bit throughout the day and the evening. But it's it's
a really cool place to work, and I've been there
(21:08):
for quite a while now.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Now you say you work in the day's spa. It's
funny because I frequent a hotel here in New England,
the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire, and I consider
the spa to be one of the most haunted places
in the hotel, which I don't like to advertise personally
right exactly, but is that the case for you as well?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
We have activity in the spa as well. You know,
we have the old bowling lanes from nineteen oh one,
which you know is kind of fun. But I would
tell you a lot of the activity happens in the hotel,
like during the day on the room floors. We really
get a lot of that because you know, spirit most
active when they would have been alive, you know, during
(21:51):
their life, or wouldve been awake during their life, and
so I find the creepiest parts of the day are
like between eleven and three on the room if I'm honest.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
So, yeah, basically like right after checkout or check insbody left.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
And it should be quiet, but sometimes it's not.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So yeah, And I think there's something to that, because
you know, I'm sure you've encountered this. A lot of
people assume that paranormal activity just happens at night, but
when you have places like a hotel, I think the
reason people are more cognizant of it at night is
because that's when it's the most quiet.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Yeah, if a hodel is busy, people are bustling around
and you know, the restaurants are open, and a ghost
could walk right in front of you and you think
it was a living person.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah, or you could debunk just about any picture, any
sound that you heard, thinking that it's another guest in.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
The hallway or in another room exactly.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
But I think that spirits are probably more active during
the day just because they're active on our schedules, especially
in a place like that.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Absolutely, it wasn't that long ago that I was coming
back from a lunch break in you know, working in
the day spa, and through a couple of bars on
the stairs, I saw two little hands and two little
eyes peeking through and I thought it was a real
kid because and I like kids.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
You know, there's lots of kids in the hotel.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
And I pop back up the stairs to like wave
and there was no kid there. But there is a
child that is seen on that set of stairs all
the time, and so it was kind of fun to
think that they're connecting with me. But I didn't have
time to take a picture or like, but there that
was those little hands, of those little eyes peeking at me.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Well, I think there's something to be said for the
personal experience. I think sometimes we get so caught up
in trying to capture activity or capture some sort of evidence.
But to me, I find those kind of like personal
experiences just as compelling.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
So I tell people all the time, you yourself is
your best ghost hunting tool, all of your senses, you know, so.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Well absolutely, like we don't. I try to kind of
tell people, if you're in this to have an experience
for your don't worry so much about what other people
are going to think of it or trying to kind.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Of justify it. Right, so you know, you had it,
you had it.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yeah, So this child that you saw because you said
that's a regular occurrence, Like, how often are people encountering this, uh,
this spirit pretty often?
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Actually, Now it's not somebody that it's not a spirit
that we talk about on the tour. It just seems
to be an interaction that we have quite often on
those stairs. People will feel like they got their dress
tugged on. People wake up in the middle of the
night to a little kid waking them like they do
in the middle of the night, and that activity is
kind of second floor and down those stairs there, And
(24:39):
we've gotten pictures of her several times. In fact, when
I had my experience with her, i'd mentioned it to
another guide and she's like, you're kidding, because we just
got a picture of that same girl going up the
stairs like last night, and it was like, oh, that's
kind of cool when you connect those stories as well
with somebody's photograph or whatever it is. But she becomes
very regular for us.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Now, do you have any idea who she might be?
Speaker 3 (25:03):
We don't write at the moment, and we're always investigating
trying to find out. But I feel like in the
Crescent especially, we have so many spirits that they're ready
to connect with us that want to have that interaction
with us. But it's almost hard to pitpoint. I find
when I'm investigating a lot of times I can't rely
that there's only one person trying to come through that
(25:23):
we get several coming through. So it's hard to pinpoint
names and things like that. But yeah, but she looks
like she's kind of from the Victorian times, from the pictures.
