Latest / Ghost stories and the Unusual Paranormal podcast / Elizabeth's Room: Inside the Goldfield Hotel Haunting
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are across the country
- 0:06Speaker 1: and around the world. You are listening to Ghost Stories
- 0:12Speaker 1: and the Unusual Paranormal Podcast. I'm indeed your spooky host, Joe,
- 0:18Speaker 1: the Ghost Guy. We have a wonderful story here today.
- 0:23Speaker 1: And just before we go to our story, I want
- 0:29Speaker 1: to show you For those people that see on YouTube.
- 0:32Speaker 1: I got this wonderful cup here. That I. Have it.
- 0:38Speaker 1: And maybe you guys will like it too. Leave me
- 0:43Speaker 1: a message. On the paranormal ghost stories. At gmail.com. If
- 0:46Speaker 1: you like one. It's got our. You know our podcast here.
- 0:52Speaker 1: Ghost stories at the paranormal podcast. And the usual paranormal podcast.
- 0:58Speaker 1: And on the back. Got. Who are you going to call? G-S-A-T-U-P-P,
- 1:05Speaker 1: or GASP for short, which is Ghost Stories and the
- 1:09Speaker 1: Unusual Paranormal Podcast. So, without any further ado, if you
- 1:16Speaker 1: want one of these cups, please call me at the
- 1:19Speaker 1: ParanormalGhostStories at gmail.com. So let's get into our spooky story today.
- 1:28Speaker 1: There's a place... In Arizona, where the desert seems to
- 1:34Speaker 1: remember everything. A place where an entire city once rose
- 1:43Speaker 1: from nothingness. Where fortunes were made. Where men disappeared in mines.
- 1:55Speaker 1: There were violence was a part. of everyday life, and where,
- 2:02Speaker 1: according to generations of legends, some of the dead never left. Tonight,
- 2:13Speaker 1: we're going to the middle of the Nevada desert, to
- 2:16Speaker 1: a town that once held nearly 20,000 people, a town
- 2:19Speaker 1: that exposed A town where it exploded into existence after
- 2:33Speaker 1: a gold rush was discovered. And then slowly died when
- 2:41Speaker 1: the gold disappeared. And standing over that ghost town is
- 2:48Speaker 1: a building that became legendary. A massive brick hotel with
- 2:58Speaker 1: dark windows, empty rooms, rotting doors, and floors, and the
- 3:08Speaker 1: stories of spirits that supposedly still wander its halls. This
- 3:15Speaker 1: is the story of the Goldfield Hotel. And tonight, we're
- 3:25Speaker 1: going to meet the ghosts. All of them. The women,
- 3:33Speaker 1: the woman known as Elizabeth. The star of tonight's episode.
- 3:41Speaker 1: The mysterious hanged woman. The men said to have fallen
- 3:50Speaker 1: from the roof. The violent spirit called the stabber. and
- 3:56Speaker 1: perhaps even the ghost of the hotel's powerful owner, George Wingfield.
- 4:06Speaker 1: But there's something important you need to know before we enter.
- 4:12Speaker 1: These stories are legends and reported paranormal accounts not established
- 4:21Speaker 1: in historical facts. in particular the famous Elizabeth story, has
- 4:28Speaker 1: been changed by historians and paranormal researchers, and some accounts
- 4:35Speaker 1: traced its development to later storytelling around the hotel. But
- 4:41Speaker 1: whether you believe the stories or not, there is something
- 4:48Speaker 1: undeniably frightening about the gold field. Because the building is real.
- 4:56Speaker 1: The story is real. And the suffering of the mining
- 5:03Speaker 1: era was real. And the hotel, it's still standing. Before
- 5:15Speaker 1: the ghosts. Before there was gold. In 1902, Goldfield began
- 5:26Speaker 1: growing from a remote mining settlement into one of the
- 5:30Speaker 1: Nevada's greatest boom towns. Then came the discoveries. Thousands of
- 5:40Speaker 1: people poured into the desert. At its peak, Goldfield had
- 5:48Speaker 1: approximately 20,000 residents. and became Nevada's largest and wealthiest city
- 5:57Speaker 1: for a time. Let's think about that for a second,
- 6:02Speaker 1: shall we? 20,000 people in the middle of a desert.
