Haunted Places in Colorado: 22 of the Most Haunted to Visit
The hotel that inspired The Shining, a Denver park built on a cemetery, a prison museum, a gold camp full of ghost stories and one of the West’s best-preserved ghost towns. These are Colorado’s best-known haunted places, with what is true, what is legend and how to visit.
Colorado’s ghost stories follow its mining booms. Gold and silver built grand hotels in Denver, Aspen, Glenwood Springs and Leadville, filled hillside cemeteries above Central City and Cripple Creek, and left whole towns like St. Elmo to the wind. We have checked every place below against current sources, so you know which are open, which run ghost tours or allow investigations, which take overnight guests and which you can only see from the street.
Address 333 E Wonderview Ave, Estes Park, CO 80517
Where to look Room 217, the fourth floor, the Concert Hall, the Music Room piano, the grand staircase and the old staff tunnels
Reported ghosts Head housekeeper Elizabeth Wilson, F.O. and Flora Stanley, Paul and Lucy in the Concert Hall, children on the fourth floor
Visiting Historic hotel open to overnight guests; public rooms open to visitors
The Stanley opened on July 4, 1909, and is the hotel that gave Stephen King the idea for The Shining after he and his wife spent a night here in 1974, in or near Room 217. It is the most famous haunted hotel in the country, and it leans into the reputation: several rooms are sold as “Spirited” rooms, and its own guides run nightly ghost tours.
Guests describe Flora Stanley’s piano playing itself, a former housekeeper who unpacks suitcases in Room 217, children laughing on the empty fourth floor, and a night watchman called Paul who tells people to get out of the Concert Hall after curfew.
What investigators report
The hotel’s night ghost tour takes guests through the service tunnels, theater basement and old staff dormitories, and visitors report cameras and phones failing to take photos in the tunnels.
Address 1599 E 8th Ave, Denver, CO 80218 (between Humboldt and Race streets, 8th to 13th avenues)
Where to look The open lawns at night, the pavilion and the edges near the Botanic Gardens
Reported ghosts Sad, confused figures; whispering and moaning; a weight that holds people to the grass
Visiting Free public park, open daily; part of the old cemetery is now the Denver Botanic Gardens next door
Tours Seasonal walking ghost tours each fall from private operators such as Denver Local Tours, about 90 minutes
Denver’s most famous haunted place is a city park. From 1858 to 1890 this hill was Mount Prospect Cemetery, later City Cemetery, and by the 1880s it was neglected and largely a burial ground for the poor. In 1893 undertaker E.P. McGovern was paid $1.90 a coffin to move the dead to Riverside Cemetery; the Denver Republican exposed him splitting remains between child-sized boxes, and the contract was cancelled within days.
The holes were filled and the park was finished in 1907. Estimates of how many people are still under the grass run from about 1,000 to 3,000, and remains turned up near the Botanic Gardens in 2008 and during irrigation work in 2010. Visitors and neighbors describe sadness that comes from nowhere, whispering voices and misty figures, and the best-known tale is that anyone who lies on the lawn feels held down.
Haunted Rooms tip: Join one of the seasonal walking ghost tours that circle the park in October, then walk to the pavilion at dusk.
Where to look Cell 19, Cell 18, Cell 15, the old laundry room and the archives
Reported ghosts A woman who died in Cell 19, the 'Parakeet Lady', voices and slamming doors
Visiting Self-guided museum beside a working prison
Ghost hunting Paranormal investigation nights run by local investigators on set dates
Canon City has held Colorado’s prisoners since the Territorial Prison opened next door in 1871. The museum, opened in June 1988, fills the 1935 state women’s prison with about 30 cells of exhibits, from punishment devices and inmate stories to the hangman’s noose and the state’s last gas chamber outside the front door.
Staff have told reporters for decades that the building is busy: welded-open cell doors heard slamming, voices in the archives, hair pulled, shadows by Cell 15, cold spots and tobacco smell in the old laundry, and a woman said to cough in Cell 19, where she died. Cell 18 belonged to the ‘Parakeet Lady’, who legend says promised to come back.
