The US has plenty of haunted places and here’s a few…famous hotels have, over time, inspired not only ghosts but also movie directors, and were featured in movies and books.

Here is a list of the most haunted hotels in the US followed by some spooky ghost encounters from the readers of the USA Today.

1. The Provincial Hotel, New Orleans

Any time a hospital is converted into a hotel, there may be problems. That is exactly the case with this hotel. It used to be a Confederate hospital during the Civil War, and many of the soldiers that died inside its walls have never left.

One particular solider has a thing for country music! Whenever the radio is turned to classical, the ghost quickly changes it to a country station. And if the guest insists on changing the station back, he’s been known to materialize and frighten them away from the radio.

A woman who was staying at the hotel to watch the St. Charles Avenue Mardi Gras Parades returned to her room from the late night festivities. She told a staff member that something unseen grabbed her hand, pulled her from the bed and quickly dragged her across the room. She felt like it was trying to pull her inside the wall. People say they have walked into its rooms and saw wounded soldiers writhing in pain and moaning, then disappearing when the lights are turned on. It is said that blood stains appear and disappear on bedding and floors. Soft moans are heard throughout the building. A security guard entered an elevator and, when its doors opened, saw a hospital room filled with wounded soldiers and nurses tending them…

2. Myrtles Plantation, St Francisville, Louisiana

This is known as “One of America’s most haunted.” The plantation is supposedly home to at least 12 ghosts. Rumors say it was built atop an ancient Indian burial ground. Possibly the most well known of the Myrtles supposed ghosts, Chloe, was reportedly a slave owned by Clark and Sara Woodruff.

According to one story, Clark Woodruff had pressured or forced Chloe into being his mistress. Other versions of the legend have Chloe listening in at keyholes to learn more of Clark Woodruff’s business dealings or for other purposes. After being caught, one of her ears was cut off, and she wore a green turban to hide it. Chloe supposedly baked a birthday cake containing extract of boiled oleander leaves, which are extremely poisonous.

The various legends diverge as to why she did this. A house maid who was getting the favor of the mistress was a suspect with some saying she was getting revenge on the Woodruffsand some saying she was attempting to redeem her position by curing the family of the poisoning. According to the legends, her plan backfired. Only Sara and her two daughters ate cake, and all died from the poison. Chloe was then supposedly hanged by the other slaves, and thrown into the Mississippi River, either as punishment or to escape punishment by Clark Woodruff for harboring her.

A mirror located in the house supposedly holds the spirits of Sara Woodruff and her two children. According to custom, mirrors are covered after a death, but legend says that after the poisoning of the Woodruffs, this particular mirror was overlooked. The uncovered mirror reportedly trapped the spirits of Sara and her children, who are occasionally seen or leave handprints in the mirror. Regardless of the factual accuracy of the Chloe story, some believe a woman wearing a green turban haunts the plantation.

3. Hotel del Coronado, San Diego

Ghostly tales abound about this hotel. The most well-known legend is that of Kate Morgan, who checked into the hotel in 1892 to meet her estranged husband. He never showed up, and days later she was found dead on the beach from a gunshot wound. Some believe her spirit still haunts the hotel, and there have been numerous reports of noises, odd breezes and sightings of ghosts.

When it opened in 1888, it was the largest resort hotel in the world and the first to use electrical lighting. It has hosted presidents, royalty, and celebrities throughout the years. When President Ford visited, one of his Secret Service agents complained of odd noises. The hotel has been featured in numerous movies and books.

Or view the video on the server at: http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/Hotel_Coronado_Haunted_Hotels.flv

4. Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado

If you are a Stephen King fan, request room 217. That’s where he got the inspiration and wrote half of “The Shining.” Room 418 gets the most reports of haunting activity, apparently from children’s spirits.

In fact, the entire fourth floor (formerly the servants quarters) is quite active. Often, the sound of children playing can be heard, even when no children are present. Cleaning crews report having heard many strange noises from the room, as well as seeing impressions on the bed when the room was empty. When guests stay in the room, they often report that they hear children playing in the hallway at night. One couple reportedly checked out of the hotel very early in the morning, complaining that the children in the hallway kept them up all night. However, there were no children booked in the hotel at the time.

