The Crescent Hotel: this year's paranormal investigation

Built in the 1880s, many believe past guests have never left.

October 31, 2011|by Chad Plein, KY3 News | cplein@ky3.com

EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark. -- It's dubbed America's most haunted hotel. Completed in 1886, the Crescent Hotel was built as a luxury get-away for the world's most wealthy. Today, it's a hotel with some guests who've never left.

The Crescent suffered its first tragedy during construction. An Irish Stonemason named Michael fell to his death from the fourth story. His body landed inside what is today's Room 218.

Legend says Michael still lingers in that room, caressing the female guests; he was quite the ladies' man, Crescent Hotel staff say.

Michael's death was not the only fatality in the Crescent. During the late 1930s, the building survived a dark period when it belonged to a man who called himself a doctor.

Norman Baker thought he had a cure for cancer. In reality, federal authorities called him a scam artist.

Baker advertised that he could cure cancer. He convinced hundreds to come to Eureka Springs for treatment, and made millions. Truth is, he'd operate and amputate using the city's spring water mixed with watermelon seeds and other drugs.

Records, most of which were destroyed in a fire at the Crescent, told of more than 400 deaths at the Crescent in the three years that Baker owned the property.

It's from this period where folks believe a major of the ghosts come from. Baker's basement morgue is a hot-spot for paranormal activity.

Next to the original autopsy table from Baker's time, guests have been touched by unseen hands and have heard disembodied voices. Shadow figures float about the basement, trying to keep from being seen.

It's not just the basement and Room 218 that have had reports of the paranormal. The third and fourth floor hallways have been literally crawling with activity. It starts with the sound of a squeaky wheel. Turning to see what that sound is, you find a nurse pushing a high-backed wheelchair down the hall with a person slumped over sitting quietly.

It's said that Baker had his nurses take the dead out in the middle of the night, so other patients didn't know of the death because it would be bad for business.

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