She wears a little dress and has her hair kind
of curled in that, you know, same kind of way,
or maybe shortly after in the twenties, But she is
not of this time, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
No, And yeah, no, that doesn't sound yo, So do
you What would you think is maybe kind of the
more common types of activity that people encounter at the hotel.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
More commonly, you know, in their rooms, they will get
woken or poked. We have one particular spirit named Michael
who's particularly roguish, and women will say that he strokes
their hair or will tickle them, or or open the
bathroom door on them while they're in there. You know,
things like that become kind of calmon occurrences.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
And also another one.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Of our really most felt experience or I should say
smelled experiences is doctor Ellis was a doctor there. He
was the hotel physician, and they smell his cherry tobacco
down the hallways in the lobby. And usually when I
tell the story, like half of my tour was like,
oh my gosh, I smelled it earlier. Oh my gosh,
(26:40):
I smelled it, you know, two days ago. And it
doesn't happen all the time. We can't smoke in the hotel.
Cherry tobacco is not something that is very popular right now,
so it becomes something that you go, huh, okay.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
But that's one that I hear quite often.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Now. I understand, like the hotel history is kind of dark,
you know, it's definitely different. Uh, But from what I've heard,
it doesn't necessarily have a heavy feeling to it.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Is that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
And why do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (27:14):
I actually think, you know, the dark part of our
history was so short, you know, Norman Baker being there
and running it as a cancer hospital was only about
two years of our existence. But most of the time
it was a place of celebration. It was a place
that the wealthy folks went to vacation and they didn't
have as many promblems as some of the less fortunates.
(27:36):
And also I think that our spirits are friendly as
far as you know. They're not negative entities. They had
an unfortunate passing, and they're just trying to connect with somebody,
And so if they were to try to scare us off,
I don't know that everybody would want to connect, but
I do think it's mostly and I'm not saying there
(27:59):
aren't a couple of negative energies in the hotel, but
for the most part, people's spirit experiences become almost comical
or like trickery, you know, and not necessarily that scary
kind of spirit experience. For instance, I had a guest
that had told me they brewed coffee in the morning,
and the coffee pot you can't see through, so she
(28:19):
figured it brewed. She went to pour it and there
was nothing in there. And then a couple hours later,
underneath the coffee pot there's a drawer that it was
sitting on, and the.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Coffee ended up in the drawer. Not scary, just.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Letting them know in that way that is unmistakable that
something crazy happened here and.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
It was not human done, you know, right exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
And that's so I feel like I investigate many hotels
that kind of have that same vibe. And I know
a lot of us have speculated that perhaps spirits have
had great, you know, memories there and they're coming back
for some reason, like something profound happened to them, or
they vacation there. And so you do have these kind
of spirits that make themselves known, but they're not necessarily
(29:03):
doing anything harmful. Ohka, now, USA, say you had a
couple that might make themselves done and more of it.
I don't want to say negative, but maybe anymore mischievous way.
What kind of interactions do those ones pose?
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Mostly it's a sadness above anything else. When I say negative,
I don't even mean like mean or hateful. Uh. It
really is this sadness that comes over people when they're
in our morgue area where they used to keep the bodies,
or in the area where he used to keep in
the We call it the pain Asylum. But this place
(29:40):
that he used to keep people, well, they were very
sick because it wasn't good for his business to see
people dying of cancer. And you feel a real heaviness.
Sometimes people feel the pain in their stomach. We had
a medium ount not that long ago, and I can't
be in there myself. I get the same pain, and
I'm not very sensitive myself, but can a firm that
that was something that she was feeling and thought it
(30:02):
was spirit connected. I've had people burst into tears as
we get into the Morgue area that are like, I'm
not a crier, and as they're like, you know, pouring
tears on their eyes. I just had somebody do it
the other night. So those are the things that I
find to be more negative. No, nothing's super harmful. It
just doesn't make you feel real good, you know, right.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
I mean that's kind of the classic almost unfinished business.
