spookysouthwest: This creepy abandoned hotel, the Castaneda Hotel, in Las Vegas, New Mexico (the ori
spookysouthwest: This creepy abandoned hotel, the Castaneda Hotel, in Las Vegas, New Mexico (the original Vegas of the Old West) was built in 1898. It was the first of the Harvey Houses, a chain of hotels built by Fred Harvey specifically to appeal to tourists traveling the United States by railroad. In the era that it was built, Las Vegas was nothing like its flashy counterpart in Nevada; it was still a Wild West town living at the edge of lawlessness. Murder and theft were common and often went unpunished. The Castaneda Hotel, sitting abandoned for more than half a century, seems from the outside to be full of lost souls. That’s probably why the TV show “Ghost Hunters” investigated the hotel… and, unsurprisingly, found it to be extremely haunted. One specific ghost they might have contacted was Mariano Vasquez, a hotel bellboy who killed his wife and then himself. Another possible ghost sighting was Byron T. Mills, the hotel’s previous owner who now haunts room 310. EVP (electronic voice phenomena) were recorded in the basement–one spoke in an unidentified language. Another was a female voice desperately and repeatedly warning the investigators of a “demon”; another voice warned them that “they’re coming”, perhaps referring the shadowy figures seen at the bottom of the stairwell. They also captured footage of balls of light and mist, knocking on walls, and the mysterious sounds of ghostly footsteps on the stairs. The Castaneda Hotel been under renovation for several years by a developer, who hopes to use it to revitalize the historic downtown Las Vegas, which is today a sleepy town of about 15,000. (Third photo is a historic portrait; fourth photo is from the Ghost Adventures shoot.) -- source link