What investigators report
Investigators leading tours leave out a motion-sensor toy and ask the spirits to set it off, saying they respond best to lively, energetic guests. The archives room is described as one of the most active rooms in the building.
Visit on a tourGhost toursParanormal investigations allowed
Address 136 W Bennett Ave, Cripple Creek, CO 80813
Where to look The cell blocks, the matron's ward and the solitary cell
Reported ghosts Olga Knutson, a guard on his rounds, a little boy, laughter from solitary
Visiting Museum open year-round; tickets at the door
Tickets $5; children 6 and under free
Ghost hunting Overnight lock-ins and paranormal events with local investigators on set dates
This two-story brick building was the Teller County Jail from 1901 to 1991, holding everyone from drunks and prostitutes to murderers in transit and people bound for the state hospital; boxer Jack Dempsey once spent time here. It closed because it lacked an exercise yard, and it is now a museum with cells still marked by inmates’ drawings and signatures.
Staff and visitors describe heavy breathing, cold spots and apparitions, laughter from the solitary cell, and marbles left on a bed in the matron’s ward. The city’s heritage manager told The Gazette that Olga Knutson, declared insane, died here and is seen near her cell, and that blood is said to reappear where a man fell from a window.
What investigators report
Investigators describe lights-off lock-down sessions in the main cell block and the confinement cell linked to a spirit called “Joe”, with one investigator wearing prison clothing to draw a response. The third floor is where they report encountering a spirit they call “Amy”.
Where to look Margaret's bedroom, the kitchen, the attic and basement, the stair mirror
Reported ghosts J.J. Brown's pipe smoke, a woman in Victorian dress, a servant in the mirror, a ghost cat
Visiting Guided tours inside the house; book a time online
Tours Guided house tours; seasonal October programs
Hours and season Wednesday to Sunday, 10 AM to 5 PM (Thursday to 7 PM); last entry an hour before closing
Architect William Lang built this Queen Anne house of rough stone in 1889, and J.J. Brown bought it in 1894 for $30,000. His wife Margaret, the Titanic survivor remembered as the Unsinkable Molly Brown, owned it until her death in 1932. It then became a rooming house before Historic Denver was formed around 1970 to save it, and it has been a museum since 1971.
Staff and visitors tell a long list of stories: pipe smoke in a house where smoking is banned, blamed on J.J.; light bulbs found unscrewed; a woman in Victorian clothes moving furniture; a stern servant in the mirror by the first-floor stairs. The museum’s director told FOX 13 in 2024 that she has felt the unseen ‘Ghost Cat’ brush her ankle in the kitchen.
What investigators report
At a museum seance in the top-floor former nursery and servants’ quarters, a spirit box session reportedly produced several voices, and a REM pod placed on the stairs up to the room lit and sounded. Participants also mentioned a presence in the basement and a phantom cat.
Where to look Suite 904, Ellyngton's dining room, the Churchill Bar, the Ship Tavern and the tenth floor
Reported ghosts Socialite Louise Crawford Hill, a phantom string quartet, a man dressed as a train conductor, founder Henry C. Brown
Visiting Historic hotel open to overnight guests; public rooms open to visitors
Denver’s triangular sandstone landmark opened in 1892, designed by Frank Edbrooke around one of the first hotel atriums in the country. Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Molly Brown all stayed here, and since 2012 it has been part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection. In 1911 Frank Henwood shot two men in its Marble Bar, one of Denver’s most notorious crimes.
The ghost story everyone tells is Suite 904, home of society queen Louise Crawford Hill. When tours began telling her story, the switchboard took static-filled calls from her stripped, phone-less suite until the story was dropped. Staff also describe a ghostly string quartet in the dining room and a man in a conductor’s uniform. Each October the hotel runs its own haunted tours.
