Bisbee &Tombstone - Part I

Hello again! Well, I'm real sorry but it seems that most of my posts have exceeded my original "this will be the last long one I promise" note. THIS one is the longest so far. If your not in for reading long ones, check out now and don't come back because it seems they are all turning out to be much longer than I thought. It just takes a lots of description to give you the full effect of backgrounds and histories and then tell you my stories. I'm sorry for that.

After much thought and speaking with friends who are interested in the supernatural, I have decided that I should also use this site as a place to not only share stories that happen in my house, but also things that I have encountered while traveling (like in Tombstone), upcoming ghosty tours and legends that I hope to take and learn about and stories that have been told to me first hand by others.

As a matter of fact, Will has had many experiences at his work and has shared his experiences with his co-workers who have also told him their stories and I plan on writing about those in the near future so as to give you all a bit more to read. After all, I am never sure when or how often that our little girl will decide to pop in here at the house to say Hi. It could be just a few days, or maybe even weeks. That's the down side to dealing with ghosts - they are unpredictable.

This entry tonight I would like to dedicate to the first of our travels to other places. As a start at our look at some historical, haunted places right here in Arizona, mainly the towns of Bisbee and Tombstone. While I have not yet been to Bisbee, on a recent trip that my family, friends and I took, Greg and Catalina decided to go check it out.

As you know, many people died in boom towns such as Bisbee and Tombstone, in the streets and buildings, some of them which still stand today. I am sure that there are spirits who wander those dirt streets every night. So, I will tell you about a few things that happened back in October of 2010. Please understand here that in getting some historical facts straight in most of my stories, I may have done a little internet research about buildings and what not to make my stories as accurate as possible. In no way have I meant to plagiarize anyone or anything and have strictly quoted things that I believe to be 'common knowledge'.

Drew & Will

My hubby Will has a thing for Tombstone. Since before he moved out here, he was intrigued with the movie and stories about Wyatt Earp and the historical events that happened in this little town. When he first came to visit me here in Arizona, I made his weekend extra special by reserving a room and taking him down to do some drinkin' and site seeing in Tombstone to learn a little about its history first hand. Little did I know this trip would start a string of trips down there over the next few years with various friends and family members.

In October of 2010, we decided to take one such trip and he had family members coming from 3 states to go with us - his mom and pop from California, Aunt Mary, Uncle Bill and little cousin Wilson from Utah and Uncle Tom from New Mexico. We also invited my sister Mo and brother in law Drew and our friends Greg and Catalina.

Set to have a fantastic trip, we reserved several rooms at the Tombstone Motel. Now this little motel is not real fancy, in fact in the past it has been in somewhat of a worn down state, but it's clean and affordable and after all, who stays in their rooms in Tombstone when there is so much to explore there.

The Main Building, Tombstone Motel

The main reason we like this little motel is simple - because it is within walking distance to all of the famous old bars on the original main strip. The perfect place to stay where you can belly up to the bar(s) and still be able to stumble back wasted to yer bed. To my pleasant surprise, this time they had done a little remodeling and most of the motel now looks fairly nice, except for the one run down dump of a house on the property where mom, pop, Will and I stayed so that mama and papa could bring the dog if they wanted and so we would have a back porch and a place to BBQ with all of the family. For that, the house was just fine and in fact it became the meeting place for us all.

Well it was a few weeks after we had made our reservations that Greg and Catalina decided that they wanted to go with us, while we were over visiting one night. Greg picked up the phone to check availability and next thing I know, I hear him whoop-in and hollerin' from the other room. Next thing we know, he comes flying out of the back room telling us that he just so happened to ask the lady while making the reservations if there were any haunted rooms, and she said yes as a matter of fact, there were two rooms that were rumored to be haunted in the old part of the building, right next to one another. Of course, they reserved one.

A few days later, Greg called to inform me that he had purchased an EMF meter to take with us on the trip. So this is when our ghost adventures began and thus, one of the reasons behind me creating this blog. Between the house, our Tombstone adventures, the Concrete Castle (Will's work) and the other stories that have now surfaced through others, I feel like there has been so much 'stuff' that we have experienced that these stories just might be worth sharing.

Weeks go by and it is finally "the weekend". Greg and Catty decided to go down a day ahead of  the rest of us, and so went on a little journey to Bisbee, AZ. Bisbee was an old mining town much like Tombstone and has survived through the boom and bust of the local mines and today is a touristy town. Like most mining boom towns, people died and some have stayed, not wanting to leave the last place they walked the earth in life. Bisbee is no different - a host of ghosts are known to still walk the halls of the old buildings.  One of these just so happens to be the hotel where Greg and Catty stayed - the Copper Queen Hotel - home to three known ghosts: a lady, a man and a child.

The Copper Queen is the one that seems to have towers

The Copper Queen Hotel was built and finished in 1902 by the Phelps Dodge Mining Company. In it's hey day, the Copper Queen was a very luxurious hotel and hosted the society upper-crusties - investors and mining executives - along with a consistent string of the 'normies' - miners, cowboys and I am sure, prostitutes to entertain them all.

The most famous ghost of the Copper Queen is said to be a prostitute in her early 30's by the name of Julia Lowell, who used rooms at the Copper Queen to entertain clients. As most young girls will, Julia fell in love, apparently with one of her John's. Of course when he rejected her, she killed herself here at the Copper Queen.

