HGB Ep. 646 - The Life and Afterlife of John Wayne

Moment in Oddity - Pizza Welfare Check (Suggested by: Chelsea Flowers)

Hurricanes can be devastating storms. In 2016, Hurricane Matthew battered the coast of Florida, leaving large areas without power along the coast. A man named Eric Olsen who lived in Omaha, Nebraska, had been on the phone with his grandmother, Claire Olsen, a Palm Coast, Florida resident, when she lost power. She said, "This is a nightmare". After that contact they did not hear from the grandmother for two days following the storm. Eric tried calling the police department and the sheriff's department but nobody was answering. Emergency services were overwhelmed due to the storm and with communication lines down, the concerned grandson had to get creative. Eric Olsen decided to order his grandmother a Papa John's pizza. The plan he hatched was not just to make sure his loved one had something to eat, however. Eric's pizza order had very specific instructions included. He asked that the delivery person have a cellphone with them and to call Eric's phone if they were able to successfully deliver the pizza. When Papa John's driver Lance Tyler called Eric Olsen, the cellphone was then handed to his grandmother. Eric felt relief hearing his grandmother's voice and the confirmation that she was just fine. Eric Olsen joked, "Police and fire couldn't do it, but Papa John's got there in 30 minutes and put the cellphone to her ear!" Heros can come in all shapes and sizes, but a pizza delivery person performing a welfare check, certainly is odd.

The Life and Afterlife of John Wayne

The actor John Wayne oozed tough. He was a man's man who was not only tough in his movies, but he was rugged in private life. Wayne's acting career began in 1939 and lasted for 40 years with the actor appearing in more than 100 movies. He won an Oscar, fathered seven children, loved multiple women, battled cancer twice and left behind an amazing legacy. The actor may have also left behind his spirit. Join us for the history and hauntings of John Wayne.

There is no doubt that John Wayne had an image that was larger-than-life. His life started rather modestly though, in the state of Iowa. He was born as Marion Robert Morrison on May 26, 1907 in Winterset, which is a small town of rolling farmland, south of Des Moines. There is some confusion as to what his middle name was because he claimed his parents wanted to name their next son Robert, so they changed his middle name to Michael. No legal change was ever made. Obviously, the most interesting thing is that he had what today is used 98% of the time as a female first name. (Johnny Cash's song "A Boy Named Sue" comes to mind.) It was a family name, his grandfather's, who was a Civil War veteran. Marion's ancestry was Scottish and Irish and he would eventually get to visit Ireland in his later years. In 1914, his parents pulled up roots and headed west to California, settling first in Palmdale and then moving to Glendale in 1916. Marion had been a big baby, 13 pounds at birth, so it only seemed natural he would get into sports, especially football. He was well rounded though, not just becoming a sportsman in high school, but he also enjoyed the debate team, writing for the school paper and he was president of the Latin society. 

A constant companion for Marion was his Airedale Terrier that he had named Duke. This pup went everywhere with him, including walking him to school, and a local fireman took to calling Marion "Little Duke" since he always saw him with the dog. The nickname of "Duke" would stick for the rest of his life and that is what we will call him from now on.  

While Duke did well in sports in school, his grades were another matter. When he made the decision to go to the US Naval Academy, he was left disappointed because his grades weren't good enough, claiming later it was one of the “greatest disappointments of his life.” So he opted to attend the University of Southern California (USC) instead. He decided to major in pre-law and the football team snapped him right up with his 6 feet 4+1⁄2 inches tall frame. A future in football looked promising until he broke his collarbone. It wasn't from football, but rather bodysurfing. Not only did this mean he was off the team, but he was paying for school with an athletic scholarship. Without that money, he had to quit the university. Howard Jones was the legendary coach of the USC football team and he really liked Duke. He hated to see him leave the university without any prospects, so he hit up silent Western film star Tom Mix and director John Ford to hire Duke. Ford gave him a job as a prop boy and used him as an extra. Tom Mix had a good friend who would come around on occasion, Wyatt Earp. Earp was a consultant in Hollywood on their Westerns, in his later years. When he died, Mix was one of his pallbearers. 

Duke studied Earp and watched everything he did. He modeled the man's walk and talk and presented that persona later when he started staring in Westerns. Director Ford really liked Duke and started giving him bit parts for which he was credited as "Duke Morrison." 

Duke continued to work as a prop boy as well and one day when he was moving studio furniture, the director of the 1930 movie The Big Trail, Raoul Walsh, hired him as the leading man. We guess he liked the look and size of him. Duke wasn't sure what name to use for his screen name, so Walsh suggested "Anthony Wayne", after Revolutionary War General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. The head of Fox Studios at the time, Winfield Sheehan, didn't like Anthony because he felt that was an Italian name, so he suggested the first name of John. And so, Duke became John Wayne on screen. He was given a pay raise to $105 a week. The Big Trail was a stunning film for the time. It was filmed in widescreen and the opening scenes were said to be the greatest filmed in Hollywood to that point. The 70mm wide screen process was experimental. The story is about a caravan of settlers traveling on the Oregon Trail with some action and romance thrown in for good measure. Filming was done in seven states and took four months. Timing was bad for this film as the Great Depression made it so movie theaters wouldn't invest in the widescreen technology to play the movie and the film was a box office failure. Critics today herald the film and Rotten Tomatoes has it at 100% and it's listed among his top 25 films. Duke was relegated to poverty row, Z-grade westerns. For those who don't know, Z-grade movies are lower than B-grade movies - very campy.

In 1933 when Duke was 25-years-old, he would marry his first wife, Josephine. Josephine was the daughter of the Consul General of Panama in the U.S. and met Wayne in 1929. They were together until 1944, when they separated, divorcing in 1945. The couple had four children: Michael, Mary Antonia, Patrick and Melinda. Josephine had called it quits because of multiple affairs on Duke's part, one of which was with Marlene Dietrich. 

John Ford really liked Duke and he was determined to cast him as Ringo Kid in his upcoming 1939 film Stagecoach. Studio executives weren't interested in having Duke cast, they wanted Gary Cooper. Ford insisted and wouldn't back down and Duke's film career would never be the same. "Stagecoach" launched the Western genre out of B-grade entertainment into one of the greatest American genres. It was a critical and financial success. Ringo Kid in the film is a wanted murderer who joins a motley group of passengers in a horse-drawn coach. Duke would be launched into superstardom. And John Ford would be a life-long mentor and friend to Duke. Duke was also mentored by stuntmen who taught him how to ride a horse properly, how to rope and how to fight. Duke worked with stuntman Yakima Canutt to develop fighting techniques for the screen that are still used today. He said, "Before I came along, it was standard practice that the hero must always fight clean. The heavy was allowed to hit the hero in the head with a chair or throw a kerosene lamp at him or kick him in the stomach, but the hero could only knock the villain down politely and then wait until he rose. I changed all that. I threw chairs and lamps. I fought hard and I fought dirty. I fought to win".

Duke appealed to audiences because he was an everyman. When World War II started, Duke wanted to enlist, but the studio he was signed to at the time, Republic Studios, didn't want to lose him because he was their only A-list actor under contract. He was threatened with a lawsuit if he walked away from his contract. So he set about touring with the USO. Duke would always feel guilty that he didn't fight. 

