In the empty small town of Goldfield, Nevada is the historic and reportedly very haunted Goldfield Hotel. The town was born in the early 1900’s when gold was discovered here in 1902 and a gold rush hit the area. Within a few months, it became the largest town in Nevada. Like other cities, whose only reason for being was its mining industry, when the ore played out, so did the town. In addition to its numerous saloons, the city once boasted three newspapers, five banks, a mining stock exchange, and a population of nearly 35,000. Unfortunately, just a few years after Goldfield was founded, the volume of ore began to decrease and many of its residents began to move on to more prosperous claims. By 1920, the gold was almost gone and the town was reduced to just about 1,500 people. Three years later, a devastating fire wiped out 27 blocks of homes and businesses here in Goldfield. Today, this once thriving city supports a population of less than 500 people, but it still provides a number of views of its prosperous past, with its centerpiece being the Goldfield Hotel.

In 1908 the Goldfield Hotel was opened amidst an array of fanfare. Designed by Architect George E. Holesworth, The hotel was built by millionaire George Wingfield, the primary owner of the Goldfield Consolidated Mines Company. The building was built over a mine shaft that had gone dry. The four story building of stone and brick cost alittle over $300,000 to build and included 154 rooms with telephones, electric lights, and heated steam. The lobby was furnished in black leather upholstery, was paneled with mahogany, and crystal chandeliers hung from the beautiful gold-leaf ceilings. The hotel imported chefs from Europe and boasted one of the first Otis elevators west of the Mississippi River. Considered to be the most luxurious hotel between Chicago and San Francisco during the early 1900’s, it appealed to society’s upper class, making its owner George Wingfield an even richer man.

When Goldfield was in its heyday, the hotel entertained all manner of affluent guests. From politicians, to movie stars, to millionaires, all the rich and famous stayed at the Goldfield hotel. However, as the gold began to play out and Goldfield’s population diminished, the Goldfield Hotel began a gradual decline. By the 1930s, when the town supported fewer than 1,000 people, it had become little more than a flop house for cowboys and undiscriminating travelers. During World War II, it housed Army Air Corp personnel assigned to the Tonopah Air Base 25 miles north of Goldfield. After the soldiers checked out of the hotel in 1945, the hotel closed its doors forever.

Over the years, the hotel has changed hands numerous times, with each new owner promising to restore and reopen the old property. In 1985, the building was bought by a San Francisco investor named Lester O’Shea whose plans looked as if they might really come through. However, after a few years when his restoration project was about 85% complete, his company went bankrupt and the property reverted back to the county. In 2003, the county auctioned off the old hotel, as well as nearly ninety other parcels of historic land. A rancher from Carson City named Edgar “Red” Roberts was the only bidder and bought the hotel for $360,000.

As to the ghosts of the old hotel, reportedly there are several, the most famous of which is a woman named Elizabeth. According to the legend, Elizabeth was a prostitute that George Wingfield visited frequently in the 1930s. When she turned up pregnant, she claimed the child was Wingfield’s, who for a while paid her to stay away, fearful of how the scandal might affect his business affairs. However, when she could no longer hide the pregnancy, Wingfield was said to have lured her into room 109 of the hotel, where he chained her to a radiator. Supplied with food and water, she was left there until her child could be born. Reportedly she cried out over and over for mercy, only to be met with silence. Some say that Elizabeth died in childbirth, but others contend that Wingfield murdered her after the child was born. Her baby was then thrown into the old mine shaft at the northern end of the basement over which the hotel was built.

Afterwards, rumors abounded that Elizabeth continued to visit Wingfield and the sound of a crying child could sometimes be heard coming from the depths of the hotel. When Elizabeth has been sighted, she has been described as having long flowing hair, wearing a white gown, and looking terribly sad as she paces the hallways, calling out to her child. Others have reported her being sighted in Room 109, which is often described as being intensely cold, and on one occasion a ghostly figure appeared in a photograph of the room. However, most people report that while their cameras function normally everywhere else in the hotel, they refuse to work in room 109.

Two more ghosts who reportedly committed suicide in third floor rooms of the hotel have been sighted by more than a dozen people. While their identities are unknown, one is said to be a woman who hanged herself, while the other is said to be a man who jumped to his death from the hotel. In what was once the main dining room, called the Gold Room, a malevolent spirit, familiarly named “The Stabber,” is said to randomly attack those who cross the threshold with a large kitchen knife. Though the Stabber has never harmed anyone, he is said to have frightened many before immediately disappearing after the “attack.” Near the lobby staircase, linger three small spirits including two children and a midget that are said to be pranksters, sneaking up behind people and tapping their backs before giggling and dancing away. Finally, George Wingfield himself is said to haunt his old hotel, making his presence known by his cigar smoke. Others have reported finding fresh cigar ashes in his first floor room. His presence has also been sensed near the giant lobby staircase.

Many psychics who have visited the old hotel claim that it is a gateway into another world. In the fall of 2001 the Goldfield Hotel was featured on Fox Family TV’s World’s Scariest Places and in 2008 the TAPS team from the TV show Ghost Hunters investigated the Hotel and caught some unbelievable evidence of paranormal activity taking place here.