New 30 min. Video Interview- Beyond the Veil talks Ghosts of Bird Cage Theatre!

Here's my latest NEW Video interview (Part 1 (30 Mins.) - I recently had the opportunity to speak with Daniel Jackson of Beyond the Veil. It was a great conversation- as we both loved the Bird Cage Theatre, and talked about it's hauntings... and we touched on past life experiences, ghosts, spirit pets, and more.

WATCH:  https://newrealitytv.com/episode/beyond-the-veil-ep-6-medium-author-part-1-rob-gutro/

Last Week's AZ Book Signing: A 28-year dream in the making.

Last week, I took a trip to Tombstone, Arizona to sign my latest book called "Ghosts of the Bird Cage Theatre on a Medium's Vacation." The trip was actually a 28-year dream in the making. 

   Back in 1994 I went to Tombstone, AZ to investigate Wyatt Earp whom I became fascinated with. I later visited several other states where he lived and gathered info to write a book about him - but alas, there are already too many. 

(Photo: Billy, Amy and Rob in the lobby of the Bird Cage Theatre. Credit: R.G)

 I visited the Bird Cage Theatre/museum dressed as Wyatt in 1994 and the manager (who still manages it) befriended me.

(Photo:  Rob autographing books in the lobby of the Bird Cage Theatre. Credit: R.G)

   So, once my "super power" of mediumship came to be in 2005, and I returned in 2019 for the ghost tour. It was then I encountered 11 ghosts (all confirmed) and after getting the approval from my friend Billy who manages the Bird Cage, I wrote a book about those experiences. I published the book in Feb 2022 and it hit #1 on Amazon under the category of US Regional Western Travel guides! I was astounded. 

(Photo:  Some of the theatre boxes (also known as cribs) at the Bird Cage Theatre. Credit: R.G)

  Billy and his wife Amy then invited me out for a book signing during the Wyatt Earp Days festival in the town "Too Tough to Die" as it's known. 

(Photo:  The basement area that was used as a gambling den and had rooms for ladies of the evening at the Bird Cage Theatre. This gambling area is famous for the site of the world's longest poker game, running over 8 years continually). Credit: R.G)

 The Experience

I arrived on the afternoon of Saturday, May 28 and stayed to 5pm on May 30th! There were always a steady stream of visitors coming in. 

(Photo:  Friends Eric (right) and Steve (left) drove  from California to Arizona for a vacation and arranged to meet me. Credit: R.G). 

When you enter the lobby of the Bird Cage, there is always an employee dressed in western garb to give you a 5 minute overview of some of the history and then you can take a walking tour.  I was stationed in the lobby and that meant that the "lady of the evening" ghost that I encountered in 2019 in the catwalk above the lobby let me know she was still around.

(Photo: I took this photo of the Bird Cage at sunset on May 28, 2022. Credit: R.G.) 

Friends Visit from California

My friend Eric and his buddy Steve planned a driving vacation from California to Arizona, and timed it around my appearance in Tombstone. So we got to go to dinner and all took the ghost tour! 

More Ghosts

During this ghost tour I encountered 4 of the same ghosts (out of the 11) that I met three years before. I also met a couple of others who were too shy to come out and greet me then.  These other ghosts are also proven/cataloged figures from the 1880s in the Bird Cage!

To buy the book: Ghosts of the Bird Cage Theatre on a Medium's Vacation - click HERE

(Photo:  1994 Photo of Rob as Wyatt Earp (left) with Billy (right) in his cowboy gear, and a lady of the evening (center) at the bar in the lobby of the Bird Cage Theatre. Credit: R.G.) 

