Fall means it’s time for drinking apple cider, visiting pumpkin patches, and enjoying all of the spooky things the season has to follow. If you’re someone who lives for creepy places and ghost stories this list is for you. Below are a few of the haunted places to check out in Colorado this fall. Some of them are nationally famous while others are more hidden gems. A lot of these locations welcome visitors but a few of these haunted places might be a bit too scary for the faint at heart.
You can’t have an article about the most haunted places in Colorado without including this. Hotels in general tend to be creepy but the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park takes the cake. This hotel is the inspiration for the Stephen King novel “The Shining”. The novel was eventually adapted into the cult classic film by the same name. While you won’t find two twins asking you to play forever with them you definitely might hear a few bumps in the night. The Stanley Hotel actually runs like a normal hotel, hosting events and catering to guests like any other hotel would. What separates this place from others is it completely leans into its haunted past. The hotel opened in 1909 by F.O. Stanley and since then workers and guests alike have admitted to experiencing unexplained events. Allegedly Stanley and his wife still wonder the halls of the hotel. There are plenty of ghost tours the hotel puts on daily and if that’s not enough for you consider actually checking in for a night.
There must be something in the water when it comes to horror inspiration and Colorado. Cheesman Park is actually the inspiration behind Steven Spielberg’s Poltergeist. Cheesman Park nestled in Denver has an incredibly dark past. It used to be the location of the Prospect Hill Cemetery back in the mid-1800’s. By the turn of the century many of the bodies in the cemetery were unclaimed and Colorado senator Henry Moore Teller decided to turn it into a park. Little did he know the undertaker employed to move the bodies was more concerned with making a profit than actually doing his job. E.P. McGovern was supposed to move around 5,000 bodies but instead of doing it the proper way he decided to hack bodies into pieces and shove them into child-sized coffins. McGovern was quickly found out and fired but the city never replaced him, instead they merely filled in the open graves and planted shrubbery over them. Fast forward over 100 years to modern times and caskets are still being discovered. According to a 2010 CNN investigation officials speculate there are around 2,000 bodies still in the park. Construction crews frequently find graves and even the rain will bring up bodies from the earth. Despite all this Cheesman Park is still a popular destination for visitors and residents alike.
Arguably the entire city of Cripple Creek has a spooky vibe to it, but it’s the Colorado Grande Hotel and Casino that seems to be ground zero. The over a century old hotel is apparently haunted by a ghost an Irish woman named Maggie. No one is entirely sure who she might have been, possibly a worker or just a normal citizen who frequented the building during her time on earth. Many paranormal investigators have come to try to meet Maggie. She’s said to frequent the ballroom and slot-machine area. Visitors can expect to hear the sound of change coming out of a machine and smell the scent of roses in the air. Cripple Creek was a once mining town turned gambling town, a popular destination during the Gold Rush. It sure seems like the sordid past of Cripple Creek never really faded away.
Haunted cemeteries are kind of tricky when it comes to visiting. While it might not be the smartest, or most respectful, idea to visit a cemetery after hours the Silver Cliff Cemetery is worth a visit during the day. Nestled in southern Colorado just outside Westcliffe and Silver Cliff this cemetery is known for having a supernatural light show. People have gone on record saying they’ve seen glowing orbs dancing around in the sky at night stretching back from modern times all the way to the 1800’s. Skeptics believe the lights are reflections of town lights from the headstones but others say the two close towns are too far away for that. Either way the Silver Cliff Cemetery would be an interesting place to visit. The cemetery represents all of the smaller communities that were once the backbone of the state.
Currently a popular music venue the Boulder Theater is supposedly also home to a few things that go bump in the night. The venue originally opened as an opera house in 1906. Many believe a former manager still oversees the venue from beyond the grave. Legend has it George Paper was accidentally hung during a freak accident on stage. Now people report equipment malfunctioning, figures, and adjacent businesses even experience things. At The Lounge faucets turn on and off, doors swing open, and several people believe they’ve seen the former manager. If Paper is still lingering in Boulder he can take solace in the fact that he is fondly remembered, and honored through a few dishes named after him.
Yes, that Molly Brown. The Unsinkable Molly Brown managed to survive the sinking of the Titanic and according to some she might still be lingering around. Built in 1889 the house has had many owners, including Brown. It’s currently a historical museum dedicated to the life of Brown but it also acknowledges some of the more creepy aspects of the house. Visitors and workers claim they’ve seen people dressed in Victorian-era clothing. Some people believe so strongly that the house is haunted that the museum actually provides guided ghost tours during the fall. Even if the Molly Brown House isn’t actually haunted it’s still a great place to visit. It shows the rich history of the state.
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