Crescent Hotel Eureka springs, room 419 1night and 403 2 nights, Dec. 13-15, 2006

We are hooked.

We stayed in several rooms. We met Scott with his wife Mary Beth and Conner's bud Steven there this time.  419 has a history of many strange things happening.  Bags get moved and or packed when no one is in the room.  you get there unpack go to dinner and come back and your bags are packed and sitting just inside the door.   We didn't experience that but we did find several objects of ours moved from time to time.  The suitcase may have moved a few feet, not sure, and the room did have many orbs in photos. 

424 was too small, so we switched and took 403.

 During ghost tour closet door opens by itself again same place as last trip. We all saw it happen but didn't see any explanation. We experimented with the door for a while.  We confirmed it was not the movement on the floor outside causing it to open.  It happened on our last visit the very same way and our cameras had problems operating when it was occurring as well as battery drains on several cameras.  A couple of or photos had a bright red orb in it just inside the door.  We had no other experiences the rest of our visit.  We also checked out a civil war battlefield about an hour away but didn't do any ghost hunting there.

Crescent Hotel Eureka springs, room 202 1night and 302 2 nights, June 8-10 2006

Back again.

Scott and I had to check on one of my projects in Arkansas, so I decided to bring the family and make another haunted trip out of it.  Scott brought along his nephew Steven.  Stevie also plays on our football team the Jaguars and is a buddy of Conner's. 

We used emf detector for 1st time with some wild results but it will take some time to get used to it and the false positives. 

During ghost tour closet door opened by itself.  We were all standing in the hallway on the second floor and it just opened while we were all watching.  It was surreal.  Kim thought she saw someone’s shoes at the bottom of door but when it opened to reveal nobody there.

On the second night our 202 Room door was found wide open after I shut it and locked to go down stairs with Conner and Stevie Kim was taking a bath and S and MB were in their room.  I came back a few minutes later and it was standing wide open.  Meanwhile Kim was still inside the bath none the wiser.

We had many orbs in many of the photos but I really don't consider that to be paranormal at all anymore.  We also had several strange experiences but none worth recording. 

I shared my last experience of being grabbed on the shoulder with the ghost tour and apparently it happens a lot in that room.  The host says it means they (spirits) like me.   She also says she thinks I am sensitive.  I hope she didn't mean in the "easily hurt or damaged" way...? 

No

I don't think I am.  In any way. 

Eureka Springs was born on July 4^th, 1879…offspring of the many legends and stories of the MAGIC HEALING SPRING of the Osage Indians.  These legends and tales were spread word of mouth from Indian to traders and trappers and explorers who spanned the region from the Great Lakes to Southern Florida.  The Osage Indians were hunters and this area made an ideal habitat for their lifestyle.  The heavily wooded Ozark Mountains were rich with wildlife for hunting and trapping… and the Osage made the ideal “Guardians” for the Magic Healing Spring.  They permitted anyone to come to the spring to drink and bathe and heal - even the white man.  The area was considered by the Osage to be SACRED GROUND because of the healing quality of the waters.  As such, no form of hostility was acceptable and weapons were not permitted in the area of the springs.  Fear of antagonizing the SPIRIT OF THE SPRING was a strong incentive for hospitable behavior by all who visited the area.

In 1854, a doctor named Alva Jackson came to the area on a hunting trip.  He had long heard of the healing waters and, although he lived in a neighboring community, had never really believed the tales.  He was hunting in the area with his son who suffered with a chronic eye infection.  Dr. Jackson sent the son down the mountain to wash his eyes in the spring and, within three days, the eye infection had been cured.  Dr. Jackson began bottling the water as “Dr. Jackson’s Elixir”.

By the 1870’s, the region was well known by the white man and small groups of health seekers came to the area in search of whatever cures were needed.  At that time, a group of approximately 400 settlers had gathered around what we now know as Basin Spring.  The Osage Indians had hewn the basin out of a large rock ages ago and the spring flowed freely into that basin.  The community was a ramshackle assortment of tents, lean-to’s and shanties.  During an Independence Day celebration, the idea was proposed to formalize the settlement.  A group of seven wealthy businessmen, including Alva Jackson, calling themselves the “Eureka Improvement Company” took it upon themselves to see to the development of this “Health Resort”. By the next year, the city charter had been formalized and the population had grown to 15,000.  By the turn of the century, our full time population had grown to more than 20,000 permanent residents.
By 1880 an elegant, 4-story hotel known as the Perry House was built on the site of the healing spring.  Like most other buildings in Eureka at that time, the Perry House was built completely out of wood and by 1890 it had fallen victim to one of the four fires that completely leveled Eureka Springs to the ground.  By 1895, William Duncan organized the capital stock necessary to build the Basin Park Hotel on the site of the former Perry House.  Following the lead of the Crescent Hotel, it was decided to use our local limestone to build the hotel.  In the ten years it took to build the property, Duncan overextended his interest in the project and bankrupt the Citizens Bank and almost every other investor in the Syndicate.  The hotel finally opened in 1905. William Duncan died in 1907 but it is believed that he continues to roam the hotel in his trademark brown suit and derby.........

Crescent Hotel Eureka springs, room 203 on March 10-12, 2006

We recently visited the Crescent hotel in Eureka springs, room 203 on March 10-12, 2006.  We had gone to Little Rock for a Stones concert and as a result of some recent interest in the paranormal.  We decided to seek out a "haunted location" to spend a couple of days at.  The result...The Crescent Hotel.  Said to be one of the most 'haunted' hotels in the world.  After our three days there I would have to agree.   As far as I know we have never had an paranormal experience before.  But that has changed.

We... is me, my wife, my son age 8, and my daughter age 3. We had multiple unexplained experiences.

The first day I was in the bathroom holding my daughter struggling to hold her up and wash her hands at the same time. I was grabbed on the shoulder by what I thought was my wife's hand. I quickly turned spun around to tell her I was kind of busy, and saw she was on the other side of the room sitting down watching me. She said I turned pale and wondered what was wrong.

When we were unpacking and putting our stuff in the dresser I took out the Gideon Bible and placed it on the bedside table on impulse. We went to dinner and found when we got back it was across the room on the other bedside table. We were all sure it was moved after we left and no housekeeping was in our room.

Throughout our stay we constantly had trouble with the bathroom door. On a few occasions we both were sure we locked the door (it had a bar type lock that takes a deliberate action to lock), and when we finished using the bathroom and turned to come out we found it unlocked and open about 6 inches. Also on the first day my wife went in the bathroom and shut the door and locked it. When she finished she couldn't open the door, it was unlocked and we could see the handle turn as she manipulated trying to open it. After about 10 seconds of trying she was able to open it easily. On the last day my wife got up early to take a bath while the rest of us were still asleep. While she was in the tub she heard a murmur outside the door and the doorknob was jiggled for a few seconds. She assumed it was our daughter, which is normal occurrence at home. She stood up put on a towel and opened the door to find us all still fast asleep. A little while later she woke my daughter and put her in the tub for a bath while she dried her hair and put on her makeup. My daughter started giggling and talking to someone unseen, saying things like " you look like a princess", and "don't that tickles". She later said a princess there in the bathroom told her she looked like a ballerina. I don't think we have ever even used the word ballerina around her before.

It was creepy in the middle of the night for sure.   With everyone asleep, Kim awoke in the middle of night when someone unseen sat on edge of bed. She could see bed covers smash down. Room temperature also dropped at same time. She covered her head and eventually fell back asleep.