What investigators report
On the hotel’s ghost tours, investigators and mediums focus on Room 904, Louise Crawford Hill’s former apartment, and Room 846, where guests have reported luggage tipped onto the floor. Staff also say music and laughter have been heard from the dark former ballroom at night.
Where to look Tower suite 661, the fifth floor, the basement, the dining room and the elevators
Reported ghosts "Walter" and his cigar smoke, a nurse called Bobbie, a girl with a ball, a woman in a floral dress
Visiting Historic hotel open to overnight guests; public rooms open to visitors
Silver magnate Walter Devereux opened this Italianate resort, modeled on Rome’s Villa Medici, in June 1893. Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft made long stays, earning it the nickname “the little White House of the West”, and in World War II the Navy ran it as a hospital, with the basement used as a morgue.
The hotel shares its own ghost stories. Guests smell cigar smoke credited to “Walter”, catch gardenia perfume near the dining room linked to a nurse called Bobbie, and describe a woman in a floral dress standing over the bed in tower suite 661. Most activity is said to come between 2 and 4 a.m.
What investigators report
One investigator running a P-SB7 spirit box session in Room 551 reports phrases such as “Talk louder” and “I’m frightened”, and later spotted small figures in photos of the room’s mirror.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for tower suite 661 or a fifth-floor room, and walk the basement corridor where the hotel says a houseman saw an old woman at the window.
Address Bald Mountain Road, just north of Central City, CO 80427
Where to look John Edward Cameron's grave and the hillside toward Bald Mountain
Reported ghosts A woman in black who leaves flowers twice a year; a boy hiding behind trees
Visiting Historic cemetery reached by a dirt road above Central City; visit by day
Tours The Gilpin Historical Society runs an annual Cemetery Crawl in late summer and the Creepy Crawl walking tours in town each October
Above the old gold town of Central City, about 35 miles west of Denver, a cluster of mining-era cemeteries sits on the slopes toward Bald Mountain. The Masonic cemetery came into use in the 1860s, soon after the 1859 gold rush filled Gregory Gulch with miners, and its weathered stones date from the town’s richest years.
Its legend is one of Colorado’s best known: every April 5 and November 1 a woman in a black satin dress is said to lay flowers on the grave of John Edward Cameron, a bachelor who died on November 1 in the 1880s, then vanish toward Bald Mountain when anyone comes near. The tale is told by Legends of America and local media, but no one has traced it to a first-hand record.
Haunted Rooms tip: Pair it with the Gilpin Historical Society’s October Creepy Crawl in town or its summer Cemetery Crawl.
Where to look The back stairs, Room 11, the tavern and the boiler room
Reported ghosts 'Stinky' on the back stairs, Petey the boy, a half-seen miner, a man in a bowler hat
Visiting Historic hotel taking overnight guests; tavern open to visitors
The Sisters of Mercy opened this brick building on the hill above Bennett Avenue as St. Nicholas Hospital in 1898, at the height of the gold rush. It later cared for mental patients, closed in the mid-1970s, sat empty for about twenty years, and is now a 15-room hotel on the National Register.
It is one of Cripple Creek’s busiest ghost stories. Legends of America lists ‘Stinky’ on the back stairs, known by a sewage smell, nuns, children and a miner with no upper body, plus Petey, a boy blamed for stealing cigarettes in the tavern. Visit Colorado Springs repeats the list, and The Gazette in 2026 added a tall man in a gray coat and bowler hat seen in the boiler room.
What investigators report
Overnight guests report a sudden foul odour on the third floor that staff attribute to a ghost nicknamed “Stinky”, along with whispers outside Room 12 and chills at the back staircase.
Where to look Room 301, the birdcage elevator, the fourth floor, the basement and the kitchen
Reported ghosts Eddie the miner, unnamed figures on the old morgue floor
Visiting Historic hotel open to overnight guests; public rooms open to visitors
Built in brick and stone by the Woods brothers after the great fire of 1899, this was the Bank Block, home to the First National Bank of Victor. In hard winters, when the ground was too frozen to dig graves, bodies were carried up the elevator and kept on the fourth floor until spring. It became a 20-room hotel in 1992 and is on the National Register.