Youtube Interview: Edge of the Rabbit Hole Talks w/Rob about Haunted Bird Cage Theater

On March 8, 2022, Mike Ricksecker and Victoria Mundae, hosts of the renown paranormal YouTube show Edge of the Rabbit Hole, talked with Author/Medium Rob Gutro his new book and experiences at the Haunted Bird Cage Theater. The Bird Cage is located in Tombstone, Arizona. Rob recently published his book "Ghosts of the Bird Cage Theatre on a Medium's Vacation" and it went to #1 on Amazon under U.S. Western Travel Guides. Here's the interview (note -some audio issues in first 3 minutes):

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N1pxyQG68U

AZ Trip #22: Back to the Bird Cage - and a Ghostly Prostitute

Rob and Dan back at the Bird Cage Theatre

In the previous blog, we took you to Tombstone, Arizona's famous Boot Hill Cemetery, where many of the outlaws were buried. After visiting there, Dan and I went back to the town and met my friends Amy and Billy. After a tasty lunch of coffee and Tombstone's best sweet coffee rolls (yes, that was lunch), we went back to the Bird Cage and I met another ghost. Here's the story:

The Bird Cage Theatre is owned by Billy's dad and Billy manages it. So, after lunch we went back to the old theatre to see Billy's office. Billy told us that he often feels as if he's being watched in the office, so as a medium, I was curious and wanted to see if I encountered (another) a ghost that liked to dwell there. As you've read in early chapters (blogs), I met quite a few ghosts already from the Bird Cage Theatre! So, Dan and I followed Billy and Amy back to his office. His office is located behind a door to the right of the bar (if you're looking at the bar).

Employee dressed as an 1880s "worker" with Rob

THE GHOST WALKS IN - As soon as we walked into Billy's office, I immediately got a headache, indicating that we were in the presence of a ghost. I knew it was a woman, and she told me that she worked at the theatre as a prostitute back in the early 1880s. She told me her name began with an "Na..." and I couldn't make out the rest of it, because she whispered it.

GHOST SHARES HER FEELINGS AND LIFE STORY- Suddenly, she decided to share her feelings (ghosts often do that to prove their identity) with me. So, I suddenly felt anxious. She then told me "I always get anxious before working." Meaning before she meets a man and takes him to her bed for sex. She also told me that she didn't want to be a prostitute, but she had no other means of support. She told me all of this as I was standing in Billy's office!

Amy and Billy in front of the stage

  I asked why she was in the office (which wasn't an office when she worked there in the 1880s), and she told me that she would sometimes go in there to hide from men she wasn't attracted to, and who paid for her services. 

BILLY'S EXPERIENCE WITH THE GHOST -
    When I shared all of her information with Billy, Amy and Dan, Billy said that "One day a female ghost looked over my shoulder while I was working on the computer. I could smell her perfume and body odor," he said. He also told us that the female ghost pulled his hair!
  I knew that this was the same ghost that was talking with me at that moment!!

The theatre

SHOT IN THE THROAT AGAIN -   After we left the office, we walked back into the area where the stage is located and once again, the ghost who made me feel as if I were shot by a gun in the throat gave me the same feelings again! I couldn't breathe and felt blood rushing up to my throat again as it felt the previous night when I first encountered him. I had to tell him to stop it and he finally did.

NEXT: A WALK DOWN TOMBSTONE'S MAIN STREET  

LATER: SHOOTOUT AT THE OK CORRAL

AZ Trip #19: Dan's 2nd Encounter with a Ghost at the Bird Cage Theatre

Rob and Dan waiting for the lights to go out!

In the last couple of blogs we've been taking you with us on the ghost tour through the Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone, Arizona. Before Dan came to the Bird Cage he had never had a paranormal experience. I've already told you about the ghost of the miner in the mirror. This time, we'll talk about the ghost who was walking away from Dan.

In the previous blog, we were in the basement at the site of the "World's longest poker game." After hearing the history (and my sensing a ghost), we returned upstairs and sat at a huge table behind the stage curtain.

Picture in your mind 24 people sitting around a giant table (actually several tables pushed together). Two groups of about 12 were on two sides. The docent then said she would turn the lights out for 30 minutes and we could communicate with any ghosts. It didn't take long before we experienced them!

Dan saw a shadow (ghost) of a man descending a staircase from the stage.

As we sat in the dark for 30 minutes, some of us asked questions to the ghosts haunting the theatre. There were some odd noises after questions were asked.

