Haunted hotel guide · Virginia City, Montana

The Haunted Fairweather Inn, Virginia City: Ghost Hunts and Sleepovers in a Gold Rush Hotel

An 1860s building on Wallace Street in Montana’s best-preserved gold rush town, and the place where Haunted Rooms runs its Montana ghost hunt and sleepover nights.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate hotels

4.5/5Haunted Rooms Score
1863Lot first deeded
13Rooms on our sleepover nights

Book our ghost hunt hereMeet the ghosts

The best way to spend a night in the Fairweather Inn after dark is with us. Haunted Rooms runs the Fairweather Inn Ghost Hunt and Sleepover, where our team leads a full investigation of the building from 8 PM, with vigils in the first-floor rooms, the second-floor hallway and Room 10, and then you sleep in one of the inn’s 13 rooms and check out late the next morning. Tickets are sold per room, sleeping up to two, and solo investigators get a private room to themselves.

The inn stands on Wallace Street in Virginia City, the town that grew up almost overnight after Bill Fairweather and Henry Edgar found gold in Alder Gulch on May 26, 1863. The building has been a butcher’s shop, a saloon, the Anaconda Hotel and, since the Boveys rebuilt it in 1946, the Fairweather Inn. It is widely reported to be one of the most haunted buildings in Montana, and one of the most atmospheric places to stay among the haunted hotels in Montana.

Fairweather Inn at a glance

4.5/5
Haunted Rooms Score
Haunted reputation4
History5
Ghost hunter access5
$ · Under $150Haunted room bookableGhost tours or eventsHotel embraces its ghostsHaunted Rooms ghost hunts
  • Address 305 W Wallace Street, Virginia City, MT 59755
  • Built The oldest section dates to 1863, when it was a one-story restaurant, the Young American Eating House. It was a meat market by 1866, a hotel and saloon in the 1880s, and was raised to two stories by Charles Bovey in 1946.
  • Most haunted spots The first-floor guest rooms, the second-floor hallway, Room 10 and the upper balcony over Wallace Street
  • Best-known ghosts Two or three children on the first floor, a woman in a rustling long dress upstairs, and a bearded man in a ragged uniform seen on the street outside
  • Booking the haunted room Book a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt and sleepover night: each ticket is a room for up to two people, with an 11 AM check-out.
  • Good to know Our events are for guests 18 and over, or 16 with a responsible adult. Virginia City sits at about 5,900 feet, 14 miles from Ennis. The inn is run for the Montana Heritage Commission by the concessionaire Destination Virginia City.

Book our ghost hunt here

The ghosts of the Fairweather Inn

The children of the first floor

The stories told most often about the Fairweather Inn are about children. Guests and staff describe two or three young spirits who seem to treat the first-floor rooms as a playground: giggling from empty corners, lights switching on and off, closet doors swinging open and luggage moved across a room overnight. Bozeman’s KISS FM, citing Thrillist, sums up the reputation: ghosts of children who love to move your luggage and turn the lights on and off.

Families who have stayed say the activity seems to pick up when living children are in the building, with toys found somewhere other than where they were left. Nobody has ever put names to these children, and there is no record of who they might have been. That has not stopped them becoming the inn’s signature story.

Footsteps in the second-floor hallway

Upstairs, guests describe footsteps when no one is around, including small running steps that travel the length of the hallway. Others describe something slower: the rustle of a woman’s long dress brushing the floorboards in the early hours, moving past the rooms and fading away. Both US Ghost Adventures and OnlyInYourState mention the footsteps and the rustling dress, along with guest room doors that open and close on their own.

Nothing is seen. It is the sound, usually around three in the morning, that people remember.

Room 10

Room 10 has the strongest reputation in the building. US Ghost Adventures says visitors who stay there report the most activity, mostly whispers, grunts and sighs, and both it and OnlyInYourState say some guests have checked out in the middle of the night. Other reports include thumps at the foot of the bed, objects moved overnight and cold spots with no draft to explain them.

The best-known investigator story is that a member of a Bozeman paranormal group found herself unable to open the door during an investigation, as if it had been locked from the inside. It is a story passed between investigators rather than a documented event, but Room 10 is one of the rooms we always spend time in on our nights.

The bearded man on Wallace Street

Our own event team and guests tell of the same figure outside the inn: a tall, bearded man in a ragged Civil War era uniform who crosses Wallace Street, looking angry, and vanishes when he reaches the boardwalk. Some of the sightings are said to have been made from the inn’s upper balcony. We have not found this story in any published source beyond our own event listing, so treat it as local lore.

