Shining through the horror
COLORADO HOTEL | Women hope something scary will happen when they follow in King's footsteps
The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo., is said to be one of the most haunted hotels in the country.
Stephen King spent a single spooky night there in the '70s, and it became the basis for his horror classic The Shining.
(Jean Lachat/Sun-Times)
Early next month, two suburban women are headed there to search for restless spirits. Patricia Frederick and her 43-year-old daughter Patricia Saenz will spend a weekend at the Stanley alongside the SyFy Channel's "Ghost Hunters," Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, who've probed the hotel's paranormal activities in past episodes.
The Palos Hills women won the trip in an online sweepstakes put on by Roto-Rooter to promote its new book Chilling Tales From the Porcelain Seat (Roto-Rooter Press, $12.95), a collection of bizarre true stories from the plumbing world.
"Ghost Hunters" stars Hawes and Wilson are real-life Roto-Rooter plumbers from Rhode Island. Their day jobs come in handy when seeking out poltergeists. It so happens that a lot of the things that go bump in the night turn out to be banging pipes and hissing water heaters. But not at the Stanley, said Leslie Hoy, the hotel's assistant general manager.
"We like to think we're the most haunted hotel in America," Hoy said. "We get reports daily from guests who think they're being watched or hear sounds that don't make sense. People occasionally get touched. I personally had cigar smoke blown in my face in the parking lot when no one was around."
The hotel was built 100 years ago by automaker F.O. Stanley, who moved to Colorado's mountains to cure his tuberculosis. Stanley's medical condition improved, sparking wealthy families with sick relatives -- often young children -- to flock to the hotel. Many of them didn't make it home alive.
"We feel they still hang around quite a bit," Hoy said. "You can hear little feet running down the hall in the middle of the night. Some people hear 'London Bridge Is Falling Down' being sung. A lot of the activity is on the fourth floor. That's where the children and nannies stayed."
Eerie, indeed. Then again, the Stanley is perched 7,500 feet above sea level. Have a couple of cocktails at that altitude and you might start hearing things, too.
Far from downplaying its haunted history, the 162-room hotel celebrates it. Ghost tours take place daily and are open to the public for $15 a person. In the winter, ghost hunts are held from 8 p.m. until 1 or 2 a.m. about every other week for $50 a person. (For reservations, call Scary Mary in the tour department at 970-577-4110; stanleyhotel.com.) But the big event takes place on Halloween, when the hotel holds its annual Shining Ball.
"We're always referred to as 'the Shining Hotel,' and we're very proud of that," Hoy said.
King was living in nearby Boulder in the mid-'70s when he spent the night, alone in Room 217, the presidential suite.
"The hotel used to be seasonal," Hoy said. "He was the only guest here the very last day before it closed for the winter."
The Stanley became the inspiration for King's fictional Overlook Hotel, where a man -- played by an unforgettably creepy Jack Nicholson in the movie -- makes the Worst Career Move Ever and takes a job as winter caretaker. His poor wife and psychic son come along for the terrorizing ride.
"When you read the book," Hoy said, "you feel like you're walking down our hallways."
The mother-daughter duo from Palos Hills -- who are fans of both "Ghost Hunters" and "The Shining" -- are requesting to stay in the room "where the twins were killed," Patricia Frederick said.
"We're excited," she added. "We're just hoping something happens."