You know, this is kind of a very strange set
of circumstances where you have people who are terminally ill
and it's kind of being hidden in a way. Yeah,
and like what does what imprint does that leave?
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Well?
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Even oh sorry, go ahead, no, go ahead, you know
that I do so.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
And not only that, but like Norman Baker when he
was telling them that they're you know, they needed to
go back to the asylum because the asylum or sanitary,
and you want to go get healthy to be sick.
Part of his treatment was mental therapeutics, and he was
very much putting it on them like you're not doing
this properly or you would be healed. So they also
felt I think a level of guilt or like I
can feel that sometimes in the hotel, like I didn't
(31:06):
do enough for myself, when actually it was not something
that they could have done for themselves. They were kind
of being swindled into thinking this would work.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
You know, Yeah, I can't even imagine like a their mindset,
but be like what that leaves behind rights? Yeah, so
many spirits we encounter. It is, you know, they there's
something that is keeping them there. There's something that they
either feel guilty about, or there's something that they a
(31:35):
message they want to get across. And I can't imagine
being in that place where you're basically being told you're
dying because you're not.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
Doing good enough exactly, And then how do you handle that?
And when they finally pass, of course they feel like
they could have probably done more, or they should have
done something different, or you know, their families weren't ready
for them to go and they just can't cross over.
I mean, all those kinds of things come into play.
But again it's it's kind of specific areas in the
hotel and that most of it like you said, is
(32:05):
pretty lighthearted connecting. I'd also tell you that they miss people.
In the wintertime, when we do get a little bit slow,
they're not as active, you know, because there's not people
around to interact with. And we do something in the
wintertime called Eurekas brings paranormal weekends and we open all
our haunted rooms. We hunt them for a couple of
days and it's like a convention. But you can feel
(32:28):
the buzz in the hotel when they It's like they
know it's coming, and you can find the energy rise
up and things start to happen around us, and then
we're like, oh my god, they know the people are
coming to see them.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
It's a really.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Crazy feeling to know that some of them are looking
not all of them, but some of them are looking
forward to that connection with people again that they haven't
had in a.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
Month or so. You know.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Well, I think we really experienced that during kind of
the height of the pandemic when some of these places
were closed.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I'm sure you were to.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
And I felt like some of these entities were kind
of like what is going on? Where are my people exactly?
And when we would come back and investigate places, they
were so eager to interact, Like, you know, I don't
think we realize how much they kind of either look
forward to or just even rely on us to keep
(33:22):
them kind of engaged. Absolutely, Now, how many people visit
the hotel and just have no idea of its reputation?
Like I feel like it's like everyone should know that
it's haunted. But do you ever if people just come in
and are just completely surprised by this fact.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yes, And I'm always surprised that they're surprised because it's
all over the place. It's really hard to avoid.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
If you have not googled us one time, you know,
you must have not known.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
But we still do get people that don't know that
place is haunted, and some of them are comfortable with it,
some of them are not. I always just try to,
you know, let them know. In my experience that most
spirits are people, and most people are not bad people.
Maybe they're not as friendly or maybe they're more friendly,
but they are just people in that it's nothing to
(34:05):
be afraid of, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
But it does happen sometimes.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah, I think humanizing them is very important, you know,
it's I think a lot of the things that spirits
do Uh, if you actually like saw a living person
doing it, most of the time, it would not be
that crazy, right, although sometimes right right, right, But most
of the.
Speaker 3 (34:27):
Time they're just doing these daily you know things, or
again just trying to connect, not trying to scare you
away or get.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
You out of their space.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
You know. Right now, are there apparitions seen at the hotel?
There is, I know, the little girl, but is there
anyone else that people might stumble upon?
Speaker 3 (34:44):
Becky is one of our most seen I think spirits.
He's a little boy that was there during the college
days and he seems to be very I mean, he
seems to connect with the children, and we get a
lot of families in so that's one that they because
these kids, gosh, they're so much more open than we are.