The hotel tells its own ghost stories. The best known is Eddie, a miner said to have fallen down the elevator shaft, and the original birdcage elevator is reported to run by itself, often around 3 a.m. Guests in Room 301, said to be his room, report footsteps and noises, and kitchen staff describe flying utensils.
What investigators report
During a paranormal convention at the hotel, ghost hunters recorded EVPs and held a Ouija session in the lobby, with one recording reportedly catching a whispered “I’ll let you meet Milton.”
Address 9 Capitol Hill Ave, Manitou Springs, CO 80829
Where to look The chapel, the tea room, the third-floor solarium and the doll display
Reported ghosts Nuns, a headless sister, a little girl in the gift shop, a face in the mirrors
Visiting Historic house museum with self-guided visits and a tea room
Hours and season Tue to Sun 10am to 3:30pm; daily 9am to 4:30pm Memorial Day to Labor Day
Tickets Adults $15, seniors $13, children 4 to 12 $10; self-guided, about an hour
French priest Jean Baptiste Francolon built this hillside mansion in 1895 in a mix of nine styles, from Queen Anne to Moorish. After the Sisters of Mercy’s Montcalm Sanitarium burned in 1907, the sisters used the castle to nurse tuberculosis patients for about 20 years. The Manitou Springs Historical Society now runs it as a museum with 42 furnished rooms.
Staff gave The Gazette a long list in 2007: singing and piano music in the empty tea room, footsteps and slamming doors, a little girl near the dolls, a widow’s face in the mirrors, and a legend of a nun, Sister Henrietta, said to walk the halls. Visit Colorado Springs adds ghostly nuns and a man in early-1900s clothes, and staff link chapel cold spots to a replica El Greco portrait.
What investigators report
A longtime castle keeper reported singing in the tea room and doors slamming when the building was empty, and described the chapel as the one area with a less friendly presence.
Where to look Room 310, the third floor, the Library bar and the garden terrace where the old pool was
Reported ghosts The "water boy", maid Katie Kerrigan, heartbroken miner Henry O'Callister
Visiting Historic hotel open to overnight guests; public rooms open to visitors
Silver investor Jerome B. Wheeler, a former president of Macy’s, opened this brick hotel on Main Street in 1889, and it has been Aspen’s grand old address ever since. Its parlors served as a morgue during the 1918 flu epidemic, Hunter S. Thompson used the J-Bar as an office, and today it is a luxury Auberge Collection hotel with 94 rooms.
Its best-known ghost is the “water boy”, a soaking wet child said to appear near Room 310, which sits over the site of the original pool. Local guides admit there is no record of a drowning, which is part of the fun. Staff also tell of a maid named Katie who turns down beds before the housekeepers get there.
Haunted Rooms tip: Have a drink in the Library bar, where a bartender says he saw a woman walk into a closet and vanish.
Address 9950 E Gateway Dr, Highlands Ranch, CO 80126
Where to look The upstairs bedrooms, the long gallery and the hallway windows
Reported ghosts A girl at the windows, a boy with breathing trouble, voices saying hello
Visiting Grounds in a 50-acre historic park; the mansion is open on free tours and community events
Tours Free guided and self-guided tours each week; evening ‘Spirits with the Spirits’ tours in October
Hours and season Park 5 AM to 8 PM; mansion closed to the public during private events
Samuel Allen Long built a stone farmhouse called Rotherwood here in 1891. Later owners turned it into a castle-like mansion: John Springer, oilman Waite Phillips, Frank Kistler, who added a Tudor wing in 1929, and Lawrence Phipps Jr., who lived here until he died in his upstairs bedroom in 1976. The Highlands Ranch Metro District restored it and reopened it to the public in 2012.
