May 3, 2023 • 39 mins
When it opened, the Alaskan Hotel was all glitz and glamour, a shining beacon in one of the territory’s richest gold rush towns. But, it didn't take long for things to take a dark turn. Special guest: Katrina Weidman.
If you'd like to see Amy live or join her on a Strange Escapes trip, visit for amybruni.com for dates and details.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Just before midnight on May nineteenth, two thousand and seven,
police were called to the Alaskan Hotel to respond to
a disturbance in Room three fifteen. The room's only guest,
a sailor from the USS Bunker Hill, was heard screaming
through the door. Help stop, he shouted, get me out
of here. He appeared to be trapped in the room.
(00:34):
Responding officers said they heard more than one person inside. Later,
a guest in the room directly underneath gave her account
of the events. I remember hearing yelling, but kind of
just assumed that it was coming from the bar downstairs,
she said. We hear glass chatter from above, and within moments,
our window within our hotel room just shatters. Before anyone
(00:54):
could get inside, the sailor jumped out the third floor window.
When the police broke down the door, or Officer Chris
Guildford was met with a horrible scene. The walls were
covered in blood. Guilford said, there was it looked like
something very bad had happened in there, and I didn't
know what it was, but it didn't look normal. The
sailor survived, but hotel owner Betty Adams said that when
(01:18):
she entered the room, she found something she never expected
to see. On the wall, the sailor had written one
word help. He wrote it in his own blood. I'm
Amy Bruney and this is haunted road. Room three point
(01:41):
fifteen is in the only haunted space and the one
hundred ten year old Alaskan Hotel in Juno, Alaska. In fact,
according to people who've stayed there and even the people
who own it, just about every corner of the historic
hotel has some kind of unexplained activity. But when it opened,
the Alaskan Hotel was all glitz and glamor, a shining
(02:04):
beacon in one of the territory's richest gold rushed tones. Today,
Juno is home to just about thirty thousand people. The
capital of Alaska sits on land originally belonging to the
Negative Klinget tribe. In eighteen eighty, a discovery of gold
set off a gold rush and led to the founding
of the city later that year. Joe Juno was one
(02:24):
of the original discoverers of that gold, but the city
wasn't named for him right away. First it was Harrisburg,
then it was Rockwell. Miners voted to name the city
Juno in eighteen eighty one, allegedly after Joe Juno bribed
his voters with liquor. Juno is located on the Alaskan mainland,
but is surrounded by so much extreme terrain that it's
(02:46):
only reachable by boat or plain. Those first prospectors set
up camps and lived in boarding houses, but no real
hotel existed until the Alaskan opened its doors in nineteen thirteen.
It was just a year after Elahesca became an official
United States territory. The Alaskan was built by entrepreneur Jules
(03:10):
Carrow and brothers James and John McCloskey, miners who had
struck it rich in the Canadian Cariboo just over the
border in British Columbia. The hotel opened with a grand
gala on September sixteenth, nineteen thirteen. According to Jeff Balanger's
World's Most Haunted Places, the management sent out invitations for
(03:30):
the gala event that said at six pm, the management
will formally unlock the doors and the keys will then
be attached to a toy balloon which will carry them
out of sight. From the moment the doors swing open,
never to close. The hotel will be for the accommodation
of guests. At the time, the Alaska Daily Empire described
(03:51):
it as one of the most important business ventures of
this kind in the North. According to the newspaper, the
gala attracted a very large attendance of people anxious to
inspect the place that had been talked about so much
and to take part in the festivities that were to follow.
The hotel arranged free fairies to bring people in from
nearby islands for the event as well. According to one
(04:14):
contemporary newspaper, everyone seemed to be having a good time,
and the hotel's register had several pages filled with the
names of well known people of both sides of the
Gastineau Channel. An account in the National Registry of Historic
Places Inventories said that a pioneer resident than a teenager,
Trevor Davis, recalls his observation of the exciting grand opening.
(04:38):
The McCloskey brothers milling among a well dressed crowd, shaking
magnums of champagne, the corks aimed at the newly installed
chandeliers and the gleaming ceiling.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Of the lobby.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Three stories tall. The Alaskan Hotel made a grand impression
with Mount Juno rising up behind the structure. Inside, the
main floor was primarily restaurants, separate dining areas for men
and women, and the bar. The top two floors still
have the original forty six guest rooms, some of which
have private baths and some of which have shared bathrooms.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
The Alaska Daily.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Empire reported that the finish of the entire lower floor
is in mahogany, matching the elegant mahogany fixtures and furniture.
The furniture is all leather upholstered. The entire floor is
well illuminated. Brass chandeliers and tasteful design and art fixtures
for the electric lights are everywhere. In evidence from the
(05:35):
nearby steamship docks, it was easy to see what the
newspaper described as a large electric sign blazing forth, which
could be seen far down the gasteno channel. Inside the hotel,
through the doors that never closed, things took a dark
run rather quickly. According to the Alaskan Hotel, the high
fashion and glitz was a paltry concealment for the legal
(05:58):
prostitution and sale of illicit substances that went on there
throughout its history. At the time, men's far outnumbered women
in the territory, and sex work was legal in Alaska
until the nineteen fifties, just before it became a state.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Rumors also swirled.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
That money laundering was happening in the hotel. In nineteen eighteen,
five years after the Alaska opened, the territory passed its
own ban on alcohol. According to the hotel's history, the
McCloskey brothers decided to turn the bar into a cafe
for sodas during that period, like most speakeasies of its time,
(06:36):
The hotel was renamed the Northlander in nineteen sixty and
the bar previously on the first floor was moved to
the basement. In a guide to the Notorious Bars of Alaska,
Doug van de Graft wrote, the Northlander Bar was known
by many locals as the snake pit, where all manner
of humanity, such as prostitutes, drug dealers, swindlers, musicians, and
(06:57):
dirty politicians came to drink and rub elbow. In nineteen
seventy seven, after a police raid, the bar was shut
down and its liquor license revoked shortly after the building
was condemned. That same year, current owners Betty and Mike Adams,
(07:18):
bought the hotel with the intention to restore it to
its original name and its original look. In Thousand Ridge Haunts,
Missy Wright wrote that elements of the hotel are so
well preserved. Longtime Juno residents comment on how little the
place has changed. The following year, in nineteen seventy eight,
the Alaskan Hotel was included on the National Register of
(07:39):
Historic Places. In nineteen eighty one, Betty and Mike reopened
the hotel for business and quickly restored the institution to
its former glory, attracting celebrities like John Wayne, Ken Kessei
Ted Danson, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers as guests.
According to its history, the hotel's style, as noted by
its own or Nate string course, Victorian bay windows in
(08:02):
plush interior, is decidedly done in the late Victorian Queen
Anne's style. In Alaska Voters Travel Guide today, the flocked wallpaper,
red floral carpets, and tiffany windows are reminiscent of the
hotel's original Gold Rush era opulence. While it was the Northlander,
the owners installed a bar and cabaret in the basement,
(08:23):
and later hot tubs, which don't appear to currently be
in use. In nineteen ninety eight, Charles Kevin Wynn died
at the hotel, having been found floating face down in
a basement hot tub. In twenty seventeen, Clarence Stanley Milton
third was found dead in his room. People report seeing
at least one of those men still at the hotel today.
