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Goldfield Hotel, Goldfield, Nevada.
A short time ago I wrote about this hotel and its hauntings. Well, I finally made a trip to Goldfield, Nevada to see things for myself. Not terribly high in the high desert mountains of Nevada is the small town of Goldfield. The road leading you to the town skirts the California
border and Death Valley National Monument. There is nothing along the open highway as it weaves from California's 127 to Nevada's 95. Once on highway 95, the only community between Goldfield and the 127 junction is Beatty, Nevada. As you approach Goldfield from the south, one building looms off to the left as the tallest in town, the Goldfield Hotel. The town itself is old. Each building showing the weather worn elements of the city's bustling past. Wooden structures, abandoned, doors standing open or gone completely, seem to dominate the area. Parts of the exterior of these buildings, wooden boards, as if the nails holding them in place were needed elsewhere, lay on the ground beside the buildings. The gold mines ran out and so did much of the population. The main street, the only street actually paved in the town, is highway 95. The other roads in town are gravel covered dirt roads.
The Hotel, instead of being a busy place, with guests and casino visitors, sits empty. A fence surrounding the grounds protecting the construction materials left behind. The interior, what one can see through the large, uncovered windows, looks semi-completed in the renovation process, but far from finished. Finding it impossible to access this haunted building, we took to the street to talk with some town's people. According to locals, the man who began the renovation, gave up in disgust because the workmen spent more time swilling beer on the job than doing the work. After six million dollars poured into the venture, the non-resident owner filed bankruptcy. The locals also pointed out that the place
was indeed haunted. Frank, the attendant at the only gas station in town, said there were many construction people who would not go in the building to work after their first experience with ghost(s).
"Have you ever seen any ghosts?" I asked Frank.
"No, not me. But my wife has. We were out walking one evening and she saw some one standing in the front window of the hotel. This was after the construction work had ended. I looked, but didn't see anyone. I asked her if she could still see the person and she said she could. So I asked her what the person looked like. She said it was a woman and she looked as though she was dressed in white. She told me, my wife, she did not think she was standing at the window as much as she just sort of floated behind it. Funny thing, she wasn't afraid, but I could feel the hair on the back of my neck stand on end as I listened to my wife talk. And I couldn't wait to get past the hotel."
Others in town have experienced similar things. Some not as willing to talk about their experiences. Some just looked at us and would only say, "Yep, that place is haunted for sure." But they would not offer any more information than that.
We talked with Frank's wife and she confirmed what her husband had told us. She said she had seen the female ghost many times when she sat and watched the hotel from across the street. She also saw the ghost a few times when she'd been in the hotel. She never felt afraid, she told us.
So it appears the Goldfield Hotel is still haunted. Without the increased economy the hotel could have brought to the town, the town itself could end up being owned by the ghosts. Once a city of over 20,000, it boasts a population of less than one hundred. There is no industry, no commercial mining, nothing but gift shops, curio stores and an eating
place and gas station. Those days of activities are gone, memories now and those in today's time are reminded only by the appearances of the ghosts of the historical past.
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