DAN'S 2ND EXPERIENCE - After the 20 minutes, Karen, the tour guide, said that we could take pictures. So Dan, turned to his right, toward the stage curtain (remember we were sitting backstage). To the right of the curtain, there was a stairway that led from the stage down into the first floor seating area. Dan hit his cell phone camera and a flash lit the staircase. It was then he saw a man in a cowboy hat descending the stairway from the stage to the seating area. The flash ended and the picture was captured, but nothing was there. 
   Dan thought that the living man wearing a cowboy hat, who was sitting at the end of our side of the table, and closest to the curtain, had stood up and walked down the stairs. But he didn't. He was still sitting there! 
  So, Dan actually saw the shadow of a male ghost in a cowboy hat walking down the staircase!

AZ Trip #18: Bird Cage Ghost Tour: Rob Sees Woman in White, Counts Ghosts

The ghost Rob saw looked just like this- Credit theoccultmuseum.com

In today's blog, we're still in the Tombstone, Arizona Bird Cage Theatre sitting backstage in the dark, trying to communicate with ghosts. About 20 minutes into the dark session, Rob saw what turned out to be a well-known ghostly woman in white. Here's the story:
  About 24 people in our Ghost Tour group were seated around a giant table (actually several tables pushed together) behind the stage curtain (we were backstage). Two groups of about 12 were on two sides. The docent then turned the lights out for 30 minutes and we could communicate with any ghosts.  

Visitors on the Ghost Investigation sat around this table

SEEING THE WOMAN IN WHITE - A  woman spoke up who was  sitting across the table from us. She said that her right arm suddenly felt cold. I knew that meant there was a ghost near her. Here's why:   When ghosts are trying to get strong enough to appear or make noises they slow down the movement of air molecules by absorbing the energy of motion. Slower movement of air molecules make for colder air, or a cold spot (Fast moving molecules are warmer air). As soon as I looked over that way, it became obvious that there was a ghost standing next to the woman.
   When I glanced toward the sound of the woman's voice in the dark, I saw a woman in a white top with a white hood or veil who was standing up. I asked the woman speaking if she was wearing a white blouse or sweatshirt with a hood and if she was standing up. She said "no" to both questions and asked me why.
  I told her there is a woman standing next to her in white that has a hood or veil on. People gasped. 
  Karen, the tour group leader said, "That must be the woman in white that people have reported seeing here in the Bird Cage." 

Tombstone's Bird Cage Theatre

  I asked the ghost why she stood next to that particular woman, and she replied that they share the same birthday, and that the woman in the group would be the most easy to communicate with. The woman in white just wanted to be noticed.
   As the woman in white departed, I concentrated on all of the ghosts in the building. I was able to actually count the number of ghosts who haunt the Bird Cage!
 
10 GHOSTS AROUND- I (Rob) told Karen, the tour guide that I sensed a total of 10 ghosts in the Bird Cage. I told her there were 6 women and 4 men. I had already met 2 of the men when they shared their pain of death- one was shot in the throat, the other shot in the chest. The third man may have been the one that Dan wound up seeing from the stage (you'll read about that next).
   Karen sat and counted aloud, citing the names of the female ghosts that have been reported. She confirmed that there were indeed 6 female ghosts that have been seen!  

AZ Trip #17: Bird Cage Theatre Ghost Tour: Audience of Ghosts

The Bird Cage stage- we sat behind it. The ghosts were in front of the curtain

In the last couple of blogs we've been taking you with us on the ghost tour through the Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone, Arizona. In today's blog you'll learn about a dead audience.

Rob and Dan in the Bird Cage Theatre basement

About 24 people in our Ghost Tour group were seated around a giant table (actually several tables pushed together) behind the stage curtain (we were backstage). Two groups of about 12 were on two sides. The docent then  turned the lights out for 30 minutes and we could communicate with any ghosts. It didn't take long before we experienced them!  After about 10 minutes I heard something...