- 6:11Speaker 1: There was hotels, banks, saloons, newspapers, other businesses, Gambling, mining, money,
- 6:28Speaker 1: and of course, you got the violence. Goldfield became a
- 6:34Speaker 1: city where dreams can make you rich, or they can
- 6:42Speaker 1: kill you. And in 1908, one of the most magnificent
- 6:50Speaker 1: buildings in Nevada opened its doors, the Goldfield Hotel. When
- 7:03Speaker 1: the hotel opened, it was not an abandoned ruin. It
- 7:07Speaker 1: was quite the opposite. It was spectacular. The hotel gained roughly,
- 7:15Speaker 1: it contained 150 rooms. With telephones, electronic lighting, heating, private baths,
- 7:34Speaker 1: elaborate furnishings, crystal chandeliers, gold leaf decorations, and an elevator
- 7:44Speaker 1: that was considered extraordinary technological luxury at that time. the
- 7:53Speaker 1: wealthy cane, the bankers, mining magnets, politicians, gamblers, gunslingers, and
- 8:08Speaker 1: the women who worked at the goldfield's notorious nightlife. The
- 8:16Speaker 1: hotel was alive. The hallways were filled with voices. The music,
- 8:26Speaker 1: the footsteps, the laughter, the champagne, the doors opening and closing,
- 8:36Speaker 1: people coming, people were leaving. According to legends, some of
- 8:43Speaker 1: the people that entered the Goldfield Hotel had never truly left.
- 8:53Speaker 1: Every haunted hotel has a name. At the Goldfield, that
- 9:02Speaker 1: name is our star of today's episode. Her name was Elizabeth.
- 9:10Speaker 1: According to the famous legend, Elizabeth was a woman who
- 9:16Speaker 1: came romantically involved with a mining magnate named George Wingfield.
- 9:24Speaker 1: A story says she became pregnant and when the pregnancy
- 9:29Speaker 1: threatened Wingfield's reputation and his marriage, Elizabeth supposedly became the
- 9:38Speaker 1: problem and had to disappear. The legend claims she was
- 9:46Speaker 1: taken to room 109. There, she was allegedly caught chained
- 9:54Speaker 1: to a radiator for days, then weeks. And some versions
- 10:03Speaker 1: of the story says she remained there through her pregnancy.
- 10:11Speaker 1: And according to the legend, she cried, she begged, she screamed.
- 10:20Speaker 1: But no one came. Imagine that room. No sunlight. A
- 10:29Speaker 1: locked door. A radiator. And a woman alone. And outside.
- 10:38Speaker 1: People walking through the hotel. Talking. Laughing. Drinking. While somewhere.
- 10:48Speaker 1: behind a closed door, someone was allegedly begging to be released.
- 10:57Speaker 1: But here was where the story becomes even darker. The
- 11:04Speaker 1: legend says Elizabeth eventually gave birth, and then she disappeared.
- 11:14Speaker 1: One version Claims she died during childbirth. Other claims she
- 11:22Speaker 1: was murdered. And perhaps most horrifying part of the legend
- 11:29Speaker 1: is that she would happen to have her baby. And
- 11:35Speaker 1: some versions say that the child was thrown into a
- 11:38Speaker 1: mineshaft or underground passage underneath the hotel. There are no
- 11:46Speaker 1: reliable historical evidence establishing this story as fact. But the
- 11:51Speaker 1: legend has come inseparable from the Goldfield Hotel. And according
- 12:01Speaker 1: to paranormal lore, Elizabeth never left. And room 109 became
- 12:11Speaker 1: known as the And paranormal lore was the one of
- 12:18Speaker 1: the hotel's most disturbing rooms. Some call it the Vortex Room.
- 12:27Speaker 1: Visitors and paranormal investigators have claimed the room feels different.
- 12:34Speaker 1: It's cold. Heavy. Impressive. Some have reported... becoming emotional. Others
- 12:48Speaker 1: have claimed to hear crying. And some stories say the
- 12:53Speaker 1: room's atmosphere changes suddenly. But imagine being there. You're standing
- 13:00Speaker 1: outside the room. Your flashlight moves across the walls. Nothing.
- 13:08Speaker 1: You look at the radiator. Nothing.
- 13:11Speaker 2: Nothing.