Duke would finally get into the technicolor business in 1941 with his film "The Shepherd of the Hills." The next year he made a film with the great Cecil B. DeMille, "Reap the Wild Wind." Duke would do some radio work in the early 1940s as well, even starring in his own radio adventure series, "Three Sheets to the Wind." In 1946, Duke married his second wife Mexican actress Esperanza Baur, whom he called "Chata." The couple had no children and it was a rocky and volatile relationship. They divorced in 1954. In 1949, Duke would get his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor for the film "Sands of Iwo Jima." In 1952, Duke started made ads for Camel cigarettes. Can you image our superstars today doing cigarette ads? Duke loved cigarettes. He would smoke from 3 to 5 packs a day and he it would eventually come back to bite him. That same year he started his own production company named Batjac. The name came from a fictional shipping company in his 1948 movie "Wake of the Red Witch." 

Although he was mainly known for his Westerns, Duke made a bunch of military movies including "Flying Tigers," "Flying Leathernecks," "Island in the Sky," "The Wings of Eagles," and the aforementioned "Sands of Iwo Jima" among others. Duke made nearly two dozen films with of John Ford over 20 years, three of which he starred in with Maureen O'Hara. The two became lifelong friends. 

I loved 1952's "The Quiet Man" with them. Duke played the rugged Sean Thornton and he rides up to the village square where Maureen O’Hara, playing the spirited Mary Kate Danaher, is standing with her hands on her hips and fire in her eyes. “You think you can just waltz back into my life after all these years?” Mary Kate challenged, her voice sharp. Sean tipped his hat, a mischievous smile on his face. “I didn’t come all this way to argue, Mary Kate...just to prove I’m here to stay.” They had real chemistry in this and hours of long takes and the unpredictable Irish weather didn't dampen their professionalism or the fun they had. (Share story about when he is dying.)

 Right after Duke's second divorce was official in 1954, he married his third wife Pilar Pallette. The couple married in Kona, Hawaii and they had three children together. They would remain married until Duke passed away, but they separated twice and the second time, in 1973, was long term. 

The best film of his career was also with John Ford and that was 1956's "The Searchers." This film was when he called someone "Pilgrim." He also repeatedly said, "That'll be the day," which inspired the Buddy Holly song of the same name. "The Searchers" is said to be the best Western movie of all time. Duke played Ethan Edwards, an angry Civil War veteran who hated Native Americans. Natalie Wood played his niece who was kidnapped by a band of Comanches and he sets out to find her. He doesn't want to rescue her, but rather to kill her because she has become "contaminated" by the Native Americans. A hero's journey with questionable morals. Martin Scorsese said it inspired his movie "Taxi Driver." In the end, Ethan finds his niece and takes her home where the family reunites, leaving Ethan outside. There is a profound isolation in the final shot and Duke played it perfectly. Duke also made an unscripted tribute in that final shot as he grabbed his right elbow with his left hand. This was for one of his acting idols, Harry Carey. It was a move Carey did often.

And then there was "The Conqueror," also in 1956. Duke wasn't great with money and had to continuously work to pay bills and he started taking roles he never should have. In "The Conqueror," Duke plays Genghis Khan. That was pretty ridiculous and critics panned the portrayal and the movie. Outside of that, the location where it was filmed, Snow Canyon, was downwind of a nuclear weapon testing ground and was radioactive. The crew and actors were exposed to fallout and many ended up with cancer, including Duke, Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorehead. 

Duke made his directorial debut in 1960 with the movie "The Alamo." Duke portrayed Davy Crockett in it. The movie was so expensive to make that even though it did well in theaters, it barely made enough for Duke's production company to make its money back. It did, however, cement his legacy as a producer and director. He was nominated for an Oscar as the producer in the Best Picture category. Another great John Ford movie was 1962's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." Duke co-starred with James Stewart and both men give brilliant performances. All the cigarette smoking would catch up with Duke in 1964 when a hacking cough turned out to be lung cancer. It was decided to perform a massive operation that entailed removing his entire left lung and several ribs. The surgery was successful and he was declared cancer free five years later. He would live another 15 years, pretty amazing considering that lung cancer is usually an automatic death sentence. And he had that radical surgery back in the 1960s! Duke would direct again as a co-director with Ray Kellogg in 1968's "The Green Berets." This film was heavily criticized as it was a film made in support of the Vietnam War. Roger Ebert called it "cruel and dishonest." The depiction of the war was said to be unrealistic. The Degar people of Vietnam's Central Highlands were fierce fighters against communism and they gave Duke a brass bracelet that he wore in the film and pretty much wore the rest of his life. 

The year 1969 would get Duke his Oscar. He starred in the movie "True Grit" playing the character US Marshal Rooster Cogburn. Cogburn is joined by Texas Ranger La Boeuf (lah BUFF), played by Glen Campbell, in an effort to capture the man who killed the father of a young girl who has hired them. 

Cogburn is rough and an alcoholic who wears an eye patch and he and the Ranger get into a gunfight with an outlaw gang and eventually manage to kill the guy they are pursuing. The movie did well in the theaters, making almost $12 million in its first year and has an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film won a variety of awards, including Duke's Best Actor Oscar. He said when accepting the Oscar, ""Wow! If I'd known that, I'd have put that patch on 35 years earlier." This was an award he had wanted for a long time. He was a perfectionist in his acting and expected a lot from his directors and fellow actors. Many directors didn't like working with him because of his demands and critiques. Duke wasn't a fan of Method Acting either. He frequently criticizing its introspective and emotional nature and blamed Marlon Brando for inspiring a wave of inferior imitators he called "T-Shirt Actors." The irony is that some would say that the persona of John Wayne was Duke Method acting his public life. Immersing oneself for so long in a character that fact and fiction get blurred, seems to be the definition of John Wayne. 

And now we come to the place of our 6-degrees-of-separation with Duke. Kelly's dad, Larry, had moved from California to Louisiana to do some micro-processing for a company he worked for in California. When he first got there, one of the manager's at the company asked a woman at the company to give Kelly's dad a tour of the city. This woman was Pat Stacy, the woman who would be by Duke's side as he died. The last woman Duke would love. 

Pat had just gotten divorced and the marriage had been volatile. Larry was a single, good-looking man. The two toured the city and hit it off, so Pat suggested they get some drinks and do some dancing at a local bar. Shortly after they arrived, Pat noticed that her ex-husband was there and he was giving the two of them the evil eye from across the bar. Larry suggested the two do some close dancing and so they did. Pat's ex-husband slammed down on his table hard enough to get the notice of the bar and stormed out. Larry and Pat got a good chuckle. They decided to start dating. Larry eventually came back to California and Pat decided to come with him. They had separate apartments, but still spent a lot of time together until Pat decided she would rather date an upper management guy at their work. She left for a trip to Hawaii with that guy and asked Larry to watch her Mustang car because she didn't trust leaving it on the street. And it was in that car that Larry picked up Kelly's mom for their first date. Her name was also Pat. As they say, the rest is history, but had Larry not brought Pat Stacy to California, Duke would not have had his final love. (Pat's Book)  

In 1973, Duke took on the role of a detective in John Sturges's crime drama McQ. Shortly before this, Pat had been hired by Duke's secretary to take over her position that she had held for over 25 years. In the first few months of working together, Pat fell in love with Duke and started sleeping with him while they were in Seattle for the shooting of McQ. Duke was still living with Pilar at the time, but they would eventually separate for good. 