Playing Faro in the 1880s. Credit: gamblingguides.net

GHOSTLY AUDIENCE - I said out loud (while sitting in the dark) that I could hear about 4 to 6 men talking as if playing cards over a table. The sound was coming from the front of the stage, where the audience would sit. It was very clear that these men were gambling and drinking. Several other people on the tour also heard them!  

WHAT IT WAS- Those sounds were a residual haunt. When people have a good time, or a traumatic time, their energy makes an impression in the structure they are in at the time. Those 4 to 6 men were enjoying their poker or faro game and impressed that energy in the walls of the Bird Cage. When the living people on the tour were sitting there, they provided emotional energy (of anxiety while sitting in the dark) that enabled the energy impressed upon the walls to get strong enough to be heard! 

NEXT: Rob Sees the Woman in White!

AZ Trip #16: Shot by Another Ghost, Longest Poker Game

The wall I fell against when the ghost shared being shot!

Continuing our walk through the Bird Cage Theatre on the ghost tour, we next ventured downstairs to the site of the World's Longest Poker Game. It was there that another ghost made his presence known to me and it hurt! Here's the story.

A GAMBLING GHOST SLAMS ME- Sometimes ghosts try to make themselves known by sharing what they experienced when they died. That's what happened in this case.

Longest Poker Game table

   After walking backstage in the Bird Cage, we descended the staircase to the basement. The basement consisted of an open area with a table that was the location of the world's longest poker game, which you'll read about in a moment. There were also about 4 or 5 rooms with doors on the other side of the basement. Those were "working" rooms for prostitutes.
   All of the people on the tour were already in the basement by the time I got to the bottom of the stairs. Suddenly, there was a male ghost there, and he made me experience how he died. I felt as if I were shot in the chest and fell against the wall!

Table of Longest Poker Game

CONFIRMATION - Karen, the tour guide, confirmed two other mediums who had been to the Bird Cage had conveyed the same feelings on that very spot. The man was shot against that wall because he was accused of cheating in the poker game.

 

SITE OF THE LONGEST POKER GAME IN THE WORLD - The longest poker game in history was played in the basement of the Bird Cage theater. Those who wished to play had to pay a thousand dollars ($1,000) up front. Among the notable people who played in this particular game was George Hearst, Diamond Jim Brady, Adolphus Busch, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, and Wyatt Earp. The poker game in itself was played continuously 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It continued from 1881 to 1889 for a total of 8 years. It is estimated that approximately $10 million was exchanged in the game during the 8 years that it lasted and that the Bird Cage retained 10 percent of that money.

NEXT: UPSTAIRS IN THE DARK- A DEAD AUDIENCE

AZ Trip #15: Bird Cage Ghost Tour; Ghost in the Mirror

The ghost with the long white hair and beard in the mirror!

In today's blog, we are still on the ghost tour of the famous

Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone, Arizona, and Dan, who never had a paranormal experience took a photo of a ghost in a mirror!


QUICK BACKGROUND - As mentioned in the previous blog, the Bird Cage Theatre operated intermittently from December 1881 to 1894. When the silver mines closed, the theatre was also closed in 1892. It was reopened in 1934 and has been a museum. It's also known to be quite haunted, which we proved!


SILVER MINERS - Tombstone, Arizona was first a mining camp. Silver miner Ed Schieffelin named the town. In 1877, Mr. Schieffelin was searching for silver in the Arizona territory when he struck a silver vein and the town grew up around his mine. Miners tended to wear overalls, boots, and helmets. Several of them had long beards.

Room with the mirror

THE GHOST IN THE MIRROR - As we walked through the first floor in the front of the stage, there were a lot of pieces of furniture from the 1880s. One of the interesting pieces was a Faro (card game) table where Doc Holliday had an encounter with cowboy/criminal Johnny Ringo. It is said that at that table they tossed a handkerchief in the air to try and shoot it, and both were so drunk they missed.