- 13:13Speaker 1: You hear the wind outside. And then. You hear it.
- 13:23Speaker 1: A baby is crying. You freeze. The sound comes again.
- 13:30Speaker 1: You look towards the door. Nothing. The cries stop. You
- 13:41Speaker 1: take one step. towards the hallway, and then a voice
- 13:49Speaker 1: whispers behind you.
- 13:50Speaker 3: Where's my baby? Where's my baby?
- 14:01Speaker 1: You turn. Nobody. The room is empty. But the door,
- 14:09Speaker 1: which you know you left open, is now closed. One
- 14:15Speaker 1: of the darkest extensions of Elizabeth's legend is the story
- 14:24Speaker 1: of the child. Some paranormal accounts claim that the baby's
- 14:30Speaker 1: cries can supposedly be heard underneath the hotel, a sound
- 14:38Speaker 1: coming from below, room somewhere underground. From somewhere where no
- 14:48Speaker 1: living child should be. Imagine standing in the lobby. You
- 14:56Speaker 1: hear it. You look around. Nobody else reacts. You hear
- 15:03Speaker 1: it again. You kneel. You place your hand against the floor.
- 15:10Speaker 1: The crying stops. Then. knocking begins. You stand. The entire
- 15:24Speaker 1: hotel is silent. Then you hear a woman crying upstairs.
- 15:32Speaker 1: Is that Elizabeth? Calling for her child she was supposedly lost?
- 15:42Speaker 1: That is the legend. Not proven history but is one
- 15:48Speaker 1: of the reasons Goldfield Hotel has became such a powerful
- 15:54Speaker 1: piece of Nevada's ghost lore. Elizabeth isn't the only spirit
- 16:03Speaker 1: set to haunt the hotel. Another story tells of a
- 16:09Speaker 1: woman who allegedly hung herself in her identity is uncertain.
- 16:21Speaker 1: Her history is uncertain. Even the details of the story vary.
- 16:29Speaker 1: According to the haunting legend, her spirit remains. Some stories
- 16:35Speaker 1: describe the apparition of a woman appearing in the hotel.
- 16:43Speaker 1: A figure standing motionless. head lowered, her hair covering her face.
- 16:54Speaker 1: You see her at the end of the hallway. You
- 16:58Speaker 1: call out. She doesn't answer. You take one step forward.
- 17:06Speaker 1: She takes one step back. You move closer. She disappears. Then,
- 17:16Speaker 1: you feel something Touch the back of your neck. You turn. Nothing.
- 17:24Speaker 1: You look towards the ceiling. And above you. A rope.
- 17:32Speaker 1: Has slowly. Swing. But there is no breeze. Another spirit. Ascended.
- 17:43Speaker 1: Another spirit associated. with the Goldfield Hotel is said to
- 17:50Speaker 1: be a man who jumped or fell off the roof. Again,
- 17:58Speaker 1: the historical details are uncertain, but the legend remains. According
- 18:06Speaker 1: to the stories, his ghost is sometimes connected to the
- 18:11Speaker 1: upper floors. Imagine walking upstairs the fourth floor, The third floor.
- 18:19Speaker 1: The second floor. Your footsteps echo. Then you hear something
- 18:26Speaker 1: above you. You hear footsteps overhead. You look up. Another step.
- 18:39Speaker 1: Then another. But the floor above you is supposed to
- 18:44Speaker 1: be empty. You reach to the top. Nothing. You walk
- 18:51Speaker 1: towards the window and suddenly you hear You look down.
- 19:03Speaker 1: There's nothing there. You turn around. A man is staring
- 19:08Speaker 1: behind you. His clothes appear old. His face is pale.
- 19:16Speaker 1: He looks directly at you, and then he walks backwards
- 19:21Speaker 1: towards the window. You shout. He disappears. If there is
- 19:29Speaker 1: one spirit that sounds like it belongs in a nightmare,
- 19:36Speaker 1: it's the Stabber. According to legend, the Stabber is a
- 19:43Speaker 1: malevolent male spirit set to roam the hotel carrying a
- 19:50Speaker 1: large knife. Travel Nevada's historical account of Goldfield's ghost lore
- 20:00Speaker 1: describes the stabber as a spirit supposedly associated with the
- 20:08Speaker 1: hotel's where he said to attacked visitors some accounts, notes,
- 20:18Speaker 1: that he was never actually harmed anyone. Still, you imagine
- 20:27Speaker 1: hearing footsteps behind you. You turn. There's nothing. You continue walking.
