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This
Spanish Mission style building, constructed in 1926, started out
as the United Verde Hospital, opening January, 1927. In 1930, it
was written up as the most modern and well equipped hospital in
Arizona and possible the Western States. At 30,000 square feet and
five stories of poured concrete, the hospital was designed to be
fireproof as well as resistant to the shock of 260,000 pounds of
dynamite exploding within the mines.
Many patients
were brought in to have their mangled bodies examined, to recover
from some disease, or even to bear their children. While many of
them were nursed back to health, a large percentage of patients
simply went to the hospital to die.
Many women perished
during childbirth, and many men coughed their last gasping breaths
within the walls. The building also served to care for the mentally
unstable, housing them until they either died or were miraculously
"cured." |
In addition, a man
named Claude Harvey was killed when he was caught underneath the hospital
elevator in 1935. Since that time, lights have been seen in the shaft
and during a period when the building was vacant, the elevator could be
heard slowly traveling up and down... even though it had been parked at
the top of the shaft and no power was connected to it. An autopsy was
never done, and there is a belief that, a mysterious stranger killed him.
Another had fallen to his death from a balcony. Unfounded rumors circulated
that all of these deaths were deliberate acts of evil by unknown persons.
The Hospital was closed
in 1950 as the mine operation was being phased out.
The building stood
unused for the next 44 years until the rehabilitation plans were started
in 1994 by the Altherr family who turned it into the Jerome Grand Hotel.
When it opened its doors in 1997, the hauntings began again with even
stranger phenomena reported.
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The
most common occurrence is the sound of labored breathing and coughing
coming from empty rooms. Worse, these sounds often emanate from a
dark corner of a guest's room. The guest in question usually describes
a sharp drop in temperature, followed by a dusty smell. Then the coughing
begins, along with wheezing behind it. One patron actually left his
room and spent the night in the lobby after hearing such noises.
Another phenomenon commonly observed are ghost lights. Employees
have noticed flashing lights in unoccupied rooms. When they go to
check the room for any sign of mischief, the room is empty.
At least two
of the ghosts are women, have been seen by numerous visitors. The
first, a nurse carrying a clipboard, seems more to be a memory than
an actual ghost. She roams the halls, pausing at intervals and leaning
down, looking at beds that no longer exist and patients long since
dead. The other, a woman in white, has been identified as a woman
who died in childbirth. Neither she nor her |
baby left the hospital
halls. According to legend she is distraught over the treatment of her
dead child, who was buried in an unmarked grave. According to the locals,
she stalks the hotel, searching for her child's final resting place.
In July 1997, a guest
claimed that the bathroom door in his room opened by itself. He was so
frightened that he remained in the lobby for the rest of the night.
Other guests and
staff members have reported doors that open and close, footsteps heard
in empty halls, ghostly cries, lights that turn on and off, and of course,
the groaning sound of an elevator that continues to operate on its own.
Because of the number of tragedies that occurred
in the hotel when it was a hospital, there is no way to accurately count
the number of ghosts that are reported to manifest themselves. Sightings
are varied in description and range from the explainable to the unbelievable.
The majority of this ghost hunt took place on the
night of the sixth. We located several unusual EM fields on the third
and fourth floors. These were primarily D/C fields of about 4 nt. Camera
positions were set up on both floors and photographs were taken throughout
the night. Many of the photographs taken back to back have unusual images
in them.
Photographs
Click
the thumbnails to view the larger image
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A moving Ecto
Cloud?
This
image is composed of several photographs that were taken in sequence
on the 4th floor looking towards the operating room. The "mist"
in the photograph was not visible to the naked eye and was definitely
not smoke or vapor of any kind.
Strong
electromagnetic fields of 6 milligauss were registered just before
the first picture in this sequence was taken. Several other photos
were taken directly after these three images (8 photos) and all
showed absolutely nothing.
The
electromagnetic field that was in the area had also vanished. |
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