(08:44):
Charlie is now believed to be a poltergeist who haunts
the basement who is especially focused on pretty women. According
to Joshua Adams, son of owners Betty and Mike Adams,
who works at the hotel, he's definitely not the only
presence at the Alaskan hotel, though visitors and staff both
(09:07):
report often encountering cold spots throughout the building. According to
Tom Ognan's book Haunted Hotels, guests of reported feeling an
invisible spirit presumed to be female, stroke their faces or
sit beside them on the bed. In general, rooms on
the south side of the hotel seem to have the
most activity, though it's not known why. James Devereaux in
(09:29):
Spirits of Southeast Alaska reports that Reflections of ghostly figures
in historical garb have been reported in the hotel's mirrors,
especially in the bar area. Others have spotted orbs floating
in the bar and on the stage.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
According to the.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Haunted Places, beer mugs have also been reported moving on
their own, as if they were pushed by someone. One
of the more curious phenomena people report experiencing at the
Alaskan is time slips. Elva bon Traeger claims to have
experienced this in the late nineteen aenies while visiting the
first floor bar. According to Varndel's book Haunted Inside Passage,
(10:05):
she was on her way to use the restroom when
she was struck by a painting of two women. One
was a tall, scantily clad, sour faced blonde, the other
was an attractive, dark haired woman with a small scar
on her cheek, sitting behind a small green table. Elva
assumed the two were prostitutes. She went home and replicated
the painting of the two women. When Elva returned to
(10:28):
the hotel a few weeks later, the painting was gone
and the hallway was painted a different color. She also
saw changes in the restroom, with a modern toilet replacing
the pole chain model she had seen previously. When she
asked the bartender about the changes, he had no idea
what she was talking about and had no memory of
such a painting ever hanging in that hallway. When she
(10:51):
described the painting to the acquaintance she was at the
bar with, the other woman said she'd been told by
staff that the tall, blonde woman was a ghostly presence
in the hotel's hallways. The most popular ghost story about
the Alaskan Hotel concerns a woman named Alice. According to legend,
Alice came to Juno with a man, possibly her fiance
(11:11):
or husband, and they took Room two nineteen at the
Alaskan sometime in the nineteen thirties. Alice's man left for
several weeks to look for mining work in the Yukon,
or in some versions, he was a fisherman or a
whaler who went out to sea. Eventually, Alice ran out
of money and was unable to continue paying for the room.
Out of options, she decided to raise the money through
(11:33):
sex work, a common occupation in the hotel at the time.
Most tellings of the story say that when he returned,
the heartbroken man murdered Alice in the hotel, either shooting
her or bludgeoning her with a hatchet. In some versions
of the story, he then hung himself in the same room.
In others, he simply disappeared. According to one hotel employee
(11:56):
interviewed by Jeff Balanger for World's Most Haunted Places, guests
continually asked to be moved out of room two nineteen.
The man, Jake Good, said, whenever I walk into Room
two one nine, I get goosebumps. It's cold in there
all of the time. For some reason, I personally think
there are probably a couple of ghosts around here. I
(12:16):
think the one in two nineteen is the only one
that is frustrated or unhappy or tormented.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Some staff members say they've seen Alice sitting on the
bed in Room two eighteen and room two nineteen. Others
complain of feeling watched in that part of the hotel.
According to Spirits of Southeast Alaska, a former housekeeper tells
of cleaning the rooms, only to return to find the
towels and furniture rearranged and scattered about, when there's no
(12:44):
possibility that anyone could have entered to do so Room
three fifteen of the Alaskan Hotel is also said to
be haunted. That room, decorated with antiques and floral linen,
looks especially close to how it would have appeared when
the hotel first opened. According to legend, a fisherman's girlfriend
(13:07):
was one staying in room three fifteen as haunted.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Inside.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Passage tells it, the man, suspicious his girlfriend might be
cheating on him, desperately wanted to come into port. It
was autumn, a time storms frequently buffet juno and turn
the ocean deadly. Rather than staying anchored in a protected cove,
the fisherman made a run for towne and was lost
to the stormy sea. It's said that during the first
(13:31):
big storm each year, the fisherman's footsteps can be heard
on the stairs. Room three fifteen is also the room
where that sailor had an experience so intense that it
caused him to jump out the window to escape. When
asked about the room, according to Alaska Public Media owner
Betty Adams said, I just it's creepy.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I've never seen anything, but I feel things. The Alaskan
Hotel is a place I have yet to visit. Though
I will be there in just a few months, so
I found someone who has been there and investigated it
over a period of several days. Up next, I am
thrilled to be joined by Katrina Widman as we revisit
her experiences and thoughts on this mysterious location that's coming
(14:15):
up after the break, I am joined by a very
special guest, someone who I don't see enough. I will
be honest, miss Katrino Wideman. So welcome Katrina. Hey, thank you,
(14:35):
thanks for having me. Of course, you know, it's funny
because a lot of the places that I cover.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
On Haunted Road, I've actually been there and.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Investigated, and the Alaskan Hotel is kind of literally one
of the few that I have not It's in one
of four states I have not visited, and I'm actually
going there in June with Strange Escape. So we have
a cruise going there. We're they're all day and like
we get to investigate till like eleven at night. So
really interested to hear what you have to say about it.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
So thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Yeah, no problem.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
So what strikes me about the Alaskan Hotel just kind
of off the bat, It just kind of has a
dark and ominous feel to it, and there's not a
lot of I mean, I think hauntings in general can
kind of come off that way to people who aren't
familiar to them or familiar with them. But for some reason,
the Alaskan I've never been there, I just don't get
the greatest vibe from it, if that makes sense. Did
(15:26):
you get that feeling when you went there?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Yeah, it's definitely it's an odd place.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
Do you know the town itself is it's got a
very cool vibe. We went right as their season ended,
so it was pretty empty by the time we had
gotten there for filming. Surprisingly warm. I wasn't prepared for that.
I think, you know, you think Alaska, you think it's cold,
and it wasn't. It was actually very beautiful and warm
up there. But the overall vibe of the space is
(15:57):
definitely one that's uneasy. I don't know that I would
say it's bad, but there's definitely a level of, you know,
I don't fully feel comfortable in this space.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Right, And that's kind of what I mean, Like just
just I think I rewatched a portion of the episode there,
So basically, you and Jack Jack Osborne, you filmed there
and investigated there for the very first episode of Portals
to Hell, so clearly a really interesting place to kick
off the entire series with. So was that intentional or
(16:28):
did you guys kind.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Of pick the order after the fact.
Speaker 5 (16:31):
I'm not really sure why they decided to choose Alaska
for the first one, because Jack and I had met
beforehand to talk about Portals to Hell and you know,
if we got along and if we wanted to move
forward doing it together and everything, and then they were like, oh,
we're going to do Alaska. And it took me like
twenty two hours to get there. You know, I live
on the East coast. It was a little easier for
Jack being on the West coast. But it was definitely
(16:54):
a gosh, I don't even know what's the word for it,
like a slap in the face to do that one
the as the very first one. And I don't mean
that as like a negative thing, but it was just
it was a really overwhelming location. So to have that
be like the first time you're working with a brand
new crew, a new teammate, it was like, wow, okay,
we're going for it, like you know, like this is
(17:16):
pal in your face kind of location.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
But I don't.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
As far as like the production side, I don't know
why they chok, oh, you know what, I do know why.
I think it had to do with weather, because we
were going to be filming over we see, we started
in October, so October, November, December, and I think like
the first week or two of January, and so you know,
(17:39):
Alaska weather wise wouldn't have been really great to if
we waited any longer. So I think it was more
a logistical thing of let's just do it to to
you know, capitalize on some of that weather that they
have right now.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, And I mean from.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
A production standpoint, just you know, being a producer, it
is like it is kind of epic. You're like, we
are going all the way to Alaska for our very
first case and it really did work like it did,
And I mean I remembered it ever since because I
had not heard of the Alaskan Hotel before, and so
a lot of the claims there were fairly recent, and
(18:15):
they also kind of seemed to really deeply affect people,
like what can you remember just kind of struck you
as something that they told you that just seemed kind
of different from any other hauntings you'd been to before.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Well, I think there's definitely layers going on there. There
have been reports going back decades too, which is interesting.
One of the reports, and I can't remember if they
kept it in the episode or not. And you know, yeah,
as an investigator, you're shifting through rumors and hearsay, and
it's it's always hard to tell, Okay, this person's account,
is this accurate or not? Did they make it up?
(18:50):
Is it how long has this been passed down? You know,
kind of the whisper down the lane type of thing.