Another ghost is in room 407, which is said to sometimes be occupied by Lord Dunraven, who owned the land prior to F.O. Stanley. Reportedly, he likes to stand in the corner of the room near the bathroom door. The Stanley Hotel’s original owners, F.O. and Flora Stanley, are said to haunt the hotel as well. Mr Stanley plays the piano in the music room, and frequents the billiards room and the lobby.

Or view the video on the server at: http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/Ghost_Hunters_The_Stanley_Hotel_Tunnel_Hello_voice.flv

5. Le Pavilion, New Orleans

This haunted hotel in downtown New Orleans hired paranormal investigators, who identified four separate ghosts in the hotel. A teenage girl named Ada (or Ava) is said to have been spotted, looking lost and confused. The girl was reportedly set to board a ship when she was struck by a carriage and killed. She is believed to have lived during the 1840s. Sometimes guests see her ghostly spirit manifest in her old room on the third floor, asking for a ride to the docks.

An aristocratic couple has also been seen strolling the grounds. They appear to be from the 1920s. His former room on the fourth floor often smells like the cigars he smoked, even when nobody has been inside, and the girl’s former room on the third floor often smells like her rose perfume. A young man, also appearing to be from the 1920s, has been reported playing pranks on the hotel cleaning staff. He wears bell bottoms and walks shoeless through the halls; he likes to rip the sheets off the bed and move things around people’s rooms. The four haunting ghosts have been the subject of over 100 catalogued sightings and incidents.

6. Heathman Hotel, Portland, Oregon

Legend has it that not long after the hotel opened in 1927, a woman jumped out of the window of her 703 room. Now, that woman is haunting all of the rooms that she passed on her way down to the pavement.

Guests staying in any room that ends in an “03″ report hearing noises, objects moving on their own, cold spots, and in the case of room 703, a ghostly face peering out of the corner of the room. A guest in room 703 said he could hear heavy breathing while he was in bed and felt the sheets wrap around him so tightly that he couldn’t move. He panicked and tried to get out of bed, but was trapped by the bedclothes. The breathing grew louder and came nearer.

Finally, the guest managed to escape from the sheets. He turned on the light and saw both of his heavy suitcases fly across the room toward him. A dark shadow of a man fled into the closet. The guest thought someone broke into his room. Security arrived and investigated the closet. No one was there.

7. The Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

The resident ghost is focused on one particular guest room. Dr. William P. Jacocks was a physician for the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation. The doctor retired and lived at the Inn from 1948 until 1965, which was the year he died.

The doctor was a kind, gentle man with a fun loving sense of humor. That is why his ghost seems to enjoy teasing guests who occupy his third floor room. Guests who stay in the doctor’s room sometimes find themselves locked out of their accommodations. A couple returned to the room and found that their electronic keys wouldn’t work. The hotel maintenance workers were unable to unlock the door. The workers had to climb a ladder and crawl through the window. There was one instance when the door to the room had to be taken off its hinges because it could not be unlocked.

In 2002, a team of professional ghost hunters was brought in to investigate these events. The ghost hunters set up supersensitive equipment and monitored three guest rooms for four hours. The paranormal phenomena researchers set up ultra sensitive microphones, digital cameras, infrared video cameras and electromagnetic sensors. Over the four hour investigation, the sounds of footsteps were captured in an empty room. An orb-like object was captured moving through the air. Sounds of a piano playing were heard when there were no pianos nearby. Some softly spoken words were also heard.

Many people believe there are at least twenty ghosts residing in the haunted hotel.

Or view the video on the server at: http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/North_Carolina_inn_photo_sparks_ghost_questions.flv

8. Sagamore Hotel, Bolton Landing, New York

This hotel is home to several spirits, including a little boy on the golf course, a couple in the dining room and a mysterious lady in white. Back in the 1950s there was a little boy who worked on the golf course collecting golf balls. The nearby golf shop gave him money for every ball he collected. One day the boy was running after a ball that landed on the road, when he got hit by a car and was killed. His ghost now haunts the golf course and plays pranks on golfers. He has even been known to steal guests’ golf balls and can be heard laughing loudly while they search for them. Then, when they finally give up searching, he throws the balls to them from behind a tree.