Older ghost lists say Frank Kistler’s daughter Julia died in an upstairs bedroom in 1937 and still sobs there; local history coverage says Phipps’s 1976 death is the only confirmed death in the house. Staff told 9News about voices saying hello when no one else was in, whistles, things moved in empty rooms, and a little girl seen at the hallway windows.
What investigators report
During the mansion’s adults-only paranormal events, small groups run EVP sessions in the ground-floor rooms and upstairs bedrooms, with detectors available to borrow. One visitor reports a group’s device saying “What are you doing here?” as they walked into a room.
Where to look Rooms 302, 304 and 306, the original Otis elevator, the fifth floor
Reported ghosts A woman in white, Honey Bee Lennartz, a woman in a Victorian gown
Visiting Historic hotel open to overnight guests; public rooms open to visitors
Boulder’s grand hotel opened on New Year’s Day 1909, built by a company of local citizens who wanted a first-class hotel for their growing town. The five-story brick building at 13th and Spruce still has its stained-glass lobby ceiling and the original Otis elevator, and it has been a Boulder landmark since the 1970s.
The City of Boulder itself lists rooms 302 and 304 as rumored to be haunted, with electrical problems, voices and a woman in white, tied to a story of a double suicide. A longtime staff member told The Denver Post about a TV switching itself on and a clock whose hands spun. Other stories name Honey Bee Lennartz, a regular whose portrait hangs on the fifth floor.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for Room 302 or 304 in the historic building, and ride the 1908 Otis elevator rather than taking the stairs.
Where to look Room 320, the third floor and the Cruise Room bar
Reported ghosts Florence Montague and her lover, a postal worker who orders a beer
Visiting Historic hotel open to overnight guests; public rooms open to visitors
Denver’s oldest hotel opened in 1891 near Union Station, designed by Frank Edbrooke, who later designed the Brown Palace. Its Art Deco Cruise Room bar opened the day Prohibition ended and still pours martinis. The hotel was restored and reopened in 1983 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Oxford’s ghost story is Room 320, where, legend says, Florence Montague shot her lover and then herself in 1898. Men staying alone in the room describe sheets being pulled off and a tug on the arm. In the bar, a postal worker who froze to death in the 1930s is said to order a beer and leave it untouched. The hotel sells a Stay with the Spirits package in Room 320.
What investigators report
Staff say the activity centres on Room 320 and the third floor, where guests report moved toiletries, pulled bedsheets and sudden floral scents of jasmine, gardenia or rose. Engineering staff have also reported a small boy running in the attic.
Visiting Historic hotel open to overnight guests; public rooms open to visitors
The Delaware Block opened in October 1886 at the height of Leadville’s silver boom, with shops at street level and about fifty rooms and offices upstairs. It is now a 36-room hotel with a restaurant and bar on Harrison Avenue, more than 10,000 feet above sea level. Legend links Doc Holliday to Room 16, though primary records of famous guests are thin.
Its ghost is Mary Coffey, shot by her jealous husband in 1899. Accounts disagree on the year and on whether she died inside the hotel or just outside, but local guides say she still walks the upper corridors. The hotel was put up for sale in 2026 and was still taking reservations.
Haunted Rooms tip: Leadville sits at over 10,000 feet: drink water, take it slowly and pair a visit with a town ghost walk.
Address County Road 162, about 20 miles southwest of Buena Vista, CO 81236
Where to look The Home Comfort Hotel and the Stark general store
Reported ghosts Annabelle Stark, watching over the town; a woman in white in a hotel window
Visiting Walk the main street; buildings are privately owned, so look from outside
Hours and season General store open seasonally, roughly May to October; the road can be snowbound in winter
Founded in 1880 as Forest City and renamed by Griffith Evans, St. Elmo boomed with the Mary Murphy Mine and the railroad, with nearly 2,000 people at its 1890s peak. The mine closed in 1925, trains had stopped in 1922 and the tracks were pulled up in 1926, and by 1930 seven people were left. Today it is one of Colorado’s best-preserved ghost towns and a National Register historic district, listed in 1979; a 2002 fire took the old town hall, which Buena Vista Heritage rebuilt in 2008.