But one of the stories we had heard was that
a woman I think she went into the bathroom, walked out,
and when she walked out, she was in a different
time period, you know, And that always struck me as
interesting because you only hear about those type of experiences,
(19:13):
I mean seldomly you hear of them. The other one
I can think of that's really well known as Gettysburg,
and I'm sure a lot of people, if they're into hauntings,
they've heard of that story where the two admin they
got into the elevator at the at Gettysburg College. The
elevator took them to the basement, and when the basement
doors opened up. They were watching an entire Civil War
(19:34):
hospital scene, you know. So you hear of these experiences,
but they're not altogether common.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
So that one really.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
Struck me, you know, assuming it's true and accurate. I
think that happened in the eighties, I want to say,
maybe the early nineties. And I think the other part
of it was, you know, I mean, you're talking about
a town where it was easy to cover things up,
you know, and if there as a lot of these places,
(20:02):
these hotels that were kind of there as a midpoint
stopover for workers, historically, it's not uncommon to find really
bad s where he's coming out of those places, you know,
So I think it was easy for people to cover
things up there. That's at least what we had been told.
And so a lot of the tragedies you're not going
(20:23):
to find documented, so a lot of them are passed
on orally, and you know, I'm sure there's some exaggerations
on some of those stories, but we definitely did hear
of murders, we heard about rapes, we heard about suicides.
And then there's the element of Josh, who highly intelligent person,
but I think there were some you know, the way
he was describing things happening in the hotel. It seemed
(20:45):
like there was definitely a level that was more malevolent, right.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
I was kind of fascinated by him. So if you've
seen the episode of Portals.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
You'll be familiar with this gentleman. And I'm not sure.
I think he's the owner's son. I can't remember. Yeah, yeah,
so I'll probably meet him.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
But he has a lot of experiences in the basement itself,
it seems like, and the basement, according to him, had
not been used as a room for twenty years, and
someone had passed away there and apparently, like I think
women in particular have issues down there.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Did you have that experience?
Speaker 4 (21:22):
We were working with a device.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
It was like a motion detector device, and I think
it also checked for ambient temperature, and we had that
go off a couple of times when I was down
in the basement and was me and our one producer
who she was also the director, so like, you know,
both women downstairs in the basement. And that was really
the biggest thing that happened was our motion detector kept
(21:45):
going off and we couldn't find a cause for it,
so currently unknown, you know why that was happening.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
So of that when you're investigating, they're like, this is
where the women get missed with, right, like get down there,
and you're like, here we go again.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Yeah, I know, but yeah, it wasn't you know, experience wise,
I don't think we had anything that was off the
wall scary, like it was a scary place just because
of the vibe. But you know, I don't none of
nobody got thrown up against the wall. Nobody, you know, nothing.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Like that, right, And I think that's part of it too,
because you hear the stories and there are like certain
very notorious rooms. You know, there is the one where
that that gentleman supposedly threw himself out the window. I believe, yes,
and he really wanted to stay in a haunted room,
like he asked the owner, did Jack sleep in that room?
Speaker 4 (22:33):
He did?
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Jack slept in that room? And you know, kind of
one of the sadder things we were told about, you know,
is that I guess their drug use per capita is
fairly high. And so I think what the Alaskan has
also seen as a lot of people suffering from addiction.
So how it was said to us is like the
gentleman who took his own life or jumped out. I
(22:56):
think he survived. Actually, yeah, he survived, but he jumped
out of the window. What was said to us is
it's not altogether surprising for that area, which is, you know,
really unfortunate, but it seems like a pattern that certainly happens.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah, And I think that's.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Important to think of too, especially you know, some of
these things that happen in these locations, you sometimes do
have to kind of take a darker, deeper dive into
what it could be other than something paranormal. And yeah,
I do think that. I feel like I've heard that
just kind of in general in a lot of areas
of Alaska, like it's such a different atmosphere than we're
(23:35):
used to, you know, they don't they have a very
different daylight situation going on there.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
It's isolated.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
You know. I used to date so one years ago
who had lived in Alaska, and he said he has
never quite got used to it. And I think it's
a beautiful place and I think a lot of people
love being there, but I could see that there are
certain aspects of it that could wear on you. And
I do think that might have something to do with
a obviously some of these types of experiences would also
(24:03):
be just kind of how people feel in a place
like that, Like they might feel uneasy if they're not familiar,
if they're visiting. Yeah, in the episode itself seemed like
a lot of the experiences they brought up were pretty extreme,
But then it also seems like there's kind of just,
I don't want to say, run of the mill paranormal
activities maybe to you and me were like, oh, Flo's
steps knock. Yeah, but did you have anything like that
(24:27):
happened or do you remember people mentioning things like that
that just kind of went on all the time.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Or yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
I think that the overall vibe of our interviews and
what we had been told about people that we couldn't
interview was everybody knew it was haunted.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
All their workers.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
Now they might not have known when they first got hired,
but they certainly found out soon enough. And you know,
it was kind of the like you said, the run
in the mill activity of footsteps and voices and whispers
and uneasiness and maybe a door closes and shadow figures
was big there too, And I don't even think it
was shadow figures as in like a human shadow figure
(25:05):
it was like blobs of shadows people would see, and
we had experienced a couple of those things. I think
we had some interesting edps that we got there. Definitely
the uneasiness. We have footsteps a couple of times. I
think one or two of them might be explainable. But
there were definitely some things that popped up that didn't
(25:26):
have explanations for us. But you know, going back, it
is it's a really old building. You'll see when you
get there. It's an old building, it's creaky. There's definitely
room for era in that kind of stuff. I think, Yeah,
I think we'll probably have to be careful with that.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I mean, well, we're going to be there with a
pretty good sized group. Obviously, we're splitting up and taking
turns and going up and investigating. So I'm excited about that.
But did they tell you, Were there ever any employees
who just kind of called it a day and had
had enough and quit before the action?
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Yeah, I believe so.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
I think very specifically they had told us about.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
I think it was as.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
A housekeeper who had had an experience and quit. Actually,
I think it happened a bunch of times for them,
but it was one of those things of I don't
know if they're phased by it anymore, you know, because
it's happened to them a bunch of times, where an
employee has said something to them or a patron has
said something to them. So I think they're just sort
of like, yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Is what it is?
Speaker 5 (26:20):
You know, Like Jack and I had it's really funny.
We referenced this a lot. There was an investigation we
did where like horrific things happened on this property and
they were having a really intense haunting. And when we
would ask the owner about it, their response is always is.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
What it is?
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Or like like that's the best attitude to have, though,
like is what it is?
Speaker 1 (26:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I know, I actually said back in ghost Hunters days,
we actually break Grifver and I used to say that
all the time.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
We're like, it is what it is.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Like, this is what we're gonna do. Yeah, sometimes there's
no solution. Sometimes you just got to live through one.
And I think that's I think that's what the owners
the Alaskan are doing, you know. But I do think
there's some there's some other elements.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Going on there.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
And Josh kind of leaned into that a little bit
off camera, you know that I kind of think there's
been some intentional calling of things to that place.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Okay, so he kind of talked.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
I don't know if you've mentioned it when I was
watching the episode or not, but there might have been
some hint at that, Like what do you think that is?
Do you think it's him per se or do you
think there's other people who did it.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
I think it's been both. And I work closely with
Michelle Beljay who's a psychic medium and also an occultist,
and she'll be the first one to tell you that
just because you practice certain things doesn't mean it's bad.
It's just the intention behind it. And I think in
the case that the Alaskan, I don't know that every
single person has had good intentions behind what they've been
(27:54):
doing there.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, we've stumbled on a few places like that, you know,
especially when the activity kind of suddenly takes a turn.
And I don't like, I know, we say intention but
I also think it's almost unintentional sometimes, like they don't necessarily.
I think sometimes people underestimate the power of what they're
asking for, you know what I mean. Yeah, And like
(28:17):
in the kind of with Josh and particular, I was
very he was such an interesting interview, probably one of
the most interesting interviews I've ever seen on a parabole show.
He just seemed very There was a lot going on there.
I'm sure you since that in.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Person, but.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
He just seemed very in tune with the location itself,
and like he said that someone died in his arms, right,
and the like Charlie was at his name, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
In the hot tub in the basement.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
And so do you think Charlie is still there?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
He seems to think Charlie is very much still there.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
You know. It's hard to say because I think one
of the drawbacks that do in television that we don't
always have enough time in these places. Like I think
sometimes to get a really accurate sense of a location,
it would I would want to be there for like
months at a time, and we just can't do that,
you know. So I'm seeing these locations just as glimpses.