They don't doubt themselves. I definitely saw a little boy
(35:06):
right there, and he wasn't one of us, you know,
So I think he's one of our most seen spirit
by eyeball. Everything else can kind of be felt. Pictures
are taken in reflections, but he seems to be pretty
well interacting with people on the regular.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
So mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
And then now, what about like shadow figures, shadow figures,
we do have one.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
I would say actually in the morgue area, which is
connected to the laundry room and all that stuff. But
he whatever that I say, it's a heat. I don't
know for sure, but whatever the shadow figure is will
peek around the corner. Now, when we take a tour
down there, it's a private tour, you know, only ticketed
people can be down there, and it's gotten every guide
(35:50):
at least one time where it looks like some of
the peaks around the corner or shadow does and we
go to kick somebody out of the area.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
And there's nobody there.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
And I don't think that that's actually related to Norman
Baker at all. I think that was a little bit
later on. But that shadow figure, the person is very
tall and leans around corners all over that place.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
So yeah, now when you started, did you start in
the spa first or.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Were you a child?
Speaker 3 (36:18):
I actually started in the day Spa, and I was
there first for about a year before I started doing
the tours. But you know, the activity was always there,
you knew it was there. And then when I started
doing the tours, you know, I really got involved in
the paranormal investigating side. And you you're I'm always surprised
at what kind of activity we can get.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah, so was there a point where you kind of went, oh,
there's something to this, Like you started in a spot,
did you have an experience or an epiphany like, oh,
this place is definitely haunted that made you kind of
want to be more interested in maybe get involved in
the paranormal side.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
It was kind of interested in it from the beginning,
I would say, interested in that kind of stuff. But
I would say the most poignant moment for me was
and also seeing how commonplace it was. We were cleaning
up the day spa, and of course that's what we
do when we're not busy as we clean and there
was a glass cleaner on the counter and it moved
(37:16):
over all by itself and one of the girls jump back,
put her hands up and said, today, boy, I'll see that.
And one girl said yes and three of us said no,
and then we just went back to cleaning. And I
was like, really, okay, well that's how common this stuff
is and again.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Not harmful, just moved it over. We all went okay,
we saw that, and then we moved on with our lives.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
But uh, yeah, it's funny, like you're just like, this
is what happens here here, and everybody.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Were like, Okay, that's just the way it is around here.
But again, nobody seems afraid. I have very sensitive friends
that work with me in the day spa and they
still continue to work there, which says something about, you know,
our spirit activity not being threatening. But that was one
of those moments where I was like, boy, this is
a little bit more common than I thought. But you
can feel the energy as soon as you walk it.
(38:04):
I would say, as soon as you drive onto the property,
you just know you're someplace really special that has something
above and beyond your hotel experience.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Now, what do you think lends to that? Do you
think it's just because it's the hotel itself? Do you
think it's something environmental? Like, why do you think this
has become such a haunted.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Well, I definitely think the limestone has a lot to
do with it. You know, we do find I'm to
understand that the water running over limestone makes electromagnetic forces
that they're measurable. It's creating energy, and so we do
see that in the you know, the limestone walls. When
it rains down those walls, there is an energy that
can be picked up and the spirits are way more active.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
We have these limestone.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
Quarries in town where everything was locally limestone deposits where
things were locally quarried from, and they're still free flowing
springs going through those. And also remembering that there's places
all over the world with high concentrations of limestone that
talk about the same things that we do, you know,
religious places, sacred places, healing waters. Is not that weird
(39:09):
that this combination of different kinds of stone and these
waters going through kind of help out the spirit activity.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
I would think right makes sense.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Now, So if someone's going to visit the hotel and
they would like to have an interaction on a paranormal level,
like do you have any recommendations for them? Where should
they go, what should they do, how should they apply?
Speaker 3 (39:33):
I really think the best way to do it is
to keep an open mind. I always like to tell
people to introduce yourself, let them know that you're open
to activity, that you're not afraid to connect with them.