The ghost resembled this Prescott, AZ 1880s miner

  One of the other items was an old mirror from the 1880s. When I walked past it there was nothing in the mirror. When Dan walked over to it, he took a picture of it. He looked at the photo and was surprised to see a bearded man with long hair that wasn't in the bunch of people on the ghost tour. It was apparent to me that it was one of the miners from the 1880s! 

Seeing this ghost in the mirror where there wasn't one as Dan's first of two ghost sightings in the Bird Cage Theatre that night. You'll read about the second one in a couple of days. 

NEXT: Another Bird Cage Theatre Ghost!

AZ Trip #14: Bird Cage Theatre Ghost Tour: Ghost Shot in the Throat

Looking up at this theater box, I felt shot in the throat

In today's blog, we are still on the ghost tour of the famous Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone,
Arizona. There have been so many ghosts reported there by employees and visitors, that a ghost tour was created. Being a medium, though, I wound up having my own encounters. This blog will describe the second ghost I met and it was only in the second room I entered!


ENTERING THE HAUNTED AREA - We walked from the lobby where I saw the female prostitute walking on the balcony (yesterday's blog), into the theatre area. Originally, there wasn't a wall between the lobby and the theatre seating area. It was added later. Once I got through the door into the lobby seating area, I took a few steps and stopped.
 
SHOT IN THE THROAT - There was a male ghost standing where I was standing, and he told me he died there as shared the pain of his death (ghosts do that to prove their identity). I suddenly felt and sensed that I had been shot in the throat! I couldn't talk. I felt pain and felt as if blood was rushing up to and out of my throat. I tried to talk and tell Dan and Karen, the tour guide, and could barely form the words. 

CONFIRMED - Karen, the tour guide confirmed that there was a man who was shot in the throat near where I was standing. But the man wasn't done with me after I walked away. He haunts the Bird Cage Theatre and this spot because of his sudden death. Sometimes when ghosts experience sudden passings, they awake on the other side as energy and linger too long and get stuck on earth as a "Ghost"

SHOT AGAIN BY THE GHOST-  The next day, Dan and I returned to the Bird Cage Theatre with Billy and Amy. They took us back into that room, and once again, the ghostly cowboy jarred me. Again, he shared the pain of being shot in the throat. Again, I couldn't speak. I had to walk away from the spot and try to get past the taste of blood in my mouth
   This time, though, he told me that he was shot in the throat there in the Bird Cage as a result of an argument over a card game. He told me his name was Jerome (or Jeremy). 

The Faro Table where Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo had the handkerchief showdown

   Now I knew his name, the way he died, where he died and the reason he was murdered. I just don't know if he was known in the town. What I do know is that he is lingering at the Bird Cage for eternity, trying to get people's attention. 

AZ Trip #13: Bird Cage Theatre Ghost Tour: Ghostly Lobby Woman

Lobby balcony where the ghostly woman was seen

Dan and I took the ghost tour at the famous Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone, Arizona. It didn't take long before I sensed my first ghost though. It happened as soon as I stepped through the front door and into the lobby. Here's the story:

THEATRE, GAMBLING, PROSTITUTES - There were several ways people entertained themselves during the 1880s while miners were searching for Silver in the hills outside of Tombstone. Theatre was one of the main places for entertainment, as were saloons. There were also gambling halls and prostitutes. 
   The Bird Cage seemed to have all of those things. As you walked into the lobby, there was a bar on the left side. On the wall opposite the bar hung the 9 foot tall painting of Fatima, the belly dancer and performer who worked at the theatre. Gambling took place in the basement, where you'll learn about the longest poker game in history. Prostitutes had "rooms" in the basement and also used the theatre boxes to "perform." 

Stairs on right side of Balcony, where ghost was also seen.