A ghostly couple haunts the hotel restaurant. They descend from the 2nd floor and take a seat in the restaurant’s reception room before vanishing. The staff says this couple was among the first guests of the hotel in the 1880s. The dining area was visited by an apparition of a tall woman with flowing sandy blond hair wearing white evening attire. The woman mumbled something to the cook and when he turned to look at her, she walked toward him and then passed straight through him and disappeared. The cook quit abruptly and never returned.

One night, a hotel employee stepped into an empty elevator and pressed the elevator button. Her elbow bumped into something invisible. Suddenly a fat man materialized right behind her. He had a mustache and was dressed in a fine 3-piece brown suit. Just then, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. The fat man brushed past the startled employee, took three steps out of the elevator and abruptly vanished.

9. Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Room 218 is the spot where Michael, an Irish stonemason, landed when he fell from the hotel’s roof during construction. His ghost is said to bang on the walls and turn the lights and television on and off. Rooms 202 and 424 are also said to be haunted.

Outside of the Recreation Room, the ghost of Dr. Norman Baker often appears, looking a bit confused. He ran a controversial hospital and health resort in the building during the 1930s.

A nurse, dressed in a white uniform, has been seen on the third floor. A woman in Room 419 introduces herself as a cancer patient to guests and housekeepers then vanishes.

10. Ramada Plaza Hotel, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

This hotel was built in 1923 in an interesting spot: the underground tunnels used by Chicago gangsters to make their escapes ended in the hotel’s basement. The hotel’s numerous unexplained phenomenon have been well-documented by the staff.

In 2001, a guest and several housekeepers heard a man screaming on the seventh floor. A maintenance employee named Bill rushed to Room 717, where he heard, “Help me!” and saw the door moving outward, as if it was being kicked, hard, from the inside. The front desk told Bill no one was supposed to be in the room; the female guest had checked out hours before. Suddenly, all was quiet. Inside, Bill found an empty room. There were no marks on the door, as he expected from the banging.

In the ballroom, the chandelier inexplicably shakes and sways. One employee who heard a noise late one night saw a couple dancing. Glasses in the hotel bar fall and shatter, lights turn on and off, unassisted. Green orbs and vaporous clouds have been known to drift through the ballroom and banquet facilities, and televisions have the irritating habit of turning on by themselves.

The staff’s code name for the ghosts who are responsible for the strange happenings at the hotel is “Walter,” after the original owner of the hotel, businessman and philanthropist Walter Schroeder. Some of the more famous figures of the 20th-century were the guests of this hotel, including John F. Kennedy and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Or view the video on the server at: http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/Ghost_of_the_Ramada_hotel.flv

11. Queen Mary Hotel, Long Beach, California

This former cruise ship turned hotel celebrates its haunted past with special events, tours, and an “experience” that recreates some of the scarier moments in its history. When in service, the ship was involved in one tragedy (when it crashed into another boat and killed people on that boat). Oddly enough, it has experienced more tragedies since being permanently docked in Long Beach.

Most of the hauntings take place at the pool. A young girl who drowned in the second class pool now haunts the first class pool. She’s accompanied by another woman who was murdered in the first class women’s changing room. Together, they walk around the pool, leaving wet footprints on the deck and making splashing noises… even when the pool is empty. Some guests have even seen the ghosts of the women wearing bathing suits according to the fashion of the time in which they died.

Or view the video on the server at: http://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/Ghosts_Legends_of_the_QUEEN_MARY.flv

USA Today readers’ stories

Greg Wroblewski, Consultant, McMinnville:

He was asleep at a hotel in Dayton, Ohio, in 1999 or early 2000 when he “felt someone or something” walk across the end of the bed. “It was so real it brought me to a full sitting position with my heart pounding; no booze, no drugs, not having a dream. When he told the hotel’s meeting coordinator the next morning about his experience, he found out that the hotel was haunted, and among the rooms the spirits frequented was his room.