Pat and Duke had an interesting relationship as they were completely professional in public and even behind the scenes, it took some time before they officially declared their love and became a couple, although Pat would live in a trailer on Duke's property to quiet the wagging tongues. They would eventually go public after it was obvious to everyone around them that they had feelings for each other. There was a 34 year age difference between them. Pat shared many things about Duke that people may not have known. He wore a toupee in public, but generally left it off in private, choosing to wear a cap instead. He was a man who loved the sea and while he had a cattle ranch and horses, he rarely rode the horses. He was more boat captain than cowboy, in other words. Duke had to carry oxygen when they traveled because some climates taxed his one lung too much. He was a classical liberal. Many people think he was conservative because he supported Republicans, but he supported things that would be more liberal too. His second wife, Esperanza, was in a drunken rage one night shortly before their divorce and she attempted to shoot him as he walked through the front door. He and Katharine Hepburn adored each other and she would often say he reminded her of Spencer Tracy. Duke loved to play chess and he loved literature. He had a wicked sense of humor. 

In 1976, Phil Donahue interviewed Duke and we about died when Donahue asked him about posing in male nudie magazines and Duke said it wouldn't be a good idea because of "too many callouses." Duke made an appearance on there to promote his final film, The Shootist. The film also starred Lauren Bacall, Ron Howard, James Stewart and John Carradine. 

The Shootist was one of his best performances. Duke played something pretty close to life as a cancer-ridden gunfighter hoping to die with dignity. The opening montage comprised a bunch of clips from some of his earlier westerns. The film grossed $13,406,138 domestically and it was named one of the Ten Best Films of 1976 by the National Board of Review. The film was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA film award, and a Writers Guild of America award. It was Duke's final film. In late 1978,Duke went to the hospital for gallbladder surgery and his stomach was discovered to be riddled with cancer. While he was on the table, the surgeon went to his family and told them that he needed to remove the entire stomach, which the family agreed to. A later pathology test revealed that the cancer had spread to nearby lymph nodes. Radiation was started, but it was no use. Duke was going to die. Duke made his final public appearance at the 51st Academy Awards on April 9, 1979. He presented the Oscar for Best Picture. It was clear that he was very sick and frail, even though he wore a wet suit under his tuxedo to make him look beefier. He had lost a lot of weight. A standing ovation was given to him as everyone knew that the end was probably close. (Wayne Oscars) He would only live for two more months. Duke was angry and frustrated as his life wound down. The pain was so bad, that several times he asked his son Patrick and Pat Stacy to bring one of his guns to the hospital so he could end it all. Duke died on June 11, 1979 at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications of stomach cancer. He was 72-years-old and was laid to rest at Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona Del Mar, California. 

Such a big personality and legend couldn't possibly go to the grave quietly. It isn't surprising that there are stories of Duke's spirit haunting various locations.  

Back on the Halloween Special in 2014, a friend of mine named Colleen joined me to tell a story about a possible sighting of Duke's spirit at a house she lived at. (Colleen John Wayne) Duke did indeed live in several homes in Glendale as that is where he grew up. The possibility of him visiting a childhood home, in spirit, on the day he died seems real.

One of the main locations that Duke is said to haunt is his beloved yacht, The Wild Goose. The actor purchased The Wild Goose, a 136-foot converted minesweeper in 1962 for $116,000, which is over a million dollars today. 

The ship had served as a Navy mind sweeper during World War II. She was originally put into service in 1943 and served in the Aleutian Islands and then was decommissioned in 1946. Harold Jones bought the ship and named her La Beverie in 1948 and held onto it until his death in 1956. A millionaire named Max Wyman bought it at that time and he renamed it the Wild Goose II. When Duke acquired the yacht, he changed the name to just Wild Goose and did major renovations to it. He loved the military heritage of the ship and kept some original elements like the old-fashioned swivel wall fans, the bell, and the brass wheel in the wheelhouse, which the captain wasn't allowed to touch because it smudged easily. The captain had to use the inner spokes. An article described the changes Duke made as, "A master stateroom, which wrapped around the ship’s funnel, was added just aft of the wheelhouse; interior bulkheads were removed to give the yacht a more spacious feel, and overheads were raised to accommodate Duke’s height. A wood-burning fireplace, poker table, and built-in wet bar were added to the saloon to make the boat a comfortable, family-friendly cruiser." Duke took his yacht to Catalina Island most often, but he also cruised the Mexican Riviera in the winter and Alaska in the summer. He loved to fish from the yacht. He would entertain three presidents on it and numerous movie stars. The yacht itself made an appearance in the 1968 movie Skidoo, starring Groucho Marx. 

Duke had the yacht for 16 years and may still be hanging out on it. The next owner of the yacht was attorney Lynn Hutchin and to claimed to have interactions with Duke's ghost several times. The first time, he was walking from his master bathroom back into the bedroom and when he got tot he bedroom, he saw the shadowy figure of a cowboy perched near the wall with his head hung low. Hutchins approached the figure and it disappeared. 

On another occasion, Lynn was sleeping in his bed when he was awoken by a noise. He blinked his eyes several times and realized he was looking at the shadowy cowboy again. He called out to it and it disappeared again. The next day, Lynn mentioned to the Captain that he thought he had seen the ghost of John Wayne a couple times on board the yacht. The Captain nodded his head and told Lynn that he had seen him too. He said that he was on one side of the boat and saw John Wayne walking on the other side of the boat, clear as day. Some time later, Lynn was sitting at the bar and reading a book when he got the feeling that someone was in the room with him. he turned around and saw that no one was there, but then he suddenly felt a gust of wind so strong that it clanked together Duke's old drinking glasses. At that moment, Lynn glanced into the mirror behind the bar and there he saw John Wayne, no doubt about it. He spun around again and nobody was there. Lynn eventually sold the yacht, which gets chartered for special events. People have been locked into bathrooms - this usually happens to women. A captain of another boat reported a light being on in the itself even though no one was supposed to be on it. He called out the deck crew to make sure there wasn't anybody on board who shouldn't be and they found the ship locked and empty. Another time, several lights in the yacht turned themselves on and off repeatedly and the crew again found the ship was empty. The crew claims to hear the distinctive sound of an old ice machine, even though the ice machine was removed years ago. A man who sometimes captained the ship thought he would go ahead and sleep in Duke's room one night. he was awakened in the middle of the night when he was tossed off the bed by something he couldn't see. But by far, the strangest story is that the yacht sailed itself one night to the dock close to Duke's old home.

And finally, a couple who had rented a home near Duke's final home in Newport Beach were taking a walk and as they walked past the tall iron gates, they swore they saw the faint outline of a man standing in the window who was very tall and had broad shoulders. Then they felt a sudden chill and smelled the scent of cigarette smoke. Duke lived at the Newport Beach house for 16 years. We found an Architectural Digest article about it from 1977 with photos of the interior. Here you can see the 1970s decorating by the Duke himself. There's a picture of his awards and Oscar. He called it the "50 Years of Hard Work Wall." The house sat empty from 1980 to 1988 when new owners moved in and remodeled. Duke's beloved waterfront home was demolished in 2002. 