THE GHOSTLY WOMAN - As I walked into the lobby of the Bird Cage I looked up. I sensed there was a woman walking back and forth on the balcony that overlooked the lobby. She would not tell me her name. She did tell me that she paces back and forth along that balcony.  
CONFIRMATION -  About 10 minutes after I sensed the ghostly woman, the ghost tour began. The first thing that the tour leader said was that there was a ghostly woman seen walking back and forth on the balcony, usually when the Bird Cage was closed for the evening. She said that several people who were in the saloon across the street would see the woman after the Bird Cage was closed. 
   The ghost has also been seen on the stairway leading from the Balcony to the lobby on the first floor. At the bottom of the stairs hangs the giant painting of Fatima. 
  Apparently, this ghost is a former prostitute who worked at the Bird Cage, and she never left. Today, she's still looking for customers. 

NEXT: Shot in the Throat

AZ Trip #12: Bird Cage Theatre: Part 2: Fatima, Ghostly Face and Rob's Book Cover

Painting of Faatima

In today's blog about the Bird Cage Theatre ghost tour, I'll tell you about Fatima, her famous painting and the ghost who showed up in front of the painting, and became the cover of my first paranormal book!  In today's blog, you'll learn about Fatima and the ghost!


WHO WAS FATIMA? Fatima was a belly dancer and entertainer who performed at the Bird Cage Theatre in the 1880s, where she got her start. She became well-known there. She later took the name of "Little Egypt" aka Syrian born Fahreda Mazar Spyropoulos (1871-1937).  In 1893 she appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago. When she moved away from Arizona, a giant painting of her was delivered to the Bird Cage Theatre.
 The painting is huge. I think it must be at least 9 feet high and 4 feet wide. 
 I haven't been able to find out who commissioned the painting or who sent it, but today (2019) it hangs in the lobby, on the wall to the right of the front door.

GHOST IN THE PAINTING - In 1993 when I visited Tombstone, I took pictures inside the Bird Cage Theatre. At that time, my abilities to sense ghosts and spirits was not active like it is today. When I was in the lobby, I asked Billy (who manages the theatre) to stand next to the painting and I took a photo of him. The full picture appears in my first book "Ghosts and Spirits"- available on Amazon.com.
  When I mailed the photo to Billy (this was before the Internet, he called me when he got it, and said I captured the face of the male actor that he has sometimes seen crossing the stage when he was closing up at night!  

BOOK COVER - The face looks like a balding man with a beard and moustache and it's very clear in the painting. This year, we took a photo of Fatima's painting to ensure that we had a clean, ghost-free photo of it. I distinctly remember when I took the photo in 1993 that I did not use a flash. When I took several other photos afterward, there was no face in them. The ghost had decided to show up when Billy was standing next to it!

NEXT: The Bird Cage Ghost Tour Begins

AZ Trip #10: The Ghost Who Walked Through Me in Tombstone

The sidewalk where the ghost of a man walked through me

In today's blog, we take you to Tombstone, Arizona.My friend Dan and I left Bisbee and drove to Tombstone for a ghost tour (which you'll read about in the next blog). In this blog, you'll learn a bit about Tombstone and then about the ghost who actually walked through me. 

The outside of Smoke Signals during the day

I've been to Tombstone before, last in 1993, when I was pursuing the history of Wyatt Earp. In fact, I'm a big fan and have traveled around the country to places he lived and worked. I was going to write a book about him, but so many have been done that I decided against it. Anyway, Wyatt and his brothers were in Tombstone (see the movie of the same name, which is most historically accurate, BTW).

ABOUT TOMBSTONE, AZ - Tombstone is a town in southeastern Arizona, known for its Wild West history. Exhibits at the Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park include a replica gallows. On historic Allen Street, the O.K. Corral outdoor theater re-enacts the famous Oct. 26, 1881 gunfight between the Earps and Doc Holliday (who represented the law) versus the "Cowboys," who were rustlers and murderers. Resident ghosts are said to haunt the bullet-riddled Bird Cage Theatre. Outlaws are among the local townsfolk buried at the 1878 Boothill Cemetery.

Sidewalk at night

MY GHOSTLY SIDEWALK ENCOUNTER - Since Dan and I arrived about 1 hour before the ghost tour, we thought we would walk around the town (although all businesses were closed except for the saloons and a variety store). The store fronts all open to a wooden planked sidewalk, and as we were walking down one of them we stopped in front of a store called "Smoke Signals." 

