“To stay or not to stay” was the question on our minds when we visited the Crescent Hotel on Sunday August 22nd. We had wanted to see this grand hotel since we moved to Arkansas roughly a year ago from California.
We, both being history and antique buffs, thought it would be a nice experience to stay at this historical place. We found out that it would be more memorable than we could have ever imagined or planned. No apparitions, orbs in photo’s or thumping headboards, no we had to get a ghost or spirit with a sense of humor.
Strange occurrences began happening a couple of weeks prior to our stay. We planned on staying at the Crescent for our anniversary. Valerie had made reservations for the weekend,; meanwhile I researched the hotels history on the Internet. From reading articles on hauntings at the hotel we ruled out certain rooms that were commonly known to have ghostly activity.
Later when reading stories regarding the dark days of the hotel with Norman Baker and the victims of his Cancer clinic and so called resort; we decided not to stay and Valerie called to cancel the reservations. This is where the strangeness begins.
When my wife called to cancel our reservations, the front desk commented that it had already been canceled. This was strange due to the fact that neither one of us had called earlier. We just thought “oh well, guess the ghosts knew that we were not coming” We joked about it and even told friends and coworkers for a laugh.
You see, we had decided to not stay at the hotel, as we have had ghost experiences prior in California as well as Arkansas. We thought that we wanted to rest and have an enjoyable time on our trip. I don’t consider interactions with spirits or ghost to be very restful. Seems like since they are restless, they like to pass it on to us.
Later in the month we decided to take a trip to Eureka Springs from our residence in the Bentonville area. We thought we’d stop off first at the Crescent Hotel prior to antique hopping and give it a look and feel. Valerie agreed that if I felt good about the hotel we’d stay the evening.
We walked around a bit and decided to make reservations for the evening, still making sure to avoid rooms 218, 202, 820 and 424, just to be safe. We got room 221, just down the hall from 218 where a worker apparently fell to his death during construction, apparently haunts. We thought it strange to be near this room, but thought that the spirit might be a homebody and keep to his room. Now we think that he might have gotten a little bored and wandered. Down the hall to our room.
We were too early for check in, so we took a spin around town, came back to the hotel and had a nice dinner in the hotel dinning room. Later we took photos of the lobby and said haunted areas, hoping to get some ghostly images on the pictures and even joked around about the hauntings. In the room while jesting about ghosts she finally got tired and asked me to stop, so I did, as any fine “and smart” husband would do.
Our room, 223, seemed peaceful and had a great view. We watched some TV, my wife carefully avoiding the X-Files, and retired for the evening, with the bathroom light on of course. Valerie had a hard time sleeping, as she does in unfamiliar rooms and later turned off the light. I, like normal slept like a baby.
We awoke the next morning to the alarm clock as to not miss the breakfast. While in the bathroom she asked me if I had done something to the towels. I peeked around the door from the closet and observed that the two bathing towels that were hanging on the rack had been tied around with the smaller hand towels to form a knot, with a washcloth lying atop both towels.
The bathroom had been noticeably rearranged from the night before and items had been moved around. In addition, the garbage can that had been just under the sink had been moved inside the tub. Also our toothbrushes had been neatly tucked into the towel on the back of the toilet and toothpaste laid beside. My black t-shirt had moved from the edge of the tub to the shower curtain rail, hand towels moved from the sink to the edge of the tub.
We of course questioned weather the other had done this and thinking that the other one had played a joke. Neither one of us had, so we laughed and took photos for family to see and realized that the joking the night before might have made a ghost or spirit play a prank on us. Wow! That really capped off our weekend! Undeniably these things do happen. Though I have had experiences in the past that most people have never seen, I had never seen a poltergeist haunting like this.
Later we shared the experience with staff in the dinning room, the front desk and Linda Mock, the Concierge. She asked that we write up the experience and send photos; So here they are. Think what you will as we know many will be skeptical, even friends and family.
We know what we have seen and will laugh about it for years to come. You may ask if we will spend the night again at the Crescent Hotel? Why yes of course, but most likely not in the same room, as we have added one more room to our list of rooms not to hang a hat in.
Being a businessman, and thinking of the best interest for the hotel owners, I think that the ghosts should pay for their own keep. No free room and board here. The staff should train them to launder the towels and clean the toilets too. It’s the least they can do since they’re just hanging around and annoying the guest. And no tying the towel in knots! Rather, this should evoke banishment from the premises. Bad ghosty! No dinner.
A few years ago I gave my son and his 2 friends a trip to the Crescent Hotel as a graduation gift. They stayed in room 221 as well. They too spoke of strange happenings with the hand towels. They stated that their shoes that where near the room entrance when they retired for the evening where found in the morning in the bathroom with the hand towels rolled up and placed inside of their shoes.
thanks for sharing!