The phantom bowling alley

One of the stranger reports is the sound of a heavy ball rolling down a wooden lane and the clatter of pins on quiet nights. There is history behind this one: when Frank and Amanda McKeen ran the building as the Anaconda Hotel, they added hotel rooms, a restaurant and a bowling alley, which OnlyInYourState places in the basement.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

  • First-floor guest rooms: Where the children are said to play. On our nights we bring toys and motion-triggered equipment here.
  • Second-floor hallway: Running footsteps and the rustle of a long dress, usually in the small hours.
  • Room 10: Thumps, cold spots and the story of an investigator who could not get out.
  • The upper balcony: A quiet place to watch Wallace Street, where the bearded man is said to cross.

History of Fairweather Inn

Virginia City was born in a rush. Within weeks of the Alder Gulch strike on May 26, 1863, thousands of prospectors had poured into the valley, and the town became the capital of Montana Territory from 1865 until the capital moved to Helena in 1875. Road agents were blamed for up to a hundred deaths in 1863 and 1864, and in December 1863 and January 1864 the vigilantes hanged as many as 15 of them, including Henry Plummer, the sheriff of Bannack. Five were hanged together in January 1864 in a building on Wallace Street now known as the Hangman’s Building, and buried on Boot Hill above the town.

The Fairweather Inn’s lot was one of the first in town. On September 16, 1863, the Virginia Town Company deeded it to J. D. Lomax and John Pitilla for $150, and the oldest part of the building dates to that year, when it was a one-story restaurant called the Young American Eating House. In 1866 the building sold for $2,500 and became the Metropolitan Meat Market, run by the butchers Rosenbaum and Shoumaker, and in 1880 the site sold along with a slaughterhouse and an ice pond.

In the 1880s the building was probably converted to a hotel and saloon. Frank McKeen bought it in 1896 and, with his wife Amanda, ran it as the Anaconda Hotel and Saloon, adding hotel rooms, a dining room and a bowling alley. He was known for keeping a casket in the basement, apparently as a practical precaution in a rough town. Prohibition hit the business hard; Frank died in 1919 and Amanda later took her own life. Bob Gohn was the last manager of the Anaconda before Humphrey’s Gold Corporation bought it in 1935.

In 1946 Charles and Sue Bovey bought the building as part of their effort to save Virginia City, which was then a fading mining town. They remodeled it to copy the Goodrich House in Bannack, Montana’s first hotel, which was by then in ruins: the old 16-foot ceiling was lowered to about nine feet, the roof was raised to form a second floor, and seven porch posts and about a dozen railing spindles were brought from Bannack. They named it after Bill Fairweather, the man who found the gold; we found no record that he ever owned the building.

The State of Montana later bought most of the Bovey properties, and the Montana Heritage Commission, attached to the Department of Commerce, has run Virginia City and Nevada City as public attractions for almost 30 years. For the 2026 season the Fairweather Inn and its annex are operated by the concessionaire Destination Virginia City. The town is a National Historic Landmark district, and the Fairweather Inn’s porch and balcony are among the most photographed on Wallace Street.

Tips for a haunted stay

  • Book the Fairweather Inn Ghost Hunt and Sleepover early. There are only 13 rooms, and the current dates are in late May and mid September 2027.
  • Arrive in daylight and walk Wallace Street first: the Hangman’s Building, Boot Hill and the Bovey storefronts are all within a few minutes on foot.
  • Pack layers. Virginia City sits at nearly 6,000 feet and nights are cold even in summer.
  • Bring your own recorder for EVP work during free roam; filming and video are not allowed on our nights.
  • Make a weekend of it with Nevada City a mile down the road, or our Old St. James Hospital ghost hunt in Butte.

Want to investigate, not just sleep?

Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.

See all Montana ghost hunts

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Frequently asked questions

Is the Fairweather Inn in Virginia City haunted?

It is widely reported to be one of the most haunted buildings in Montana. Guests describe children’s voices and moving objects on the first floor, running footsteps and a rustling dress in the second-floor hallway, and activity in Room 10.

Can you do a ghost hunt at the Fairweather Inn?

Yes. Haunted Rooms runs ghost hunt and sleepover nights at the inn, with a guided investigation from 8 PM and a room to sleep in afterwards. Tickets are per room for up to two people.

What is the most haunted room at the Fairweather Inn?

Room 10 has the strongest reputation, with reports of thumps, cold spots and moved objects. The first-floor rooms are where the children are said to play.

Who is the Fairweather Inn named after?

Bill Fairweather, who found gold in Alder Gulch with Henry Edgar on May 26, 1863. Charles and Sue Bovey gave the building his name after they bought it in 1946; we found no record that he ever owned it.

How old is the Fairweather Inn?

The oldest section dates to 1863, when it was a one-story restaurant. It was a meat market by 1866 and a hotel and saloon in the 1880s, and its second floor was added in the Bovey remodel of 1946.

Where is the Hangman's Building?

A short walk along Wallace Street from the inn. Five road agents were hanged there together in January 1864 and buried on Boot Hill.

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

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About the authors

The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.

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