Haunted hotel guide · Marysvale, Utah

Moore's Old Pine Inn, Marysvale: Ghosts on the Porch Swings of an 1882 Hotel

A white frontier hotel on Marysvale’s Main Street, built in 1882 as the Pines Hotel, with stories of Zane Grey, Butch Cassidy and women who rock the porch swings after dark.

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

2.8/5Haunted Rooms Score

1882Year built

Porch swingsWhere the ghosts are seen

Check availability Meet the ghosts

Marysvale is a small town in the Tushar Mountains of south-central Utah, born of a mining rush and once the end of the line for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. Its oldest hotel stands on Main Street: a white wooden building with long front porches, built in 1882 as the Pines Hotel and now called Moore’s Old Pine Inn. OnlyInYourState calls it the oldest running hotel in Utah.

The inn has two famous stories. Western writer Zane Grey is said to have worked on Riders of the Purple Sage here, and a woman who ran the hotel switchboard claimed she saw Butch Cassidy in the dining room long after he was supposed to have died in Bolivia. The ghost story is gentler: paranormal writers describe a houseful of friendly female spirits, and guests say they have seen several women sitting out on the front porch, talking together, who were not there a moment later. Local retellings add that the porch swings rock on their own on still nights. It is one of the most atmospheric stops on our list of haunted hotels in Utah.

Moore's Old Pine Inn at a glance

2.8/5
Haunted Rooms Score

Haunted reputation2

History4

Ghost hunter access3

$ · Under $150Haunted room bookable

Address 110 S Main St, Marysvale, UT 84750
Opened 1882, as the Pines Hotel; renamed Moore’s Old Pine Inn in the 1990s
Most haunted spots The front porch swings and the historic inn rooms
Best-known ghosts Friendly female spirits on the front porch; two child spirits
Booking the haunted room The seven themed inn rooms, including the Zane Grey Room, can be booked by name.
Good to know Seven inn rooms (some with shared bathrooms) and eight Old West cabins on three acres. On the Paiute ATV Trail, with a free ATV wash bay.

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The ghosts of Moore's Old Pine Inn

The women on the porch swings

The inn’s best-known ghost story is set on its front porches. HauntedHouses.com, as quoted by Cat Country Utah, says guests have reported “multiple female entities sitting on the front porch talking and enjoying each other’s company.” Older retellings, including our own original write-up, add that the porch swings move by themselves on nights with no wind, and that the women on them did not look quite like living people.

Nobody has named the women. The same source describes the original inn building as home to benign, friendly female spirits and two child spirits, and suggests they may be former owners, guests or people who died suddenly in epidemics or accidents. None of that is backed by any record, so treat it as the inn’s folklore.

Butch Cassidy in the dining room

This one is less a ghost story than a frontier mystery. According to the Daily Herald, the woman who ran the hotel’s telephone switchboard, a close friend of one of Butch Cassidy’s sisters, said she saw him in the hotel dining room after he was reported dead in Bolivia.

Rumors that Cassidy survived Bolivia and came home have followed him for over a century. Whether she saw an old outlaw, a lookalike or something stranger is up to you.

The old rooms

The inn rooms still have late-1800s furniture and the original transoms over the doors, and guests describe them as feeling much as they did a century ago. Some visitors say the upstairs has a lived-in feel even when the inn is quiet.

There are no specific room hauntings on record. If you want to be close to the stories, ask for a room facing the porch.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

The Zane Grey Room: Named for the writer who is said to have worked on Riders of the Purple Sage while staying here. The obvious choice for a first visit.
The themed inn rooms: The Hitchin’ Post Suite, Indian Suite, Miner’s Suite, Betsy Ross Room, Fishin’ Hole Room and Hunter’s Lodge. Three are deluxe suites; the others share bathrooms.
The front porches: Two covered front porches with the famous swings. Spend some time out here after dark.
The Old West cabins: Eight cabins added in 2003, styled as an old Western town, including the Sheriff’s Office and Jail and the Fallen Dove Brothel.

History of Moore's Old Pine Inn

Marysvale was settled in 1863. Silver was found in Bullion Canyon and on Mount Belknap in the Tushar Mountains in the late 1860s and gold followed in 1889, according to Wikipedia. Uranium was found nearby in 1949. The town became the last stop on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, and the traffic of miners, railroad men and settlers kept it alive when other mining camps became ghost towns.

The Pines Hotel was built in 1882 to serve that traffic. It housed railroad workers, businesspeople and families settling in the area, and the Daily Herald reports that it served the community for almost 102 years. A small building in front of the inn was once the railroad’s ticket office.

The hotel’s guest list is part of its legend. Zane Grey is said to have written Riders of the Purple Sage, his most famous novel, while staying here, and the inn says it hosted Butch Cassidy. A switchboard operator’s claim that she saw Cassidy in the dining room after his reported death in Bolivia has become part of the inn’s story.

Randy and Katie Moore bought the hotel in 1994 and spent two years restoring it, keeping original late-1800s furniture, antiques and the transoms above the doors. They renamed it Moore’s Old Pine Inn and added eight Old West cabins in 2003. According to the Daily Herald, Rodney and Julie Mayo took over as owners in about 2023.

Today the inn sits on three acres of grass and trees with Bullion Creek running through, a fire pit, horseshoes and volleyball. It is a favorite with riders on the Paiute ATV Trail, and it offers a free wash bay and laundry for longer stays.

Tips for a haunted stay

Ask for the Zane Grey Room, then sit out on the front porch after dark.
Hot breakfast is available for a small charge in summer and on weekends, so check when you book.
Several inn rooms share bathrooms; book a deluxe suite if you want your own.
Summer is ATV season on the Paiute Trail, so book well ahead.
Buy a cookie or an ice cream from Soda Summit, run by local students in the old railroad ticket office out front.
Combine your stay with the Mulberry Inn in St. George, about two and a half hours south.

More haunted hotels nearby

The Mulberry Inn, St. George: the former Seven Wives Inn, with its polygamists’ attic
The Peery Hotel, Salt Lake City: a 1910 hotel with an elevator ghost
Haunted hotels in Nevada: more frontier hotels to the west
Haunted places in Utah: more ghost stories across the state
Haunted hotels in Utah

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Frequently asked questions

Is Moore's Old Pine Inn haunted?

Guests have described several women seen sitting and talking on the front porch who then vanished, and local retellings say the porch swings move on still nights. Paranormal sites also mention two child spirits. These are stories passed on by guests; the inn does not promote them.

Did Butch Cassidy stay at Moore's Old Pine Inn?

The inn says he did. A woman who ran its switchboard also claimed she saw him in the dining room after he was reported dead in Bolivia, a story told in the Daily Herald.

Did Zane Grey write Riders of the Purple Sage at the inn?

That is the inn’s long-standing story, repeated by the Daily Herald and the inn itself. It is part of local lore rather than a documented fact.

How old is Moore's Old Pine Inn?

It was built in 1882 as the Pines Hotel. OnlyInYourState calls it the oldest running hotel in Utah, and the Daily Herald says the Pines served Marysvale for almost 102 years.

Where is Moore's Old Pine Inn?

On Main Street in Marysvale, in south-central Utah, about three hours south of Salt Lake City and right on the Paiute ATV Trail.

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.

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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