Sheena Sales, Consultant, Chicago:

Sales was setting up a trade show on the 14th floor of a Dallas hotel in June 2008 when a hotel employee told her the hotel was haunted. A prospective bride killed herself after the groom didn’t show for their wedding at the hotel’s 19th-floor ballroom. The bride’s ghost haunts rooms on that floor. Sales mentioned the story to a friend staying on the 19th floor, and the friend immediately packed her bags and moved into Sales’ eighth-floor room. They shared a king-size bed and were awakened one night when it began shaking. “But it wasn’t the whole bed that was shaking,” she says. “It felt as if someone put one hand between us and the other on the side of me, and was putting pressure on the bed”.

Allen Irons, Senior Vice President of Sales, Coppell, Texas:

Castle Liebenstein next to the Rhine River near Kamp-Bornhofen, Germany, is haunted, Irons says. The hotel’s website says all rooms have a view of the Rhine River and a “castle ghost.” He was told the ghost was known to throw items, so he decided to play a trick on his wife. He pretended to be asleep in bed and flipped a coin across the room. “She jumped and then figured it was me, and we had a good chuckle,” Irons says. “The coin landed on the opposite side of the room and rolled to the far corner of the floor.” The next morning, the coin was between the couple on the middle of the bed’s headboard. “Neither she nor I put it there,” he says.

Gene Jannotti, Consultant, Garwood, N.J.:

At a B&B in Narragansett, R.I., about 10 years ago, he and three others were told by the owners that a photograph on display revealed a ghost. Later, the four had a hard time opening a room door. The next day he noticed a cell phone message. “The message was a recording of the four of us outside the door trying to get in,” he says. “We were completely baffled as how this could happen and blamed it on the ghost”.

Bill Evans, Commercial Program Manager, Fayetteville:

Bill had “a paranormal encounter” in 2005 at a hotel in Brighton, England. Every time he went into the bathroom, a yellow toy duck in the bathtub was in a different position. He says he later heard a crashing noise, and an ironing board fell out of a closet. He awakened in the middle of the night and saw “a black, shadowy figure of a child at the foot of the bed. It did not say anything, and then it was gone after a few seconds. When he was packing before checking out, he put a soap dish in the middle of a king-size bed, and it “went flying across the room”.

Deanne Sullivan, Consultant, Stockton, Calif:

Sullivan says she stayed at a hotel in Santa Barbara for much of 2000. One day that summer, she had her room’s television tuned to NBC’s Today show and went into the bathroom to get ready for work. The TV volume got very loud, and she ran out of the bathroom to turn it down. “As I left the bathroom, the huge ceiling light fixture fell onto the tile floor where I had just been standing and smashed,” she says. She later stopped at the front desk and joked that Today show host Matt Lauer had saved her, because the light fixture would have hit her if she hadn’t left the bathroom. She says the clerk told her a ghost was in the room she was in.

Leona Davis, Accounts Manager, Peachtree City:

Davis says she “was probably as skeptical as anyone could be before her experience in a hotel in Marrakech, Morocco. After waking at 7 a.m., she walked into a hallway toward a bathroom, and “a man in traditional clothing was standing before me motionless.” She couldn’t speak and thought it was a robber. She reached to turn on the light, and the man disappeared.. “He was dressed in a flattened turban and a long white robe with a bright red shirt or scarf beneath it that went up onto his throat”, Davis says.

Tony Kenton, Marketing Director, Graphic Arts Industry, London:

In the late 1980s, he traveled to a trade convention in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. All rooms were booked when he arrived late, so he and his wife were asked to stay at another hotel. Kenton went to sleep but was awakened by “a blood-curdling scream” and his wife grabbing his arm “with all the strength of a 300-pound sumo wrestler.” Kenton says his wife was shaking and pointing, and more scared than he had ever seen. He says he felt “a deep chill” spreading from where his wife was pointing and saw the curtain move. His wife told him that she had seen a man dressed in old-fashioned clothing looking down at them. The couple immediately checked out of the hotel, and the staff asked if anything was wrong. “I said, ‘No, my wife just had a bad dream,’ ” Kenton says. “They looked at each other and said nothing.” He says the bellboy took their bags to their car, then asked, “Did she see him then?” Kenton says he replied, “Who?” The bellboy, Kenton says, “simply turned and walked away.