- 20:37Speaker 1: Another sound. You hear it again. Footsteps. You turn. Nothing. Then.
- 20:47Speaker 1: You hear it against the wall. Knife scraping against metal.
- 20:55Speaker 1: You freeze. The sound of darkness. You whisper. Who's there? Silence. Then.
- 21:10Speaker 1: There's a man's voice. You step backwards. Something hits the
- 21:20Speaker 1: wall beside your head. You look. A knife embedded in
- 21:33Speaker 1: the wooden wall. You run behind you. You start hearing
- 21:44Speaker 1: footsteps behind you. Fast. Getting closer. You reach the staircase.
- 21:54Speaker 1: You look back. Nothing. You turn forward. At the bottom
- 22:02Speaker 1: of the stairs, a man is standing there. Holding a knife.
- 22:08Speaker 1: He raises it to his head. goes out. Then there
- 22:16Speaker 1: is a man in the center of Elizabeth's legend, George Wingfield.
- 22:25Speaker 1: Wingfield was a real historical figure, a wealthy banker and
- 22:34Speaker 1: mining magnate who associated with the hotel. and he is
- 22:43Speaker 1: associated with Goldfield's extraordinary boom. The Goldfield Hotel was built
- 22:51Speaker 1: during the period when men like Wingfield possessed numerous influence
- 23:00Speaker 1: in Nevada, and according to paranormal lore, some visitors have
- 23:07Speaker 1: reported that the smell of tobacco Inside the hotel, a
- 23:15Speaker 1: strange smell, strong, sudden, then gone. The smell has sometimes
- 23:26Speaker 1: been imprinted as a sign of Wingfield's supposed spirit, but
- 23:33Speaker 1: there is no established evidence proving that the smell residences ghosts. Still,
- 23:43Speaker 1: for a horror story, imagine it. You're standing alone in
- 23:50Speaker 1: a dark hallway. You smelled a peckle. Not a cigarette,
- 23:58Speaker 1: no cigar, nothing burning. The smell gets stronger. Then, a
- 24:08Speaker 1: man's voice behind.
- 24:11Speaker 2: You Where's.
- 24:16Speaker 1: Elizabeth? You turn. Nobody. You smell again. The tobacco smell disappears.
- 24:34Speaker 1: The upper floors of the hotel have become part of mythology.
- 24:41Speaker 1: Paranormal accounts. I've described figures operating there. One of old
- 24:54Speaker 1: Nevada's magazine accounts records the local guide, Virginia Ridgway, saying
- 25:03Speaker 1: that she had seen a figure on the fourth floor.
- 25:08Speaker 1: Now imagine you standing there on the fourth floor. The
- 25:13Speaker 1: hallway is dark. The windows are all broken. Moonlight enters
- 25:22Speaker 1: through the glass. You see a woman at the end
- 25:26Speaker 1: of the hallway. She is facing away from you. You
- 25:31Speaker 1: call out. She doesn't move. You walk closer. Ten feet.
- 25:41Speaker 1: Five feet. Three feet. Then she slowly turns around. Her
- 25:50Speaker 1: face is completely white. Her eyes are black. You scream.
- 26:00Speaker 1: Flashlight flickers. Then she's gone. But now there's someone standing
- 26:09Speaker 1: behind you. Perhaps the most frightening thing about the Goldfield
- 26:15Speaker 1: Hotel isn't any single ghost. It's the building itself. For decades,
- 26:25Speaker 1: it has stood over Goldfield. Watching the town change. Watching
- 26:34Speaker 1: people come and go. Watching the desert reclaim its streets.
- 26:42Speaker 1: Goldfield's population collapsed after the mining boom faded, and the
- 26:49Speaker 1: hotel eventually fell into despair. Today, the hotel is not
- 26:56Speaker 1: the glittering palace it once was. The chandeliers are gone now.
