Introduction
High in the Colorado Rockies amid woods and above the rugged panorama of those great stony piles
is a hotel the size of a city block with almost as bizarre a legend attached.
For good or ill, the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado is famous around the world for two things: apparent psychic activity and for providing the setting that inspired Stephen King’s blockbuster novel and subsequent film “The Shining.
The hotel itself looks, at least when you approach it, like nothing so much as a classic mountain retreat.
It’s a huge, white building, complete with steep roofs and rambling outbuildings, set on a bluff that affords an excellent view of the Rocky Mountains and surrounded by aspen trees and pines.
It looks historic, and indeed it is – completed in 1909 – and it’s an absolute magnet for tourists. Behind the regal facade and the charming scenery, though, lies a hundred years of stories about inexplicable noises, levitating furniture, apparitions and entire rooms that, according to some guests, seem to have been occupied by spirits.
Much of that haunted mythology became widespread because author Stephen King spent a week at the Stanley.
in late 1974 and found that inspiration for the infamous Overlook Hotel in “The Shining.”
So just how true are these tales?
Is the hotel the site of genuine spectral encounters or is there more in the popular imagination?
Where Is the Stanley Hotel?
The hotel is situated in Estes Park in Colorado, just at the eastern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.
It lies at approximately 7,500 feet above sea level amid wooded mountains and has a spectacular backdrop for guests with snow over the mountains in the winter. These factors alone make the location very atmospheric. The isolation of the location has also played a part in making it seem like a haunted building even before the paranormal stories developed. It is set far away from other urban locations and provides guests with quiet and isolation.
The Beginning of the Stanley Hotel
F.O. Stanley. Inventor and businessman, who later became one of the inventor of the Stanley Steamer automobile started the history of Stanley Hotel.
Stanley and his wife, Flora visited Estes Park at the beginning of the twentieth century. Stanley was experiencing an ill health and he was said that mountain’s air benefited him a lot. He wanted to establish a resort of luxury hotel at the resort town.
Construction was started at the beginning of the twentieth century and the resort was opened to the public in 1909.
The design was significantly different from ordinary hotel of the time. The hotel had electricity telephone private bathroom etc, and all were supposed to be of luxurious equipment at the time.
A Hotel Built for Luxury
The Stanley Hotel was conceived as an exclusive high-end mountain resort. Visitors from across the United States traveled here to escape the stress of their busy lives and experience the restorative qualities of Estes Park’s pure air. Its majestic views of the surrounding landscape made it a cornerstone of local tourism for decades. Thousands of people have since checked in and out of this grand hotel, and, as anyone would expect from a century-old landmark, stories of strange phenomena inevitably began to gather.
The Room Connected to Stephen King
Perhaps one of the most notorious chapters in the history of the hotel was in 1974, when Stephen King
and his wife Tabitha stayed at the Stanley Hotel.
It was coming up to the winter season at the hotel, which was getting ready to be closed.
it was said that they were one of very few visitors left in the hotel.
King has said in writings that while walking through the empty, silent hotel he had an experience which
has greatly impacted on his imagination.
It said that they had a dinner in the hotel’s dining room in while a lot of the building was vacant.
then that evening king experienced a dream that his child was been terrorized around the building
by a dangerous fire hose and this later contributed to the book The Shining.
The Birth of The Shining
Jack King’s book, The Shining was released in 1977.
The story is based upon a writer Jack Torrance, who takes a job as the winter caretaker of the remote Overlook Hotel.
Jack moves with his wife Wendy and son, Danny to the hotel.
When winter becomes severe and it is no longer possible to leave, unexplained powers influence Jack and his son Danny.
Although the Overlook Hotel is fictitious it was based upon King’s visit to The Stanley where some events
were drawn from his stay.
Room 217
Room 217 is a particular room, and probably one of the most iconic in the hotel’s history.
Why?
It was actually the same room where Stephen King booked himself during a visit that would, of course,
inspire one of his greatest works – The Shining.
Room 217 has since become somewhat of a draw, with some of the guests who claim to have
lodged inside experiencing… unique phenomena.
There are claims of objects moving on their own, strange sounds and the unmistakable sensation of feeling
someone else in the room – one anecdote recounts an apparition of a spectral woman. But this is all speculative and has, to this date, never been verified beyond doubt.
The Story of Elizabeth Wilson
Another commonly discussed entity within the Stanley Hotel lore is Elizabeth Wilson (or “Mrs. Wilson”).
Her paranormal story according to the hotel documentation centers on Elizabeth Wilson being a maid
who sustained injuries from a gas leak explosion in room 217 in the early 20th century. It is noted that the blast caused a large amount of damage in the room but Wilson survived. It was later alleged that her spirit still roams the premises. Some guests have mentioned having heard unexplained sounds or have felt odd occurrences, such as their items in room 217 being seemingly rearranged.
The Concert Hall
The Stanley Hotel Concert Hall is another site often referenced in the accounts of paranormal events.
This establishment was built as a place for entertainment and socializing.
It is said to have its own share of strange noises and activities happening around and within the Hall.
One of the most famous stories refers to F.O. Stanley’s wife, Flora.
