Location Description and History

The Palace hotel and casino began its illustrious life as the Palace drug Store. Today, the original soda fountain serves as the hotel check-in desk. The transformation from drugstore to hotel took place in 1892, making this the oldest continuing business establishment in Cripple Creek. The original Palace hotel did not survive the 1896 fires and was rebuilt soon afterwards. Back then, the stagecoach stopped here, unloading a diverse assortment of humanity. Today it is a casino and it is one of Cripple Creek's original gaming establishments, in operation since 1892 and housed in a building dating back to 1896. Once a major attraction for the wealthy gold barons of the area, it retains the lavish decor and high-roller atmosphere. In addition to the traditional game tables and slot machines, the Palace has a feature all its own-a resident ghost. Kitty Chambers appears to mortals with a lighted candle.

Historical Photos

	(1894) View, facing northeast from the corner of Bennett and First streets, of a stagecoach parked in front of the Palace Hotel, Cripple Creek, Teller County, Colorado. Men sit on and stand near the hitched stagecoach with a five horse team. A smaller hitched wagon is parked behind the stagecoach. A group of men stand on the covered porch and a woman stands on the second floor balcony of the brick hotel.
	(1895 ) Interior view of lobby area in Palace Hotel, Cripple Creek, Colorado; group of men are seated around fireplace (not in view); area is divided by three turned wooden columns and two posts with connecting railings; room consists of a wall clock, ceiling lamps, stairway and banister leading to second floor, and rocking chairs; check-in area with room key and mail slot piece of furniture is in the background
	Brick rubble and partial walls of Palace Hotel, Bennett Avenue and Second (2nd) Street, destroyed by second fire of April 29, 1896, Cripple Creek, Colorado; smoldering debris.

At the turn of the century, a man named Dr. Chambers owned the hotel. The doctor left the care of hotel guests to his wife, a charming woman known to all as Miss Kitty.
Miss Kitty took her duties very seriously as she offered every amenity to make her guests feel comfortable. She placed candles on each table in the dining room. At sundown, she went upstairs and turned down the covers on each guest's bed. Activities that she still does to this day.
Miss Kitty died in 1908, in room number three of the hotel. For our investigation, we rented room 3 for the weekend.

Such a place might well be home to five lingering spirits. The most talked about is Kitty Chambers. When they bought the hotel more than twenty years ago, the Lays family knew they had inherited a ghost. A bit intimidated at first, they soon grew willing to share what they now know is as much her hotel as theirs.

Other reported activity :

The lower half used to be a dining room, now it is a part of the casino, but back then, candles on the tables lit themselves.
Apparitions of at least five different ghosts have been reported including a blind piano player, a short fat man, a tall woman and Miss Kitty.
Feelings of being watched in certain areas of the hotel.
People report feeling a gentle nudge as they walk down the stairs.

Our rooms were on the second floor and we reached them by walking down a long narrow hallway. Our rooms were at the very end of the building. We had connecting rooms numbers 3 and 4. The rooms were roughly 10' X 10' and were connected by opening two of the old wooden sliding doors, the type that slide back into the wall when opened. The rooms were furnished in antiques, brass beds, wooden dressers and tables. There was no phone or TV in either room.
Each of the doors leading out into the hall had one of the old transom windows at the top of door and there was a double bed in each room. The rooms had two standard windows in them, and there was one bathroom for the two rooms.

We got our things settled and then went out to eat dinner at one of the local restaurants. Afterwards, we came back to the room. Buck was the last one to enter and closed the door. While his hand was still on the doorknob we heard this great crash on the outside of the door to our room. It sounded like a huge man had slammed his body into the door or violently kicked it. Buck immediately opened the door, to see nothing but a long empty hallway in front of him. Buck and I looked at each other uncertainly and quickly got out several pieces of equipment. Around the door there was a small DC magnetic field that quickly vanished. Several pictures were taken after this event. We then searched the entire building but were unable to pick up any other readings.

By midnight Buck was feeling ill, so he retired early. Cody sat up an observation point of the second floor by placing the Trifield meter in the hallway leading to Room 3. After several hours of nothing, the Trifield meter sounded an alarm. Cody moved from his position on the stairs and took photographs down the hall. He then quickly moved down the stairs to the first floor and took photos of the staircase leading upwards. During this time there was the faint sound of footsteps on the stairs. They sounded like they were either getting closer or becoming louder (or both). Nothing else of interest was obtained that evening.

After retiring for the night (actually morning now) the Trifield was set up on the nightstand in Room 3. Cody slept in the bed while Buck crashed on the floor on a mattress provided by the hotel. Around 6:00 in the morning a pillowcase was thrown in Buck's face when he was snoring loudly. The pillowcase was folded up and had been placed on top of a dresser next to the bed. Cody's foot was also pulled on, all while the Trifield meter was going crazy on the nightstand. All activity ceased by the time we were able to get any detection equipment up and running.

No other relevant data was obtained during the rest of our stay.

EVP obtained during the Ghost Hunt

At the beginning of the recording there is a voice, possibly foreign.
A question was asked "Did you throw the pillowcase?" Two answers, one is hard to make out and the other seems to say "boy, not me!.
The fourth EVP seems to be foreign and is not understandable.