- 27:03Speaker 1: The crowds are gone. The laughter, it's gone. and the
- 27:09Speaker 1: windows stare over the desert like empty eyes. Travel Nevada
- 27:16Speaker 1: currently lists the Goldfield Hotel as closed and says tours
- 27:23Speaker 1: are not being offered. So when you look at the
- 27:27Speaker 1: building today, you're looking at something real, something old, something abandoned,
- 27:36Speaker 1: and something new. surrounded by stories. Now, imagine one final investigation.
- 27:50Speaker 1: Three people, one night, one flashlight, one recorder, and at
- 28:00Speaker 1: the Goldfield Hotel after midnight, they entered the lobby. The
- 28:07Speaker 1: door They begin to record. Is someone here? Silence. If
- 28:24Speaker 1: there's a spirit here, it gives a sign. Nothing. Then,
- 28:33Speaker 1: everyone freezes. A second knock. A third. One investigator whispers, Elizabeth? Silence.
- 28:50Speaker 1: Then the recorder crackles. His voice appears beneath the static. Elizabeth?
- 29:10Speaker 3: Help me.
- 29:15Speaker 1: Everyone looks around at one another. The recorder continues. Then
- 29:23Speaker 1: another voice. A man's voice. Leave. Get out. The investigators
- 29:44Speaker 1: go back towards the entrance and then the footsteps come
- 29:51Speaker 1: from the staircase. Slow. Heavy. Coming down. Nobody speaks. Then
- 30:04Speaker 1: The footsteps. At the bottom of the stairs. Nothing. One
- 30:13Speaker 1: investigator shines a flashlight towards the hallway. A woman standing there. Elizabeth.
- 30:23Speaker 1: At last. That's the legend who would tell us. She
- 30:30Speaker 1: looks towards them. She points towards room 109. Then the
- 30:40Speaker 1: investigators follow. The door is closed. One reaches for the handle.
- 30:49Speaker 1: The door opens by itself.
- 30:53Speaker 2: Inside.
- 31:04Speaker 1: The radiator. The darkness. The empty room. Then, you hear it.
- 31:18Speaker 1: One of the investigators begins crying. Another one says, Do
- 31:24Speaker 1: you hear that? Then the woman whispers, Leave.
- 31:34Speaker 3: Where's my baby? Where's my baby?
- 31:44Speaker 1: Then the lights go out. And the investigators run down
- 31:52Speaker 1: the hallway, down the stairs towards the entrance. But the
- 31:57Speaker 1: front door won't open. Open. Nothing. They pull harder. Nothing. Behind. Thin.
- 32:10Speaker 1: They hear. They hear it again.
- 32:18Speaker 2: One.
- 32:20Speaker 1: Two. Three. They turn. At the hallway stands a man.
- 32:28Speaker 1: The stabber. He faces. the hidden in the darkness. A
- 32:39Speaker 1: knife hangs into his side. Behind him, another figure, a woman, Elizabeth,
- 32:51Speaker 1: and behind Elizabeth, a small shadow, a child. The investigator whispers,
- 33:04Speaker 1: The hallway goes silent. A child's shadow takes one step forward.
- 33:13Speaker 1: Then another. Then another. Then another. The woman begins crying.
- 33:20Speaker 1: The man raises his knife. The investigator closes his eyes.
- 33:28Speaker 1: And suddenly, the front door flies open. Then, all of
- 33:39Speaker 1: a sudden, cold desert air flushes through the lobby. Everyone
- 33:49Speaker 1: runs inside. They don't stop. They don't look back until
- 33:57Speaker 1: they reach the vehicle. One of the investigators finally turns around.
- 34:02Speaker 1: The hotel is dark. Completely dark. Except. One window. In room. 109.
- 34:14Speaker 1: A light. Is glowing behind the glass. It stands. And
- 34:23Speaker 1: standing at the window. Is a woman. Watching them. She
- 34:30Speaker 1: raises her hand. And slowly weighs. the lights go out.
- 34:40Speaker 1: Is Elizabeth real? Or is there no reliable, there's no
- 34:47Speaker 1: reliable evidence proving that she was chained into a radiator
- 34:55Speaker 1: in room 109? Is the child beneath the hotel real?
- 35:02Speaker 1: There's no Established evidence providing the story is established real.
- 35:10Speaker 1: No verified evidence demolishes that a knife-holding spirit attacks visitors.
