Some short snippets from a day tour. Suffice it to say… the place was “charged.”
South Pass City
Inside South Pass Hotel and Saloon
South Pass City, Wyoming – Wolverine Mine
South Pass City, Wyoming – English Tunnel
A short tour of one of the most well-preserved ghost towns in America: Bannack. We will start with two of the most fascinating buildings on site, the Masonic Lodge (still active, mind you) and School House, and the Hotel Meade.
Mason Lodge/School House
Are these Halloween spooks in Jerome, or permanent fixtures in Jerome? The Skeleton driving the one way taxi seems familiar, but I can’t be too sure.
Scenes from the shops and the street. Holy Family Church. Note the skeleton miner in the window of the church.
Black and white scenes. Views from the bottom of the hill.
We walked the streets and visited Jerome again. But this was as close as we got to the haunted hotel on the hill and the clubhouse.
Notes from a Reading Journal: “The Paris Hours,” by Alex George.
Notes from a Reading Journal: This was my BOTM April selection. This is a novel of four characters in 1927 Paris. Nostalgic creatives who show up: Marcel Proust, Josephine Baker, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Guillaume (the Painter). The most compelling story line for me was that of Marcel Proust and Camille. The character of Camille was inspired by Proust’s real maid, Celeste Albaret, who was directed to (and allegedly did) burn all of his notebooks. Except… what if she didn’t? This is the story line of Marcel and Camille. I loved it.
What I needed most right now was to step into another place and travel using my mind. I needed an escape. What more appealing and picturesque place than The City of Light in 1927? Let me pretend for a moment that I am drinking cafe au lait in the Latin Quarter and indulging in story. Just let me dream. They haven’t taken that away from us yet. Story.
Collected quotes:
“You and I will never get too comfortable here, my friend. We’ll always be from somewhere else, won’t we?” P. 65 “
She knew the fragility of happiness, and for this reason he trusted her.” P. 80
“She breathes in the comforting smell of old books, and wonders how many lifetimes of stories are held here.” P. 83
“Worse still, he was yet to taste a single bite of cheese. But he could not turn back now.” P 88
“I see still waters running deep within you.” P. 133
“He likes to walk through the Latin Quarter. It is the oldest part of the city, a labryinth that meanders and intersects with itself without apparent design or purpose. The pace of life feels a little slower here. People linger a little longer at cafe tables as they watch the rest of the world amble by. One more sip of coffee, one more story in the newspaper. Generations of stories inhabit every brick in every wall. He can almost see the ghosts.” P. 145
“This is what war does, mon ami. The whole world is holding its breath, waiting for life to begin again.” P. 181
I hold my breath.
It has been 6.5 years since my first visit. The Crescent remains a timeless and charged place, but not the same to me. I guess I am changed, and there is no going back. Whatever I was looking for passing through this time, it was gone. I am gone. It’s funny the perceptions we hold of the past. We go back to a place, looking to recapture a moment. To capture something that can never be caught. What? It’s a special place, but ultimately it’s just another place along the road of my life. It’s just another stop. Have I seen too much? Have I stayed out too long?
The Crescent is fun, and every bit as crowded as The Stanley. It is best appreciated in retrospect, it seems, as while I was in it all I could hear were the other tourists. But it is fun. To explore the museum on the 4th Floor, and pass others as you roam the hallways. Exchanging smiles of camaraderie and perhaps a bit of embarrassment. Yes, we are all tourists snapping photos in a “haunted” hotel, trying to capture a moment. All looking for something we can’t place, but can almost feel in the air as we go up and down the back staircase.
What is here? I am digging into the corners of my mind trying to remember. But not too much. I don’t really want to know, after all. I just want to tread lightly here on the surface, never getting in too deep. Stay in the shallow end, where the water is warmed by the sun, and your feet can reach the bottom. People can and do drown in the shallow water, but I know how to swim. I am safe swimming here if I stay in my lane. Now, I hear what I want to hear. I see who I want to see. I will mostly just go quietly.
I couldn’t properly process the place until I had many hundreds of miles between us. There is place memory here. It could be the history and all of the death. It could be the geology. Or all of the above, most likely.
I wish I could’ve seen it after the Baker Hospital was cleared out. I wish I could feel it empty, pre-renovation. I wish I could time travel and see it during different periods of the past.
The sheets were fantastic in 401 and dinner in the Crystal Dining Room was great as well. The shower was not great. The foot traffic from the ghost tours might disturb some.
Here comes the sun over Eureka.
A flock of birds over the 1886 Crescent Hotel, Eureka Springs.
A special place. Timeless.
What does the owl say?
The owl is here.
Hallways
Haunted stairs?
Crescent Stairs.
Hallways.
Hallways and mirrors
Hallways
Hallways
We are all gathered here at the Crescent Springs.
Crescent Moon atop the Crescent Springs in Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Downtown historic Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
The closest hotel that I have ever stayed in that has invoked the “American Horror Story: Hotel” feel.
Have you seen this man? Colonel Eldridge re-built the hotel in 1865 after William Quantrill’s raid. He is rumored to still haunt the hallways!
The Eldridge Hotel – Lawrence, Kansas
The Eldridge Hotel – Lawrence, Kansas
The Eldridge Hotel – Lawrence, Kansas
Just entered the bar from the street entrance. The historic Eldridge Hotel in Lawrence, Kansas.
Looking across the lobby of the historic Eldridge Hotel in Lawrence, Kansas.
The Eldridge – Lawrence, Kansas
Just a few souvenir photos from a short stay at the Hotel Eldridge in Lawrence, Kansas. While I did not pick up on any “energy” per se, there was something that fascinated me about the back left corner table area of the main lobby. Just a feeling. A fleeting impression of days gone by.
Jamie Davis Writes 