(29:17):
Really my thought on it just based off of my
time there. I don't really know if Charlie is who
Charlie says he is. It seemed more sinister than that.
It seem more malevolent and seem more trickstery and in
my experience, those things are not human energies. Those are
(29:40):
you know, something a little different, but they you know,
we've certainly seen cases where those types of energies can
pretend to be something else to kind of gain trust,
gain access. As for the invitation type of thing, if
we're talking Catholicism, you know that would you know a
priest would label that a demon. He's trying to gain
(30:01):
your trust and access. You know, I don't know, people
can call whatever they want. It's just to me, it
felt like it had a deeper level than what Josh
was talking about.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
And what a better way to kind of get through
to Josh, Like, here's someone who literally died in his arms,
and so you know, he probably already feels a connection
to that person in a way. And so of course
if there is some something or someone there watching this happen,
they know at that point, okay, if I present myself
(30:30):
as Charlie, this person's going to be more trusting.
Speaker 5 (30:36):
So yeah, yeah, it's it's a really sad. There's some
sad stories up there, especially you know, the case of
the rape that allegedly happened. We never found documentation of that.
But of course, like would you you know what I mean,
you probably would not find documentation of that because it
would be one of those things that would be really
(30:57):
easy to cover up, and people would want to cover
that up. And it also the time period we were
told it happened in, many people would probably find it acceptable.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Yeah, unfortunately, and you know it was I mean, it
was wild, you know, it was kind of this It
was so funny because I kind of going through the history,
you know, it was meant to be this very kind
of glamorous, beautiful hotel and then which it is. I
think it's beautiful, but then it kind of just got
taken over by the fact that there wasn't really a
(31:28):
lot of people kind of looking over how things went.
You know, there wasn't a lot of oversight. There weren't
a lot of laws. It was very much kind of
just every man for himself, and like you were saying,
a lot of money laundering and illegal things going on,
and with that comes a lot of debauchery and very
(31:48):
bad things and depths and hauntings. It turns out, yeah, yeah,
I mean strange energy behind yeah, and I think that
that energy is kind of affected by just the atmosphere
of where it is like, I'm so curious to know,
you know when I the only thing I can kind
of relate it to is when we went to Iceland,
(32:10):
which kind of has not a similar landscape, but like
a similar climate.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Where it's daylight.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
They when we went there, we went there during the
midnight sun, and I felt kind of panicky almost the
whole time because it never really equalled, you know, what
I would experience at home as far as and it
just never felt quite relaxing. And so I wonder if
just that kind of energy in general can affect the
(32:38):
haunting there, especially when people are coming in and out
and they're traveling from all over the world. Uh, and
then you have that energy of all those people coming
in and touring, and they're coming in on cruise ships
and they're checking it out, and then all of a sudden,
one day it just stops. The season ends. Yeah, do
you think that does something? Because you've probably went there
at the best time if you really think about it
that way.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
We did, Yeah, and we were there in October and
it was like right as they're season had ended, and
you know, the locals were there and there were what
did they call them drifters? I guess is what they
called them. That they get a lot of drifters that
time of year, you know, people maybe looking for some
work or people looking for where do they go from
here kind of things, so they stop over in Juneo
and that was the atmosphere is pretty It wasn't desolate,
(33:20):
but it was just you know, you can tell you're
in a touristy area and there's like no tourists, so
it's just like, oh, this is interesting, you know because
even places like you know, Lake George and New York
that's a pretty touristy area. But even going there in
the off season, there was still a good amount going on,
you know where I felt like Juno was just like, oh,
there's like there's nobody here.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Yeah, there's really no way there. I mean you obviously
boat are plane, but once it gets kind of gnarly outside,
you're not.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Going to make it there that way.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
So yeah, I think, you know, it was definitely easier
shooting wise and investigation wise to be there when the
foot track was lower because you don't get the ambient
noise from outside. I'm sure it gets a little rowdy
on the main stretch there when they're in season and
we didn't have to deal with any of that. So
that was definitely, you know, a better way to go
(34:13):
for our purposes for sure.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Years ago, we filmed on Mackinac Island in February January,
something I would not recommend.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah, it was not the time to be.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
There's a beautiful place, but one thing that we heard
from the locals is that people would go there in
the winter to hide from any number of things. You know,
some people go there to write, some people would go
there because they were literally like felons on the uh
oh wow. And I don't know, Juno just kind of
(34:46):
strikes me as kind of a similar vibe where that
kind that time of year, you probably have some really
interesting characters kind of yeing about.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
Yeah, yeah, I want to be surprised.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
That's kind of like how things were alluded to us,
you know, and I know Jack talked to the cops
and everything, so they kind of like let us in
on what I guess maybe the seed your side of
the town.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
That's so interesting. I love that well, I can't wait
to visit it. I love having more insights. This actually
was completely by chance that this podcast episode happened just
two months before I'm heading that way. It was just
kind of you know, we plan these pretty far in advance,
so I'm really excited about it. So I'm really glad
you were able to join us and tell us a
little bit about your experiences. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Yeah, well thanks for having me. I hope your trip
goes well. I'll keep you posting nothing too crazy half and.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
So tell us like, what are you up to? What
how can people find you? I know you have new
music out which I'm obsessed with, so please tell everyone.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
Yeah, so definitely on all the major socials, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok,
YouTube at Katrina Wideman my last name spelled weid Man.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
And as far as current projects.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
I'm doing a YouTube series called Travel the Dead and
that is very much the peak behind the curtain of
what it is to be an investigator. It's me and
my best friend, Heather Taddy, who we met on Paranormal State.
So she and I very much started our paranormal careers together,
and these are the private cases that we're asked to do,
(36:15):
and so you're kind of getting an inside look at
what it's like to do that.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, I love her. That's great.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
I've actually watched a bit of it and it's it's
really something, so people need to go check it out.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
I thank you.
Speaker 5 (36:25):
Yeah, it's really raw and gritty, but we did not
want it to you know, we just wanted it to
be what it was, which is Paranormal Investigating is roll
on gritty like, so we didn't want to pretty it
up or anything. So it's a very intimate doc series.
And then my music, for people who might not know,
that's my background is a music and theater So when
(36:48):
we were kids, paranormal investigating wasn't a job.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
So like we all.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
Kind of had other avenues before. I think this found
us and mine was music in theater. So I put
out my debut singles the sole Artist on March thirty first,
and that's called Suffer Me, and you can download it
and stream and Spotify iTunes all your major platforms. And
then second singles coming out in a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
I know, whenever we get together and Adam Barry is there,
I just kind of disappear. Well, the two of you
talk musical theater.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Talk musical theater.
Speaker 5 (37:20):
Yeah, probably because I'm obsessed with he was in It's
my favorite musical it's called bat Boy, and he was
in that, and so I'm always like fascinated that he
got to be in that show because it's such a
great show.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
I love it. I have the most talented, wonderful friends.
I love it so well.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
It was really great chatting with you, and I really
hope we run into each other in persons. You know,
I'm sure we will. We're always kind of passing by.
So yeah, hopefully I see you very soon.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Yeah, absolutely well. I can't wait to hear about your
trip to the Alaskaan.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
All right, thank you, Okay, see Amy.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
The Alaskan Hotel feels like a genuine TimewARP, so I
suppose it's no surprise that time slips are one of
the reports there. It's rare you find a hotel that
bowl that has changed hands so few times and where
so little has changed within its walls, the furnishings, the
feel all seemed to be almost as it was the
(38:22):
day it opened. It makes you wonder if that's why
many restless souls don't feel compelled to leave or go elsewhere.
The Alaskan has become their beacon, never wavering, never changing,
and seemingly always there. I'm excited to visit there soon myself.