The Stark family ran the store and Home Comfort Hotel; Annabelle Stark stayed until 1958 and died in 1960. Local legend says she still guards the town. A friend’s grandchildren described doors slamming and a sharp chill in the hotel, a cleaner found her tools scattered every morning, and a skier reported a woman in white at an upstairs window. Treat these as local legend.
Haunted Rooms tip: Go between late spring and fall, when the road is clear and the general store is open; stay on the street, as the buildings are private.
Where to look The Penrose Suite, the main building's halls
Reported ghosts Julie Penrose, said to walk the halls; covers pulled in the night
Visiting Luxury resort; the grounds and restaurants are open to visitors
Spencer Penrose opened his pink Italianate resort below Cheyenne Mountain on June 29, 1918, and it is a member of Historic Hotels of America. His wife Julie was his partner in running it, lived in a sixth-floor suite from about 1944 and took over the hotel after Spencer died in 1939. The swans on the lake honor her.
Some ghost lists claim Julie vanished in the woods and was found dying and confused; that story does not hold up, as The Gazette records she died of colon cancer in 1956. A local magazine repeats staff talk of cold spots, flickering lights and a woman’s figure floating down the halls, and guests who say their covers were pulled off. The hotel’s historian talks about its legends, but not ghosts.
Haunted Rooms tip: Walk around the lake at dusk and look up at the main building, then have a drink in the hotel’s historic bar.
Where to look Grandma Hand's room and the 11 themed guest rooms
Reported ghosts Jessie "Grandma" Hand, the builders' family
Visiting Historic hotel open to overnight guests; public rooms open to visitors
Jake and Jessie Hand built this log hotel in Fairplay in 1931 and opened it to guests in 1932. Jessie, known around town as Grandma Hand, ran it with their children until the 1960s. Today it is an 11-room bed and breakfast on Front Street, with rooms named after South Park characters and the Outpost Cafe downstairs.
Every room here has its own ghost story, according to local press, and paranormal groups visit often. The most repeated tale is that Grandma Hand never really left: guests in the room named for her say her rocking chair moves on its own.
What investigators report
Investigators staying in Room 6, named for Mattie Silks, report spirit box sessions that repeatedly mentioned a “table” and an EMF spike on the bed well above the room’s baseline. The second-floor room near the head of the stairs is another spot they noted felt different.
Where to look The Tesla room and its corner window, the Black Annis room
Reported ghosts A woman at the corner window, sounds of a phantom party downstairs
Visiting Historic hotel open to overnight guests; public rooms open to visitors
Rebuilt after Victor’s 1899 fire as the Monarch, this two-story block was a saloon, casino and brothel in the gold rush. It sat empty for years until a new owner reopened it in 2019 as the Black Monarch, a deliberately macabre seven-room hotel with rooms themed on dark history and folklore. It has since been listed for sale but is still operating as a hotel, gift shop and coffee shop.
For years locals reported a woman standing in the corner window over Victor Avenue and 3rd Street, sometimes calling police to an empty building. That window is now in the Tesla room, where guests say they hear a party downstairs, with laughter, glasses and a piano, when no one is there.
What investigators report
The owner says the Nikola Tesla room, the hotel’s largest, is the most active, and guests staying there report hearing a loud party outside with men shouting and a woman laughing while the town is empty.
Where to look The dining room and the lower-level restaurant, now the St. Elmo Tavern
Reported ghosts Unnamed: furniture heard moving at night, objects that go missing
Visiting Historic hotel open to overnight guests; public rooms open to visitors
Kittie Heit, who already ran the popular Bon Ton restaurant, built this small brick hotel on Ouray’s Main Street in 1898 and charged miners a dollar a night. It is listed on the National Register as part of the Ouray Historic District, and new owners took over in 2025, kept the Victorian wallpaper, and turned the old Bon Ton space into the St. Elmo Tavern.