John Wayne found fame, success and love in California. He lived most of his life there and he died there. It took 20 years before there was a headstone on his grave because of privacy concerns. It's a bronze plaque embossed with Duke on a horse with scenes of Monument Valley and The Alamo in the background. It has his stage name of John Wayne and is inscribed with "Tomorrow is the most Important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." Is the ghost of John Wayne still hanging around? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 645 - Haunted Kingston

This Month in History - Carranza Monument (Suggested by: Dennis Gibbons)

In the month of July, on the 13th, in 1928, Captain Emilio Carranza Rodriguez crashed his plane in the remote New Jersey Pine Barrens in Tabernacle Township. The captain was returning home to Mexico City after a historic goodwill flight to New York. Often celebrated as the "Charles Lindbergh of Mexico", the captain flew to New York as an international gesture of peace and cooperation. The flight was in direct response to American aviator Charles Lindbergh's celebrated 1927 flight from New York to Mexico City in 1927. Carranza had successfully landed his monoplane at Roosevelt Field on Long Island. He was greeted with much celebration and received the key to the city from New York Mayor Jimmy Walker (Dy-no-mite). On Carranza's return flight home he encountered a severe thunderstorm shortly after taking off. There is historical lore that states that Carranza departed New York at 7pm at night, guided only by a handheld flashlight. The reality is that his aircraft, the Mexico-Excelsior, was equipped with standard flight and navigational lights. However, when his body was recovered the next day, Carranza was found with a hand held flashlight jammed through the palm of his hand as a result of the crash impact. Today, a monument site dedicated to Captain Emilio Carranza Rodríguez is located in Wharton State Forest. It is a 12 foot, Aztec inspired stone monument that was erected in 1931 using pennies donated by Mexican schoolchildren. There is an annual memorial service held every July which draws a crowd of approximately 100-150 attendees.

Haunted Kingston 

It's not surprising that Kingston is considered one of Canada's more haunted cities because it is known as the "Limestone City." Limestone has a way of absorbing energy, good and bad. What started as a French trading post has grown into one of the largest cities in Ontario. There are many haunted locations here from asylums for the criminally insane to jails to cemeteries. Join us for the history and hauntings of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. 

First Nations settlements were here starting back in 500 BC and carrying forward until 1673 when Fort Cataraqui (cat-a-ROCK-way) was founded as a French trading post near the mouth of the river from which it takes its name. The fort was later renamed Fort Frontenac for the Governor of New France, Louis de Buade (byoo ad) de Frontenac (Fron tuh nack). It was demolished in 1689 and rebuilt in 1695. The fort was destroyed again by the British who reconstructed it in 1783. The Crawford Purchase in 1783 would begin the effort to lay out a settlement for British colonists fleeing the newly free America. The name Kingston came from an initial name of "the King's Town." Kingston would incorporate as a town in 1838 and two years later a great fire ripped through the downtown destroying most of the buildings. They rebuilt with limestone, thus the nickname. From 1841 to 1844, Kingston was the capital of the united Canadas. Electricity arrived in 1888. The city has flourished through the years establishing Queen's University, opening the International Hockey Hall of Fame and building beautiful cathedrals. Several locations here are rumored to be haunted.

Rockwood Asylum 

The asylum was established in 1859 and was one of the first criminal asylums in Upper Canada. Like everywhere, Ontario was trying to decide what to do with the mentally ill in the 1800s. Many were incarcerated and it was believed they would be better served in an asylum. There would be a chance of recovery. Rockwood Asylum for the Criminally Insane was meant to be hopeful. 

A man named John Cartwright sold his 40-acre property to the Province of Canada and this was where the asylum was built as designed by architect William Coverdale. The most progressive hospital design at the time, the Kirkbride Plan, was chosen and inmates from Kingston Penitentiary were brought over to build it. Construction was completed in 1870. The finished building was four-stories and imposing, so that nearby residents felt safe. It faced Lake Ontario to give patients a calm view. Rooms were individual and measured 10 ft. by 10 ft. and had a bed and a wardrobe. There was a male wing and female wing and the dining room and chapel were in the center of the building. The criminally insane from the nearby Kingston Penitentiary were brought over and mentally ill civilians were also welcomed in. The first group of patients numbered 20. Things didn't start great here. Staff were untrained and regularly used physical restraints on patients who had to eat with their hands because they weren't allowed to have utensils. They had to sleep on straw beds. The place was pretty filthy after awhile as well. Many of these issues had to do with the fact that a con man was brought in as the first superintendent, John Palmer Litchfield. He liked to practice bloodletting to "cure" patients. Not only was this an outdated and bad practice, but Litchfield had lied about his medical credentials. Litchfield regularly welcomed lobotomies too. But he was considered a compassionate man who said that “criminal lunatics were no more dangerous than regular lunatics” and should be treated as such. The community, apparently, loved him because he had great charisma. He was replaced in 1878 by Dr. Wiliam Metcalf who implemented more humane practices. Metcalf abolished restraints and promoted physical activity and the patients were encouraged to put on plays. He died in 1885 after a paranoid schizophrenic patient named Patrick Maloney stabbed in the stomach with a dinner knife from the kitchen. His successor, Dr. C.K Clarke, continued the same humane treatment. 

The building and treatment changed over the years but remained a psychiatric facility until it closed in 2000. The building is vacant to this day and no one is allowed to tour it due to fears of asbestos and deterioration.
    
The stories told about the facility and its hauntings include the Suicide Stairs. Ghost lore claims that several patients threw themselves down these stairs and that there are now black crosses on the windows where each of these patients died. Etched into the glass of the window at the top of these stairs is the word "Help." A water fountain on the property is nicknamed the "Bloody Fountain" because a young child drowned in it and legend claims that blood still mysteriously seeps into the stone. Shadowy figures have been captured in photos and seen in the upper windows of the empty facility. Full bodied apparitions have been seen looking out of the windows of the vacant building as well. 

Skeleton Park

It's only fitting that a cemetery would get the nickname "Skeleton Park." This is located in Kingston's inner harbor neighborhood. Officially, this cemetery is McBurney Park and was officially the Upper Burial Ground from the early 1800s to the 1850s and was used for mass burials during epidemics. There are as many as 10,000 bodies buried here due to typhus and cholera outbreaks. 

There were a few headstones at one time, but in the 1890s, the cemetery fell into disrepair and the city leveled the headstones and created a park, without moving any bodies. Uh oh! Some graves were kinda shallow and when a heavy rain would come along, well, you get Skeleton Park. And then you get ghosts. Because some of the Irish Immigrants weren't given their proper Catholic burial and so they are at unrest. Foggy nights usually stir up the most claims of seeing mysterious figures walking through the park that disappear, so that the witness knows they aren't just seeing other humans in the park. Sometimes these figures appear out of thin air. The park was featured on Creepy Canada.

Rochleau (ROHSH low) Court

Rochleau Court is a public alley that is accessed from King Street to the south, and Brock Street from the west. Tourists refer to this as a hidden gem because the courtyards of several historic buildings connect here and bars and restaurants line it. The alley is a hidden gem for us because it is said to be the most haunted alleyway in Kingston. 

The reason for the haunting? Murder, of course. The story is that a pregnant woman named Theresa Ignace Beam was murdered in this alley in 1868 by her lover, or nephew depending on who is telling the story, John Napier. Legend claims she was buried here somewhere and people claim her ghost walks the alley and occasionally she asks for help locating her bones. A photography business off the alley decided to use a Ouija board to communicate with Theresa. They seemed to connect with her and she told them she hadn’t had a proper Christian burial and that’s why she was still here. She indicated her bones were near the photography studio. They didn't do anything with the info and moved out, but the next tenant dug up the basement to see if they could get to the bottom of the story. They found nothing. Renovations being done years later revealed a sealed doorway, but the other business connected to this has no desire to tear up flooring. So we'll never know if Theresa's bones are actually here.

Frontenac (Fron tuh nack) County Court House

The courthouse was built in 1858 and designed by architect Edward Horsey in the Neoclassical style. Scobell and Tossell were the builders. The distinctive dome tower was added after a fire in 1874. There were several court rooms on the main floor and one on the second. A library and judge's and jury room were on the second floor too. 