I'll report back on what, if anything happens. I'm Aymy
(38:45):
Bruney and this was Haunted Road. Haunted Road is hosted
and written by me Amy Brune with additional research by
Taylor Haggerdorn and Cassan Alba. This show is edited and
produced by Rima el Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thain
(39:07):
and executive producers 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 Grimandmild dot com, and for more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Just before midnight on May nineteenth, two thousand and seven,
police were called to the Alaskan Hotel to respond to
a disturbance in Room three fifteen. The room's only guest,
a sailor from the USS Bunker Hill, was heard screaming
through the door. Help stop, he shouted, get me out
of here. He appeared to be trapped in the room.
(00:34):
Responding officers said they heard more than one person inside. Later,
a guest in the room directly underneath gave her account
of the events. I remember hearing yelling, but kind of
just assumed that it was coming from the bar downstairs,
she said. We hear glass chatter from above, and within moments,
our window within our hotel room just shatters. Before anyone
(00:54):
could get inside, the sailor jumped out the third floor window.
When the police broke down the door, or Officer Chris
Guildford was met with a horrible scene. The walls were
covered in blood. Guilford said, there was it looked like
something very bad had happened in there, and I didn't
know what it was, but it didn't look normal. The
sailor survived, but hotel owner Betty Adams said that when
(01:18):
she entered the room, she found something she never expected
to see. On the wall, the sailor had written one
word help. He wrote it in his own blood. I'm
Amy Bruney and this is haunted road. Room three point
(01:41):
fifteen is in the only haunted space and the one
hundred ten year old Alaskan Hotel in Juno, Alaska. In fact,
according to people who've stayed there and even the people
who own it, just about every corner of the historic
hotel has some kind of unexplained activity. But when it opened,
the Alaskan Hotel was all glitz and glamor, a shining
(02:04):
beacon in one of the territory's richest gold rushed tones. Today,
Juno is home to just about thirty thousand people. The
capital of Alaska sits on land originally belonging to the
Negative Klinget tribe. In eighteen eighty, a discovery of gold
set off a gold rush and led to the founding
of the city later that year. Joe Juno was one
(02:24):
of the original discoverers of that gold, but the city
wasn't named for him right away. First it was Harrisburg,
then it was Rockwell. Miners voted to name the city
Juno in eighteen eighty one, allegedly after Joe Juno bribed
his voters with liquor. Juno is located on the Alaskan mainland,
but is surrounded by so much extreme terrain that it's
(02:46):
only reachable by boat or plain. Those first prospectors set
up camps and lived in boarding houses, but no real
hotel existed until the Alaskan opened its doors in nineteen thirteen.
It was just a year after Elahesca became an official
United States territory. The Alaskan was built by entrepreneur Jules
(03:10):
Carrow and brothers James and John McCloskey, miners who had
struck it rich in the Canadian Cariboo just over the
border in British Columbia. The hotel opened with a grand
gala on September sixteenth, nineteen thirteen. According to Jeff Balanger's
World's Most Haunted Places, the management sent out invitations for
(03:30):
the gala event that said at six pm, the management
will formally unlock the doors and the keys will then
be attached to a toy balloon which will carry them
out of sight. From the moment the doors swing open,
never to close. The hotel will be for the accommodation
of guests. At the time, the Alaska Daily Empire described
(03:51):
it as one of the most important business ventures of
this kind in the North. According to the newspaper, the
gala attracted a very large attendance of people anxious to
inspect the place that had been talked about so much
and to take part in the festivities that were to follow.
The hotel arranged free fairies to bring people in from
nearby islands for the event as well. According to one
(04:14):
contemporary newspaper, everyone seemed to be having a good time,
and the hotel's register had several pages filled with the
names of well known people of both sides of the
Gastineau Channel. An account in the National Registry of Historic
Places Inventories said that a pioneer resident than a teenager,
Trevor Davis, recalls his observation of the exciting grand opening.
(04:38):
The McCloskey brothers milling among a well dressed crowd, shaking
magnums of champagne, the corks aimed at the newly installed
chandeliers and the gleaming ceiling.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Of the lobby.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Three stories tall. The Alaskan Hotel made a grand impression
with Mount Juno rising up behind the structure. Inside, the
main floor was primarily restaurants, separate dining areas for men
and women, and the bar. The top two floors still
have the original forty six guest rooms, some of which
have private baths and some of which have shared bathrooms.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
The Alaska Daily.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Empire reported that the finish of the entire lower floor
is in mahogany, matching the elegant mahogany fixtures and furniture.
The furniture is all leather upholstered. The entire floor is
well illuminated. Brass chandeliers and tasteful design and art fixtures
for the electric lights are everywhere. In evidence from the
(05:35):
nearby steamship docks, it was easy to see what the
newspaper described as a large electric sign blazing forth, which
could be seen far down the gasteno channel. Inside the hotel,
through the doors that never closed, things took a dark
run rather quickly. According to the Alaskan Hotel, the high
fashion and glitz was a paltry concealment for the legal
(05:58):
prostitution and sale of illicit substances that went on there
throughout its history. At the time, men's far outnumbered women
in the territory, and sex work was legal in Alaska
until the nineteen fifties, just before it became a state.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Rumors also swirled.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
That money laundering was happening in the hotel. In nineteen eighteen,
five years after the Alaska opened, the territory passed its
own ban on alcohol. According to the hotel's history, the
McCloskey brothers decided to turn the bar into a cafe
for sodas during that period, like most speakeasies of its time,
(06:36):
The hotel was renamed the Northlander in nineteen sixty and
the bar previously on the first floor was moved to
the basement. In a guide to the Notorious Bars of Alaska,
Doug van de Graft wrote, the Northlander Bar was known
by many locals as the snake pit, where all manner
of humanity, such as prostitutes, drug dealers, swindlers, musicians, and
(06:57):
dirty politicians came to drink and rub elbow. In nineteen
seventy seven, after a police raid, the bar was shut
down and its liquor license revoked shortly after the building
was condemned. That same year, current owners Betty and Mike Adams,
(07:18):
bought the hotel with the intention to restore it to
its original name and its original look. In Thousand Ridge Haunts,
Missy Wright wrote that elements of the hotel are so
well preserved. Longtime Juno residents comment on how little the
place has changed. The following year, in nineteen seventy eight,
the Alaskan Hotel was included on the National Register of
(07:39):
Historic Places. In nineteen eighty one, Betty and Mike reopened
the hotel for business and quickly restored the institution to
its former glory, attracting celebrities like John Wayne, Ken Kessei
Ted Danson, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers as guests.
According to its history, the hotel's style, as noted by
its own or Nate string course, Victorian bay windows in
(08:02):
plush interior, is decidedly done in the late Victorian Queen
Anne's style. In Alaska Voters Travel Guide today, the flocked wallpaper,
red floral carpets, and tiffany windows are reminiscent of the
hotel's original Gold Rush era opulence. While it was the Northlander,
the owners installed a bar and cabaret in the basement,
(08:23):
and later hot tubs, which don't appear to currently be
in use. In nineteen ninety eight, Charles Kevin Wynn died
at the hotel, having been found floating face down in
a basement hot tub. In twenty seventeen, Clarence Stanley Milton
third was found dead in his room. People report seeing
at least one of those men still at the hotel today.
