Category Archives: Americas Most Haunted Hotel

2021 ESP Agenda

January 8/9 and January 15/16  2021

Examining deeper the history & hauntings of the Crescent Hotel

All Discussions will be held in the Crystal Dining Room (located on the 1st floor) with social distancing and masks required.

At Check –

Expect to receive: Program, Covid Guidelines, contest rules and Mask

*Photography Contest – Send in your photos or stories of ESP weekend and enter for a Chance to WIN Free Participation to Next Year’s Event. (one image or story per person) Please email to  Amanda.haley1@gmail.com  and include in Subject Line: ESP Photo Contest

AGENDA:

Friday

4:30PM – Check In

5PM – Welcome Introduction

5:15PM-6:00 PM – History of the Crescent Hotel

6:30PM – 8:00 PM Paranormal Expert Dave Harkins

“Mental Impressions and the correlation to Ghost Activity”

Free Time – On Your Own For Dinner

9PM and 9:30PM Mini Ghost Tour – Introduction

10PM “Toast to the Ghosts”

Groups Divided Up for Investigation with Paranormal Investigators

Dave Harkins & Larry Flaxman:

(Group A) 10:30PM-12:30AM  & (Group B) 12:45AM-2:45AM

3AM – 5AM Investigation on Your Own

Refreshments & Snacks Available from 10PM-2:30AM

Saturday

5PM – Welcome Introduction

5:15PM-6:15PM – Historian Keith Scales

A Deep Dive into the History of Norman Baker

6:30PM – 8PM Paranormal Expert Larry Flaxman

“Transcommunication – History to Now”

Free Time – On Your Own For Dinner

9:00PM and 9:30PM Mini Ghost Tour Introduction

Groups Divided Up for Investigation with Paranormal Investigators

Dave Harkins & Larry Flaxman:

(Group A) 10:30PM-12:30AM  & (Group B) 12:45AM-2:45AM

3AM – 5AM Investigation on Your Own

Refreshments & Snacks Available from 10PM-2:30AM

Sunday

10:30AM Meet in the Conservatory for brief summary of the night

 

*Collect Photography Contest Submissions – photos or stories 

(one image or story per person) 

WINNER TO RECEIVE Free Participation to Next Year’s Event.

Please email to  Amanda.haley1@gmail.com  and include in Subject Line: ESP Photo Contest

 

Dining Options:

Breakfast – One Breakfast Vouchers is included with your Registration. Breakfast available in the Crystal Dining Room 7AM -11AM

Dinner – Crystal Dining Room Open 5PM-9PM

SkyBar Gourmet Pizza – Open Noon – 10PM

Vending Area available in lobby level.

 

Speakers & Investigators

KEITH SCALES

AEA; AFTRA; SAG

Born and raised in London, professional theatre artist Keith Scales has acted in more than two hundred plays and directed nearly a hundred, receiving numerous awards. Study Fellowships have taken him to Ireland, Greece, Japan, Prague, the west of England and the south of France in preparation for various theatrical projects.  He was awarded the first Masters Fellowship in Theatre by the Regional Arts Council of Oregon. From 1993 – 2009 he served as artistic director of the Classic Greek Theatre of Oregon, for which he wrote line-for-line English versions of sixteen ancient Greek plays. In 2011 Keith relocated from Oregon to Eureka Springs to concentrate on the creation of original works for page, stage and screen.

He was Ghost Tour Manager for the Crescent and Basin Park hotels and organizer of ESP (Eureka Springs Paranormal) weekends and other events from 2011 to the Covid Outbreak.

He is the author of a collection of short stories set in the Crescent Hotel, House of a Hundred Rooms; Tales the Ghost Tour Guides Do Not Tell, and will soon release Seven Story Hotel, set in the Basin Park. Writing as Julian Keith he recently released John Dee’s Back Leg; a Metaphysical Farce. For the Crescent Hotel he wrote and directed the one-act: Not Really a Door and developed Flickering Tales, a regular storytelling program.

FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

2010: Presenter at the South Coast Writers Conference, in Gold Beach, Oregon

2008: Winter Writer-in-Residence at Fishtrap, Oregon.