There was a jail yard behind the courthouse and a jail next to it. So executions in Kingston were pretty infamous. People would come from all over, even from cities like New York City, to witness the final end to a convicted person. The gallows were in the jail yard. The city took in a lot of revenue as spectators would arrive a day before hangings and swell the hotels. Businesses near the gallows would construct makeshift towers that people could watch the executions from. The jail was demolished and the jail yard became a parking lot. There may be bodies under that parking lot. On the nights with a full moon, the spirit of a man is seen leaning against the courthouse and he apparently has a noose around his neck. He vanishes when approached. Disembodied whispers are heard as well.

Prince George Hotel

The hotel was preceded by a house that was built from 1817 to 1820 by Lawrence Herchmer. He died in 1820 and his wife inherited the property. When she passed in 1840, the couple's son Charles inherited and he leased it to his son-in-law John Macpherson. That would be the end of the house being lived in as a residence. Merchant William Henry Alexander leased the house in 1846 and he converted it into a commercial property that had shops, a warehouse and there were two saloons on the ground floor. The building was partially damaged in a fire in 1848 and while Alexander repaired it, he decided to build another building next to it that was designed by William Coverdale. In 1892, a full width verandah and balcony were built along both buildings to unify them and a Second Empire style mansard roof made of copper was added with a small tower in the middle of the roof at the front, giving the building a Victorian look. In 1918, the unified buildings became the Prince George Hotel. The hotel eventually shut down in 2004 and is today apartments with the Haunted Walks Kingston office on the ground floor. The pubs are still on the ground floor too.

Legend claims that a Lily Herchmer had lived here and that she was in love with a sailor and her parents didn't approve. She would light a candle in the window to signal to him that it was okay to visit and one night she fell asleep and the candle started a fire that killed her. Another version claims she watched her sailor's ship sink from a window and she died of a broken heart. There is no evidence a Lily ever lived here, but staff of the hotel claimed there was a ghost named Lily haunting the place. Passersby sometimes see an orange glow in a window at night as if there is a candle or lantern there. This is supposedly Room 304. 

Brenda Ganske, Field Researcher for Ontario Ghosts and Hauntings Society wrote in 2004, "After dinner during Christmas break, I went with a group of friends for a drink in the Tir na n'Og (tear nah noge) pub located in the historic Prince George Hotel (200 Ontario St) in Kingston. After being there for a few minutes, I excused myself from our table to take a look around. Within the Prince George Hotel first floor, there are three distinct pub/lounges: the Tir na n'Og (tear nah noge) (authentic Irish Pub), The Speckled Hen (English Pub), and Monte's (an upscale Martini Lounge). After viewing the beautiful antique/vintage decorative items, I started speaking to one of the staff members who then introduced me to a long time staff member of the Tir na n'Og (tear nah noge). This delightful lady had many stories to tell about the Prince George, and all of the "entities" within. She told me of the ghost of Lily who haunts not only the third floor, but the entire building. But the biggest entities that affect the Tir na n'Og are apparently two men who are malevolent. Quite a few of the staff has had experiences with the two men spirits... but they seem to favor the door staff. According to the staff that I spoke to, these individuals have experienced the feeling of being watched, and hearing something growling at them. The most interesting story that I was told that night had to do with recent events in the hotel. For about a week before New Years Eve of 2003, candles in the Prince George Hotel started lighting themselves according to staff. The staff members talked to each other about it, saying that Lily must be trying to tell them something. On New Years Eve at 12:04 AM, the Prince George started to burn. The fire started on the third floor, and is still under investigation (therefore the staff can not comment on the cause or where specifically it started). Luckily, there were no serious injuries. The hotel is now closed until approximately April, 2004 for repairs. Was Lily trying to warn the staff, and save her long time home? We will never know for sure... but maybe in 100 years from now - we may get a hint. According to Tir na n'Og (tear nah noge) staff, the hotel has been almost destroyed by fire every 100 years (this fire that almost destroyed the hotel was 40 years early). The future staff of the Prince George will have to keep their eyes and ears open for clues from Lily to prevent future disaster."  

Other activity in the hotel had been lights and radio turning on and off by themselves and doors would slam shut on their own. In Tir na n'Og (tear nah noge) staff and patrons watched furniture move on its own and some were touched by something they couldn't see. Silverware and glasses would fall on the floor on their own as well. A ghost child has been seen playing with toys. 

Fort Henry (Sarah Norton had suggested when we did it in 2017)

Fort Henry was built along a vital trading route near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River and the fort protected communication between Kingston and the eastern settlements of the area. French explorer Jacques Cartier had explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence on three separate voyages in the 1530s and 1540s. He gave the country of Canada her name. It was the Huron Iroquois name for "settlement." 

Cartier blazed a path for colonization by France and began some limited fur trading with the First Nations that lived along the St. Lawrence River. He was not as successful with trading because he focused on furs used as trimming and adornment, rather than the coveted beaver pelt. He was ultimately seeking the northeast route to Asia. He never found the route. He returned to France after the third voyage and lived out his life as a navigational expert, never exploring again. The War of 1812 broke out between Britain and America and Canada became a central battleground. With the importance of the St. Lawrence River, it was decided that forts needed to be built along the route for protection. Point Henry was one of these points. The Fort was constructed high atop Point Henry overlooking Lake Ontario. A dry moat leads down to the waters edge on both sections of the fort, making it impossible for the fort to be completely surrounded. The fort itself is surrounded by a dry moat as well. Discipline was paramount at the fort and punishment harsh. After the war, the Rideau Canal was built. That construction took place from 1826 to 1832 and it became even more important for the area to be protected because three important waterways intersected here: the Rideau Canal, the St. Lawrence River, and Lake Ontario. Fort Henry needed improvements, so it was reconstructed between 1832 and 1837.

The reconstruction was supposed to be more extensive, but the canal went over budget. Only the Fort and four Martello towers, spaced along the Kingston waterfront, were completed. This made Fort Henry the largest fortification west of Quebec city. The Fort cost 70,000 British pounds sterling to construct, which is the equivalent to approximately $35,000,000 in modern Canadian currency. 

Some soldiers were allowed to bring their families with them. There was a schoolroom for the children. Bugles, drums and bagpipes helped to communicate battle instructions and the Royal Welch Fusilires were stationed at the Fort in the 1840s. Today, the mascot of the Fort if a goat named David and he represents the Fusilires. This group was one of the oldest infantry regiments of the British Army, part of the Prince of Wales' Division. *Fun Fact: At the surrender of Yorktown, the Royal Welch Fusiliers was the only British regiment not to surrender its colours after the British loss at Yorktown. They smuggled their flag out tied around an ensign's waist.* By 1870, the British no longer had use for the fort and they abandoned it, so Canadian troops moved in and stationed themselves there until 1891. Neither the original fort or this second one ever came under military attack. There was not much use for the fort after that time and it fell into disrepair until 1936. Ronald L. Way started an effort at that time to turn the fort into a living history museum and in 1936 restoration of the fort was begun as a "make work project" during the Great Depression. It opened on August 1, 1938 and cost over $1,000,000. Prime Minister Mackenzie King officially opened it and it was dedicated to all the British soldiers who had served within its walls. During World War II, it was closed to the public and used as a prisoner of war camp. It was known as Camp 31. It was re-opened to the public in 1948. It has been named as a National Historic Site and today, the former military quarters have been transformed into a restaurant and bar. The Fort is like a little village with displays and there is even a working bakery. They host tours, conduct demonstrations of firing cannons and troop movements and the top of the Fort offers great views of Kingston.

