The Haunting History of the Mizpah Hotel

People far and wide come to the Mizpah Hotel, once named the #1 most haunted hotel in America by USA Today. With its long history and thrilling haunts, the Mizpah Hotel is still a strong point of tourism for the small town of Tonopah, Nevada.

The Mizpah Hotel: A Brief History

Opened in 1907 during the boom that grew the town of Tonopah, the Mizpah Hotel was one of the first luxury hotels in all of Nevada, serving as a social hub for the booming mining town.

Built for $200,000 with solid granite walls, lead glass windows, and Victoria-era luxury apartments, and furnished with solid oak furniture and brass chandeliers, the Mizpah Hotel stood five stories tall, it was also the tallest building in Nevada at the time! The grand opening of the Mizpah Hotel was in November of 1908, offering amenities such as hot and cold running water, steam heat, and the first electric elevator in Nevada. Each room even had its own bathroom which was a crazy luxury for the early 1900s.

Gaming came to the Mizpah in the 1940s. The first chips were issued in 1945, and the casino included a roulette wheel, craps table, blackjack, and 80 slot machines. However, with the fluctuating population and the mining production slowing down, The Mizpah Hotel closed in 1999. Thankfully, in 2011, Fred and Nancy Cline from California purchased the historic hotel and returned it to its former glory!

The Hotel Haunts

The Lady in Red

One popular spirit in the Mizpah Hotel is that of a murdered prostitute with the “call name” of Rose. However, many sources and stories point to a woman named Evelyn Mae Johnson, born in Baltimore in 1879 and may have arrived at the Mizpah Hotel in the 1920s.

Rose was a high-class lady of the night who lived on the top floor of the Mizpah Hotel. She had one large suite just for her that is now split into rooms 502, 503, and 504 with 504 officially being the Lady in Red-themed room with lavish period furniture, a flowing scarlet canopy, and luscious curtains. However, room 502 has more haunting reports from guests. The story goes that a jealous client of Rose’s strangled and stabbed her to death in the hallway right outside where the door to room 502 now stands.

Rose has been seen and heard throughout the hotel from those 5th-floor rooms all the way down to the basement where there’s a room staged with rose petals, furniture, and a mannequin dressed as the Lady in Red. She seems to enjoy roaming the hotel and occasionally following men around with reports of sudden scents of perfume and “sweet nothings” whispered into their ears to announce herself to the living. Some guests have even reported pearls appearing in strange locations around guest rooms.

Children Still at Play

As the story goes, a previous maid at the Mizpah Hotel used to take her two children to work with her. They would often play in the basement until one day, no one could find them until a while later when they were found in the basement cooler, no longer with us.

These children are often heard and seen playing throughout the hotel, particularly on the third floor. People have reported seeing children running to the stairwells and disappearing, heard giggling and little feet running in the hallways, and some people have left toys for them to play with which will be found in a different spot from where they were left by guests.

Other Spirits

There are stories of other spirits throughout the hotel, including a shadow man in the basement, a not-so-friendly green-eyed being that can be seen in the mirrors in the third-floor conference room, and the ghosts of two bank robbers who were possibly murdered by a co-conspirator that dug into the basement gold storage. Some guests report the rickety hotel elevator opening and closing on their own and small items in their rooms being moved around by unseen spirits.

Whoever they are and wherever they are, they seem to simply want to live side by side with us on a different plane. In the featured image, the arrow points to room I stayed in, only a couple doors down from the Lady in Red's room. I go a bit more in-depth about the hauntings and stories of the Mizpah in my next blog as I share my experience with the Mizpah Hotel's paranormal tour.