(08:44):
Charlie is now believed to be a poltergeist who haunts
the basement who is especially focused on pretty women. According
to Joshua Adams, son of owners Betty and Mike Adams,
who works at the hotel, he's definitely not the only
presence at the Alaskan hotel, though visitors and staff both
(09:07):
report often encountering cold spots throughout the building. According to
Tom Ognan's book Haunted Hotels, guests of reported feeling an
invisible spirit presumed to be female, stroke their faces or
sit beside them on the bed. In general, rooms on
the south side of the hotel seem to have the
most activity, though it's not known why. James Devereaux in
(09:29):
Spirits of Southeast Alaska reports that Reflections of ghostly figures
in historical garb have been reported in the hotel's mirrors,
especially in the bar area. Others have spotted orbs floating
in the bar and on the stage.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
According to the.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Haunted Places, beer mugs have also been reported moving on
their own, as if they were pushed by someone. One
of the more curious phenomena people report experiencing at the
Alaskan is time slips. Elva bon Traeger claims to have
experienced this in the late nineteen aenies while visiting the
first floor bar. According to Varndel's book Haunted Inside Passage,
(10:05):
she was on her way to use the restroom when
she was struck by a painting of two women. One
was a tall, scantily clad, sour faced blonde, the other
was an attractive, dark haired woman with a small scar
on her cheek, sitting behind a small green table. Elva
assumed the two were prostitutes. She went home and replicated
the painting of the two women. When Elva returned to
(10:28):
the hotel a few weeks later, the painting was gone
and the hallway was painted a different color. She also
saw changes in the restroom, with a modern toilet replacing
the pole chain model she had seen previously. When she
asked the bartender about the changes, he had no idea
what she was talking about and had no memory of
such a painting ever hanging in that hallway. When she
(10:51):
described the painting to the acquaintance she was at the
bar with, the other woman said she'd been told by
staff that the tall, blonde woman was a ghostly presence
in the hotel's hallways. The most popular ghost story about
the Alaskan Hotel concerns a woman named Alice. According to legend,
Alice came to Juno with a man, possibly her fiance
(11:11):
or husband, and they took Room two nineteen at the
Alaskan sometime in the nineteen thirties. Alice's man left for
several weeks to look for mining work in the Yukon,
or in some versions, he was a fisherman or a
whaler who went out to sea. Eventually, Alice ran out
of money and was unable to continue paying for the room.
Out of options, she decided to raise the money through
(11:33):
sex work, a common occupation in the hotel at the time.
Most tellings of the story say that when he returned,
the heartbroken man murdered Alice in the hotel, either shooting
her or bludgeoning her with a hatchet. In some versions
of the story, he then hung himself in the same room.
In others, he simply disappeared. According to one hotel employee
(11:56):
interviewed by Jeff Balanger for World's Most Haunted Places, guests
continually asked to be moved out of room two nineteen.
The man, Jake Good, said, whenever I walk into Room
two one nine, I get goosebumps. It's cold in there
all of the time. For some reason, I personally think
there are probably a couple of ghosts around here. I
(12:16):
think the one in two nineteen is the only one
that is frustrated or unhappy or tormented.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Some staff members say they've seen Alice sitting on the
bed in Room two eighteen and room two nineteen. Others
complain of feeling watched in that part of the hotel.
According to Spirits of Southeast Alaska, a former housekeeper tells
of cleaning the rooms, only to return to find the
towels and furniture rearranged and scattered about, when there's no
(12:44):
possibility that anyone could have entered to do so Room
three fifteen of the Alaskan Hotel is also said to
be haunted. That room, decorated with antiques and floral linen,
looks especially close to how it would have appeared when
the hotel first opened. According to legend, a fisherman's girlfriend
(13:07):
was one staying in room three fifteen as haunted.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Inside.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Passage tells it, the man, suspicious his girlfriend might be
cheating on him, desperately wanted to come into port. It
was autumn, a time storms frequently buffet juno and turn
the ocean deadly. Rather than staying anchored in a protected cove,
the fisherman made a run for towne and was lost
to the stormy sea. It's said that during the first
(13:31):
big storm each year, the fisherman's footsteps can be heard
on the stairs. Room three fifteen is also the room
where that sailor had an experience so intense that it
caused him to jump out the window to escape. When
asked about the room, according to Alaska Public Media owner
Betty Adams said, I just it's creepy.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I've never seen anything, but I feel things. The Alaskan
Hotel is a place I have yet to visit. Though
I will be there in just a few months, so
I found someone who has been there and investigated it
over a period of several days. Up next, I am
thrilled to be joined by Katrina Widman as we revisit
her experiences and thoughts on this mysterious location that's coming
(14:15):
up after the break, I am joined by a very
special guest, someone who I don't see enough. I will
be honest, miss Katrino Wideman. So welcome Katrina. Hey, thank you,
(14:35):
thanks for having me. Of course, you know, it's funny
because a lot of the places that I cover.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
On Haunted Road, I've actually been there and.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Investigated, and the Alaskan Hotel is kind of literally one
of the few that I have not It's in one
of four states I have not visited, and I'm actually
going there in June with Strange Escape. So we have
a cruise going there. We're they're all day and like
we get to investigate till like eleven at night. So
really interested to hear what you have to say about it.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
So thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Yeah, no problem.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
So what strikes me about the Alaskan Hotel just kind
of off the bat, It just kind of has a
dark and ominous feel to it, and there's not a
lot of I mean, I think hauntings in general can
kind of come off that way to people who aren't
familiar to them or familiar with them. But for some reason,
the Alaskan I've never been there, I just don't get
the greatest vibe from it, if that makes sense. Did
(15:26):
you get that feeling when you went there?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Yeah, it's definitely it's an odd place.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
Do you know the town itself is it's got a
very cool vibe. We went right as their season ended,
so it was pretty empty by the time we had
gotten there for filming. Surprisingly warm. I wasn't prepared for that.
I think, you know, you think Alaska, you think it's cold,
and it wasn't. It was actually very beautiful and warm
up there. But the overall vibe of the space is
(15:57):
definitely one that's uneasy. I don't know that I would
say it's bad, but there's definitely a level of, you know,
I don't fully feel comfortable in this space.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Right, And that's kind of what I mean, Like just
just I think I rewatched a portion of the episode there,
So basically, you and Jack Jack Osborne, you filmed there
and investigated there for the very first episode of Portals
to Hell, so clearly a really interesting place to kick
off the entire series with. So was that intentional or
(16:28):
did you guys kind.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Of pick the order after the fact.
Speaker 5 (16:31):
I'm not really sure why they decided to choose Alaska
for the first one, because Jack and I had met
beforehand to talk about Portals to Hell and you know,
if we got along and if we wanted to move
forward doing it together and everything, and then they were like, oh,
we're going to do Alaska. And it took me like
twenty two hours to get there. You know, I live
on the East coast. It was a little easier for
Jack being on the West coast. But it was definitely
(16:54):
a gosh, I don't even know what's the word for it,
like a slap in the face to do that one
the as the very first one. And I don't mean
that as like a negative thing, but it was just
it was a really overwhelming location. So to have that
be like the first time you're working with a brand
new crew, a new teammate, it was like, wow, okay,
we're going for it, like you know, like this is
(17:16):
pal in your face kind of location.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
But I don't.
Speaker 5 (17:19):
As far as like the production side, I don't know
why they chok, oh, you know what, I do know why.
I think it had to do with weather, because we
were going to be filming over we see, we started
in October, so October, November, December, and I think like
the first week or two of January, and so you know,
(17:39):
Alaska weather wise wouldn't have been really great to if
we waited any longer. So I think it was more
a logistical thing of let's just do it to to
you know, capitalize on some of that weather that they
have right now.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, And I mean from.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
A production standpoint, just you know, being a producer, it
is like it is kind of epic. You're like, we
are going all the way to Alaska for our very
first case and it really did work like it did,
And I mean I remembered it ever since because I
had not heard of the Alaskan Hotel before, and so
a lot of the claims there were fairly recent, and
(18:15):
they also kind of seemed to really deeply affect people,
like what can you remember just kind of struck you
as something that they told you that just seemed kind
of different from any other hauntings you'd been to before.
Speaker 5 (18:28):
Well, I think there's definitely layers going on there. There
have been reports going back decades too, which is interesting.
One of the reports, and I can't remember if they
kept it in the episode or not. And you know, yeah,
as an investigator, you're shifting through rumors and hearsay, and
it's it's always hard to tell, Okay, this person's account,
is this accurate or not? Did they make it up?
(18:50):
Is it how long has this been passed down? You know,
kind of the whisper down the lane type of thing.
But one of the stories we had heard was that
a woman I think she went into the bathroom, walked out,
and when she walked out, she was in a different
time period, you know, And that always struck me as
interesting because you only hear about those type of experiences,
(19:13):
I mean seldomly you hear of them. The other one
I can think of that's really well known as Gettysburg,
and I'm sure a lot of people, if they're into hauntings,
they've heard of that story where the two admin they
got into the elevator at the at Gettysburg College. The
elevator took them to the basement, and when the basement
doors opened up. They were watching an entire Civil War
(19:34):
hospital scene, you know. So you hear of these experiences,
but they're not altogether common.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
So that one really.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
Struck me, you know, assuming it's true and accurate. I
think that happened in the eighties, I want to say,
maybe the early nineties. And I think the other part
of it was, you know, I mean, you're talking about
a town where it was easy to cover things up,
you know, and if there as a lot of these places,
(20:02):
these hotels that were kind of there as a midpoint
stopover for workers, historically, it's not uncommon to find really
bad s where he's coming out of those places, you know,
So I think it was easy for people to cover
things up there. That's at least what we had been told.