It becomes Fort Fright for the Halloween Season. The Haunted Walk of Kingston offers a ghost tour of Fort Henry, so this location has some spirits wandering around.

One of the ghosts is believed to belong to John "Gunner" Smith. He was a rifleman whose weapon malfunctioned and exploded in his face. This sent him flying backwards off the top of the fort down into the dry moat below where he screamed in agonizing until he died. Many people have reported seeing an injured man lying in the ditch while others have reported hearing the sounds of people scurrying in the area. His wails have been heard as well. Nils Von Schultz was a Finnish born nationalist that became involved in the Upper Canada Rebellion in the early 1800s. He was captured, tried for insurrection and hanged in 1838. There are claims that he haunts the Commanders Room #3. He likes to move objects around the room. And then there is the man in the blue uniform who wanders around several areas of the Fort.

Rob Brown wrote on TripAdvisor: "This place is phenomenal. Its so cool. Kids love it. Heck the Ghost hunters loved it. But they don't know a story I know. According to one of the night guards, all the canteens came off the shelf in one of the rooms and on to the table one night. Come to see the fort and you will know the room. The night guard was sincere. Why do I believe her? Well, a door closed behind me on its own. Go and visit if you are brave enough."

Rusty wrote of an experience he had, "In 2010 I took my family, which consisted of my wife, our 1-year old daughter and myself, on a trip to see Old Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. This fort is known for ghost experiences. I have had many "ghostly experiences" in my life so maybe I'm more sensitive to things than others but that's another story. While taking a group tour we came to a hallway leading to the fort's "Officer's quarters". My daughter started acting up in what could be best described as a refusal to enter the hallway (she was in a stroller at the time). My wife and her stayed back while I went with the group. After seeing the living quarters of the officers (which is secured with a glass front so no one can enter) the group moved onto the kitchen area. A few minutes later I decided to leave the group to go check on the wife and daughter. After checking to make sure things were okay with the family, I followed the hallway back past the Commanding Officer's quarters to catch back up with the group. As I passed this room I glanced back in for an extra look. Standing in front of the writing desk located in the room was a rather tall British-uniformed officer who turned and looked at me and then just faded away! Needless to say, it did not take me long to catch up with the group. At the end of the tour I asked the guide about ghost sightings in the fort and he did mention that there have been reports of an officer's ghost, along with several others, being sighted, sometimes in the hallway through which we walked."

The Tett Center

The Tett Centre had been a brewery built by Thomas Dalton in 1819. He sold it to Thomas Molson in 1831 who sild it in 1844 to James Morton who opened it as "Mr. Morton's Mammoth Brewery." The term "mammoth" was used because it was one of the biggest breweries in the city. Eventually, the brewery shut down and the military acquired the building in 1919 and they used it as a military hospital. The military would own the building until 1977 and they sold it to the city of Kingston at that time. The city opened it as a historic heritage site in 2015 called the Tett Center for Creativity & Learning. This is a community run arts hub. There are eight artist studios and a variety of spaces available for rent. The Juniper Cafe is on the ground floor and has a waterfront patio. This is the only restaurant waterfront view of Lake Ontario anywhere in Kingston. 

A watchman named Cornelius Driscoll was murdered on the property in 1867. This was an apparent robbery that went wrong. His murderer, Ethan Allen, was captured, convicted and hanged at the Frontenac County Gaol. Driscoll continues to do his duty in the afterlife. He is blamed for the locks rattling on doors. A tour guide claims to have felt a presence that made her uncomfortable in the primary power room.

Murney Tower

The Murney Tower was part of a four-tower system when it was built in 1846 on Kingston's shoreline. The other towers were Shoal Tower, Fort Frederick and Cathcart Tower. These were meant to protect the harbor and were named for the family that had owned the land, the Murneys. Although the stone over the entrance reads "MURNAY." The story here is that it was originally named for Sir George Murray, a British military man, but somebody re-etched the R into an N for some reason. The British built many forts around this area as they worried about America trying to take more land with the Oregon Territory. The spot was pretty strategic since Kingston sat on the junction of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario. The Murney Tower had 15 foot thick limestone walls, so it could deflect cannon balls. A dry ditch circles the base and little mini bunkers jut out with rifle slits. A 32-pounder Bloomfield cannon capable of a full 360-degree swivel sat on a gun platform. The tower never saw any combat. It served more as a military barracks for long-service men and their families. There were usually six families here that lived like a commune. The military abandoned the tower in 1885 and it fell into disrepair. When the roof blew off a killed a young boy playing nearby, Kingston decided that they needed to do something with the tower. It was restored and opened as a museum in 1925 and continues to run as that today, making this museum over 100 years old. The original cannon is still here!

The main haunting here that has been experienced by several groups is a white mist that is seen by the naked eye. No one has ever been able to record it on video. Many EVPs have been captured here and ghostly soldiers are seen. The Canadian Haunting and Paranormal Society (CHAPS) investigated in 2015 and they told the Kingston Whig Standard that they "heard feet shuffling in the basement, then [lead investigator David] Gibb said a team member felt a hand touch his arm when no one was there. Gibb's electromagnetic field detector was also active flashing from green, for all clear, to red, indicating there could be a presence nearby." The Haunted Walks hosts investigations here if you want to check it out.. 

Kingston Penitentiary

This location is our inspiration for this episode. We were watching Harlan Coben's series "I Will Find You" on Netflix and one of the filming locations was a prison. We had to know more, so we looked it up and found out that it was Kingston Penitentiary and then we inquired as to whether it was haunted. And, of course, it is because what jail isn't haunted? This jail had been one of Canada's most notorious maximum-security prisons when it was open.

Construction on the jail started in 1833 and it officially opened in 1835 with six inmates. The cells were very small measuring 2.5 feet wide by 8 feet deep and the ceiling was at 6 feet. Inmates were employed as shoemakers, ropemakers, blacksmiths, tailors, carpenters, and stonecutters. Female prisoners did needlework and they would be at the prison for its first 99 years. Children as young as 8 were also here in the early years. Towers, stock walls and the north gate house were added in 1845 and a dome was built to connect four cellblocks in 1861. Riots broke out in 1932, 1954 and 1971. The 1932 riot lasted for 4 days as prisoners protested the conditions they lived under. This lead to prison reform because it was such a shocking event. The 1971 riot was lead by the prison barber and lasted four days as well with two prisoners being killed and the prison heavily damaged. Apparently, the two convicts killed were a bit of prison justice as one was a child killer and the other was a pedophile. Eventually, the jail became known as a place where bad guards were sent. The Penitentiary was officially closed in 2013. Through the years, there were 26 escape attempts with several inmates managing to get away. We did a Phantasmal Crime on the Black Donnellys and the patriarch, James Donnelly, was sent here to be hanged, but his wife managed to get his sentenced reduced to 7 years that he served at the Kingston Pen. Another infamous prisoner was Wayne Boden who was a Canadian serial killer nicknamed the Canadian Vampire Rapist. He died in the prison in 2006. The prison has become a museum and obviously, a filming location. Tours are offered daily. There are several spirits here. There is a little female ghost that wears a red dress. People believe she was the daughter of a former guard captain. An inmate who died at the jail in 1897 promised to get revenge on the guards before he died. His name was George Hewell and visitors and staff claim to see his full-bodied apparition. The last member of the staff to die at the prison was William Wentworth. He is seen most often still making his rounds on the third floor of the Regional Treatment Centre. Spirits show up in the Solitary Confinement Units, the Chapel and all along E Block.