2006: His play What Mad Pursuit, produced at West End Theatre, Portland, Oregon, 2006, was a finalist for the Oregon Literary Arts Award for Drama.

2002: First recipient of the prestigious Regional Arts and Culture Council Masters Fellowship. He used the grant to visit sites associated with the Grail legend in Cornwall and the South of France, in order to develop an original stage production of the Perceval legend.

1992: Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship to travel to Kyoto to study Japanese traditional and avant-garde theatre.

1989: Named by the state newspaper, the Oregonian, “the theatre artist who made the most significant contribution to theatre in Oregon in the decade”

1988:  Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship to attend the Yeats festival in Sligo, Ireland in preparation for an unprecedented production of the entire Cuchulain Cycle at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, and a symposium: The Theatre of Myth, at Portland State University.

SELECTED WORKSHOPS

Screenwriting with Cynthia Whitcomb, founder of the Willamette Writers’ Conference

Portland, Oregon 2006 

Playwrighting with Irene Maria Fornes,

Seattle, Washington, 1990

Presenting Classic Greek Drama Today

Getty Center, Los Angeles, 2004

 

DAVE HARKINS 

A published author, accomplished researcher, and investigator of the occult and paranormal realms for over 40 years, Dave Harkins brings his love of lost legends, history, and the supernatural to almost every aspect of his life. Dave’s journey with the paranormal started in childhood, as his family has always embraced the supernatural. His lineage stems from American Indian Ancestry, and Dave is a tribal member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. In 1980, Dave’s fascination with the occult led him and some friends to start-up an occult bookstore in Fresno, California, that is still in operation today.

After moving from Fresno in 1985 to the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, Dave created several small informal paranormal groups, and in 2007 Dave founded The Ozarks Paranormal Society, which is still very active today. Dave is also a Team Manager for the world-renowned TAPS Family based out of Rhode Island, investigating the paranormal for many years before starting the popular SyFy network “Ghost Hunters” television show as well as their new hit show “Ghost Nation” on Travel Channel.

Dave has researched and investigated hundreds of locations in the United States, Europe, and the Indian Subcontinent. He has also been featured in print, on radio and has appeared on several network television shows based on the paranormal. The quest never stops for Dave, at least as long as there are answers to be had.

 

LARRY FLAXMAN

Best selling author and researcher, Larry Flaxman, is on a mission to inform, empower, and entertain those fascinated by the paranormal and “fringe” science!

Best-selling author of nine books including “11:11 – The Time Prompt Phenomenon: The Meaning Behind Mysterious Signs, Sequences and Synchronicities,” “The Grid: Exploring the Hidden Infrastructure of Reality,” and “Viral Mythology: How the Truth of the Ancients was Encoded and Passed Down through Legend, Art, and Architecture,” Flaxman continues to write ground-breaking books on cutting-edge research that leave readers, researchers, and reviewers open-mouthed in disbelief of the truth as it’s presented to them.

For nearly two decades, Flaxman has been actively involved in paranormal research and hands-on field investigation with a strong emphasis on attempting to apply the scientific method to unexplained phenomena. Flaxman is redefining the field of paranormal research with his focus on connecting quantum physics (specifically entanglement and the observer effect) to human consciousness via the use of “real-time” EEG analysis of the experiencer. He is the President and Senior Researcher of the Arkansas Paranormal and Anomalous Studies Team (ARPAST) which has become one of the nation’s most respected paranormal research organizations.

Widely respected for his advances in the field, Flaxman has appeared on the Discovery Channel’s “Ghost Lab” as well as the History Channel’s popular show “Ancient Aliens”, and the History Channel special expose “Time Beings: Extreme Time Travel Conspiracies.” 

Flaxman has appeared on hundreds of radio shows worldwide include Coast to Coast AM, The Shirley MacLaine Show, The Jeff Rense Show, X-Zone Radio, TAPS Family Radio, and Paranormal Podcast.

As a staff writer for Intrepid Magazine, Flaxman’s work appears regularly in TAPS ParaMagazine, Fate Magazine, New Dawn Magazine, and Phenomena Magazine. Flaxman is often called on to provide expertise for dozens of other publications including “The Times Herald News,” and the “Villager Online.”

