CRIPPLE CREEK COLORADO IMPERIAL HOTEL HAUNTING

It's not much of a ghost story, more of an event but part of a long haunting. Many years ago (1993) when I still worked in hospitality a friend invited my wife and I to move from the Palm Springs area to Cripple Creek Colorado, a small gaming (previously a mining town known as "The World's Greatest Gold Camp") town sitting nearly 10,000 feet In the Colorado Rockies. Located not too far west of Colorado Springs, Cripple Creek (yes, the same Cripple Creek mentioned in the song by "The Band" -- "Up on Cripple Creek") produced more wealth than any other gold mine camp on the face of the earth up to the year 1930. Over $400 million in gold. Cripple Creek got its name quite by accident. It is said a cattleman was building a shelter close to a nearby creek assisted by a helper. The helper accidentally discharged a gun, wounding another man in the foot. The excitement and confusion frightened a calf, which broke its leg jumping over the creek. The calf was crippled causing the rancher to refer to the creek as "Cripple Creek." Cripple Creek once had a population in excess of 35,000. A major fire broke out in 1896 followed by a second fire only days later. Much of the town was destroyed. Nevertheless, Cripple Creek was rebuilt and lives on today. This was a rough town, full of murder and prostitution. Women were abundant but always under the watchful eye of Pearl DeVere, the towns Madame. The fire wasn't the only tragedy to beset the town. A polio outbreak killed over a hundred children. Their gravestones litter the cemetery. I worked at the Imperial Hotel in the front office. The Imperial Hotel was built in 1896 as the Collins Hotel and was run by George Long. George came from an affluent European family who wanted him out of their affairs, so they bought him a hotel to manage in this remote town. George had married his first cousin, and their oldest daughter, Alice, was severely mentally disabled. Alice was kept locked in an apartment next to the lobby that is now the Red Rooster Bar. Mrs. Long was having an affair with George's partner and one day Mrs. Long hit George on the head with an iron skillet in the kitchen - he then fell down the stairs to the basement, and to his death. George haunts the main and basement floors of the hotel. The second floor is occupied by an old miner who appears at the foot of your bed in the middle of the night and the third floor has "the lady in white" a woman who died in the hotel during a fire. I had to learn every aspect of the hotel and that included night audit, an 11 PM to 7 AM shift. I had become accustomed to the sounds of the water moving through the radiant pipes that ran throughout the hotel. One evening I heard scratching coming from the vacant and locked Red Rooster Bar, the previous housing of the Longs where they kept their daughter. I would unlock the door, turn on the lights and investigate to find nothing. I told the staff what happened and they explained it was the ghost of the trapped daughter. To this day she also likes to pull out the chairs as people are about to sit down causing them to fall flat on their bum! After a few months of working in the hotel and witnessing & hearing a few odd things I would always greet George as I came onto property, asking him how the hotel was doing. One evening, on my day off I was out with friends. I was in the company of a young lady who I knew had an attraction toward me and we ended up at the Imperial in a somewhat secluded hallway where a piano and small love seat we positioned. We were sitting on the sofa across from one of the hotel banquet rooms named "The Cralton Room." On the door to the Carlton Room there is a sign with the same name on it. It's BOLTED, not screwed, into the solid wood door. As we were sitting and flirting, the sign from the door flew off and across a nearly 5 foot wide hallway to land in between my feet. Evidently I had touched a nerve in George and he expressed his opinion of those who would invite infidelity. It didn't scare me much, but certainly startled me! I understand what he was saying and I stopped my behavior then and there. I hope to revisit the hotel someday and say hello to my old General Manager who I never saw but certainly respected.