Nevada’s Goldfield Hotel is said to be the portal to the other side
After gold was discovered in the vicinity of Columbia Mountain in 1902, the town of Goldfield, NV ranked as one of the biggest and brightest mining towns in the west. In its boom year of 1906, the city’s mines produced $11 million in gold. A year later, in 1907, the mines were generating close to $10,000.00 a day.
The earthquake-proof, four-story, 154-room Goldfield Hotel was built on an abandoned gold mine in 1908 for $500,000.00. Being the best accommodation between Denver and San Francisco, the hotel was known as “The jewel in the desert”.
When it opened in 1908, the hotel featured an Otis elevator then considered the most modern elevator of its kind west of the Mississippi. The Goldfield Hotel’s crystal chandeliers, elegant lobby with mahogany trim and black leather upholstery, gold-leaf ceilings, and gilt columns rivaled the finest hotels in San Francisco.
In an era when few homes or businesses had phones or carpets, the extravagant hotel featured a sophisticated switchboard and phone in every room. Meals were “exquisite European cuisine”, with oysters, quail and squid. Patrons came to dinner dressed in formal attire: black ties, tails, and evening gowns.
Once the largest city in Nevada, Goldfield was connected to the rest of the United States by five railroads and with the Goldfield mines producing over $10,000.00 per day at their peak, the city’s five banks prospered. Goldfield even had several mining stock exchanges and three newspapers. As the city flourished, its leaders considered bringing in a streetcar to tour downtown.
But, when the mines dried up, the town lost its appeal and the once-splendid Goldfield Hotel went out of business in the 1920s. During World War II, the military took over and added some improvements including a grill to house to Army and Air Force wives whose husbands were stationed and training in the nearby remote desert.
At the end of the War, the Goldfield Hotel was once again abandoned and boarded up. Then, in the 1980s, a wealthy new owner began pouring millions of dollars into modernizing the hotel. His dream of opening the ancient “Gem in the Desert” in all its original splendor was shattered before completion. He forfeited the property to support property taxes. The vandals took most of the bathroom and the newly installed light fixtures, eventually taking everything but the bare walls.
Today, the city of Goldfield is home to fewer than 300 residents, although it remains the county seat of Esmeralda County, which with fewer than 1,000 residents, is the least populous county in Nevada. There is no gas station, no bank, no grocery store, much less a newspaper, a far cry from when the city was known as the “Queen of Camps” for its more than 25,000 inhabitants.
Elizabeth’s Ghosts Forsaken
With its glorious past, the ill-fated hotel remains the most prominent symbol of Goldfield’s former glory. But what adds to its spooky mood is the fact that much of the original lavish woodwork has been destroyed by vandals. All the vintage accessories were stripped over the years by modern gold diggers and sold.
Before the hotel was purchased privately at auction for back taxes in August 2003, the Goldfield Historical Society opened the hotel for special “ghost” tours several times a year. It became famous as one of the “Scariest Places on Earth” when the Fox network filmed a Halloween episode of the same name that aired in October 2001.
During filming, crew members reportedly observed a ghostly presence in the hallways. Feeling restless, a crew member left and refused to re-enter. Orbs (misty ghost-like objects) were subsequently seen in several of the photographs taken inside, including my own photographs.
Since around 1910, room 109 has been considered haunted. Legend has it that this room is haunted by a prostitute named Elizabeth who, while pregnant, was chained to the room’s radiator by the hotel’s original owner, George Winfield.
Winfield was so angry when he found out that Elizabeth was pregnant; he denied his freedom to go out. Once his child was born, he was ripped from her arms and discarded. He dumped the cute of the abandoned gold mine on which the hotel was built.
With the disposition of Elizabeth’s son, Winfield let the young woman die and for days cried out for mercy. The rescue never came, she found herself alone and abandoned. Fearing Winfield’s authority, the hotel employees were afraid to come to Elizabeth’s rescue, and the hotel guests could not hear her due to the isolation of the room and the thickness of the walls.
Psychics who have visited room 109 say that Elizabeth was either left to die there or killed shortly after. Her spirit is trapped inside the modest room that she faces to a brick side wall of the hotel. On dark and gloomy nights, passers-by and nearby residents hear the baby cry.
On the first floor, the presence of George Winfield has been felt near the lobby staircase. Periodically, people inspecting the hotel have found the smell of cigarette smoke and ashes, and once an electrician discovered fresh ashes inside a fuse box that hadn’t been opened in over 50 years. The ghost hunters on the third floor have also detected high psychic energy.
Many who enter room 109 find it cooler than the other rooms and feel a presence in the room. The age discoloration on the wall where the radiator is located appears to have the outline of a human form. Cameras have been known to malfunction inside this room.
Other ghosts have reportedly been observed in the hallways and on the lobby stairway. Sometimes doors slam shut and mysterious smells linger. Clairvoyants who have come to examine the building say that the Goldfield Hotel is located among several portals or gateways to the other world.
During the annual Esmeralda County Land Auction in August 2003, the Goldfield Hotel sold for $360,000. The new owner was said to have plans to renovate the lower two floors of the four-story hotel and open them to the public. To date, the hotel remains empty and boarded up.
Goldfield is located in the corridor between Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, on US Highway 95.