And so a lot of the tragedies you're not going
(20:23):
to find documented, so a lot of them are passed
on orally, and you know, I'm sure there's some exaggerations
on some of those stories, but we definitely did hear
of murders, we heard about rapes, we heard about suicides.
And then there's the element of Josh, who highly intelligent person,
but I think there were some you know, the way
he was describing things happening in the hotel. It seemed
(20:45):
like there was definitely a level that was more malevolent, right.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
I was kind of fascinated by him. So if you've
seen the episode of Portals.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
You'll be familiar with this gentleman. And I'm not sure.
I think he's the owner's son. I can't remember. Yeah, yeah,
so I'll probably meet him.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
But he has a lot of experiences in the basement itself,
it seems like, and the basement, according to him, had
not been used as a room for twenty years, and
someone had passed away there and apparently, like I think
women in particular have issues down there.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Did you have that experience?
Speaker 4 (21:22):
We were working with a device.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
It was like a motion detector device, and I think
it also checked for ambient temperature, and we had that
go off a couple of times when I was down
in the basement and was me and our one producer
who she was also the director, so like, you know,
both women downstairs in the basement. And that was really
the biggest thing that happened was our motion detector kept
(21:45):
going off and we couldn't find a cause for it,
so currently unknown, you know why that was happening.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
So of that when you're investigating, they're like, this is
where the women get missed with, right, like get down there,
and you're like, here we go again.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
Yeah, I know, but yeah, it wasn't you know, experience wise,
I don't think we had anything that was off the
wall scary, like it was a scary place just because
of the vibe. But you know, I don't none of
nobody got thrown up against the wall. Nobody, you know, nothing.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Like that, right, And I think that's part of it too,
because you hear the stories and there are like certain
very notorious rooms. You know, there is the one where
that that gentleman supposedly threw himself out the window. I believe, yes,
and he really wanted to stay in a haunted room,
like he asked the owner, did Jack sleep in that room?
Speaker 4 (22:33):
He did?
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Jack slept in that room? And you know, kind of
one of the sadder things we were told about, you know,
is that I guess their drug use per capita is
fairly high. And so I think what the Alaskan has
also seen as a lot of people suffering from addiction.
So how it was said to us is like the
gentleman who took his own life or jumped out. I
(22:56):
think he survived. Actually, yeah, he survived, but he jumped
out of the window. What was said to us is
it's not altogether surprising for that area, which is, you know,
really unfortunate, but it seems like a pattern that certainly happens.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
Yeah, And I think that's.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Important to think of too, especially you know, some of
these things that happen in these locations, you sometimes do
have to kind of take a darker, deeper dive into
what it could be other than something paranormal. And yeah,
I do think that. I feel like I've heard that
just kind of in general in a lot of areas
of Alaska, like it's such a different atmosphere than we're
(23:35):
used to, you know, they don't they have a very
different daylight situation going on there.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
It's isolated.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
You know. I used to date so one years ago
who had lived in Alaska, and he said he has
never quite got used to it. And I think it's
a beautiful place and I think a lot of people
love being there, but I could see that there are
certain aspects of it that could wear on you. And
I do think that might have something to do with
a obviously some of these types of experiences would also
(24:03):
be just kind of how people feel in a place
like that, Like they might feel uneasy if they're not familiar,
if they're visiting. Yeah, in the episode itself seemed like
a lot of the experiences they brought up were pretty extreme,
But then it also seems like there's kind of just,
I don't want to say, run of the mill paranormal
activities maybe to you and me were like, oh, Flo's
steps knock. Yeah, but did you have anything like that
(24:27):
happened or do you remember people mentioning things like that
that just kind of went on all the time.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Or yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
I think that the overall vibe of our interviews and
what we had been told about people that we couldn't
interview was everybody knew it was haunted.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
All their workers.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
Now they might not have known when they first got hired,
but they certainly found out soon enough. And you know,
it was kind of the like you said, the run
in the mill activity of footsteps and voices and whispers
and uneasiness and maybe a door closes and shadow figures
was big there too, And I don't even think it
was shadow figures as in like a human shadow figure
(25:05):
it was like blobs of shadows people would see, and
we had experienced a couple of those things. I think
we had some interesting edps that we got there. Definitely
the uneasiness. We have footsteps a couple of times. I
think one or two of them might be explainable. But
there were definitely some things that popped up that didn't
(25:26):
have explanations for us. But you know, going back, it
is it's a really old building. You'll see when you
get there. It's an old building, it's creaky. There's definitely
room for era in that kind of stuff. I think, Yeah,
I think we'll probably have to be careful with that.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I mean, well, we're going to be there with a
pretty good sized group. Obviously, we're splitting up and taking
turns and going up and investigating. So I'm excited about that.
But did they tell you, Were there ever any employees
who just kind of called it a day and had
had enough and quit before the action?
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Yeah, I believe so.
Speaker 5 (25:56):
I think very specifically they had told us about.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
I think it was as.
Speaker 5 (26:00):
A housekeeper who had had an experience and quit. Actually,
I think it happened a bunch of times for them,
but it was one of those things of I don't
know if they're phased by it anymore, you know, because
it's happened to them a bunch of times, where an
employee has said something to them or a patron has
said something to them. So I think they're just sort
of like, yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:19):
Is what it is?
Speaker 5 (26:20):
You know, Like Jack and I had it's really funny.
We referenced this a lot. There was an investigation we
did where like horrific things happened on this property and
they were having a really intense haunting. And when we
would ask the owner about it, their response is always is.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
What it is?
Speaker 5 (26:39):
Or like like that's the best attitude to have, though,
like is what it is?
Speaker 1 (26:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I know, I actually said back in ghost Hunters days,
we actually break Grifver and I used to say that
all the time.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
We're like, it is what it is.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
Like, this is what we're gonna do. Yeah, sometimes there's
no solution. Sometimes you just got to live through one.
And I think that's I think that's what the owners
the Alaskan are doing, you know. But I do think
there's some there's some other elements.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Going on there.
Speaker 5 (27:07):
And Josh kind of leaned into that a little bit
off camera, you know that I kind of think there's
been some intentional calling of things to that place.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
Okay, so he kind of talked.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
I don't know if you've mentioned it when I was
watching the episode or not, but there might have been
some hint at that, Like what do you think that is?
Do you think it's him per se or do you
think there's other people who did it.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
I think it's been both. And I work closely with
Michelle Beljay who's a psychic medium and also an occultist,
and she'll be the first one to tell you that
just because you practice certain things doesn't mean it's bad.
It's just the intention behind it. And I think in
the case that the Alaskan, I don't know that every
single person has had good intentions behind what they've been
(27:54):
doing there.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yeah, we've stumbled on a few places like that, you know,
especially when the activity kind of suddenly takes a turn.
And I don't like, I know, we say intention but
I also think it's almost unintentional sometimes, like they don't necessarily.
I think sometimes people underestimate the power of what they're
asking for, you know what I mean. Yeah, And like
(28:17):
in the kind of with Josh and particular, I was
very he was such an interesting interview, probably one of
the most interesting interviews I've ever seen on a parabole show.
He just seemed very There was a lot going on there.
I'm sure you since that in.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Person, but.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
He just seemed very in tune with the location itself,
and like he said that someone died in his arms, right,
and the like Charlie was at his name, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
In the hot tub in the basement.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
And so do you think Charlie is still there?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
He seems to think Charlie is very much still there.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
You know. It's hard to say because I think one
of the drawbacks that do in television that we don't
always have enough time in these places. Like I think
sometimes to get a really accurate sense of a location,
it would I would want to be there for like
months at a time, and we just can't do that,
you know. So I'm seeing these locations just as glimpses.