Suddenly, the ghost of a dead man walked right through the left side of me! I felt cold and realized he had taken warmth from my body! My left arm and side had all suddenly gone cold and I felt as if I had the wind knocked out of me!  I told Dan what happened, and asked him to feel my left arm. He confirmed that it was very cold, unlike my right arm. We also noticed that I had goosebumps on my left arm. 

WHY THE COLD? As I wrote in my books, ghosts are all about energy. They're like a light bulb that needs energy to get strong enough to light up (and communicate with the living). So, when the ghost walked through me, he took my body heat to continue to manifest.

WHO WAS HE? The ghost didn't tell me who he was, but I knew immediately that he was once a resident of Tombstone. He wasn't in the mood for talking or answering questions and seemed in a hurry. He just walked through me and kept on walking. That would be the first of many ghosts I encountered that night.



NEXT: THE BIRD CAGE THEATRE GHOST TOUR- part 1

The spot where the ghost walked through me

AZ Trip #5: The Ghost in the Copper Queen Hotel

Bisbee, AZ's Copper Queen Hotel

In blog #5 of my trip to southern Arizona

Copper Queen Hotel sign

with my friend Dan, we started it Bisbee. Bisbee is
an old mining town where silver and copper were mined. The town grew up around those mines, and many of the citizens were miners. One of the most famous hotels, however, was named for one of the mines: The Old Copper Queen Hotel. When we visited, we didn't know anything about hauntings, but I encountered one off the lobby. Here's the story of my encounter and the other known ghosts. .

THE GHOST ROB MET - Dan and I walked through the front door and past the hotel desk, which was against a wall on the right side of the room. The large room had an old piano against the back right wall, and there was a table and several chairs on the left side of the small lobby. On the table I believe there was the "Ghost Journal" which you'll read about below.

The hotel lobby

The hallway where Rob met Maria's Ghost

Since the lobby was small, and there were 2 ways to go, one being upstairs to the hotel rooms, and the other through a doorway next to the front desk, we went through the doorway. The doorway led to a hallway, and the bar for the restaurant. The bar appeared as it had in the 1880s when the hotel was built from 1898 to 1902 by the Phelps Dodge Corporation (the same who you read about in the last blog who shipped striking miners to New Mexico in 1917).  The hotel is Arizona's longest continuously operated hotel.

GHOST IN THE HALLWAY - When I stepped in the hallway I ran right into a female ghost. She decided to share her pain to let me know who she was (although I didn't know who she was no matter), so she made my right leg collapse under me! Dan was behind me and saw me stumble and try to catch myself. He asked what was happening, and I explained that the ghost was sharing her pain to prove her identity. 

She told me her name was Mary or Maria, and she was of Mexican descent. She said she worked there in the 1890s, apparently right after the hotel opened. She was a prostitute. She opted to stay behind as an Earth-bound ghost, but I didn't learn why. She didn't seem like she wanted help to cross over, either, so I picked myself up and met Dan at the entrance to the lobby and we left the hotel.

The hotel bar

OTHER HAUNTINGS WE LEARNED ABOUT AFTER WE VISITED -

One front desk clerk claimed that he heard a female voice while riding the elevator between the third and fourth floors. He was said to be the only one in the building. Others have reported seeing keys floating. There are many reports from guests of batteries in remotes being dead or televisions not turning on (and ghosts like to siphon energy so they can get strong enough to manifest).

Haunted Hallway

KNOWN GHOSTS - A young boy named Billy is said to haunt the hotel. He supposedly died long ago in the nearby San Pedro River .Others who are said to haunt the hotel include a former prostitute named Julia Lowell (who is said to have committed suicide) and a smoky-smelling bearded man in a top hat and black cape.  

THE GHOST JOURNAL - When we were in the lobby we saw a journal there called the "Ghost Journal." It's a place where guests can write down their paranormal experiences.

NEXT: Down in the Copper Mines!