The ghost stories here are low key and come mostly from staff and guests. Night-shift workers have described hearing furniture being moved around the dining room, then finding nothing out of place, and a guest wrote that her camera vanished overnight and called the basement restaurant haunted. Nobody has put a name to the ghost.
Haunted Rooms tip: Have dinner in the St. Elmo Tavern, the old Bon Ton space, and ask the staff what the night shift has heard.
Where to look The upstairs bedrooms and the basement plumbing
Reported ghosts An unnamed female presence
Visiting Historic hotel open to overnight guests; public rooms open to visitors
Built over the winter of 1897 to 1898 so miners and prospectors had somewhere to sleep, the Goldminer opened with 13 small upstairs rooms and a dining room below. A log social room was added in 1934, and today it has five bedrooms. It is on the National Register and is the centerpiece of the Eldora Historic District, the old mining camp just west of Nederland.
Its stories are small and personal. One guest said she felt a woman watching her as she got ready for bed and lit candles to lead the presence out. A plumber who did not believe in ghosts found the water he had shut off running again three times, and finally told the walls he believed and just wanted to finish.
Haunted Rooms tip: It has only five bedrooms and opens seasonally, so check the hotel’s own calendar early if you want to stay.
Changed in this guide: we added the Museum of Colorado Prisons guide, St. Elmo, Miramont Castle, the Oxford, the Victor Hotel and the state’s other haunted hotels. The Broadmoor stays, but the old story that Julie Penrose vanished in the woods does not match the record: she died of cancer in 1956. The Highlands Ranch Mansion story of Julia Kistler is now marked as unconfirmed.
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We collect first-hand accounts from visitors and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your visit. We read every story before it’s published.
The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park is the most famous, thanks to Stephen King and The Shining. Cheesman Park in Denver, where thousands of graves were never moved, and the old gold camp of Cripple Creek are close behind.
Can you go ghost hunting in Colorado?
Yes, at some places. The Museum of Colorado Prisons in Canon City and the Old Teller County Jail in Cripple Creek host paranormal investigation nights run by local groups, the Historic Elitch Theatre in Denver runs paranormal tours each October, and the Stanley Hotel runs its own ghost tours.
What is the most haunted town in Colorado?
Cripple Creek is usually named. The gold camp’s old jail, its former hospital the Hotel St. Nicholas and its casinos all have ghost stories, and the haunted Victor Hotel is just over the hill in Victor. See our Cripple Creek guide.
Which haunted places in Colorado can you stay overnight in?
The Stanley, the Brown Palace, the Oxford, Hotel Colorado, Hotel Jerome, the Victor Hotel, the Hotel St. Nicholas and the other hotels in this guide all take guests. See our guide to haunted hotels in Colorado.
Is there a real ghost town in Colorado?
Several. St. Elmo in Chaffee County is one of the best preserved, with a row of 1880s buildings, a seasonal general store and the legend of Annabelle Stark. Its buildings are private, so you look from the street.
Is Cheesman Park really built on a cemetery?
Yes. It was Denver’s first cemetery from 1858 to 1890, and an 1893 effort to move the dead was abandoned after a scandal. Read our Cheesman Park guide.
Sources and how we research
Every place in this guide is checked against its official website, historic register listings and news coverage, and we confirm whether it is open, closed, private or gone before we list it. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and local historians tell them; we say so where records contradict a story. Each place shows how many independent sources we checked it against; our own Haunted Rooms pages are not counted.
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About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team are paranormal researchers who write about historic haunted places across the United States. We research every place in our guides using official sites, historic registers, local archives and news coverage, and we report ghost stories as the stories they are. We review each guide regularly so you are not sent to a place that has closed, changed hands or banned visitors. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