Flaxman is the founder of The Bridge of Compassion Foundation, a nonprofit 501c(3) charity dedicated to bridging the gap between those in need and those with a compassionate heart willing to make a difference. Positively impacting and improving the quality of life for the homeless and indigent by providing basic human necessities. Delivered with compassion, dignity, and respect.

Flaxman is an avid collector of all things unusual – whether it be historic antiquities, medical collectibles, funerary items, or even the completely bizarre,  he likely has it in his collection! In fact, he maintains one of the largest collections of Pre-Columbian artifacts in the United States! Oftentimes you can find some really cool items for sale in his online shop as he clears space to make room for more!

In his spare time, Flaxman dabbles in a diverse range of hobbies. While some people like to fish or collect stamps, he has always had a deep-seated passion for motorsports – specifically, anything that is FAST AND LOUD!  He has been fascinated with cars and motorcycle since a young age and is addicted to the visceral sound and feel of a motor at redline! Larry maintains an impressive collection of vehicles and can often be found at charity events and car shows with some of his toys! 

 

This Hotel Was Once A Cancer Hospital, And Ghosts Of The Patients Are Reportedly Still There

As welcoming as hotels may appear, some are prime spots for unwanted spirits. As rumor has it, few lodgings are as haunted as the Crescent Hotel, where almost every room has at least one ghost. But how did this place become haunted? The haunting of the Crescent Hotel stems from a tragic, horrifying history that goes back more than a century.

The hotel was once a hospital for cancer patients. At the Crescent, a “doctor” reportedly advertised miracle cures and led a fraudulent scheme to scam cancer patients out of thousands of dollars. It’s no wonder the basement once served as a morgue.

Not only is the Crescent Hotel considered one of the most haunted places in Arkansas, but it’s also one of the most well-known haunted hotels in the United States. Do you have the nerve to stay at the Crescent?   Read More…

Haunted History in NWA

The hotel is home to several rumored ghosts and according to Bill Ott, Director of Marketing and Communication at the hotel, the spirits have made themselves known to guests. “The most famous ghosts we have in the hotel are Michael who hangs out in room 213, he was a stone mason that fell to his death in the footprint of that room. The other one is Theodora in room 419. If you mess up the room or she doesn’t like you, she’ll put your luggage in front of the door which makes it difficult for it to open.” Read More…

Arkansas CW Crew checks into the Crescent Hotel…

crescent hotel arkansas cw

In this edition of “Paranormal Adventures with The Crew”, we check in to the historic 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa in Eureka Springs. Touted as one of “America’s Most Haunted Hotels”, The Crescent Hotel was built in 1886. For the first 15 years, it served the carriage set and was an exclusive year-round hotel resort. Due to annual off-season hotel vacancies, the hotel was turned into the Crescent College & Conservatory for Young Women in 1908. The College closed down in 1934. Read More…

Ghostly Legend at America’s Most Haunted Hotel Enhanced in 2019

For decades upon decades the stories of “the Baker    years” at the 1886 Crescent Hotel have been told.  With no living eyewitnesses to these stories, they were mere legend.  It wasn’t until earlier this year that actual proof of these stories was literally uncovered when the Arkansas Archeological Survey team carefully uncovered the secret bottle grave of the Crescent’s most infamous resident owner, Norman Baker.

Also unearthed, it seems, was additional paranormal activity further validating this historic resort, located atop the Arkansas Ozarks, as “America’s most haunted hotel”.  This ghostly moniker has now been chiseled into granite… or more accurately stated: limestone, the predominate rock formations of Crescent Mountain.

Baker, a charlatan from Muscatine IA, owned the hotel in the late 1930s when he operated the structure as a cancer hospital where promises of a cure filled the hotel with suffering victims of the disease.  His bottles contained a) several of his “curing” potions, despite the fact that no one was ever cured; and b) fleshy medical specimens extracted from his patients, despite the fact that Baker was not a doctor.  Also found was an identifiable section of one of his promotional movies, a find that the archeologists said was like finding Baker’s business card.

“We had heard the stories.  We had read the promises of Baker’s promotional material.  We had even seen his poster where he proudly displayed his bottled cures and bottled tumors extricated from his patients,” explained Jack Moyer, hotel vice president and general manager, “but it wasn’t until more than 500 bottles from the northwest corner of our 15 acres were excavated during a formal archeological dig, did we actually get to see these antique bottles of macabre proof.”

