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Road Trip — Haunting at The Crescent Inn Hotel
Monday, July 11th, 2011

After spending a very pleasant time in Des Moines (I’ll post tattoo pics another day!), we headed home again. Next destination: The Crescent Inn Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It’s one of the most haunted places in America. Ghosthunters episode #13 was filmed there.

Wierd things happened even before we arrived. The Crescent lies in the Ozark Mountains and sits on the crest of a hill. We had the address plugged into the Garmin. The GPS worked fine the whole trip, up until the point when it took us up a goat trail of a narrow, gravel road. Halfway up the rutted trail, we met a Hummer. There really was only room for the Hummer, so he had to climb a hill while we squeezed by with our wheels on the edge of the trail. It was a nail-biter staring down the long drop into the ravine.

This is the Crescent Inn Hotel. Built in the 1800’s, it’s had many lives—as a resort hotel for the rich, as a school for girls, a cancer treatment-torture facility, and again as a hotel.

This is our room and the very first picture where creepy things happened. I have a very good little Cannon camera that takes crisp, clear pictures. I took hundreds of pictures on this trip and this is the first one that’s blurred this way. But here, you can make out a shadow. Do you see the outline of a head and shoulder? As it turns out, our room has a ghost that plays outside the door. A child died from a fall and is “seen” playing and “heard” to say “It’s not fair!” when he sees people dressed comfortably because he hated his own fussy clothing.


The next snap, same lighting, and nothing.

Here’s the front desk when you first enter the hotel. Slightly theatrical, but it does set the tone.

Still in our room and third snap. See the moon-like circle? It’s an orb. To non-believers (snicker if you like!), it’s dust or a reflection. The rest of us know it’s a spirit. I’ve only gotten “dust” like this in my pictures of cemeteries.

I found shadows and orbs everywhere in this hotel and wished I had a thermal imaging camera. See the shadow AND the orb?

See the orb here? It’s not the round sign at the end of the hallway, but the one on the right. I swear it’s not a spot on the carpet!

See the orb just below the stairwell? This is the stairwell where that little boy died from a fall.

We took the haunted tour and this is our intrepid group.

I think ghosts and shadows like to lurk in pairs.

It’s appropriate seeing an orb here. This door was used by the fellow who poisoned the cancer patients with his cures. He wheeled the bodies through this door at night while the rest of the patients slept.

The creepiest part of the tour was the trek to the bowels of the hotel, past the spa rooms to the morgue.

This the room where the doctor examined his victims.

This locker was featured in the Ghosthunters episode. A figure was seen in the thermal imaging camera and the number “2” glowed.

We were invited to step into the cooler where the bodies were stored. Seven of us crammed inside. It was hot as Hell! I snapped pics overhead, but found no orbs. What ghost would want to hang out there anyway? This pic was the scariest of the lot. 🙂

After our tour, the three of us had the best sleep of the entire trip. If a ghost came scratching, wailing, knocking—he was doomed to disappointment.

I took pics before I got out of bed that morning. Besides my feet, see anything strange?

How about now?

The creepiest thing that happened, by far, occurred in the formal dining room when we ate dinner. The six-year-old scowled and turned to her mother who was seated closest. “Mom, stop kicking my flip-flops.” She went under the table to retrieve them and her mother showed her that her feet couldn’t reach that far. The little one sat down again then made another face. “Stop it! My flip-flops!” The hairs on the back of my neck lifted. The Red-Headed Hellion and I exchanged wide-eyed glances. Little twerp when under the table again, then started talking to herself. When she came back up, she had a really wide grin on her face. “You want to eat my heart!”

Well, that’s not something she’d ever said before. And that was before we learned about the little boy. The tour guide said he was likely jealous of her flip-flops. AND it was before we learned that the doctor experimented on the bodies in the morgue and removed the hearts and livers from his victims.

That’s not the end of the wierd things associated with the Crescent Inn. When I got home, I downloaded all my pics. Four times! Each time, only the pictures from the Crescent were missing from the batch. Say what you like, but I think a ghost hitched a ride in one of those pictures. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

14 comments to “Road Trip — Haunting at The Crescent Inn Hotel”

  1. Lisa J
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    1
    · July 11th, 2011 at 9:47 am · Link

    My uncle’s house has something weird going on and my cousin would speak to “Grandma” all the time. He would describe her to you and tell you where she was in the room. He started doing it when he was 4 or 5. I never wanted to house sit for them because cupboard doors and dresser drawers would open on their own, no explanation. Very weird.

    My uncle’s wife spoke to a sensitive who said children routinely see people from the other side, adults are conditioned not to see them.



  2. Brandy W
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    2
    · July 11th, 2011 at 10:00 am · Link

    The kids thought that was totally cool and weird. They pointed out all of the orbs and saw the shadows. They are huge Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures fans.



  3. Marika Weber
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    3
    · July 11th, 2011 at 10:03 am · Link

    Beautiful hotel but creepy at the same time. I believe in ghosts. Yes, I really do. 🙂

    Thanks for sharing and I believe you.



  4. red headed hellion
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    4
    · July 11th, 2011 at 10:13 am · Link

    I COULD KILL U FOR THE PIC OF ME SLEEPING!!!!! 🙂



  5. Nicole Passante
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    5
    · July 11th, 2011 at 11:31 am · Link

    LOL, my 4 year old has a “kid tough” digital camera and takes pics of us sleeping there are always really flattering. Way cool hotel I have to add this to my bucket list. 😈



  6. tammy ramey
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    6
    · July 11th, 2011 at 1:03 pm · Link

    creepy very,very creepy!



  7. Cynthia D'Alba
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    7
    · July 11th, 2011 at 2:42 pm · Link

    AND don’t forget we’re going back there for another shot at the ghosts in October!!!



  8. Becky W
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    8
    · July 11th, 2011 at 3:42 pm · Link

    I enjoyed looking at these pictures. I will have to plan a visit to The Crescent Inn Hotel sometime. I have always found places that are haunting to be fascinating to me. I can’t explain why but creepy places aren’t creepy to me. Thanks for sharing these pictures and can’t wait to see more of them.



  9. Diane Sallans
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    9
    · July 11th, 2011 at 3:57 pm · Link

    I’ll probably never get there, but this was like a mini-vacation. I’ve never lived in a house that anyone ever died in, but it would be interesting to visit one.



  10. Diane Sadler
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    10
    · July 11th, 2011 at 6:28 pm · Link

    I don’t think I want to visit this house, Thank you very much!



  11. Jen B.
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    11
    · July 11th, 2011 at 8:37 pm · Link

    My friend took pictures like these all over Gettysburg. It is so cool. She had trouble downloading her pictures, too. I love a good ghost story. I’ve never seen anything like that.



  12. Samantha W.
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    12
    · July 11th, 2011 at 10:10 pm · Link

    My boyfriend and I went here when I was prego and the woman who led the “haunted tour” through the hotel swung a pendullum above my belly and said that the way it was spinning determined I was having a baby girl. She was correct. As far as the hotel, we were unable to capture any forms of evidence of orbs/apparitions/etc. I would love to get married in this gorgeous hotel.



  13. Janet
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    13
    · July 12th, 2011 at 12:04 am · Link

    You all slept so good because the ghosts had sucked out all of your energy! LOL



  14. Shadow
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    14
    · July 12th, 2011 at 5:28 pm · Link

    wow! awesome pics! i want to go there. 🙂 looks like you all had a ton of fun!



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