Kingston has a little bit of everything, particularly when it comes to spooky activity. prison, hidden burial grounds, forts and so much more. Sounds like a great city to hang out in! Are these locations in Kingston haunted? That is for you to decide!

HGB Ep. 644 - Amargosa Hotel and Opera House

Moment in Oddity - 40 Acre Bog Island

In the state of Wisconsin, there is a beautiful lake called Lake Chippewa. This is an artificial lake created by the hydroelectric Winter Dam in northwest Wisconsin. The dam was completed in 1923, and over time, unusual islands were created due to the damming. The largest of these islands is called the Forty Acre Bog. When Winter Dam became part of the landscape of the Chippewa River and the Chippewa Lake was created, a large area of submerged peat beds and decaying plant matter detached from the lake bed floor and floated to the water's surface. Over decades, seeds deposited by the wind and birds germinated on the floating blankets of peat. Gradually, grasses, shrubs and even trees took root, interlocking together, bit by bit, growing larger and larger and stronger and stronger. Some bog islands are home to 40 foot Tamarack trees. The creation of these islands is strange enough but these floating masses have another unique feature. Because the Bog Islands are not attached to the bottom of the lake, they drift around Lake Chippewa. The large mature trees act as sails catching the wind. Due to the mobility of the islands, there are times when they block boating navigational routes, especially near a bridge that connects the lake's east and west sides. The community needed a solution and they came up with 'bog pushers'. The islands are protected ecological habitats, so when an island impedes waterways, multiple boaters known as 'bog pushers' gather to join forces and relocate the islands to less interruptive positions. The 40 Acre Bog is the most commonly moved, due to its size. The task requires coordinated efforts by multiple boaters using their engines and favorable wind currents to push the bog islands to their preferred locations. The job can take anywhere from 25 to 50 boats, working in unison. Islands that float around a lake like bumper cars and that can be moved by boats, certainly is odd.  

Amargosa Hotel and Opera House (Suggested by: Anna Frias)

Out among the bleached bones of Death Valley National Park sits a quirky little building known as the Amargosa Hotel and Opera House. Death Valley features salt flats and ancient lakes with jagged rock formations and several ghost towns. It really resembles a place where things go to die. And thus, it is a haunted landscape. Join us as we explore the haunted Amargosa Hotel and landscape of Death Valley.

Death Valley National Park fosters intense feelings of isolation. The landscape is very silent and unforgiving. Hundreds of people flocked to the region with dreams of fortunes found in mines. Death Valley Junction is a tiny unincorporated town and as Editor-at-Large of the SFGate, Andrew Chamings, put it in 2022, "is both the lowest land in America and the hottest place on Earth." Long before the town was founded, the Timbisha Shoshone were here and they called it Tumpisa, meaning rock paint. A 19th century gold rush brought prospectors and by 1849, people were calling the foreboding landscape Death Valley. Some gold and silver was found, but the most long-term thing of value would be borax. Borax was mostly harvested as a surface crust in Death Valley and is technically known as sodium borate. Surely the listeners have heard of Borax, which is a commercial cleaning agent. Borax is also used in the manufacture of glass fibers and as an antiseptic. Throughout the 1880s, 20-Mule Teams would transport the borax to Mojave, California. The borax was originally found by prospectors Aaron and Rosie Winters in 1881 and William Tell Coleman founded the Harmony Borax Works. He is the one who devised the mule team transports, which consisted of two box wagons and a water wagon that were pulled by 18 mules and 2 horses. Coleman's business collapsed in 1888, but Frank M. "Borax" Smith acquired Coleman's holdings in 1890 and he formed a new company named Pacific Coast Borax Company. Frank became the Borax King and he had major holdings in California where he would move most of his efforts after the Death Valley borax was gone. One of the mines in Death Valley was the Lila C. and when the railroad came to the area it built a spur to the mine. 

This inspired the founding of a town, which Robert Tubb and his wife Shotgun Kitty did in 1907. The Tubbs opened a saloon, store and brothel in the town they called Death Valley Junction. Kitty's real name was Kathryn and she found herself married to Robert after placing an ad for herself about being a mail order bride. Robert saw the ad and took her up on it. She was 16 and he was 34. Kitty helped Robert run everything about their little business. She served food in the saloon, ran the grocery store and was the madame for the brothel. Kitty's nickname came from the fact that she never went anywhere without her shotgun. It is said that she was a crack shot. 

Hattie Cook and Nel Hoff opened another saloon in town in 1909 and this one was scandalous because women were allowed - obviously, since it was run by women. Hattie tended the bar. Their liquor license was eventually revoked later that year. Women continued to contribute to Death Valley Junction through the years with a widowed Abbie Pierce opening a store, hotel and restaurant in 1916 and Winnie Corkill - for whom the Corkill Hall was named - came to town with her Borax Company executive husband in 1915 and she brought her piano, which she happily played at all social events. The Death Valley Railroad started operating between Daeth Valley Junction and Ryan, California, which helped it to grow. The Pacific Coast Borax Company decided to start building in the town and architect Alexander Hamilton McCulloch was tasked with designing a civic center. McCulloch came up with a U-shaped design that would put the three sides of the building around the town square. This was done in the Spanish Colonial style and the building was made from adobe. Inside the civic center there was a store, an employee dorm, offices, a hotel with 23 rooms, a dining room, a gymnasium, ice cream parlor and billiard room. There also was an opera house added at the northeast corner that was called Corkill Hall. This became a town center for meetings, church services, dances and movies. 

Pacific Coast would eventually merge with another company to become US Borax and today, it is known as Rio Tinto Borax. In 1927, borax mining moved from Death Valley to Boron, California and the miner's living quarters were converted into a hotel. Railroad operations ceased in 1928 and the town went into decline. 

The former civic center now sat mostly empty and a woman named Ettie Lee purchased Death Valley Junction with the hope of opening the hotel as a retirement home. The property was in a terrible condition. She had owed $170,000 on the property, so she went to court to fight to bring that amount down because the property wasn't worth that and she won, having to just fork over $7,000 to pay off the debt on the town. And then came the final woman who would leave an indelible mark on this place, Marta Becket. Marta was born in 1924 in New York City where she took ballet lessons as a teenager. She loved it and decided to make dance her life and she was accepted on the corps de ballet at Radio City Music Hall. Becket also performed several times on Broadway and she started a one-woman show that she took on a nationwide tour. This wasn't a grand tour, she performed at school auditoriums and at small theaters. In 1967, she and her husband were traveling for one of these tours when one of the worst things that could happen while driving through Death Valley happened. They got a flat tire. They were fortunate that they were just outside Death Valley Junction and that it had a gas station. They limped the car into town and Becket's husband started repairing the tire. Marta wasn't much for working on cars, so she decided to explore this little rundown town. She spied Corkill Hall and took a peek inside. The building was abandoned and pretty decrepit, but Marta's little heart went pitter pat. In her mind's eye she saw her own private theater. She immediately fell in love with the place and told her husband that she wanted to make this their home. He agreed and so she hunted down the owner and asked if she could rent the hall. He agreed and charged her $45 a month and told her she needed to take care of any repairs. 

Now, the reason Marta's heart went pitter pat wasn't just because she wanted her own theater and private stage, but she had visited a fortune teller in Manhattan and she told Becket, "You will be leaving New York and move to a very rural place. And you're going to do the best work of your life." 