Added proof of these bottles’ authenticity came during an interview with two ladies, Genevieve Bowman and Dorothy Bridgeman, who once served the hotel as waitpersons while in high school.  Each, upon seeing them again, remembers the bottles as those they saw during excursions to the hotel’s basement area that was Baker’s morgue.  It was in the morgue where these bottle were stored in a displayed manner.

The legend now proven has spawned such often re-experienced paranormal encounters as children being seen huddled under the morgue’s autopsy table pleading for help; the reoccurrence of a Baker patient who also served as a hospital assistant being seen in and around Room 419, better known as Theodora’s room; the early morning, loud squeaking of wheels in the third floor corridor accompanied by sightings of a nurse pushing a corpse-laden gurney down the hallway only to see it vanish into thin air; and the numerous “conversations” with former patients by way of responses via an EMF (electromagnetic field) ghost meter during paranormal investigations.

The interest in the paranormal aspect of the Crescent Hotel has drawn more than 15 national and international television production companies to visit this Historic Hotel of America and air ghostly episodes on the hotel.  Two such notable programs are the Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures” and the Syfy channel’s “Ghost Hunters”.  With the airing of each episode, ghost aficionados flock to Eureka Springs to see firsthand the hotel and now its bottle find.  “Our numbers are growing exponentially,” Moyer added.

The best of the unearthed bottles is now back on display in the Crescent’s morgue.  Both the morgue, complete with autopsy table, and a walk-in cooler where Baker stored cadavers and body parts are open for public viewing as part of the hotel’s nightly ghost tour.  Even the burial site, the archeological dig locale, has been preserved and is open for viewing during the hotel’s VIP Ghost Tour.

To add to the enhanced paranormal interest during the month of October, hotel guests will also be able to take part in such extra resort offerings as “Flickering Tales”, a campfire circle where Ozark ghost stories are told under a nighttime sky; and a private paranormal panel entitled “Ghost Tour Guides: Their Inside Stories”, a forum where veteran Crescent Hotel ghost guides tell of their personal hair-raising encounters while touring the “Grand Ol’ Lady of The Ozarks”.

 

Human Specimens Buried at the Crescent Hotel

KOLR10NEWS reports Watch Video

crescent hotel

As if tales of ghosts and hauntings at the famous Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs isn’t disturbing enough, a landscaper at the hotel recently discovered something pretty creepy buried on the grounds. It appears they’ve dug up old bottles filled with human body parts.

Among the many tales about the history of the hotel, is one about Norman Baker, a former owner, who they say ran the property as a cancer hospital.

Well, the discovery of the first bottle has led to a full blown archaelogical excavation.

It started when hotel grounds keepers found the first bottle 3 months ago.

“And really didn’t have any idea what was going on, until I picked up the first bottle that had a clear fluid in it, with something in it,” said Crescent Hotel landscaper Susan Benton.

So far, they’ve discovered 500 bottles that point to the stories of Norman Baker using the hotel to treat cancer patients back in the late 1930’s.

Hotel ghosts tours manager, Keith Scales says he recognized the bottles from a display.

“We have this displayed in the hotel, where we do the tours, so I see this everyday,” Scales said, “Some of the bottles are medicines. Some of the bottles are…medical specimens. What he claimed were tumors that he had taken out of his patients — put in alcohol or formaldehyde and kept in bottles as evidence that his cure was working.”

Although the dig area was considered a dump site, archaeologists say they can tell a lot of thought went into the disposal of these bottles.

“You have these lined walls here that they actually did do hand excavating to actually dig a pit first, said archaelogist Jared Pebworth, “So, they were thinking about how they were going to get rid of their trash instead of just coming up here to the hillside, throwing it down the hillside.”

Archaeologist Michael Evans says they also dug up 16 millimeter film.

“The films in really bad shape…  but, we were able to lift a few little images from the film — and one of the images said, after.. before Baker treatment,” said Evans, “It’s a unique find, very exciting.” Archalogists also found an old bone saw they believe Baker may have used to work on patients.