It is said that she haunts 2 floors of the hotel. She has been known to whisper in mens ears, play with their feet while they are sleeping and at times, has been known to even been seen dancing provocatively at the foot of the bed where they sleep. Other times she has been know to 'appear' in the form of a bright white smoke.

The second Copper Queen Ghost is a tall, elderly gentleman known to be dressed in a black cape and top hat.  He is seen on the 4th floor of the hotel and has been known to appear in doorways or as a shadow figure. Although it does not say anywhere how or why he seems to linger here at the hotel, it is known that people have smelled cigar smoke just before or after a sighting of the gentleman caller.

The third being a child, is of course the most mischievous ghost. This little boy, said to be around 8 or 9, supposedly drown in the San Pedro river. They think perhaps his mom, dad or other relative worked at the hotel and that is why he chooses to remain within it's walls.  Much like children should be, he is supposedly only heard and not seen. He chooses to make his presence known by being heard giggling or running up and down the halls. Some have felt him while running bath water and he often times plays games with the living by moving objects from one table to the other.

While Greg and Catalina stayed at this hotel, they were pleasantly surprised to have been able to experience these ghostly presences. After checking in to the hotel, they proceeded to walk around with the EMF meter in their room and told me that it was going off in the closet. Greg says they asked the presence questions and asked it to reply with for one beep for yes and two beeps for no. "Is there someone here?" Yes. "Are you female?" Yes. "Do you want us to leave?" No.

The short game of questions and answers finally done, they decided to go do a little shopping and explore the town. As if expecting it, before leaving Greg turned to Catalina and said "I am closing this closet all the way now." Of course when they returned, the closet stood wide open.

Note the smoke on the left side of the frame

After cleaning up for dinner, they proceeded downstairs and went up to the front counter to talk to the lady working the front desk. When they told her what they had been experiencing, she said "Come with me. There is someone I want you to meet."

They followed the lady into an extremely busy bar and went up to a family of 4 - mother, father and 2 small sons. The lady introduced them and told Greg and Catalina that they had been there for 2 days on a family ghost hunt - and had not been able to experience one damn thing. Greg proceeded to tell the family everything that had happened thus far to them in the couple of hours since their arrival. He also mentioned that they had brought an EMF meter and would be ghost hunting themselves later if the family would like to come along. Later that evening, they met back up in the bar and went up stairs to proceed with their hunt.

Down the hall on the left

Now one of the rooms upstairs is actually named the "Julie Lowell Room" and is in the general area where Julia Lowell use to practice her craft. Using the EMF meter, they got readings while exploring in this general area just outside that room. Greg is much like me and loves to take photos. But never in either of our minds would we ever have expected too see what he captured in the photos when he uploaded them to his computer - a bright white smoke coming out of the walls.

I assure you, these photos are not doctored in any way. These are the actual photos taken on their explorations of the Julia Lowell hallways with the family that they had just met at the hotel. The one below this paragraph is an enlarged version of the one above so that you can see the details of the smoke that is clearly coming out of the door or the wall.

An enlargement of the photo above

Also note the orbs in the photo below - one just under Catalina's neck, a small one just about her and the boy, and a large one above Greggy's head. Could this be all three ghosts making an appearance - the man, woman and child - hovering over each of their live counter parts? Perhaps visiting with the living if just for a moment? I think so. In fact, I don't doubt it at all. What other explanation is there for these to show up in such a way? They also say that ghosts like to appear to children most. Perhaps this was what made them welcome guests and ones worth appearing too in the first place.

See all the orbs

Greg has also told me of a few other notable things that happened to them later that night. Footsteps and doors slamming in the hallway when they were just around the corner. Going around that corner seconds later to see no one there.

Back in their room, they got ready for bed and went to sleep. Greg said there was no explanation for it, but that they BOTH awoke at precisely 3am, sitting up in the bed. They had heard the sound of the someone jiggling the sliding chain lock on the door on the inside of the room. In addition, Greg heard someone whisper in his ear that night.

Now for those of you who did not know the significance of 3am (I had to tell Greg), this is the time known as the "Witching Hour" - a time when the supernatural are known to appear and are the most powerful. I myself have had many times when for no apparent reason, I wake up at 3am on the dot. Will has also experienced this 3am wake up call here in our house. In fact both of us have had times when we have woke up at precisely 3am on the dot for a week or two at a time, with no apparent explanation. Of course we always attribute it to our little friend who has chosen to make herself known to us.

Any way, the photos above are nothing short of miraculous to me and just the start of our ghost adventures. We have plans and they include going on many more haunted ventures as much as we can. I want to go to Bisbee and experience what Greg and Catalina experienced first hand. I want more Tombstone trips. I want to go to Jerome and stay in the haunted hotel up there. I want to take the haunted ghost tour of the Queen Mary in Long Beach and visit the haunted Hotel del Coronado in San Diego and the haunted pirate ship, the Star of India. There's lots of historical haunts not far from home here and by golly, I plan on seeing them all.

Until tomorrow when we will move on to our Tombstone adventures.

Sleep with your eyes open and your camera bedside :)