(29:17):
Really my thought on it just based off of my
time there. I don't really know if Charlie is who
Charlie says he is. It seemed more sinister than that.
It seem more malevolent and seem more trickstery and in
my experience, those things are not human energies. Those are
(29:40):
you know, something a little different, but they you know,
we've certainly seen cases where those types of energies can
pretend to be something else to kind of gain trust,
gain access. As for the invitation type of thing, if
we're talking Catholicism, you know that would you know a
priest would label that a demon. He's trying to gain
(30:01):
your trust and access. You know, I don't know, people
can call whatever they want. It's just to me, it
felt like it had a deeper level than what Josh
was talking about.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
And what a better way to kind of get through
to Josh, Like, here's someone who literally died in his arms,
and so you know, he probably already feels a connection
to that person in a way. And so of course
if there is some something or someone there watching this happen,
they know at that point, okay, if I present myself
(30:30):
as Charlie, this person's going to be more trusting.
Speaker 5 (30:36):
So yeah, yeah, it's it's a really sad. There's some
sad stories up there, especially you know, the case of
the rape that allegedly happened. We never found documentation of that.
But of course, like would you you know what I mean,
you probably would not find documentation of that because it
would be one of those things that would be really
(30:57):
easy to cover up, and people would want to cover
that up. And it also the time period we were
told it happened in, many people would probably find it acceptable.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Yeah, unfortunately, and you know it was I mean, it
was wild, you know, it was kind of this It
was so funny because I kind of going through the history,
you know, it was meant to be this very kind
of glamorous, beautiful hotel and then which it is. I
think it's beautiful, but then it kind of just got
taken over by the fact that there wasn't really a
(31:28):
lot of people kind of looking over how things went.
You know, there wasn't a lot of oversight. There weren't
a lot of laws. It was very much kind of
just every man for himself, and like you were saying,
a lot of money laundering and illegal things going on,
and with that comes a lot of debauchery and very
(31:48):
bad things and depths and hauntings. It turns out, yeah, yeah,
I mean strange energy behind yeah, and I think that
that energy is kind of affected by just the atmosphere
of where it is like, I'm so curious to know,
you know when I the only thing I can kind
of relate it to is when we went to Iceland,
(32:10):
which kind of has not a similar landscape, but like
a similar climate.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Where it's daylight.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
They when we went there, we went there during the
midnight sun, and I felt kind of panicky almost the
whole time because it never really equalled, you know, what
I would experience at home as far as and it
just never felt quite relaxing. And so I wonder if
just that kind of energy in general can affect the
(32:38):
haunting there, especially when people are coming in and out
and they're traveling from all over the world. Uh, and
then you have that energy of all those people coming
in and touring, and they're coming in on cruise ships
and they're checking it out, and then all of a sudden,
one day it just stops. The season ends. Yeah, do
you think that does something? Because you've probably went there
at the best time if you really think about it
that way.
Speaker 5 (32:56):
We did, Yeah, and we were there in October and
it was like right as they're season had ended, and
you know, the locals were there and there were what
did they call them drifters? I guess is what they
called them. That they get a lot of drifters that
time of year, you know, people maybe looking for some
work or people looking for where do they go from
here kind of things, so they stop over in Juneo
and that was the atmosphere is pretty It wasn't desolate,
(33:20):
but it was just you know, you can tell you're
in a touristy area and there's like no tourists, so
it's just like, oh, this is interesting, you know because
even places like you know, Lake George and New York
that's a pretty touristy area. But even going there in
the off season, there was still a good amount going on,
you know where I felt like Juno was just like, oh,
there's like there's nobody here.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Yeah, there's really no way there. I mean you obviously
boat are plane, but once it gets kind of gnarly outside,
you're not.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Going to make it there that way.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 5 (33:51):
So yeah, I think, you know, it was definitely easier
shooting wise and investigation wise to be there when the
foot track was lower because you don't get the ambient
noise from outside. I'm sure it gets a little rowdy
on the main stretch there when they're in season and
we didn't have to deal with any of that. So
that was definitely, you know, a better way to go
(34:13):
for our purposes for sure.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Years ago, we filmed on Mackinac Island in February January,
something I would not recommend.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah, it was not the time to be.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
There's a beautiful place, but one thing that we heard
from the locals is that people would go there in
the winter to hide from any number of things. You know,
some people go there to write, some people would go
there because they were literally like felons on the uh
oh wow. And I don't know, Juno just kind of
(34:46):
strikes me as kind of a similar vibe where that
kind that time of year, you probably have some really
interesting characters kind of yeing about.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
Yeah, yeah, I want to be surprised.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
That's kind of like how things were alluded to us,
you know, and I know Jack talked to the cops
and everything, so they kind of like let us in
on what I guess maybe the seed your side of
the town.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
That's so interesting. I love that well, I can't wait
to visit it. I love having more insights. This actually
was completely by chance that this podcast episode happened just
two months before I'm heading that way. It was just
kind of you know, we plan these pretty far in advance,
so I'm really excited about it. So I'm really glad
you were able to join us and tell us a
little bit about your experiences. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
Yeah, well thanks for having me. I hope your trip
goes well. I'll keep you posting nothing too crazy half and.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
So tell us like, what are you up to? What
how can people find you? I know you have new
music out which I'm obsessed with, so please tell everyone.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
Yeah, so definitely on all the major socials, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok,
YouTube at Katrina Wideman my last name spelled weid Man.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
And as far as current projects.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
I'm doing a YouTube series called Travel the Dead and
that is very much the peak behind the curtain of
what it is to be an investigator. It's me and
my best friend, Heather Taddy, who we met on Paranormal State.
So she and I very much started our paranormal careers together,
and these are the private cases that we're asked to do,
(36:15):
and so you're kind of getting an inside look at
what it's like to do that.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, I love her. That's great.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
I've actually watched a bit of it and it's it's
really something, so people need to go check it out.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
I thank you.
Speaker 5 (36:25):
Yeah, it's really raw and gritty, but we did not
want it to you know, we just wanted it to
be what it was, which is Paranormal Investigating is roll
on gritty like, so we didn't want to pretty it
up or anything. So it's a very intimate doc series.
And then my music, for people who might not know,
that's my background is a music and theater So when
(36:48):
we were kids, paranormal investigating wasn't a job.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
So like we all.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
Kind of had other avenues before. I think this found
us and mine was music in theater. So I put
out my debut singles the sole Artist on March thirty first,
and that's called Suffer Me, and you can download it
and stream and Spotify iTunes all your major platforms. And
then second singles coming out in a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
I know, whenever we get together and Adam Barry is there,
I just kind of disappear. Well, the two of you
talk musical theater.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
Talk musical theater.
Speaker 5 (37:20):
Yeah, probably because I'm obsessed with he was in It's
my favorite musical it's called bat Boy, and he was
in that, and so I'm always like fascinated that he
got to be in that show because it's such a
great show.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
I love it. I have the most talented, wonderful friends.
I love it so well.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
It was really great chatting with you, and I really
hope we run into each other in persons. You know,
I'm sure we will. We're always kind of passing by.
So yeah, hopefully I see you very soon.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Yeah, absolutely well. I can't wait to hear about your
trip to the Alaskaan.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
All right, thank you, Okay, see Amy.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
The Alaskan Hotel feels like a genuine TimewARP, so I
suppose it's no surprise that time slips are one of
the reports there. It's rare you find a hotel that
bowl that has changed hands so few times and where
so little has changed within its walls, the furnishings, the
feel all seemed to be almost as it was the
(38:22):
day it opened. It makes you wonder if that's why
many restless souls don't feel compelled to leave or go elsewhere.
The Alaskan has become their beacon, never wavering, never changing,
and seemingly always there. I'm excited to visit there soon myself.
I'll report back on what, if anything happens. I'm Aymy
(38:45):
Bruney and this was Haunted Road. Haunted Road is hosted
and written by me Amy Brune with additional research by
Taylor Haggerdorn and Cassan Alba. This show is edited and
produced by Rima el Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thain
(39:07):
and executive producers 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 Grimandmild dot com, and for more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.