- 35:20Speaker 1: Is her hanged woman real? The legend survives, but the
- 35:26Speaker 1: details are uncertain. And as George Ringfield goes, responsible for
- 35:32Speaker 1: the smell of tobacco, that remains a paranormal interpretation. These
- 35:40Speaker 1: are stories, legends, reports, pieces of folklore that have grown
- 35:48Speaker 1: over decades. And perhaps that's what makes the Goldfield Hotel
- 35:55Speaker 1: so fascinating. Because beneath the supernatural stories, there is a
- 36:02Speaker 1: real history, a real mining town, real people, real hardships,
- 36:09Speaker 1: real deaths, and a real building that has survived the
- 36:15Speaker 1: collapse of the world that created it. Goldfield, once beloved,
- 36:22Speaker 1: its future was underground. Gold. fortune, wealth. But then the
- 36:31Speaker 1: mines declined. The people left. The lights went out. The
- 36:37Speaker 1: streets emptied. And the hotel remained. Today, when the Nevada
- 36:44Speaker 1: sun disappears behind the mountains, the Goldfield Hotel becomes the
- 36:52Speaker 1: silhouette against the desert sky. The windows Become black. The doors.
- 37:00Speaker 1: Become silent. And the old buildings. Seem to stare back.
- 37:07Speaker 1: Maybe there is nothing inside. Maybe. Every sound. Is an ordinary. Explanation. Maybe.
- 37:17Speaker 1: The ghosts exist only in stories. Or maybe. When the
- 37:23Speaker 1: desert comes completely silent. Something moves through those empty hallways.
- 37:30Speaker 1: Maybe Elizabeth is still waiting. Maybe the hanged woman is
- 37:35Speaker 1: still wandering. Maybe the man who fell from the roof
- 37:40Speaker 1: still walks upstairs. Maybe George Wingfield's presence still lingers in
- 37:47Speaker 1: the smoke-filled air and perhaps somewhere in the darkness, the
- 37:53Speaker 1: stabber is still waiting behind the next door there is
- 38:01Speaker 1: one final question if the gold field hotel is empty
- 38:06Speaker 1: and no one is supposed to be inside and then
- 38:10Speaker 1: who just knocked.
- 38:15Speaker 3: Help me this has been the gold field This is Elizabeth.
- 38:33Speaker 3: I've taken over the podcast, and you have been listening
- 38:41Speaker 3: to the Goldfield Hotel, the most haunted hotel in Nevada,
- 38:47Speaker 3: a place where the gold is gone, the people.
- 38:51Speaker 1: Are gone, the laughter is gone. is gone.
- 38:57Speaker 3: According to legends, all the ghosts have stayed. And if
- 39:04Speaker 3: you ever find yourself driving through Goldfield at night and
- 39:10Speaker 3: you see a light burning in the window of the
- 39:13Speaker 3: old hotel, I would like you to stop. Don't knock,
- 39:22Speaker 3: and whatever you do, Answer the knock back. And please
- 39:31Speaker 3: help me find my baby.
- 39:37Speaker 1: My baby. Thank you, Elizabeth. Elizabeth. And some of what
- 39:52Speaker 1: Elizabeth said, I will counter that. If you do find
- 39:59Speaker 1: yourself at the hotel, do not stop. Don't knock. And
- 40:07Speaker 1: whatever you do, don't answer the something knocks back. It
- 40:13Speaker 1: might be the final, it might be the last thing
- 40:18Speaker 1: you ever do And tell them, my friends, stay spooky.
- 40:33Speaker 2: If tonight's story got up in your skin, good. That's
- 40:40Speaker 2: what we do here. You can find every episode of
- 40:46Speaker 2: Ghost Stories and the Unusual Paranormal Podcaster on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube,
- 40:53Speaker 2: or wherever you receive your Bruce podcasts. Grab some haunted
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- 41:02Speaker 2: Unusual Paranormal Podcast slash Shopify.
- 41:07Speaker 1: And if you want.
- 41:07Speaker 2: Bonus episodes and to keep this show alive and undead,
- 41:13Speaker 2: join us on Patreon. Got a story of your ghoststories
- 41:20Speaker 2: at gmail.com. We read every single one of your emails.
- 41:30Speaker 2: Until next time, as Joe the Ghost Guy says, stay spooky, friends.