And of course we have specific counted rooms that are
more active than others, and all that means it's not
that the other rooms are not active as well, but
that it's more consistently active.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
And I was just going to ask that any rooms
that people should go or we.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Have we have five five rooms. I'm gonna get this wrong, but.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
There there is for nineteen we have two, eighteen, two, twelve,
one oh one, and then the North Penthouse, which is
the five is five oh two, but that's Norman Baker's
suite as well. So we have quite a few rooms
that are are more active than others. I would say,
more consistently active.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Okay, Now, if someone is there and they're experiencing paranormal
activity and they don't necessarily want to, what is your advice.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
My advice to them would be keep calm and relax,
you know, don't overthink it because a lot of times
it's not spirit activity. You know, it is just somebody.
Because we are haunted. Unfortunately, people like to add to
the experience. They'll come by and knock on your door,
or they will make woo sounds outside and uh because
it is a beautiful place to be. But also in
(40:56):
that same way, just letting the spirits know I am
not cool with this. So if we can just keep
it to a minimum. I always say that talking out
loud to spirits is the best way to get through,
you know, because they are listening, you know. And whether
that will make them not mess with you or make
them mess with you more, I'm not sure. But I
do find the non believers get that activity just to
(41:18):
like so they could prove.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
That they're there.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
So maybe just being friendly and open and also letting
them know that I really want to have a good
night's sleep tonight.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
If we could just keep it to them be great. Exactly.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
That's the same advice I give people. And I'm always like,
if you're that worried about it, you better bring sleeping spear,
blood fear blogs and and good night.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Trying to take a little melantonin to up your so
but really, again, it's not supposed to be scary and uh.
And again for those people that have come to the
hotel and been either scared or non believers, you know,
they still left with a great experience and and wanted
to still come back.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
So yeah, yeah, that's great. So if people do want
to visit, obviously they can book a room or whatever.
But if they want to do a ghost tour, if
they want to do investigating, what do they do?
Speaker 3 (42:06):
We actually have reserve Eureka dot com, which is a website.
You go on there and you can buy tickets for
the ghost tour. They run twenty nine fifty per person,
and we will sometimes do up to twelve to thirteen
ghost tours a night on a weekend night during the
busy time, so we have plenty of opportunity. We take
about twenty people on each tour, and we tour the
(42:28):
entire hotel, and the only way you can get down
into the morgue is to take the tour, So that's great.
Speaker 1 (42:34):
Well, I really appreciate you taking the time.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
Thank you telling me I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
I am super curious about the hotel. I've come this
close so many times to getting there, so I'm going
to make it happen.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
And I come to see you s And I also
want to say that I'm a big fan of yours
that I appreciate the reality that you bring to ghost investigating.
So I appreciate you guys and your show as well.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Oh well, thank you, we appreciate that. Yes, So, Sarah,
thanks for joining me. I and hope you will meet
in person very soon.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Good. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Amy.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
The Crescent Hotel has clearly had so much more history
and happiness in its past than despair. But the despair
that does exist in its past is intense, more intense
than most beautiful hotels you'd visit. I really can't think
of many places that would have that much cause for
a haunting. Imagine the mindset of someone desperately ill and dying,
(43:37):
walking through the doors and feeling hope, saying goodbye to
family members, hoping to return to them, cured, only to
be carted away in the middle of the night after
not making it at all, perhaps pieces of them cut
out and left to rot behind the building. Remember that
mindset when you visit the Crescent and reach out to
those spirits there accordingly. I'm Amy Bruney and this was
(44:01):
Haunted Road. Haunted Road is hosted and written by me
Amy Bruney, with additional research by Taylor Haggerdorn and Cassandra
de Alba. This show is edited and produced by rema
El Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers
(44:22):
Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. Haunted Road is
a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Menke.
Learn more about this show over at grimanmild dot com,
and for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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