Frances Kermeen, Author Ghostly Encounters, Oceanside, Calif:

Kermeen bought The Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, La., in 1980 and lived there for 10 years. She has visited many times since, including last year, and says she’s always experienced paranormal activity. “I brought my new husband last year, and he swore he would never return,” she says. “The place is still as active as ever.” When she lived there, “at least three paranormal activities occurred every week, often daily, sometimes several a day. I used to tell guests that if they stayed three days, they were guaranteed to have some sort of experience, and they always did.” She says she witnessed voices, footsteps, apparitions, a baby crying, beds that “float off the ground,” late-night parties that stopped “upon investigation” and “radical changes in room temperature.” Sometimes, she says, “deep guttural growling that is neither human nor animal” was heard. And, she says, “two little girls, poisoned in 1924, play on the grounds and approach people with chatter.” Many guests, especially children, told her that a large, matronly African-American woman appeared next to their bed, tucked in their covers, and, if needed, pulled up a blanket.

Tim Pearson, Partner, Taxi Branding Industry, Minneapolis:

He and his wife were sleeping at a Seattle hotel in August 2007 when someone knocked loudly on the door at 3 a.m. “I go to the peep hole and see a guy in old-fashioned clothing and a hat across the hall, leaning on a door,” Pearson says. He called the front desk, and a hotel employee immediately came to his room. Though the employee had to use the same hallway as anyone outside his room, the employee encountered no one. “The next night, same experience,” Pearson says. When hotel staff arrived, the guy in the old-fashioned clothing had “vanished.” He was told that he wasn’t the first guest to experience sightings and that some staff members had similar experiences.

Marti Mayne, Owner, Marketing Company, Yarmouth, Maine:

Mayne is spokeswoman for BedandBreakfast.com, an on-line directory and reservations site for B&Bs that lists information about haunted B&Bs every fall. It listed about 125 B&Bs in 2009 and the list is growing. She says there have been numerous sightings of a ghost at a hotel in Bretton Woods. “The story is told that the countess who once lived there has simply never left,” she says. Mayne encountered a ghost there in 2004. She walked out the front doors and walked down the driveway toward the parking lot. “I heard an ethereal voice saying, “Marti Mayne, Marti Mayne. The voice was loud and sounded like it was coming from the top of the driveway or from a window in the hotel.” Mayne quickly turned around and didn’t see anyone, yet the voice continued to call her name. “Each time I heard it, I’d wheel around to see if I could see who was calling my name, and still no one was there,” she says. “Finally, after about three or four minutes of this, I yelled back, “What?”. Her response stopped her name from being called. She had another encounter a few years ago at an inn in Jackson, where housekeepers see shadows from a ghost who is believed to be Jason, a 22-year-old former fix-it man. From time to time, guests hear hammering from what is believed to be his spirit still hanging around. Mayne was standing in the bar area talking to the owner and suddenly heard hammering noises coming from inside the wall. The owner ignored the hammering. She looked around and saw nothing. “Eventually the hammering became too loud to ignore, and we both just looked at each other,” Mayne says. She asked the owner, “Jason?” He nodded affirmatively.

Rob St. Helen, Night Auditor, The Heathman Hotel Portland, Ore. :

St. Helen worked at the hotel for two years and has seen an apparition and “shadow people”. He and another employee opened a meeting room door and saw a male apparition from the waist up behind a podium, he says. They walked toward it, and it disappeared. He says he’s also seen shadow people sitting at a lobby table and walking down a second-floor hallway. St. Helen says guests have checked out because there was “something” in their rooms. Last year he talked to a business traveler who had seen a woman crying in a corner chair in his room.

So, every time you are checking at a hotel, wherever that may be, pay attention! You could have an encounter with the unseen world that makes itself visible for you! Try not to get scared too much…in fact some may even enjoy the experience. And most importantly: show compassion for these poor souls.

Tsem Rinpoche

Tags: haunted, holiday, hotel, hotels, paranormal, travel, unknown