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Hotel Gadsden - Douglas, AZ Dec 30, 2006 – Jan 1, 2007 Room 333
*Joe wrote up a great synopsis of his solo investigation at the Gadsden Hotel:
My family has been staying at the Hotel Gadsden in Douglas, AZ for many years. Every time we visited, employees there would tell stories about the ghosts that occupy the hotel and various rooms in the hotel. The most notorious of these haunted rooms was room 333. Lights are said to flicker on and off, there are scratches on the door that reappear after being painted over, objects are moved, door opens on its own, locks and unlocks itself, and in the bathroom the sink and bathtub run by themselves. I had the opportunity to be in Douglas, Arizona for the Hotel Gadsden’s 100th anniversary. I decided that for this visit I would check into room 333 for a three night stay. Upon checking in, the desk clerk told me that earlier in the day she had gone up to room 333 to make sure everything was in order. Upon entering the room she noticed that the shower had been running and that there was still steam from the water in the bathroom. She checked the register and nobody had stayed in that room for many days. I saw this as a glimpse of hope, maybe I would witness something paranormal during my three night stay. When I got to room 333, I noticed that someone had written 666 above the door. I also noticed the infamous scratches on the door:
Upon entering the room I didn’t notice anything unusual. The room was outdated with red shag carpet and a 70’s looking lamp. I didn’t feel like setting up to investigate as it was still light outside and I wanted to unwind from the car ride down. I lay down on the bed and decided to watch T.V. About an hour into watching T.V. something blew very hard into my right ear. I immediately sat up and saw nobody. I tried to find a logical explanation, but the window was not open nor does the room have air-conditioning. This was my first experience with room 333 and over the next 2 nights I would come to realize that room 333 is indeed haunted. Upon waking up the following morning I found that the door had become unlocked during the night. In the bathroom I found a roll of toilet paper on the side of the sink completely soaked with water and the sink running. I had specifically remembered locking the door the night before and the roll of toilet paper was not on the sink when I went to bed. I got ready for the day and set up a video camera to record the room while I was gone. Seeing that whatever was in room 333 liked to move objects, I asked it to move some objects I had set up in frame of the video camera. Upon returning to room 333 an hour and a half later I noticed that none of the objects had been moved. I said “doesn’t look like you moved anything” and got a reply on video from a female voice saying “sorry”. That night I got another EVP on my digital voice recorder. I asked “Is something around?” and got a reply in a male voice saying “yeah”. Since this investigation, Plains Paranormal has investigated The Hotel Gadsden and room 333 two more times. Every time we investigate we find evidence of paranormal activity. We have recorded many evps , had objects move, personal experiences, and seen strange spikes in EMF readings. Plains Paranormal believes that the Hotel Gadsden and room 333 live up to their haunted reputations. Below is a summary of the ghosts at the Hotel Gadsden taken from their web-site. “Southern Arizona, the real old west in the year 1907. Wyatt Earp and Geronimo were still battling with blazing glory throughout this part of the country, Arizona had yet to become a state and the Gadsden Hotel first opened her doors, providing gracious hospitality to all who passed through. Named for the famous Gadsden Purchase, the hotel became home-away-from-home for cattlemen, ranchers, miners, and businessmen in the newly settling territory. Nearly every Arizona Governor has stayed in the Governor's Suite, so did Eleanor Roosevelt.. . The Hotel was leveled by fire and rebuilt in 1929. Purists question the tale of Pancho Villa's impromptu ride up the stairs, noting the Mexican revolutionary was assassinated in 1923, six years before the new hotel opened. Management will be quick to point to newspaper accounts that indicate that the marble stairs survived the fire, and be just as quick to show you the chipped surface on the seventh stair that people talk about to this day. The Hotel nearly died again a decade ago, this time a victim of neglect. The Gadsden was rescued in 1988 by its current owners, North Dakota wheat farmers Doris & Hartman Brekhus. Daughter-in-law and Hotel Manager Robin Brekhus will be one of the first to tell you more of the Gadsden's interesting past as she recalls her first encounter with the Gadsden Ghost. It was 4:10 pm Friday March 13,1991. The power had failed and she was in the basement, searching for candles. In the beam of her flashlight, she saw a faceless figure shaped like a man. "He just kind of floated down the hallway. It just looked like fog to me, but it was the shape of a person." For years, hotel workers and guests have confessed to seeing an apparition often around Lent or Christmas, and often in the hotel's cavernous basement. Sometimes it's described as headless, caped and wearing army-style khaki clothing. In her 26th year of operating one of the oldest manual elevators west of the Mississippi, Carmen Diaz saw the ghost in the basement as well. "Tall man. Black pants suit. No head." Brenda Maley, restaurant Supervisor said she saw the shadow of a body hunched over her one night as she lay on her stomach in her bed in her hotel room. She said she witnessed this immediately after a strange sensation where "all of a sudden I couldn't move." A movie crew member told Brekhus that his light turned off and on in the middle of the night, and then his golf clubs went crashing down on the floor.”
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