Flagstaff

MONTE VISTA HOTEL

FLAGSTAFF, AZ

SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

JULY 12, 2003

The MVD Ghostchasers greeted the guests for the workshop in the lobby of the Monte Vista Hotel as they checked in and registered at the front desk. The Hotel Monte Vista opened its doors on New Years Day in 1927. Back in the 1940’s and 1950’s---when Western movies were in their heyday---the movie stars made the Monte Vista Hotel their home. Some of these movie stars still roam the hallways along with the phantom bellboy, the bank robber, the long-term border we nicknamed the “meat man”, and an array of prostitutes rumored to had been murdered and thrown out of the windows.

The workshop crew was prepared to investigate and perhaps catch one of these spirits on their own piece of film.

Our first stop for the day was the Riordan Mansion State Historic Park. It is located next to Northern Arizona University on Riordan Road. Timothy and Michael Riordan were prominent pioneer businessmen in Flagstaff. They developed a successful logging business. The mansion was built in 1904 for two Riordan families. The home has forty rooms---over 13,000 square-feet of living space. And some of those rooms are reported haunted. Witnesses have seen the pool balls moving in a ghostly game of pool in the common room where the two families spent evenings together. The ghosts of Caroline and her daughter have been spotted upstairs. Although we were not allowed to take photos in the mansion, we enjoyed the tour and learning some background on Flagstaff.

We always try and find a haunted location to gather for dinner. We found the Collins Irish Pub and Eatery off of Route 66 to be quite inviting and enjoyed the great Irish music. Rumors say the basement had been used as a morgue from time to time.

Back at the hotel, Megan Taylor gave us a Dowsing 101 class and demonstrated us how dowsing rods works as a ghost-hunting tool.

We took a walk up the street to the Weatherford Hotel that is also haunted by a murder/suicide couple who are still heard arguing in their room today. Debe talked the bouncers into letting the crew of ghost hunters come in to the 1897 hotel and escorted us up to the haunted room 54. We took lots of pictures but no ghosts appeared on our film.

No carriage rides for the ghost hunters! We road in style to the cemetery in Derek’s hearse! He drove the hearse all the way up from Mesa for the workshop! We shot some photos from the outside of the cemetery fence. Then we loaded up our bodies and drove through downtown Flagstaff with the stereo blasting the theme form “Ghostbusters”.

We had booked nearly all the reported haunted rooms in the Monte Vista. So through the evening we went from floor to floor---room to room---searching for spirits. We did not have full access to the hotel and had to be mindful to the other guests who did not understand the concept of ghost hunting. The ghost team shared room 305---the Rocking Chair Room---and reported the chair had been moved and placed near the window when they returned from evenings activities. It was a warm night in July--even thought we were in Flagstaff---so we all slept with the windows open. The eerie sounds of the trains clanking along old Route 66 was enough to keep the living (and the dead) awake throughout the night!