Dubbed as the most haunted hotel in America, The 1886 Crescent Hotel and Spa embraces its sordid history and paranormal activity by providing ghost tours and sharing guest experiences. They encourage professional and amateur paranormal investigations of the site year round. Many people are staunch believers that this hotel is truly haunted.
Date: January 14-17, 2022
Location: Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Investigators: Chris, Matt
Location History
The small town of Eureka Springs sits in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. The area is peppered with a number of natural water springs that have attracted people for generations. Some for relaxation and recreation, and others for the “healing” principles of the spring water and limestone deposits. Originally built in 1886 as a resort for the rich and famous, the hotel has changed hands many times over the years functioning as a college, as a hotel, and most notoriously as a hospital.
A man by the name of Norman Baker, who was run out of Iowa for practicing medicine without a license, settled into the Crescent as his base for medical and cancer treatments. Primarily, the “good doctor” touted the local waters as healing, but he also took it upon himself to remove tumors and body parts of the afflicted.
Recently, in 2019, while digging on the property, the owners discovered a trove of Baker’s bottles of elixirs as well jars filled with decaying body parts cut from his patients. The jars can now be found aligning the shelves of the basement next to Baker’s previous makeshift morgue.
Today, there are a number of tales of paranormal activity in the hotel. They include reports in room 218 where, Michael, a young Irish stonemason’s body landed after he fell when the hotel was being built. A cancer patient who is called Theodora is known to be seen outside of room 419 as she fumbles for her keys. A 4-year-old boy, named Brekkie, who died of appendicitis is purported to enjoy bouncing his ball. And even Morris, the famed hotel cat who lived to the ripe old age of 21, is regularly seen and heard.
Our Experience
We were able to secure a reservation for 3 nights in “Michael’s Room” number 218. Upon arriving in the town, you will find the Crescent looming large on top of a mountain with its big and bold personality. The hotel itself is very opulent and inviting. The historic touches in the main lobby make you feel like you’ve stepped back in time.
Michael’s room was well appointed and had a cozy warmth about it. There are double doors that swing open to your own private balcony. While the bathroom is updated for modern times, the rest of the room with the antique furniture and wall portraits give the guest a feeling of historical resurgence.
On our first evening at the hotel, we took the guided ghost tour provided by the hotel staff. The tour guide provides you with a thorough history of the building pointing out oddities and strange events reported over the years. When the building was functioning as a college, a student wrote their parents to send a Ouija board. Were they experiencing something paranormal they wanted to investigate?
As we walked around the halls, we were encouraged to take many photos as we were told you may end up capturing figures that could not be seen with the naked eye. We were led down into the basement where a cold room remains that was used as a body locker. The room outside of it being the morgue where Normal Baker dissected bodies. Imagine the amount of blood the room drain has seen.
I was excited to see the room with jars filled with elixirs and body parts. This room also held a standing cabinet with the number 2 printed on it, that was famously where the television series, The Ghost Hunters, caught a full body apparition with their thermal camera. While I personally believe those shows are made to entertain us, and therefore likely rigged, I like to hope that this was an actual real finding.
While the tour didn’t provide any paranormal evidence we were looking for, we still had 3 nights in Michael’s room to investigate. We brought out our EMF readers, REM Pods, video cameras, and digital recorders and got to work.
On our second day in the hotel, we actually caught something kind of cool. We had left the room around 1PM to visit the town, but at approximately 2PM, our cameras caught the bathroom door opening on its own. In our many investigations, this was truly the first time something like that happened.
Does it mean that Michael was there with his ghostly presence? Perhaps. My skeptical nature immediately turns to scientific explanations – was there air pressure that popped the door open? Was there a vibration in the walls that helped it along? While I cannot conclusively state what actually happened, I can note that in the 3 full days of video recording, that door never moved on its own again. It’s pretty exciting to think that we may have actually captured something paranormal.
Another noteworthy event to mention was a very loud bang that seemed to come from the door to the hallway. Now, I know what you are thinking…this is a functioning hotel and that could have been anything. While I agree, I can attest that there wasn’t much that happened outside our room that we couldn’t clearly hear. The door was rather thin and the gaps around the frame ensured that we could clearly hear every creak, foot step, and conversation of those passing by. In fact, one evening we had a couple of young girls sitting across from our room trying to engage with “Michael”. We heard every giggle and bit of their conversation. While it was tempting for us to pretend to be Michael responding from inside the room, we couldn’t do that to our fellow young investigators.
Point is, we heard everything outside our door. So, what was that loud bang? I immediately ran to the door and double checked. There was no one in the hallway or near our room. It’ll remain a mystery.
All in all, our stay at the Crescent was amazing. The hotel is beautiful inside and out, offering delicious food and fun entertainment such as ice skating, s’mores around a campfire, and a heated pool for our wintertime outdoor swimming fun. The quaint town is inviting and a fun way to spend an afternoon strolling through shops and eateries. I would highly recommend you add the Crescent Hotel to your travel bucket list.
Did we capture Paranormal Evidence?
Perhaps we did! We caught the bathroom door of our hotel room opening by itself. Additionally, we heard a loud banging noise by our room door that we could not pinpoint a source.