Becket and her husband moved and soon got ownership of the hall. They renamed it the Amargosa Opera House in honor of the nearby Amargosa Valley. They set to making repairs and renovating and prepared for Marta's first performance. And then a terrible flood came through and the newly painted white walls were ruined. So Marta decided to paint an audience on the walls. She knew this might be the only audience she would ever have. It would take her 6 years to complete painting the walls from floor to ceiling with a variety of people seated as if in box seats. She started with a queen and king in the top center and added nuns, monks, ladies of the evening and a variety of other people, as well as two of her cats. Sixteen ladies on the ceiling play antique instruments. Even with the walls unfinished, Becket decided to schedule her first performance there in 1968 and twelve people showed up. There must have been some intrigue about this woman and her opera house because in 1970 two of the attendees to a play were from the National Geographic. So Marta got some free coverage and she was off and running. 

The opera house was a popular stop in the desert and even famous people like Ray Brabury and Red Skelton popped in to watch a performance. And even if there was no audience, Marta still went on - she always had her wall audience. Marta would say, "While you have time left, find a place where you can live out your dreams. Even if it is on top of a mountain or in the middle of a desert." She performed at her theater for 40 years. 

A Las Vegas Sun article from 2005 reads, "The first glimpse audiences have of Marta Becket is that of the 81-year-old entertainer walking onstage wearing a black dress with a red feather boa. With her face painted, her eyes intense and her dark hair pulled back, her mere presence is theatrical. Immediately, she breaks into song. She moves in a circle, then grabs a tambourine and introduces 'Masquerade,' a show she wrote, produced and choreographed. 'I've always felt that I should be someone other than me,' she sings. 'I need to escape for a day.' The lyrics are a perfect reflection of the tireless artist, who has lived for nearly 40 years in Death Valley Junction." Becket gave her final show on February 12, 2012 at the age of 87. The theater still had performances and Marta would watch from the same seat every night. She passed away at her home in Death Valley Junction in 2017 at the age of 92. She had formed Amargosa Opera House, Inc. in 1974 as a non-profit and it continues to run the opera house today. Her dress and flowers now permanently sit on that chair that she sat in to watch performances. The hotel also rented out rooms during Marta's tenure and still does today, featuring 16 rooms with no phones or TVs. Marta painted murals throughout the hotel too that remain. The guest dining room is painted in trompe l'oeil (tromp ah loy) style depicting a Spanish courtyard. Room 22 was Red Skelton's room when he would come and there is a mural of a ballerina dancing on a ball while acrobats perform. They use BORAX in their laundry, of course. There is a campground across from the hotel for RVs and tents, but there are no hook-ups and the toilets are port-a-potties. 

There are many hauntings connected to the hotel and opera house. Marta had two husbands, both named Tom. The first Tom eventually left her after they moved to Death Valley Junction. Her second husband was Tom Willet, a comedian who joined her on stage until his death from a stroke. His spirit has been seen in the theater, usually sitting in a seat watching performances. A cat spirit also haunts the theater and it used to interrupt Marta's performances. People have seen this ghost cat wandering around. Shadow figures are seen dancing across the stage. 

There is one area of the hotel that has been left unrenovated and everyone calls it Spooky Hollow. Many strange things happen in this area and that is probably because it was once used as a hospital and morgue. The dining room harbors audible voices of a group of people. There is also the high pitched voice of a woman. A story claims that a young girl drowned in a bathtub in Room 24 in 1967. People staying in this room claim to hear a child crying, even when no child is staying at the hotel. These cries are usually heard at night. A malevolent spirit hangs out in Room 32. This had been the mine bosses room and he wasn't a nice guy apparently. The most haunted room is said to be Room 9. The doorknob will often turn on its own and people claim to wake up in the middle of the night and feel something holding down their legs and feet. The sounds of a child giggling and running down the hall are heard outside this room too and when guests look out, they see nothing. Several guests have been so spooked by activity that they have packed their bags in the middle of the night and left. The scent of lilacs is smelled in the hallways on occasion. Ghost Adventures investigated here in 2010. Aaron claimed in the middle of the day that while in spooky hollow, he saw a full bodied apparition of a painter. The crew heard strange noises like screaming, banging, doors Creaking, moaning and doors slamming. They caught the following EVPs: "Do We Have To?", "All The Lights Are Off", "Behind You", "It Was Fun", "I Seek Help", "Dammit", "Need Some Help", "No One Cares!" The thermal camera captured a red figure in the doorframe leaving a room. There was a distinct nose, chin and lips. Room 9 mysteriously became locked and they checked both doors, and both were locked, when they came out, the main room 9 door was unlocked. Zak also claimed to get possessed here. *eye roll*

AliceInBondageLand wrote on reddit last year, " I was having trouble sleeping, while being the only guest at the hotel (the staff goes home at night). It was feeling spooky but relatively safe, because I have a huge dog. At midnight, I had the strange feeling that I should go "wish Marta goodnight" in the main lobby (where her portrait hangs). I was hoping that would help me finally be able to go to sleep. When I got there, I heard a very strange series of noises coming from somewhere inside the building. I followed the noises into the the public women's bathroom of the lobby. All of the lights were off but the HOT WATER tap in the left sink was on FULL BLAST. The plumbing in the building is very very very old and you can literally hear it when someone turns on the water anywhere, if you are paying attention. There is no way there could have been that much water flowing without being noticed. I was the only living person in the building since 8pm. I was the only guest and I didn't use the public bathroom at any time during my stay. I fully believe that the tap was turned off until I reached the lobby and said goodnight to the "artist in residence". Should I have left the hot water on to steam up the windows and wait for a message, like in the movie Ghost? I also had several dreams that night, which turned out to be true. For example, I had a nightmare that a stray cat came into my house and beat up my cats... when I returned home from vacation, there was an extra cat that had snuck into my house! The catsitter didn't know it wasn't my cat, so she just kept feeding him."

Nevada Jack made a great video about the place last year and he said, "After packing the car using the exterior door and filming the outro, I returned to the room to double check that I had everything before dropping the key off at the front desk. As I stepped inside, I heard faint voice mumbling sounds on the other side of the door in the hallway. Assuming it was other guests, I thought nothing of it. But just in case, I turned on the camera." He stuck the camera out in the hall and there was no one. Then he walked down the hall, both ways. He's the only person in the hotel. There was nobody outside either. 

Death Valley National Park was established as a National Monument in 1933 and became a National Park in 1994. It measures 1.3 million acres. Parts of the Harmony Borax Works are here today. Death Valley is said to harbor "interdimensional beings" and Native Americans say there are skinwalkers here.  There are many ghost towns that dot the land. One is Skidoo Ghost Town. The site was active from 1906 to 1917 and produced 75,000 ounces of gold. The name was inspired by the slang phrase "23 skidoo" which meant that a gold rush was fast. Today, it is just crumbling ruins and mine shafts. The town was famous for being the site of the only hanging in Death Valley and this man was hanged twice for the benefit of photographers. His name was Hooch Simpson and he killed a banker during a robbery. After the town hanged him and buried him, the photographers came along and were bummed they didn't get pictures. The town folk dug him up and hanged him again. Then, the town doctor cut Hooch’s head off because he wanted to see if he had syphilis because the man had once been a respectable member of society who seemed to lose his mind. Now the headless ghost of Hooch Simpson supposedly still wanders the area, probably looking for his head.

Death Valley has a creepy name. Is it a creepy place? The Amargosa Hotel and Opera House has such an interesting look and history. Is it haunted? That is for you to decide!