It is said that Mrs Stanley had a great talent for music and that she loved playing the piano.
Those who believe in ghosts claim that her presence can sometimes still be felt near the Concert Hall and that people say they have heard the sound of piano music being played while nobody can be seen playing.
This story again appears to be a story.
The Children’s Room
Another side to the Stanley’s notoriety relates to children.
One of the other many aspects of the Stanley Hotel’s legendary status regards children. Many a paranormal investigator and tourist alike states that they heard a child or children’s laughter, cries or footsteps in certain areas of the building. The legend was amplified further by children’s major role in the story, The Shining.
Although known now mostly due to Stephen King’snovel, the famous Grady Twins, are not actual spirits of children in the Stanley Hotel, but were instead imagined by King.
They are merely characters from the film and novel, which is a very significant note because people often think that there was an actual child that actually died in the hotel.
Paranormal Investigations
Thanks to its notoriety, Paranormal Investigators have descended upon the hotel, including Ghost Hunters as well as tourist, paranormal fans and individuals that write for various paranormal organizations, as well as people that make paranormal films of which that too they have received many.
In the investigation of Paranormal Phenomenon on the Stanley, equipment used has been including:
Digital audio recorders
Electromagnetic field ( EMF ) meters
Infrared camera/night vision equipment
Motion sensors
Temperature gauges (digital, laser)
What one may perceive as evidence of disembodied spirits as, ghost noises/sound of activity or the reading of abnormally low and high EMFS have always contributed to the hotel’s reputation. Unfortunately it may be said, electronic noise and other sources such as changes in temp, structural integrity, a building’s inherent electro magnetic field as well as, equipment errors/problems can cause a ghost’s readings to rise, drop or record inexplicable sounds. So, there may not be too much, to of the many paranormal pieces of the puzzle from The Stanley.
Did ghosts actually stalk the Stanley?
There is no proof that ghosts exist and no scientifically tested evidence to confirm this. Whilst hundreds of people claim to have experienced strange and inexplicable occurrences during their visits it’s not possible to prove ghosts exists through peoples stories. Furthermore many of the experiences reported here are easily explainable by phenomena common in old buildings.
Doors can move with changes in pressure, pipes make noises, buildings can creak and as with the weather, it’s certainly possible to feel hot then cold simply by temperature fluctuations.Under circumstances, often exacerbated at night when tired and susceptible to frightening thoughts, the mind can interpret ambiguous signals and noises as having paranormal meaning. This certainly doesn’t invalidate the persons experience but not necessarily proves it had anything supernatural behind it.
What Makes the Stanley Hotel Feel So Mysterious?
The Stanley hotels haunters reputation
A contributing factor is no doubt the atmosphere of the hotel. Large, historic building, wide empty spaces, mountainous location and the remoteness as well as the isolation by wintry snows, the sheer size of the building and its
numerous corridors makes for an atmospheric building and, of course there’s the vast body of ghostly tales,
that together with the building have helped to shape it into the iconic building it is now, at night anyone standing
in an empty corridor or, large room can experience the strangest thoughts and sensations when a noise or creak becomes perceived to be something more then natural.
Strange sound And Moving doors
The Real Mystery Maybe the real mystery of the Stanley Hotel wasn’t so much whether it is haunted as why history, folklore, people’s imagination and ‘The Shining’ have come to forge something that can truly stand alone as a world-famous ghost hotel, predating King’s writings, with its own unique stories, but enhanced in the process.
Stanley built and conceived of this building for another purpose entirely -a luxury mountain lodge for tourists to be at.
It was not built on purpose to be the basis for a renowned horrific future, however that is precisely what did happen because of his one-time stay there and his prolific literary imagination. Stanley Hotel Now a historic hotel, currently operating as a hotel located in Estes Park, a lot of visitors do the same in terms of the architecture, mountain views, as well as its relevance as inspiration in ‘the Shining.’ However as you might expect the hotels paranormal activity is still, as you may guess, something of a major appeal.
While visitor outcomes will vary from an outright denial of seeing anything weird in and of itself through to people saying that you can feel that the hotel itself is very different, to firm believers in the paranormal who swear they experienced many unexplainable events.
Conclusion
The Stanley Hotel shows that a real, physical location can become incorporated into the mythos of something much grander. The real story started as F.O. Stanley’s dream: a luxurious mountain getaway.
The luxury resort blossomed into the locus of ghostly activity, ghost hunters, and the setting of one of American literature’s most famous and terrifying thrillers, Stephen King’s The Shining.
Room 217; Elizabeth Wilson; Flora Stanley, and the countless mysterious voices, footsteps and odd noises are just a few elements that contributes to the mystique of one of “America’s most haunted places.” Not one of the ghost stories have ever been definitively proved with science, though. The spookiest thing about the Stanley Hotel, however is that fact that there does not need to be verified ghosts at the resort to make this destination tantalizing. It’s full of history.
It has legends.
There are a myriad of inexplicable stories associated with this lodging. And this mountain retreat has motivated one of literature’s seminal works of horror; The Stanley Hotel does not have proven hauntings, but its legends will keep us hoping (and perhaps slightly afraid) long after dark.
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